pic: Jester Drive:Mecanum Wheel Drive Train

[Ken Delaney 357]

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[Shu Song]

whoa... those are hot wheels. Do you have any real life pictures of them? I'd love to see.

[MrToast]

Originally Posted by TierraDelDiablo

whoa... those are hot wheels. Do you have any real life pictures of them? I'd love to see.

Ditto!

Dave

[RBrandy]

That whole system looks very heavy... Is it?

Where do get wheels like that?

Awesome Job... Very impressive

-Ryan

[Alekat]

Ok i'm sure i'm not the only one who has little idea of what i am looking at. Are those wheels supposed to give better traction? Or are they a form of multidirectional wheels?

[Doug G]

Originally Posted by Alekat

Ok i'm sure i'm not the only one who has little idea of what i am looking at. Are those wheels supposed to give better traction? Or are they a form of multidirectional wheels?

I'd guess they're a variation of omni-directional drive, providing more traction in a forward direction. Look's really cool - but a bit complex!

[Jeffmudhs]

Originally Posted by RBrandy

That whole system looks very heavy... Is it?

Where do get wheels like that?

The robot when completed, with arm, without any lexan protection was around 86 lbs. The wheels, wheel molds, were created by team members under the assistance of mentor Mr. Crane (aka mold master). They are omni directional, www.airtrax.com has a great video of the wheels in use. Mr. Crane talked to the people in airtrax to get what was needed for the molds. Our first molds were made of a nice blue clay, that wasn't very symetric, we then moved to a silicon mold. We will have a display in the pits if you see us in drexel or nationals. If your in pittsburgh now, you should stop by.

[edit] To see the airtrax video: click on the link provided, click on the picture labeled sidewinder, then click on video

[Ken Delaney 357]

The wheels will allow us to drive omni-directionally. Right now we drive forward/ reverse and sideways. Here is video of us driving sideways. http://www.first.udsd.k12.pa.us/AIA2005/video.html We can also spin inside our own footprint. The design makes us very agile. With more programming time and a custom circuit we hope to drive omin-directionally with accuracy. Our initial controls had too much drift in it.

[thoughtful]

WOW, looks awesome.

This is something new to me, kodos to your team on buildign such an innovative and manuverable robot.

[663.keith]

I think WPI had wheels similar to these on their robot this year. I'll try and find a good picture of them.

[roboticscom13]

These wheels are similar but very different to the "grenade" wheels. These wheels are specifically designed for the purpose of allowing slip so the the robot can move laterally left and right as well as provide decent traction for forward and backward movement. However i do not believe, from what i have read on the"grenade" wheels, that they allow for this type of movement. To the best of my knowledge the grenade wheel is just another way to create an omni-wheel, but please correct me if i am wrong. The total weight of the entire robot is 105 lbs. In fact that is with no "speed" holes at all.

[ahecht]

Originally Posted by 663.keith

I think WPI had wheels similar to these on their robot this year. I'll try and find a good picture of them.

I'm glad we weren't the only ones crazy enough to try something like this. Out of curiosity, how do you guys control the robot?

[roboticscom13]

I stand corrected. Yes we do control the robot.

[ahecht]

Originally Posted by roboticscom13

I stand corrected. Yes we do control the robot.

Oops, major typo there. I meant "how do you control the robot", but I left a word out. Are you using one joystick for translation and another for rotation, modified tank steering, or another method?

[i_am_Doug]

Originally Posted by MrToast

Ditto!

Dave

double DITTO!