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Legway, the Low Tech Segway

When the Segway first came into the spotlight, the world was amazed by the simple, yet very effective personal transportation. The world's first self-balancing human transporter, as it was called by Dean Camen, got these recent days an upgrade and will soon become the PUMA, the same good-old Segway, only with two seat and a roof and a steering column...

Ok, so it's not the good-old Segway, but rather Segway's first step into the small vehicle segment. You won't see it on the sidewalk anymore, but on the streets. Fortunately, those of you who liked the original idea more than the PUMA have nothing to worry about.

Enter the Legway, as its creator calls it. No gyroscopes, no servo drive, no "Lean Steer" handlebar. Just a home made, self balancing, human powered low tech version of the Segway. The news of this new contraption came via www.instructables.com (all the details of how the Legway was built are available there) and we must say it really caught our eye.

The Legway is based on the Universe Cycle and was designed by using Autocad (so there is technology behind it after all) and then built by using everyday tools. The result is a leg-powered vehicle, just like a bicycle. The functioning principle of the Legway is the use of two driving wheels, connected to a couple of coupling rods (who also act as foot rests).

The Legway doesn't need any steering system. The change of direction can be achieved by spinning only one of the wheels - right wheel to go left and the other way around, just like the tracks of a tank.

As for stability, well, that's another issue, yet unsolved. The creator of the Legway though allow everyone interested to chip in and come with new ideas regarding the project, so we might see new versions of the human propelled personal transporter in the near future.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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