Build Your Own Segway

bugbear writes "Robot hacker Trevor Blackwell explains how to build your own Segway-style balancing scooter. He says it's not that hard (but he already knows how to build walking robots)."

Comments

It's patented

[sterno]

Most of the technology that makes the Segway work is patented. So sure you can likely build yourself one without pissing anybody off, but don't plan to start a business making them for another decade or two.

Patented -- cannot sell or MAKE

[Anonymous Coward]

A patent can prevent others from selling *OR* making a certain device. So it is actually not legal to build this, even if you have no intent to make money with it.

Read up on patent law.

Re:Patented -- cannot sell or MAKE

[DaHat]

Try again, building it is perfectly legal, profiting from it (financially) is not. Remember that the intent of a patent is to protect ones rights for commercial exploitation of a given method or device.

Re:Patented -- cannot sell or MAKE

[Free_Meson]

Try again, building it is perfectly legal, profiting from it (financially) is not. Remember that the intent of a patent is to protect ones rights for commercial exploitation of a given method or device.

Wrong. The only power granted by a patent is the power to prevent others from practicing the art described by the patent. There is no distinction between personal or commercial practice, it is just much harder to make a case for damages against a private practitioner. It's copyrights that explicitly prohibit reproduction for commercial use, though few folks here know the difference between patents and copyrights anyway.

Re:Patented -- cannot sell or MAKE

[AlecC]

No - it is not legal to build it. But there is no right of punitive damages in patent law. You can only sue for the profits you claim you have lost from the sales that the infringer has lost you. So if this guy makes one scooter for his own use, the only loss to Segway is the net profits on the sale of the one of their products that he might have bought, but didn't. Say $500. And no lawyer is going to uncap his pen for that little money. If he were to start to sell them - which he won't - they would almost certainly sue. "De minimis non curat lex" - The law does not care about trifles. As it is, the tone of his article is, I would say, generally good PR for Segway.

Big wheels

[LauraW]

Er, probably. (Scroll down a bit.)

Slippery riding platform

[chiph]

At first, I just stood directly on the aluminum plate. When I went through some wet grass and then I tipped the handle fairly far forward to accelerate, I nearly slid off and had it run over my heels. So you definitely need some grippy coating. Masking tape works OK, but I'm looking for some nice adhesive-backed rubber.

Skateboard grip tape would be good for this.

Chip H.

Re:Oh, come on...

[pyrrhonist]

A regular commercial airplane will glide maybe 0.5 to 1 mile before it meets the ground.

Airliners have optimal glide ratios of 25 to 1. An airliner will certainly not soar like a glider (i.e. it has a low "soarability"), but it will be able to glide.

For instance, there is the case of the Gimli Glider, a Air Canada 767 that was forced to make an emergency
landing due to running out of fuel. At the time of the failure, it had a glide ratio of 11 to 1, which enabled it to glide for 12 miles to make a safe landing.

Of course, the pilot co-owned a glider...