Monocycle is first of all a modern personal mobile transport. Someone who is going to master this type of transport is definitely a person with a fine sense of balance in motion, able to enjoy life, prone to some risk, keen, athletic, with an active lifestyle.
The monocoach is a high-tech, knowledge-intensive technical means of transportation for one person. And like most modern technical devices, it combines an impressive simplicity of design and construction with a rich scientific and technical history of evolution. The evolution of the wheel into a monocoach.
Today, it’s easy to see the design in photos of the monocycle on the web pages of stores and manufacturers. You can also get some insight by watching videos of monocycles posted online. And, of course, better than a photo of a monocoach is its test drive, when you can feel the device in your hands. However, it is unlikely to see the internal device, because the monocoach is a one-piece, virtually indestructible unit in operating conditions.
Structurally, the monocycle is a motor vehicle based on an electric motor powered by a battery. In this sense, the design of the monocycle has close and distant relatives, depending on each of its parts.
Monocycle and electric motor
So what’s in a monocoach from an electric motor? It’s simple – there’s a stator and a rotor. Except that in a regular electric motor the rotating rotor is inside a stationary stator. In a monocoach, the stator with electromagnet windings is located on the wheel axis, and the rotor rotates around it in the form of a rim with permanent magnets. The rotation is provided by synchronized inclusion of the stator electromagnets so that they attract the permanent magnets of the rotor-rim. And the force of such attraction is not even small, as, for example, a powder magnet on the basis of magneto alloy was able to lift an object exceeding the mass of the magnet by 4450 times, and the magnet created by the Japanese with the size of one square centimeter is able to attract 900 kg of cargo.
Monocycle and mobile gadgets
But unlike a motor-wheel, a monocycle has a task not just to move, but to move with a given orientation in space – the vertical position of a monocycle rider. Previously, a similar problem had to be solved for water and air vehicles – submarines and airplanes. And it was solved with the help of a gyroscope – a device that keeps its initial orientation in space. But it only became possible to solve a similar problem in such a small size as a wheel for a one-man ride after the advent of MEMS sensors (microelectromechanical systems), which have become widespread in smartphones and tablets.
So how does the gyroscope in a monocycle work? Like walking. But unlike walking, when using a monocycle (another name for a monocycle), a person’s legs do not move, but stand on special footrests (like pedals) attached to a high-strength plastic body that covers the rotor-rod and stator of the electric motor. When walking, in order not to fall when leaning forward, a person puts his foot up. With a monocoach, everything changes. When a person leans forward, the weight is transferred to the front of the foot, the footrest and the wheel stator will turn in the direction of the lean.
The monocycle and the computer
In the process of learning to ride a monocycle, there is essentially a synchronization of the internal gyroscope of the human vestibular apparatus with the gyroscope of this miracle machine. Such synchronization requires good speed and would not be possible without the development of microprocessor and computer technology. This is why a special on-board computer performs wheel control. But the computer is most likely a distant relative, as it cannot perform the main purpose of the wheel – rolling. However, the presence of a computer in the design of the monowheel also allows providing audio accompaniment, even playing music, for which audio system speakers are installed in the body. In addition, a computer combined with a wireless communication channel can link the wheel control system with the monocycle rider’s mobile device and, among other things, enable security systems.
The monocycle and the bicycle
Finally, a rim with a tire and an air-inflated rubber tube have been introduced into the monocycle design from a bicycle and a car. This allows you to cushion small bumps and jumps when rolling over small pavement irregularities. But, of course, it is the bicycle, or rather its one-wheeled representative – unicycle, is the distant ancestor of the monocycle, in fact unicycle with an electric motor.
