[MOC] Powerful Omni-wheel ... Thing

[astyanax]

I made an ugly piece of nonsense. It's not even original. I vaguely remember seeing videos of similar creations.

I just threw this together this afternoon from pieces I had left over, after already having assembled a few prettier creations from others. These leftovers included the planetary hubs (from set 42099), a handful of small wheels, and 4 PF XL motors. This gave me the idea of creating a powerful omni-wheel thing. The powertrain goes: PF XL motor -> knob gear -> planetary hub. Indeed, it has torque to spare!

 

 

I have a virtual model, which I'll probably put on Rebrickable within the next few days.

Here some screenshots showing the construction of the wheels, relying on 4x part 44374 per wheel. I'd challenge you to make simpler omni-wheels.

 

Edit:
Credit where credit is due: I just rediscovered this creation which must surely have influenced me subconsciously!

Edited April 6, 2020 by astyanax

[JGW3000]

This is almost just nuts - looks like it goes where it wants, as there is no controller. A clever quick build, thanks for sharing!

[astyanax]

9 minutes ago, JGW3000 said:

This is almost just nuts - looks like it goes where it wants, as there is no controller. A clever quick build, thanks for sharing!

Indeed, it's very hard to coordinate 4 motors manually. First I tried the CaDa controller (you can see its battery in the first photo) but that was really tough. Maybe an accordion player would manage. 

Then I used BuWizz with the BrickController2 app and a gamepad, which is the setup you see in the video. I set up the joystick on the gamepad to move the vehicle in precisely that direction, which works great, until the vehicle is rotated (which is necessary for overcoming obstacles), then it becomes really confusing again. But at least it has so much torque that it keeps going no matter what you do!