Quote:
Originally Posted by Rupnick
As for the X vs O thing.
Mecanum can be used in 2 different "orientations" we played with this for the 2007 season. X gives you more turning but less strafing, O gives you more strafing less turning, so thats how that works, your not "wrong" but you may not be using the orientation you need for the specific game.
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I'm pretty sure both orientations would give you the same quality strafing, but that you absolutely need an X on top.
The reason is that with O, your rollers on the bottom look like an X. Since the rollers roll perpendicular to their axle, X on the bottom allows the robot to spin around freely. This doesn't sound like much of a problem (until you're getting spun around on the field), except for this:
You can't turn under power with X on the bottom. All the force that would be turning the robot is redirected by the rollers into an X pattern rather than an O pattern. So the robot is really pushing inwards on itself when it tries to turn, rather than pushing itself around.
Sorry if that's confusing. The bottom line is that O on top doesn't allow turning at all, and rather causes the robot to skid and jump around. You need X on top if you want to turn.