Octocanum Drive/ Mecanum Suspension Designs?

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by Dunngeon

Alternatively, you could use a gyro to correct for the drift/inconsistencies and not have a suspension system. I know many teams that have mecanum this year who have no suspension, such as 1983, 2990 ect.

Be careful with this statement. Mecanum wheels absolutely requirement a certain amount of flex in a chassis system so that all 4 wheels maintain contact with the ground a majority of the time.

So either build a flexible chassis, or use suspension: one of the two.

A gyro can only do so much. With one wheel off the ground, you will run into a situation where the robot cannot correct itself and strafe at the same time. It will end up driving forward, backward, or sitting in place while the airborne wheel spins instead of sliding sideways like you want.

We ended up changing out our entire drivetrain to a slide drive at state champs. It ended up being lighter than mecanum and it always goes the direction you want it to.