A New Personal Robotic Gadget – Solo Wheel 31020

“low-energy, zero-emission, ultra-portable transportation” 
“Solowheel has a top speed of about 12 miles per hour”

The Solowheel from Inventist, Inc. is simultaneously an advanced form of low-energy, zero-emission, ultra-portable transportation and a modern version of Thor’s prehistoric wheel from “B.C.” Not that self-balancing people movers are anything new, even in modern times.

The best known product in this category is the Segway. The main difference between a Segway and a Solowheel is size. The Segway has two wheels and a long handle for the “driver” to hang on to. By contrast, the Solowheel is just what it sounds like – a single wheel, but one with a small handle on top so that when you’ve finished using it for transportation, you can pick it up and carry it with you.

If you’re a student and you use it to get to class, you don’t even need a parking space. You can just park it next to your desk. Or if you’re a commuter and you use it to catch the bus, you don’t have to attach it to the bike rack. You just carry it on with you. It’s like a 25-lb. round suitcase with an electric motor and two small platforms on the sides to put your feet on.

Just don’t expect to use it for long commutes without a bus or a train to help out. In its present incarnation the Solowheel has a top speed of about 12 miles per hour and runs on a battery that has a life, coincidentally, of about one hour at top speed travel. If you try to make a round trip of more than 12 miles, you could find yourself carrying the Solowheel home. So while it may have some practical uses, like making quick trips to the convenience store, the Solowheel is as much a toy as it is a commuter vehicle. It’s perfect for rolling across the park on lazy weekends or just circling around the block, but not so perfect for long distance travel.

Reinventing the Wheel

The people at Inventist, Inc., like to say that they’ve “reinvented the wheel,” which isn’t entirely true. Like every wheel ever made, the Solowheel is round and it rotates, allowing it to roll. There’s nothing new about that. What Inventist has done differently is more in the way that the wheel is used than in the way it works. The Solowheel has a 1,000-watt electric motor that rotates the wheel, a lithium-ion battery that powers theelectric motor and a gyroscope that helps the user stay balanced while moving. It also uses a power regeneration system that can recharge the battery using the kinetic energy of braking or gliding. This doesn’t turn it into a perpetual motion machine, capable of recharging itself fully while it moves, but it can extend the life of the battery if you spend a lot of time riding it downhill or stopping at lights.

The Solowheel doesn’t have much in the way of controls. In fact, it doesn’t really have any at all. You start it by putting your feet on the small platforms extending to each side of the wheel, standing up, and leaning forward. You brake it by leaning backward. And you steer it by leaning sideways in the direction that you want to go. That’s about as simple as walking and you barely have to move your legs (though Solowheel users say that balancing on it and steering for an hour can still give you an exhausting workout). When you’re done with it, you can fold the foot platforms into the case surrounding the upper portion of the wheel and grab the handle on top to pick it up. The Solowheel recharges off normal current and a full charge takes about 45 minutes, so if you want to ride it the full 12 miles to work in the morning, you can have it charged and ready by afternoon to take you home again.

Is it easy to use? The people at Inventist say it is and they have videos of people happily gliding along on a Solowheel without falling down and breaking any delicate body parts. But the reviewers at Engadget say they had a little trouble getting balanced on it in the first place and have videos that show them not quite managing to get on board. Apparently, balancing on a wheel is a skill that takes time and practice to master, though the result could be worth it if you need a quick way to catch your commuter train. It’s also fairly inexpensive, if not the cheapest form of transportation on the block — that would be your feet, followed by a bicycle. And, it’s convenient, cheap to run, easy to store and will get you lots of curious looks from bystanders.

External Links

http://solowheel.com

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/other-gadgets/solowheel1.htm