WO2011098857A1

WO2011098857A1 - Bi-directional steering omni-directional driving electric road transportation vehicle

Info

Publication number: WO2011098857A1
Application number: PCT/IB2010/001652
Authority: WO
Inventors: John Victor Gano; Enrique Hector Scalabroni
Original assignee: John Victor Gano; Enrique Hector Scalabroni
Priority date: 2010-02-11
Filing date: 2010-06-22
Publication date: 2011-08-18

Abstract

In the context of consumers' and the global automobile industry's intensifying interest in zero-emission electric cars, electric vehicles' current principal weakness of limited battery capacity and thus range/operating time is examined. A radical minimalist design approach is taken to reduce vehicle weight and improve maneuverability. The result is a system of Modular Combined Suspension, Steering, Braking, and Propulsion, which is mounted on a principally vertical strut-and-wheel assembly. Bi-directional Steering and Omni-directional Driving, permitting front-facing driving from either end of a primarily rectangular chassis, and 360° mobility from a stand-still are achieved. Practical embodiments ranging from compact city cars up through many-wheeled heavy trucks are illustrated. This new technology holds promise of being a "tool kit" for future electric vehicles.

Description

Description:

Title of Invention:

Bi-directional Steering Omni-directional Driving

Electric Road Transportation Vehicle and Modular Combined Electronic Electro-mechanical

Suspension, Steering, Propulsion, and Braking System

0001 Technical Field:

Automotive technologies

0002 Background Art:

For close to 6,000 years, since our Neolithic forbearers first harnessed a draft animal to pull a wheeled cart, powered transport has moved overwhelmingly in the forward direction. This is because of the biological fact that draft animals do not walk or run backwards very well, and the mechanical fact that it is easier to steer an animal's nose than to steer a heavy-laden cart in order to change direction.

This concept of unidirectional front-led motion has so deeply permeated human technological culture that the saying "Don't put the cart before the horse" is still accepted as simple common sense.

The automobile, as "the horseless carriage", carried on this tradition of uni-directionality, merely replacing the horse with a mechanical motor without fathoming the deeper potentials of this transition to mechanical power. During the precisely 150 years since Etienne Lenoir invented the internal combustion engine in Paris (patented 1860) and mounted it on a wheeled chassis, and the precisely 125 years since Gustav Benz patented the prototype of the gasoline-engine automobile in 1885, this 150-year-old fundamentally uni-directional piston-engine-powered vehicle has been essentially all of what generations have known to be an automobile.

As evidenced in recent major world Auto Shows, the global automobile industry is currently entering a period of slow transition from its dependence on the petroleum-fueled internal combustion engine of its first 150 years towards a future of primarily electric-motor-powered cars. Now is a time of creative ferment when automakers showcase their developments in the power- train (primarily fuel-consumption and emissions reduction) rather than the traditional beauty-show of new chassis designs and model upgrades.

There are two main classes of reasons for this new openness to evolution in the essentially conservative and incrementalist automobile industry. The first reason is new market demand. This is the remarkable shift in world consumers' and regulators' opinions concerning the environment and automobiles' effect on it.

For several decades now the noxious pollution effects of petrol and diesel engine emissions have been accepted as a prime source of urban air pollution with its associated lung diseases as well as of urban noise pollution. Over the past decade, the awareness of human-engendered "hot house gas" emissions as a principal source of global climate change, with all its menacing consequences, has become accepted world-wide, and the role of internal- combustion automobile emissions as a major source of these emissions has received world-wide acceptance as well.

This growing awareness of ecological issues is also starting to lead public opinion and automotive industry opinion to the realization that a conventional combustion-engine automobile is not only a performance unit unto itself, but a significant and currently damaging part of the world ecosystem. "Automobile graveyards" are focal points of toxic waste accumulation and witnesses to the consumer wastefulness of discarding so much unrecyclable material every two years just to upgrade to a fashionable new-model car. An ecologically sustainable automobile for the future will need to be low-emission not only in its operation but across its entire product life cycle from construction to operation to recycling. Ecological consciousness in the regulatory sector has now come to exceed simple minimum gas-mileage requirements or mandatory catalytic converters for exhausts. Alternative models of ecology-driven urban traffic planning, designed to reduce pollution by reducing automobile congestion, have now been implemented in several major cities around the world, and computer- operated central traffic management and control systems, which would actually take the "driving" out of the hands of the on-board "driver", are being considered as part of the longer-term ecological traffic-control solution by some forward-looking urban planners.

