人生の軌跡を綴っていきます


by yu-fen-sun
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Honda rolls out 'Segway' of unicycles

Honda rolls out (量産する) 'Segway' of unicycles (一輪車)

Honda Motor Co. unveiled on Thursday a new compact self-balancing vehicle that looks like a futuristic (未来型の) unicycle.

Unlike other self-balancing devices like the two-wheeled Segway or Toyota Motor Corp.'s Winglet, Honda's U3-X is a one-wheeler. It can move back and forth and even side to side, thanks to a ring of small perpendicular (垂直の) wheels lining the outer edge of the main wheel, Honda said.

The vehicle has a seat on the top and a tiny footrest (足置き) on each side of the wheel. Riders steer by shifting their weight, while balance-control technology developed from research for the Asimo, Honda's bipedal (二足の、二足歩行の) humanoid robot (人間型ロボット), automatically keeps it upright, Honda said.

"This is the result of our efforts to create a mobility device that can exist together naturally with human beings," Honda President Takanobu Ito told a news conference in Tokyo.

The vehicle weighs less than 10 kg, making it easy to carry by its handle.

Honda officials said they think the electric unicycle will mostly be used indoors.

But Ito said the company isn't planning commercial sales just yet because the device is still in the experimental stage.

"We have not yet determined whether to jump into the market or not. We will think about and try many kinds of possibilities for the device," he said.

The motor-driven device can operate for an hour on its lithium-ion battery (リチウムイオン電池), which takes 90 minutes to charge, the company said.

Honda plans to showcase the U3-X at Tokyo Motor Show 2009, which gets under way (始まる) Oct. 24 at the Makuhari Messe convention center in the city of Chiba.

この一輪車、テレビで見たのですが
凄く不思議・・・・
どのようにバランスを取っているのか
説明されてもピンときませんでした。
by yu-fen-sun | 2009-09-25 13:15 | 英語関連