pic: Team 148 - Robowranglers 2010 - Armadillo

[Lil' Lavery]

So I've had a couple days to salvate over this robot/piece of art, but I do have a couple questions.

First off, what's the purpose of the pole that extends beyond the hanging mechanism? Is that to aid with alignment?


Secondly, what prompted you to go with the dropping center omni wheel set-up, instead of just having the four articulating drive pods with mecanum wheels instead of omni (similar to what is shown on pg.4 of this paper)?
The only advantages that's obvious to me of your configuration is it's likely cheaper than buying/manufacturing mecanum wheels and you save some weight and money by using one fewer gearbox (as you can drive both sides of the robot together, but also have to add another one in for the center omni). But otherwise it seems like you're using an additional motor and point of articulation for no real benefit over a similar concept using mecanum wheels.
Also, are you using any sort of closed-loop control to try and account for uneven forces between the forward/reverse (where you have four motors operating) and lateral directions (where you only have one)?


Overall, it's obviously an absolutely gorgeous machine that I certainly hope I get the opportunity to examine at greater detail.