[EricH]

Originally Posted by LLogan

I do not think so. The resultant of the vectors is in the direction that they roll. There is no way that the magnitude of the vectors would be the forward/reverse vector because then the vectors that composed it would have to be at 45 degrees which would mean strafing motion would be impossible.

This is what the vectors of a mecanum wheel look like.

http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/yhst-...lSpecSheet.pdf

Actually, there is a significant observable slowdown when side-to-side is run as compared to front and back. Part of this is due to friction and other inefficiencies (remember, two of the 4 wheels are running backwards); part of it is due to the vectors. I'm not exactly quite sure how that happens off the top of my head; I think Alan Anderson posted an explanation a while back.

Ether, I posted the part I think led Justin "astray"; namely the logical conclusion that if X< than Y, Z is more effective one way and X > Y, Z is more effective another way, therefore if X=Y, Z is optimized for both directions, and that he simply misstated what he meant. It's up to him to correct me if I'm wrong on that. (Also note that I'm in college, and I don't know/don't remember how to do a matrix transformation. I wouldn't be surprised if that reference confused a number of people. Some explanation may be in order, either in here or in another thread, as to a) what they are, b) how to do them, and c) why they apply here.)