Is Omni Wheel Drive in VexIQ Worth it?

VEX IQ General Discussion General Discussion
#1

Hello,
Our team has a tank tread Drive chain system, we are going to worlds and one of our team members wanted to change our drive chain to a holographic Omni Wheel system. Is it worth it?

Thanks In advance!
IQ Team 44785A

#2

It would be difficult to build a holonomic (4 motor drive with each wheel placed at 45 degree angles) drive in IQ but could be done and it would impress judges.

If you simply want the ability to strafe then you could do an H drive with four omni wheels front to back and a 5th omni that travels side to side (like the letter H).

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#3

a true holonomic H or X drive is not worth it using 4 omni wheels with 2 drive motors is definitle worth it. omni wheels give better turning and less friction.

#4

Full omnis make auton much harder. I’d run rubber tires on the front 2 and omni on back 2. Last team I saw that did this scored #6 in world skills rankings for auton with NO gyros/sensors.

#5

We use full omniwheels and managed to make a consistent 106 point autonomous by using pid with gyro and yeah i think that a four omni wheel drivetrain with two motors is good and worth it

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#6

Our teams use a 2-motor, 6 wheel system. Front is omnis that are free-spinning/not connected to a motor. Middle wheels are traction wheels, back are omnis. Middle and back are tied together using gears (48 tooth on motor, 24 tooth at wheel for a 1:2 ratio). This gives us good traction and turning, and the turning is effectively from the center of the robot. There were none of the four teams this year that wanted to integrate an H-drive configuration.

This 6-wheel configuration has allowed for some very consistent driving, and is fairly flexible with drivebase length.

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#7

MANY teams put traction on the rear… so the bot tries to turn from the back… makes turns slow and very wide. Usually not a good idea.

#8

If you have a fast, lightweight robot, totally go for it. Otherwise, it just makes everything slightly worse and more complicated to drive. I have found in past experience that H drives are complicated and break down a lot, so I would go with the basic 2 or 4 motor drivetrain if you want to use omni wheels.

#9

Is this vrc or Iq. In iq case, why are you using tank tread in first place.

1 Like
#10

This is in IQ
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