Chop Shop team 166 Mecanum Wheel Drive number 3

We had a drivable chassis on Tuesday of week 3! Here's a bit of video of it *safely* driving around. :)

Although this video was from the 2007 build season, I am still getting questions about the featured robot, so I'll put some commonly requested info here:
Wheels: 8" AndyMark http://www.andymark.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=am-0083
Transmission: 12:1 BaneBots http://banebots.com/pc/P80K-S4/P80K-43-0005
Motors: CIMs, 1 for each wheel

Mecanum wheels allow for movement in any direction at the cost of efficiency and traction. They work because the rear wheels push outwards and the front wheels push inwards (when all the wheels are rotating "forward"), and you can change the speed and direction of each wheel to cause the net force to be in any direction.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• FIRST
• robot
• mecanum
• 166

[gunnerone]

Great job! Our team is just starting to work with these wheels, and I'm wondering how hard is it to program?

-Dustin Team 1555 PULSE

[goatsgomoo]

@gunnerone This was actually done with the old system, and it wasn't too hard to program, even in C.

With the current system, WPILib makes it extremely easy to program; you don't even need to come up with the algorithm!

Anyway, if you need help with programming it, you can look to the WPILib documentation and Chief Delphi for examples.

Good luck!

[defygravity221]

are those the 370$ ones I've seen online, or did you pour those yourself?? I've been looking for a set but they've all been ridiculously expensive compared to everything else i'm buying for my robot.

[goatsgomoo]

Yes, those are the ridiculously expensive ones.

It would take quite a bit of work to just make these.

[siotg]

Great work!! What joystick, control board, and dc motor divers you're using? Please reply to siotg@yahoo.com

[Pokertron200]

My team bought about 350$ for a set of mecanums, including ball bearings and everything else needed to set it up, from AndyMark. they were well worth it!

-Sam, Team # 2084

[minimanmaw]

If you made them like that, they would all be slightly different from each other (more so than the mass produced Andy Mark ones). If you had access to a cnc mill and a couple cad files, you could make them. If anyone knows a site I can get the cad files, send me a message.

[GTechno13]

They appear to be the 8" ones, would I be correct? I'm looking at getting them soon.

[defygravity221]

i dont think so, u can buy the rollers 4 3 bucks a peice and the sides could be made with an aluminum disk, a skill saw, and a pair of pliers. u could even use a pair of fan blades if you're lazy. then its just a matter of drilling some holes and welding in some axils. could probobly knock one out in an hour or so for not to much money

[goatsgomoo]

I saw a RMP, but I didn't know they had a version with mecanum wheels. It would be interesting to know what algorithm they used to control the wheels.