Motorcycles

Suzuki unveils bizarre 4-legged, stair-climbing motorcycle

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Double-boomerang chassis with articulating, modular motorcycle seat attachment
Suzuki
Double-boomerang chassis with articulating, modular motorcycle seat attachment
Suzuki
The seat unit can stay level even as the legs are at quite an angle
Suzuki
The chassis could represent a good platform for autonomous robotics
Suzuki
Witness my mighty melon basket
Suzuki
You like box? I have box
Suzuki
Robot garbage bins: it's all well and good until Skynet takes over
Suzuki
A robotic stretcher carrier capable of climbing stairs
Suzuki
It's either a next-gen wheelchair, or else the latest in gaming chair technology
Suzuki
Three degrees of leg freedom mean the wheels can point different directions if they need to
Suzuki
MOQBA squad goals
Suzuki
If you've always wanted to ride a Suzuki up the stairs, but never had the courage, MOQBA could be for you
Suzuki
MOQBA looks rather menacing in these renders, but we suspect it'll be dorkier than a Segway in real life
Suzuki
A self-balancing robotic stretcher carrier for disaster zone extraction
Suzuki
View gallery - 13 images

Back in the good old days, you needed skills to ride a Suzuki up the stairs, and people would look at you like a lunatic. On the Suzuki MOQBA quadruped horsiecycle, though, no skills are required, and people are more likely to look at you with pity.

Four small electric wheels, each mounted to a robotic leg with three degrees of freedom, hanging from a double-boomerang frame. That's the chassis of the MOdular Quad Based Architecture (MOQBA) machine that Suzuki has just presented at the Japanese Mobility Show. On top of that chassis, you can run anything from a sit/stand motorcycle seat to a wheelchair, a stretcher, a garbage bin, a robotic arm or a carry basket.

The idea is to create a self-balancing next-gen transport device that can get to places motorcycles can't. Well, not with you or I on board. Throw the key of your Goldwing to Tony Bou and he could probably park it up a tree without putting a foot down.

It's more robotics than suspension, closer to Hyundai's insane Ultimate Utility Vehicles than to any quad bike. MOQBA appears to climb stairs one leg at a time, so it's going to be a long ride to the third floor. But the chassis will rotate around the seat, so you'll stay roughly level even when the wheels are three or four steps apart.

The seat unit can stay level even as the legs are at quite an angle
Suzuki

According to The Ecofinance – and lord knows how trustworthy a source that is – the MOQBA is capable of a 20-mph (32-km/h) top speed, and up to 50 miles (80 km) of range. A touch shy of your GSX-R, then.

Of course, if this "proposal for next-generation mobility" ever goes to production, it'll replace more mobility scooters and wheelchairs than motorcycles. And in that regard, you're looking at a device that could certainly open doors for elderly and disabled users, giving them easy access to subways, rough terrain and more or less any area built without wheelchair access in mind. One look at the dire shape of Japan's population pyramid should tell you why Suzuki is working on this kind of problem.

A robotic stretcher carrier capable of climbing stairs
Suzuki

And with a stretcher on board, disaster recovery teams could potentially use this thing to get injured people out of rocky, rubbly terrain in a relatively stable and comfortable manner. Indeed, the chassis could be a decent platform for all sorts of autonomous or remote-controlled robots, too. Flip through the gallery to see more options for the modular top section

Source: Suzuki

View gallery - 13 images
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2 comments
Smokey_Bear
The stretcher one seems usable, But these days with robot legs (like Boston Dynamics "dog" Spot) I think it would make more sense to put 6 legs on it. Which would make it handle every terrain better, from concrete to stairs to sand.
Daishi
People that design these robots are an interesting bunch. In a robotics competition a while back people realized legged robots with attached wheels could outperform purely legged robots so that became the new meta. There is a far more correct way to accomplish this. You can buy "stair climbing hand trucks" for $100 that have 3 wheels in a triangle that spin to climb stairs. A powered version of that wheel would solve this problem with more stability and less cost. I'm convinced the companies designing these things don't even care about solving the problem. They are just looking for lucrative contracts selling the most complex thing they can get away with building.