Over the past two decades, this growing demand for low-fuel-consumption low-emission automobiles, expressed in buyers' opinion and in government policy, has led small and major automakers alike to research more fuel- efficient combustion motors and alternative motors. While the electric motor was always the logical ideal, its severe limitations due to battery power has so far prevented it from widespread acceptance.

Hybrid engines have been introduced as a bridge between the current era of petroleum engines and the future era of electric motors, and various systems for "cleaning" diesel emissions are currently being developed and introduced to the market. Yet these current "solutions" merely mitigate the symptoms without truly solving the problem of the emission pollution inherent in any internal combustion engine. The fact remains that burning hydrocarbons consumes oxygen and produces C02.

The invention which is the subject of this patent is an original vehicle design and modular operating system for electric cars, busses and trucks which is aimed at maximizing the benefits of the electric motor for road transportation while minimizing its current disadvantages.

This new technical solution to the increasing market demand for more ecological cars is made possible through rapid advancements achieved in the supply of many key auto parts necessary to the development of electric vehicles. Some major developments can be listed.

1. Batteries. For all their current short-fall compared to what is hoped of them, batteries have still improved impressively. Even a decade ago auto executives would mock electric cars with comments such as, "does it run on pen-light batteries?" Given the electric parts industry's track record of more than doubling performance while more than halving costs, and the economic incentive of serving the gargantuan world auto market, it is logical to anticipate significant and rapid continued increase in battery life and power. 2. New Materials. The age when pressed steel was the standard chassis material is falling behind us, and now most cars use significant amounts of new materials ranging from polymers to carbon fibers in chassis construction for their lower weight and lower material cost. The quickness and cheapness of flash injection production versus heavy steel pressing is another factor in their favor. With the evolution of bio-degradable plastics, synthetic materials are likely to become the standard chassis material, with steel, because of its weight disadvantage, reserved for crucial high- stress/high-load parts.

3. Electric Motors. While electric motors have existed even longer than gasoline engines, their output power and power/weight ratio was too low to prove competitive in automobile transportation. This now has changed radically, with electric motors now capable of well upwards of 85 bhp and small and light enough to mount directly on a wheel.

4. Electronic Controls. In an era when children's' toy cars are steered by wireless electronic controls, it is not difficult to understand either the concept of "drive-by-wire" road vehicles nor of remote driving control.

5. Computing Power. From Automatic Braking Systems to Traction Control to Active Suspension, the list of automotive driving systems operated by computers continues to grow. Thanks to the near-constant increases in computing speed and power, the algorithms that can align each of 1 to 32-or-more wheels independently at their optimal steering angle for any desired steering direction or maneuver are quick and simple.

All of these advanced auto parts and automotive systems exist today and are readily available and competitively priced on commercial markets. All that is needed to bridge this new demand for ecological cars with this new supply of auto parts and systems is a new and effective environmentally- friendlv vehicle design

The advantages of electric powered propulsion have been known since the 1800's. The advantages of being able to drive backwards or sideways with full agility must also have been dreamed of by many people with active imaginations over this century and a half.

However, to the best knowledge of the applicants) there are No competing designs for fully bi-directional automotive steering pre-dating the 2010 publication of the inventor's prior invention of the same. As for Omni-directional Driving, however, there are two serious alternative design approaches listed as Applications or Granted Patents in the WIPO public data-bases.

The first approach has documented development by AIRTRAX Corporation of the USA over the past decade. That invention is fundamentally different from this invention in that it relies on the horizontal fixing of an axel to a wheel with a hub, whereas this new invention relies on the principally vertical fixing of a strut with a fork and a wheel without a hub. For this reason this new invention can rotate its wheels 360°, while the former invention cannot even rotate them a full 90°.

