Most of us have ridden bicycles some time in our lives. Now a new kind of cycle has been developed—a monocycle (so called since it has just one wheel). Monocycles have been known for decades but they never gained popularity because it was difficult to maintain one's balance while riding them.
The new invention has two interesting features—it has no pedals and it is self – balancing! There are several sensors, gyros and an accelerometer that maintain the balance and a hub-mounted motor that drives the monocycle forwards and backwards. All that you need to do is to lean forward in order fro the monocycle to move forward and lean back for it to brake, as sensors detect your body movement and feed it to the motor.
You can also stop it by putting your foot down on the ground. You can learn to drive it within 20 minutes. The motor is driven by a rechargeable lithium ion battery that provides a top speed of 16 km/h and a range of 20 km on a single charge. The company "Focus Designs" is marketing it for a price of $1,500. the monocycle can be readily packed in a car trunk, making it useful for carrying you to places where you do not want to take your car.