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Self-balancing Two-wheeled Scooter The Next Craze?
Self-balancing Two-wheeled Scooter This invention sounds like it could potentially revolutionize urban travelling habits. It's an electrically powered two wheel scooter, but the wheels are at either side of the passenger as opposed to in front and behind. The revolutionary aspect of this lies in the control system. A set of sensors can detect the angle of the vehicle, and accelerate forward or backwards to compensate for your weight... this prevents you from falling off, in theory ;) This task is very similar to balancing two items on a pole, a task which A.I. research is keen to tackle as it is a non-trivial practical problem. Neural Networks have been succesfully evolved to do perform such a task, as well as reinforcement learning schemes. I've no idea what Ginger actually uses, but no doubt it will be revealed in due course! Will 'It' Finally Be Revealed? http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,48703,00.html "Ginger" Revealed as a Human Transporter http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991636 Reinventing the Wheel http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,186660-1,00.html 'Ginger': Think and It Will Do http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,48788,00.html | Alex J. Champandard 930 posts. Tuesday 04 December, 07:20 Reply
Ginger It may have an interesting control system, but I doubt that a scooter like this will really revolutionise public transport in the way that has been claimed by the media. The whole "ginger" project reminds me very much of dear old Clive Sinclair's ill-advised foray into the transport field with the infamous C5. The C5 project was preluded by a similar amount of hype and expectation. I'm sure that from an engineering point of view the C5 was probably a state of the art piece of 1980s technology. Tragically nobody wanted to drive one though. The vehicle was too low to the ground so that it would have been difficult for car drivers to see, yet it was also too big to travel along the pavement (without mowing down hapless pedestrians). The driver of the vehicle had to adopt what at best might be described as a ridiculous posture, with the handlebars tucked underneath the legs, and signalling to turn left or right could potentially have resulted in loss of limbs. The "ginger" machine is a rather different animal to the C5, but the lack of consideration of practicalities is about the same. Would it be safe to drive one of these vehicles either on the road or along the pavement? What happens if you're driving at night (where do the lights go?), how do you signal to turn, and there is also no room for shopping unless you carry a rucksack. All in all I doubt that many people will be rushing out to buy one, except as collectors items to sell again in 20 years time. - Bob | motters 136 posts. Tuesday 04 December, 14:55 Reply
Goal of the Segway It seems to me that the Segway's goal is purely to compete with walking, not with any other vehicle. So complaining about no blinkers, lights, cargo-hold and (On one msg-board) shotgun-rack doesn't seem very appropriate. You don't have all these things when you walk either, so why would you need it on a Segway? I do see a problem with (perceived) safety though. I live in California, and as a bicyclist I am forced to share the road with maniacal car-drivers because it's "too dangerous" for me to share the sidewalk with pedestrians. So what's the difference with a Segway? 12 Mph on a sidewalk isn't exactly slow. In other words, if regulators show a hint of consistency (Not very likely I admit :), the Segway will end up being classified as a bicycle type vehicle, and therefore end up on the road. Definitely not where you want to be with such that thing! Besides all that, although it does seem to hold a lot of potential in certain applications, I don't see Ginger take over the world like its creators hope. It doesn't provide a real leap in range or speed over existing methods (Public transport or a bicycle), and at an initial price of about $3000, it's not exactly cheap. On the other hand, Americans are already very walk-averse. They'd rather look for a parking spot for 10 minutes than have a space on the far side of the parking-lot. Oh well, we'll see what the financial district in San Francisco looks like two years from now :). Jeroen | jeroen 28 posts. Tuesday 04 December, 21:04 Reply
Segway The British are very much like the americans in that respect, with people often prefering to spend ages trying to park rather than walk a few extra yards. I live in York, a city that's popular with cyclists, but in the few years that I've lived here I've seen enough accidents and near-accidents to convince me that being a cyclist here is little better than suicidal. In an ancient city with narrow roads originally designed for Roman trade carts cars and cyclists compete directly for road space. The Segway would probably be great as a sports vehicle, but that's not primarily what it was designed for. - Bob | motters 136 posts. Wednesday 05 December, 02:43 Reply
And York isn't as bad as It can get! I've just spent a whole three years of my life in York, great place... they're doing quite a lot for cyclists, including special lanes and traffic lights. It's still a danger in most parts though, as you have to venture on the road... there's a particular dangerous road right under the library bridge near the University, where cars go very fast! And the bus stop and traffic islands mean that cars go swirving in and out... The centre of town too is pedestrian, and cycling there would be just as awkward. Except here, you can injure someone else as well as yourself (unlike being mowed down by cars, where the driver probably wouldn't notice ;) Now picture London! | Alex J. Champandard 930 posts. Wednesday 05 December, 05:37 Reply
Is it a car? Or is it an automated pedestrian? No! Just neither. That's the problem. It has serious limitations which means it can't blend in with either: too slow for heavy trafic, too dangerous for pedestrian areas. Just like bikes, it will need special areas set-up... and there's why it'll take a hell of a lot of effort for it to take off. Town's can't be bothered with cyclist lanes, or they don't have room... what's changed? | Alex J. Champandard 930 posts. Wednesday 05 December, 05:43 Reply
Bike-lanes Then maybe it will be a success in the Netherlands (Where I'm from). There are bike-lanes that are completely separated from both the sidewalk and the road all over the place. I remember readin a little article on that thing Clive Sinclair came up with, and they mentioned it might become a success in the Netherlands for the same reason. Probably not though. It's way too expensive, and we're still Dutch :). Jeroen | jeroen 28 posts. Wednesday 05 December, 12:41 Reply