Penalizing mecanum wheeled robots durring alliance selection.

[efoote868]

Originally Posted by c.shu

So according to the unscientific poll as it is right now, ~40% of people represented on CD would either move you lower on their list or not pick you at all for having mecanum wheels.

Fixed it for you.

Going to quote myself to save some effort
[in response to "mecanum wheels have never made it to eEinstein"]

Originally Posted by efoote868

This statement has always irritated me. Mecanum drive trains were extremely rare before AndyMark manufactured them, while swerve drive trains were (relatively) much more popular. The first year I remember AM mecanum wheels was in 2007; before that it took teams significant resources to manufacture them. If I recall correctly, two teams had them in 2005, maybe a half dozen in 2006, maybe a few more in 2007.

2008 didn't lend itself to mecanum drive trains (successful robots were geared 18fps+ with 2 stage transmissions). 2009 mecanum wheels were illegal, 2010 a large segment of the teams automatically ruled them out ("can't traverse the bump!"), similarly with 2012 ("can't balance on the bridge!").

Even now they're still taboo due to all the misinformation floating around.


In my opinion, "never made it to Einstein" has no place in this discussion because it ignores the wheel's history, as well as game designs and strategies. Until there is a year in which a large segment (say 20% or more of teams) in the FRC population uses mecanum wheels, I'm going to give no credit to that statement. After all, 100% of the robots on Einstein in 2009 had hard plastic wheels for their drive train.

In my humble opinion, the game this year did not lend itself to a strictly mecanum drivetrain. The field was wide open, the position of your robot mattered (favoring high traction drives), and quickness and speed mattered (in both short distances and cross field - something that benefits multiple speed transmissions).

If next year's game saw upwards of 30% of teams choosing mecanum drivetrains, and still none of those teams make it to Einstein, there might be something to that statement.


Excluding robots based solely on their style of drivetrain isn't too intelligent; one would do better to look at the complete package as well as how the robot's functionality and performance could fit into a prospective alliance.