Breakthrough Wheel INVENTION!? - Universal Drive

The Uni Wheel is intended to gain the advantages of individual wheel drive without having to mount the motor directly to, or inside, the wheel. Instead, it subsumes the functions of constant-velocity joints, drive shaft and reduction gearing into a single system within the wheel

[CAustin]

Bro that's just the pencil sharpener we had in elementary school

[xanderunderwoods]

The roads here in Alaska would destroy something like that lol

[madDragon]

Too many moving parts and precision to be useful for everyday use.

[michaelhagen]

I love this type of think outside the box. Most people on here are bashing the idea because they are only imagining the application use for automotive purposes.

[centpushups]

People seem to forget that prototypes take time to get right.

[WolfmanDude]

Interesting, I love hearing about these strange mechanisms! I could see this beeing used for low speed indoor stuff, expecially with cheap nylon gears. No person ever said that this will be used in a regular car, so why all the angry comments?

[ewill]

That's an awesome solution!

to a problem that no one has had yet...

[manin]

It's a solution for a problem that doesn't exist.😊

[CcVal-ld]

It seems really good for small machines

[northernmetalworker]

What would keep the input shaft centered? How does the suspension work?

[seanburton]

This would be great for:
Wheelchairs
Mopeds
Lunar / planetary rovers (sealed permanently).
Gearing mechanisms for bay doors like on Starship)

And as you mentioned, slow-moving robotics such as warehouse robots.

[Quan]

Not sure it im asking a dumb question, but how do you put spring action in that....

[Sunny-xlu]

It’s not a plausible drive system. Because where gears are involved, lubrication is of primary importance. This system shown is dry gear system. It cannot take heavy loads when dry. And in a wet system, oil seals can leak and let out all of that lube.

[ruirodtube]

We really needed MORE mechanical parts that could break. Wish granted I guess 😂

[boykisser]

In Finland that could last ~15 minutes in the best case.

[JalekNordin-sn]

The more parts you have, the more likely it will break down.
This is an overly complex system to solve an issue that doesn't exist.

[jackgreenstalk]

More parts, more moving parts, more points of failure in use and in manufactuting tolerances. Will be expensive to produce and maintain and likely to break down imho

[Sadenshard]

I think, like you said, low speed systems would be fine. For cars the biggest problem would be adding unsprung weight. People wouldn't like the driving feel

[raeb]

. . . a lot of unknowns? I will give you a hint, all those extra parts means it's going to break down frequently and it's going to be expensive for maintenance and repairs so I am sure it will be hailed as"'genius design" and labeled "design of the future" the weight is going to be carried at the bottom because there is no suspension

[michaellegg]

Sealing it won't be hard. But using this in road going cars is a hard nope!! To easy to fail and high repair costs along with a low expected service life. It will be good for space like mars Rover's where high torque and low speed and possibly for police robots for bomb squad and even sea floor robots.