Mecanum wheels are fascinating! Over the last few years, they have allowed robot builders to experiment with near universal directional control of wheeled robots allowing sideways and skewing motions you couldn’t get from conventional wheels. However, this often came at a price; Mecanum wheels have often been quite expensive to buy, and although some unique DIY designs exist they are quite complex to make from scratch. This Mecanum Wheeled Chassis Kit looks like a solid option if you want a tested system off-the-shelf. Therefore it’s great to see budget robot chassis kits start to be supplied with Mecanum wheels included.
The Mecanum wheels are 65mm in diameter and look fairly robust. The wheels are attached via 30mm hubs onto the 4 supplied TT-style geared motors. These motors accept a range of voltages between 3 and 6V and are geared at a 120:1 reduction ratio, which we expect makes them not the fastest but fairly high torque. The folded chassis is made from aluminum and looks rugged with a large collection of mount holes and slots. There’s an upper deck assembly to the chassis and all the bolts and standoffs are supplied to build it up as seen in the product pictures.
Obviously, no control system is supplied with the kit but it’s stated that the chassis and wheel setup can carry a payload up to 1500g. With this large weight capacity, it’s certainly possible to include a lot of battery and control systems and you could certainly build a long-running, capable, and highly maneuverable robot!
