Have you ever thought that someday you might just pull your ride out of a backpack, inflate it and zoom away to wherever you like, only to deflate it and fold it up for it to go back into the backpack again? Seems a little far-fetched, doesn’t it? Not anymore it doesn’t.
Japanese research and development company mercari R4D and the JST ERATO Kawahara Universal Information Network Project, organised by the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Engineering, have created ripples in the personal mobility space with their joint research, which has resulted in the development of an inflatable electric scooter.
We at Auto Futures, like everyone else, were really keen on finding out more about this marvel, so we caught up with Ryosuke Yamamura, Researcher at R4D.
To start with, this electric scooter is called Poimo, an acronym for ‘Portable and Inflatable Mobility’. It was thought up at a research camp that researchers from R4D and the University of Tokyo were a part of.
“At the research camp, we discussed that if we could combine the results of soft robotics research with a wheelchair, it would be possible to make a wheelchair with a balloon structure, which would be friendly to both the passengers and the people around it. That’s how I came up with the idea,” says Yamamura.
“Also, we thought that a vehicle that could be inflated and carried around whenever we want to use it, not just in a wheelchair, would solve the parking space problem that mobility sharing services have, and would also be a people-friendly vehicle.”
The idea wasn’t a result of user research, as is the case with many product companies, who develop products after conducting several market studies, including need analysis and competitor benchmarking. No, this was a stroke of genius, which was then honed to form the winning concept that it is today.
“The idea was there first. From there, we figured that we could use the idea to solve the challenges of mobility sharing services,” says Yamamura.
“Soft robotics researchers were participating in the research camp, and we got into a discussion about what would happen if we made a mobility out of soft materials that are being studied in soft robotics. The advantage of Poimo is that it is also soft and people-friendly,” he adds.
Rapid urbanisation and congestion around the world has resulted in the emergence of several micro-mobility as well as Mobility as a Service (MaaS) companies, all of whom strive for one thing and one thing alone – how do we enable first mile-last mile connectivity in the fastest time and the lowest possible cost?
Even within this space, we’re seeing a rapid rise in the field of personal mobility, which includes all sorts of single-seater transportation such as electric scooters, bicycles, standing motorcycles, mopeds, among others. But none of these even come close to Poimo in the areas of portability and storage.
Never seen anything like it…
Poimo’s two main characteristics are its comfortable size and portability, which can be attributed to the fact that it is structured just like a balloon, body and wheels alike. Weighing only 6.5 kg, the biggest advantage of its light and soft balloon structure is the fact that can be folded up when not in use, only to be taken out and inflated again when needed.
For the scooter to retain its softness, researchers reimagined the wheels and steering wheels, which conventionally used hard materials, with the signature balloon structure. However, since simple vinyl balloons aren’t enough to endure the wear and tear on the road, the team used a high strength ‘Drop Stitch Fabric’, a composite of cloth and resin, which doesn’t puncture easily.
It can also withstand high air pressure and support the weight of human beings despite being extremely lightweight.
Speaking about Poimo’s key design elements, Yamamura explains: “Poimo is mainly composed of a body, tires, motor and battery. Among them, we are mainly working on this research because the body is an important research subject. The body must be rigid so that it does not change its shape even if a person rides on it, and the body is designed with the restriction of using as few metal and plastic parts as possible to keep it soft. The tires, motor and battery are not much different from other mobility vehicles.”
And this is exactly where another level of innovation was introduced. The team also developed a dedicated software for Poimo, that allows its users to design vehicles of a size and shape that suit their height and posture.
Let’s take for an example that someone wants their Poimo to look just like an electric motorcycle. They then imagine the motorcycle and pretend to ride it using a chair as a likeness. The software goes on to extract the 3D information of this very posture, automatically designs the vehicle of the shape and size according to the user’s pose and displays it on the screen as a 3D model.
Not just that, you can also customize the steering wheel, seat position, etc. With every change, the software recalibrates key design parameters, so that the strength, stability, and operability are not impaired.
With creating a feat like this, challenges are inevitable, and Yamamura confesses, saying: “Poimo is softer and easier to change its shape than metal and plastic materials used in general mobility products, which makes it difficult to run. We had a hard time getting Poimo to run properly.”
According to Yamamura, the reactions to the product were worth every challenge along the way. They included “I’ve never seen anything like it before” and “I was surprised at how solid it was despite being air”.
We won’t need hard and heavy bodies for crash safety anymore.
Despite the overwhelming positive reaction from users, I was keen to know what they thought about the fact that, unlike other forms of mobility, Poimo relies on its users to perform most of the installation.
I asked Yamamura if there was any apprehension in regard to this, to which he replied: “We had no worries. Since Poimo is a completely new mobility, we proceeded with the strategy of exhibiting it from the research stage and seeing people’s reactions to advance our research and development.”
Yamamura believes that compared to other forms of mobility, the reduction in metal and plastic parts makes it much easier to manufacture Poimo. In terms of future plans, R4D aims to focus on “improvement of safety, increased convenience and improvement of driving performance” to make Poimo ready for “practical use”.
“I think that when the world switches to fully automated driving, inflatable mobility will be the norm. We won’t need hard and heavy bodies for crash safety anymore, and the lighter bodies will allow us to move around in a more energy-efficient manner than ever before,” he concludes.
Keyword: Portable And Inflatable Mobility – Yes, It’s a Japanese Electric Scooter Called Poimo