Easy OmniTrack

[Joe_Widen]

Now thats just creative.

[MikeJ675]

For anyone having trouble visualizing what it would look like, I made this-


I love Rhino3D

You can fill in the guts yourself.

[Cuog]

These Omnitracks(i preffer the mecanums tho) seem like an awesome idea but i feel that the use of them will be difficult, look at the cost of mecanum wheels to produce. People are talking about over 1000 dollars to machine. Then there is the weight issue for these, and how big will the drive wheels need to be, in this case i think that it will prove much more effective to go with standard mecanum wheels then these treads(but of course someone will likely prove me wrong now)

[MikeJ675]

hey, never said they were effective, cost especially. I just think they're freakin' cool.

[s_forbes]

One thing I learned this year is that there are tons of teams that can build really effective robots that can complete the task extremely well. I doubt that a lot of other teams (including us) will ever get quite that good at designing robots, so it is better to just build a unique robot that will be noticed for it's creativeness.

I'd really like to see a robot with those mecanum tracks, it would be out of this world!

[Joachim]

Originally Posted by Cuog

...People are talking about over 1000 dollars to machine. Then there is the weight issue for these, and how big will the drive wheels need to be, in this case i think that it will prove much more effective to go with standard mecanum wheels then these treads(but of course someone will likely prove me wrong now)

Clearance between the rollers and belt is only 1/8", but someone could maybe use these to make a less expensive(?) version:


angled roller belts from Interlox

[joeweber]

I have been working with omni drive systems for years. I first come up with the design in 2002 but in 2004 we built one and wone a Xerox creativity award at Great Lakes. Visit our webb site for pictures and tech tips @ www.team1322.org . Per your Idea about tank track omni drive, your idea is a good one and thier are different ways to make it work but the key is when you install the two tracks for your drive you can add two more at 90 degrees. Doing this it will look like a four sided drive. When you drive the different motors it will allow you to go side ways forward, back, angles and rotate. Thus you have a omni directional system. With the number of wheels you will have good traction and can become a pusher robot. the only problem is keepng down the weight. We used omni wheel drives with the motors in the wheels.
http://team1322.org/robotics_04-05.htm

[robostangs548]

I have been working on a design also that will incorporate 3 different driving selections: 4 wheel steer (swivel steer), crab bot steer, and normal 2 wheel forward backward steer. I have been working hard, and this post I am pretty sure has inspired me and put me over the edge. I will post my drawings as soon as they are done, but I think so far that these are extremely intelligent designs, and I can see them working very well in the future.

[joeweber]

I do find it intersting on the differnt ideas for omni drive wheels or track. In 2004 we used omni drive wheels and was able to climb the stairs of that game. The wheel segments acted like teath to grab the steps to climb. I also came up with a omni track design, My idea was to design the track like beads on a pearl necklace and the drive sprockets looked like paddle wheels with each V shaped paddle would come down between the beads and the weight would be on the axle thus alowing for the rollers to turn free. The steel axles would have enlaged ends that would snap into the holes of the Plastic balls. You than can Paint rubber (avalable at Granger) on the wheels for traction. This does not sound that heavy but a lot of work. check our web site for all the wheels we Painted. http://team1322.org/robotics_04-05.htm also check the tech tips for our omni wheel designs