Near future
No Result
View All Result
May 31, 2023
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Energy
  • Inland solutions
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • H+
Understand, anticipate, improve the future.
CES2023 / Coronavirus / Russia-Ukraine
Near future
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Energy
  • Inland solutions
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • H+

Understand, anticipate, improve the future.

No Result
View All Result
concepts, Technology

The new shape-shifting wheels can really go anywhere

The shape-changing wheel developed by a Korean team has the structure and dynamics of an origami: it will be the future of space missions.

April 9 2021
Gianluca RiccioGianluca Riccio
⚪ 2 minutes
Share53Pin13Tweet33SendShare9ShareShare7
Shapeshifter wheel

READ THIS IN:

Long ago the human race invented the wheel. A shame not to be there to tell about that new technology, I admit I broke the news. Since then he has seen many, and is still very useful, even on Mars (in the Perseverance rover). It sounds like a very difficult invention to modify, but that hasn't stopped researchers from designing a new tire. A shapeshifter, a sort of origami capable of altering its structure.

The project has just been published in the magazine Science Robotics, and it is a "birth" of Seoul National University, Harvard University e Hankook Tire and Technology Co.

Shapeshifter wheel
The diagram taken from the study on the shape-changing wheel

A shape-changing wheel: the next evolution?

The new tire can go from a thinner and more conventional shape to a thicker and chunky structure. This shape-shifting design allows the wheels to deliver significant benefits that 'classic wheel' structures cannot match.

Despite its bulky name, "High Load Capacity Transformable Origami Wheel", the new design uses the very principle of origami. To be precise: a tessellation origami. It is not exactly a new invention, but the previous models were not able to support the “transformation” loads in different forms. And therefore they were of little use. Not this one: this one holds up.

The article continues after the related links

i-Flex, now airless wheels offer "excellent shock absorption"

2024, airless tires finally coming. Do we need them? Do they work?

Substantial differences

The new shape-shifting wheel can support more than 1.019 kg (2.248 lbs), even as it changes shape. The origami design uses flexible membranes that fold outwards. It has a flexibility that allows it to absorb shocks and distortions even from uneven ground.

With a "thin" shape it moves on obstacle terrain. With a more massive shape it runs smoothly even on sand. It may not be on the next luxury sedan, but the shape-shifting wheel has possible applications for rovers for upcoming space missions.

The shape-shifting wheel will take away from engineers the need to design different wheels for each mission, trying to imagine the terrain. A difficult thing, hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

Tags: tyreswheels


GPT Chat Megaeasy!

Concrete guide for those approaching this artificial intelligence tool, also designed for the school world: many examples of applications, usage indications and ready-to-use instructions for training and interrogating Chat GPT.

To submit articles, disclose the results of a research or scientific discoveries write to the editorial staff

Most read of the week

  • Oculus gives VR visit to the Anne Frank house

    265 Shares
    Share 106 Tweet 66
  • 16k screens are popping up, but we may never see them

    4 Shares
    Share 1 Tweet 1
  • Here comes a new magnetic field reversal. We are ready?

    4 Shares
    Share 1 Tweet 1
  • Goodbye camera: here is the electronic eye that "sees" like us

    9 Shares
    Share 1 Tweet 1
  • Even the giants "miss": 5 prophecies about the future that are blatantly wrong

    4 Shares
    Share 1 Tweet 1

Enter the Telegram channel of Futuroprossimo, click here. Or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Mastodon e LinkedIn.

The daily tomorrow.


Futuroprossimo.it provides news on the future of technology, science and innovation: if there is something that is about to arrive, here it has already arrived. FuturoProssimo is part of the network ForwardTo, studies and skills for future scenarios.

FacebookTwitterInstagramTelegramLinkedInMastodonPinterestTikTok
  • Environment
  • Architecture
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Gadgets
  • concepts
  • Design
  • Medicine
  • Spazio
  • Robotica
  • Work
  • Inland solutions
  • Energy
  • Edition Francaise
  • Deutsche Ausgabe
  • Japanese version
  • English Edition
  • Portuguese Edition
  • Русское издание
  • Spanish edition

Subscribe to our newsletter

  • The Editor
  • Advertising on FP
  • Privacy Policy

© 2022 Near future - Creative Commons License
This work is distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.

No Result
View All Result
Understand, anticipate, improve the future.
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Energy
  • Inland solutions
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • H+