'Morphing' wheel from South Korea may transform lives - and robots

DAEJEON, South Korea — 

Imagine a wheelchair equipped with wheels flexible capable to navigate each mode of obstacles from curbs to humps and adjacent staircases.

Or possibly an unmanned transportation conveyance utilizing the aforesaid wheels that takes the stairs to present nutrient and groceries close to your door.

This is what researchers from the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) envision for their "morphing" wheel, which tin rotation implicit obstacles up to 1.3 times the tallness of its radius.

Inspired by the aboveground hostility of h2o droplets, it goes from coagulated to fluid erstwhile it encounters impediments.

Other imaginable applications see robots that spy connected the force successful the battlefield.

The KIMM squad besides hopes that morphing wheels volition yet beryllium utilized with two- and four-legged robots - presently constricted successful question ratio and susceptible to vibration - that tin transportation payloads that request unchangeable question successful concern settings.

"The extremity is to marque this viable for velocity up to 100 kph, oregon the velocity of an mean car," said Song Sung-hyuk, main researcher astatine KIMM.

Wheels developed for a akin intent specified arsenic nonpneumatic oregon airless tires person flexibility but are constricted successful their quality to flooded obstacles, said Song, who is simply a subordinate of KIMM's AI robotics probe team.

The morphing instrumentality consists of an outer hoop of a concatenation and a bid of spoke wires moving done the hub. The stiffness of the spokes - and hence the instrumentality - is automatically regulated by a sensor arsenic it reacts to the terrain.

Song's squad demonstrated to Reuters a prototype wheelchair mounted connected morphing wheels arsenic it climbed stairs with 18-cm steps with a life-size dummy sitting successful it. The squad has besides tested a instrumentality mounted with the instrumentality astatine speeds of up to 30 kph.

The morphing instrumentality was featured connected the screen of the diary Science Robotics successful August.