It was supposed to be the Christmas present to get, but last month Amazon pulled personal rideable self-balancing scooters from its website amid fears they catch fire. Incredibly around 15,000 were confiscated by UK customs officials between October and December last year being deemed unsafe for use. What’s more, using one on public pavements or roads is a being labelled an offence by officials. In short, these personal electrically powered vehicles have become known for their controversial status as much as anything else.
In the midst of all of this, you would guess then it is not the best time to launch a self-balancing scooter? Well, not for one UK tech start up based in London. Last month, Uniwheel invited UK press to its launch event to show off its self-balancing electric mono wheel with the aim to convince the press that these boards are safe, easy to ride, and have a place in 21st Century Britain.
“We see a big future in the UK market,” said Steve Milton, chief executive of Uniwheel. “But, we also see big markets in other Europe cities, which are embracing this technology as a way of moving around. It would be a shame for London to fall behind.”
Legal obstacles
The company understandably question why The Highway Act of 1835 is being referenced by councils and Police departments as reason for making the gyro-wheeled electric vehicles illegal for use on anything but private land.
“We are lobbying and pushing very hard to try and change the law because it is so outdated,” continued Milton. “It includes things like tying up a mule against a post. How can a law from over 150 years ago take in to account new technologies?”
Uniwheel is of the opinion that the law needs to be adjusted and brought up to date, but it is also in favour of having the emerging personal electric vehicle market regulated to ensure that safety and build quality standards are something everyone has to comply to.
The team is proud of the fact that its Uniwheel is designed, engineered and assembled here in the UK, with expertise and engineers coming from a number of big names in industry including the Williams Formula One team, Jaguar Land Rover and Dyson.
The device follows the broad principles developed for the Segway Personal Transporter, initially released in 2001. At the heart of the design are two 3-axis paired solid state accelerometer and gyroscope sensors – essentially Inertia Measuring Units (IMUs) – which measure acceleration in all three axes, as well as yaw, pitch and roll. This information is fed in to a Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller that sends control output to the 1500W internal hub motor.
Uniwheel lead engineer, Eric Sokolowski, said: “When you lean forward it applies power to try and keep you upright.”
Two steps beyond
The Uniwheel also uses a pair of infrared sensors above each step, where riders place their feet. If the rider comes off, the Uniwheel knows it, and instantly stops.
“We think that should be a standard in the entire market,” said Sokolowski. “We’re trying to set precedents for the good design and good practice of these devices.”
Hall Effect sensors are also used to tell if the steps are folded up or down, and correspondingly if it is about to be ridden. A capacitive sensor is used under the handle to detect if a hand is present, so the device knows it is being carried, and not about to be ridden.
“It is a lot more complex than a lot of the products on the market as we have quite a few sensors and use network architecture,” explained Sokolowski. “We have one board that is responsible for the axillaries such as the outside sensors that improve usability, and then we have the main control board to calculate how much power to put in to the motor.”
The battery is a removable Lithium Iron Phosphate pack that offers the necessary power discharge to accelerate Uniwheel to its top speed of 22kph. Battery selection was also at the heart of delivering the necessary range, rated between 11km and 15km depending on users’ weight and how fast they ride and accelerate.
“It is my daily commuter,” said engineer, Carson Brown. “All of the engineers here commute on these every single day. I commute 5.5 miles each way and it takes me 28 minutes. The tube take 32 minutes. This is more fun and I’m in the fresh air.
“It does take a bit of refining to learn, but when you get it, you get it. You don’t learn to ride a bike in a day, and it is the same with a Uniwheel.”
Engineers and staff at Uniwheel were warm and friendly, and the team was young and clearly believe they are engineering the future. They were keen to get journalists up and riding to show them that this is a device that is quick to learn, safe, and potentially a big part of the future urban transport mix.
As you would expect from a product that is young, innovative and trendy, the usability and ‘experience’ is enhanced by a smartphone app to tell users the distance and speed travelled. It gives estimated range remaining by overlaying a circle on a live GPS map. It also allows you to change the response of the device from an eco-setting up to sport mode. And this all helps the device to learn so it can tailor the set up and response of the Uniwheel to an individual based on how they ride.
| The controversy
The law bans taking ‘horse, ass, sheep, mule, swine, or cattle or carriage of any description, or any truck or sledge on the pavement’, and many are left bemused that such an old law is now being used. Many users also highlight that this law has not been enforced with skateboards or skaters, which presumably come under the same jurisdiction. It is a strong sentiment, and unusual for a Government department to single out a product and find legislation against its use after so many have purchased one. Watchdog Electrical Safety First estimates 500,000 people in Britain have bought some kind of personal electrical vehicle, and a further million are considering it. “You need to use common sense and ride it responsibly,” said product design engineer, Steve Godden. “But I have never had any problems riding it in and around London. “It’s like Uber. There is criticism at the beginning but once people use it, learn about it, and realise it is fundamentally better than what is out there now, then they get behind the fact it’s worth updating or changing the law for.” But the controversy doesn’t stop there, while Uniwheel is confident its device more than satisfies the regulators, some Chinese imports are reported to not even have basic fuses. Several high profile reports claim the dodgy imported devices have caused house fires. |
 Uniwheel spec
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