Patent ID: 11945529
Assignee: PLASAN SASA LTD.
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 13:
14. A modular slave vehicle articulatable at one end thereof to another slave vehicle and at another end thereof to an independently driven master vehicle having a coupling portion, simultaneously, said modular slave vehicle comprising:
a body including a driving system for driving said modular slave vehicle;
a slave structural frame supporting said body, having a rear end and a front end;
a master coupling system in the form of a mechanical stress absorbing coupling mechanism mounted to said front end, said master coupling system being detachably articulatable to said coupling portion of the master vehicle so as to constrain, at least partially, all translational DOF of the vehicles relatively to each other, and leave at least one rotational DOF at least partially unconstrained;
at least one first slave coupling device mounted to said front end distal from the master coupling system;
at least one second slave coupling device mounted to said rear end; and
a load carrying platform with a rear load carrying surface extending above said rear end of the structural frame, and a front load carrying surface extending above said front end of said structural frame, wherein said two load carrying surfaces are disposed at the same height with respect to said structural frame such that when two slave vehicles are articulated, they form a common bed therebetween;
wherein said first and second coupling devices, when mounted to two adjacent slave vehicles intended to be articulated to each other, are detachably connectable to each other to form a tandem coupling configured to constrain all DOF therebetween.