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Mecanum wheels are great when used in the appropriate setting. Which is: indoors, where there are only very small disturbances in the floor. And even then you m

Mecanum wheels are great when used in the appropriate setting. Which is: indoors, where there are only very small disturbances in the floor. And even then you might want a very little bit of suspension like on the robot on the left here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/techunited/27997314227/in/album-72157694903080452 https://www.flickr.com/photos/techunited/27997314227/in/albu... that I used in RoboCup@Home This robot drove so smooth it could sneak up on you (in a relatively noisy hall, fair enough) The math to control them well might be an interesting task for a student perhaps.

heja2009 2y ago
AND no dust, grime, etc. These tiny wheels get dirty and clog up pretty fast in human environments and then stop to work and need a good cleaning. Nice for demos but unsuitable for even normal research lab work. I hate them.
- Tepix 2y ago
  There are mecanum wheels even for pretty big forklifts used in not very clean environments …
  - ragebol 2y ago
    Bigger mecanum wheels. What matters is the size of the rollers wrt the size of the obstacles they face.
    - Tepix 2y ago
      The OP made it sound as if all mecanum wheels had this issue.
      - SR2Z 2y ago
        A forklift also is meant to weigh quite a lot. The weight penalty is unimportant here.
- unwind 2y ago
  Uh, I've never worked with them, but the linked Wikipedia article states that the US Navy did early development in order to create equipment to move things aboard aircraft carriers. I've never been to one of those, either, but it sure seems like an environment that might be a bit more challenging than a robotics lab. Plus there's an image of a container-slinging machine being used at airports. So I guess my point is that I'm sorry you were burned by them, but they do seem to be usable in the real world, too. Also: had forgotten the inventor was kinda Swedish, yay! :) Edit: I made it sound like the container-machine used Mecanum wheels on the tarmac which of course is not the case.
  - ainiriand 2y ago
    Parent comment I believe refers to using the wheels as a means of horizontal displacement, not to move items on top of them. They pick up dirt from the floor that is hard to remove.
- ragebol 2y ago
  They suck for carpet as well, which you'll find in a home environtment. The diagonal motion chews carpet with short strands up over time. If you have long strands in a carpet, you'll lock up in those pretty fast I suppose, though I never tried it. I tested the robots in the picture I linked, once in a 'help a human' emergency scenario test: the 'host' dropped on the floor. With her long hair spread around. We E-stopped the robot because it drove close to that hair and we didn't want to risk it getting in the rollers. That would have been very ugly.
Tepix 2y ago
> The math to control them well might be an interesting task for a student perhaps. There are various papers discussing this topic with four or also three mecanum wheels from the early 2000s (often related to robot soccer). Here's one picked at random: DOI: 10.1109/ICSMC.2006.385024

heja2009 2y ago

AND no dust, grime, etc. These tiny wheels get dirty and clog up pretty fast in human environments and then stop to work and need a good cleaning. Nice for demos but unsuitable for even normal research lab work. I hate them.

Tepix 2y ago
There are mecanum wheels even for pretty big forklifts used in not very clean environments …
- ragebol 2y ago
  Bigger mecanum wheels. What matters is the size of the rollers wrt the size of the obstacles they face.
  - Tepix 2y ago
    The OP made it sound as if all mecanum wheels had this issue.
    - SR2Z 2y ago
      A forklift also is meant to weigh quite a lot. The weight penalty is unimportant here.
unwind 2y ago
Uh, I've never worked with them, but the linked Wikipedia article states that the US Navy did early development in order to create equipment to move things aboard aircraft carriers. I've never been to one of those, either, but it sure seems like an environment that might be a bit more challenging than a robotics lab. Plus there's an image of a container-slinging machine being used at airports. So I guess my point is that I'm sorry you were burned by them, but they do seem to be usable in the real world, too. Also: had forgotten the inventor was kinda Swedish, yay! :) Edit: I made it sound like the container-machine used Mecanum wheels on the tarmac which of course is not the case.
- ainiriand 2y ago
  Parent comment I believe refers to using the wheels as a means of horizontal displacement, not to move items on top of them. They pick up dirt from the floor that is hard to remove.
ragebol 2y ago
They suck for carpet as well, which you'll find in a home environtment. The diagonal motion chews carpet with short strands up over time. If you have long strands in a carpet, you'll lock up in those pretty fast I suppose, though I never tried it. I tested the robots in the picture I linked, once in a 'help a human' emergency scenario test: the 'host' dropped on the floor. With her long hair spread around. We E-stopped the robot because it drove close to that hair and we didn't want to risk it getting in the rollers. That would have been very ugly.

Tepix 2y ago

> The math to control them well might be an interesting task for a student perhaps. There are various papers discussing this topic with four or also three mecanum wheels from the early 2000s (often related to robot soccer). Here's one picked at random: DOI: 10.1109/ICSMC.2006.385024