Highly Maneuverable Mobility Platform for Personal Vehicle

Personal mobile vehicles have been extensively studied recently, for the benefit of fuel economy and transportation efficiency. This study proposes a personal vehicle system comprising a new tilting mechanism -Stephenson six-bar linkage- combined with a new diamond-shape wheel arrangement chassis for high maneuverability. The present personal concept vehicle not only makes all the wheels and body lean simultaneously, and achieves an effective tilting angle of 32° in cornering, but can also, in normal attitude, turn in a narrow space with the steering front wheel and freely steering rear wheel.

The current prototype of the proposed diamond-shape tilting chassis of personal vehicle concept, driven by 1.5kW hub motor in the front wheel, tandem two-seat, is 1m wide by 2.1m long. Preliminary test results indicate that the minimum turning radius is 1.05m for turn-in-spot, and the anti-rollover capability is almost 0.5g.