Vintage 1973: The Colani Motorcycle Study.

Colani's amazing but non-functional motorcycle design study

Wiki:

"Luigi Colani, (born in Berlin on 2 August 1928 as Lutz Colani), is a German industrial designer whose father came from Madulain near St. Moritz in Switzerland and mother from Poland.

The prime characteristic of his designs are the rounded, organic forms, which he terms "biodynamic" and claims are ergonomically superior to traditional designs. His "kitchen satellite" from 1969 is the most prominent example of this school of thought. Many of his designs for small appliances are being mass-produced and marketed, but his larger designs have not been built, "a whole host of futuristic concepts that will have us living in pods and driving cars so flat that leg amputation is the only option."

The earth is round, all the heavenly bodies are round; they all move on round or elliptical orbits. This same image of circular globe-shaped mini worlds orbiting around each other follows us right down to the microcosmos. We are even aroused by round forms in species propagation related eroticism. Why should I join the straying mass who want to make everything angular? I am going to pursue Galileo Galilei's philosophy: my world is also round. — Luigi Colani

His unconventional designs have made him famous, not only in design circles, but also to the general public. He has received numerous design awards.

Colani currently resides in Karlsruhe, Germany."

..and the not-so-successful Yamaha Alula study

The other Ghost Rider, Pt2.

"Norman, as always, drove like a maniac. Norman was young. He had never ridden any motorized device that lacked onboard steering and balance systems. He rode the bike with an intense lack of physical grace, as if trying to do algebra with his legs.

...they buzzed up along the road shoulder, the smart bike and sidecar scrunching over the oyster shells with oozy cybernetic ease.

From Distraction, by Bruce Sterling.

The Ghostrider robot is built by the "blue team" (composed of graduate and undergradute students from UC Berkeley as well as faculty and graduate students from Texas A&M.) for the Darpa Robotic Vehicle challenge.

This "Grand Challenge" is intended to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicle technologies. DARPA and other US agencies are already funding numerous developments in the robotics vehicle domain. This specific endeavor, however, is targeted to find smart solutions that are to be tested in a realistic scenario under challenging race conditions - something that has never been done before on this scale.

In July 2002, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced that it would award a cash prize of $1 Million to the team that builds an autonomous robotic ground vehicle that will successfully win a race from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

On March 13, 2004, the Grand Challenge took place with no vehicles completing more than 8 miles autonomously before being disqualified. Nevertheless, the event successfully created a community of engineers, garage enthousihast and students who together took the first steps in private autonomous vehicle development.

There was no winner March 13, 2004. So, DARPA decided to hold a new Grand Challenge on October 8th, 2005 with a $2 million prize.

The Ghost Rider contains thirty two (32) seperate electronic components. Beyond DGPS, we are using only high speed camera as sensor input. The are two types of cameras used onboard. First, a pair of high resolution 1600x1200 ethernet cameras manufactured by Cognex used for creating realtime 3D scene of the obstacles in front of the vehicle. Second a single CCD, high speed (40 Hz), color camera is used for road detection.

Here is the Component Diagram with all connections and logic paths....