pic: 2605 Mecanum Drive

[Mr. Lim]

Originally Posted by Ether

It looks like the wheels are just losing traction on the floor.

Normal mec behavior in the forward/reverse direction is for the wheels to turn at the same rate as the vehicle. Without losing traction, roller free play and floor compliance will cause some deviation from this, but not to the extent shown in the video.

Well, the two mecanum drives I personally worked on both did this. We set them up pretty diligently. All rollers ran smoothly, there was minimal axial free play. These were old style AndyMark soft rollers which had great traction, but wore very quickly.

From watching a video it may look like the wheels are losing traction, but they aren't. In person I can tell you the wheels weren't "slipping" on the floor.

When we drove straight forward and backwards, we noticed that the rollers rolled. It was noticeable because when we drove forward or backwards and stopped quickly, you could still see the rollers on the tops of the wheels spinning!

I don't know what a "normal" mecanum is supposed to do, but I do know that's what our mecanums did. If I did it all over again, I would gear for a higher speed knowing that the roller action will reduce your effective top speed.