MIT Moving Toward Commercial Production of the RoboScooter
11 February 2008
The RoboScooter, a lightweight folding electric scooter developed at MIT, is moving toward commercial production, with an eye toward a public-sharing model based on successful bike-sharing projects such as Velib’ of Paris, according to Raul-David Poblano of MIT. Poblano made the announcement at last week’s Systems, Cities, and Sustainable Mobility summit at the Pasadena Art Center College of Design.
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| The Roboscooter. Click to enlarge. |
The scooter was designed by William J. Mitchell, the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences, and several of his students in MIT’s Smart Cities Group, in collaboration with SYM, a major scooter manufacturer in Taiwan, and ITRI, Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute. A prototype of the new design was unveiled at the Milan Auto Show in November 2007.
Mitchell and his team envision the scooters being provided in racks at convenience stores, train stations and other convenient city locations as one-way rentals. Users would swipe a credit card to remove a scooter from the rack (in which its batteries would be kept fully charged up), unfold it for the trip and then fold it up again to deposit at another rack at the destination.
Provide an optional pedal cranked generator so that the rider can (at least partially) recharge it with their own effort.
Posted by: richard schumacher | 11 February 2008 at 06:50 AM
In some jurisdictions you must include pedals so that the vehicle can qualify as a "bicycle". Unfortunately these "moped" sized scooters tend to be far heavier than you can realistically pedal. The pedals just wind up being a pain (in the ankles).
Posted by: Neil | 11 February 2008 at 09:25 AM
Do we have any figures:
weight / cost / range / speed etc.
It may be a scooter, but it only seats one person.
Again, why not build an e-bike.
There is lots of scope for it - most of them look awful.
Build an e-bike with the Li cells in the frame and the motor in the rear hub, and pedals like a normal bike.
Keep the excess weight as low as possible, preferably 5 - 10KG.
A range of 20 miles would be enough.
or put 1Kg of LI cells in a rucksack that the user "Jack's into" the bike so you cannot steal the batteries.
jm
Posted by: mahonj | 11 February 2008 at 10:35 AM
Pedals are useless for this weight scooter. Feet work better.
Posted by: GdB | 11 February 2008 at 01:24 PM
If pedals are part of existing law and they make no sense, change the law. Laws can be changed to fit existing circumstances. I like the easy availability of this. You get off mass transit and you can get where you want to go. Since the bikes are put into many designated spots, you can have recharging right there.
Posted by: sjc | 12 February 2008 at 08:07 AM
Nice sounding bike. Best of luck.
"The Alexander W. Dreyfoos Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences..."
Drayfoos - which planet was he claiming from?
Posted by: sulleny | 12 February 2008 at 07:43 PM
Pedals would be useful even if they cannot fully power the bike. Using them could extend the range and provide the user with some exercise (health benefit, I would certainly use them).
The only problem is how to include the pedals in order to keep the folding feature intact and making it non-intrusive for users who wouldn't like to use it.
Posted by: sola | 13 February 2008 at 02:56 AM
Folding bykes to be put in the car hood were designed, produced, sold and used after the 1973 petrol price increase. Some electrically assisted folding bykes are available in Europe. But, because they are intended to be used with and without electrical motor assistance, they have dimensions which render them a bit to space-consuming and not easy to put in the car hood without loosing all space.
Conventional pedals will not help a lot. If they are intended to be used only when one have forgotten to check the battery load, why cant we replace them by another system? ( there were some tricyles for handicaped people where the mouvement was provided by oscilating the driving column or some sort of stick.)
Can somebody tell me wether SANYANG is going to sell in Europe? When? How?
What is covered by patents in this scooter?
Who is conceiving/designing the electrical system? How can I contact them?
Thank you
Posted by: BIGOU Jean-Jacques | 11 July 2008 at 10:12 AM
WOW I WANT ONE and then I want to sell them or rent them here in LAS VEGAS
alex kattas
[email protected]
Posted by: alex kattas | 07 November 2008 at 09:04 AM