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Control loop for transportation vehicles

  • US 5,791,425 A
  • Filed: 06/07/1995
  • Issued: 08/11/1998
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/24/1993
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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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.

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