Bicycle with electric motor
First Claim
1. An electrically assisted, manually powered vehicle having at least one driving wheel, an operator driven driving member to which an operator applies a force manually, transmission means coupling said driving member to said driving wheel for operator powered driving of said vehicle, force sensing means for sensing the force applied by said operator to said operator driven driving member and outputting a force signal indicative of the actual amount of force applied by the operator in driving the vehicle, an electric motor for exerting a driving force to said vehicle, means responsive to the output force signal of said force sensing means for supplying an amount of electrical power for operating said electric motor at a ratio related to said force signal for assisting the driving of said vehicle, a vehicle condition sensing device outputting a vehicle condition signal, and means for varying the ratio of electric motor assist relative to the force sensed by said force sensing means in response to the vehicle condition signal output by said vehicle condition sensing device.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A pedal operated vehicle such as a bicycle having an electric motor assist. The assist ratio provided by the electric motor may be varied in response to a variety of vehicle conditions such as speed so as to reduce the consumption of electrical energy and to avoid over speed conditions. Various control ratio options are depicted and an embodiment is also shown wherein the operator may select the assist ratio or assist ratio curve provided.
76 Citations
24 Claims
- 1. An electrically assisted, manually powered vehicle having at least one driving wheel, an operator driven driving member to which an operator applies a force manually, transmission means coupling said driving member to said driving wheel for operator powered driving of said vehicle, force sensing means for sensing the force applied by said operator to said operator driven driving member and outputting a force signal indicative of the actual amount of force applied by the operator in driving the vehicle, an electric motor for exerting a driving force to said vehicle, means responsive to the output force signal of said force sensing means for supplying an amount of electrical power for operating said electric motor at a ratio related to said force signal for assisting the driving of said vehicle, a vehicle condition sensing device outputting a vehicle condition signal, and means for varying the ratio of electric motor assist relative to the force sensed by said force sensing means in response to the vehicle condition signal output by said vehicle condition sensing device.
Specification