Apparatus for spring centered caster wheel
AssigneeDEKA Products Limited Partnership
InventorChristopher C. Langenfeld
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An autonomous delivery vehicle having one or more caster wheels that may be held off the ground for a portion of the time that the autonomous delivery vehicle travels. Each caster wheel is mounted in a pivot with a centering mechanism to hold the caster wheels in a design orientation. The caster wheel in the design orientation maximizes the view of forward-looking sensors on the autonomous delivery vehicle. The centering mechanism uses a compression spring that drives a follower and swashshaft to apply a rotation force on the caster wheels. The rotational force urges the casters frame and wheels to return to a design position. The rotational force increases with the rotational difference between the caster rotational position and the design position.
Claims13
Caster having a caster axis and a design position relative to a vehicle comprising:
- a swashshaft rotatably mounted relative to the vehicle about the caster axis and defining a surface with an orthogonal swash axis that intersects the caster axis;
- and
- a follower that follows the surface;
- whereby increasing an angular difference from the design position increases a force against said follower.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.