Tag: Segway

Self Balancing Skateboard Arrives

One problem with learning to ride a skateboard is simply maintaining balance. Staying on the board is the other problem, but again it comes down to balance. If you could solve the former problem, the latter one would be less of an issue.

Now it seems that a few people have tackled the problem by incorporating the same technology used in the Segway scooter into a deck, which was unveiled at Maker Faire 2011. The question here is whether this things is technically still a skateboard or just a revised Segway with a flat board?

Big in Japan: The Robo Skateboard

The Segway is really just a grown-up version of those annoying kiddie scooters – a fad that we keep hoping will finally run out of steam. So we’re skeptical about the still very much in development robotic skateboard that is currently being tested in Japan. Why do the Japanese need a robotic skateboard would be the first question to ask, as the island nation is rather crowded to say the least!

But that doesn’t seem to stop the designers at the Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo from working on a very high-tech board. The Robo-Skateboard prototype according to online reports weights about 15kg, is about 30cm wide and 60cm long and about 25cm thick. It works much like a regular skateboard, where you stand on it and lean to make turns. Your shifting body weight will thus let you steer, but lean forward and you’ll get to pick up some speed. Put your weight directly on your feet and you’ll be flying like Tony Hawk – almost anyway, as this board can hit speeds of 10kph.

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