Imgoldby Transporter - "tracks" with reels on a cable

[theponja]

Surfing the web I found this strange Imgoldby Transporter seems a kind of tractor. The only facts seems to be is a British military vehicle between wars:
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205090659

What call my attention are the "tracks" wich are a collection of reels on cable. Why that tracks? What was the idea?

Anyone has more information ?
Regards
Alcides

 

[Jemiba]

This vehicle is shown here, too : http://clubs.ya.ru/4611686018427439455/posts.xml?tag=65104476
No hard information, but the suggestion, that this type of tracks, without hinges and metal links
would save resources and ease manufacturing and maintance.

 

[Stranger_NN]

There Reprint from me: http://strangernn.livejournal.com/517852.html

Unfortunately, I wrote about what I see, and nothing more. :-[

 

[Nik]

If the bobbins were free to rotate, could that reduce the friction and 'scuffing' during turns ? IIRC, that is one of the main causes of track-link wear and failure, not to mention the way conventionally tracked vehicles chew up the road surface on bends...


I'm reminded of a ?Swedish design for fork-lift trucks with oval rollers set diagonally on wheel rims. It can spin on the spot without turning wheels to L/R or scuffing treads on floor. No need for Mr. Ackerman's ingenious linkage...

 

[shaba]

It looks like it is related to the snake tracks tested on the medium mark D http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/MediumDDoubleStar.jpg

 

[theponja]

Jemiba thanks for translation and the link, maybe that was the idea to save metal.

Nik do you have more information about that project? Sounds interesting.

Stranger_NN I found your reprint in my search, I can't read russian so I was hoping you have more information, seems we all know the same.

Shaba do you have more information about that "snake tracks". I saw the image but it's difficult to google that subject I ends in sites about snakes

 

[Nik]

OT: omni-wheel or holonomic wheel

Google for either term.


They've apparently found favour with robotics community due to lack of Ackerman steering mechanisms and their tracking / control issues.


Added: Here's some full-size usage...
http://www.oemoffhighway.com/article/10632736/movement-without-limits

 

[shaba]

most of what i know about the snake tracks comes from a book by guinness full of tank facts a striped out mark4 tank was fitted them and set a world record speed for tracked vehicle's. here is another link that calls them rope track.
http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/

 

[Stargazer]

With the modern polymers and similar synthetic materials, I'd imagine the rope tracks would be not only much cheaper to build, but also lighter. Now I guess the maneuverability part is where the system would be surpassed by more traditional types of tracks, because in soft ground, there are no flat areas to rest upon, and the wheels would get muddled much more quickly.

 

[Jemiba]

I'm wondering, if such a track could be build with two ropes per track, allowing for a kind
of threaded cushions, that wouldn't rotate perpendicular to the driving direction. Externally
such a track wouold look just like a conventional one, but without the need of links

 

[Sea Skimmer]

A track made with ropes wrapped in rubber and other materials is what band track is. They've been around a long time, since the Second World War anyway, but they've always had serious durability problems and only work for lighter vehicles preventing large scale adaption. You can make them last pretty well for normal road/grass movements but they tend to be torn apart by stuff like stone walls and cars that armored vehicles are expected to drive over. Quick example here.
http://ciar.org/ttk/mbt/armor/armor-magazine/armor-mag.1999.jf/1horn99.pdf