[EricH]

I do. There are pictures of a prototype in CD-Media. The basic idea is that you can have 6 wheels on the floor, even when climbing a ramp (put a hinge point at the center axle), but still go any direction you want to.

How's that prototype coming, Joe?

Wait--is that 3 mecanums side-by-side in each corner? Which would make it 6 omnis per side in the middle...

I think that we need a slight physics review here. More surface area, in theory, does not equal more friction, and therefore more traction. There are reasons for more surface area in areas such as drag racing when using rubber tires, but very few of those conditions apply in a FRC match.

You'd need to tune the wheels in each corner to have identical traction characteristics, which is in fact doable, but it takes a while. Otherwise, you're likely to get interference while going sideways, which can throw you off a bit.

It's doable, but I'd try it out in the offseason versus the original version and the original version's 10-wheel cousin before trying it in a competition. Then again, demo robots... imagine having three robots that could climb over each other, push each other, etc. evenly--and they're all different. How's that for a demo?