Mecanum vs. Tank Drive?

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by Lord Basket

While that may be the case sometimes, look at what members of consistently great teams are posting in this thread. Members of Citrus Circuits, Techfire and Robovikes literally posted one-word answers that just say "tank" and a member of the Cheesy Poofs posted "Just say no to mecanum drive." A member of TORC posted a more detailed response, but the conclusion was the same. Those teams are some of the best in the world and are in a picking position every year. While they haven't explicitly said they'd never pick a mecanum robot, they don't seem to think too highly of mecanums, to say the least.

+1 to this. We do a first pass filter on our second pick list based upon drivetrain style. If it's not tank style, we often drop the team from our list right there.

Originally Posted by Taylor

I will also say there is a stigma with mecanums, with questionable merit, and some teams say they would not pick a mecanum robot to ally with in eliminations. However, I have noticed that the people who proclaim they'd never ally with a mecanum robot, aren't usually in a picking position.

My experience has been the opposite, but YMMV. I know to us, and a few other teams usually in picking position, mecanum is almost always an instant "do not pick".

There's lots of jokes/meme's around mecanum, because for contact games, it's just not what teams in picking positions want out of a second pick, so those mecanum robots get instantly dropped from pick lists. Carefully consider if this is a risk your team is willing to take.

-Mike

"Friends don't let friends build mecanum"