pic: Team 357's 2006 MIT InvenTeam

[Dan Petrovic]

That's pretty sweet!

Did you guys make those Mecanums or did you buy them?

If you bought them can you give a link as where we could them?

[Joe Troy]

Originally Posted by InfernoX14

That's pretty sweet!

Did you guys make those Mecanums or did you buy them?

If you bought them can you give a link as where we could them?

We made the mecanum wheels.

Our design uses the Airtrax variation of the mecanum wheel.

Now that we have returned from MIT we will be posting more information on the specifications and design of the wheelchair including information on the process used to fabricate the hubs and rollers for the mecanum wheel system we call Jester Drive.

[Freddy Schurr]

How did Team 357 do?

[OldDaddyCrane]

Originally Posted by Freddy Schurr

How did Team 357 do?

The competition portion of the process was in applying for and winning the grant. We were one of only 18 InvenTeams nationwide awarded grants for 2006. The trip to MIT was to showcase (much like a trade show) along with the other 17 teams and do a formal presentation.

The performance of the wheelchair at MIT was flawless. We were able to achieve complete holonomic drive using a custom circuit board with closed loop control.

More details to come...

[Rosiebotboss]

I was there for your demo with John Burns, my teacher counterpart on Rosie and my son, Kyle, (Rosie founder and the team's Dir of Eng back then) and I want to congratulate you folks publically. You all did a fine job, not only with the wheel chair, that was the easy part, but with the presentation portion of the event. It was brutally evident which teams were prepared and who was not. I have to think being a FIRST team put you ahead of the curve in engineering and presentation.

The reasons I love the Lemelson InvenTeam program so much to keep coming back is that one of the main problems engineers are faced with is communications. Typically, we are nerds that would rather be in the lab than on stage in front of an audience of people. This process of having to do a formal presentation forces the students to get on stage, see what it's like, get very valuable experience public speaking. You can have the best engineered product in the universe, but if you cannot communicate your ideas, then the investors will go elswhere with their capital. The whole process of Lemelson/MIT InvenTeams is to innovate, invent and communicate.

We were an InvenTeam in 2004 (Pothole detection and repair) and "raised the bar" back then. You folks bumped it up another notch by "aiming high."

[techtiger1]

[I have been meaning to comment on this thread for a while. Team 357 is one of the most organized teams ever as well as they have some amazing people on there team. There Jester drive is gorgeous I got a up close and personal look at it during the Florida regional and was blown away by it. The wheel chair looks amazing guys great job. Thanks to MIT for giving them the opportunity. All around amazing team and great project.

-Drew

[Spikr122]

Hello, I am a wheelchair user and i think that this is a great idea. I have the same question on the rotation.