Japanese Scientists Miss The Point, Design Self-Stabilising Electric Bike

Kit Eaton — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:36:00 +0000

OK, I’ll admit that this self-stabilising bike is clever: it’s kind of a Segway turned sideways, using gyros to detect if it’s off-balancing, and adjusting the steering automagically to compensate. It’s also a standard electric bike, so it propels you along without needing any annoying foot-power: very 21st Century indeed.

Apparently it’s quite tricky to get a bike to balance, since steering and such requires a degree of off-balance maneuvering…but the team at Keio University in Yokohama has managed it and their prototype easily manages 2.5 metres per second.

They’re working on making it able to deal with uneven road surfaces, and ultimately they want a zero-speed stable bike, since “Many bicycle falling accidents happen when elderly people stop a bicycle in a crosswalk, and so on.” Great. Though, I’m going to suggest a lower-tech and greener approach: A third wheel. [Physorg]

Gizmodo Australia » gyro

Japanese Scientists Miss The Point, Design Self-Stabilising Electric Bike