What is a kiwi drive?

     Kiwi drive is a holonomic drive.
     A holonomic drive can instantaneously move in any direction. It does not need to do any complex motions to achieve a particular heading. This type of robot would have 2 degrees of freedom in that it can move in both the X and Y plane freely. Simply put it is omni directional. A holonomic drive is useful for situations requiring higher mobility and lower traction than a standard drive system. Using driver oriented control, joystick mixing, and drive mixing, it requires much less thought to adjusting for various conditions on the part of the driver.




Non-holonomic drive can not instantaneously move in any direction. An example of a non-holonomic drive would be a car. Usually a non-holonomic drive uses Ackerman steering; again, such as a car.



Typically a holonomic drive uses 3 or 4 omni wheels. Omniwheels are wheels that can move in any direction, at any angle, without rotating beforehand.

A 3 wheel configuration would be a kiwi drive. A kiwi drive is 3 omni wheels each separated by 120 degrees each. Typically a kiwi drive is in a triangular configuration. All 3 omni wheels are independently driven.



Sources:
Society of Robots
BEAM Wiki

Building a kiwi drive robot - Arduino + bluetooth

Well I set out to build my first robot a while back. I decided on a Kiwi drive.

An example of a holonomic robot would be one that is equipped with three independently driven Mecanum wheels or omni-wheels, mounted in a triangular configuration. This is generally called a Kiwi Drive. A robot that utilizes Kiwi Drive can simultaneously execute controlled motion through both the X and Y axes, and rotational movement.

From: beam-wiki

For a few weeks now I've been cading out a base for this robot. It will have a 6-8inch diameter.

Here are some of the versions of the bases I went through:

v1 base:


v2 base:


v3 base:


v4 base:


v1 top:



So far this is all I can do. These were made in AutoDesk Inventor, this project will ultimately allow me to learn more about Arudino, C#, motors, h-bridges, and many other things. It will be controlled in the end using my android phone, via a bluetooth module. It will stay as an idea until I can get some money (motors are expensive you know).

The motors I'm looking at right now are:
FingerTechRobotics

The motor mounts I'm looking at are these:
BaneBots




I'll keep this blog updated with my progress.
If you want some background here is a link to my progress up to now:
ChiefDelphi Forums