faster field-centric mecanum drive

[Ether]

Originally Posted by inkling16

Ether, this is similar to what I was imagining. The difference would be with mecanum wheels, the robot could orient itself and move in the desired direction at the same time. With a 6-wheel drive, this is not possible, but I think it could work for a mecanum drive train.

The approach shown in the paper will work even better for a mecanum drive than for skid-steer (because a mec bot rotates more easily than skid).

But if you want to take full advantage of the mecanum's capabilities (i.e. include the strafing capability in the maneuver), then all you have to do is implement standard field-oriented control of the mecanum, and superimpose on top of that a rotation command to bring the bot into alignment with the joystick angle. Then the bot will go in the direction of the joystick angle (including a strafing component as necessary) while simultaneously rotating to align with the joystick angle.