Control of a balancing personal vehicle
First Claim
1. A vehicle for transporting a payload over a surface that may be irregular and may include stairs, the vehicle comprising:
- a. a support for supporting the payload;
b. at least one ground contacting element moveable with respect to a local axis, the local axis being rotatable about a second axis having a defined relation with respect to the support, wherein all ground contacting elements are rotatable about the second axis;
c. a motorized drive arrangement having an operating mode for controllable motion of the ground contacting element with respect to the local axis so that the local axis moves with respect to the second axis so as to operate in an operating condition that is always unstable with respect to tipping in at least a fore-aft plane when the motorized drive arrangement is not powered; and
d. an input device for receiving an indication from a user of a specified configuration of the vehicle.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A vehicle for transporting a payload over a surface that may be irregular and may include stairs. The vehicle has a support for supporting the payload and a ground contacting element movable with respect to a local axis, where the local axis can be moved with respect to some second axis that has a defined relation with respect to the support. The vehicle also has a motorized drive arrangement for permitting controllable motion of the ground contacting element so as to operate in an operating condition that is unstable with respect to tipping in at least a fore-aft plane when the motorized drive arrangement is not powered. The vehicle also has an input device for receiving an indication from an assistant who is not disposed on the vehicle of a direction of desired motion of the vehicle.
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Citations
4 Claims
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1. A vehicle for transporting a payload over a surface that may be irregular and may include stairs, the vehicle comprising:
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a. a support for supporting the payload;
b. at least one ground contacting element moveable with respect to a local axis, the local axis being rotatable about a second axis having a defined relation with respect to the support, wherein all ground contacting elements are rotatable about the second axis;
c. a motorized drive arrangement having an operating mode for controllable motion of the ground contacting element with respect to the local axis so that the local axis moves with respect to the second axis so as to operate in an operating condition that is always unstable with respect to tipping in at least a fore-aft plane when the motorized drive arrangement is not powered; and
d. an input device for receiving an indication from a user of a specified configuration of the vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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Specification