pic: 1675's REAL IRI Upgrade

[Hawiian Cadder]

that is a pretty excellent prank.

IMO, if the bumpers were made out of a fabric that was slippery, mechanum drives would have (maybe) a significant advantage as they could slide around the higher traction drives, however, because the bumpers sort of stick to each other, I think that most omni directional robots fall prey to the faster accelerating, more grippy tank drives.

we have built 2 mechanums and 2 tank drives since i have been on the team, and i would have to say that the mechanum prototype, weighing less than 40 lbs fully loaded (with battery), could probably drive circles around one of the tank drives (geared slower than it) and maybe the other (geared faster than it). However the full 120 lbs mechanum suffers too much loss of acceleration to out maneuver either of the tank drives.