TRANSPORT OF AN OBJECT ACROSS A SURFACE

• US 20110272884A1
• Filed: 05/09/2011
• Published: 11/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Original Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Inventors: POPP, Harald, GAYER, Marc, FUCHS, Harald, BERNHARD, Josef, KRAEGELOH, Stefan, LUTZKY, Manfred, BRIX, Sandra, SPORER, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 9,114,940 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 273/237
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2003/00716 Connectable or stackable playing pieces or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2003/0076 circular A63F2003/00703 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/0087 with means for producing an air current
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 3/00 Board games; Raffle games racing games, traffic games, or obstacle games characterised by figures moved by action of the players A63F9/14
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 3/00697 Playing pieces
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 3/02 Chess; Similar board games
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 7/3603 Rolling boards with special surface, e.g. air cushion boards
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 18/002 Air-actuated track systems, e.g. with air cushion
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 51/03 over a flat surface or in troughs

Abstract

A basic idea of the present application is that in case of determining a position of the object on the surface, it is possible to also use transport mechanisms for the transport of the object on the surface which leads to less reproducible transport movements as the regulation may be executed directly on the basis of the observed movement as compared to the desired movement. Embodiments using compressed air, magnetism and/or bending waves are described.

Claims

1. An object for a controllable transport on an air cushion, comprising:

a level bottom; and

a plurality of recesses in the level bottom, wherein at least a predetermined one of the recesses is adjacent to a side wall of the object and in the side wall an opening is formed through which air of the air cushion may escape laterally from the at least one predetermined recess.

2. The object according to claim 1, comprising a controllable unit for a selective closing and opening of the opening.

3. The object according to claim 2, wherein the controllable unit for a selective closing and opening is externally wirelessly controllable.

4. The object according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of predetermined recesses is adjacent to the side wall of the object and in the side wall a plurality of openings are formed through which air of the air cushion may escape laterally from the plurality of predetermined recesses, i.e. in different directions, so that the object is rotatable around an axis perpendicular to the level bottom and/or translationally movable laterally by means of air escaping through one or several of the plurality of openings.

5. The object according to claim 1, implemented as a game piece for a board game.

6. The object according to claim 1, further comprising an optical sensor accommodated in or at the object for optically scanning a supporting surface on which the level bottom of the object is supported, and wirelessly transmitting a resulting scan result to the outside.

7. The object according to claim 6 which is further implemented to wirelessly identify towards the outside.

8. A system for transporting an object on an air cushion, comprising:

a plurality of nozzles in a level surface which are controllable separately from each other in order to let compressed air stream out which forms an air cushion between the object and the level surface;

a determiner for determining a position of the object on the level surface; and

a controller for controlling the nozzles depending on the determined position.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the object comprises a level bottom and a plurality of recesses in the level bottom, wherein at least a predetermined one of the recesses is adjacent to a side wall of the object and an opening is formed in the side wall through which air of the air cushion may escape laterally from the at least one predetermined recess and wherein the controller for controlling the nozzles is implemented to control the nozzles also depending on a deviation between the determined position of the object to a desired position of the object so that the object approaches a desired position on the level surface.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein an average smallest distance between the plurality of nozzles is smaller than a lateral extension of the at least one recess.

11. The system according to claim 8, further comprising a controllable unit for exerting a laterally directed force onto the object to approximate the object to its desired position.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the controllable unit is implemented so that the laterally directed force is a magnetically attracting or repelling force.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the controllable unit comprises a member with a lateral distribution of magnetic coils and the determiner for determining a position of the object on the level surface comprises a flat screen which is arranged between the member and the level surface, wherein the magnetic coils are controllable separately from each other in order to generate magnetic dipoles with an alignment perpendicular to the surface.

14. A system according to claim 8, wherein each nozzle comprises a slot formed in a deformable material, wherein on both sides of the slot electrodes are arranged which may be set into a different polarity in order to open the slot.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the electrodes are electrically insulated from each other with a closed slot and also an open slot.

16. The system according to claim 14, wherein the deformable material of the nozzles is arranged in holes of a carrier plate.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein both the carrier plate and also the deformable material are transparent for light and a refractive index ratio of the same is between 0.8 and 1.25.

18. The system according to claim 8, wherein the plurality of nozzles is formed in the level surface of a nozzle plate and the determiner for determining a position of the object on the level surface further comprises:

a display, wherein the nozzle plate is transparent and arranged in the direction of view in front of the display, wherein the display is visible for a viewer through the nozzle plate;

a controller for controlling the display such that the same indicates laterally varying information;

an optical sensor accommodated in or at the object for optically scanning a supporting surface on which the level bottom of the object is supported in order to acquire a scan result with respect to the laterally varying information; and

a determiner for determining the position of the object depending on the scan result.

