Legally, the Segway is not a motor vehicle and can run on sidewalks at speeds up to Both Segway models boast small fenders to prevent flying gravel and mud, and each has rubber tires similar to a gas-powered scooter. The industrial model weighs 80 pounds, while the smaller, personal Segway is 65 pounds.
Each Segway comes equipped with a bit encrypted magnetic key to prevent theft. The key can also be used to ask the Segway to conform to a profile that governs speed, turning radius, and battery life. The principle is simple: as the rider shifts his or her balance, the Segway adjusts itself to keep from tipping over.
The same algorithm governs the turning radius at various speeds, preventing the driver from tipping over while cornering. Douglas Field, vice-president of product development at the company. But standing on a stepladder on a Segway is not recommended. This causes the feet to move forward to prevent a fall. As long as you lean forward, the brain will initiate the forward foot movement.
Instead of falling, you move forwards one step after the other. The brain and the muscles. The Coriolis Force describes the deflection of moving objects when they are viewed in a rotating reference frame.
When one observes an aeroplane that apparently flies in a straight line, the line appears to be curved, as the earth below is also moving. The Segway PT has five gyroscopic sensors, even though only three are necessary, to measure the weight shifting forward and backward - the "pitch", left and right - the "roll" and the steering left and right - the "yaw".
The additional sensors serve the redundance to make the product even more reliable. Information about the weight shifting of the driver and the steering movement is transmitted together with the information from additional inclination sensors to the "brain" of the Segway PT. The brain consists of two redundant electrical circuit boards, which are respectively fitted with a group of microprocessors. The battery and motor winding are also redundant.
They work together to share to the necessary propulsion of the workload. The Segway PT also has other additional microprocessors. The vehicle requires this much computing capacity because precise steering calculations must be carried out in the shortest possible time to prevent toppling. If a circuit board or the associated battery, motor winding or wiring fails during the drive, the other redundant system takes over all functioning.
To turn left or right, the rider turns the right handlebar forward or backward. This balancing act is the most amazing thing about the Segway, and it is the key to its operation. To understand how this system works, it helps to consider Kamen's model for the device -- the human body.
If you stand up and lean forward, so that you are out of balance, you probably won't fall on your face. Your brain knows you are out of balance, because fluid in your inner ear shifts, so it triggers you to put your leg forward and stop the fall.
Instead of falling, you walk forward, one step at a time. The Segway does pretty much the same thing, except it has wheels instead of legs, a motor instead of muscles , a collection of microprocessors instead of a brain and a set of sophisticated tilt sensors instead of an inner-ear balancing system.
Like your brain, the Segway knows when you are leaning forward. To maintain balance, it turns the wheels at just the right speed, so you move forward. On September 14, , Segway, Inc. Several riders have fallen off of their Segways and suffered injuries like broken teeth and a broken wrist. Segway is offering a free software upgrade that will fix the problem, which is available at Segway dealerships and service centers [ ref ]. At its most basic, the Segway is a combination of a series of sensors, a control system and a motor system.
In this section, we'll look at each of these elements. The primary sensor system is an assembly of gyroscopes. A basic gyroscope is a spinning wheel inside a stable frame. A spinning object resists changes to its axis of rotation, because an applied force moves along with the object itself. If you push on a point at the top of a spinning wheel, for example, that point moves around to the front of the wheel while it is still feeling the force you applied.
As the point of force keeps moving, it ends up applying force on opposite ends of the wheel -- the force balances itself out. See How Gyroscopes Work to learn more. Because of its resistance to outside force, a gyroscope wheel will maintain its position in space relative to the ground , even if you tilt it. But the gyroscope's frame will move freely in space.
By measuring the position of the gyroscope's spinning wheel relative to the frame, a precise sensor can tell the pitch of an object how much it is tilting away from an upright position as well as its pitch rate how quickly it is tilting. A conventional gyroscope would be cumbersome and difficult to maintain in this sort of vehicle, so the Segway gets the same effect with a different sort of mechanism. Segways use a special solid-state angular rate sensor constructed using silicon.
This sort of gyroscope determines an object's rotation using the Coriolis effect on a very small scale. Simply put, the Coriolis effect is the apparent turning of an object moving in relation to another rotating object. For example, an airplane traveling in a straight line appears to turn because the Earth is rotating underneath it. A typical solid-state silicon gyroscope consists of a tiny silicon plate mounted on a support frame.
The silicon particles are moved by an electrostatic current applied across the plate. The particles move in a particular way, which causes the plate to vibrate in a predictable manner. But when the plate is rotated around its axis that is, when the Segway rotates in that particular plane , the particles suddenly shift in relation to the plate. This alters the vibration, and the change is in proportion to the degree of rotation. The gyroscope system measures the change in vibration, and passes this information on to the computer.
In this way, the computer can figure out when the Segway is rotating along particular axes. Check out this site for more information on solid-state silicon gyroscopes. The Segway HT has five gyroscopic sensors, though it only needs three to detect forward and backward pitch as well as leaning to the left or right termed "roll". The extra sensors add redundancy, to make the vehicle more reliable.
Additionally, the Segway has two tilt sensors filled with electrolyte fluid. Like your inner ear, this system figures out its own position relative to the ground based on the tilt of the fluid surface. Mar Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. This website uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies Ok.
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