httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-j9TReI1aQ
It should come as no surprise that I’m a huge fan of Mythbusters. I like their “failure is always an option” maxim, meaning if you have an idea you should try it out, what’s the worst that can happen?
While watching the program one day, I noticed something weird about their forklift — it moved sideways. It didn’t just turn on a dime, but actually moved perpendicular to the direction of the wheels. Upon closer inspection, they looked more like worm gears than wheels. The answer was just a Google away: The Mythbusters’ forklift is equipped with Mecanum Wheels, also known as Omni Wheels or Ilon Wheels. These wheels work by rotating independently, depending on the desired direction of travel.
I had an idea that this might make for an interesting motion graphic (above), since still images really don’t do this technology justice. So I tried it out (what’s the worst that can happen?)
Perfect timing! I’m currently studying this in a robotics course and I have an exam for it on Monday :). Great illustration of it, cheers!
They’re also called Swedish wheels. The faster they go, the more they want to move in direction that the rollers are oriented in (45 degree wheels in the video above are common, but you can even have 90 degree ones). So by varying the speeds of each wheels, you can move in different directions.
The commercial forklifts using mecanum wheels are called AirTrax:
http://www.airtrax.com/
These wheels are frequently used on robots due to their non-holonomic nature (ie. they can move sideways):
http://www.hizook.com/blog/2009/08/20/omnirob-kuka-robotics-foray-omnidirectional-mobile-manipulation-platforms
http://www.hizook.com/blog/2010/03/15/cody-new-humanoid-mobile-manipulating-robot-georgia-techs-healthcare-robotics-lab
This is a wonderful execution of a really interesting subject.
Am I correct in assuming you built this in a 3D software package and output it as line art sans color? Can ask what software you used to create this?
Thanks for the work on Technical Illustrators.org. It’s a great resource.
That’s actually the Prototype This forklift. They gave it to Mythbusters when they finished. Check out the Traffic Busting Truck episode where they put those wheels on a truck so it could go in any direction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af-gR-cKKEM
@Chris, that’s right. I used a toon shader (or non-photorealistic renderer) to output the lineart, then After Effects to composite.
@Jesse Awesome link, thanks!
this is a really neat video. looks great!
the song is real catchy too. who is the musician?
Wow! Blows my mind. Great job illustrating it, though i still cant wrap my mind around teh mechanics of it.