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Innovation Tank

Innovation Tank

Innovation Tank

Innovation Tank

The Innovation Tank is a caterpillar single rider vehicle developed at UCLA Innovation Lab from scratch. The caterpillar belts and all the joints were 3D printable, and we re-used filament spools as wheels.

The tank employs total 3kw motors with 40Ah batteries, which brought it to drive at a maximum of 15mph and duration of a few hours depending on drive conditions. Tested on campus with a human driver on it, and now working on some minor improvement on this vehicle.

We are planning on new tank designs to drive on the beach or to climb stairs.

Technical Details

  • Innovation Tank Belt

    3D Printed Belts

    • Belts consist of two parts: Thread parts (PLA or ABS) and gripper (TPU) connected with zip ties.
    • Belts employs lattice structure (HoneyComb) in order to optimize the amount of material used (reduce calculated density), while maintaining structure strength.

  • Innovation Tank Wheels

    Filament Spool Wheels

    • 8 filaments spools (MatterHacker) were used as wheels.
    • Each spool contains two bearings and attached on a fixed axis.

  • Innovation Tank Frame

    T-slotted Aluminum Frame

    • Entire frames are made of T-slotted aluminum re-used from UCLA classes.
    • We didn't cut the aluminum, but picked size we want from those scraps or adjusted our design correspondingly.

  • Innovation Tank Power

    Power and Motors

    • Two 1.5kw e-bicycle motors.
    • Powered by 40Ah Lithium-ion battery.

Videos

  • Demonstration on north campus

  • Innovation Tank Drive

  • Tank Mechanism