A unicycle device with human/electric hybrid power drive and longitudinal attitude control

This paper is on the study of a single wheel device which can be driven by both human and electric power. The conventional unicycle via human power only is usually for sports or performs, seldom used for transportation. The riders need training/practice and good balancing for successful manipulation. The difficulty is on the longitudinal balancing during operation. In the proposed single wheel device, the mechanisms of hub motor and gyro achieve electrically driving and longitudinal balancing. The operation is thus become easier. The lateral balancing relies on human effort as in the operation of a bicycle. For the unicycle via both human and electric hybrid power, the static part of hub motor is enlarged and hollowed for installation of human drive shaft. Bearings embedded between the static part and human drive shaft. Human drive shaft linked to one side of exterior of hub motor via direct coupling or speeding gear set. Relative to the unicycle via electric power only, due to the usage of human power drive, the associated sensing/control/battery/display/handling modules can only be supported by one side of hub motor's static part.