call it viral if you want, but I doubt anyone if going to buy a forklift.

I guess this works by having those angled bowling pin shaped thingys spinning forward or backwards as the whole wheel rotates.

Huh, learn something every day. I guess it is called "Mecanum" wheels and FIRST robotics competition has been using them for awhile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgTJcm9EVnE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXdvLGTW2nQ

That's just too cool. Gotta get me one!

cool idea, but 6.2 mph? Sheesh, even a standup governs out at 7.5

what good is a zero-radius lifttruck with side movement capabilities if you can't drive it fast and wildly?

"The Sidewinder's omni-directional drive system is the greatest innovation in lift truck design in nearly 100 years."

Whoa, fella. The Sidewinder's drive system is pretty cool, but "the greatest innovation in lift truck design in nearly 100 years"? WHAT ABOUT THE BARREL CLAMP? THE CARTON CLAMP?!? THE TRIPLE LIFT ATTACHMENT!?!?

Y'all should be proud of what y'all have accomplished with this drive system, but you need to learn your lift truck history!!

this might keep my father in law who works at Home Depot from smashing up too many more washers and dryers

"I guess this works by having those angled bowling pin shaped thingys spinning forward or backwards as the whole wheel rotates."
The bowling pin-shaped thingies are free-wheeling, not driven - the movement is accomplished by spinning each of the four wheels independently. If all four spin forward, it goes forward, and vice versa. I believe sideways movement is induced by having each diagonal pair of wheels spin in opposite directions.

That is pretty impressive. It occurred to me as I was watching that they have reinvented the wheel (in the literal sense) and yet they haven't (in the sense of the meaning of the expression).

It made me laugh, though, when they drove it over that toothpick to show it's rugged terrain capabilities.

Hot damn, it can clear 1" of wood!
Seriously though, that looks pretty neat. Make it faster, take off the forklift, add 4 wheels to the roof, set me loose in a circular cage, and I'm good to go!

That reminds me of what I intended to post in the first place - they claim it can Travel on Gravel (tm?), but I'd certainly like to see a demonstration of it going sideways on gravel.

forwards, backwards, sideways.... any direction at all.
didn't they name them all ?

Yes but can it move up and down? I'm still waiting for my hover car to be made.

i am on one of the aforementioned FIRST teams, and although my team has not used a mec drive train before, we have seen many teams that do. the cool part is is that by doing some complicated math, the drive train can produce practically any movement pattern conceivable, even orbital! really useful when trying to dodge other robots on the field.
yea, team 418, LASA Robotics, we go to the Lone Star Regional every year, admission to come watch is free of charge, and they do live web casts of the rounds on NASA's site. it is during April. also you can watch previous year archives online as well.

Agree'd with T-man, any sort of clamp truck (carton, barrel, pulp bale...) is much more of an innovation than a sideways moving forklift. Thats for lazy people.


Interesting to watch

Still can't get away from the turtle-rabbit settings on the truck. My old Caterpillar has the same pictures.

Upvote for the audacity of comparing an industrial design idea's potential impact on civilization with that of the wheel in the first minute.

*engineering *wheels *future *commercial

Adding video to channels (Commercial, Engineering, Future, Wheels) - requested by kulpims.

*length=4:07

The duration of this video has been updated from unknown to 4:07 - length declared by blutruth.