SBIR-STTR Award

Airtrax Corporation proposes to develop the Multiple Purpose Mobility Platform (MP)2 incorporating its own proprietary omni directional vehicle technology. Airtrax's approach is to review all pertinent performance requirements, perform analysis and design and prepare a final report during Phase I. Airtrax has been addressing the well known wheel vibration problem of all omni directional wheel types for the past two years with a proprietary combined analytical and empirical approach, and has made significant improvements. Airtrax intends on using its own off the shelf components to design the MP2 including wheel hub, shafts, bearings, and rollers, vehicle power and control system. Airtrax also maintains proprietary omni directional vehicle design software. The availability of these components, systems, and design software frees up resources to concentrate on minimizing wheel vibration.

Airtrax will commence Phase II with an in depth study and analysis of user needs. This will permit a better definition of performance and design requirements. Airtrax will then conduct further research and experiments to satisfy the few remaining technology issues. Airtrax will engineer, design, fabricate, and test a prototype MP2 platform. The prototype will be designed to facilitate evaluations of several options in powering, control, and several other key features. Following acceptance tests, the MP2 system will be demonstrated on several Navy ships and land based facilities. Lessons learned will be documented in a final report.

Benefits:
The application of omni directional technology is a natural to any material handling enterprise constrained by expensive real estate such as refrigerated warehouses. The at sea Naval material handling environment is one of the most expensive of all. Forklifts, scissor lifts, and other gear are ubiquitous in the material handling world. They are used in every industry world wide Currently there are over one million forklifts in use at any time and over 100,000 sold every year in North America alone. Fork lifts and other material handling gear are currently used on every Navy aircraft carrier, amphibious assault, and combat logistics force vessel as well. Navy ships are literally designed around the lowly fork truck. The introduction of Omni directional technology will permit all of these users to increase the stowage factor by 20 to 25 percent, resulting in better utilization of existing assets, and reduced costs.

Keywords:
omni directional weapons handling material handling engine handling ground service equipment aircraft carrier vehicle control footprint pressure