How Do mecanum wheels handle the bumps?

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Ether

When you are pushing directly forward, the rollers are effectively locked.

All the forward torque applied to the wheel is transmitted to the carpet.

The torque is not reduced by cos(45).

None of these assertions is true.

The rollers do spin noticeably when you're driving straight forward. This is where the obvious loss of pushing power manifests itself.

If you go through the vector analysis of how much torque is pushing in which directions for an ideal rectangular-layout mecanum or omniwheel drivebase, you find that ~70% goes to movement in the forward direction, and ~70% goes to trying to squash or stretch the frame in the sideways direction.

All the torque is available in the diagonal direction. The torque in the forward direction is only cos(45) of the maximum.