Quote:
Originally Posted by sanddrag
I want to know what extends and retracts these wheels. Anyone have some insight on how this works? It almost looks like there's a rope/string of some sort inside.
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I too spent a lot of time looking at the video to try and figure it out. I was hoping I could find a conference or journal paper with more details (since these are university researchers), but I haven't found one yet.
So I can only guess at what approach they took. I could imagine a coaxial shaft inside the drive shaft that moves inward and outward linearly to extend and retract the "whegs" - this would seem to me to be the most FRC-friendly design. There are also possibilities that may involve electrical or pneumatic rotary connectors (slip rings).
A lot of approaches used to achieve
variable valve timing in internal combustion engines would seem to be appropriate here.