pic: Concept Mecanum Drivetrain



This is a mecanum drivetrain I threw together. It uses the 6" andymark mecanums direct driven off of banebot planetary gearboxes. The total weight for everything shown is around 30lbs.

Very nice simple design. How thick are your side plates and what are you using to connect both modules (the long black bars). Are they fabricated or COTS?

Thank you. The side plates are 3/16" thick Al. The connecting bars are 2x1" channel with the ends folded over and welded and then 2 holes are drilled in the ends to mount into the side plates. This is the same method we’re using for our drivetrain this year and it seems to work well.

that motor setup is exactly how we are using our omnis this year, those gearboxes are really easy to work with lol

A holonomic drive really wants all wheels to be making contact with the floor at all times. The way you describe the chassis makes it sound very stiff. Try designing it to be flexible, so irregularities or debris on the floor won’t give you problems.

Along with what Alan commented on, I would recommend filleting any of your cutouts you have in your plating. If you don’t those will become stress points. With fillets and rounds, you distribute the stress.

It may just be the pic but of what I can see your wheels are not in a square which is essential for mec drive. But I may be wrong just looks that way.

No it isn’t. I’ve seen them done in a rectangle–and work.

Yeah I thought they would work in a rectangle. I’ve seen many done that were in a rectangle configuration that worked well. Also as for the flex issue I have seen many teams use mecanum without any suspension and it works. That could always be added in a second revision.

So, do you plan on building this for overdrive?!!

Actually no…We are building a completely custom 6 wheel drive robot. I just got bored and decided to cad up a mecanum.