Up until now, the Segway was considered the most advanced and, at the same time, the most useful personal mobility device ever developed. However, more and more contenders to its leading position have appeared over the past couple of years, the latest being none other than Japanese giant Honda, and their U3-X, a compact experimental device that can be best described, at least at a first sight, as an electric unicycle.

According to the manufacturer's statement, this thing fits comfortably between the rider’s legs and is able to provide free movement in all directions just as in human walking – forward, backward, side-to-side, and diagonally.

Moreover, the new personal mobility device makes it possible to adjust speed and move, turn and stop in all directions when the rider leans the upper body to shift body weight. In addition, this compact size and one-wheel-drive personal mobility device was designed to be friendly to the user and people around it by making it easier for the rider to reach the ground from the footrest and placing the rider on roughly the same eye level as other people or pedestrians.

One of the main components of the U3-X is the incline sensor, which detects the incline of the device based on the weight shift of the rider and determines the rider’s intention in terms of the direction and speed. Based on the data, precise control is applied to return the device to an upright position, which achieves smooth and agile movements and simple operation by weight shift only.

Additionally, the unicycle from Honda sports the company's HOT Drive System, which consists of multiple small-diameter motor-controlled wheels connected in-line to form one large-diameter wheel. By moving the large-diameter wheel, the device moves forward and backward, and by moving small-diameter wheels, the device moves side-to-side.

As mentioned above, the unicycle is also pretty compact, since it measures 315 x 160x 650 mm and weighs only around 10 kilos. Plus, the built-in Li-Ion battery offers a fairly good functioning time, of around 1 hour or so.

For the time being, there's absolutely no word on market availability and pricing, but Honda will be demoing this thing at the forthcoming 41st Tokyo Motor Show 2009, as well as other similar events, probably in order to gather feedback from both analysts and visitors.


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