Two Wheeled Fun
Today I got to try out something I’ve been wanting to try. A Segway. For those of you who have been living in a mayonnaise jar for the last few years, the Segway is a ‘personal transporter’ that has two wheels, and lets you drive around at walking/jogging speeds. It looks much like a two wheeled push-style lawn mower, except futuristic. You stand on top of it, with a wheel next to each foot, and a handle that comes up and branches into a handlebar for you to hold on to. In order to maintain balance, the Segway uses a sophisticated set of sensors and computers to control the wheels. As you begin to tip forward, the motors adjust the wheel positions, keeping you upright. As you continue to lean forward, the motors in the wheels compensate by moving you forward. To stop, you lean backward. Continue leaning backward, and the Segway drives backwards. There is a twist grip on the handle that controls steering. As you turn the grip, one wheel drives faster than the other, and you turn gracefully. If you are stationary, one wheel will move backward, allowing you to rotate in place. The system requires only one control, the single twist grip for steering, to allow you a full range of motion. The system is very agile as well, and one feels quite stable atop it.
For some reason, the museum I work at has one. I don’t know why. No one does. It has been in a box sitting in a back cabinet for quite a while. The other day Drew got permission to unpack it and give it a whirl. After charging overnight, he found me today and said, “Sam, you have to come try this with me.” We read the manual, wheeled it outside, and gave it a go. The first thing you do is turn it on with a little electronic ‘key’. The key is basically just a button that you push against a little pad. It comes with three keys, a beginner key, a sidewalk key, and an open range key. Each key increases the speed and agility just a bit. Naturally, you start your practice on the beginner key, which limits top speed to about 6mph.
When you turn the Segway on, a little orange face appears on the tiny screen. You press the mode button, and the Segway goes into balance mode. In balance mode, it holds itself up, but you should not let go of it, or it will begin to drift away, and will turn itself off. The hardest part at first is getting on. You just step up, keeping the platform level. The first thing is that you will have a tendency to rock back and forth. If you aren’t perfectly upright, the Segway will begin to drive forward or backward, which causes your body to rock, making the Segway change direction. You just rock wildly back and forth, which is quite scary. Once you’ve gotten the hang of getting on, things go fast. You just lean forward to drive, and lean backward to stop. The sensors are incredibly sensitive, and the motors very precise. The vehicle behaves very intuitively, and before long, you can drive it like it’s connected to your brain. I suppose this is the biggest attraction of the Segway.
The Segway is also a kick in the pants, and quite hilariously fun. After upgrading the keys, we moved into a full power mode, which brings the top speed up to about 12mph. You can really whip the thing around, and make some amazingly sharp turns and maneuvers. People also love to watch. As we were driving around outside, visitors walking by stopped to watch, and kids shouted encouragement. We had a great time taking advantage of the fairly nice weather.
The Segway, for all its coolness, is not going to revolutionize transportation. Its limited range (8 to 10 miles), and limited speed make it little more effective than walking. Of course, if you need to be fit enough to stand up straight while using it, and you have to have good balance, meaning people with disabilities or who are elderly will get no use from the Segway. Hence, the only people who need it are people who just don’t feel like walking. You can’t go farther than a walk, and it can’t take you much faster than walking can. I could easily outrange and outrun it on a simple bicycle. $4,000 is a little pricey for something that does nothing that I can’t already do with my own body.
The biggest killer for the Segway is going to be its cost. Sure it is expensive now because it is new, but I don’t think it will get too much cheaper, because of the sheer complexity of the system. Despite the simple and easy to use exterior, you can’t get away from the fact that you need expensive batteries, sensitive sensors, complex control systems, precision servos and flawless gearboxes in order to make the Segway work. I think that even if you gave the patents and blueprints to some Taiwanese engineering company, they wouldn’t be able to manufacture it for sale at less than $1000. And that is just too expensive to be useful. At that price, it will never be anything but a luxury. If it cost less than $200, I could see that being different. I’d buy one at that price, and I think a lot of people would. But until then, it’s just a fun little geek-mobile. I’m glad I got to try one.
Saturday 27 Dec 2003 | Sam | Misc. Technical, Personal
geek mobile…thats awesome…too bad we all cant have one…groups of friends could have segway walks and “lan parties”...I may be mistaken but isnt that where a group of people get together in the same room or at the same location and only talk over their computers? at any rate it sounds like you had fun at work which is a good thing. it also sounds as though you are feeling better. hope so.
I suspect the museum has a Segway so you can put on a transportation exhibit? Happy New Year!