https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAiwLRGsNrE
Found this video. why aren’t we using these more often in the real world?
Witchcraft!
I actually live just a few miles away from one of the worlds largest electronics distributors (Digi-Key). I worked there throughout college. They have one of those forklifts. Very handy for being able to move pallets around in tight rows of shelving.
Although Mechanum wheels show promise I doubt they would become an industry standard for a couple of reasons.
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They seem to lack speed. They makeup for it in mobility.
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If they were to become an industry standard big companies would need to teach a whole new audience how and why you would need to use these special wheels.
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They aren’t appealing to the wide audience. People enjoy the look of traditional tires. Mechanum wheels have an industrial / future look to them.
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Mechanum wheels would cost more to replace and produce in large quantities and all cars would need to be made to work with these wheels. Also drivers again would need to learn how to use these wheels.
So in result I basically over analyzed this whole situation and in my final opinion I believe mechanum wheels would be bada** on a car.
Mecanum wheels in the industry faces several barriers including: complexity, cost, maintenance hassle, and etc.
Traditional vehicles only require four identical tires, where as mecanums require two sets (two left and two right) for one vehicle. Also as mentioned already, cost of mecanum wheels are much higher than traditional tires that have the same diameter.
In terms of complexity and maintenance hassle, mecanum vehicles have at least four independent power source turning the wheels in order to achieve the three DOF that the traditional vehicles don’t have, but they only have one main power source powering the wheels with a secondary and much smaller one to steer.
Another smaller note is that mecanum vehicles require a more balanced weight distribution for the overall vehicle which is a huge issue since when produced and integrated on a forklift, there will definitely be more weight to one set of wheels and software or driver compensation is required to strafe perfectly sideways.
This list above is by no mean exhaustive, but it does inhibit mecanum’s entry to the industry. Perhaps with enough upfront funding all the obstacles will disappear in the near future.
Actually this is not new. This is the original use of the design.
I agree with a lot of the comments above. But just wanted to point out that extra cost and complexity is not a problem if the use of the forklift saves enough time to make up for that cost.
You don’t have to pay your forklift health insurance and a 401k. So if a more expensive forklift gets the job done faster (less human hours) it can be worth the additional cost.
Hook that forklift up to a cortex, I’ll make that thing to the job by itself 
The only thing we need now is one of those forklifts and then we can make it carry our robots and junk around worlds. :p:cool:
It’s sad how imagination is limited by money sigh
So true so true.
It’s not just the money that would limit the use of this. It’s good for small things like in the video, but in large scale warehouses automation is usually the best solution. No matter how fancy of a forklift you have, there’s still a person having to sit on it an drive around.
These automated pallet racking robots are really cool and super efficient, and they’re becoming more common.
Edit: Here is a better video with tons of automation, and robotic forklifts too. I love this sort of stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HWppMe06WQ
And while I’m at it, I might as well add Kiva Systems for those that haven’t seen it yet:
[High-Speed Robots Part 1: Meet BettyBot in "Human Exclusion Zone" Warehouses-The Window-WIRED - YouTube
I saw a video a while ago of an automated transport system with mecanum wheels for use in warehouse to get pallets to different locations, but I can’t find the video again. I think it might have been from SSI Schaefer.](High-Speed Robots Part 1: Meet BettyBot in "Human Exclusion Zone" Warehouses-The Window-WIRED - YouTube)
Umm…wow…just wow.
“They took our jobs!” (South Park Anyone?)
When I worked at Digi-Key quite a few years back they were testing a whole fleet of these Kiva’s. They were fun as heck to watch. They would work work work until their little battery went low and they would hop on the charger all by themselves. Was entertaining to watch. They were like little people.
In the end Digi-Key decided they were not efficient enough, or worth the investement apparently. Not a single Kiva there today.
If you could make a self-aware, taskable forklift AI on a 90 MIPS microcontroller you would win several Nobel Peace Prizes.
Not the least of which would be for the quantum bridge required to fetch the CPU power out of thin air.
ok, that is a better way to word it.
Again, limitation of money. hmm, wonder if the new nvidia X1 would do the job…
Try limitations of physics…
maybe I could bribe physics? with enough money 
True… but it is cool enough that will still be in use by Stardate 2258.
But look what you get when you flip a whole bunch of mecanums upside down.
https://vexforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=8916&stc=1&d=1421206839
Jason
illumaniti confirmed
Let’s try not to get this thread moved into the “chit-chat” forum. 