Electric unicycle
An electric unicycle (generally abbreviated as EUC ) is a self-balancing personal transporter with a single wheel. The rider controls the speed by leaning forwards or backwards, and steers by twisting the unit using their feet. The self-balancing mechanism uses gyroscopes and accelerometers in a similar way to that used by the Segway PT.
Operation
Most commercial units are self-balancing in the direction of travel only (single axis) with lateral stability being provided by the rider; more complex fully self-balancing dual-axis devices also need to self-balance from side to side. The control mechanisms of both use control moment gyroscopes, reaction wheels and/or auxiliary pendulums and can be considered to be inverted pendulum.
As the wheel is large (in comparison with others, say, kick scooters) and because the tire is inflatable, it is possible to jump onto curbs.[1][2]
History
Early experimentation
- See also Monowheel
A hand-power monowheel was patented in 1869 by Richard C. Hemming[3] with a pedal-power unit patented in 1885.[4] Various motorized monowheels were developed and demonstrated during the 1930s without commercial success[5] and Charles F Taylor was granted a patent for a "vehicle having a single supporting and driving wheel" in 1964 after some 25 years of experimentation.[6]
Commercialisation
In 2003, Bombardier announced a conceptual design for such a device used as a sport vehicle, the Embrio.[7] In September 2004 Trevor Blackwell demonstrated a functional self-balancing unicycle, using the control-mechanism similar to that used by the Segway PT and published the designs as the Eunicycle.[8] In November 2006 Janick and Marc Simeray filed a US patent for a compact seatless device,[9]. In 2008 RYNO Motors demonstrated their prototype unit.[10] In January 2009 Focus Designs demonstrates electric unicycle to Segway inventor.[11] In March 2010 Shane Chen of Inventist filed a patent application for a seatless electric unicycle (associated with the "Solowheel" product launched in February 2011[12]). In Oct 2010 Focus Designs published a video of an electric unicycle with hub motor and a seat.[13]
Late in 2015, the Ford Motor Company patented a "self-propelled unicycle engagable with vehicle", intended for last-mile commuters.[14]
Popular culture
- A self-balancing unicycle was described in 1969 in The Man From R.O.B.O.T., a short story by science fiction author Harry Harrison.[15]
- Fenton Crackshell, a Disney character, is depicted wearing a robotic unicycle suit as Gizmoduck.
- Demolishor, a Decepticon from the 2009 Transformers sequel, whose robot mode is a gigantic robotic unicycle.
- The "tumblebugs" in The Roads Must Roll
- The protagonist in the Flash browser game, Little Wheel.[16]
- In The Lorax, protagonist Ted Wiggins uses a self-balancing unicycle with handlebars.
Gallery
Companies
- Inventist Inc[18]
- Ninebot Limited[19][20]
- InMotion Technologies Co[21]
- Gotway[22]
- Kingsong Intell Tech Co[23]
See also
- Ballbot, a mobile robot designed to balance on a single spherical wheel
- Honda U3-X, which looks like a self-balancing unicycle, but balances on a powered Omni wheel
- Inertia wheel pendulum
- Onewheel, a sort of electric skateboard
- RIOT wheel, a ridable single-axis self-balancing unicycle with an unusually low centre of gravity, with its rider in front of, rather than on top of its single wheel
- Uno, a sort of dicycle
References
- "Learn how to do a rolling jump on a unicycle". YouTube. 2018-03-24.
- "How to Jump with ANY Electric Unicycle". YouTube. 2019-07-10.
- Improvement in velocipede, 1869
- US Patent 325,548
- "One-wheeled motorcycles: As cool as they are wildly dangerous". Wired. 24 March 2014.
- US Patent 3,145,797
- "Hot Wheel". Forbes.
- "Journal entry for 25 September 2004". Live Journal. 25 September 2004.
- US patent 6,616,313 Motorized transport vehicle for a pedestrian
- "A brief history of the RYNO". RYNO.
- "SBU meet the Segway | Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc". focusdesigns.com. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
- "Solowheel self-balancing unicycle is as easy to ride as it is to afford". Wngadget. 2011-02-11.
