One-wheeled Segway?

[BruceWright]

Well, if they just made one big thick wheel, you could have a one-wheeled Segway.... but it couldn't turn very well!








Look closely at this one... look at the back.





See the little sensor wire telling the thing where the floor is?

I guess we have another thing that only works on flat ground. If they used gyros, they'd probably fall foul of Segway's patents.

Interesting, nonetheless. And look at the date. It's pre-unveiling of ginger!


http://fhznet.fh-bielefeld.de/fb2/labor-le/einrad.html


-Bruce Wright

Segway: Vehicle of Dream

[Stan671]

VERY INTERESTING!

They use one fat wheel which takes care of the side-to-side balancing. The wire in the back (some models have a small wheel) gives the machine the location of the floor so that it knows which way is straight up. The lean forward to go forward/lean backward to go backwards seems to work almost exactly like the Segway HT.

From the videos it appears that turning is accomplished by leaning into the turn. It does not seem that it can spin in place, though, because it looks like it needs forward motion to make the leaning make the turn. It does not appear to be able to turn very sharply either.

It probably does not use any like of gyros at all. The wire-to-ground seems to be it's only reference. This means that it can only go on perfect flat and level surfaces. A sloping surface would make the machine stand at a 90 degree angle to the surface, therefore, it would not stand vertical (in terms of gravity) and this would probably make it drift, of at least the rider seem off balance.

A rough surface would probably give the wire-to-ground reference a headache with all of the small and fast changes to the input.

Still, this is very interesting piece of machinery. Can someone please translate the german to english for us.

Stan Dobrowski

[ZoliHonig]

Where are the controls!

I think that big wheel probably has 3 sectionals so it can turn with a zero radius like the seg.

Very cool though.



-Zoli

[dhugger]

Remember this guy?
http://tlb.org/eunicycle.html

[Deviant]

All it would need is a two sectioned wheel to turn, but it appears to be motor driven on one side only. If that's so, it would require the ability to brake the other wheel half, or just turn one side very fast, outspinning the other.

[GadgetmanKen]

quote:Remember this guy?
http://tlb.org/eunicycle.html

Yeah, he's the one who made his homebuilt Segway with off the shelf parts. Looks like he also copied this einrad scooter too. Except he didn't use a tire as wide as the einrad. Thats why he has such a problem with his nuts and waving his arms side to side for balance. But I must say he does make reasonable copies of the items he gets specks for, doesn't he?

Man, I like the pic of the one that has patios for the feet. That would have been my logical solution for the pegs. They are a real pain in the Arch . I had pegs like those on my sons scooter I built for him and after five, ten minutes the arches were killing ya. So I made patios for the feet. Big difference! Oh, did you see the Coca-Cola one? That was cool.

"Wouldn't it be cool, if?...is like Folgers in my cup"

[Stan671]

The one-wheeled thingy has only one wheel. Turning is accomplished by leaning in he direction of the turn. I suspect that this leaning puts uneven pressure on the very wide tire and it deforms somewhat and this accomplishes the turn.

This is why I said that I don't imagine it can turn very sharply and must be moving forward to actually turn - it cannot spin in place.

Stan Dobrowski

[GadgetmanKen]

What gets me is how wide the thing is. Did you notice how wide you sit on it. just imagine if you side swiped someone with those long pegs. Ouch. I do love it tho. It seems it is a little harder to control from looking at the videos that the larger the person (child versus an adult) it seems not as easy to manouver. Sounds like the gearbox is really grinding away.

I agree having a split wheel (essentially two) side by side would help facilitate turning better without as much lean. Possibly having a mechanism built in where leaning to one side would pivot a bit and give little braking on one wheel,enabling a controlled turn. It seems funny watching them trying to figure out what to do with thier hands and arms. Perhaps a handlebar would be at least more comfortable. Don't ya think? Wonder what the bug is and why they aren't selling like crazy yet? Do you think perhaps having an extra set of sensors in front say maybe two more checking for slight hills or surface rises would help? They probably would have to edit the software too.

"Wouldn't it be cool, if?...is like Folgers in my cup"

[SegwayBill]

Stan
I could make a very small circle.
When do we get to try one?


Bill

[Stan671]

quote:Originally posted by SegwayBill

When do we get to try one?

Come on Bill, you know that they would be illegal in New York <grin>

Stan Dobrowski