Mecanum wheels

[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by jbsmithtx

Try VEXpro. They have very affordable yet durable mecanum wheels. The other posters are correct in assuming that unless you are trying to catch, mecanums might not work well this year... However don't believe they are easy to push. We had to play defense with our mecanums last year in matches when our shooter failed and were fine. We could block lots of teams. I know this is contrary to popular belief, but a properly done mecanum drive base can in fact be very strong.

For anyone that wants to question our pushing abilites, we have video...

Mecanum wheels, neglecting friction in the rollers, have an effective coefficient of friction that is a factor of sqrt(2)/2 reduced from that of a traction wheel made of the same material. You can verify this yourself by drawing a free-body diagram of a set of mecanum rollers in contact with the ground.

Whether or not this translates to "being pushed all over the field" depends critically on context (robot weight, weight/drive of opposing robot, weight distribution, manner in which you're hit, etc).