#HTE

Wheels That Permit 360-Degree Movement—Without Turning

Did you see Nissan’s self-organizing chair video? In one of the cutaways revealing the stripped chair base, the sharp-eyed among you may have spotted some rather funky-looking wheels:

Those are called Mecanum wheels, named for Swedish engineering firm Mecanum AB, where inventor Bengt Ilon developed them in 1973. Here’s a closer look at some Mecanum wheel designs:

What they all have in common is a series of tapered rollers angled at 45 degrees around their circumference. By placing these wheels with opposing angles on either side of a vehicle and allowing them to be controlled independently, a range of motion that defies a simple wheel is possible—and without having to install any steering mechanisms.

A company called Airtrax licensed the technology in the ‘90s, using it to create nimble forklifts:

I know you think that the Breakbeat music was simply added to the video, but in fact, Airtrax’s Mecanum wheels were fitted with hidden speakers and programmed to blare that exact song at all times. That’s probably why the company stopped producing them in the last decade: Drivers who were feverishly overcome with the urge to boogie outweighed any productivity gains.

Several years ago a Japanese company prototyped a wheelchair that ran on Mecanum wheels. Learning from Airtrax’s mistake, they declined to have the wheels’ internal speakers produce bass-heavy club music. Unfortunately, they opted for Smooth Jazz instead:

Despite hiring Kenny G. as a spokesperson, the Smooth Jazz soundtrack proved too cloying to customers and the design never took off.

For years, musically-challenged engineers have struggled to combine Mecanum wheels with the right type of soundtrack. Bluegrass, Death Metal and K-Pop were all attempted and discarded. It was only when Russian company Robotnik went back to Airtrax’s roots that they struck upon the correct music. They again chose Breakbeat–but this time they cleverly stripped out the bass:

Unfortunately, the Mecanum wheel community cannot leave well enough alone. This last group of developers started with no-bass Breakbeat…but then decided to combine it with Smooth Jazz:

Hopefully this will serve as a lesson for those of you in the transportation field: Kenny G. has no place in the world of alternate propulsion systems.