pic: OmniSwerve chassis Bottom View and Concept Discussion

[asid61]

How are you getting above max speed? You might get more power in a direction (like with a kiwi), but not more max speed.
The major advantage I can see to this is being able to run a crab drive without worrying about turning scrub, but at that point one might as well run mecanum or pure swerve. I think this would be usable for a team with low programming resources that wants to get into swerve (say during the build season) but wants a good backup plan for if it doesn't work out. Crab is significantly easier to program than full swerve.

[Scott Kozutsky]

Originally Posted by asid61

How are you getting above max speed? You might get more power in a direction (like with a kiwi), but not more max speed.
The major advantage I can see to this is being able to run a crab drive without worrying about turning scrub, but at that point one might as well run mecanum or pure swerve. I think this would be usable for a team with low programming resources that wants to get into swerve (say during the build season) but wants a good backup plan for if it doesn't work out. Crab is significantly easier to program than full swerve.

drive straight to max speed, turn left at 90 degrees and accelerate in that direction to max speed. Because of the omni wheels, you actually (ideally) don't lose your forward momentum after turning and, as such, move in both directions at your maximum geared speed, hypotenuse of that vector triangle is 1.414 times the side length.

There are also the standard "butterfly" advantages of this over traction wheels. See 33 in 2014 for similar reason, why would they go for omnis over traction in a standard tank. This concept is silly but IMO does merit actual consideration, even as just a thought experiment; it has some significant advantages.

[Gdeaver]

It's summer. No pressure. No time constraints. Why waste your time on this project. Isn't there something your team needs to work on to improve it's skill set? Something that could actually be used in the future?

[Scott Kozutsky]

Originally Posted by Gdeaver

It's summer. No pressure. No time constraints. Why waste your time on this project. Isn't there something your team needs to work on to improve it's skill set? Something that could actually be used in the future?

This was entirely my own project and an excellent opportunity to brush up on CAD. I figured Chief Delphi posters in general would also enjoy this kind of thought exercise but apparently not.

[Aren Siekmeier]

The sqrt(2) speed increase is certainly a different way to think about things. I imagine it wouldn't coast terribly far on the rollers, and it's not powered through any obstacle in that direction. And sounds like you've considered how it would mess with the driver to be in a constant uncontrollable powerslide.

Put in a traction wheel and you've got a decent crab drive. Two more turning motors for unicorn.

[nuclearnerd]

Originally Posted by Scott Kozutsky

This was entirely my own project and an excellent opportunity to brush up on CAD. I figured Chief Delphi posters in general would also enjoy this kind of thought exercise but apparently not.

On the contrary, I think this is really cool! The way you have thought past everyone's initial "why" to discover some really novel performance details shows that you have the creativity, and deep thinking a robotics team needs.

I spent some time last year thinking about a wheeled version of a cyclorotor for similar ridiculous reasons

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Scott Kozutsky

This was entirely my own project and an excellent opportunity to brush up on CAD. I figured Chief Delphi posters in general would also enjoy this kind of thought exercise but apparently not.

I also enjoyed the thought exercise of looking at the drive and working out the probable advantages/disadvantages of its distinctive constraints, even if no one could come up with enough advantages to want to build it.

I wish we had a few team members "waste time" this summer developing CAD skills.

[Cothron Theiss]

Originally Posted by Scott Kozutsky

This was entirely my own project and an excellent opportunity to brush up on CAD. I figured Chief Delphi posters in general would also enjoy this kind of thought exercise but apparently not.

There's never any reason to not mess around with CAD for practice, so it's awesome that you've done this. I'm hoping to post several oddball/silly designs over the next month, as soon as I get off my butt and get to CAD-ing. But great job on getting the ball rolling with off-season designs.

As for the design itself, it might be really interesting to lock the back two wheels in the forward direction, and then replace the forward omni wheel with some sort of traction wheel with VERY high amounts of scrub (or even a small tread module). Theoretically, if the forward steering module has enough friction against the carpet, powering the motor on the front steering module would actually turn the entire chassis in relation to the front wheel. With the front wheel pointed in a different direction from the back wheels, it might steer similar to a front wheel drive car, but without the need for a differential since the back Omni's can be powered at different speeds.