Self-Stabilizing Two-Wheeled Vehicle

1 . A self-stabilizing two-wheeled vehicle comprising:

a front wheel and a rear wheel substantially aligned along a longitudinal axis;

a base frame portion coupled to the front wheel and to the rear wheel;

an operator frame portion to support an operator of the vehicle;

a hinge assembly operably coupling the base frame portion and the operator frame portion; and

a control unit receiving, from an inertial sensor, inertial data related to deviation of the base frame portion from a vertical plane through the longitudinal axis and receiving, from a speed sensor, instantaneous speed data related to a rate of travel of the vehicle;

wherein the control unit is operative to drive the hinge assembly causing the operator frame portion to rotate about a hinge axis as a function of the inertial data and the instantaneous speed data.

2 . The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the hinge axis is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis.

3 . The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the hinge axis is substantially normal to the longitudinal axis.

4 . The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the hinge assembly includes an actuator controlling an angle of a hinge.

5 . The vehicle of claim 4 wherein the control unit computes an angle through which to rotate the operator frame portion and a torque to apply to the hinge.

6 . The vehicle of claim 4 wherein the actuator is an hydraulic actuator.

7 . The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the control unit receives the inertial data from a gyroscope.

8 . The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the control unit receives the instantaneous speed data from a speedometer.

9 . The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the control unit selectively ceases operation when the instantaneous speed data indicates that the rate of travel exceeds a threshold.

10 . The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the control unit comprises a digital processing hardware component.

11 . A method of stabilizing a two-wheeled vehicle, the method comprising:

coupling a base frame portion of the vehicle to a front wheel and to a rear wheel, wherein the front wheel and the rear wheel are substantially aligned along a longitudinal axis;

coupling the base frame portion to an operator frame portion with a hinge having a hinge axis, wherein the operator frame portion is to support an operator of the vehicle and is selectively rotatable relative to the base frame portion about the hinge axis;

receiving, from an inertial sensor, inertial data related to deviation of the base frame portion from a vertical plane through the longitudinal axis and receiving, from a speed sensor, instantaneous speed data related to a rate of travel of the vehicle; and

responsive to the inertial data and the instantaneous speed data, selectively driving the hinge to cause the operator frame portion to rotate about the hinge axis.

12 . The method of claim 11 wherein the receiving inertial data comprises utilizing a control unit to receive data from a gyroscope.

13 . The method of claim 11 wherein the receiving instantaneous speed data comprises utilizing a control unit to receive data from a speedometer.

14 . The method of claim 11 further comprising utilizing a control unit to compute, using the inertial data and the instantaneous speed data, an angle through which to rotate the operator frame portion and a torque to apply to the hinge.

15 . The method of claim 14 wherein the selectively driving the hinge comprises utilizing output from the control unit.

16 . The method of claim 11 wherein the hinge axis is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis.

17 . The method of claim 11 wherein the hinge axis is substantially normal to the longitudinal axis.