US 6,328,127 B1Granted

Operating lever device

AssigneeKomatsu Ltd.

InventorsShuuji Hori, Yasuhiro Sato, Naoki Ishizaki, Masayoshi Mototani

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Abstract

A vehicle advances forward while turning to the right when an operating lever is tilted forward and to the right, that is, being operated in a direction intermediate between the forward direction and right-hand direction. Only an output signal of the component corresponding to the forward direction is preserved when the operating lever is released. The component corresponding to the right-hand direction returns to the neutral position, and the signal output is brought to zero. The vehicle therefore moves only forward. The operating position can thus be preserved and a signal output state can be held for a single directional component selected from longitudinal and transverse direction components when operating the operating lever device which is tilted along the directional components in both longitudinal and transverse directions.

Claims9

Dependent claims

An operating lever device, comprising:

an operating lever tiltable in an arbitrary longitudinal or transverse tilting direction in two dimensions;
a longitudinally rotating shaft rotating in accordance with the tilting of the operating lever along a longitudinal direction component;
a transversely rotating shaft rotating in accordance with the tilting of the operating lever along a transverse direction component;
and
drive signal generation means for generating a drive signal in accordance with a direction and an amount of tilt of the operation lever, and outputting the result to two actuators, wherein the operating lever device further comprises:
holding means for holding the operating lever in a tilted position of a directional component selected from the longitudinal and transverse direction components by generating a sliding resistance in the longitudinally rotating shaft or the transversely rotating shaft when the operating lever is tilted.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.