Powered wheel chair
AssigneeGovernment of the United States of America rep. Administration of Veterens Affairs
InventorWoodrow Seamone
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a powered wheel chair with individual motors driving each of two separate drive wheels. The motors are controlled by the amount of torque applied to the handrim of the driving wheel. If the operator pushes on the handrim of the drive wheel, as is well known, the torque created by such movement is sensed and activates the drive motor to cause the drive wheel to rotate. The power applied to the drive motor is controlled by the amount of torque applied to the handrim such that the conventional control of the wheel chair is maintained.
Claims8
In a powered wheel chair for providing transportation to human passengers including drive wheels rotatably mounted on said wheel chair, said drive wheels being independently powered by electric motors, said improvement comprising:
- handrim means flexibly mounted on said wheel chair drive wheels for providing relative angular displacement to the drive wheels upon the application of torque thereto;
- transducer means, responsive to said relative angular displacement, for providing an electrical output which is a function of torque applied to said handrim means;
- and
- controller means, responsive to said transducer means electrical output, for providing electric power to said electric motors.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.