[Dprglist] Odometry on Mecanum-wheeled robots?

[Murray Altheim]

Hi everyone,

I've just been corresponding with Gareth over at 4Tronix and discussing
the firmware changes necessary to run a second Picon Zero motor controller,
which is not trivial but doable. Not that I need another project (!) but
I've been thinking about adding a second pair of motors and a controller
to my tiny KRZ01 robot and using Pimoroni's tiny Mecanum wheels that fit
onto the micro gear motors. It'd certainly be one of the smaller four-
wheeled Mecanum robots.

The big question is: does anyone bother to do odometry on a Mecanum-wheeled
robot? There's so much slippage it seems I could get away with not using
encoders on the motors, which would simplify at least one part of the
programming. I did remember seeing the video somebody in the group showed
recently where his robot was navigating the kitchen floor (Carl or Doug?)
and coming back to the same location after a complicated maneuver. Which
I *think* requires odometry...

Any advice welcome.

Cheers,

Murray

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim <murray18 at altheim dot com>                       = =  ===
http://www.altheim.com/murray/                                     ===  ===
                                                                    = =  ===
     In the evening
     The rice leaves in the garden
     Rustle in the autumn wind
     That blows through my reed hut.
            -- Minamoto no Tsunenobu