Zhou Unicycle

Votes: 1
Views: 1023

This design is a convenient and low cast transport means. It is powered by electricity and no carbon emission. Reference Figure 1, this design comprises one wheel with a hub motor, one operating-pedal, one fixed-pedal, one seat, one telescopic handle, battery pack and electrocircuit.

This design comes from one of our inventions, patent-pending, WO2020051678. It is named Zhou Unicycle, for easily comparing with others. It is an improvement from manpower unicycles. Riding a manpower unicycle, the user must have an acute sense (especially the pitch sense) and enough physical ability. This design utilizes electric power to drive the wheel by which hub motor. The user controls the driving force by swing their foot on the operating-pedal. This strong electric power partially compensates for the user's pitch sensitivity and road condition; because the power is strong, so it is easy to operate.

The significant differences from self-balance electric unicycles are that this design needs not electric gyro inside and has operating-pedal. When riding a self-balancing electric unicycle, the user control it by pitching and swing their feet that support their weight. Because of the weight, the response speed of pitching and swing their feet will become slower. Whereas, when riding this design, the user control it by swing their one foot that does not support their weight, the response speed of the swing their foot will be faster than the former. So, this design is easier to operate.

This design has an emergency brake footboard. While in emergency braking, the user stands, the one hand holds the telescopic handle, the one foot on the operating-pedal, the other foot on the emergency brake footboard in back, and pushes the footboard to the ground and slid on the ground for braking. In this process, the user stands by their two feet in tandem, they can control the force of braking, even better than a motorcycle, and even they can change their moving direction. While in other conditions, the emergency brake footboard is folded. Whereas as common sense, unicycles cannot have an emergency brake; When some user wants an emergency brake a unicycle, the wheel will be slid, and they will lose their control and fall.

While in ordinary riding this design, the user’s two hands are free, the user has a lower center of gravity than bicycle, self-balancing electric unicycle, and motorcycle. This is safer for the user.

This design is small. Its size is about an ordinary medium-sized suitcase and can easily be placed in a trunk or be brought in a room or in a bus. So, it is very portable.

This design has very good trafficability. It can pass through any road that persons can walk through, such as forest roads, fields, etc. It is very suitable for field exploration, forest patrol, etc.

Many cities now vigorously promote public transportation and reduce private car travel. This design is the best auxiliary transport means to cooperate with that.

Because of this COVID-19 epidemic, we delayed making the prototype.

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  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Jing Yuan Zhou
  • Type of entry:
    team
    Team members:
    Jing Yuan Zhou
    Jihua Zhou
  • Profession:
    Engineer/Designer
  • Number of times previously entering contest:
    1
  • Jing Yuan is inspired by:
    I keep seeking a more eco-friendly lifestyle, and Zhou Engine is one of them.
  • Software used for this entry:
    FreeCAD
  • Patent status:
    pending