Bumpy Ride with AM's 8" Mecanum wheels?

[monty1540]

We used the 8" A.M. mecanums last year, it was definitely a bumpy ride even with a 110 lb. robot. This year we're using the 6" A.M. mecanums and the ride quality is significantly better.

That said, we simply checked the tightness of the structural fasteners between every match last year and had no problems due to the vibration [not many problems at all - but that's both luck, and a different thread topic]. Use loctite and nylock nuts where you can, and check the other bolts frequently and you should be able to cope just fine with the vibration.

Another thing we noticed was that after hard use, the 8" wheels wore-in some, i.e. the hard corners on the rollers wore off to a rounder profile. It isn't perfect (still vibrates significantly) but they do wear-in after a while.

[Matt H.]

When designing any mechanum drive it is important to account for vibrations. Our team used the 6" wheels on an offseason robot and have to give the robot a suspension system for proper driving. Short of that there is really not too much that can be done other than tightening down your bolts and hoping for the best.