Crab Drive HELP!!***

[Elgin Clock]

Can't this team just use the Andymark Mecanum drive that is available as a COTS item?
Fabrication time of the drive wheels themselves would essentially be nothing at that point, (minus some obvious separate assembly time) and then it's just a matter of waiting for it to be shipped to you, mounting it on the robot, and then having drivers practice with them.

Am I missing something here with my suggestion?

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

Can't this team just use the Andymark Mecanum drive that is available as a COTS item?
Fabrication time of the drive wheels themselves would essentially be nothing at that point, (minus some obvious separate assembly time) and then it's just a matter of waiting for it to be shipped to you, mounting it on the robot, and then having drivers practice with them.

Am I missing something here with my suggestion?

Sort of. As you pointed out, a basic mecanum isn't that mechanically challenging (although a suspension might be very important to have, depending on your frame). The software, however, can be rather tough. Not an insurmountable problem by any means (as all the mecanum robots proved last year), but it can be troublesome; just figuring out how to setup the controls for the driver can take a good bit of time.