Mecanum or Swerve?

[Jeffy]

Originally Posted by sparrowkc

I would disagree with that. A great offensive robot can be easily shut down if it can't push back.

There are two goals, and hopefully more than one ball in your zone, so I don't think that you would be needing to push another robot our of the way.
However, there is one situation that I see you needing to push another robot while in your home zone: If they have hearded all of the balls in the zone into one corner and are guarding them. In which case, the only way to really push them would be into the wall. And it leaves the rest of the zone open to the offensive robot.

I would love to hear why you think what you do. Our team had a large discussion about the need for an omni drive vs. a tank drive at the beggining of the year.

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by Jeffy

There are two goals, and hopefully more than one ball in your zone, so I don't think that you would be needing to push another robot our of the way.
However, there is one situation that I see you needing to push another robot while in your home zone: If they have hearded all of the balls in the zone into one corner and are guarding them. In which case, the only way to really push them would be into the wall. And it leaves the rest of the zone open to the offensive robot.

I would love to hear why you think what you do. Our team had a large discussion about the need for an omni drive vs. a tank drive at the beggining of the year.

Easy answer. We knew from our testing and from past experience that a robot defending you was going to try to push you all over the place.

Exactly that happened in the Michigan State Championships to us. Thunderchickens tried to play defense on us. They have traction when they want to, and can push very well. We out-pushed them somewhat and managed to wedge them in the goal for a short time, but they still kept our robot down to scoring only 5 balls.

Their drivers understood that to keep the other guy from scoring, you simply push his back corner so he can't aim. Or push him into the wall so he can't turn. Or pull in front of the goal if he can't push at all, then he's done.

Mechanum and omni look great as concepts, but when the rubber hits the road all it takes is one good traction bot to completely shut them down.