You missed the point. Meaning that they don't have the basic engineering knowledge to get it to balance on two wheels. It's not assuming that you need basic engineering to get it done with two wheels. But rather, that these clowns don't even have the "basic engineering knowledge" "needed" to get it to work on two wheels.
I'd call this fakery a complete "hazardous to your safety" piece of garbage.
I agree, for a device to balance on two wheels on its own (not a bicycle) you need to design a system with gyroscopes, microprocessors and powerful servo motors; not a basic design at all. That's why the Segway cost so much.
Believe it or not, the "inverted pendulum" problem is a common problem in any undergraduate control systems lab, So I guess it sorta qualifies as "basic engineering know how". What's difficult is cramming it all into a scooter and having the processing power available to analyze all your inputs (gyros, accels, encoders, etc.)- and making it safe if, say your batteries were to start to die (alot of hobbyists fail to consider this and when their microprocessors begin to lose power, or their inputs devices suffer low voltage the device "flips out"). Now, I'm not saying I could do it- It's tough- It's hard enough to do it when the base isn't moving- but with a couple of months of R&D I'd wager that any undergraduate worth his degree could get one of these things running semi-reliably tethered to a larger computer. (For a fun experiment though, take a pendulum and oscillate the base up and down- It'll stand up. The more power you put into it, the more it will be resistant to you pushing it over. If you steal a spoon from IHOP, flatten it, and pin the handle to a reciprocating saw- that works really well)
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
"Whatever company built this thing lacked the basic engineering skill to make it self-balance"???
Come on, it takes a little more than "basic engineering skill" to make a self-balancing two-wheeled transportation device!
You missed the point. Meaning that they don't have the basic engineering knowledge to get it to balance on two wheels. It's not assuming that you need basic engineering to get it done with two wheels. But rather, that these clowns don't even have the "basic engineering knowledge" "needed" to get it to work on two wheels.
I'd call this fakery a complete "hazardous to your safety" piece of garbage.
I agree, for a device to balance on two wheels on its own (not a bicycle) you need to design a system with gyroscopes, microprocessors and powerful servo motors; not a basic design at all. That's why the Segway cost so much.
@John:
Which is why people seem to make their own models for relatively cheap? (http://www.tlb.org/scooter.html)
Believe it or not, the "inverted pendulum" problem is a common problem in any undergraduate control systems lab, So I guess it sorta qualifies as "basic engineering know how". What's difficult is cramming it all into a scooter and having the processing power available to analyze all your inputs (gyros, accels, encoders, etc.)- and making it safe if, say your batteries were to start to die (alot of hobbyists fail to consider this and when their microprocessors begin to lose power, or their inputs devices suffer low voltage the device "flips out"). Now, I'm not saying I could do it- It's tough- It's hard enough to do it when the base isn't moving- but with a couple of months of R&D I'd wager that any undergraduate worth his degree could get one of these things running semi-reliably tethered to a larger computer. (For a fun experiment though, take a pendulum and oscillate the base up and down- It'll stand up. The more power you put into it, the more it will be resistant to you pushing it over. If you steal a spoon from IHOP, flatten it, and pin the handle to a reciprocating saw- that works really well)