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iBite Sports Car Concept with Ocean as The Inspiration

TheFuture — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:03:36 +0000

The new car concept design by Iman Maghsoudi for Local Motors Competition is named as iBite and as the name suggests it sure bites some metal. The overall design as per the designers is nothing but improvising on the Toyota Prius Hybrid platform as the base and just developing the same along with other beauties thus resulting in a designer marvel. After using that as the base platform, add to it the design elements of Lotus 7 and then on top of it placing two surfing boards as the part of its body panel and voila, one can see that the car is ready to fly!

Designer : Iman Maghsoudi via Local-Motors

Insecta, Futuristic Car Inspired By A Grasshopper

TheFuture — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 08:09:37 +0000

Insecta, as the name suggests is something related to insects, exactly what the designer Shao Yung Yeh thought of while designing this new revolutionized car. Inspired by a grasshopper he designed this car with such a unique combination of colors and design. This is a battery powered personal vehicle that looks much like a grasshopper with its legs connected to the central chassis as a thorax. Just as the abdomen of the grasshopper, a battery pack is fixed at the bottom pretending it more like an insect. With zeal to create something alive, the designer has developed this product that is light weight, agile and eco friendly.

Yeh is a 22-year-old designer who studied industrial design at Cheng Kung University in Taiwan. The technology he envisions for Insecta is as advanced as its styling. The battery pack shifts according to the car’s direction to maintain balance and handling. It uses hub-mounted wheel motors. And the adjustable suspension is one part bug-leg, two parts Citroën, changing the height of the car to suit traffic conditions.

Yeh doesn’t see someone like General Motors or Toyota building the car of the future in the future. “I think there would be more and more independent companies building unique electric cars,” he said. “They will be looking for innovative design languages and building up their own brand identities.”

Designer : Shao Yung Yeh via Wired

Toyota Winglet Personal Transport Asistant

TheFuture — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:35:40 +0000

Toyota Winglet is a prototype of future personal transportation, Toyota motors has come up with their version of walking assistant. Named as Winglet, it’s a personal transport assistant and is ridden in standing position. It has an electric motor, two wheels and an internal sensor for monitoring the user position. The unique parallel link mechanism allows the users to go forward, backward, and it turns by a simple shift of body weight, thus it comes handy even in crowded places. It ensures stability by making power adjustments and sure is one good walking assistant and suits the purpose for moving around safely and freely. Innovation in personal transportation is good, but this kind of transport will make our generation less walk and fatter.

Press Release :

Toyota Develops Personal Transport Assistance Robot ‘Winglet’
Aug 1, 2008 Tokyo — TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today development of the “Winglet”, a personal transport assistance robot ridden in a standing position.

The Winglet—still being refined—is one of TMC’s people-assisting Toyota Partner Robots. Designed to contribute to society by helping people enjoy a safe and fully mobile life, the Winglet is a compact next-generation everyday transport tool that offers advanced ease of use and expands the user’s range of mobility.

The Winglet consists of a body (with a projected area the size of an A3 sheet of paper) that houses an electric motor, two wheels and internal sensors that constantly monitor the user’s position and make adjustments in power to ensure stability. Meanwhile, a unique parallel link mechanism allows the rider to go forward, backward and turn simply by shifting body weight, making the vehicle safe and useful even in tight spaces or crowded environments.

TMC has created three models, the “L”, “M” and “S”, each having different handling features that allow consumers to select a model appropriate to their needs—from “practical” to “hands-free sporty”.

TMC plans various technical and consumer trials to gain feedback during the Winglet’s lead-up to practical use. Practical tests of its utility as a mobility tool are planned to begin in Autumn 2008 at Central Japan International Airport (Centrair) near Nagoya, and Laguna Gamagori, a seaside marine resort complex in Aichi Prefecture. Testing of its usefulness in crowded and other conditions, and how non-users react to the device, is to be carried out in 2009 at the Tressa Yokohama shopping complex in Yokohama City.

TMC is pursuing sustainability in research and development, manufacturing and social contribution as part of its concept to realize “sustainability in three areas” and to help contribute to the health and comfort of future society. Toyota Partner Robot development is being carried out with this in mind and applies TMC’s approach to monozukuri (”making things”), which includes its mobility, production and other technologies. In a related development, TMC unveiled the “MOBIRO” mobility robot, designed for use in a sitting position, in 2007.

TMC aims to realize the practical use of Toyota Partner Robots in the early 2010s by furthering its robotic development and strengthening collaboration between industry, government and academia.

Source : Toyota