The second fundamental difference is that the AIRTRAX product relies on a series of soft composite rollers diagonally fixed to the wheel hub which "crawl" sideways even while the wheel is orientated basically forward. This new invention is far simpler in that it simply steers its tires in any direction to drive.

This difference results in extreme differences in potential speed, as the new invention is capable of highway speeds, whereas the AIRTRAX patent granted is for a precision military Munitions Loader, and the civilian application they publicize on the internet is for a Forklift "capable of speeds up to 6 miles per hour."

Clearly the AIRTRAX patent is for a different solution to a different problem and not a competitive technology with this new invention.

The second alternative approach, which was granted an Australian patent in 2004 after over a decade of research by J. Grant, is superficially closer to this new invention in that it uses a two-part vertical suspension assembly. Yet the differences of approach between it and this new invention again significantly outweigh the similarities.

The SmartWheel, as this device has been named, does not have a forked wheel support at its bottom but a one-sided one, supporting only one end of the horizontal wheel axel, which significantly reduces robustness in case of lateral impacts upon the wheel.

Secondly, its wheels do not rotate 360°, and apparently not even a full 90°. Thirdly, its steering mechanism and suspension points are located high above the wheel towards the top of the two-part strut assembly, rather than low on the strut close to the wheel as in the new invention. This again highlights the higher robustness of the new invention over the previous, as the earlier invention has a far higher breaking moment of the piece and is thus less suited for highway speed or heavier load transport.

While Mr. Grant has done very considerable electrical engineering work, algorithmically optimizing wheel angles and spin rates in various maneuvers in his 153-page patent application, to the eyes of experienced automotive designers the mechanics of his suspension and traction systems bear too many similarities to shopping cart wheels, except that shopping cart wheels are capable of full-azimuth rotation. Standard speeds with their stresses would pose an insurmountable problem for such a lightly supported system. The internet publicity of the pre-production application of this technology is for a Resort Cart.

Thus the two pre-existing wheel technologies which call themselves omnidirectional do not match the full 360° wheel rotational capability of this new invention. Nor do either prior art inventions (a forklift and a golf cart) appear designed for or capable of supporting highway speeds or bearing heavy loads as in the listed embodiments of this new invention. This new invention uses fundamentally different design principles to achieve different performance objectives.

Summary of Invention:

0003 Technical Problem

Conventional uni-directional automobiles and trucks, with several forward gears and usually only one single low reverse gear, have distinct technical and performance limitations. While these limitations are obvious, they form such a part of the culture and heritage of automobiles that they are taken for granted as being part of "what is" an automobile by most automotive designers, engineers, and auto-industry executives, as well as by the public.

Conventional automobiles, transports and trucks have:

1. low speed in reverse gear

2. poor visibility and handling in reverse motion

3. require a complicated sequence of maneuvers to reverse direction

(3-point turn, U-turn, hand-brake turn, drive around the block)

4. waste space in parking areas to allow for "parallel parking"

maneuvers

5. cannot turn around on narrow, confined roads

More significantly, from the ecological perspective, they

6. produce "hot house" gas and particle emissions

7. consume high amounts of energy in their fabrication

as well as in their operation

8. have excessive capabilities for the needs of most consumers

(high-speed intra-city cars clogging slow, crowded urban streets where most people only make short journeys.)

9. are difficult to recycle due to their high variety of materials used, including many toxic and unrecyclable materials. 0004 Solution to Problem

In this multi-millennial and multi-century history of powered road transport's background art, the Bi-directional Steering Omni-directional Driving Electric Road Transportation Vehicle is a radical invention.

This invention is based on the concept that automobiles, busses and trucks should be capable of equally applying their full driving capacity in both the forward and rearward directions of movement, and have full maneuverability to drive from a stand-still in any direction of movement, covering the full azimuth of 360°.

This invention is defined by three principles. The first principle is Bidirectional Steering: dual opposite-facing steering systems which allow the vehicle to be driven "from the front" at either or any end of its chassis.

