Searching For Swerve / Holonomic Drive Idea

[Ari423]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Why not?

Each ball is independently driven in the forward/backward direction, which yields control of y and r. They are driven sideways together, which would happen anyway since they're in the same line in that direction, and that controls x. The omniwheels just go along for the ride in x, and give the same forces as the balls in the y direction (and, by extension, r).

I've driven it. It spins in place. It drives and strafes. It moves diagonally very well. It can go in nice arcs whichever direction it is traveling or facing. With extreme care and very slow and halting motions, it has even made its way in a nearly straight line while doing a full rotation. It acts very much like a four-wheel Mecanum or angled-omniwheel drivebase.

Having driven it, you probably know better than I do. I would have imagined that if you only get a sideways force from the back two wheels, you would rotate rather than strafe (the same way you would turn if your horizontal wheel in an H-drive was all the way at the back), but I could be wrong. If it drives like you are saying, then I guess it is fully omnidirectional.