The idea was born during the work on the EU project AVERT. The Mockup should show the motion of a 8 wheeled drive system with mecanum wheels. Thus it should approve the kinematic model for the later product. The control was directly out of a Matlab-Script where the kinematics could be changed or tuned instantly. All motors on the robot have been configured as slaves – awaiting commands out of Matlab.
The first HDrive used WiFi to communicate. Today this still can be achieved by connecting the HDrive to a Wifi router.