Mecanum Wheeled Platforms for Special Applications

This paper presents a literature review and perspectives regarding the utilization of Mecanum wheels as running systems for platforms and robots designed for diverse special applications. A mobile platform equipped with four or more Mecanum wheels has the capability of moving with fast reactions in any direction without needing a special steering system having so the property of being omnidirectional. Therefore, one of the greatest advantages of such vehicles is to be highly maneuverable which makes them suitable fortight environments such as industrial plants or warehouses where they are usually implemented as autonomous guided vehicles. However, the utilization of Mecanum wheels as part of running systems for different types of platforms is and will be more and more applicable for special applications in domains such as military, medical, civil engineering, or even space exploration. This paper aims to highlight the applicability of Mecanum wheels in special domains based on the advantages and disadvantages of such running systems.