Tennis Ball Pick-Up Cart

• US 20140294547A1
• Filed: 03/11/2014
• Published: 10/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alexander K. Guo, Guinfeng Chen
• Original Assignee: Alexander K. Guo, Guinfeng Chen
• Inventors: Guo, Alexander K., Chen, Guinfeng
• Granted Patent: US 9,114,285 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 414/507
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2047/022 Autonomous machines which find their own way around the playing surface
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2102/02 Tennis
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/50 Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/00 Electric or electronic controls for exercising apparatus of preceding groups; Controlling or monitoring of exercises, sportive games, training or athletic performances
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 47/021 for picking-up automatically, e.g. by apparatus moving over the playing surface

Abstract

A tennis ball pick-up cart comprises a chassis including a pair of driven wheels and a pair of steering wheels. A ball collection case is coupled to the chassis. A ball pick-up mechanism includes a concave ball guiding plate laterally placed under two vertical side plates. The ball pick-up mechanism also includes a fixing shaft and a rotating shaft each laterally extending between the vertical side plates. Synchronous belt pulleys are provided on the fixing shaft and the rotating shaft. Two synchronous belts are assembled with two of the synchronous belt pulleys. Laterally placed ball-moving plates are evenly distributed on an outer surface of each of the synchronous belts. Each of the ball moving plates includes a ball moving surface perpendicularly connected to the outer surface of each of the belts. An electric motor drives the driven wheels and the rotating shaft.

Claims

1. A tennis ball pick-up cart, comprising:

a chassis including a pair of driven wheels and a pair of steering wheels;

a ball collection case including an open top coupled to the chassis;

a ball pick-up mechanism including two vertical side plates and a ball guiding plate, the ball guiding plate including a concave curved surface laterally placed under the two vertical side plates, the ball pick-up mechanism further including a fixing shaft laterally extending between the two vertical side plates, a rotating shaft laterally extending between the two vertical side plates, a pair of synchronous belt pulleys provided on each of the fixing shaft and the rotating shaft, each belt pulley being placed inside the two vertical side plates, two synchronous belts each assembled with two of the synchronous belt pulleys on the same side, and laterally placed ball-moving plates evenly distributed on an outer surface of each of the synchronous belts, each of the ball-moving plates having a ball-moving surface perpendicularly connected to the outer surface of each of the synchronous belts; and

an electric motor coupled to the chassis, the electric motor including an output shaft connected to a wheel shaft of the two driven wheels and also connected to the rotating shaft of the ball pick-up mechanism.

2. The tennis ball pick-up cart of claim 1, further including a rear wheel driving synchronous belt transmission mechanism connecting the electric motor output shaft to the wheel shaft.

3. The tennis ball pick-up cart of claim 2, further including a ball-moving plate driving synchronous belt transmission mechanism connecting the electric motor output shaft to the rotating shaft of the ball pick-up mechanism.

4. The tennis ball pick-up cart of claim 3, wherein the ball-moving plate driving synchronous belt transmission mechanism includes an overrunning clutch to move the chassis forward and backward and drive the ball-moving plates in a single direction.

5. The tennis ball pick-up cart of claim 1, wherein each of the steering wheels is coupled to a steering lever, an upper end of each of the steering levers being connected to a pair of laterally placed steering gear connecting plates, the steering gear connecting plates both being connected to a steering gear, wherein a laterally extending steering gear fixing plate is coupled to the two vertical side plates and the steering gear is fixed on the steering gear fixing plate.

6. The tennis ball pick-up cart of claim 1, wherein the chassis includes a power switch, an on-board battery charge socket, a radio signal remote receiver and an electronic speed regulator.

7. The tennis ball pick-up cart of claim 1, further including a pair of brush wheels coupled to the chassis, the two brush wheels being placed on opposite sides at a front end of the chassis, the cart also further including vertically placed brush wheel shafts fixed to the two brush wheels and connected to the rotating shaft via brush wheel transmission belts.

8. The tennis ball pick-up cart of claim 1, further including a pair of curved handle fixing frames fixed to the chassis, the two handle fixing frames being positioned outside the two vertical side plates and outside two sidewalls of the ball collection case, and a laterally extending cart body handle coupled to upper ends of the two handle fixing frames.

9. The tennis ball pick-up cart of claim 8, wherein the steering gear includes a protective cover, and ends of the protective cover are fixed to the handle fixing frames.

10. The tennis ball pick-up cart of claim 1, wherein the chassis includes a pair of guiding plates positioned at the front end of the chassis, the two guiding plates being placed on opposite sides of the front of the chassis.