19. A system, comprising:

a plurality of nozzles in a level surface through which compressed air may be guided;

an object for a controllable transport on an air cushion generated by the compressed air, comprising

a level bottom;

a plurality of recesses in the level bottom, wherein at least one predetermined one of the recesses is adjacent to a side wall of the object and in the side wall an opening is formed through which air of the air cushion may escape laterally from the at least one predetermined recess; and

a controllable unit for selectively closing and opening the opening; and

a determiner for determining a position of the object on the level surface; and

a controller for controlling the controllable unit for selectively closing and opening the opening in order to approximate the object to a desired position on the level surface.

20. A system for moving an object which may be magnetically attracted or repelled across a surface, comprising

a plurality of magnetic coils distributed along the surface controllable separately from each other in order to generate magnetic dipoles with an alignment perpendicular to the surface;

a determiner for determining a position of the object on the surface;

a controller for controlling the plurality of magnetic coils distributed along the surface in order to approximate the object to a desired position on the surface.

21. A system according to claim 20, wherein the object is formed from a magnetically permeable material and the object comprises two elements which may be magnetically attracted or repelled offset laterally to a supporting surface of the object.

22. The system according to claim 20, further comprising a nozzle plate forming the surface and comprising a plurality of nozzles in the surface through which compressed air may be guided to form an air cushion between the object and the surface.

23. The device according to claim 20, wherein the determiner for determining a position of the object on the surface further comprises:

a display, wherein in the direction of view the surface is arranged in front of the display and the display is arranged between the surface and the plurality of magnetic coils distributed along the surface, wherein the display is visible for a viewer through the surface.

a controller for controlling the display such that the same indicates laterally varying information;

an optical sensor accommodated in or at the object for optically scanning a supporting surface on which the level bottom of the object is supported in order to acquire a scan result with respect to the laterally varying information; and

a determiner for determining the position of the object depending on the scan result.

24. A device for moving an object across a surface, comprising:

a bending wave generator for generating bending waves in the surface;

a determiner for determining a position of the object on the surface; and

a controller for controlling the bending wave generator, so that the object approaches its desired position on the surface based on the bending waves.

25. The device according to claim 24, wherein the bending wave generator comprises a plurality of structure borne sound generators arranged along an edge of the surface.

26. The device according to claim 24, wherein the controller for controlling is implemented to control the bending wave generator according to a wave field synthesis and using a resulting component of movement, passing tangentially to the surface, of surface points of the surface at the surface wave peaks generated by the bending wave generation means so that the object approaches the desired position.

27. The device according to claim 24, wherein the surface is formed by a plate which comprises a bending wave reflection attenuation termination at its edge.

28. The device according to claim 24, wherein the means for determining a position of the object on the surface further comprises:

a display, wherein the surface is arranged in the direction of the viewer in front of the display, wherein the display is visible for a viewer through the surface;

a control means for controlling the display such that the same displays laterally varying information;

an optical sensor accommodated in or at the object for optically scanning a supporting surface on which the level bottom of the object is supported in order to acquire a scan result with reference to the laterally varying information; and

a determination means for determining the position of the object depending on the scan result.

29. The device according to claim 24, further comprising a nozzle plate forming the surface and comprising a plurality of nozzles in the surface through which the compressed air may be guided in order to form an air cushion between the object and the surface.

30. A method for transporting an object on an air cushion by means of a plurality of nozzles in a level surface which may be controlled separately from each other in order to let compressed air stream out forming an air cushion between the object and the level surface, the method comprising:

determining a position of the object on the level surface; and

controlling the nozzles depending on the determined position.

34. A non-transitory computer readable medium including a computer program comprising a program code for executing the method according to claim 30 when the computer program is executed on a computer.

31. A method for transporting an object by means of an air cushion generated by the compressed air and a plurality of nozzles in a level surface through which compressed air may be guided, wherein the object comprises a level bottom and a plurality of recesses in the level bottom, wherein at least a predetermined one of the recesses is adjacent to a side wall of the object and an opening is formed in the side wall through which the air of the air cushion may escape laterally from the at least one predetermined recess, the method comprising:

determining a position of the object on the level surface; and

selectively closing and opening the opening depending on the determined position in order to approximate the object to a desired position on the level surface.

35. A non-transitory computer readable medium including a computer program comprising a program code for executing the method according to claim 31 when the computer program is executed on a computer.

32. A method for moving an object which may be magnetically attracted or repelled across a surface by means of a plurality of magnetic coils distributed along the surface which may be controlled separately from each other in order to generate magnetic dipoles with an alignment perpendicular to the surface, the method comprising:

determining a position of the object on the surface; and

controlling the plurality of magnetic coils distributed along the surface in order to approximate the object to a desired position on the surface.

36. A non-transitory computer readable medium including a computer program comprising a program code for executing the method according to claim 32 when the computer program is executed on a computer.

33. A method for moving an object across a surface by means of bending waves, the method comprising:

determining a position of the object on the surface; and

generating bending waves in the surface so that the object approximates its desired position on the surface based on the bending waves.

37. A non-transitory computer readable medium including a computer program comprising a program code for executing the method according to claim 33 when the computer program is executed on a computer.