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US 12,622,827 B2Granted
Muscle-powered wheelchair and method for controlling an auxiliary drive for same
AssigneeMotion Advantage Verwaltungs-GmbH
InventorsHarald Kauffmann, Thomas Birmanns
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A wheelchair having at least one force element that is elastically deformable, wherein deformation of the at least one force element becomes more and more intense with the application of increasing force, resulting in natural damping of the coupled-in force, which may be detected by a sensor such that the wheelchair according to the invention may be controlled in a targeted manner for fine movements as well as for faster, coarser movements.
Claims16
A wheelchair comprising:
- at least one drive wheel (4), wherein the at least one drive wheel (4) comprises a wheel rim (5);
- an electrical drive means (3) connected to the at least one drive wheel (4) and configured to selectively rotate the at least one drive wheel (4) in response to a travel signal;
- at least one elastically deformable push rim (8) mounted to the wheel rim (5) by at least two connecting elements (9) distributed about the circumference of the at least one drive wheel (4), wherein each of the at least two connecting elements (9) comprises a longitudinal axis extending between the location at which each of the at least two connecting elements (9) is mounted to the at least one push rim (8) and the location at which each of the at least two connecting elements (9) is mounted to the wheel rim (5), and further wherein at least one of the at least two connecting elements comprises a signal generator (10);
- wherein each of the at least two connecting elements (9) is configured to pivot about at least one pivot bearing upon the deformation of the at least one push rim (8) resulting from the application of force to the at least one push rim (8) in a direction generally perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the at least two connecting elements;
- wherein the signal generator is configured to generate a travel signal corresponding to the degree of deformation of the at least one push rim where the at least one push rim is mounted to the at least two connecting elements (9);
- and
- wherein the travel signal is transmitted to a control unit (15), and further wherein the control unit (15) activates the electrical drive means (3) so as to selectively rotate the at least one drive wheel (4).
4 more elements
A wheelchair comprising:
- at least one drive wheel (4), wherein the at least one drive wheel comprises a wheel rim (5);
- an electrical drive means (3) connected to the at least one drive wheel (4) and configured to selectively rotate the at least one drive wheel (4) in response to a travel signal;
- at least one elastically deformable push rim (8) mounted to the wheel rim (5) by at least two connecting elements (9) distributed about the circumference of the at least one drive wheel (4);
- wherein each of the at least two connecting elements (9) comprises a longitudinal axis extending between the location at which each of the at least two connecting elements (9) is mounted to the at least one push rim (8) and the location at which each of the at least two connecting elements (9) is mounted to the wheel rim (5), and further wherein at least one of the at least two connecting elements comprises a signal generator (10);
- wherein at least one of the at least two connecting elements (9) comprises an elastically deformable force element, and further wherein the signal generator is configured to detect elastic deformation of the force element along the longitudinal axis of the connecting element, and to generate a travel signal corresponding to the degree of deformation of the force elements;
- wherein the travel signal is transmitted to a control unit (15), and further wherein the control unit (15) activates the electrical drive means (3) so as to selectively rotate the at least one drive wheel (4).
3 more elements
A method for controlling an auxiliary drive for a wheelchair comprising:
- providing a wheelchair (1) comprising:
- at least one drive wheel (4), wherein the at least one drive wheel (4) comprises a wheel rim (5);
- an electrical drive means (3) connected to the at least one drive wheel (4) and configured to selectively rotate the at least one drive wheel (4) in response to a travel signal;
- at least one elastically deformable and push rim (8) mounted to the wheel rim (5) by at least two connecting elements (9) distributed about the circumference of the at least one drive wheel;
- wherein each of the at least two connecting elements (9) comprises a longitudinal axis extending between the location at which each of the at least two connecting elements (9) is mounted to the at least one push rim (8) and the location at which each of the at least two connecting elements (9) is mounted to the wheel rim (5), and further wherein at least one of the at least two connecting elements comprises a signal generator (10);
- wherein each of the at least two connecting elements (9) is configured to pivot about at least one pivot bearing upon the deformation of the at least one push rim (8) resulting from the application of force to the at least one push rim (8) in a direction generally perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the at least two connecting elements;
- wherein the signal generator (10) is configured to generate a travel signal corresponding to the elastic deformation of the at least one push rim where the at least one push rim is mounted to the at least two connecting elements (9);
- transmitting the travel signals generated by the signal generator (10) to a control unit (15) to control the electrical drive means (3);
- and
- activating the electrical drive means (3) by the control unit (15), whereby to rotate the at least one drive wheel (4).
7 more elements
A method for controlling an auxiliary drive for a wheelchair, the method comprising:
- providing a wheelchair (1) comprising:
- at least one drive wheel (4), wherein the at least one drive wheel comprises a wheel rim (5);
- an electrical drive means (3) connected to the at least one drive wheel (4) and configured to selectively rotate the at least one drive wheel (4) in response to a travel signal;
- at least one elastically deformable push rim (8) mounted to the wheel rim (5) by at least two connecting elements (9) distributed about the circumference of the wheel rim (5);
- wherein each of the at least two connecting elements (9) comprises a longitudinal axis extending between the location at which each of the at least two connecting elements (9) is mounted to the at least one push rim (8) and the location at which each of the at least two connecting elements (9) is mounted to the wheel rim (5), and further wherein at least one of the at least two connecting elements comprises a signal generator (10);
- wherein at least one of the at least two connecting elements (9) comprises an elastically deformable force element, and further wherein the signal generator is configured to detect elastic deformation of the force element along the longitudinal axis of the connecting element, and to generate a travel signal corresponding to the degree of deformation of the force element;
- transmitting the travel signals generated by the signal generator (10) to a control unit (15) to control the electrical drive means (3) and
- activating the electrical drive means (3) by the control unit (15), whereby to rotate the at least one drive wheel (4).
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.