This RC tank has Möbius strip tracks

Möbius strips are sometimes used to represent infinity, as a result of they’re steady loops with solely a single floor. They will’t exist in actual life, as a result of each stable object in actuality has thickness — even when it is rather skinny, like a bit of paper. However we are able to assemble related objects that loop and twist over on themselves. James Bruton demonstrated that idea by constructing an RC tank with Möbius strip tracks.

This venture doesn’t appear to have any actual goal past curiosity. Bruton wished to see how Möbius strip tracks would work and so he constructed this tank to search out out. The treads and many of the remainder of the tank have been 3D-printed, with the tread hyperlinks getting a particular design that lets them pivot relative to one another. They pivot simply sufficient that the every observe was capable of make a half-twist over the course of 8 or 9 hyperlinks. That half-twist is what makes the tracks just like a Möbiusstrip, as a result of the “outer” floor continues endlessly and transitions to being the “inside” floor after which repeats endlessly.

As is the case for a lot of of Bruton’s creations, this tank has an Arduino Mega 2560 for management. It receives instructions from Bruton’s common distant by way of an OrangeRX DSM2 radio receiver. A DC gear motor drives every observe, offering loads of torque.

In testing, this tank carried out equally to a regular RC tank—although there may be, presumably, extra friction to beat. When the tracks are naked plastic, they slip on onerous surfaces quite a bit. When Bruton added grippy pads, they didn’t slip fairly sufficient. However apparently, the distinctive geometry of the tracks implies that one “aspect” might be grippy and the opposite slick. The observe will then alternate between the 2, although that doesn’t appear to offer any actual profit.