Lifting Actuator Concept and Design Method for Modular Vehicles with Autonomous Capsule Changing Capabilities

Novel vehicle concepts are needed to meet the requirements of resource-conserving and efficient mobility in the future, especially in urban areas. In the automated, driverless electric vehicle concept U-Shift, a new form of mobility is created by separating a vehicle into a drive module and a transport capsule. The autonomous driving module, the so-called Driveboard, is able to change the transport capsules independently and is therefore used to transport both people and goods. The wide range of possible capsules poses major challenges for the development of the Driveboard and the chassis in particular. A lifting actuator integrated into the chassis concept enables levelling and, thus, the raising and lowering of the Driveboard and the capsules to ground level. This means that no additional lifting devices are required for changing the capsules or for lowering them to the ground, e.g., for loading and unloading the capsules. To realise this mechanism simply and efficiently, a fully electromechanical actuator is designed and constructed. The actuator consists primarily of a profile rail guide, a steel cable winch, an electric motor, a housing that connects the subsystems and a locking mechanism. The electric motor is used to lift the vehicle and regulate the weight force-driven lowering of the vehicle. This paper describes the design of the actuator and shows the dimensioning of all main components according to the boundary conditions. Finally, the prototype model of the realised concept is presented.