4 Mecanums vs. 4 Plaction/4 Omnis

Technical Technical Discussion
1

Hi all!

Just curious on everyone’s thoughts.

For this challenge (2014 Arial Assist), what do you all think is the best drive train? Right now, my team has a prototype of a drive train using 4 grippy plaction wheels for the center and 4 omni wheels on the outside corners. It looks like this:

-----{}-------{}------
--------]–]---------
--------]–]---------
-----{}-------{}------
{} = Omni
] = Plaction

It’s all connected with 4 CIM motors. 2 CIM motors paired with 2 Sonic Shifters. This thing is STRONG!

Our other option is a basic 4-wheel Mecanum drive.

What’s everyone’s thoughts on these two types of drive trains? I’m voting on Mecanum purely on the maneuverability, but other’s argue that they won’t be strong enough to push robots around if needed. I feel that if we are maneuverable enough, we don’t need to worry about pushing robots.

Thoughts?

2

In my opinion, I would go with your first option so you can push people. Since there will only be one ball per alliance at one time, I’m expecting a decent amount of defense (i could be very wrong), but I would say your first option in my opinion.

3

Honestly i do not think that any drive train is the “best”. It all depends how the drive train fits with your game strategy.

4

You may want to add a poll to this thread. It will allow you to collect this data from other teams.

We are sticking with Mecanum because we used them last year and they worked better than we expected (except against 1717)!

5

So your drivetrain decision had no relation to the current game, but simply what worked well for an entirely separate game?