The well-known Japanese auto giant Honda Motor Thursday unveiled a prototype of its one-wheeled U3-X "personal mobility vehicle," using part of technology of balance and movement developed in developed in Honda's humanoid robot project ASIMO.

The small and 10 kg-weight vehicle was Thursday available for a test-run for reporters in Tokyo. The single-wheel vehicle, which as per Honda claims, is especially designed for the elderly, and can travel at speeds up to six kilometers per hour.

The U3-X - wherein 'U' stands for "universal" and "unicycle" - can move in all directions, and is thus, going by the manufacturer's description, the "world's first omni- directional driving wheel system."

The vehicle's movement in any direction results from its singular "Hot-Drive" system, whereby a series of tiny motor-controlled wheels are packed inside the main big wheel. To steer the vehicle, the rider has to lean their weight in a specific direction.

While the main wheel facilitates the back and forth movement of the unicycle, the smaller wheels allow the side-to-side movement. Furthermore, a combination of the movements of the big and the small wheels allows the vehicle to move diagonally.

However, noting that "Honda engineers are always thinking about people's dreams and wishes about mobility," Honda President Takanobu Ito said that the vehicle is still a "proposal" and Honda currently has no definite sales plans or pricing for the unicycle.