Video of Mecanum Drive Running Circles Around 6 Wheel Drives

[Jacob Paikoff]

If you give us a couple of weeks we may be able to come up a video that either proves or disproves a Mecanum drive running circles around a 6 wheel drive.

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by Cory

The 4WD bot they're defending is way too slow. Like 8 FPS max. If you can find a mechanum driving circles around a 16 FPS 6WD with competent drivers I'd be impressed.

16 FPS? That's a bit quick for an FRC field don't you think?

[Chris is me]

That's about the free speed 971 was running at in the above video.

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

16 FPS? That's a bit quick for an FRC field don't you think?

From the 254 website:
2010: 15.5 FPS (high gear)
2009: 15.4 FPS
2008: 18.5 FPS (high gear)
2007: 16 FPS (high gear)
2006: 16 FPS (high gear)
2005: 14 FPS (high gear)
2004: 15 FPS

So no, he probably doesn't think so

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

16 FPS? That's a bit quick for an FRC field don't you think?

Not really. It's usually the high gear of a 2-speed transmission. The Poofs have had a top speed of somewhere in the 15fps + range for as long as I can remember. (And for as long as I can remember they've been kicking butt, so I guess it works.)

On the subject of Mecanums and out-driving 6WD's, I'm fairly confident in saying that it IS possible, but hasn't happened yet. Mr. Lim's video is a good showcase of what a Mecanum is capable of with decent drivers, but the field last year wasn't really big enough for a Mecanum to fully stretch it's legs.

It seems that many teams that pursue both Holonomic and Mecanum Drives do not invest enough time in training their drivers to fully utilize the omni-directional motion these drives are capable of. More often than not, I see many Omni-Drive robots driving EXACTLY like a skid-steer until they need to move left or right a hair. I would absolutely LOVE to get my hands on a well built Mecanum or Holonomic drive just to see what happens.

[MCahoon]

Originally Posted by maverickfan138

This isn't 100% what you want, Chris, but I think it's pretty close:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwlHlx-QAIQ

Watch 2337 and 2619 duke it out. 2337 had 8" mecanums and custom gear boxes. 2619 had 4 wheel tank drive with a wide bot. 2619 was the red alliance's main scoring robot and 2337 shut them down until the end game.

The 2337 driver played excellent position defiense, positioning between 2619 and the bump and blocking the line to the goal. But watching the actual maneuvering, I see no maneuvers that any reasonable skid steer chassis couldn't do. The only intentional "strafe" move sideways I see is at the end when they position for the hang. The driver skill was key to this defense, not the drive base.

[Tom Ore]

The bottom line for me is that I don't think the drivetrain is the deciding factor in a competition. We use Mecanum's whenever possible because we just really like to use Mecanum's. We won KC last year, were runner up at 10,000 lakes, and came within 1 point of making the semi's at Newton - on Mecanum wheels. Our weakness wasn't the drivetrain - it was our ball control.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by maverickfan138

This isn't 100% what you want, Chris, but I think it's pretty close:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwlHlx-QAIQ

Watch 2337 and 2619 duke it out. 2337 had 8" mecanums and custom gear boxes. 2619 had 4 wheel tank drive with a wide bot. 2619 was the red alliance's main scoring robot and 2337 shut them down until the end game.

I'm looking for an offensive mecanum bot avoiding defense, not the other way around.

Also, with all due respect to 2337, they literally did not strafe the entire match. This match could have happened with a tank drive. They also played position defense rather than anything involving pushing.

[FlyingHedgeHog]

Originally Posted by maverickfan138

This isn't 100% what you want, Chris, but I think it's pretty close:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwlHlx-QAIQ

Watch 2337 and 2619 duke it out. 2337 had 8" mecanums and custom gear boxes. 2619 had 4 wheel tank drive with a wide bot. 2619 was the red alliance's main scoring robot and 2337 shut them down until the end game.

The thing I would say about that video is that if you notice, the mecanum bot really didn't use it's crab capabilities. It more game down to the the sheer pushing power and speed it had over the other robot as oppose to sheer out maneuvering. It didn't exactly "run circles" around the other bot; it slammed into it.

[efoote868]

Here is video of us from the final match of the Boilermaker regional.
We used a gyro for field centric mecanum drive, watch how the robot looks like its moving with purpose, effortlessly doing what the drivers want it to do.
You can't get that kind of motion with a 6 wheel drive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2jZz0r0wbk

[Chris is me]

The robot in the video is completely undefended...

[IKE]

Originally Posted by maverickfan138

This isn't 100% what you want, Chris, but I think it's pretty close:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwlHlx-QAIQ

Watch 2337 and 2619 duke it out. 2337 had 8" mecanums and custom gear boxes. 2619 had 4 wheel tank drive with a wide bot. 2619 was the red alliance's main scoring robot and 2337 shut them down until the end game.

This showcases 2 of about 5 robots I know of that I though Mecanums were used really really well.

The 573 robot that year was really clever and its "kicker" was more like a paddle wheel that cleared zones very well. The Mecanums were frequently used to dig into corners well. 2337 robot that year was a great re-director and hanger. It would also play some amazingly good defense for a mec.

I would actually say 2337 in 2008 and 2011 also used mecs fairly well. but I think you could find videos of those robots being defended or boxed out just as often as you would find amazing offense.

126 had a pretty good run with them this year. They were really good in Archimedes beating 868 (wiht a lot of help) in 1 match. This video is likely the closest to "driving circles aroudn teh defender":
http://www.thebluealliance.com/match/2013arc_qm51
126 is the little blue bumper bot, and a tall black red bot (I think 846?) repeatedly tries to defend with very little success. They have at least 4 altercations that match with the Defense slowing them down just a tiny bit. I don't know that "I" would credit mecs to this maneuverability, but I am pretty sure 126 would give them some credit. The mecs also seem to be good for lining up to the tower and to the feeder station.

[cmrnpizzo14]

Originally Posted by IKE

126 had a pretty good run with them this year. They were really good in Archimedes beating 868 (wiht a lot of help) in 1 match. This video is likely the closest to "driving circles aroudn teh defender":
http://www.thebluealliance.com/match/2013arc_qm51
126 is the little blue bumper bot, and a tall black red bot (I think 846?) repeatedly tries to defend with very little success. They have at least 4 altercations that match with the Defense slowing them down just a tiny bit. I don't know that "I" would credit mecs to this maneuverability, but I am pretty sure 126 would give them some credit. The mecs also seem to be good for lining up to the tower and to the feeder station.

Having competed against 126 in Boston, they were one of the quickest robots this year. They did not use the mecanum strafing capabilities too often but their driver had the ability to use it when necessary. I would not give the mecs 100% of the credit for this maneuverability but I would at least give them some.

Irrelevant, but the tall defender was 701, 846 was the short yellow bot on that alliance.

[Mr. Lim]

Dubious thread,

But to share a video from the 2010 Waterloo Finals where a mecanum drive was doing what it was supposed to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mBxVPvyYwQ

[hipsterjr]

@ Mr. Lim

No fair. Using 1114 in ANY comparison is like arguing Mustangs vs Camaros and then posting a video of Bumble-Bee.


Edit: Sorry, jumped the gun and forgot that 1114 was not mecanum drive. But the statement still stands.