The second principle is Omni directional Driving: the synchronized operation of a variable number of powered and un-powered wheels which allow such vehicles to be driven in any of 360° of directions, including an "O-turn", a fixed-place pivoting maneuver. (However, differences in aerodynamic drag and inertial load distribution will obviously give vehicles with a rectangular-shaped-chassis a considerable performance advantage moving front and back following their longitudinal axis as opposed to moving sideways following their lateral axis.)

The third principle is Electric/Electronic operation: the exclusive use of electric motors as the power source, and computer-processed electronic/ electro-mechanical "drive by wire" controls of the steering and braking systems. (This electronic element is further extended in web-based networked driving systems discussed further below.)

Bi-directional automotive transport has significant contributions to make, because it is suitable for any type of engine, including conventional, battery and fuel-cell electrical, hybrid, and alternative fuel engines. Bidirectionality offers greatly increased convenience and security for more cautious drivers such as senior citizens as well.

Bi-directional automotive transportation for driving offers enhanced (a) driver convenience, (b) emissions reduction, up to zero for electric cars, (c) improved traffic safety from the reduction in the most common source of minor "fender-bender" accidents that make up the bulk of auto insurance claims, and (d) improvement in traffic flow management, which can all easily be envisioned as benefits. Omni-directional Driving is an even simpler concept. It is that a transport vehicle should be able to drive in any direction from a standstill, around a full 360° azimuth. Of course at speed the aerodynamic and inertial forces will still permit oblong-shaped vehicles to travel quicker along their longest axis, yet full directional maneuverability will aid considerably in parking and loading.

Thus Bi-directional Steering Omni-directional Driving automotive transportation vehicles simply moves beyond the host of technical problems posed by conventional petroleum piston engine automotives, by proposing a fully viable, practical, ecological and low-cost alternative.

These vehicles can drive in any direction for maneuvering and tight parking. They are electric so make no exhaust pollution at all. They are assembled easily and cheaply from simple components which are overwhelmingly recyclable.

Furthermore, this system's solutions are fully attainable with presently existing technologies, materials, and manufacturing and assembly processes.

The main alternative approaches to solving these problems fall into two schools. The first is the Incrementalist School, led by the major automakers, which is constantly informing us through expensive advertising of how many fewer centiliters of petrol their latest vehicle requires to travel 100km (or inversely how many tenths-of-miles further it can run on a gallon of gasoline) and how many grams less of C02 and associated pollution their new engine produces over their previous "cleanest" engine (versus zero emissions electric power).

The second school is the Futurist School, largely consisting of think-tank scholars, who sometimes seem to be composing variations on the theme of "When cities are ideal, then everyone will love this car."

Bi-directional Steering Omni-directional Driving Automotive Transport takes a middle approach between proven practicality and desirable improvements. It was conceived by gasoline race-car specialist engineers (Formula One, Le Mans, etc.) steeped in the grand racing-car tradition yet stepping up to ecological responsibility and exploring its practical potentialities.

This approach does not require the colossal costs and pollution of the destruction and reconstruction of existing road and urban infrastructure (which was often largely built up around the gasoline automobile.) It is an innocuous, compatible and complimentary technology to conventional piston-engine vehicles, with which it will co-exist, along with other forms of electric vehicles, during the decade or so of the petroleum engine automobile's fading away.

0006 Advantageous Effects of Invention

This invention, the bi-directional method of automotive transportation, and these other inventions, remedy each of the above-listed weaknesses in conventional automobile design.

1. equal power and speed in forward of rearward motion

with full mobility in any direction from stand-still.

2. equal steering and handling in forward or rearward motion, and in non-oblong vehicles in lateral directions as well.

3. ease of parking (no more backing-up or backing-out, simply

driving away "forward" in the opposite direction, from the former "back" of the car, and sliding in "sideways" into tight spots without the see-saw of parallel parking.)

4. increased traffic control efficiency and reduced emissions in

parking lots (reduced waiting and backing up for other cars to back up out of parking)

5. increased safety due to full front-facing driver visibility in either principal direction of movement, and to emerging web- controlled transponder-triggered automatic crash avoidance technologies.

