DARPA invents wheels that instantly turn into triangular caterpillars

DARPA, the Pentagon's wild wing of science, is revolutionizing the way ground vehicles move on rough terrain. His last breakthrough: round tires that turn into triangular tracks in two seconds, without the vehicle needing to stop.

The three things that matter most to tanks are firepower, protection and mobility. A combat vehicle must contain enough firepower to destroy enemies. He must have armor to take shots and keep moving. And he must have the mobility to maneuver against (and often around) opponents.

Tank weapons and armored vehicles have made significant gains over the last 30 years. Mobility, not so much. Ground combat vehicles always use the same track or wheel configuration, with the same advantages and disadvantages for each approach. The lanes are more useful for sand and rough terrain, while the wheels allow for rapid movement over road networks.

But what if you could have both?

DARPA's new Reconfigurable Wheel Track (RWT) program is a set of wheels that can turn into tracks on the fly. In the video above, a RWT-equipped Humvee moves wheels to moving tracks, allowing the vehicle to self-optimize quickly as the terrain changes. The round road wheel turns into a pyramid-shaped track that increases surface contact with the terrain, lowering vehicle ground pressure and giving it greater traction.

The Morphing Wheel System was developed by the National Robotics Engineering Center of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU NREC). RWT can turn tracks to the wheels and come back in two seconds. The Humvee event was held at Aberdeen Test Center, Maryland, in May 2018.

Vehicles equipped with RWT will be less constrained by the terrain and better maneuver against the opponents. Consider the following scenario: An American armored column flies on a highway in the desert, a narrow strip of asphalt among thousands of square kilometers of sand dunes. The column suddenly encounters an enemy force, straight ahead, defending the road. Rather than stay on the road and penetrate directly into the enemy's defenses, the column reconfigures itself in track without stopping, detaches itself from the road and escapes into the desert. The next thing the enemy knows, he is hit by a surprise attack on his side.

This is not the only impressive technology that DARPA showed during the event. The Multi-Mode Extreme Travel Suspension (METS) system protects troops from misbehavior smoothly so that soldiers do not get tired by a difficult cross-country journey. METS can adjust the suspension of the vehicle to account for uneven terrain, rough terrain.

Another technology that has major implications is the flanged electric motor. The system places a complete 100-kilowatt motor in a standard 20-inch military rim with three speeds, a liquid-cooled internal brake and a central tire inflation system. A vehicle with this system would not need a large central engine inside the armored hull, freeing this space for something else or allowing designers to reduce the size from the hull altogether. The loss of a single engine does not make the vehicle stand still, as the remaining engines can still move the vehicle and provide electrical power. This system would probably be very complicated and expensive, but the benefits for armored vehicles are so obvious that it is inevitable that many armies adopt it.

DARPA is looking to change the way vehicles move called the Ground X-Vehicle Technologies (GXV-T) program, which aims to reduce the size and weight of vehicles by 50%, the size of the vehicles. 50% crew, the percent speed of all types of terrain, and reduce the enemy's ability to detect the vehicle remotely. None of the technologies involved will be transformed into current generation military vehicles, and much of this technology will likely require work before it is tough enough to wage war. But the pioneering work of DARPA shows the direction of the ground combat and what our military vehicles could be equipped in 15 or 20 years.