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A wheel is a perfectly symmetrical and balanced circle of material. These properties make it necessary for force other than that of gravity to be applied to initiate it's movement. Theoretically, if a wheel was not perfectly symetrical, movement would be initiated by gravity alone.
Deformation Drive
works on the principle that by constantly deforming a wheel at a precise point during its rotation will result in forward momentum.
The mechanism that is proposed based on this principle is a hub containing a well oiled gear driven ellipses or eccentric axle, upon which are pressed the spokes of the wheel. As the ellipses is turned the spokes reciprocate causing a deformation in the wheel in the very shape of the ellipses.
As the wheel constantly collapses and reforms under the weight of the wheel (and the vehicle) the wheel is driven forward. The question remaining is whether there would be a point in the rotation of the ellipses in which the forces against it would be prohibitive of further movement.
As the spokes reciprocate they provide the greatest resistance on the ellipses. At any one time would only one spoke be exerting a significant amount of force; the weight bearing spoke. It is proposed that this spoke would offer neutral forces as it would act equally against turning the wheel as it would in continuing it's rotation.
Crawling and Jumping Soft Robots
http://www.ritsumei...ch/softrobot-e.html
look at this website, and watch some of the videos [BJS, Sep 12 2007]
"Robotic wheels that just keep rolling"
http://www.newscien...article/dn6095.html
[BJS, Sep 12 2007]
Robot with square wheels
http://images.googl...%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
[BJS, Sep 12 2007]
Global Composites Website
http://www.globalcomposites.net/
There's a section called "Reinventing the Wheel". [BJS, Sep 12 2007]
[link]
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So... perpetual motion? I quote the Help-file MFD section (with caps added by me for emphasis): |
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//bad science - the invention is intended as a serious suggestion, but is based on scientific "facts" that are widely known to be wrong. This includes PERPETUUM MOBILES, cloned fingerprints, and inhaling helium to make you fly. Or as Homer Simpson puts it, "In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!" // |
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I've seen lots of experiments with this type of propulsion system on the internet, but most of them used 'electric muscles' instead of a cam-like mechanism. I'll try to find a link. |
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I suppose that, as long as you admit the need to keep feeding new energy to the spokes, it's not a perpetuum mobile - it's just a way of turning a wheel which doesn't rely on the axle. |
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This is not meant as a perpetual motion device. It is cleary stated that it is gear driven. Deforming wheels exist elsewhere, this is my halfbaked attempt at one mechanism. A hub that causes the spokes to reciprocate, malforming the wheel. |
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Oh... sorry, I over-looked the "gear driven" part. I was afraid I might have missed something. Apologies :D |
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if you want to create a virtual version of what your looking. there's this site called sodaplay.com that has many virtual wheels that appear to be like what your talking about. unfortunately there moving there site so there might not be everything on there right now. |
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This is called amoeboid movement. Lots of single celled organisms and even human macrophages use it, though. In lieu of metal spokes, they use tubules made by attaching monomers in the front, and collecting them from the back. IT's a pretty sharp system. |
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[BrauBeaton], it used square wheels, and then he made one with elliptical wheels. |
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Since this is "gear driven," I don't see a problem, as I assume you have mules or something. |
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Yes, many a mule have I. Mules aplenty. |
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This sounds like what you'd use to cruise down Desolation Avenue. |
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[jutta] No, Deformation Drive runs parallel to Desolation Avenue. You can get to it by cutting through Desperation Way. |
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You just might want to stay out of that part of town altogether. |
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I'm not sure I understand, it seems you want to move/deform the bit of the wheel immediately in front of the bit touching the road to make it roll down hill. This would not seem very effective, because, eventually, you would be rolling on the hub. What if you deformed the wheel such that the portion behind the hub was drawn in and the portion in from of the hub was pushed out? That way, gravity provides torque to the axle. You need some motive force as you describe to deform the wheel, but it does seem more sustainable. For braking/reversing, you could reverse the process. I don't expect acceleration would be great, but it would be steady. |
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