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US 6,279,934 B1Granted
One-handed drive wheelchair having relative speed control for rear wheels
OwnerRobert C. Womackinventor
Life of this patent
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OwnerRobert C. Womackinventor
Estimating the term…
A drive shaft (78) extends across a wheelchair (12), transverse to a centerline (122) of the wheelchair (12). A first wheel (56) is rotatably mounted to one end of the drive shaft (78) and a second wheel (58) is fixedly mounted to the other end of the drive shaft (78), for rotating with the drive shaft (78). A drive wheel (66) is fixedly mounted to the drive shaft (78) on an opposite end of the drive shaft (78) from the second wheel (58) and adjacent to the first wheel (56). The drive wheel (66) is of a slightly smaller diameter than that of the first and second wheels (56, 58), being three to fifteen percent smaller. The drive shaft (78) has a plurality of linkage sections (92-100) which are rotatably connected such that the drive shaft (78) may be collapsed with a wheelchair frame (14). A coupling sleeve (84) is slidably mounted on the drive shaft (78) for sliding across a portion of the adjacent sections (92-100) of the drive shaft (78) to rigidly fix the sections (92-100) of the drive shaft (78) in coaxial alignment. A dual brake (46) may be selectively applied to frictionally lock one of or both of the first and second wheels (56, 58) from rotating. The first and second wheels (56, 58) and the drive shaft (78) are mounted to a drive assembly (64) which is secured to the frame (14) of the wheelchair (12) by fast pins (114, 116). In a second embodiment (232), an electronically controlled differential speed control unit (236) couples a rear wheel (56) of one side of a wheelchair (236) to a rear wheel (58) of the opposite side of the wheelchair (236) to electronically control the relative speed of the two rear wheels (56, 58) in response to commands of the user.
In a one-handed drive wheelchair having a plurality of wheels, a drive shaft mounted to said wheelchair to extend transverse to a centerline of said wheelchair, one of the plurality of wheels defining a first wheel, said first wheel being rotatably mounted to one end of said drive shaft, another of said plurality of wheels defining a second wheel, said second wheel being fixedly mounted to the other end of said drive shaft, for rotating with said drive shaft, a drive wheel fixedly mounted to said drive shaft, on an opposite end of said drive shaft from said second wheel and adjacent to said first wheel, said drive wheel being of a smaller diameter than that of said first and second wheels, the improvement comprising:
A one-handed drive wheelchair having a plurality of wheels, said wheelchair comprising:
A method for manually operating a one-handed drive wheelchair having a plurality of wheels, a drive shaft mounted to said wheelchair, extending transverse to a centerline of the wheelchair, one of the plurality of wheels defining a first wheel, the first wheel being rotatably mounted to one end of the drive shaft, another of the plurality of wheels defining a second wheel, the second wheel being fixedly mounted to the other end of the drive shaft, for rotating with the drive shaft, a drive wheel fixedly mounted to the drive shaft, on an opposite end of the drive shaft from the second wheel and adjacent to the first wheel, the drive wheel being of a smaller diameter than that of the first and second wheels, the method comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.