The basic idea for an omnidirectional wheel is not very old but not all
that new, either. I think one of the NASA engineers from the Apollo program
invented something very similar in the 60s or 70s. Other people in my
research group (or, rather, the research group that I belong to :-) work on
the RoboCup competition and use omnidirectional wheels like these. We had a
presentation on their history and mechanics. Apparently the engineer
thought up the idea after reading a passage from the Book of Daniel, where
it talks about some kind of apparition involving an animal which could move
sideways without turning. I don't know the chapter and verse, but it
actually describes (in very little detail) something like what is in this
photo, IIRC! (I'm not claiming that the Bible tells you how to build an
omni wheel, just that you can see where the engineer got the idea from).

Sean

At 05:48 PM 5/22/02 -0400, you wrote:
>I couldn't see the video, but I saw the picture of the wheel
>http://www.airtrax.com/products/ATX/whatomni.htm
>
>which reminds me of a palm pilot robot with three wheels mounted equally
>spaced on a circle with their direction of rotation tangential to the
>circle ( imagine nailing three wheels into a disc at the edges of the
>disc - turns it into a lazy susan).  They used wheels that had rollers
>on them which would allow the wheel to slide along the ground sidways
>without moving forward or backward (unless, of course, the wheel itself
>was rolling forward or backward.)
>
>Neat stuff.  I doubt this one is rated for highway speeds, though  ;-)
>
>It's fun to think that people are still intent on improving the wheel...
>
>-Adam

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