Mitsubishi Omnidirectional Rally Concept Car

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

Actually if you have the memory metal then yes you would be able to keep the wheel on the road because then your leaf springs become an actuator. It's not really the hardest problem one could think of.

What memory metal spring can be actuated rapidly through large changes in stiffness, while supporting hundreds or even thousands of pounds and being subjected to unpredictable deformations and shock loadings? Can it be controlled to the degree necessary to keep the chassis stable and all of the holonomic wheels on the ground, even when conditions are highly variable (snow, sand, potholes, rocks, jumps, etc.)? From a materials point of view, that's far beyond the state of the art.

And where do you put the electrical system to drive such a thing? Typically, electricity is used to make either heat or magnetism, which drives the memory metal device. If it's resistance-heated, you can heat it easily (and maybe even quickly), but you'll have a hard time cooling it at the same rate. If it's magnetic, the coils needed to generate the necessary field strengths will be large and heavy, and will have to be positioned in awkward places (because the effect is localized to the regions of high field strength). Hysteresis is a huge problem with this idea, in either case.

This begs a question: is the controllability of the memory metal spring keeping the wheel on the ground, or is there some other active suspension component? Active suspensions currently depend on having very powerful electric or hydraulic actuators that can make quick, forceful and precise movements. So if there's some of that technology in there as well, then it would be a whole lot more practical.

Like I said, I don't think it's an engineered design study.

[MrForbes]

It definitely looks more like an artistic design study

But they do have 15 years to figure it out...you never know!

[pacoliketaco]

i looked through the rest of those pictures, they are all very impressive renders/drawings. i especially liked the car/boat/plane idea, even though it wouldn't be possible.

[AndyB]

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblogg...bishi_05_l.jpg

It appears as though their wheels are oriented incorrectly as well.

[MrForbes]

....as in, you can't drive sideways?

[Jeff 801]

Originally Posted by squirrel

....as in, you can't drive sideways?

Yes that is correct you would not go sideways unless they changed the orientation of the wheels