It has been far too many moons since this nerd has properly updated "My Cognitive Surplus" and so I am now spending a few minutes writing up an idea I've had for awhile relating to additional uses for Segway scooters.
Garbage Pick-Up: Taking the trash out is such a hassle, why should I have to remember when to take out the trash? (Yes I know this is more a solving of first world problems)
The body of the segway scooter serves as a fantastic platform for a semi-autonomous delivery platform, by replacing the standing area of the scooter with container storage and a sensing node, the scooter should be able to transport roughly 100 lbs of materials from point A to point B with little oversight. Instead of physically lugging your garbage-can to the street corner the night before/the morning of garbage pick up, your smart garbage-can could wander its way to a central pick up storage location. The advantage of this approach is one of fuel use, whenever a vehicle has to stop and start it wastes a tremendous amount of energy, larger garbage trucks have a lot of mass that needs to be accelerated the less frequently they have to stop the less energy the need to operate. The smaller smart garbage-cans waste less energy per stop and have the advantage of being fully electric, meaning they can use a home's energy supply, the central storage location could even use a solar canopy to charge the smart cans.
Developments of the future could design homes and businesses with a standardized garbage pick up modules, allowing said locations to share a minimal number of smart carriers.
Another use of this technology would be home delivery assistance, as the smart carrier technology became more accepted businesses could start to utilize the standard container dimensions, instead of Amazon using drone air-craft for deliveries, they could use the smart-segways. There would certainly be trade-offs with respect to getting from point A to point B, you would be limited to two dimensions of motion. The benefit of using a ground based semi-autonomous transport system come from safety and mass of cargo, a drone would need to be limited to a relatively small amount of mass, but a ground carrier would be able to carry far more mass for a given amount of energy. If firms are willing to deliver at night, swarms of these small delivery systems could offset a large volume urban deliveries.
Garbage Pick-Up: Taking the trash out is such a hassle, why should I have to remember when to take out the trash? (Yes I know this is more a solving of first world problems)
The body of the segway scooter serves as a fantastic platform for a semi-autonomous delivery platform, by replacing the standing area of the scooter with container storage and a sensing node, the scooter should be able to transport roughly 100 lbs of materials from point A to point B with little oversight. Instead of physically lugging your garbage-can to the street corner the night before/the morning of garbage pick up, your smart garbage-can could wander its way to a central pick up storage location. The advantage of this approach is one of fuel use, whenever a vehicle has to stop and start it wastes a tremendous amount of energy, larger garbage trucks have a lot of mass that needs to be accelerated the less frequently they have to stop the less energy the need to operate. The smaller smart garbage-cans waste less energy per stop and have the advantage of being fully electric, meaning they can use a home's energy supply, the central storage location could even use a solar canopy to charge the smart cans.
Developments of the future could design homes and businesses with a standardized garbage pick up modules, allowing said locations to share a minimal number of smart carriers.
Another use of this technology would be home delivery assistance, as the smart carrier technology became more accepted businesses could start to utilize the standard container dimensions, instead of Amazon using drone air-craft for deliveries, they could use the smart-segways. There would certainly be trade-offs with respect to getting from point A to point B, you would be limited to two dimensions of motion. The benefit of using a ground based semi-autonomous transport system come from safety and mass of cargo, a drone would need to be limited to a relatively small amount of mass, but a ground carrier would be able to carry far more mass for a given amount of energy. If firms are willing to deliver at night, swarms of these small delivery systems could offset a large volume urban deliveries.
