2010: Electrifying! Beautiful, Innovative & Radiant.
Drawing on Display at Michelin Challenge Design™
Biography
Arun Thomas was born in 1983 in a small place called Kerala in India. He received his Mechanical Engineering Degree from Anna University in 2005 and did his Post graduation in Transportation Design from MIT Institute of Design, Pune India.
He is currently working as an intern with Mahindra Navistar (International) in Pune, India and recently completed an internship with JOHN DEERE India.
This was his second international competition entry. His first design entry, a concept named STREAM, was selected as a finalist for VDA Design Award 2008 and was displayed in IAA International commercial Auto Show, Germany.
Right now he is dreaming of the day when he creates concepts which reflects his home town values, ideas, approaches and culture. He believes each country has its own values and culture so being an Indian he is trying to define Indian aesthetics.
Description
Green …Green…Green one of the hot issues that has been discussed by designers, scientists, engineers and environment activists around the world. There has been lots of research going on in terms of alternative power for the vehicles. In this scenario, YOG was a small attempt to give a new thought to make a green vehicle without compromising power.
FUTURE POWER SOURCE
There has been a lot of research going on regarding generating power from thunderstorms but to capture a lightning is one of the toughest things to be done. If we capture that, then storing this energy is another huge problem. In thunderstorm lightning, most happen mostly between earth-cloud or cloud-cloud. Now imagine a situation where we are capable of creating thunderstorm clouds in a closed system. Now, create the situation for the lighting to happen. So every time we need electric power we create the situation inside the closed system which generates electricity. Maybe in the future this entire story will be as simple as a match box and a match stick (ready to ignite).
A thought – if a baby is born in a test tube then why can’t a thunderstorm.
THE HEART
The vehicle moves with the forward thrust created by a simple tuned up aircraft engine with an electrically driven propeller. The power source, the electric energy is being taken form the battery which is stored inside the vehicle. The vehicle is being steered with the skid steer mechanism
THE WHEEL DYNAMICS
The YOG’s wheel consists of an elastic wheel hub and an elastic rubber tire. The tire is freely connected to the hub. The hub is enclosed by elastic composite materials. Now imagine that we have magnets with single North Pole (may be an electro magnet) in the shape of small balls. Now fill half elastic tube (circular) with the magnets. Fill air enclosed in (another flexible tube) and use this as a separation from both the layers of magnets. Now by changing the repulsion power we can define the shape form proper circle-ellipse.
FORM AND POSTURE
The name, the form and posture is inspired from YOGA (it’s a method practiced in India to join the individual self with the Divine, Universal Spirit through Physical and mental exercises). This was a small attempt to create a vehicle with some Indian values in it.
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