- focusdesigns (2010-10-11), Self Balancing Unicycle (SBU) V2.0, retrieved 2018-10-07
- Read, Richard (December 29, 2015). "Ford Patent Could Transform Your Car Into A Unicycle". The Car Connection. Internet Brns Automotive Group. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
- ANALOG — Science Fiction/Science Fact, Vol. LXXXIII, No. 5, July 1969, pp. 120-151. Illustrations by Peter Skirka.
- "Little Wheel - game at". Fastgames.com. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
- "SBU testing has begun… | Self-Balancing Unicycle | Focus Designs, Inc". focusdesigns.com. Retrieved 2018-10-07.
- Solowheel
- http://no-en.segway.com/about-us-(1)
- https://www.ninebot.cn/
- https://www.inmotionworld.com/company/who-we-are
- https://www.kebye.com/
- https://www.kingsong.com/list-13.html
Further reading
- Research papers (in reverse date order)
- Wu, Junfeng; Zhang, Wanying; Wang, Shengda (26 November 2012). "A Two-Wheeled Self-Balancing Robot with the Fuzzy PD Control Method". Mathematical Problems in Engineering. 2012: 1–13. doi:10.1155/2012/469491.
- Tomašić, Tomislav; Demetlika, Andrea; Crneković, Mladen (2012). "Self-balancing mobile robot tilter". 36 (3). Transactions of FAMENA: 23. Cite journal requires
|journal=
(help) - Ruan, Jian-Wei Zhao; Xiao-Gang (1 September 2011). "Modelling and Control of a Flexible Two-Wheeled Self-Balancing Mobile Robot". International Journal of Systems, Control and Communications. 3 (3): 330–355. doi:10.1504/IJSCC.2011.042438.
- Ben S. Cazzolato, David Keith Caldecott, Andrew John Edwards, Matthew Anthony Haynes, Miroslav Jerbic, Andrew Christopher Kadis and Rhys James J. Madigan Micycle - A Self-Balancing Unicycle, University of Adelaide, 2010
- Johnson, R.C. (2002). "Unicycles and bifurcations" (PDF). American Journal of Physics. 66 (7): 589–92. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.693.5310. doi:10.1119/1.19027.
- Zenkov, DV; Bloch, AM; Marsden, JE (2001). "The Lyapunov-Malkin Theorem and Stabilization of the Unicycle with Rider". Systems and Control Letters. 45 (4): 293–302. doi:10.1016/s0167-6911(01)00187-6.
- Zenkov, DV; Bloch, AM; Leonard, NE; Marsden, JE (2000). "Matching and Stabilization of Low-dimensional Nonholonomic Systems" (PDF). Proc. CDC. 39: 1289–1295. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2003-06-27.
- Ulyanov, S. V.; et al. (1998). "Soft computing for the intelligent robust control of a robotic unicycle with a new physical measure for mechanical controllability". Soft Computing. 2 (2): 73–88. doi:10.1007/s005000050036.
- Sheng, Zaiquan; Yamafuji, Kazuo (1995). Realization of a Human Riding a Unicycle by a Robot. Proceedings of the 1995 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. 2. pp. 1319–1326. doi:10.1109/ROBOT.1995.526027. ISBN 978-0-7803-1965-3.
- A. Schoonwinkel, Design and test of a computer stabilized unicycle Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, California, 1987
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Self-balancing unicycles. |
- Other
- Flexible two-wheeled self-balancing mobile robot, 9th IFAC Symposium on Robot Control (2009)
- Balancing on one wheel scooter Hackaday (March 2007)
- MF2006: The electric unicycle April 2006
- Photo of Trevor Blackwell's electric Self-balancing Unicycle (April 2006)
- Build Your Own Self-Balancing Unicycle (January 2005)
- Reference to Trevor Blackwell's electric Self-balancing Unicycle (September 2004)
- Legality crowdsourcing forum electric unicycling (detailed legal information for a number of countries)
- Electric Unicycle Forum (International forum on electric unicycles)
- How to deal with Electric Unicycle's tire pressure (Blog post on electric unicycles)