Omnidirectional drivetrains

[Adrian Wong]

That's amazing, Patrick. This year, I intend to do odometry and self-localization research on the Killough omnidirectional platform. I even got the two IEEE articles on his research.

I received those articles late last week, and I was formulating some of the guidelines for the project. I was having trouble finding construction plans, so I started drafting my own. I got as far as developing the wheel assemblies (the Killough platform's wheels are slightly more complex in comparison to the "universal" whee) and chassis. I still had to do work on the sensor platform (inertial sensors), but the general idea was there, albeit, unrefined.

It's so great that some other people are doing work on this platform. I talked with some people from 857 last year, when they were designing their omnidrive. Mostly, it was about control issues and the decision between the Killough orthognal wheel assemblies and the universal wheel. Later that year, I heard they resolved their control issues ("proprietary" ) and they put up that stellar video.

Hopefully we'll see more omnidirectional bots this year!