US 2019/0161132 A1Published application

Self-balancing robotic motorcycle

AssigneeFacebook, Inc.

InventorScott C. Wiley

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A robotic motorcycle may include a chassis, driven wheel assemblies, and a control loop stabilizer. The driven wheel assemblies may each include a wheel and a bevel gear. The wheel may be mounted to an axle for rotation about a drive axis and steering about a substantially vertical steering axis. A steer shaft may connect the axle to a steer assembly that controls rotation of the steer shaft about the steering axis to steer the wheel. A drive shaft may be coupled to a drive assembly that controls rotation of the drive shaft about the steering axis. The bevel gear may couple the other end of the drive shaft to the axle so that rotation of the drive shaft about the steering axis controls rotation of the wheel about the drive axis. The control loop stabilizer may determine parameters for the drive and steer assemblies to balance the motorcycle.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A robotic motorcycle comprising:

a chassis that comprises a fore end and an aft end;
fore and aft driven wheel assemblies mounted proximate to the fore and aft ends of the chassis, respectively, each of the driven wheel assemblies comprising:
a wheel mounted to an axle for rotation about a drive axis and steering about a substantially vertical steering axis;
a drive shaft extending along the steering axis from a first drive shaft end to a second drive shaft end, the second drive shaft end being connected to a drive assembly that controls rotation of the drive shaft about the steering axis;
a steer shaft extending along the steering axis from a first steer shaft end to a second steer shaft end, the first steer shaft end being connected to the axle and the second steer shaft end being connected to a steer assembly that controls rotation of the steer shaft about the steering axis to steer the wheel about the steering axis;
and
a bevel gear connecting the first drive shaft end to the axle such that rotation of the drive shaft about the steering axis controls rotation of the wheel about the drive axis to drive the robotic motorcycle in a substantially horizontal direction;
and
a control loop stabilizer configured to balance the robotic motorcycle.

6 more elements

A vehicular platform, comprising:

a chassis that comprises a fore end and an aft end;
and
fore and aft driven wheel assemblies mounted proximate to the fore and aft ends of the chassis, respectively, each of the driven wheel assemblies comprising:
a wheel mounted to an axle for rotation about a drive axis and steering about a substantially vertical steering axis;
a drive shaft extending along the steering axis from a first drive shaft end to a second drive shaft end, the second drive shaft end being connected to a drive assembly that controls rotation of the drive shaft about the steering axis;
a steer shaft extending along the steering axis from a first steer shaft end to a second steer shaft end, the first steer shaft end being connected to the axle and the second steer shaft end being connected to a steer assembly that controls rotation of the steer shaft about the steering axis to steer the wheel about the steering axis;
and
a bevel gear connecting the first drive shaft end to the axle such that rotation of the drive shaft about the steering axis controls rotation of the wheel about the drive axis to drive the vehicular platform in a substantially horizontal direction.

5 more elements

A method of assembling a vehicular platform, comprising:

mounting fore and aft driven wheel assemblies to fore and aft ends, respectively, of a chassis, wherein each of the driven wheel assemblies comprises:
a wheel mounted to an axle for rotation about a drive axis and steering about a substantially vertical steering axis;
a drive shaft extending along the steering axis from a first drive shaft end to a second drive shaft end, the second drive shaft end being connected to a drive assembly that controls rotation of the drive shaft about the steering axis;
a steer shaft extending along the steering axis from a first steer shaft end to a second steer shaft end, the first steer shaft end being connected to the axle and the second steer shaft end being connected to a steer assembly that controls rotation of the steer shaft about the steering axis to steer the wheel about the steering axis;
and
a bevel gear connecting the first drive shaft end to the axle such that rotation of the drive shaft about the steering axis controls rotation of the wheel about the drive axis to drive the vehicular platform in a substantially horizontal direction;
and
communicatively coupling, to the vehicular platform, a control loop stabilizer configured to balance the vehicular platform.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/828,387Filed 30 Nov 2017
Published: 30 May 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification22 codes

B62D 37/06
By means of movable masses: using gyroscopes
B60W 10/12
Conjoint control of vehicle sub-units of different type or different function: including control of differentials
B60W 10/20
Conjoint control of vehicle sub-units of different type or different function: including control of steering systems
B60W 30/02
Purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub-unit, e.g. of systems using conjoint control of…:…