Mecanum wheel labview help

[vhcook]

This doesn't have to be as complicated as the presentation is making it. While there are some great ideas in there, they aren't absolutely necessary. We use mecanum more often than not, and we do it like this:

In begin.vi, open a 4-motor drivetrain. In teleop (and autonomous if you're planning on moving then), rather than using the Arcade or Tank robotdrive VIs, use Holonomic in Cartesian mode. X axis is strafe left/right, Y is forward/backward, Z is rotation clockwise/counterclockwise - attach to your joystick axes as desired. That's all you have to do to get basic movement.

Testing on blocks:

If these tests fail for one or more wheels, check wiring and invert settings in begin.vi. If they are exactly backwards, consider your sign convention for what constitutes forward/right/clockwise on the robot vs your control inputs and adjust accordingly.

- Give the robot Y axis forward only. Confirm all wheels move forward.

- Give the robot Y axis reverse only. Confirm all wheels move backward.

- Give the robot X axis "left" only. Check wheel movement - front wheels should be going back, rear wheels should be going forward.

- Give the robot X axis "right" only. Check wheel movement - front wheels forward, rear wheels backward.

- Give the robot Z axis "clockwise/right turn" only. Check wheel movement - left wheels forward, right wheels back. This is will make the robot spin in place. In real driving, if you want to arc the turn, you would also provide some Y axis forward.

- Give the robot Z axis "counterclockwise/left turn" only. Check wheel movement - right wheels forward, left wheels back.

- Once all behavior is as expected, put the robot on the floor and start driving.