Balancing personal vehicle

Details Balancing personal vehicle Balancing personal vehicle

1999-12-08

2003-04-08

Dickson, Paul N. (Department: 3616)

Motor vehicles

Bodies

Movable cab or operator's station

C180S327000, C180S333000, C280S005513

Reexamination Certificate

active

06543564

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention pertains to vehicles and methods for transporting individuals, and more particularly to vehicles and methods employing control loops in which a motorized drive is included.
BACKGROUND ART
A wide range of vehicles and methods are known for transporting human subjects. Typically, such vehicles rely upon static stability, being designed so as to be stable under all foreseen conditions of placement of their ground-contacting members. Thus, for example, the gravity vector acting on the center of gravity of an automobile passes between the points of ground contact of the automobile's wheels, the suspension keeping all wheels on the ground at all times, and the automobile is thus stable. Alternatively, dynamic stability may be maintained by action of the user, as in the case of a bicycle, or, otherwise, by a control loop, as in the case of the human transporter described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,701,965 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/384,705, filed Feb. 3, 1995, which are herein incorporated by reference.
The balancing vehicles described in these references, however, lack static stability. Referring, for example, to
FIG. 1
, wherein a prior art personal transporter is shown and designated generally by numeral
18
, a subject
10
stands on a support platform
12
and holds a grip
14
on a handle
16
attached to the platform
12
, so that the vehicle
18
of this embodiment may be operated in a manner analogous to a scooter. A control loop may be provided so that leaning of the subject results in the application of torque to wheel
20
about axle
22
thereby causing an acceleration of the vehicle. Vehicle
18
, however, is statically unstable, and, absent operation of the control loop to maintain dynamic stability, subject
10
will no longer be supported in a standing position and will fall from platform
12
. Another prior art balancing vehicle is shown in FIG.
2
and designated generally by numeral
24
. Personal vehicle
24
shares the characteristics of vehicle
12
of
FIG. 1
, namely a support platform
12
for supporting subject
10
and grip
14
on handle
16
attached to platform
12
, so that the vehicle
18
of this embodiment may also be operated in a manner analogous to a scooter.
FIG. 2
shows that while vehicle
24
may have clusters
26
each having a plurality of wheels
28
, vehicle
24
remains statically unstable and, absent operation of a control loop to maintain dynamic stability, subject
10
will no longer be supported in a standing position and will fall from platform
12
.
By way of contrast, other prior art vehicles may be statically stable, such as automobiles or the stair-climbing vehicle described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,548 (Decelles et al.). These statically stable vehicles, however, lack a balancing capability. They also lack the capability for motion of the vehicle to be governed by leaning of the operator.
In the case of statically unstable balancing vehicles, considerations of operator safety require adoption of special stratagems, such as those described in copending applications, Ser. Nos. 09/184,488, 08/892,566, and 09/168,551, for the event of failure of certain system components.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with preferred embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle for transporting a human subject over a surface that may be irregular. The vehicle has a support platform for supporting the subject, with fore-aft and lateral planes defined by the orientation of the support platform. Additionally, the vehicle has a ground-contacting module pivotably coupled to the support platform, for suspending the support platform over the surface, the support platform and the ground-contacting module being components of an assembly, and a motorized drive arrangement, mounted to the assembly, for causing locomotion of the assembly and the subject over the surface. Finally, the vehicle has a control loop, in which the motorized drive arrangement is included, for dynamically maintaining stability of the assembly by operation of the motorized drive arrangement in such a manner as to cause a specified acceleration of the assembly.
In accordance with alternate embodiments of the invention, the vehicle may also have a pivot for pivotal coupling of the support platform to the ground-contacting module and a locking mechanism for restricting motion of the support platform with respect to the ground-contacting module. The locking mechanism for restricting motion of the support platform may be activated upon interruption of power to the control loop. The ground-contacting module may include at least one wheel aft, and at least one wheel forward, of a vertical line through the center of gravity of the assembly under static conditions. The ground-contacting module may have a first wheel rotatable about a first axis and a second wheel rotatable about a second axis, the second axis being non-colinear with the first axis.
In accordance with further alternate embodiments of the invention, the control loop may be configured so that fore and aft motion of the vehicle is controlled by fore and aft leaning of the support platform as affected by the subject.


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