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US 5,924,512 AGranted
Omnidirectional vehicle and method of controlling the same
AssigneeFuji Electric Co., Ltd.
InventorMasayoshi Wada
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An omnidirectional vehicle supports the steering shaft M of the driving wheel 1 serving also as a steering wheel through the shaft stub 8 on the body 7 at the point displaced by a distance S horizontally from the ground contact point of the driving wheel 1, turns the driving wheel 1 by the motor 5 and rotates the steering shaft M by the motor 12 to translate the body 7 back and forth as well as sidewise as desired. The vehicle is controlled to move on the reference trajectory based on the ratio of the angular velocity of the driving wheel 1 and the angular velocity of the steering shaft M. The ratio is calculated based on the position and orientation of the body 7 and the steering angle of the steering shaft M, detected by the sensors, and the reference trajectory of the vehicle.
Claims15
An omnidirectional vehicle, comprising:
- a body;
- a driving unit including:
- a driving wheel having a center and serving as a steering wheel, the driving wheel being mounted on a wheel shaft;
- a first actuator coupled to the wheel shaft, for rotating the driving wheel;
- a steering shaft rotatably supporting the wheel shaft;
- a shaft stub rotatably supported by the body of the vehicle, the shaft stub having a center and holding the steering shaft vertically at a position in which the center of the shaft stub is horizontally displaced from the center of the driving wheel;
- and
- a second actuator drivably connected to the steering shaft, for rotating the steering shaft;
- a receiver associated with the first and second actuator, for receiving a command;
- and
- a controller capable of transmitting the command to control an angular velocity of the driving wheel and an angular velocity of the steering shaft so that a direction of a traveling velocity of the driving unit, obtained by synthesizing a forward traveling velocity in a forward direction and a lateral traveling velocity in a lateral direction, at a steering shaft reference point coincides with a pose direction of the drive unit calculated based on a reference trajectory, the forward traveling velocity being determined by the angular velocity of the driving wheel and the lateral traveling velocity being determined by the angular velocity of the steering shaft.
8 more elements
An omnidirectional vehicle comprising:
- a body;
- a driving unit including:
- a chassis;
- a pair of driving wheels each having a center and serving as steering wheels, each of the driving wheels being mounted on wheel shafts, the wheel shafts being aligned and being axially supported to the chassis;
- a pair of actuators for rotating the driving wheels;
- a steering shaft rotatably supporting the wheel shafts through the chassis;
- and
- a shaft stub rotatably supported by the body of the vehicle, the shaft stub having a center and holding a steering shaft vertically at a position in which the center of the shaft stub is horizontally displaced from the center of each of the driving wheels;
- a receiver associated with the actuators, for receiving a command;
- and
- a controller capable of transmitting the command to control an angular velocity of each of the driving wheels so that a velocity of the driving unit, obtained by synthesizing a forward traveling velocity in the forward direction and a lateral traveling velocity in the lateral direction, at a steering shaft reference point coincides with a pose direction of the drive unit calculated based on a reference trajectory, the forward traveling velocity being determined by the angular velocity of the driving wheels and the lateral traveling velocity being determined by the pair of actuators independently driven to generate a translational velocity and an angular rotational velocity of the chassis.
8 more elements
An omnidirectional vehicle comprising:
- a body;
- and
- a driving unit including:
- a chassis;
- a pair of driving wheels each having a center and serving as steering wheels, each of the driving wheels being mounted on wheel shafts, the wheel shafts being aligned and being axially supported to the chassis;
- a pair of first actuators for rotating the driving wheels;
- a steering shaft rotatably supporting the wheel shafts through the chassis;
- a shaft stub rotatably supported by the body of the vehicle, the shaft stub having a center and holding a steering shaft vertically at a position that the center of the shaft stub is horizontally displaced from the center of each of the driving wheels;
- a second actuator for rotating the steering wheels;
- a receiver associated with the actuators, for receiving a command;
- and
- a controller capable of transmitting the command to control an angular velocity of each of the driving wheels so that a velocity of the driving unit, obtained by synthesizing a forward traveling velocity in the forward direction and a lateral traveling velocity in the lateral direction, at a steering shaft reference point coincides with a pose direction of the drive unit calculated based on a reference trajectory, the forward traveling velocity being determined by the angular velocity of the driving wheels and the lateral traveling velocity being determined by the pair of first actuators independently driven to generate a translational velocity and an angular rotational velocity of the chassis, the controller for controlling an angular rotational velocity so that the pose direction of the body coincides with a given target pose direction by correcting the angular rotational velocity of the chassis by driving the second actuator.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.