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US 12,686,461 B2Granted
Control method for self-balancing vehicles and respective self-balancing vehicle
AssigneeGenny Factory SA
InventorsPaolo Badano, Luca Wullschleger
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a control method for self-balancing vehicles, in which a braking procedure is provided, and to a respective self-balancing vehicle.
Claims17
A control method for a self-balancing vehicle equipped with a base frame, inertial sensors combined with said base frame, a motor configured to drive the vehicle to move and with a control unit connected to said inertial sensors and to said motor, comprising:
- detecting the angle of inclination (α) of said frame with respect to a horizontal axis (X) and with respect of the direction of travel D by means of said inertial sensors, wherein the angle 0° defines a perfectly horizontal inclination angle of said base frame and wherein a positive angle of said inclination angle corresponds to a counterclockwise inclination of said base frame and a negative angle corresponds to a clockwise inclination of said base frame;
- comparing, by means of said control unit, said angle of inclination (α) detected with respect to a predefined reference angle of inclination (γ);
- driving said vehicle to move by means of said control unit when, following the forward or backward imbalance of the user of said vehicle, said detected angle of inclination (α) is being different from said predefined reference angle of inclination (γ);
- said motor exerting an accelerating action, or a braking action, depending on whether said detected angle of inclination (α), if measured in anticlockwise direction, has a value greater than said predefined reference angle of inclination (γ) or has a value lower than said predefined reference angle of inclination (γ);
- and
- manually triggering, at least when said detected angle of inclination (α) is greater than said predefined reference angle of inclination (γ), a braking procedure in which said control unit replaces said predefined reference angle of inclination (γ) with a fictitious reference inclination angle (β) whose value is less than said predefined reference angle of inclination (γ) so that said motor is driven on the basis of said fictitious inclination angle (β) to exert or contribute to exert a braking action.
3 more elements
A self-balancing vehicle comprising:
- a base frame;
- inertial sensors combined with said base frame, which are adapted to detect the angle of inclination (α) of said frame with respect to a horizontal axis (X), wherein the angle 0° defines a perfectly horizontal inclination angle of said base frame and wherein a positive angle of said inclination angle corresponds to a counterclockwise inclination of said base frame and a negative angle corresponds to a clockwise inclination of said base frame;
- a motor adapted to move and/or brake said vehicle;
- a central control unit connected to said inertial sensors and to said motor, said control unit being configured to drive said vehicle to move when, following the forward or backward imbalance of the user of said vehicle, said detected inclination angle (α) is different from said predefined reference angle of inclination (γ);
- said motor exerting an accelerating action, or a braking action, depending on whether said detected angle of inclination (α), if measured in anticlockwise direction, has a value greater than said predefined reference angle of inclination (γ), or has a value lower than said predefined reference angle of inclination (γ);
- and
- a manually-activated braking unit operatively connected to said control unit, configured to trigger, at least when said detected angle of inclination (α) is greater than said predefined reference angle of inclination (γ), a braking procedure in which said control unit replaces said predefined reference angle of inclination (γ) with a fictitious reference inclination angle (β) whose value is less than said predefined reference angle of inclination (γ) so that said motor is driven on the basis of said fictitious inclination angle (β) so as to exert a braking action.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.