Check Out This Wild “Rhino” Electric Tank

So much of traditional vehicle design is the practical result of the use of internal combustion engines. For example, consider why cars typically have long hoods with the engine in front. That’s for packaging and weight distribution, which is necessary because engines are heavy and bulky. There are numerous examples like that and electric vehicles can ignore most of them. Many of those also apply to other types of vehicles. By taking advantage of the flexibility offered by electric motors, James Bruton was able to build this wild “Rhino” electric tank.

Bruton was inspired by a project attempted by Colin Furze last year, in which Furze tried to recreate a strange ATV/tank concept vehicle thing devised in the ‘50s by Elie Aghnides, called the Rhino. The key feature of the Rhino is the large hemispherical wheels with a huge amount of positive camber. This was supposed to help it traverse deep mud, as the contact surface area would increase the deeper it sank. Furze’s recreation was based on a 4WD articulated tractor. The problem was that it was extremely heavy and its engine limited the weight-reduction opportunities. That ultimately resulted in a vehicle that didn’t perform well, which Furze referred to as his first failure.

By harnessing the power of electricity, Bruton was able to avoid almost all of Furze’s issues. Bruton also constructed the vehicle from scratch using steel tube and 3D-printed parts, which let him keep the weight down. Less weight means less required horsepower, which means smaller motors and less weight. It also helps that this is more compact than Furze’s tank and isn’t meant to be ridden.

In fact, this only needed four ODrive M8325S motors. Those are hefty by electric motor standards at 100KV, but they still weigh less than a kilogram each and can fit in your hand. With a lot of gear reduction, they provide enough torque for this application. Four additional linear actuators can adjust the tank’s camber angle and their motors are actually much larger than the drive motors. A Teensy 4.1 development board controls the ODrive motor drivers and the drivers for the servo linear actuators. It receives input from an OrangRX DSM receiver, which works with Bruton’s universal remote so he can pilot it remotely.

To test this, Bruton invited Furze over and ran the tank through a field. This worked... okay. It failed at clearing much of the same terrain as Furze’s tank did and that seems to indicate a fundamental flaw in the concept. Additional traction on the wheels would help a lot. And, of course, this isn’t a fair comparison to Furze’s project. While Bruton probably could ride on his tank, it wasn’t built for that.