6. compatibility with developing computer controlled urban traffic monitoring and management systems, leading eventually up to "remote driving" where the "driver" on board is a passenger.

7. greatly reduced energy consumption and fuel costs due to electric power.

8. zero emissions automatically achieved due to same

9. low-cost low-skill assembly through modular units, reducing the vehicle's "carbon footprint" across its entire life-cycle 0007 Brief Description of Drawings

Fig 1.

Suspension Capability Modular Wheel Unit (MWU), Perspective view

The basic form of the Modular Wheel Unit has only suspension capability. The other capabilities, (steering, braking, and power) are added to this basic structure one at a time in the following three versions. Each version of the MWU is illustrated as perspective view, side view, front view, and top view. The legend numbers are consistent for each of the 4 views of each type of MWU.

1. Vertical Strut with Damper

2. Spring

3. Wishbone Suspension

4. Wheel Support Fork

5. Wheel (tire)

6. Circular Bearing

7. Wheel Axel

Fig. 2.

Suspension Capability Modular Wheel Unit (MWU), Side View

Fig 3.

Suspension Capability Modular Wheel Unit (MWU), Front View

Fig. 4

Suspension Capability Modular Wheel Unit (MWU), Top View

Fig. 5

Suspension and Steering Capability MWU Perspective View

1. Vertical Strut with Damper

2. Spring

3. Wishbone Suspension

4. Electric Steering Motor

5. Electric Circular Touch Connector

6. Horizontal Bearing

7. Circular Steering Rack

8. Wheel Support Fork

9. Wheel Lift Unit

10. Wheel

11. Wheel Axel

Fig. 6.

Suspension and Steering Capability MWU Side View

Fig. 7.

Suspension and Steering Capability MWU Front View

Fig. 8.

Suspension and Steering Capability MWU Top View

Fig. 9

Suspension and Steering and Braking Perspective View

1. Vertical Strut with Damper

2. Spring

3. Wishbone Suspension

4. Electric Steering Motor

5. Electric Circular Touch Connector

6. Horizontal Bearing

7. Circular Steering Rack

8. Wheel Support Fork

9. Wheel Lift Unit

10. Wheel

11. Brake Caliper

12. Brake Disk

Fig. 10

Suspension and Steering and Braking MWU Side View

Fig. 11

Suspension and Steering and Braking MWU Front View

Fig. 12

Suspension and Steering and Braking MWU Top View

Fig 13

Suspension and Steering and Braking and Power MWU Perspective View

1. Vertical Strut with Damper

2. Wishbone Suspension

3. Electric Power Motor

4. Electric Steering Motor

5. Electric Circular Steering Rack

6. Brake Disk

7. Brake Caliper

8. Wheel Support Fork

9. Spring

10. Wheel

11. Wheel Lift Unit

12. Horizontal Bearing

13. Circular Electric Touch Connector

Fig 14

Suspension and Steering and Braking and Power MWU Side View

Fig 15

Suspension and Steering and Braking and Power MWU Front View

Fig 16

Suspension and Steering and Braking and Power MWU Top View

Fig 17.

Illustrations of Embodiments

Family Van, Side View

The four types of Modular Wheel Units can be configured to support the weight of various types of vehicles and provide steering, braking, and propulsion as needed. By avoiding the redundancy of having every wheel completely and equally equipped, the overall weight of the vehicle is significantly reduced, even if the number of wheels is increased. In cases of driving off in a different direction from a halt, the Suspension Only Wheels support the weight of the chassis while the powered wheels are lifted to rotate to the desired direction. Malfunctioning wheels can be replaced modularly by semi-skilled staff.

1. Bi-directional Steering Mechanism

2. Suspension, Steering, Braking, and Propulsion Wheel

3. Suspension Only Wheel

Fig 18.

