The dogs would be harnessed to a wheel like the one linked, turning the mechanism with gears that shift as the speed increases.
Now a greyhound's top speed is 45 mph, a German shepard about 30, but the greyhound is very light and skinny, to make this work you'd want a stronger dog, the gear ratio is what would increase the speed.
To get the basic idea look at one of those hand cranked rail carts. (link)
If Mythbusters was still a thing this might have been a good one to test. Can dogs power a vehicle beyond 100 miles per hour? I'd watch.-- doctorremulac3, Apr 21 2023 The basic idea. https://www.youtube...watch?v=Tg_2i0q8yaY [doctorremulac3, Apr 21 2023] This only with dogs. https://www.flickr....oshamite/7024193035Dogs all pushing one of these in a circle. [doctorremulac3, Apr 21 2023] You'd want the strongest, not the fastest. https://a-z-animals...-10-strongest-dogs/ [doctorremulac3, Apr 21 2023] Human powered speed records http://www.ihpva.org/hpvarech.htmCurrently 89,59mph [scad mientist, Apr 21 2023] Current Human powered record holder https://www.enginee...breaks-world-record [scad mientist, Apr 21 2023] Boy! Dogs really take to powering vehicles naturally. https://www.youtube...watch?v=Rzm9h-fkB-ETails wagging in almost every shot, big doggie smiles. [doctorremulac3, Apr 22 2023] Dog on a stair treadmill would be the way to go. https://www.youtube.../shorts/EMHRsKsCtzAObviously you'd use much bigger dogs. [doctorremulac3, Apr 23 2023] Have you worked with Huskies?! I have a feeling they would protest the boringness rote factor, fold up and lie down, or else figure out how to subvert the system. Sled dogs are SMRT, smart.
You might get standard poodles to do it.-- Sgt Teacup, Apr 21 2023 //You might get standard poodles to do it.//
How about cats? Need a lot more of them but use a series of moving laser pointer dots, one for each cat and you might get them up to speed.
But here's the deal about dogs. I think once they got the idea that running, albeit in a circle, made them go fast, they might actually enjoy it. Dogs love hanging their head out of a car window and feeling the wind in their face. I think they might get it.
Might also fit them with VR headsets that just show them the going forward view. Never said this would be cheap.-- doctorremulac3, Apr 21 2023 The human powered record is 89.59 mph [link]. It would not be surprising if dogs could go faster, but bumping it up more than 10mph at those speeds will take a large increase in horsepower. Since drag is proportional to speed squared, it would take a 24.6% increase in power to get a human up to 100mph.
Now your proposal uses multiple dogs, so this might make it easier since a larger vehicle increases inside volume (allowing more power) faster than drag increases, so assuming you can find a somewhat efficient way to pack the dogs in, there ought to be some size at which this becomes possible.
I'd say you're not looking for the strongest dogs but the ones with the highest sustained power output per unit volume. Weight maters as well, but I think for this, the aerodynamic drag is much worse than rolling resistance.-- scad mientist, Apr 21 2023 Whoa! And that post, that link, is the reason I come to the HB. That's awesome scad, thank you!
Yes, this would have to be enclosed and very wedge shaped. At 40 mph they'd start getting blown off otherwise.-- doctorremulac3, Apr 21 2023 Surely you'd have it fully enclosed [sorry you said that already]... and looking something like the current record holder [link].-- scad mientist, Apr 21 2023 I assume we'd want a human driver, either remote control or helping power it.-- scad mientist, Apr 21 2023 Definitely remote control, the human would just be dead weight. You know, seeing that list you posted I wouldn’t be surprised if you could get funding for this. Who wouldn’t want to see a dog powered car break 100mph?-- doctorremulac3, Apr 22 2023 //the human would just be dead weight// You could use a live human as driver.-- Sgt Teacup, Apr 22 2023 Hmm, living human. Naa, you'd have to pay them. We gotta keep under budget here.
Using a zombie has issues to be sure, but it does solve some problems. What those problems are I don't know, but that's why I need research funding for this.-- doctorremulac3, Apr 22 2023 But zombies have poor taste in clothing, and scoring research funding requires at least a polo and some khakis, if not a suit and tie, not some bloody, torn jeans and missing ear, left hand stump...-- RayfordSteele, Apr 22 2023 Well see? That's why I'm gonna need more funding for this. To quote the great Henry Ford, "The thing hasn't rolled an inch and we still don't have the zombies dressed yet."
I'm paraphrasing of course, if he didn't say that verbatum he probably hinted at it. Was defintely thinking it anyway.-- doctorremulac3, Apr 22 2023 Dogs love running and don't mind pulling, as shown in that last link. It would be a little different having them power it indirectly inside an aerodynamic shell. I bet they would really enjoy it though if training was done in an open cockpit version where they can see where they are going. Then take occasional turns in the closed cockpit version with copious treats during/afterwards, and I bet they would be quite happy. Actually maybe the treat can be that once they reach the end of the speed run, you pop open a few windows and let them stick their heads out. This doubles as an air brake.-- scad mientist, Apr 23 2023 Okay, I really want to do this as a bucket list item, I think people would really get behind it like a X-Prize type deal.
Okay, let's look at the numbers, current top speed of a dog sled is 15mph so we've got a long way to go.
So we need to figure out how to most effectively devide that vehicle weight by dog power, let's go with say, 50 dogs and try for a vehicle that's like... 5 pounds per dog. I'm seeing that pound for pound German shepards have the most horsepower.
I'm seeing from Google: "approximately 0.19 horsepower per dog. Therefore, approximately 5.25 dogs are equivalent to 1 horse.
So we're looking at maybe 10 horsepower for our vehicle, 50 dogs at 80 pounds each, plus 5 for their portion of the vehicle, so roughly 4,000 pound vehicle with 10 HP...
Okay, so my numbers don't work, that's basically the power of a dirt bike pulling a light Humvee so maybe top speed 5 mph.
But my first try at the numbers don't work at all. 50 dogs pulling 5 pounds of vehicle each are going to have a top speed of 15 mph, very easily. Hmm. Something's wrong. Okay, for starters, one horse is 15 horsepower, thank you for that whoever came up with the term horsepower.
Let me start over.
Simplify, get one dog treadmill with the gear enhancement and start from there... I still think this might work, stand by.-- doctorremulac3, Apr 23 2023 Okay, I'm changing the design to a paw powered rail cart style and I'm having the dog power two levers, one the platform for their back legs and the other a handle like on a pushcart for their top legs. They basically look like they’re climbing stairs.
See how fast you can get that thing going then do the math. you're gonna get less vehicle weight per dog as it's distributed over the pack.
Okay, single stairway treadmill that utilized the full weight of the dog. See link.-- doctorremulac3, Apr 23 2023 I'm worried a "stair climber" design might be hazardous to the dog. A smooth (or with small ridges for grip) treadmill/conveyor would be better; still on a slope for the weight advantage. Or just a whopping great hamster wheel. Also, [Sgt Teacup]: poodles are actually one of the smartest dog breeds.-- neutrinos_shadow, Apr 23 2023 Yea, don't want to hurt the puppers, but I'm worried the hamster wheel would add too much weight but it might work.
Maybe just the original idea of the sloped treadmill. I do think it would have to be sloped so you'd have more force, the dog's weight would be factored into the power equation as they climbed.
I think.
By the way, rule: Probably goes without saying but has to be real time, they can't store up energy and do a slingshot deal.-- doctorremulac3, Apr 23 2023 random, halfbakery