Mobile industrial robots are gaining wide-spread use within manufacturing plants and industrial warehouses. Amazon Robotics, for example, produces mobile robots for use throughout its facilities, while companies such as Mobile Industrial Robots, based in Denmark, are redefining internal logistics across many industries.

What do all these robots have in common? Wheels!

Urethane Innovators has been working with various customers to produce custom urethane components for robotic applications, including mecanum wheels.

What is a mecanum wheel?

A tireless wheel, the mecanum wheel features external rollers obliquely attached to the wheel’s rim. Each wheel is an independent non-steering drive wheel with its own powertrain.

As you can see in the photo above, the mecanum wheel is comprised of two parts: the hub and the rollers. It’s the convex rollers, seen in the photo below, that UI makes for companies needing mecanum wheels for specialized robotic applications.

Be sure to view our Robots Wheels product page for other examples of wheels and rollers UI makes for automated and robotic applications.