Illustrations of Embodiments

Family Van, Bottom Perspective View

Fig 19.

illustrations of Embodiments

Light Truck (2.0 - 3.5 ton), Side View

1. 4 Suspension, Steering, Braking, and Propulsion Wheels

2. 4 Suspension, Steering, and Braking Wheels

3. 6 Suspension Only Wheels

4. 2 Bi-directional Steering Mechanisms

Fig 20.

Illustrations of Embodiments

Light Truck (2.0 - 3.5 ton), Bottom Perspective View Fig. 21

Illustrations of Embodiments

Bus, Side View

1. 8 Suspension, Steering, Braking, and Propulsion

2. 2 Bi-directional Steering Mechanisms

3. 12 Suspension Only Wheels

Fig. 22

Illustrations of Embodiments

Bus, Perspective Bottom View

Fig. 23

Illustrations of Embodiments

10-20 ton Container Truck, Side View

1. 12 Suspension, Steering, Braking and Propulsion Wheels

2. 2 Bi-directional Steering Mechanisms

3. 20 Suspension Only Wheels

Fig. 24

Illustrations of Embodiments

10-20 ton Container Truck, Perspective Bottom View

0013 Industrial Applicability

The industrial applicability of this new invention is so broad and potentially so profound that it cannot at present be fully delineated at present.

Modular Wheel Units alone, as defined in this patent application, and as demonstrated in the embodiments of their applications from compact city cars up to trains of multiple shipping container trucks, are potentially the DNA of an entire new epoch of automotive design.

Their sophisticated simplicity brings the arcana of automotive design much closer to the freely creative world of plug-in/pull-out modular design and assembly. Their unsurpassable maneuverability (for there are no more than 360° full degrees of the compass rose to drive in) will give them parking dexterity and convenience to the joy and relief of drivers.

Their bi-directional steering capability will fill the requirements of the ageing world population, who will find increased safety and security in front-facing driving whichever way they go.

Their fully-electric power and fully electro-mechanical operation will automatically bring to any vehicle using this patent application's technology the "zero emissions" accolade.

Their biodegradable lightweight synthetic material chassis will make them one of the lowest carbon-footprint vehicles across their life cycle from production, through operation, to recycling.

Their minimalist design and limited parts means that they could be assembled in low-skill low-cost countries, with considerable commercial advantages.

Their "wifi" wiring will make them the ideal pure bred guinea-pigs for the coming urban experiments in transponder accident-avoidance and later in central computerized driving control systems.

Not least, they will be so pleasantly shocking in form and function that the city car's early adoption by the eco-buyer opinion-leader market segment and the car's eventual "cult" status might reasonably be contemplated as possibilities.

This patent is not about one vehiple alone, it is about the DNA of a family of vehicles designed for the coming age of electric powered automotive vehicles. How big and varied that family might grow is impossible to predict, but they will all share the technological lineage of this ancestor patent: of Bi-directional Steering Omni-directional Driving Electric Automotive Transport Vehicles.

Claims

Claim 1.

A wheeled rail-less road automotive vehicle, powered by electricity, characterized in that it possesses bi-directional steering capability, comprising two or more front-facing driver positions and driver-machine steering interface mechanisms located at opposite ends of the vehicle, and that said driver positions and steering interfaces each provide fully equal steering capability and performance in the driver's front-facing direct lines of natural vision, i.e. either "forward" or "rearward" in a basically oblong- shaped chassis vehicle, or in any of three directions in a basically triangularly-shaped chassis, or in any of four directions in a basically square or round-shaped chassis vehicle.

Claim 2.

The vehicle of Claim 1. further characterized in that said driver-machine steering interface mechanisms are synchronized through a central computer-coordinated program so that only one steering interface mechanism can operationally drive the vehicle at one time.

Claim 3.

The vehicle of Claims 1. and 2. further characterized in that it is suspended over the road, and propelled, steered, and braked by a combination of a variable number of Modular Wheel Assemblies, each consisting of a non-horizontal Strut, mounted to the chassis in angles higher than the horizontal axis of the chassis up to, and generally at, a Vertical position.

Claim 4.

