Float History

Dean Kamen, Robert Ambrogi, Robert Duggan, J. Field, Richard Heinzmann, Burl Amesbury, and Christopher Langenfeld invent automatically balancing vehicles.

Predating Future Motion, Inc.‘s debut of their Onewheel Kickstarter Project by 7 years, YouTube user bensmither, posts Balancing Scooter / Skateboard.

You can read more about the build on the robosys.co.uk website here.

Mitch Lustig lays the foundation for self-balancing devices controlled by VESC through his contributions to VESC Tool. Lustig later releases several video tutorials on his YouTube channel, outlining configuration, usage, and key concepts around the application.

VESC Tool is an open source brushless direct current motor controller tool with an intuitive user graphical interace, which enables users to configure their VESC-based boards.

As early as November 2021, Hannes Schatzmann, aka @vesc.mann on Instagram, discovered through independent trial and error that utilizing high Mahony KP (a tuning setting that distorts pitch angle readings when under heavy acceleration/deceleration) and ditching many typical tuning conventions produced much more intuitive, smooth, and predictable ride feel more similar to Future Motion, Inc.’s proprietary Onewheel motor controller software.

When surfdado learned of this in March 2022 from Schatzmann in private group chats and made this information public through his “VESC Balance Firmware – Magic Settings in v5.2” video, these tuning adjustments were widely adopted and became the basis for further iteration by a growing community of rider-developers.

The largest issue introduced with this new tuning methodology was “nose hunting,” where high frequency bumps or rough terrain could cause the nose of the board to slowly rise or lower as these conditions can cause the motor controller to “lose sense” of what is level.

On this date, surfdado integrated a new IMU filter developed by Mitch Lustig into the VESC firmware which eliminated the nose hunting issue introduced earlier in the year when the VESC rider community broadly swapped to using Hannes Schatzmann’s high Mahony KP tuning methodology.

This update marks a major turning point where VESC boards became more broadly recognized as being just as, if not more, capable than Future Motion, Inc.’s proprietary Onewheel boards.

Utilizing the new “packages” feature in the upcoming VESC Tool v6.0 release, which allow easily installable extensions to the VESC Firmware, Nico Aleman releases Float Package on pev.dev.

Float Package replaces Mitch Lustig’s Balance App and is heavily based on surfdado’s ATR firmware. Key features greatly improved usability through organized configuration menus, safe default values, min/max ranges for all parameters, and descriptive help texts.

Float Package also introduced the “Remote Tilt” feature, which allows a handheld controller to be used to adjust the “level” angle of the board in real time. This enables riders to traverse much steeper inclines and declines while maintaining precise acceleration and deceleration control.

After its release, Float Package became the foundation for the continued development on the ride feel of VESC-based single wheel electric skateboards.

Float Hub, a “solution to an easy and streamlined setup process for your VESC-based board.” is released by The Float Life for iOS and Android.

Float Hub significantly reduces the barrier to entry for users to get started with VESC-based platforms.