Nanotechnology and Cutting Edge Design Combine to Create Yamaha Exoskelton Style Motorbike

At Art Center Pasadena, California professor, Bumsuk Lim, has taken his passion for motorcycle riding and developed a new motorcycle design class, enviro-motorcycles. One of the first designs to come from this is an exoskelton style project vehicle called ‘Deus Ex Machina’ (God Out of a Machine). It is an electric, single passenger, vertically parking, and wearable motorcycle.

The bike has a human muscular-skeletal system that allows the rider to become one with the vehicle. Seven artificial vertebrae behind the helmet support the rider’s head and control of the bike is done with the body via 36 pneumatic muscles and 2 linear actuators. Power comes from doped NanoPhosphate batteries and ultra-capacitors, with an in-wheel motor that gives acceleration of 60 mph in 3 seconds. Recharging takes 15 minutes with a cycle time of 60 minutes and a limited top speed of 75 mph.