The Modular Wheel Assembly Strut of Claim 3. further characterized in that it is connected at the top end to the chassis, and of which the bottom end consists of a Wheel Support Fork whose two ends support a horizontal Axel, around which the Wheel rotates.

Claim 5.

The vehicle of Claims 1. to 4. further characterized in that such Modular Wheel Assemblies, in addition to providing suspension over the ground, are rotatable, and/or breakable, and/or steerable, and/or drivable with traction, each Assembly independently, across a full 360° azimuth (within the parameters set by the electronic driving control program).

Claim 6.

The vehicle of Claims 3. to 5. further characterized in that such Modular Wheel Assemblies are configured according to their specialized function through a variable combination of driving capabilities, i.e.

A. vehicle suspension capability only

B. suspension plus steering capability

C. suspension, steering, and braking capability,

D. suspension, steering, braking, and powered propulsion (traction) capability.

Claim 7.

The Modular Wheel Units of Claims 3. to 6. further characterized in that each of the four major specialized functional variations possesses a basic mechanical structure consisting of:

A. a Vertical Strut connected to the chassis at the top and to a Wheel at the bottom,

B. a suspension system (i.e. damper or spring) mounted on the strut,

C. a Suspension Structure (i.e. Wishbone) attached to the chassis at one end and attached to the Horizontal Circular Bearing Casing encircling the Strut on the other end,

D. a Horizontal Circular Bearing permitting reduced-friction 360° rotational movement of the Strut and Wheel, regardless of the Strut and Suspension Structures' fixed position on the chassis E. a Wheel Support Fork connecting the Strut to the Wheel Axel

F. a Wheel, with variable composition surfaces.

Claim 8.

The Modular Wheel Units of Claims 3. to 7. further characterized in that one variation with the specialized function of providing only Suspension and Steering capability possesses, in addition to the components listed in Claim 7.,

A. a Circular Steering System permitting repeated 360° rotations of the wheel (i.e. a Circular Steering Rack (analogous to the horizontal rack in rack-and-pinion steering systems, except circular for 360° movement),

B. an Electric Steering Motor, capable of powering the turning of the

Circular Steering System through 360° rotations

C. an Electric Circular Touch Connector Assembly to continuously supply power to the Steering Motor through any number of rotations

D. a Wheel Lift Assembly permitting tlie Modular Wheel Assembly to be lifted up and off from direct contact with the ground, in order to rotate to a different direction of drive without abrading the tire surface OR to variably adjust the relative suspension heights of the Wheel Assemblies for better balance in acceleration/deceleration, cornering or loading/unloading.

Claim 9.

The Modular Wheel Units of Claims 3. to 8. further characterized in that one variation with the specialized function of providing Suspension, Steering, and Braking possesses, in addition to the components listed in Claims 3. to 8.,

A. a Brake Disk fixed to the wheel's horizontal axel

B. a Brake Caliper mounted on the Wheel Support Fork

Claim 10.

The Modular Wheel Units of Claims 3. to 9. further characterized in that one variation with the specialized function of providing Suspension, Steering, Braking, and Traction (powered propulsion) possesses, in addition to the components listed in Claims 7. to 9.,

A. an Electric Motor mounted on the horizontal Wheel Axel and fed by electric current flowing through a Circular Electric Touch Connector Assembly.

Claim 11.

The Modular Wheel Unit of Claim 10. further characterized in that the Brake Assembly and Electric Motor may be mounted on the horizontal Wheel Axel on either side of the Wheel, or both on the same side of the Wheel, depending on the design configuration of the vehicle in which said Modular Wheel Unit of Claim 10 is utilized.

Claim 12.

The Modular Wheel Unit of Claim 10 further characterized in that the Electric Motor and/or the brake may be mounted within the Wheel.

Claim 13.

