Vehicle wheel assembly with a mechanism compensating for a varying wheel radius

A vehicle, comprising:

• a vehicle frame;
• and
• a wheel assembly including:
• a wheel body with a contact surface having a center of rotation and a plurality of differing radii as measured between a plurality of points on the contact surface and the center of rotation;
• a connector for mating the vehicle frame with the wheel body;
• and
• a compensation mechanism maintaining substantially constant distance between the connector and the contact surface as measured through an axis passing through the center of rotation,
• wherein the connector comprises a linear slide rail and wherein the vehicle frame is attached at a first location on the linear slide rail and the linear slide rail is slidably engaged with the wheel body at a second location spaced apart from the first location and proximate to the center of rotation, and
• wherein the linear slide rail is slidably engaged with the wheel body at the second location with a linear slide pivotally mounted thereto via a connector component extending through the wheel body at the center of rotation.

A vehicle, comprising:

• a vehicle frame;
• and
• a wheel assembly including:
• a wheel body with a contact surface having a center of rotation and a plurality of differing radii as measured between a plurality of points on the contact surface and the center of rotation;
• a connector for mating the vehicle frame with the wheel body;
• and
• a compensation mechanism maintaining substantially constant distance between the connector and the contact surface as measured through an axis passing through the center of rotation,
• wherein the connector comprises a linear slide rail,
• wherein the vehicle frame is attached at a first location on the linear slide rail and the linear slide rail is slidably engaged with the wheel body at a second location spaced apart from the first location and proximate to the center of rotation,
• wherein the compensation mechanism comprises a cam assembly with a pair of cam tracks on opposite sides of the wheel body about the center of rotation and a pair of cam followers each positioned within one of the cam tracks and mounted to the connector,
• wherein the cam tracks define a non-circular compensation path for the cam followers configured to compensate for the differing radii of a shape of the wheel body to provide the substantially constant distance by moving a frame mounting point on the connector relative to the center of rotation, and
• wherein the connector comprises a pair of linear slide rails provided on opposite sides of the wheel body and the compensation mechanism further comprises a pair of linear slides on opposite sides of the wheel body supported by an axle member extending through the wheel body through the center of rotation, the linear slides each slidably engaging one of the linear slide rails to constrain side-to-side movement of the linear slide rails while allowing linear relative movement of the linear slide rails as the cam followers move along the cam tracks.

A wheel assembly for supporting a frame of a vehicle, comprising:

• a non-circular wheel with a center of rotation and an external contact surface;
• a cam positioned proximate to the center of rotation and defining a cam track;
• a cam follower riding on the cam track;
• and
• a rail rigidly affixed to the cam follower at a first location and slidably supported by the wheel at a second location proximate to the center of rotation, wherein the cam track is defined based on geometry of the external contact surface to adjust a spacing between the first and second locations, whereby a distance between the first location and the external contact surface is constant during rotation of the non-circular wheel.