Self-balancing wheelchair wins Autodesk Inventor Student Design Contest

A group of Polish technical students won this year's Autodesk Inventor Student Design Contest with their design for a tricked-out self-balancing wheelchair. Functionality details are pretty light -- the site just says the chair uses "a gyroscope [to] remain vertical while only using two wheels" -- but there's no shortage of sweet gangsta lean or fly rims in the render. Screw the Autodesk competition -- these kids should've sent this design directly to Bad Boy.

[Via MedGadget]

[paloooz @ Jul 6th 2007 6:50PM]

Just have the weight distributed below the "axel" between the wheels. Big deal.

Everyone thinks the Segway is some uber awesome thing that breaks the laws of physics ... nah, the platform you stand on his below the center of the wheels. No big deal.

[paloooz @ Jul 6th 2007 10:53PM]

Clearly I didn't make my facetiousness obvious enough ...

[KawF @ Jul 6th 2007 6:51PM]

So... it's a oversized Segway-copy?

[Ant @ Jul 8th 2007 8:19PM]

You ain't kidding Segway. If the battery goes in this thing your head will be eating pavement real fast. At least with the segway you can step off it, but this, your in a whole world of hert before you come to a halt under a car, or even worse get hooked to the front of a passing lorry for a few miles.

[Peebert @ Jul 6th 2007 6:52PM]

Soooooo... all that advanced gyroscopic stuff and computer control is engineered to replace... a simple third wheel? Sorry, but I don't see how this is appreciably better than a regular motorized wheelchair.

[Galley @ Jul 6th 2007 7:01PM]

Because, the iBOT, Dean Kamen's self-balancing wheelchair can bring the user up to a normally-standing person's eye level, and perhaps more importantly it can climb stairs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBOT

[Peebert @ Jul 6th 2007 7:39PM]

But this is not the iBot. The iBot, if I remember correctly, had additional wheels to allow climbing and whatnot. This... This is just a wheelchair with an overengineered replacement for a third wheel.

[Big @ Jul 6th 2007 7:00PM]

why don't they use all that engineering prowess to design replacement legs?

[Boynamedsue @ Jul 6th 2007 7:00PM]

was this an inventor contest, or a homebrew contest? seems like all the student did was apply segway technology into a wheelchair.. which has already been done by kamen and his "we'll change the way cities operate" crew.

cool? sure. Inventive? sure... if you're the inventor.

[Blake Kachman @ Jul 6th 2007 7:06PM]

now even the disabled can use segways : )

[Big @ Jul 6th 2007 7:14PM]

didn't that guy PINKY in the DOOM movie ride around on a SEGWAY since he had half a body?

[NewMarket @ Jul 6th 2007 10:34PM]

is that supposed to be funny? "even the disabled?" I think it's more like with the segway "even able bodied people can use a great dean kamen invention."

[Zeus the God @ Jul 6th 2007 11:31PM]

Not quite, I think Pinky had a third wheel on the back... I just watched that like 20 minutes ago... I'll have to look again, but I'm too lazy.

[Straat @ Jul 6th 2007 7:20PM]

This wheelchair is designed by a group of Polish students. They just sent the design in to a contest organized by a Dutch university.

Did you guys actually took the time to read the source of your article?!?

[Nilay Patel @ Jul 6th 2007 7:35PM]

Check the source again -- while the chair was originally designed for the University contest, it also won the AutoDesk competition. Hence the label "Grand Prize Winner."

[shinbidy @ Jul 7th 2007 4:45AM]

@Nilay Patel: It was designed for Dutch university contest, and later sent for AutoDesk competition, right. But like Straat wrote, they are not Dutch students, they are Polish students, from Warsaw.

"Wheelchair for the 21st Century

Michal Piersa, Milosz Jamrozy, Igor Modelski,
Bogusz Radziemski, Rafal Krzysiak and Kamil Ruszczyk
Politechnika Warszawska, Poland "
http://students6.autodesk.com/?nd=competition_winners&lbon=1

[Iain @ Jul 6th 2007 7:22PM]

Just a less safe/heavier version of a regular wheelchair...

My brother has an ibot which also can balance on two wheels. it can climb and descend stairs.

http://www.ibotnow.com/ibot/


What is so amazing about this?

[Jeremy I @ Jul 6th 2007 7:56PM]

If you Google "self-balancing wheelchair" the iBOT comes up as the first result. Obviously, these guys didn't do ANY research for this entry. Another reason that Autodesk is the Microsoft of design software. They are only popular because everyone uses them and has always used them.

[a @ Jul 8th 2007 3:06PM]

Autodesk is in sort of a tight situation right now. Solid modeling is mostly done on Solidworks and ProE, not Inventor (Current v. 12). The reason of course is cost, and because solidworks is more popular, other companies, like National Insturments, make plugins to expand the functionality of the programs together, which drives up the popularity of Solidworks especially. Point: Autodesk is not the microsoft of CAD. there really isn't one (ProE has a linux compatable build for secure worksites), but it sure isn't Autodesk.

~A

[Homeboy @ Jul 6th 2007 9:15PM]

Will it come with an iPhone dock?

[relacks @ Jul 6th 2007 9:49PM]

i think it's pretty cool. didn't anyone go to high school; you don't really do research there any more.

i think the wheels should be on the outside though with the rails on the inside. only makes sense because the rider's forearms are going to get all chewed up by the wheels.

[Turtle @ Jul 6th 2007 11:30PM]

Segway is actually slightly top-heavy. Sure, there are batteries below the axle line, but try standing on a nonpowered one for about three seconds, then rub your bruised ass.

[d-coi @ Jul 7th 2007 12:11AM]

I agree that it's not that innovative, but what bothers me is those rims...
All they need to add now are some streamers by the breaks for some extra 'style'.

[Rick Lyon @ Jul 7th 2007 12:13PM]

Why would Bad Boy want the design for a self balancing wheel chair? Is P Diddy unable to walk nowadays? If it;'s because of the 'tricked out wheels' I still fail to understand the record label association? Why would Bad Boy care for tricked out wheelchair wheels? Stupid joke not well thought out I guess.

[Greg Zapp @ Jul 7th 2007 6:31PM]

Umm.... That render looks horrible, and as others mentioned there is no new technology here. What kind of contest was this and why did they win?

[Lewis @ Jul 8th 2007 1:55PM]

i competed in a Autodesk Inventor competition, they didn't make us have to design something that complex.

[Ken @ Jul 9th 2007 11:19AM]

Autodesk Inventor sucks! Look at the crappy "human" model he had to use. That's because you can't do shit with thier software. It's bloated and weak.

[JoeS @ Jul 9th 2007 5:58PM]

Cool concept.