Segway ushered in a new era in transportation with the practical application of self-balancing principles for personal transportation. Dean Kamen's original patents went further, identifying one-wheeled and two-wheeled devices for personal transportation, for toys, and for carrying loads.

The Ringbot is a newly developed device from University of Illinois that features a monowheel plus two articulated legs. A monowheel is a configuration where the rider or cargo is located inside the diameter of the wheel. The articulated legs (one on each side), are capable of independently shifting their position to stabilise the device to help maintain self-balancing, or to cause it to lean into turn, or enabling it to "stand up" if it falls or rests on its side.

The video in this article at Techeblog shows all of these movements and capabilities in action.

If the Ringbot spins your wheel(s) then check out our article “Is BB-8 from Star Wars a bit like a Segway?".

Our article shows some excerpts from Dean Kamen's original patents for one-wheeled configurations of devices, discusses WowWee's P-Bot toy that was powered by Segway's SmartMotion licenced technology but never made it to market, and the cool/creepy rolling black ball that is the Groundbot security robot.