Mechanum Wheel Sizes

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by Nemo

1) Mecanum drives are not difficult to build.

For several years we've used 12:1 or 9:1 Banebots p80 gear boxes to direct drive four Andymark 6" HD mecanum wheels on a kitbot frame. (The axle should be supported on the other side by some kind of pillow block.) This year the "canum" part of our octocanum is... 9:1 Banebots p80 gear boxes direct driving 6" HD mecanum wheels.

It's easy to assemble and almost foolproof in terms of the mechanics. (Mecanics? )

Originally Posted by Nemo

2) Mecanum drives are not difficult to program.

If you're not using sensor feedback, this is indeed true.

Originally Posted by Nemo

3) Mecanum drives are not difficult to drive.

In fact, they drive exactly like a 1st person shooter -- most kids these days find driving a mecanum robot extremely intuitive. You can slap together a drivetrain in a day and spend hours and hours practicing on it... Though I would of course recommend that any new drivetrain be done in the off season!

...all that said, there's a reason we upgraded to octocanum, too.

Originally Posted by slijin

In my opinion, this is a rather critical design decision that you may want to consider more thoroughly; I would avoid going with a semi-flexible frame.

Looks like added complexity to me. It's not like the robot just dies the moment one wheel is in the air -- this is what practice is for! A centered CG and a rugged, non-racked frame is more important than a flexible frame.