BALANCING SYSTEM AND TURNING MECHANISM FOR REMOTE CONTROLLED TOY

• US 20080227365A1
• Filed: 03/14/2007
• Published: 09/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Silverlit Limited
• Original Assignee: Silverlit Toys Manufactory Limited (Silverlit Toys)
• Inventors: LO, Wai Chiu
• Granted Patent: US 7,896,725 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 446/440
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 17/21 shaped as motorcycles with or without figures

Abstract

A radio controlled two wheeled vehicle incorporates a disposition of two motors, a gear system and electronics to provide a balancing and mobility during operation. There is a low center of gravity provided by relatively heavy wheels. The two-wheeled vehicle provides increased balancing at slower speeds between the drive system motors. In the motorbike, and a figurine having movable joints is attachable to the bike and provides for tilting of the bike and steering effects during the bike operation.

Claims

1. A toy vehicle comprising:

spaced apart wheels, the wheels being relatively aligned in a longitudinal axis defined by a straight movement,

a chassis between the wheels;

the vehicle being capable of being inclined from a relatively vertical position to tilt to the left or right according to corresponding turning action to the left or right of the vehicle;

a motor for turning at least one wheel;

a receiver for control signals to regulate the motor, the signals being from a remote RF transmitter, and

each of the wheels being formed of a relatively heavy material thereby to have a relatively low center of gravity for the vehicle.

2. A toy vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein a front and rear rim are a relatively heavy alloy or metal, selectively copper, cast iron or steel thereby to lower the center of gravity.

3. A toy vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein these rims rotate at relatively high speed, and create a stable axis of rotation, namely a tendency to maintain its plane of rotation.

4. A toy vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein when the wheels are tilted, a twisting moment is induced about an axis at 90 degrees to that of the original tilt effectively by a gyroscopic precession.

5. A toy vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein a gyroscopic effect is applied on both wheels, thereby making the performance of the vehicle, the vehicle representing a motorcycle, relatively more stable and easier to balance.

6. A toy vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein a symmetric design of actuators permits the motorcycle to perform an effective balance performance at relatively low speed;

and including a battery charger.

7. A toy vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vehicle uses two relatively small dc motors placed in parallel and symmetrical relationship along a motorcycle longitudinal axis, whereby the weights are relatively symmetrically distributed in left and right portion and wherein the motors rotate in different directions.

8. A toy vehicle as claimed in claim 1, including a dual motor system thereby to provide stable output torque in high or low speed operation.

9. A toy vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vehicle is representative of a remote controlled motorcycle, and including a constant voltage source for a motor with a selectively variable on/off duty cycle, selectively being Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) being applied to control the speed of the motor, and wherein a lower PWM ratio, a lower power input, and a lower the efficiency of motor provides a torque output

10. A toy vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein in a dual motor system, both motors run relatively fast at high speed operation, and in a low speed operation, both motors are on and off alternatively at medium to high PWM.

11. A toy vehicle as claimed in claim 1, including having a relatively fixed and non-turnable handle-bar and an offset CG turning reaction.

12. A toy vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein a player operates a transmitter to remotely control the vehicle, the vehicle being a motorcycle, and the motorcycle being relatively stable, the stability being effected by a no handle-bar turning and wherein an angle of lean permits movement of the front tire contact patch towards the leaned side, and the resultant force of centrifugal force and gravitational force passes this patch area and maintain the balance while turning, and wherein the angle is about 66 to about 70 degrees thereby to reduce the turning angle and permit control turning performance.

13. A toy vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vehicle is representative of a motor cycle, and an offset of the center of gravity turning essentially matches a no handle-bar turning control, and including a driver figurine with a representative driving technique, such that the driver'"'"'s body is leanable towards one side and affecting the leaning by pulling the driver'"'"'s thigh away from the motorcycle'"'"'s body by a gear system.

14. A toy vehicle as claimed in claim 13, wherein the driver movement shifts the overall CG from a longitudinal axis to a leaned side and the motorcycle tends to lean towards the direction, and thereby the use of gyroscopic precession, thereby causing a front wheel to make a turn, such that a relatively smooth turning process is obtained without a need to essentially change the driving speed at initiation of the turn to effect the control process.

15. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vehicle is a motor cycle, and including a control by at least one of infrared remote control, radio frequency remote control, a programmable control or a battery operated wire control.

16. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1, including a dual motor system, the motors being placed in parallel, along the longitudinal axis and rotated in opposite direction, and being used to drive a power transmission system.

17. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1, including a power transmission system having a double-sided crown gear, and a metal or plastic belt and an embedded gear on the rear wheel, and a dual motor system for generating power, the power being transmitted to a transverse axis by the double-sided crown gear and pinions on the motors, and wherein the power is transmitted to a rear wheel through the belt connected between the embedded gear on rear wheel and the crown gear.

18. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein a relatively heavy front and rear rim for the front and rear wheels respectively for facilitating a low overall CG and create gyroscopic precession effect.

19. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1, including a front wheel being free to rotate, and the wheel being relatively locked in alignment with the longitudinal axis and wherein there is no additional actuator or mechanism required to change the direction of front wheel along the steering axis.

20. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1, including a figurine, the figurine having free hinges between selected limbs, selectively the elbows, arms, thighs and knees, being placed on the motorcycle, and both hands being located on a handle-bar, the handle-bar being unmovable and being mounted on the vehicle body, such that when the front wheel turns, the position of the handle-bar remains unchanged.

21. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein a shifting of the figurine body effecting a change in CG to one side with an actuator, such that the motorcycle can perform a matching turning.

22. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the actuator for shifting the figurine body includes at least one of an electric motor, electromagnetic device or ionic polymer actuator.

23. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the angle between steering axis and horizon being between about 66 and about 70°

.

24. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the motorbike is an auto-stable system, and is such that no feedback signal is needed for a player to facilitate balance of the motorcycle.

25. The vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the turning and balancing system is applied to at least one of a e remote controlled motorcycle with a side car or a remote controlled two-wheel bicycle.

26. A remote controlled two-wheeled toy vehicle comprising:

a body having a chassis with front and rear ends and a central portion between the ends, between the front end and the rear end there being a longitudinal axis, a front wheel fork assembly connected to the front end of the body, and handlebars connected to the front wheel fork assembly;

front and rear wheels operatively connected to and providing support for the respective front and rear ends, the front wheel being rotatable mounted on the front wheel fork assembly;

the front and rear wheels being directed along the longitudinal axis, and the wheels being relatively locked in alignment with the longitudinal axis, the toy vehicle being steerable in a desired direction under the effect of a tilt relative to a vertical axis passing through the vehicle;

a drive system for selectively driving the rear wheel of the toy vehicle and including a dual motor system connected to the chassis and being disposed between the front and rear wheels;

the motors being operative to drive the rear wheel and for increasing the balancing of the toy vehicle during operation;

circuitry for receiving signal commands from a remote transmitter and controlling the motors in response to received signal commands; and

power supply disposed on the chassis for providing power to the circuitry and the motors.

27. The toy vehicle according to claim 26, wherein the body includes the drive motors being disposed such that a rotatable armature of each respective motor rotates in a relatively opposite direction to the other armature.

28. The toy vehicle according to claim 27 wherein the oppositely turning armatures provide a balancing to the balance of the vehicle at an increased speed range for the vehicle.

29. The toy vehicle according to claim 27, wherein the power supply comprises batteries disposed in an housing for providing power to the circuitry, wherein the circuitry includes a circuit board.

30. The toy vehicle according to claim 26, including an figurine having shoulders, arms, legs, hands, feet, a body, a plurality of joints in the shoulders, arms, legs, hands, feet and body and the figurine being movable relative to the body of the vehicle.

31. The toy vehicle according to claim 30, including the ability to move the figurine from one side of the longitudinal axis to the other side of the axis.

32. The toy vehicle according to claim 30, wherein the movement to one side of the longitudinal axis causes the vehicle to tilt relatively to that one side of the a vertical position of the vehicle.

33. The toy vehicle according to claim 30, including different joints in the figurine, the joints being selectively at least one of a shoulder joint where the arms meet the body, a hip joint where the legs meet the body, and knee joints in the legs.

34. A remote controlled two-wheeled toy vehicle comprising:

a body having front and rear ends, a front wheel fork assembly operatively connected to the front end of the body, a handlebar assembly attached to the front wheel fork assembly, the handle bar assembly being non-movable relative to the body, front and rear wheels operatively connected to and providing support for the respective front and rear ends, the front wheel being rotatably mounted on the front wheel fork assembly, the rear wheel being rotatably mounted;

a motor system for operating a wheel, circuitry for receiving remote commands from a remote transmitter and controlling the toy vehicle in response to received remote commands; and

a power supply with the body for providing power to the circuitry; and

the turning of the vehicle being affected by relatively tilting the vehicle from a position of vertical.

35. The toy vehicle according to claim 34, wherein the motor drives the body by selectively driving the rear wheel of the toy vehicle.

36. The toy vehicle according to claim 35, wherein a balancing system includes having two motors in parallel and symmetrically related along a longitudinal axis, the armatures of the motors rotating oppositely relative to each other.

37. The toy vehicle according to claim 34, including batteries for operating the balancing system and for providing power to the circuitry.

38. The toy vehicle according to claim 34, including an figurine having shoulders, arms, legs, hands, feet, a body, a plurality of joints in the shoulders, arms, legs, hands, feet and body and the figurine being movable relative to the body of the vehicle.

39. The toy vehicle according to claim 38, including the ability to move the figurine from one side of the longitudinal axis to the other side of the axis.

40. The toy vehicle according to claim 38, wherein the movement to one side of the longitudinal axis causes the vehicle to tilt relatively to that one side of the a vertical position of the vehicle.

41. The toy vehicle according to claim 34, wherein the motor system includes drive motors;

and a drive transmission operatively connected to the drive motors and the rear wheel, the drive motors selectively driving the rear wheel in response to received remote commands;

wherein the drive motors and the drive transmission is disposed symmetrically longitudinally on the body.

42. The toy vehicle according to claim 34, wherein the balancing system is user controllable by the remote transmitter and the circuitry.