pic: Team XBot Mecanum Practice Chassis

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Cody C

That appears to be the max size of a drive base according to last years rules, right? For a competition bot, would you scale that design down somewhat in order to add a protective structure around the outside? or would you just rely on the fabric bumpers? It would seem to me that the channel used on the outside would bend/dent easily, and no amount of suspension will keep a Mecanum drive operating correctly if one or two of the wheels are suddenly bent at some odd-angle. The video looks very nice indeed, and I can't wait to see what the drivers can do with a bit of practice

The chassis is about an inch short of last year's maximums in all directions. If you look at some of our past work, you'll see that I don't typically add structure to things for protection, but since these wheels are quite expensive, this chassis was kept simple to facilitate accepting bumpers. Also consider that it's for practice and won't be seeing competition, so there was no use in wasting time and resources on making it stronger than it needs to be for learning, practice and demonstrations.