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...