Control loop for transportation vehicles
First Claim
1. A vehicle, for transporting a human subject over a surface that may be irregular, the vehicle comprising:
- (a) a support for supporting the subject;
(b) a ground-contacting module, movably attached to the support, for suspending the subject in the support over the surface, the orientation of the ground-contacting module defining fore-aft and lateral planes;
the support and the ground-contacting module being components of an assembly;
(c) a motorized drive, mounted to the assembly for causing locomotion of the assembly and the subject over the surface; and
(d) a control loop, in which the motorized drive is included, for dynamically maintaining stability in the fore-aft plane by operation of the motorized drive so that the net torque experienced by the assembly about a point of contact with the surface, taking into account torques caused by gravity as well as by all other external forces and by the motorized drive, causes a desired acceleration,wherein the control loop performs the following steps on a cyclical basis;
(1) reading state variable inputs and inputs provided by the subject;
(2) checking for safety of operation based upon comparison of the state variables with specified ranges of values; and
(3) performing calculations for controlling the motorized drive based on the subject-provided inputs and the state variable inputs.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
There is provided, in a preferred embodiment, a transportation vehicle for transporting an individual over ground having a surface that may be irregular. This embodiment has a support for supporting the subject. A ground-contacting module, movably attached to the support, serves to suspend the subject in the support over the surface. The orientation of the ground-contacting module defines fore-aft and lateral planes intersecting one another at a vertical. The support and the ground-contacting module are components of an assembly. A motorized drive, mounted to the assembly and coupled to the ground-contacting module, causes locomotion of the assembly and the subject therewith over the surface. Finally, the embodiment has a control loop, in which the motorized drive is included, for dynamically enhancing stability in the fore-aft plane by operation of the motorized drive in collection with the ground-contacting module. The ground contacting module may be realized as a pair of ground-contacting members, laterally disposed with respect to one another. The ground-contacting members may be wheels. Alternatively, each ground-contacting member may include a cluster of wheels. In another embodiment, each ground-contacting member includes a pair of axially adjacent and rotatably mounted arcuate element pairs. Related methods are also provided.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. A vehicle, for transporting a human subject over a surface that may be irregular, the vehicle comprising:
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(a) a support for supporting the subject; (b) a ground-contacting module, movably attached to the support, for suspending the subject in the support over the surface, the orientation of the ground-contacting module defining fore-aft and lateral planes;
the support and the ground-contacting module being components of an assembly;(c) a motorized drive, mounted to the assembly for causing locomotion of the assembly and the subject over the surface; and (d) a control loop, in which the motorized drive is included, for dynamically maintaining stability in the fore-aft plane by operation of the motorized drive so that the net torque experienced by the assembly about a point of contact with the surface, taking into account torques caused by gravity as well as by all other external forces and by the motorized drive, causes a desired acceleration, wherein the control loop performs the following steps on a cyclical basis; (1) reading state variable inputs and inputs provided by the subject; (2) checking for safety of operation based upon comparison of the state variables with specified ranges of values; and (3) performing calculations for controlling the motorized drive based on the subject-provided inputs and the state variable inputs.
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2. A vehicle, for transporting a human subject over a surface that may be irregular, the vehicle comprising:
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(a) a support for supporting the subject; (b) a ground-contacting module, movably attached to the support, for suspending the subject in the support over the surface, the orientation of the ground-contacting module defining fore-aft and lateral planes;
the support and the ground-contacting module being components of an assembly;(c) a motorized drive, mounted to the assembly for causing locomotion of the assembly and the subject over the surface; and (d) a control loop, in which the motorized drive is included, for dynamically maintaining stability in the fore-aft plane by operation of the motorized drive so that the net torque experienced by the assembly about the point of contact with the surface, taking into account torques caused by gravity as well as by all other external forces and by the motorized drive, causes a desired acceleration, the control loop having a speed limiting controller for limiting the speed of the vehicle to a desired speed threshold below the maximum speed of which the vehicle is currently capable, so that fore-aft stability of the vehicle may continue to be maintained by the control loop. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A vehicle, for transporting a human subject over ground having a surface that may be irregular, the vehicle comprising:
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(a) a support for supporting the subject; (b) a pair of ground-contacting members laterally disposed with respect to one another and movably attached to the support, for suspending the subject in the support over the surface, the orientation of the ground-contacting members defining fore-aft and lateral planes, wherein each ground-contacting member includes a cluster of wheels for contacting the ground, each cluster being rotatably mounted on and motor-driven about a laterally disposed central axis, and each of the wheels in each cluster being rotatably mounted about an axis parallel to the central axis, the wheels being capable of being motor-driven independently of the cluster;
the support and the ground-contacting members being components of an assembly;(c) a motorized drive, mounted to the assembly, for causing locomotion of the assembly and the subject over the surface; and (d) a control loop, in which the motorized drive is included, for dynamically enhancing stability in the fore-aft plane by operation of the motorized drive, the control loop including cluster control means for controlling the angular orientation of each cluster about the central axis and wheel control means for controlling separately, as to the wheels of each cluster, the rotation of wheels in contact with the ground, wherein; in a first condition, the wheel control means is in a slave mode in which the wheels are driven as a function of the rotation of the clusters; and
the cluster control means is in a lean mode in which the clusters are driven in such a manner as to tend to maintain balance of the vehicle in the fore-aft plane while the wheels are in the slave mode, so as to permit the vehicle to ascend or descend stairs or other surface features;in a second condition, the wheel control means is in a balance mode in which the wheels of each cluster in contact with the ground are driven in such a manner as to maintain balance of the vehicle in the fore-aft plane while the cluster control means is in a fixed mode in which the clusters are not rotating; and the control loop has transition means for controlling the transition in at least one direction between the first and second conditions. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A vehicle, for transporting a human subject over a surface that may be irregular, the vehicle comprising:
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(a) a support for supporting the subject; (b) a ground-contacting module, movably attached to the support, for suspending the subject in the support over the surface, the orientation of the ground-contacting module defining fore-aft and lateral planes;
the support and the ground-contacting module being components of an assembly;(c) a motorized drive, mounted to the assembly for causing locomotion of the assembly and the subject over the surface; and (d) a control loop, in which the motorized drive is included, for dynamically maintaining stability in the fore-aft plane by operation of the motorized drive so that the net torque experienced by the assembly about a point of contact with the surface, taking into account torques caused by gravity as well as by all other external forces and by the motorized drive, causes a desired acceleration, the control loop including a plurality of microprocessors, each microprocessor assigned to a separate set of tasks associated with vehicle locomotion and control, in communication with one another over a signal bus.
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Specification