A dicycle (also known as a diwheel) is a vehicle with two wheels parallel to each other, unlike the usual motorcycles and bicycles, which have a wheel followed by another, called tandem placed wheels.
In the diwheel, the two large outer wheels completely encompass an inner frame. The inner frame is free to rotate within the wheels, and is typically supported by a common axle or idlers which roll on the wheels (see figure). Diwheels, like their more popular cousins the monowheel, have been around for almost one and a half centuries. All of these platforms suffer from two common issues affecting driver comfort; slosh and tumbling (also known as gerbilling). Sloshing is when the inner frame oscillates, and it occurs in all monowheels and diwheels where the centre of gravity of the inner frame is offset from the centre line of the wheels. It is very prevalent as these platforms typically have low damping between the wheel and the frame in order to minimise power consumption during locomotion. In addition, during severe braking or acceleration the inner frame will tumble relative to the earth centred frame, which obviously affects the ability of the driver to control the platform.
US Patent Class 180/240 lists all the vehicles coming under powered dicycles. This class has patents related to unmanned folding vehicles to be used for tactical purposes by the US government. Other vehicles in this US Patent Class are mostly invented by Dean Kamen or his associates, like the Segway PT, a balancing dicycle.
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Equations of Motion
The equations of motion for the Diwheel can be found in the following paper[1] derived at the University of Adelaide.
Examples of manufacturers
References
- ^ B. Cazzolato, J. Harvey, C. Dyer, K. Fulton, E. Schumann, C. Zhu and Z. Prime (2009) "Control of an electric diwheel". http://www.mecheng.adelaide.edu.au/robotics_novell/projects/2009/EDWARD/DiwheelPaper_v3.pdf paper
External links
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