6WD Pros and Cons

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Originally Posted by DeepWater

I am wondering if a "level" 6WD with omnis on only one end would be a good compromise?

Yes. This is a great compromise. We did this last year and it worked great.

There is only one thing to be aware of - your robot will turn about its 'end' rather than about its center. In other words, the omni wheels will swing around a lot. This isn't bad, just different.

Our whole robot's movement was substantially changed when we added two omnis to the front. It also didn't seem to allow other robots to push us around.

[ChuckDickerson]

Originally Posted by Hachiban VIII

Yes. This is a great compromise. We did this last year and it worked great.

There is only one thing to be aware of - your robot will turn about its 'end' rather than about its center. In other words, the omni wheels will swing around a lot. This isn't bad, just different.

Our whole robot's movement was substantially changed when we added two omnis to the front. It also didn't seem to allow other robots to push us around.

This is pretty much what I was thinking. It would seem to me to give the advantages of both sytems but I am just trying to figure out what hidden tradeoff it might have not having tried it. I am wondering what difference it would have on traction and pushing ability given everything else being equal.

[David]

We used a chassis that had 4 traction wheels in the back and two omnis in the front last year. We had great traction because we used custom 3 inch wide wheels with neoprene rough top treads. We decided not to power the front 2 omni wheels because the chain would have been heavy and extremely long (we didn't want to need tensioners). Like others have said, it turns easily, but not at the center. The wheels were powered directly off a AndyMark Gen2 Shifter, so our low gear was around 11:1, so we were very fast, but not that powerful.

Picture of our chassis