Lean Into Your Ride : Intuitive Handsfree Control for an Electric Skateboard

Sammanfattning: Skateboards have been around since at least the 1950’s, and skateboarding is most commonly knownas an extreme sport. However, skateboards can be very useful when commuting as they have continued to evolve since the 1950’s, not quite in to the hover board that Marty McFly rides on in Back to the Future, but in to skateboards equipped with electric motors that propels them forward. Electric skateboards, as they are called, are one of the vehicle types that are changing the way humans move around cities. Vehicles that are needed in order to fulfill present and future commuting needs. However, electric skateboards have not yet reached their full potential, especially regarding how their speed is controlled. Current speed control systems gives a riding experience that feels unnatural compared to riding a regular skateboard, and improving upon them can potentially make electric skateboards even safer to ride. In this thesis, an active style of riding, like skateboarding, is compared to the reactive style of riding that is provided by the speed control systems existent in electric skateboards today. The thesis presents a speed control system that utilizes an active style of riding, and the concept is tested by the development of a pedobarography system that can read the interaction between the riders feet and the skateboard deck.