Mecanum Wheeled Rover 5

I added a set of Vex Mecanum wheels to a Dagu Rover 5 platform.

Duane Degn

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Description

After seeing Mecanum wheels in action, I wanted to give them a try. I initially tried Fingertech Mecanum wheels but soon switch to Vex wheels.
A Parallax Propeller QuickStart board reads the four sets of quadrature encoders and the signals from the RC receiver. Using these inputs the Propeller microcontroller computes the power levels to send to the four motors.
I usually use as more of a RC toy than a real "robot" since it's not often autonomous. I have had to drive several figure 8's while autonomous.

Details

Here's a video of the robot in action. Sorry about talking so much before I start demonstrating the robot. The robot doesn't start moving until near the 2:00 mark.

Components

1 × Set of four Vex Mecanum wheels http://www.vexrobotics.com/vex/products/accessories/motion/276-1447.html
1 × Four motor, four quadrature encoder version of Dagu's Rover 5 https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10336
1 × Propeller QuickStart http://www.parallax.com/product/40000
2 × L298N H-bridge with PCB and snubber diodes (don't pay more than $3 for one) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-H-Bridge-DC-Stepper-Motor-Drive-Controller-Board-Module-Arduino-L298N-HG-/281551893660?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item418dccf49c

Discussions

Duane Degn wrote 01/27/2015 at 20:35

This is a "Featured Project" on Hackaday.

Cool!

Are you sure? yes | no

markcra wrote 01/23/2015 at 09:21

I 3d printed a set of mecanum wheels for my rover 5, how do you find the Vex wheels? What surfaces do they work on? What issues did you have with the Fingertech mecanum wheels?

Shout out to a fellow LMR!

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Duane Degn wrote 01/23/2015 at 17:20

I ordered the wheels directly from Vex.

http://www.vexrobotics.com/vex/products/accessories/motion/276-1447.html

The Fingertech wheels didn't spin freely on their own. Apparently they work better if properly lubricated. The Fingertech wheels I used were the older version. I haven't tried the latest version sold by SparkFun.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11578

The Vex wheels work on any surface (within reason) without issue. IMO, the Vex wheels are great.

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PointyOintment wrote 01/23/2015 at 09:15

What do you mean it's not *often* autonomous?

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Duane Degn wrote 01/23/2015 at 17:31

I usually control the "robot" remotely. At these times it's not "autonomous".

So far the only autonomous behaviour the robot exhibits is to drive in a figure 8. Here's a link to an autonomous figure 8 with the robot driving with the front of the robot always facing the direction of travel.

The next video shows the robot performing an autonomous figure 8 without changing its heading.

I haven't added sensors to the robot which would allow it to avoid obstacles. I'm not sure I will put much effort into converting this robot to an autonomous robot since it's so fun to drive remotely.

I do have other robots in the works which I plan to make autonous.

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