So, Segway's selling some new robot platform, which I'm sure will get press far beyond its merit, but who cares about that. The interesting part is the crazy wheels it uses: I hadn't heard of Mecanum wheels before, but they are nifty. This video of an electric wheelchair shows how it works pretty clearly: if all four wheels are turning in the same direction, it does the obvious thing. But if the wheels on one side are turning toward each other, and the wheels on the other side are turning away from each other, it moves sideways! The controller is neat, too: it looks to be a joystick that rotates. Mecanum
So, Segway's selling some new robot platform, which I'm sure will get press far beyond its merit, but who cares about that. The interesting part is the crazy wheels it uses: I hadn't heard of Mecanum wheels before, but they are nifty. This video of an electric wheelchair shows how it works pretty clearly: if all four wheels are turning in the same direction, it does the obvious thing. But if the wheels on one side are turning toward each other, and the wheels on the other side are turning away from each other, it moves sideways! The controller is neat, too: it looks to be a joystick that rotates.
Tags: firstperson, mpegs, robots
Current Music: Sneaker Pimps -- Roll On ♬
18 Responses:
I want those wheels on my car.
No... wait, screw that, I want them on my motorcycle!
No... wait, screw that, I want them on my motorcycle!
The image of that reminds me of the motorcycle Hiro Protagonist uses in Snowcrash.
Egan
You took that long to get the image of Hiro's motorbike? That was the first thing I thought of...
OH MY GOD WHO CARES!
Don't you people have any idea how boring the "hey! there was something like this in an absurdly popular novel and/or blockbuster anime!" response is?
Wow, your outburst really reminded me of Spider from Transmet.
Nah. His wheels could account for dips and bumps and debris, but couldn't go sideways--which is good, because motorcycle mechanics pretty much depend on Wheels Rolling Forward And Not Sideways. :)
It might be difficult to counterbalance a sudden sideways motion on a motorcycle, yes?
Segway: making medical supplies look cool since pretty much never.
The Airtrax fork-lift has Mecanum wheels too. http://www.airtrax.com/
More about omnidirectional wheels: http://robocup.mi.fu-berlin.de/buch/shortomni.pdf
Didn't know about the forklifts--that's a pretty awesome application.
Here's my favorite YouTube video of the AirTrax forklift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPmC4KPvOfg
It is a good thing, about that AirTrax forklift, that the operator cannot see the wheels. Because watching those wheels switch directions arbitrarily would make me become dizzy and lie down.
Pretty sure Masamune Shirow was drawing these on some of his mecha in GiTS or Dominion... but that's easy for him since he lives in one of our dystopic futures.
nifty indeed. saw them on a robot-wheel-chair-prototype at my old university last year.
but when it comes to dog poo infested streets, not a very practical design, i suppose.
also the rolls seem to me to seize up pretty quick when there's dirt and gravel etc. around,
don't you think?
Okay, so I'm guessing that this isn't durable and light enough for a car, but maybe have retractable onces that come down, just for parallel parking?
Otherwise, I'm going to need to have a major accident and lose my legs, so I can get these implanted instead. I'll wait a few decades on that.
The controller looks similar to the ones 3Dconnexion make; they're useful for CAD, and surprisingly cheap.
HA! This means in the future, we may have tanks that can circle strafe.
If you swap the front and back wheels on one side, you can push it in circles.