Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

Home | Dictionary | Timeline | New

Amazing Wheel Shapeshifting In Real Time

This KIMM (Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials) wheel is able to change its shape on the fly to adjust to harsh conditions. Inspired by the surface tension of water droplets, it goes from solid to fluid when it encounters impediments.

"The goal is to make this viable for speed up to 100 kph, or the speed of an average car," said Song Sung-hyuk, principal researcher at South Korea's KIMM.

Wheels developed for a similar purpose such as non-pneumatic or airless tires have flexibility but are limited in their ability to overcome obstacles, said Song, who is a member of KIMM's AI robotics research team.

The morphing wheel consists of an outer hoop of a chain and a series of spoke wires running through the hub. The stiffness of the spokes - and hence the wheel - is automatically regulated by a sensor as it reacts to the terrain.

(Via Reuters)

Long time Technovelgy readers recall the Tweel, a 2005 combination of wheel and tire that could offer a number of benefits to owners of wheeled vehicles.

(The Michelin Tweel)

I remember in particular the smartwheels from Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snowcrash:

Smartwheels use sonar, laser range finding and millimeter wave radar to identify mufflers and other debris. Each one consists of a hub with many tiny spokes. Each spoke telescopes into five sections. On the end is a squat foot, rubber tread on the bottom, swiveling on a ball joint. As the wheel rolls, the feet plant themselves one at a time, almost glomming into one continuous tire. If you surf over a bump, the spokes contract to roll over it. If you surf over a pothole, the rubber prongs probe its asphalt depths...

Unique wheels are a special interest of mine; see these gems culled from the past two decades:

  - Soft Robot Powered By Shape Memory Alloy Spokes
  - IMPASS Robot Has Snow Crash 'Smart Wheels'
  - Smart Wheels Are Artificially Intelligent
  - Segway's New RMP - Robotic Mobility Platform
  - Virtual Body-Swapping Tech
  - Dynamic Augmented Wheel System Eight-Part Wheel
  - IMPASS Robot 'Smart Wheel' Video
  - Is The OutRunner Robot Like Smartwheels?
  - Flexup Tire Design Good For Tumblebugs
  - Flying Car Concept By Kash Sirinanda
  - Vendetta 2023 All-Terrain Skateboard Could Use Neal Stephenson's Smartwheels

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 12/29/2024)

| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |

Would you like to contribute a story tip? It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add it here.

Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )

Related News Stories - (" Engineering ")

You Will Eat The Cookies Made From Plastic...
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...' - Rick Shelley, 1989.

ICE Buys Shock Gloves Like Batman's
What else is the Caped Crusader using?

When Colds Threaten You Can't Do This - Or Can You?
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.' - FL Wallace, 1955.

MAI-Voice-2 Microsoft Text-To-Speech
'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.' - Nat Schachner, 1937.

	Web TechNovelgy.com

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's

Current News

You Will Eat The Cookies Made From Plastic...
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'

It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned!
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'

Birds Learn To Sing Pictures ala Frank Herbert's Distrans
'We will fight in the time of fighting.'

ElectionSim: China's 'Ender's Game' Battle Sim, Or Lem's 'Kingdom In A Box'?
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'

Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'

Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'

Orb Nomad Zero-Emission Electric Aircraft
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'

ICE Buys Shock Gloves Like Batman's
What else is the Caped Crusader using?

Factories In The Sky Will Surpass Those Of Earth
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'

Sleeper Drones Lie in Wait
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'

Warfare Goes Underground In Ukraine
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'

Robot Bees 3D Printed By Festo
'At first I was struck by the large size of these bees..'

3D Printed Organs From Space
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'

DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'

How To Settle An Argument Between Two Robots
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'

The Wind Phone Calls Those Who Have Passed On
'Only I heard that!'

More SF in the News Stories

More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories