What Pushed You Toward Mecanum Drive This Season?

[thefro526]

Chris,

While we are not using Mecanums this year, the thought did come up in our brain storming sessions. A Mecanum Drive theoretically should make gathering balls much easier because you don't have to do as much rotating to keep the ball in place relative to your robot. Also, Mecanum Drives give you additional maneuverability to move around defenders while maintaining the same heading. (Easier to aim and keep ball)

Why kept us away from Mecanum was CoG issues. Most of the Mecanum Drives here have the majority of their robot's mass elevated over the wheels because suck a large opening is required between the wheels when climbing the bump which causes CoG to be substantially higher than most conventionally built skid steers. (6+ WD) Also, the added expense of Mecanum Wheels and the Additional Transmissions we would've needed were a factor in our decisions...

[sgreco]

Originally Posted by mayde

I think the reason that so many teams found the mecanum drive so alluring is that it has superior maneuverability.

I know that is why we chose it; but instead of buying wheels, we made our own.

Actually, i would like to hear from any other teams that made their own wheels, out of curiosity.
Ours are finished at this point, it is just a matter of assembaly.

if you want to see a finished one, find the thread "wheel envy".

I agree that mecanum drive is very maneuverable, but the word choice of superior is one that I would like to question. Despite the ability to instantly move laterally, I would argue that a well made and well operated 6 or 8 wheel skid can't be out-maneuvered by the best of mecanum drives. Last year was a little different because of the surface and the trailer, but if you take a look at some skid steers from 2008: 233, 1114 and 968 come to mind, these team's maneuverability was mind blowing, and they didn't have the losses in efficiency that mecanum wheels present. They also weren't as susceptible to being pushed laterally as a mechanum drive is..

I'm not questioning your decision, I'm just suggesting that mecanum drives maneuverability in reality is not quite what it seems on the drawing board.

[the man]

Originally Posted by thefro526

Chris,

While we are not using Mecanums this year, the thought did come up in our brain storming sessions. A Mecanum Drive theoretically should make gathering balls much easier because you don't have to do as much rotating to keep the ball in place relative to your robot. Also, Mecanum Drives give you additional maneuverability to move around defenders while maintaining the same heading. (Easier to aim and keep ball)

Why kept us away from Mecanum was CoG issues. Most of the Mecanum Drives here have the majority of their robot's mass elevated over the wheels because suck a large opening is required between the wheels when climbing the bump which causes CoG to be substantially higher than most conventionally built skid steers. (6+ WD) Also, the added expense of Mecanum Wheels and the Additional Transmissions we would've needed were a factor in our decisions...

We used custom mounts which lowered the center of gravity, no transmitions unless your talking about gearboxes, but it dose eat up your cim limit.