Hi everyone.
Hope this gains some interest because to me it seems like a natural.
The mecanum wheels allow both front, back and lateral movement much like the multicoptef on the ground (as in the video below)
This functionality seems a much more natural fit for the current codeset.
Rebuilding the code to work with the ardurover seems so painfully difficult wheras only a few minor mods should allow tha ardumecanum to ferforn quite well. Have a look at the video and please offer any feeback on the matter, just seems like a natural to me ( easy to say when you can't code worth s**t )
http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=pP8ajNMx84k#/watch?feature=related&v=pP8ajNMx84k
Thnx in advance
Replies
Did anything ever come from this? I am also looking for a flight controller with firmware to load for omnidirectional wheels on my rover. Any information would be greatly appreciated!
We've got a working Mecanum rover - it looks very similar to this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqA8yNeB0EQ
(AndyMark drive train with 6" mecanum wheels each driven by their own Castle Mamba Max Pro ESC)
I've got APM 2.6 onboard - and have loaded the latest Plane firmware (just to test the wheels while the rover is on the bench).
All the hardware works - now the fun part (software).
Do we have any example code for omniwheel, mecanum - or other omnidirectional wheels to work from?
The "sled" code for the rover won't cut it (but might be a place to start).
Independent of the implementation - the best user interface for a mecanum setup is not clear to me.
I don't like the different setups that I have tried on the bench.
A "dual joystick controller with buttons" is commercially used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAiwLRGsNrE
I was thinking of keeping our simple rover mapping:
(but adding output for the additional ESCs)
// Radio setup:
// APM INPUT (Rec = receiver)
// Rec ch1: Steering
// Rec ch2: not used
// Rec ch3: Throttle
// Rec ch4: not used
// Rec ch5: not used
// Rec ch6: not used
// Rec ch7: Option channel to 2 position switch
// Rec ch8: Mode channel to 6 position switch
// APM OUTPUT
// Ch1: to the left front motor ESC
// Ch2: to the right front motor ESC
// Ch3: to the left rear motor ESC
// Ch4: to the right rear motor ESC
I'd then map the wheel directions and speed accordingly, based on the steering and throttle.
Alternately, doing "pass through" - with every input channel mapping directly to a wheel/ESC.
If I do that, the Turnigy (or XBox) controller doesn't really work (some other more graceful interface method is needed).
Anyone else got a mecanum setup? I'd like to hear about how you chose to interface with your four omniwheels.
I'd especially like to hear from anyone who is using the Vex controller:
http://www.robotshop.com/en/4wd-meccanum-driven-omnidirectional-r-c...