Hemispherical Omnidirectional Gimbaled Drive

[JesseK]

Talk about rapid prototyping ... Bacon seems to be on top of it! John should post this on his blog...

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Do you have any calculations, even first order estimations, to support this hypothesis?

Scaling up to large-scale applications (FRC, heavy-lift mobility, etc) has some foreseeable issues. The first and foremost is the noticeable skidding of the hemisphere as the robot changes directions. Even changing the speed/torque by rotating the gimbal causes localized skidding on each individual hemisphere due to the differences in radii that create the different "gear ratios". I don't know of every way to reduce the effect, but it implies that each individual application will have to account for the effect. The easiest way to account for it seems to be finding the best balance of traction & intentional slip. Another way could be to limit the rotation speed of the gimbal.

I like how it's a 'resurrection' of technology.