Holonomic drive and ramp

[robotaddict]

Okay, someone tell me when I go crazy. Here goes.

I was thinking that a holonomic drive bot could make it up the ramp with some attention to design and ground clearance, but my team disagrees. EVERYONE, including the people who support holonomic drive, thinks that it lacks traction enough to haul itself up the ramp. I also think that the major disadvantage for a holonomic bot attempting this is the contact surfaces distance from the ends of the 'bot, but on closer inspection I noticed a way to overcome this: tilting the wheels.

Because of the perpendicular rollers on omniwheels, the contact surface of a tilted wheel, say 10 degrees from horizontal, is the same as an upright wheel. All that's required is some fancy-pants mounting of motors and what-not. If the wheels were tilted in to 80 degrees from vertical, the contact patches would be closer to the corners of the robot that almost any other design.

With these tilted wheels, you could lower them from beneath the frame by enough to start climbing the ramp and get to the crest. However, once at the crest it is not necessary to get your entire robot up onto the platform if you can get your front wheels over the egde to sort of "hook" you on. Not on the platform, but more importantly not on the carpet. 5 pts.

If you could tell me what you think of this I could stop doubting the species of the mushrooms on that pizza I had. It would be most helpful!

Our team is a third-year team with, at the moment, limited funds, no machine shop, and some people who seem fine with two-wheel drive. If anyone more knowledgeable than me (head programmer w/virtually no experience but a good head for math & spacial relations) would put their two-cents in it would help our team do something interesting this year. I also think it would just be really freaking cool.

Anywho, I'm rambling, so I'm just going to cut myself off.

P.S., one of the few things my team has agreed on is the ability to climb the ramp, but seems to be putting this over our agreed upon chief priority of a freakishly maneuverable shooter, hence the holonomic drive idea. Ok, bye for real this time.