Transportation vehicles and methods

A vehicle for transporting a human subject over ground, the vehicle comprising:

• (a) a support, having a base surface, for supporting the subject in a standing position, the support having left and right sides and defining fore-aft and lateral planes;
• (b) a pair of ground-contacting members, laterally disposed with respect to one another and movably attached to the support in such a manner that the distance between the point of contact of each ground-contacting member with the ground and the base surface is sufficiently small as to permit a person to step from the ground onto the support, each ground-contacting member includes a cluster of wheels for contacting the ground, each cluster being rotatably mounted on and motor-driven about a laterally disposed central axis, and each of the wheels in each cluster being rotatably mounted about an axis parallel to the central axis, the wheels being capable of being motor-driven independently of the cluster, the members and the support being components of an assembly;
• (c) a motorized drive arrangement, mounted to the assembly for causing locomotion of the assembly and the subject over the surface;
• and
• (d) a control loop, in which the motorized drive is included, for dynamically maintaining stability in the fore-aft plane by operation of the motorized drive arrangement so that the net torque experienced by the assembly about the point of contact with the surface, taking into account torques caused by gravity as well as by all other external forces and by the motorized drive, causes a desired acceleration and sustained locomotion of the assembly, such stability being maintained even while the assembly experiences varying forces and accelerations.

A vehicle, for transporting a human subject over a surface that may be irregular, the vehicle comprising:

• (a) a support for supporting the subject, the support having left and right sides and defining fore-aft and lateral planes;
• (b) a ground-contacting module for suspending the subject in the support over the surface, the support and the ground-contacting module being components of an assembly;
• (c) a motorized drive arrangement, mounted to the assembly for causing locomotion of the assembly and the subject over the surface;
• (d) a control loop, in which the motorized drive arrangement is included, for dynamically maintaining stability in the fore-aft plane by operation of the motorized drive arrangement so that the net torque experienced by the assembly about the point of contact with the surface, taking into account torques caused by gravity and by all other external forces and by the motorized drive, causes a desired acceleration and sustained locomotion of the assembly, such stability being maintained even while the assembly experiences varying forces and accelerations;
• wherein the control loop is configured so that fore and aft sustained motion of the vehicle is controlled by fore and aft leaning of the vehicle caused by the subject, and in maintaining stability in the fore-aft plane the control loop does not cancel out such leaning under normal conditions of locomotion.