Automatic gear shifting system for two-wheel electric vehicles

• US 9,020,672 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2012
• Issued: 04/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Global Prospective Cooperation Company
• Original Assignee: National Cheng KUNG University (Government of The Republic of China)
• Inventors: Lee, Sen-Yung
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu, Yonel
• Assistant Examiner(s): WEEKS, MARTIN A
• Application Number:
  US13/664,781
• Publication Number:
  US 20140088806A1
• Time in Patent Office: 909 Days
• Field of Search: 701/22
• US Class Current: 701/22
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 15/20 for control of the vehicle or its driving motor to achieve a desired performance, e.g. speed, torque, programmed variation of speed
• CPC Class Codes: B62M 25/08 with electrical or fluid transmitting systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility

Abstract

The automatic gear shifting system for two-wheel electric vehicles includes a detection unit for detecting the status of operation of the two-wheel electric vehicle, a processing unit connected with the detection unit for receiving, analyzing and filtering the detected signals so as to generate a speed-changing signal that is correspondent to the detected signal, and a driving device having a low-power motor unit and control member with multiple nodes. The driving device is connected to the operation cable of the speed changing device. The driving device receives the signals of changing speed so as to change the gears according to the signals of changing speed. A motor unit located at the mediate portion of the vehicle is coupled to the processing unit and the front chainwheel. The gears are automatically changed according to the statuses of the two-wheel electric vehicle to provide sufficient power for climbing, low-speed and high-speed operations.

Claims

1. An automatic gear shifting system of a two-wheel electric vehicle, comprising:

a detection unit for detecting operation status of the two-wheel electric vehicle and sending a detected signal;

a processing unit connected to the detection unit, a driving device and a motor system located at a mediate portion of the vehicle, the processing unit receiving, analyzing and filtering the detected signal and generating a speed-changing signal, corresponding to the detected signal, coupled to the driving device and the motor system so as to shift gears by cooperation of the driving device and the motor system;

the driving device having a motor unit which is connected to the processing unit and has an output shaft, the output shaft of the motor unit being coupled to a disk and a control member which has multiple receptive nodes for receipt of a deformable resilient member, the disk being connected to a speed-changing device by an operation cable, the speed-changing device having multiple gear positions corresponding respectively to the multiple receptive nodes of the control member, an interior of the disk being drivingly coupled to the output shaft and the operation cable being connected between an outside portion of the disk and the speed-changing device, the motor unit receiving the speed-changing signal to drive the output shaft to incrementally move the deformable resilient member into a different receptive node of the control member and to correspondingly rotate the disk so that the operation cable is driven to change the gear position of the speed-changing device, and

a motor system adapted to be located at the mediate portion of the vehicle and being mechanically connected to a chainwheel, the motor system providing power to the two-wheel electric vehicle by the speed-changing signal and the shifting of the speed-changing device.

2. The automatic gear shifting system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the driving device generates a feed-back signal to the processing unit when the gear shifting to the speed-changing device is completed, the processing unit is acknowledged the gear position of the speed-changing device, the processing unit receives and analyzes the detected signal to the feed-back signal, and filters the detected signal and generates a speed-changing signal, corresponding to the detected signal and the feed-back signal, to the driving device.

3. The automatic gear shifting system as claimed in claim 2, wherein a display unit is connected to the processing unit which generates a display signal to the display unit when receiving the feed-back signal, the display unit receives the display signal to display the gear position of the speed-changing device.

4. The automatic gear shifting system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the operation status includes driving force, driving speed, power consumption, electric-assistance level, present gear position and slope, the detection unit comprises a slope detection member, a speed detection member, a torque detection member and a pressure detection member, the slope detection member has a gravity sensor (G-sensor) or a leveling device.

5. The automatic gear shifting system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing unit is electrically connected to the driving device and the motor system, the processing unit filters noisy and scattered signals to provide stable control signals.

6. The automatic gear shifting system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the speed-changing device is a front speed-changing device, a rear speed-changing device or an internal speed-changing device.

7. The automatic gear shifting system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the motor system is a coaxial motor, an assembled motor or a tilt motor.

8. A driving device comprising:

a motor unit, a disk and a control member, the motor unit having an output shaft which is drivingly coupled to the disk and the control member, an interior of the disk being coupled to the output shaft and an operation cable connected to outside of the disk, the operation cable being connected to a speed-changing device which has multiple gear positions, the control member having an inner ring and an outer ring, the outer ring being adapted to be fixed to a frame of a two-wheel electric vehicle and the inner ring being coupled to the output shaft, the inner ring having multiple receptive nodes for receipt of a deformable resilient member disposed on the outer ring, the receptive nodes being located corresponding respectively to the gear positions of the speed-changing device, when the motor unit receives a gear-shifting signal, the inner ring is rotated to deform the deformable resilient member and incrementally change the receptive node into which the deformable resilient member is received, and the disk thereby responsively drives the operation cable to shift the gear position of the speed-changing device.

9. The driving device as claimed in claim 8,

wherein the deformable resilient member has a contact portion, the outer ring has multiple recesses defined in an inner periphery thereof, the recesses are located corresponding to the contact portions which are engaged with the recesses to form the receptive nodes.

10. The driving device as claimed in claim 8, wherein the deformable resilient member has a contact portion, the inner ring has multiple recesses defined in an outer periphery thereof, a number of the recesses is larger than that of the at least one resilient member, the recesses are located corresponding to the contact portions which are engaged with the recesses to form the receptive nodes.