A self-balancing unicycle (also electric unicycle) is an self-balancing unicycle personal transporter. 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, accelerometers in a similar way to that used by the Segway PT.
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Theory of 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.
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History
Early experimentation
A hand-power monowheel was patented in 1869 by Richard C. Hemming with a pedal-power unit patented in 1885. Various motorized monowheels were developed and demonstrated during the 1930s without commercial success 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.
Commercialisation
In 2003, Bombardier announced a conceptual design for such a device used as a sport vehicle, the Embrio. 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. In November 2006 Janick and Marc Simeray filed a US patent for a compact seatless device, the same year that Aleksander Polutnik demonstrated a first two-axis balancing human-ridable unicycle, the Enicycle. In 2008, Focus Designs released the first commercially available self-balancing unicycle and RYNO Motors demonstrated their prototype unit.
Shane Chen of Inventist launched the compact seatless 'Solowheel' in February 2011 and in the following month concluded a licencing agreement with the Simeray brothers and filed a patent relating to the device which was challenged by the Simeray brothers in a related patent application filed in 2015.
Late in 2015, the Ford Motor Company patented a "self-propelled unicycle engagable with vehicle", intended for last-mile commuters.
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.
- 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.
- Thor, fictional inventor of the wheel and the comb, of the comic strip B.C..
- Securitrons from Fallout: New Vegas.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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