Team 2052's Mecanum Showcase!

[pntbll1313]

Originally Posted by Siri

I'm clueless on the specific design, but I'd toss driver training in there. They're definitely awesome via the video! The individual movements don't seem so different (perhaps pushing better axially?), but in terms of outcomes, I'd venture much of the performance benefit is in tactical usage. Is this a reasonable characterization? (It may also have a special control scheme element, and is certainly reliant of well-executed mechanics.)

What happens when someone catches you sideways? I saw a few spin-offs, but sometimes you seem to prefer turning rather than crabbing, even when it exposes you to transverse pushing.

Nice, guys!

Driver training is a huge part of it. Our driver was a veteran and had a lot of practice with mecanum. Great job Matt! The specific clip you reference shows just one example him getting into the feeding station as fast as possible. He has learned to go with the push and spin while still providing force in the direction he wants to go. This is not always possible with tank. What we have found is that when you push a tank robot sideways the only thing stopping them is their static friction with the carpet. When we get pushed sideways we can provide a force in the opposite direction to the push. I can't site any equations as I don't have friction coefficients but I would bet we are at least as hard if not harder to push sideways when we are strafing into the hit than a tank drive. That would allow us to play defense while facing different directions than tank drive bots. Note I'm only comparing us to tank here and not swerve as far as being pushed sideways (we were generally an offensive bot so we don't really have footage of this)