Killough platforms (A.K.A Holonomic/kiwi drive)

[MattB703]

In my dream of a 4 wheeled Killough drive bot I was going to turn the handle of a joystick to 45° from the base of the joystick. If you push the joystick strait up you get full + X and full + Y. You can map the drive motors directly to the joystick values in such a way that the bot moves in the direction that the joystick is pressed. You would also need a rotary pot to control the rotation of the bot.

[Greg Ross]

Originally Posted by MattB703

In my dream of a 4 wheeled Killough drive bot I was going to turn the handle of a joystick to 45° from the base of the joystick. If you push the joystick strait up you get full + X and full + Y. You can map the drive motors directly to the joystick values in such a way that the bot moves in the direction that the joystick is pressed.

I did this last year. It worked, but I couldn't get used to the way the joystick felt in my hand. I had a hard time moving the stick along the diagonal when going straight forward and reverse.

You would also need a rotary pot to control the rotation of the bot.

I used the joystick thumb wheel for this (NOT the trim wheel!). Again, it worked, but I didn't like it because it didn't self center when released.

[ajlapp]

as adam already posted the analog joystick solution is very easy to construct and works flawlessly without any programming....i repeat, no programming!

my suggestion is to build one and then work on a slick programming solution if you still feel it's necessary.