2010: Electrifying! Beautiful, Innovative & Radiant.
Drawing on Display at Michelin Challenge Design™
Biography
Sunil Kharat, 24, was born in India and is currently a Post Graduate student in Transportation and Automobile Design at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. He received a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from Mumbai University in 2007.
He won a scholarship for an Industrial Design Collaboration with the Italian Ministry at the Politecnico di Milano for DIMI (Design Innovation Made in Italy) program aimed to connect India and Italy through Design. He also received special mention for Air flow design in a helmet designed for women organized by Maini Group.
Major projects in his design career have included designing and fabricating a race car chassis for Barracuda b150. He also participated in PININFARINA Design Contest and Peugeot Design contest in 2008. He is currently working on Mumbai Surburban trains as a Systems level project.
Description
The future will not allow us to own multiple vehicles, for instance a car and a motorcycle, due to the rising fuel crisis. In the future, we shall own a vehicle just for the fun of it. My aim was therefore to create a vehicle which will not bore the user. Something very everlasting and fun to drive.
The FLIP is a 4-wheeled, super-capacitor powered fun to drive vehicle. It offers the goodness of both a car and a motorcycle.
The key transformation takes place when the cockpit FLIPLS or Rotates about the two axes of rotation. Thus, the car becomes a bike, ready to ride in just a matter of a flip. This flipping action also reverses the polarity of steering action. This is a battery/supercapacitor powered fun vehicle.
Position 1 is the bike riding posture wherein the FLIP travels in a direction, say left, whereas Position 2 is a car driving posture where the FLIP travels to the opposite direction of the first. In both cases, steering and power controls are foot operated, but the flipping reverses the polarity so that the vehicle does what is expected.
The architecture of the vehicle is two materials – the inner hard and light weight composites and the outer skin made out of soft cushion like substance. Thus, it is a pleasing body to touch as well as strong enough to take any force. It has tilt sensors and no functional handle bars. Steering and power operations are foot operated which help the user to steer the vehicle as well as to control the speed just by tilting them.
The power plant can be easily accessed. Thus, even young girls and old people can easily use it without any difficulty. This vehicle is suitable for all age groups but mainly focusing on how to stay sportlike.
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