Smartwheels

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Smartwheels are a fictional type of wheel featured in Neal Stephenson's science-fiction novels Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. Arthur C. Clarke wrote of a similar adaptive wheel concept in 2001: A Space Odyssey (novel).

In a possible case of fiction inspiring real-world technological innovation, The Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech is developing a robot they have dubbed IMPASS, which possesses rimless wheels.RoMeLa homepage

Excerpt from page 28 of the paperback edition of Snow Crash:

Buy a set of RadiKS Mark II Smartwheels—it's cheaper than a total face retread and a lot more fun. Smartwheels use sonar, laser rangefinding, and millimeter-wave radar to identify mufflers and other debris before you even get honed about them... Each one consists of a hub with many stout spokes. Each spoke telescopes in five sections. On the end is a squat foot, rubber tread on the bottom, swiveling on a ball joint. As the wheels roll, the feet plant themselves one at a time, almost glomming into one continuous tire. If you surf over a bump, the spokes retract to pass over it. If you surf over a chuckhole, the robo-prongs plumb its asphalty depths. Either way, the shock is thereby absorbed, no thuds, smacks, vibrations, or clunks will make their way into the plank or the Converse high-tops with which you tread it. The ad was right—you cannot be a professional road surfer without smartwheels.

In Snow Crash, smartwheels are prominently used on skateboards and advanced motorcycles. They have a passing mention in The Diamond Age as being used on a wheelchair belonging to a minor character. Clarke's version of adaptive wheels are utilized by the lunar transport which shuttles Dr. Heywood Floyd to the site where the Tycho Magnetic Anomaly TMA-1 was excavated on the moon.