Lem - The Way Of The Future?

[predator]

Found this quite interesting..

Its basically LEM, or a Linear Electromagnetic Motors. As it indicates, it uses 4 small motors to much more finely tune the movement of each wheel over the road surface compared to a strut and coil setup. Was developed by Dr Bose, of course same guy famous for his compact sound systems.

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Featu...rticleId=103183

Wonder when we will start seeing it in production ?

Pft, who needs 'coil overs' when you can have LEM :lol:

[JCMarshall_Law]

Cool stuff hey, would have loved to been one of the engineers on that project.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the technology.

It would be interesting (possibly very boring) if it ever gets used in a racing series. Driving race cars is all about controling weight transfer - it this fancy new technology does it all for you we might as well just have robots driving.

[PHATR32]

dont f1 cars have something simular? which reads the road ahead and adjust the suspension accrodingly?

[predator]

I don't believe so? and if they do, i would have thought it would all programmed in per track, not reacting to suit the conditions of the road as it travelled.

I believe that is how the LEM system would work, although that side it doesn't really go into much detail. Does it use some predictivity? or does some type of ECU communicate between each wheel to balance each other out -- applying compression or contraction in the motors to suit?

[scathing]

LEM does the same thing any other suspension does. It absorbs bumps. Its not "aware" of the road surface in front; the system is fully reactive, not proactive.

The biggest difference is that the system uses electromagnets (like speakers) to provide your cushioning, and the damping rates are controlled by computer.

However, it is an active suspension like the air suspension the high-end Euro cars run, unlike the passive suspension of your traditional spring/damper setup. Since it uses a system similar to high end speakers for damping they can get great resolution on controlling it, with their experience in producting high fidelity speakers.

The biggest hurdle for this suspension setup on production cars is acceptance. Bose has refused to license the technology to car manufacturers. He says that he wants his company to design the suspension setups for any cars it goes into, rather than selling an off-the-shelf part or system and letting the OEMs come up with an implementation.

As you can imagine, this isn't going down too well with the car companies. After all, for all its impressiveness, Bose still has zero experience in designing stuff for cars. But he wants to run lead engineering, and relegate the OEMs to a secondary role, on what will be on their flagship models.

Edited January 17, 2006 by scathing

[predator]

Good further insight. I can't really see that happening, but I can easily see manufacturers skirting it altogether coming up with their own systems, just that little bit different to make it 'their own'.

[Oosh]

But the real intellectual property isn't in the LEM hardware, it's the algorithms Bose has spent the last 25 years developing, my guess is they'll have to come to some sort of compromise before we'll see it on the road.

[mokompri]

..with their experience in producting high fidelity speakers.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i would hardly put bose and high fidelity into the same sentence

their over priced narrow frequency range producing POS, and as far as i know they dont provide speaker specs..

and if thats how hes going about the licencing, i think hes just an absolute tool

[JCMarshall_Law]

i would hardly put bose and high fidelity into the same sentence

their over priced narrow frequency range producing POS, and as far as i know they dont provide speaker specs..

and if thats how hes going about the licencing, i think hes just an absolute tool

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

WTF?

They sound pretty good to me.

[scathing]

I'll back mokompri up on that. Most Bose speakers, especially their Lifestyle range, are more style than substance. Their floor standing range isn't as underwhelming, but that's about it. They're the B&O hi-fi for people who can't afford B&O.

However, compared to the Mini systems and other pieces of junk that most of the Jap manufacturers sell they're still heaps better.

In that way, I'd still class them as hi-fi. Just not very good hi-fi.

[Hill Billy]

Here's a video http://automobilemag.com/news/0410_bose/

about a third of the way down the page