The US Navy bought the patent from Ilon and put researchers to work on it in the 1980s in Panama City, Florida.
In 1997, Airtrax Incorporated and several other companies each paid the US Navy $2,500 for rights to the technology, including old drawings of how the motors and controllers worked, to build an omnidirectional forklift truck that could maneuver in tight spaces such as the deck of an aircraft carrier.
However, these vehicles typically drag across the ground while turning and may do considerable damage to a soft or fragile surface.
By comparison, the design of the Mecanum wheel allows for in-place rotation with minimal ground friction and low torque.
[6] CMU's "Tessellator" robot,[7] designed in 1992 for servicing Space Shuttle tiles, also used Mecanum wheels.