Overview
The theme of an electrical Distributed Architecture System (DAS), in which each driven wheel is able to perform both the function of propulsion and the steering angle, had been marginally addressed by the scientific literature and only below the theoretical aspect, while no experimental activity had been documented.
The reason lied in the fact that the use of two electric motors on each wheel for carrying out the actions propulsion and steering would give rise to a bulky and structurally complex DAS electrical system. The solution envisaged by the project made on the contrary the solution of the system above to be feasible.
The project's objective was to give an impetus to the research in the field of Distributed Architecture Systems-DAS with the design analysis of the subsystems composing it and their testing. A first objective consisted in the definition of the performance for the electrical DaS Distributed Architecture System and in the determination of the behavioural specifications for subsystems components.
The research project was based on the use of electric motors with two degrees of freedom of swinging-sliding type, able to perform in an integrated way both the propulsion as the steering action with the goal of developing a distributed architecture system (Das) of electric propulsion and steering with concrete application prospects. In fact, compared to the recent past, the design methodologies of the electric motors, the composition of ferromagnetic materials and technologies mechanical machining had progressed considerably and would also allow the construction of structurally complex engines at low costs.