Arduino Segway clone?

This is quite the old project: tlb: Building Balancing Scooter

But this guy built his own Segway clone using a few big motors, some batteries, a gyro and some C code.

I was wondering if this could be done with the Arduino with some cheap components and sensors?

I don't have a Arduino yet (coming soon!) but I wouldn't mind trying to produce a very simple version of this. Even if I could just find the cheapest gyro out there and see if I can appropriately read values from it and try to drive a small motor based on data from the gyro.

Looking forward to getting my Arduino kit, I've got a million ideas in my head; just a matter of implementing them!

Take care!

I looked at these sort of self-balancing projects a fair bit recently.

As a start I think a robot would be an easier and safer project

Here's a AtMega32 based self-balancing robot
http://homepage.mac.com/sigfpe/Robotics/equibot.html

And a lego version,
http://www.teamhassenplug.org/robots/legway/

They both use infrared sensors, which are a lot simpler and cheaper than gyros.

I'd definately be interested in colaborating on a project like this if anyone else is interested

Ok, hate me all you will for bumping up a thread this old but I just had my first face-to-face encounter with a Segway last week and it set mah wheels spinning, so to speak. ^^

What output does one get from a gyro? I mean, would one gyro-sensor only tell you how far it's tilted around one axis, or does it do two axis?

As far as making this with the Arduino.. I can't really see how it would be hard at all! =D 2 old wheelchair motors with appropriate batteries (probably the biggest problem right there!), and some simple circutry to allow the arduino to control it.

Program the Arduino to real the gyro, and quickly increase forward/backward motion until the gyros value stops changing. That way, you'd not have to worry about calibrating and fine tuning and such. When you tip forward, the gyro tells the arduino and the arduino steps up the speed gradually (but very quickly, mind!) until the gyro is stable (no longer tipping more and more forward).

http://chriscoleman.com/stuff/?page_id=5

Program the Arduino to real the gyro, and quickly increase forward/backward motion until the gyros value stops changing. That way, you'd not have to worry about calibrating and fine tuning and such. When you tip forward, the gyro tells the arduino and the arduino steps up the speed gradually (but very quickly, mind!) until the gyro is stable (no longer tipping more and more forward).

Then you need a sensor that finds out if someone is actually standing on the 'segway' (you don't want to move it when you are not on it) and something for steering.

Interesting project!

Yeah jds, like I said, a gyro. That would be the correct sensor, wouldn't it? A 2-axis perhaps, to measure forward/backward tilt as well as side-to-side tilt achievable by having slightly soft tires or a mechanism like the trucks on a skateboard.

Yes, a dual axis gyro would do it.

Here is some info on the technology used in the Segway (and some interesting ideas if you decide to build it): Segway - Wikipedia

Dual axis gyro's are in the 50-60 dollar range at Sparkfun, 2 single axis gyro's might work too (these are US$ 12.60 each) if you want to go a cheaper route.

here's an arduino balancing robot built with 2 accelerometers and 1 gyro from sparkfun.

http://boram.wikidot.com