Mecanum Drivetrains

[BrendanB]

1058 is definitely one of those teams that has re-defined how to use mecanums effectively in the game. Their 2010 robot with the field oriented drive performed amazingly throughout the 2010 season. It was fast, responsive, very agile, and played some very mean mid-field offense!

I didn't get to see too much of their 2011 robot but I've heard a lot of stories about what they pushed.

Their 2007 and 2008 mecanum drives were also effective players of the game.

While mecanums still aren't my personal choice to use in a drivebase they can make for a great off-season project for a team. Plus they make excellent demo robots.

Use in a competition is a different story but every team needs to make decisions when they design their robots. There have always been times where being able slide sideways is advantageous and mecanums are a very easy way to achieve it. There are downsides that go with them but there are downsides of every mechanism you put on your robot.

In the end, no matter what drivebase you go with the best thing you can do is train your drivers and give them time to practice under realistic circumstances. While our team doesn't use multi directional drives we've trained our drivers to react faster so they can quickly maneuver around obstacles without us giving them another direction. We use old robots, chairs, trash cans, simulations, etc to keep them on their toes so when their path is blocked they don't stop moving while maneuvering.

Practice, practice, practice and the decisions you make at the beginning of the season will pay off no matter what drivebase you use.