Motor vehicles – Power – Electric
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-23
2002-04-23
Johnson, Brian L. (Department: 3618)
Motor vehicles
Power
Electric
C180S242000, C180S208000, C180S908000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06374934
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a single-seater motor vehicle having a vehicle seat which is arranged on a chassis and has a control device, and having wheels which are arranged adjustably or pivotably on the chassis and at least two of which are provided with drives making at least two driving speeds possible.
A single-seater motor vehicle of this type is disclosed in European patent document 0 537 698 A1. This document describes a vehicle in the manner of an electric wheelchair which is operated by electric motors and in which arrangements are made to enable the wheels to be pivoted upwards, so that this vehicle can also run on chains which are assigned to the chassis next to the wheels. This refinement even permits the vehicle to travel up or down steps, for example.
The present invention proceeds from the consideration that the passenger cars currently used as individual means of transportation are not suitable from environmental aspects for use over short distances.
It has also been disclosed (German patent document 22 02 812) to provide small vehicles which are designed such that they can be folded together in order to be able to undertake a change to the normal dimensions in order to get into a parking space, for example. The folding car disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application 8874/1984 also serves a similar purpose, which folding car is designed in such a manner that part of the rear portions of the vehicle can be folded forwards into the upwardly folded front part of the vehicle. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,089,542 discloses a foldable small car in which the windshield frame and roll bar can be folded in flat, so that the vehicle can be accommodated, for example in a corresponding holding container of a relatively large motor home.
However, all of the known small vehicles, even the electric wheelchair mentioned at the beginning, do not permit adaptation to individual transportation in such a manner that the vehicle (for example when folded together) can be integrated in a public means of transportation or in a passenger car, for example as a front-passenger seat. The known small vehicles also cannot be used as a shopping means, for example in pedestrian zones, and as a micro vehicle for relatively short distances.
The present invention is therefore based on the object of designing a single-seater motor vehicle of the type mentioned at the beginning in such a manner that it can be used in the abovementioned sense for various types of transportation.
In order to achieve this object, provision is made in the case of a single-seater motor vehicle of the type mentioned at the beginning, for the chassis to consist of a support for the vehicle seat and of supporting arms, which are mounted in a horizontally and vertically pivotable manner thereon, for the wheels, and for different vehicle combinations for different application purposes to be realized by means of automatic or manual adjustment of the wheel base, the track width and/or the seat height.
The refinement according to the invention therefore offers the advantage of a small vehicle being able to cover areas of use which are suited to individual transportation and in which previously known individual vehicles, such as the previously known small vehicles, could not be deployed and used.
In an embodiment of the invention, provision may be made for the supporting arms and the support to be able to be set in at least three positions, in which
a) in the first position the longest wheel base and—at least for the rear wheels—the greatest track width are obtained, so that in this position the vehicle can also be adapted to speeds which are observed in urban traffic,
b) in the second position the greatest seat height and, with respect to position a), a smaller wheel base and smaller track width are obtained, the vehicle being able to be used in this position, by combining it with a low-speed driving mode, for shopping in pedestrian zones, for example, and
c) in the third position supporting arms and support are folded up very small and one nested in the other, so that in this position the vehicle can easily be transported or, as indicated earlier, can be integrated in public means of transportation or else directly as a vehicle seat in private passenger cars.
In an embodiment of the invention, the novel motor vehicle is characterized by two front supporting arms protruding from the support in the direction of travel and two rear supporting arms protruding from the support in the opposite direction, at least the two rear supporting arms being provided with driven wheels.
In an embodiment of the invention, a respective electric motor can be provided as the drive in the vicinity of the hubs or integrated in the wheel hubs, which motor obtains energy from a battery arranged in the support. The operating radius of such an electric vehicle can be selected such that it is sufficiently large in order to ensure practical use. It would thus, for example, be conceivable for the novel motor vehicle, integrated as a seat in a previously known passenger car, to be unloaded at a car park situated at the edge of a town, brought into position a) and used as a means of transportation for the journey into the town. Once there it is converted to operating mode b) (low-speed driving mode) and can then be used as a shopping aid.
In an embodiment of the invention, the supporting arms can be designed as extendable and foldable mechanisms, the front supporting arms expediently being mounted and being displaceable on a sliding rail. The rear supporting arms can expediently be designed as articulated arms which can be folded in, in which case in a development of the invention, one of these articulated arms is designed as a triple lever arrangement. A triple pivot head, which is coupled to an articulated arm of the front supporting arms, is arranged rotatably on the support. This refinement therefore makes it possible simultaneously to retract the front supporting arms mounted on a sliding rail and to fold together the rear supporting arms to position c), if the triple pivot head is correspondingly adjusted. The low-speed driving position can also be set with the aid of this pivot head which, finally, also permits the complete extension of all of the supporting arms into the high-speed driving mode.
In an embodiment of the invention, the rear supporting arms, at least, can also be pivoted about a vertical axis in order to change the track width. In this arrangement, the adjusting drives for the supporting arms can be controlled electrically since the driving system for the novel vehicle is also electric.
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Beck Peter
Langbein Reinhold
Wojatschek Jürgen
Crowell & Moring LLP
Daimler-Chrysler AG
Fischmann Bryan
Johnson Brian L.
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