Angled roller mecanum wheel design that exhibits speed reduction

Abstract

This thesis presents the testing of speed reduction exhibited by custom angle mecanum wheels. A simple trigonometric model is put forth for the speed reduction, along with the kinematic analysis and simulation of a 3-wheeled-vehicle. Then a 150 mecanum wheel is designed and built, along with a testing fixture allowing it to freely move in the direction the roller pushes towards. This fixture also allowed the collection of the encoder data from the motor and the linear distance the wheel travels. Based on that, the detected speed reduction ratio was 4.9:1, as opposed to the modeled ratio of 3.9:1. This discrepancy is likely cause by the absence of slippage in our model, the jiggle in the wheel's motion, the compliancy of the surface it rotates on, as well as the uncertainty from the linear distance measurement.