Motor vehicles – Special wheel base – Rider propulsion with additional source of power – e.g.,...
Patent
1996-12-05
1998-12-08
Marmor, Charles A.
Motor vehicles
Special wheel base
Rider propulsion with additional source of power, e.g.,...
180207, 464 57, 464160, 475230, B62M 700
Patent
active
058457275
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates to a driving force auxiliary device which is used for boats and lighter vehicles such as bicycles to reduce a load on a person, such as a leg power, and particularly to the auxiliary device which is made compact.
BACKGROUND ART
Electric bicycles which use an electric motor to assist manpower are attracting attention in recent years. Such an electric bicycle is to reduce a load on a person by having an ordinary bicycle provided with an electric motor, a battery for supplying the motor with power, and a prescribed motor auxiliary power in accordance with the driving force of manpower. This motor's auxiliary driving force does not exceed the driving force by manpower and, when a running speed does not reach 15 Km/h, the motor assists 100%. When the running speed exceeds 15 Km/h, the motor assist is gradually decreased, and when the speed reaches 24 Km/h or more, it is controlled that the motor assist is released.
As shown in FIG. 17, such an electric bicycle is structured on the basis of a common bicycle. Specifically, an electric bicycle 1 has a front wheel 4 and a rear wheel 5 at the front and rear of its frame body, and the rear wheel 5 is driven by a leg power. According to the JIS standard, in the frame body, reference numeral 2 designates a main pipe and reference numeral 3 designates a seat tube. The same names are used in this specification in accordance with the JIS standard.
A driving force auxiliary device 6 comprises an electric motor M which is orthogonal to an axle shaft and disposed at about the middle of the body in the breadth direction, a converting and reduction gear mechanism (not shown) which converts the rotating driving force of the motor to the rotating direction of the axle shaft and reduces the speed, and a combining mechanism (not shown) which combines the reduced motor's driving force with the ordinary drive system by manpower and releases the motor drive system from the ordinary drive system when the bicycle is driven by manpower alone.
The motor drive system is driven to rotate by a power transmission device with the electric motor as a drive source, and the electric motor is supplied with electric power from an electric power device. This electric power device comprises a battery power source using a plurality of storage batteries, a power source circuit for stably supplying electric power, an electric motor for driving, a motor driving circuit for directly controlling the motor rotation, and a control circuit for outputting a speed command to the motor driving circuit. And, the motor driven power by the motor is added to a conventional power transmission device, through which the power is transmitted to the running wheel to run the bicycle.
As a method to detect the driving force by manpower, it is known to use a method which detects the magnitude of the driving force of manpower with reference to a reaction force applied to the gears of a planetary gear (e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei4-358987).
But, since the bicycle generally has its width with respect to its running direction limited, a conventional electric motor which is relatively long in its longitudinal direction has to be mounted along the longitudinal direction of the bicycle body. Therefore, a rotatable shaft directed to the longitudinal direction of the bicycle body has to be changed to the direction of a crank shaft which is directed in the breadth direction. To do so, a converting mechanism is provided, leading to a tendency to make the reduction gear mechanism complex and large-sized.
The above-described conventional mechanism, which indicates the driving force of manpower in the form of torsion of the shaft and detects it, has a very small torsional displacement magnitude owing to torque, so that the shaft in the longitudinal direction is required to have a prescribed length to secure a sufficient measuring precision. Therefore, it is not preferable because the mechanism tends to be large.
Further, the above-described conventional mechanism performs
REFERENCES:
patent: 2725759 (1955-12-01), Kreidler
patent: 5024286 (1991-06-01), Lean et al.
patent: 5375676 (1994-12-01), Takata et al.
patent: 5474148 (1995-12-01), Takata
patent: 5570752 (1996-11-01), Takata
Miyazawa Hiroshi
Nakazato Hiroshi
Shinkai Katsumi
Shinozaki Junichiro
Takada Yutaka
Marmor Charles A.
Parekh Ankur
Seiko Epson Corporation
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