Segway
| This material has been produced by the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ)
under contract to the Ministry of Education. It has been written to assist teachers
and schools in their delivery of the technology/ hangarau curriculum statements.
The project is jointly coordinated by personnel from the Technology Education
New Zealand (TENZ)
and National Association of Māori Mathematicians, Scientists and Technologists
(NAMMSAT) networks. Monitoring and evaluation of the material is carried out
by a national project advisory group. |
News
An article in Time magazine early in December 2001 unveiled
the prototype of a spectacular new invention – the "Segway"
– to an expectant world wide audience.
The Segway is a self-balancing motorised scooter that
it is predicted will transport a person over a range of about 30km for
a cost of less than NZ20cents a day - at speeds up to about 30km per
hour. Its inventor, Dean Kamen, is convinced that it will eventually
replace cars in crowded city centres.
The revolutionary two-wheeled device uses a complex array
of gyroscopes and computers to mimic the human body's sense of balance.
"The big idea is to put a human being into a system where the machine
acts as an extension of your own body," Dr Kamen told Time magazine.
So users will lean forward to move forward, lean back to slow down and
turn by twisting the handle.
Although the Segway company does not see the machine as
a replacement for the car, particularly on longer trips, it does see
it providing a practical solution for travelling around congested areas
of a city and as a potential "people mover" in developing
countries like China. It expects to have a consumer model on the market
at a price of US$3000 within a year.
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Ideas for classroom use
Dr Kaman is a well respected inventor who over the course of his career
has developed several highly successful devices such as the first portable
insulin pump, a briefcase sized dialysis machine, and a wheelchair for
invalids that is capable of climbing stairs. The unveiling of the "Segway"
– the first self balancing, electric powered transportation machine
– finally put to rest immense speculation about the nature of the
device Dr Kaman has been working on over the last few years.
The launch of the prototype received huge publicity and its development
to full scale production will undoubtedly occur under the full media spotlight.
This should ensure that it can provide valuable case study material for
use in technology education programmes.
In the article in Time magazine Dr Kamen claimed that, "cities need
cars like fish need bicycles". He claimed that his invention will make
getting around cities so simple that cars will not only be undesirable,
but unnecessary. This statement could provide a useful starting point
to class exploration of the potential impact of such a device. Where else
could the device be able to be used to advantage?
Now that the nature of the invention has been revealed a raft of potential
problems have been raised. What problems would students envisage?
"The big idea is to put a human being into a system where the machine
acts as an extension of your own body," says Dr Kamen. This is achieved
through a complex array of gyroscopes, computer chips, and tilt sensors
that check the centre of gravity of the person standing on the platform
100 times a second. The complexity of this control system would appear
to open up quality assurance issues. The safety standards which would
apply to such a machine could be explored.
With a target price of US$3000 and, through the use of electric power,
the likely running cost restricted to less than 20 cents a day. What will
be the likely consumer market? Who are the major stakeholder groups? What
are the implications for these groups?
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