The only problem with this self-balancing unicycle is it’s inability to balance itself. You see, it automatically balances along the axis that is parallel to the line of travel. But since there’s only one wheel the rider is responsible for balancing perpendicular to travel. This is really not too much different from a bicycle; balancing while in motion is pretty simple. Only when you slow down or stop are you in trouble.

[Stephen Boyer] built the vehicle and uses it for most of his travel around the MIT campus. It carries a pair of 12V batteries that pack enough punch to travel five miles between charges. A 5DOF board senses motion and orientation, with an ATmega328 microcontroller calculating the corrections necessary to keep the rider upright.

The demo video after the break never really gives you good look at the thing, but it’s enough to prove that it does indeed work very well. We’re also glad to see that [Stephen] is using a kill-switch while riding.

If you’re aching for more electric unicycle video check out this other project too.

Focus Designs has a new version of their self-balancing unicycle for sale. This improves upon their original design in several ways. The battery pack has moved to LiFePO4, which is becoming more common in electric transportation. There’s also regenerative braking and fall protection which kills the motor when you fall off.

We’ve embedded their marketing video after the break. Our favorite part is the shot seen above: a guy on the unicycle cruising along next to a woman who is running. There’s nothing like sitting on your bum while some else exercises.

At any rate, from what we see in the video they’ve turned out a solid product.

We had to call it an electric motorcycle in the title because electric unicycle just sounds lame. But the video after the break shows you that this prototype is anything but lame. It takes minimalism to the extreme when you’re talking about powered transportation. The self-balancer is reminiscent of a Segway but the rider sits astride one wheel rather than the standing form-factor that [the Woz] loves so much for gaming. Looks like Ryno Motors is trying to gather capital to put these into production. We’re not going to hold our breath until we see them in the wild, but we’d be surprised if they don’t pop up on the big screen at some point in the near future.

Focus Design sent us a video of their self balancing unicycle (looks like they’re taking on Focus Features too). The electric machine moves at 8MPH and lasts 1.5hrs on a single charge. It only weighs 24.6lbs. They say that new riders only need about 2hrs. practice. They’re building ten units to start for $1500 each.

Electric unicycles are nothing new to our community. We’ve long been fans of [Trevor Blackwell]‘s electric unicycle. [Trevor] spent several months learning how to ride a regular unicycle before he could properly debug the electric version. There are several other designs out there: The Einrand-Fahrzeug has a wide wheel to make balancing easier. The eniCycle includes a steering mechanism. The Uniquecycle has a brushless motor in hub for a compact design. We did a roundup back in July that covers these plus many other motorized unicycle concepts.

The Segway may be a technological wonder, but motorized balancing transportation has been around for a while. We’ve gathered up some of our favorite motorized unicycles for your knee scraping enjoyment.

The design above makes us immediately think of the very recent wonder by [Ben Gulak] that earned him the cover of Popular Science. Strangely enough, when reading about [Ben] we didn’t see any mention of Noah. Designed by [Andre Franca] of Brazil, it won 2nd place in the Plascar Automotive Design Contest in 2007. The designs are extremely similar.

[scheerti] posted the mysterious wonder above on S-blog. It’s in Hungarian though, so we’ll just have to live in suspense until someone helps us out with the translation.

Bombardier, the maker of many popular recreational vehicles, released a design a while back. Unfortunately, they stated that it may never be produced. It has a unique “landing gear” system for parking. You can see it under the front fender in the left shot above. The EMBRIO was an exercise in design, showing what Bombardier envisions recreational vehicles to be like in the year 2025.

Not to be left out of the race, Audi has shown off a unique design. Designed by [Tilmann Schlootz] This award winning design incorporates a spherical wheel and multidirectional drive train. That means that this bad boy can go any direction while facing any direction. Check out the seating, it converts smoothly from one seat to two. Just imagine helping your date into the SNOOK for a night on the town.

If those others were too wild or fast for you, why not check out some more traditional models. Pictured above is [Trevor Blackwell]‘s electric unicycle, which is pretty much exactly as it sounds. There is also the enicycle and the Einrad-Fahrzeug.

For a more rugged application,look at Le Monorue. It was designed by [Jackie Chabanais] who has also created a ton of other single wheeled vehicles.

Out on the fringe, you will find the Riot Wheel . Different from any other single wheel design out there, it defies classification. Built for a trip to Burning Man, it gained instant publicity and has since been featured on Discovery Channel’s Monster Nation. While we’re talking about different ones, check out Leviskate. You stand on it like a skateboard… or at least try.

Lets not forget about good old [Dean Kamen], the inventor of the Segway. He’s filed a patent for a single wheeled version too. Unlike the Segway, this one comes with a seat!