Systems and methods for controlling a radio-controlled two-wheeled vehicle
AssigneeHorizon Hobby, LLC
InventorsJohn Adams, Matthew W. Olson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A radio-controlled (RC) motorcycle is disclosed with a chassis, a rear wheel, and a steerable front wheel assembly. The motorcycle includes an attitude estimator that uses rotation and acceleration data from an IMU to estimate an inertial attitude of the motorcycle. A receiver is connected to a control processor and receives a steering input from an RC transmitter. The control processor determines a desired roll angle based at least in part on the steering input from the receiver; determines a reported roll angle from the attitude estimate; and controls a steering angle of the front wheel assembly to reduce the difference (or reduce error) between the desired roll angle and the reported roll angle.
Claims17
A radio-controlled (RC) motorcycle, comprising:
- a chassis, comprising a rear wheel and a steerable front wheel assembly;
- an inertial measurement unit (IMU) comprising one or more angular rate sensors configured to output rotation data associated with rotation of the RC motorcycle about one or more axes, and one or more acceleration sensors configured to output acceleration data associated with acceleration of the RC motorcycle along one or more axes;
- an attitude estimator, configured to calculate an attitude estimate of the RC motorcycle using the rotation and acceleration data from the IMU;
- a receiver;
- a brake coupled to the rear wheel;
- and
- a control processor, electrically connected to the receiver configured to:
- receive a steering input from an RC transmitter;
- receive an attitude estimate from the attitude estimator;
- determine a target roll angle based at least in part on the steering input from the receiver;
- determine a reported roll angle from the attitude estimate;
- control a steering angle of the front wheel assembly to reduce error between the target roll angle and the reported roll angle;
- store a pitch angle activation threshold, maximum pitch rotation rate threshold, and target pitch angle;
- determine a reported pitch angle and a reported pitch rotation rate based on data from the attitude estimator and inertial measurement unit;
- compare the pitch angle activation threshold and maximum pitch rotation rate threshold to the reported pitch angle and the reported pitch rotation rate respectively;
- and
- when either the pitch angle activation threshold or the maximum pitch rotation rate threshold are exceeded, control the RC motorcycle to avoid flipping over.
A control processor for an RC vehicle, configured to:
- receive angular rotation data associated with rotation of the RC vehicle about one or more axes and acceleration data associated with acceleration of the RC vehicle along one or more axes;
- calculate a roll angle estimate of the RC vehicle, based on the rotation data and the acceleration data;
- receive steering command data from a controller associated with the RC vehicle;
- calculate a target roll angle, based on the steering command data;
- control the steering angle of at least one wheel of the RC vehicle to reduce error between the target roll angle and the roll angle estimate;
- and
- determine a self-level input based on the steering input from the RC transmitter;
- wherein the self-level input is determined based on the steering input being indicative of a centered steering input on the transmitter.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.