Quote:
Originally Posted by joeweber
I want everybody to know that I am getting HECK!!!! from my team mates for posting our drive system. It was fine before this game.
|
I hope, at the same time, they are feeling very pleased with the opportunity to put your off-season R&D to good work!
Anyone who tries to copy that drive system will be weeks behind where you guys are right now... and even if they do manage to copy it, I'm sure you'll be on to version 2 before they even get a test platform built.
<rambling>
But this thread has me thinking that maybe we do want to revist mecanums this year... not with an articulated system like that one, that's just a bit beyond our build capacity this year, even if we replaced the central clutch with an FP and gearbox to drive the omni wheel... but instead... maybe if the front wheels also ran a belt... that didn't connect to the rear wheels (or else the pulley just free-wheeled on the rear axle) so that when you get high-centred on the climb the belt does the driving. It would be a combination of mecanum and tank-tread drive....
Hmm... I'll be interested to see what the students say on Monday. This game does seem well-suited to an omni drive, but the extra degrees of freedom offered in their mobility come at the cost of build time, programming time, and driver practice time.
But if a team hasn't built a mecanum drive... and wants to give it a try... you've gotta do it! I think mecanums are the most beautiful drive system to watch, and just love having seasoned engineers come into our shop and have a Grade 10 show them a wheel that they never knew existed!
</rambling>
Jason