The vehicle of Claims 1. to. 12., or any combination thereof, further characterized in that the number, combination, and configuration of such specialized-function Modular Wheel Assemblies may be varied freely according to the type of the Bi-directional Steering Omni-directional Driving Vehicle designed, i.e. in models ranging in increasing size, including but not limited to,

A. compact city cars,

B. vans, and light trucks,

C. busses and other personnel transporters,

D. large shipping-container transport trucks, E. also linked multi-unit transport combinations such as linked bus units or linked truck units,

F. and in general any train of road vehicles comprised of linked

combinations of Bi-directional Steering Omni-directional Driving vehicles or mixes of Bi-directional Steering Omnidirectional Driving and conventional transport vehicles.

Claim 14.

The vehicle of Claims 1 to 13, or any combination thereof, further characterized in that the driving of said vehicles is controlled by a central computerized Electronic Driving Program.

Claim 15

The vehicle of Claims 1 to 14, or any combination thereof, further characterized in that said Electronic Driving Program gathers live feedback data from one or more wheels, including but not limited to its angle of orientation, speed of rotation, rate of acceleration/deceleration, degree of camber, etc., and calculates and automatically orders adjustments in orientation and speed of propulsion/braking in order to optimize traction, grip, energy economy, etc., to achieve an optimized execution the execution of the driver's commands.

Claim 16

The Electronic Driving Program of Claims

15. and

16. further characterized in that it optimizes the mix of operational commands issued to the various functional systems possessed by each of the specialized Modular Wheel Assemblies (of Claims 3. to 13.) in order to achieve one or more of the following electro-mechanical computer-aided automobile driving control systems:

A. Active Suspension Control (with individually calculated

suspension heights of each lift able wheel)

B. Active Steering Control (with individually calculated steering

angles for each steerable wheel)

C. Active Braking Control (with individually calculated braking levels for each breakable wheel)

D. Active Traction Control (with individually calculated rates of acceleration/deceleration for each powered wheel)

Claim 17.

The vehicle of Claims 1. to 16., or any combination thereof, wherein the vehicle is equipped with GPS and wireless web communication technology enabling its Electronic Driving Program to:

A. Share data from GPS and internal digital data feedback channels with those of similarly-equipped nearby vehicles, in a system roughly analogous to aircraft transponder systems, thus contributing to early alarm feedback concerning potential collisions, or actual automatic braking in order to avoid collisions.

Claim 18.

The vehicle of Claims 1. to 17., or any combination thereof, wherein the vehicle is equipped with GPS and wireless web communication technology enabling its Electronic Driving Program to:

A. Share data from on-board GPS and internal digital data feedback channels, through wifi or other wireless electronic data transfer media, with central computer-operated traffic monitoring and control systems, sending position/speed information and receiving live-time interactive traffic information and prediction feeds.

Claim 19.

The vehicle of Claims 1. to 18., or any combination thereof, wherein the vehicle is equipped with GPS and wireless web communication technology enabling its Electronic Driving Program to:

A. Receive remote driving control instructions from a central

computer-operated traffic control system, such that the actual driving commands of the vehicle are not issued by the on-board "driver", but by the central system: the "driver" serving the role of a passenger while the vehicle is under such external web control.

Claim 20

The vehicle of Claims 1. to 19., or any combination thereof, further characterized in that said driver-machine interfaces of Claim 2. may take the form of a traditional steering wheel and dashboard gauge display, or a joystick with screen display, or a collapsible or retractable steering wheel, or a roll-ball, or a touch-pad, or any other unconventional electronic or electro-mechanical mechanisms of driver control.

Claim 20.

The vehicle of any of Claims 1. to 19. or any combination thereof, further characterized in that the on-board electric power source may consist of a battery or of a fuel cell, in particular a hydrogen fuel cell, including combined configuration electric power generation, storage, and recovery devices.

Claim 21.

The vehicle of any of Claims 1. to 20. or any combination thereof, further characterized in that said electric-powered vehicles are capable of recharging sajd batteries not only through plug-in attachments to land- based electric power grids but through induction, brush contact, or other cordless land-based electric power transmission methods either while stationary or moving.

Claim 22.

The vehicle of any of Claims 1. to 21. or any combination thereof, further characterized in that said electric-powered vehicles are equipped with Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems, through which inertial energy from deceleration or braking is converted into electricity and used to partially recharge the vehicles' batteries.