Reconfigurable Wheel: Tracks or Tires

Tracks or tires- Why choose?

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is kinda like the US’s own Q from James Bond. These are the guys coming up with the cool gadgets to keep us a step ahead in the global technology department.

Many of their innovations have far-reaching applications that may never find their way into our arena but their latest might! The Reconfigurable Wheel Track (RWT) is a new technology that – get this- allows the shape of the wheel to be adjusted on the fly while the vehicle is in motion. Literally a transformer but without Michael Bay and a bunch of bad CG.

The whole process takes 2 seconds from start to finish. In this demonstration DARPA is using it to go from a circular wheel to a triangular track. Soon, they say, it won’t be a matter of having to choose one or the other:

(Skip to 2:22 to get right to the RWT in action):