Biou Car

Biou Car ,"The Curvy Baby"

This car is my Bahons project on industrial design

Step 1: The advantage

The main advantage of Biou Car is it's flexibility,

Comments

[dathai2000]

4 wheels and you got a problem of getting it federally designated everywhere as an automobile. Go back to the drawing board and figure out placement of just 3 wheels 2 in front and 1 in back for forward progression ( more stable than 1 in front and two in back), then you have a car that only has to pass the much less stringent guidelines of a motorcycle. Just a thought so you can make it to actual production.

[zabac70]

I've just saw this design so here is what I think about it: Cool looking stuff , but there is some issues. First : probably every traffic law (for public roads I mean) in the world requires "mechanical connection" for steering (I do think that joystick is cool and I would like to operate my car with it). Second: bubble will cost arm&leg , even in mass production (what types of materials you intended for this?) Of course , there is a question about handling , but prototype will answer that. I'm interested also about entering/exiting the vehicle. What are the safety features (I realize that this isn't meant for hi speeds , but other participants in traffic might go fast and make an accident). This isn't by any means negative comment , I would just like to know about things I wrote - how you imagined it. However , I DO like it :)

[rkbrumbelow]

I think you may be mistaken about requiring a mechanical conection as opposed to dbw. Wikipedia notes several prototypes and soon tk be production vehicles which are dbw. I would post a lonk but it it hard to copy and paste on my nook

[nick-x]

Dear friend, I did not design the car so deep to solve things like like these.. the concept was based only on who a car could be more flexible to move... so I proposed this way.... i could not examine more matters as safety or mechanical problems because i had no time.... (i had only 4 months to develop the whole concept, included the research of the concept) now i am occupied with my master degree and my job, so i have no time to go any farther on the prototype, but it is on my plans, because i know it is going to be very good in the end... thanks for your comment.... it gives me hope to continue work on it... :)

[marki_marku]

So tell me... all steering is done through the two drive wheels and the the front and rear wheels are merely there for stability? and all driving including steering is done with a centrally located joystick? Cooool. that must save so much room. AND it would mean the car can be used in both left hand drive and right hand drive countries without modification I suppose with the right chip you could set cruise control too. Controller would have to be set up so you cant accidentally knock it from forwards to backwards or into excessively hard turns when travelling at speed. wow this thing could turn on its central point so you could effectively drive FORWARDS INTO a parking space and turn around IN the parking space and Drive FORWARDS OUT of the parking space. I would imagine the whole thing could be moulded in 2 parts, top and bottom (excluding doors and seat padding if they are needed) with slip in motors and fore and aft castors. Do you have any idea on the size of motors required and battery packs for a full scale car? top shell of car could be made from thin film solar electric panels for all day charging, and coasting and braking could be used to recharge batteries. all in all it is Bloody fantastic mate......

[lovepirate9]

That is AWESOME, good luck with your awesome invention :)

[ANDY!]

How do you steer?

[recordmasta001]

wow i want one. they shud be affordable ttoo. plx put these into production

[tbenefi33]

Cool design could you like use goft cart type electric motors ?

[killerjackalope]

Interesting design, I don't see problems with it rolling from turning so much as braking and turning, it wouldn't be too hard to build a small version that's actually driveable, using bike hub motors and pieces, it mightnt be fast and a shell would be ambitious but the idea of having a large prototype to play with would be good.

[nick-x]

You are right my friend, and that was one of my first ambitions, but I still don't have enough time. In 2009, I hope I will start building my this prototype......

[killerjackalope]

Good stuff, If I ever end up with the bits and pieces I might make something similar, if I do I'll PM you about the design stuff...

[Negafen]

Some people seem to think this would have issues turning. I don't know if nick-x meant it to turn in a conventional way (say, rack and pinion perhaps). The easiest solution would be to use a steering system similar to a tanks, want to turn right? right wheels turn less, and the vehicle twists. It'd aid the stability, and make rollover more difficult (put casters on the four non wheel points if you really want it to be tough to tip :P). This looks like a non-highway car. Perhaps best accustomed to city driving. Like a better version of a gee whiz. You should see if someone wants to put this into limited production :p

[lnknprkfrk13]

Dude that is incredible! It would be so cool if that car was in production. I would totally get one if I could. Nice!

[jdege]

On the model, the front and back wheels seem to swivel freely. Do you intend the same on the full-size model? Do you have any bearing designs that have been tested at highway speeds? At in-town speeds? This will require a very different suspension than any existing vehicle, and will take a lot of work to get something that rides smoothly and steers cleanly at speed. When you have your model working, try out some sharp turns at speed. My guess is that you're not going to find it very hard to roll this.

[Cyberscann54]

roll it how almost all the weight is at the bottom of the car

[nick-x]

They realy do..... I imaged that the full scale model cill use a CPU, and the control will be done by the combination of steering and adjustment of the speed of each wheel seperatly.....

[omnibot]

Have you noticed any problems with this setup during ordinary movement, say for instance draving in a straight line? I totally love that prototype, it would make a good robot.

[nick-x]

Hi thanks for your good words..... well.... the first time i tried to drive it, i used some cheap and old speed controls, after that i changed them with 2 brandnew ones and the result was very good, u see the stability of the car in straight line deepens on the parallelism of the 2 motors and that can be succeed only with accurate electronic speed controllers..... (sorry for my terrible English....)

[innoventor]

Very clever juxtaposition from other econo-car designs. (So many of their industrial designs end up looking like a box, or a shoe).

Ergonomic issue: the seat-backs appear concave. I would expect that to be painful, as well as detracting from storage space behind the seat. Personally, I like the design of Herman Miller seat backs (rigid outer frame, with cloth/mesh stretched over it - breathes well, light weight, and is as strong & ergonomic as you manufacture it to be.)

Wacky idea: have you heard of the "Segway"? I think they exist in Greece as I was able to find this site:
http://www.segway.gr/
You could change the front and rear wheels to be much smaller, raised up so they don't touch the ground, so that they are only for safety/parking. Then employ the same type of self-balancing technology as in the Segway. (Again, I would not remove the front and rear wheels completely, for safety reasons).

[Grey_Wolfe]

Looks like a shoe to me. (If you're one of the Simpsons.) :-P lol Very cool idea.

[abadfart]

when can i get 1 and how much

[Pyrowuzzup]

this looks like a very good design. its round shape might cause it some problems if one of the tires encounters a patch of ice.

[nick-x]

I agree but the hole concept was about a city car, and i live in Greece, so the ice wasn't one of my considerations...

[Pyrowuzzup]

yes i think for an application like that it would be perfect. especially in tight corners with the way the turning works.

[Hands Without Shadows]

You should wire the batteries in parallel. This way the batteries will discharge at the same rate and both ESCs will receive exactly the same voltage. Don't charge them in parallel. I can tell by your drawings you aren't from America. Where are you from?

[nick-x]

I am from Thessaloniki Greece.

[nick-x]

Thanks for the comment.... I use 2 speed controlers with seperate bateries,

[sleeping_gecko]

Those are some pretty nice renderings you have. Looks like it would be a sweet vehicle. What did you use to draw up the images?

[nick-x]

Thanks for the comment..... the drawings were made at Vectorworks12.5 and the illustration is from Studio 3dmax

[pyroman50]

When you finish the full scale show us a picture.

[GorillazMiko]

Looks like an awesome design! Looks like it could be similar to that car on the Wii commercials... my teacher has one of those. Not the same color though. Good ideas you got here!