Vehicle wheel system
AssigneeGM Global Technology Operations LLC
InventorsDavid Young, Mohsen Shabana, Christopher Borroni-Bird, Adrian Chernoff, Robert Vitale, Bruce Zemke
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A wheel assembly for a vehicle includes a rotatable wheel having a selectively adjustable steering angle. A steering actuator is operatively connected to the wheel and is configured to selectively adjust the steering angle of the wheel and not any other wheels. The wheel assembly allows independent control of the steering angle of the wheel. The wheel assembly also facilitates modular construction of vehicles by enabling the packaging of mechanical steering components in a preassembled wheel module with simple electrical connections to a vehicle chassis
Claims10
A wheel assembly for a vehicle comprising:
- a nonrotatable member;
- a wheel being rotatably connected with respect to the nonrotatable member and characterized by a selectively adjustable steering angle with respect to the nonrotatable member;
- and a steering actuator being operatively connected to the wheel and configured to selectively alter the steering angle of the wheel;
- wherein the steering actuator is configured to adjust the steering angle of only the wheel.
A vehicle comprising:
- a vehicle chassis frame;
- a first wheel being rotatably mounted with respect to the vehicle frame and characterized by a selectively variable steering angle;
- a second wheel being rotatably mounted with respect to the vehicle frame and characterized by a selectively variable steering angle;
- a first steering actuator being operatively connected to the first wheel and configured to selectively vary the steering angle of only the the first wheel;
- and
- a second steering actuator being operatively connected to the second wheel and configured to selectively vary the steering angle of only the second wheel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.