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by RhysU 1774 days ago
As a summer student in 1999 I saw the Segway's gyroscopic technology evaluated in a stand-up wheelchair form by https://www.herl.pitt.edu/. This research lab sat between the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Veterans Affairs department. The lab still exists.

The wheelchair hit the public as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBOT. I knew it as "FRED". I have never observed anyone using its equal in terms of mobility capabilities.

As an example of what sort of other stuff HERL did back in the day: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00039...

1 comments

I saw videos of gyroscopic wheelchairs at the time, and they are as awesome today as I remembered them!

My skepticism was rather about Segway, the product, being useful as a mobility device, and recognised as such by European regulators.