Breakaway question: getting on platform with meccanum?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by RoboMaster

Now that I think about it, that might not really work. The catching rollers would have to stick out farther than the others to be the only ones that catch on the lip of the platform. However, it still might work since all the rollers are angled.

Which is exactly why it probably wouldn't work. If you were at an angle (and mecanums can move at 45* if they're programmed right), you might be able to get up if the rollers could lock relative to the wheel.

Angle of the rollers won't help if you're going straight sideways. Let's say that they did catch, though, just for the sake of argument. If the platform had a lip (it doesn't), up-going rollers could catch as well as down-going rollers. Bam, you're going nowhere at best, and going onto your top at worst (one wheel locks up solidly). Same argument applies for a flat surface that gets hit broadside by a mecanum--down+up=nothing doing.

The fact that they're rollers doesn't help you much, either; they roll. CG is off the platform, so they'll want to roll off of said platform unless they're locked--at which point you get into either lousy strafing ability or lots of mechanical complexity to lock when you want to climb.