3 Wheel Multidirectional Robot Drivetrain Concept

Omnidirectional movement is preferred in the world of robotics, and is sought after in robotics competitions such as Vex V5 and FIRST Robotics FRC. These omnidirectional drivetrains provide the user with movement in the forward, backward, left (strafe), right (strafe), left (yaw), and right (yaw) directions. Classic examples of these drivetrains include H-drives, X-drives, and mecanum-driven drivetrains.

These all use 4-5 wheels (classically omni-wheels and mecanum wheels) and 3-4 motors. The concept uses 3 wheels and 3 motors, drastically cutting down the weight, and number of motors needed for classic designs. The omni-wheels are oriented at 60 degrees to each other and using simple vector component math, driving each wheel at a specified speed results in omnidirectional movement. This concept was created for the 2023-2024 Vex V5 Over Under challenge.

This concept is open sourced on GitHub. For more details on specific workings of this concept, read the GitHub.