Students Create a Self-Balancing, Self-Driving Bicycle - Core77

A group of freshmen at the Olin College of Engineering built this autonomous self-balancing bicycle:

Students Justin, Pia and Arylan designed a spinning "reaction wheel" that sits just fore of the seatpost; a sensor housing sits behind. A drive unit sits further down on the seatpost, and the battery is slung beneath the down tube. The BOM, not counting the bike, came out to about $1,000.

"The system combines embedded control, power electronics, and robotic autonomy to achieve balance, perception, and navigation on a dynamically unstable platform," the team writes.

The implications could be huge. While robotics companies are spending a fortune creating bespoke autonomous delivery bots, it would be far cheaper to slap $1,000 of parts on a basket-laden used bicycle.

The project is open-source, and the team has posted all of the project's data here.

Here's their description of how it all works: