EV Evolution: The Next Step

As commercially available motors and batteries grow in power-to-size ratio, we will be able to wear our electric vehicles like we wear shoes.

Electric roller skates presently available for sale appear underwhelming at best.

Is a viable, wearable ~1hp/pair roller skate possible with an RC motor and batteries in a backpack?

If so, what components would you choose?
How would you design such an ultra-personal electric vehicle?

I was an accomplished roller skater when younger, and would love to build a pair!

I've seen a few of those, I agree, very underpowered. If they could move a person along at say 15 MPH, that's like a good run. Imagine the benefit for going out for a jog, get tired, then just "drive" home, hehe. Would be funny seeing a bunch of people standing and just "gliding" down the sidewalk, but this is the future, eh?

I bet you could use something like the drive from a Go Motorboard.
http://store.nycewheels.com/go-motorboard-2000x-electric-scooter.html

With one for each foot, and batteries in a backpack, I bet it could move pretty good.

The RC brushless helicopter motors have even more power, but you would need a separate controller for each motor. They're small enough, but a bit expensive.

If you want a stinky gasser, they already make them:
http://gizmodo.com/archives/motosk8-motorized-rollerblades-022415.php

At 750w each, one go motorboard motor for each foot might work good

Those gasser skates look too heavy and difficult to maneuver in addition to loud, stinky, and only good for a reported 25kph.
http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/gadgetbuzz/0,39041749,39195332,00.htm

Also, I'd want regular skates with wheels on each corner, as that's the style I learned as a child. It'd be best too if no extra wheels were added, power going to at least two of each skate's four. I think a differential-less fixed axle would be OK, but I'm not sure.

Skip the hardware...

PWM electrodes right into the quadriceps.



Thinking, talking, singing AND skating meat; power assisted.

PWM electrodes right into the quadriceps.

Click to expand...

Definitely preferable to have all the essential hardware on board. If they weren't such a nasty brood of totalitarian socialist cyborgs with a pathetic sense of aesthetics, I'd contact the borg myself for that desperately needed whole-body + wet-ware upgrade.
Perhaps our all-powerful and benevolent Fechmaster can design an electric body better...