Mecanum Einstein this year

[J_Miles]

I think that the bad rep that Mecanum wheels have acquired is, in large part, due to their relative lack of experience. Mecanum drive simply has not been around for long enough for a large number of teams to really know how to "do it right." As a result, you see a lot of teams using mecanum wheels that don't execute well.

As always, there are outliers and exceptions...I personally know of a handful of teams that have built excellent Mecanum-drive robots, but few (if any) of the veteran teams have really experimented with Mecanum drive-trains enough to be willing to use them. I don't believe that Mecanum-driven robots have any sort of inherent advantage that always makes them a clear choice over other types of drivetrains; rather, I see Mecanum drive as a drive type that has its own strengths and weaknesses, just like six- or eight-wheel drives or swerve-drives. Those strengths and weaknesses must be evaluated by the team when deciding what drive type to use. At the same time, I don't see any inherent disadvantages that make Mecanum drives perpetually inferior to other types.

Mecanum wheels have their advantages and disadvantages; however, as with what has been said before: it's not the drive-train that determines how competitive a robot is, it is the whole package: drive-team, human player, end-effector, build-quality, reliability, etc.

EDIT: I think that in 2012 there is as good of a chance of a robot with Mecanum wheels on it making the trip to Einstein as any other year (unless the game turns out to be like Lunacy...in which case...well, we won't talk about Lunacy.)