Thought I’d post this over here from the FTC communities since this mechanism’s birthplace was with FRC 3026 Orange Crush! Our FTC team this year went ambitiously for a locking mecanum mechanism, and ended up succeeding after over 6 months of R&D. Locking Mecanums (we abbreviate them to LMecs since we’re teenagers of this generation after all) are modified mecanum wheels that can brake their own rollers and turn into a traction wheel at will, allowing us to play against defense effectively and sometimes play a little of our own.
LMec as a mechanism combined with a few other innovations on our robot ended up winning us the Innovate award at FTC World Champs. It’s a great show of a lot of manufacturing techniques in FTC such as extensive 3d printing and post processing!
Here’s a video showcasing LMec’s design process (a couple versions don’t have much documentation but it’s still a great summary): Locking Mecanum Design Progression
And here’s a video showcasing the rest of our worlds robot if you’re so inclined to watch: 16461 Robot Reveal
It’s been really cool to get to apply an FRC concept like Locking Mecanum in FTC effectively, so I hope y’all enjoy!