Milton Teen Invents Electric Unicycle

With affordability and sustainability among the key concepts it's an ambitious project for anyone, let alone a high-school student.

He sure looks like a douche on that thing though.

I'd be very surprised if the Segway's operating mechanism isn't patented, but still this is a very interesting project. It can't be easy to implement the electronics portion, even with a reference.

Ouch, me nuts hurt on me unicycle!.

Neat. But the design would seem to be biased toward young, thin/muscular men, who have the strength in their upper body/arms to support their body weight in this position.

That actually looks pretty fuckin' cool. Beats the look of a hipster scooter or whatever they ride. My $6000 would lean towards this, rather than an expensive bicycle, segway, or scooter.

@ John You sure have a unfair / general image of what a "douche" is.

If anything, the picture / person looks very futuristic.

What? No helmet?

Unicycle? The "side-by-side wheel format" looks a lot like two wheels to me.

Anyway, if they keep in under 32km/h and 500W, maybe this thing can be added to Ontario's e-bike pilot project somehow?

@Vidya: The intention was to give it the look and feel of many popular motorcycles.

@ajrw: It's not an exact copy of Segway's technology, but it's the same principle. In fact, the side-by-side wheels make this unique and require different programming. But effectively, it's the "same."

I see the photo, and I immediately think Akira, the sequel. Very cool!

Ok... Trying this posting for the third time already.... geez... anyways....

Kudos to the yuong guy for making this a working model - but he may not be the first to have done this.

Fellow Torontonian, Trevor Blackwell, has made the electric unicycle - http://tlb.org/eunicycle.html. His website provides the plans on how to build it yourself (it's open source, you see). And in the Pop Sci article, Gulak credits him with the help of designing the balancing system/program when he couldn't do it.

Also, Bombardier has had a concept design, the Embrio, for a while now (since 2003) on a similar kind of motorized unicycle, powered by hydrogen fuel cells. http://www.canadiandesignresource.ca/officialgallery/?p=1255 and http://www.forbes.com/2003/11/04/cx_dl_1104vow.html and http://www.bikernewsonline.com/2005/01/bombardier-embrio-one-wheeled.htm

Regardless of who actually designs/builds these things - I wouldn't be riding them. No less than two wheels for me, please.

It's pretty hilarious seeing different reactions to the guy's look from "douche" to "futuristic", of course coming from the one person who also thinks scooters are too "hipster," even though they're cheaper than this gizmo.

Jeez, people. Nobody cares who you are or how you look. Relax.

Milton is such a hot spot these days. Final Fantasy, Most Serene Republic and now this guy. What's that town's secret?

The suburbs (and nearby cities) are not as bad as most people make them out to be. People are close enough to benefit from the culture and excitement the big city provide, and far enough away to not have to deal with some of the problems that come with urban density.

Top speed is around 60 kph, although it's only optimized for about 25 kph

He better watch out for a copyright infringement lawsuit from the makers of the card game Uno, which is the best card game in the UNI-verse.

Uni usually means one... I see two tires!

Cool idea... needs a better name.

@Ben: Well, it's electric, and there are a lot more sustainable / renewable ways to get electricity than there are to get gasoline.

It will be optimized for higher speeds, but Ben needs a more advanced programmer to improve the stabilizers at higher speeds.

i saw a clip of him riding it on tv, it looks awkward, he needs to work on the seating position

that criticism aside, that kind of innovation is admirable, good for him.

and scooters aren't 'hipster' but vespa scooters are quickly becoming the hipster douche wagon...the transportation equivalent to a mac, you pay a serious $premium$ for the badging but it doesnt do anything any better than the cheaper jap models, in fact if anything, it's less reliable. but it sure looks cool!

Lean, mean suicide machine!