A wheel that is also a caterpillar, when needed

Yoav Kwa

A prototype of the experimental wheel. The wheelchair industry does not want to take any chances. Therefore, the direction now is agricultural mechanization and small robots

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In a back warehouse in Moshav Kfar Truman, Avishai Novoplansky and Gil Michaeli, 32 years old, want to reinvent the wheel. The startup they founded in 1999 is called "Galileo Motion Devices". The idea is to create a wheel that can behave like a normal wheel, but also like a bulldozer or tank caterpillar. "The original round wheel is a great invention," says Novoplansky, a graduate of industrial design at Bezalel, "it has excellent maneuverability and you don't need to waste a lot of energy to turn it.

But as soon as you reach a puddle of mud, rocks or stairs - the wheel cannot move forward. In such difficult conditions only a caterpillar can provide a solution. But a caterpillar is not convenient for maneuvering and turning and it wastes a lot of energy." Galileo's solution is a normal wheel surrounded by a rubber band. As soon as maneuverability is required, the band stretches to the sides and the wheel turns into a caterpillar.

Novoplansky, who thought of the idea while on a backpacking trip in South America, joined him with his friend from the Beit HaKerem neighborhood in Jerusalem, Michaeli, a business administration graduate, and together they managed to raise an investment of two million dollars and register three international patents. The first application they strived for is an electric wheelchair, which will allow disabled people to climb stairs and travel in difficult areas, including at the beach. A lot of money was invested in research, development and the construction of an initial prototype, the operation of which was demonstrated in front of various companies in the world, with the aim of raising an additional two million dollars to enable the construction of the product.

"The responses were enthusiastic," says Michaeli, "but everyone told us, 'Come when there is a more mature and advanced product.'" The two friends from Jerusalem discovered that a brilliant idea is no guarantee of success. "It became clear to us that the wheelchair industry is controlled by seven or eight giant conservative companies that want to continue to reap easy profits, without taking any risks. We also discovered that the disabled public itself tends to adapt a fixed lifestyle And simply try to avoid reaching hard-to-reach places."

The young entrepreneurs decided to change direction, to agriculture. The technology was presented last February at the SIMA exhibition in Paris for agricultural mechanization. The application is for tractors that need the ability to move on the road but also in muddy fields. "The interest was very great," says Novoplansky, "and we even received orders for several thousand wheels, but we still don't have a product that can be manufactured and delivered."

Galileo recently opened a new front: security applications. The entrepreneurs discovered that in the security market there is a demand for small robots, with photography and surveillance capabilities like a drone, which need to be energy-efficient but also have excellent offense capabilities. Galileo's solution to the conflicting requirements is extremely compact and efficient. The entrepreneurs intend to present the technology at the end of the month at a security exhibition in Florida .

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