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US 8,496,077 B2Granted
Robotic two-wheeled vehicle
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsIssa A. D. Nesnas, Jaret B. Matthews, Jeffrey E. Edlund, Joel Burdick, Pablo Abad-Manterola
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A robotic two-wheeled vehicle comprising a connection body interposed between the two wheels are described. A drum can be coaxially located in a central region of the connection body and can support a hollow arm projecting radially from the drum. A tether can be inserted in the arm and connected to a second drum. Instruments and sensors can be accommodated in a case housed inside each wheel.
Claims17
A robotic two-wheeled vehicle comprising:
- a first wheel;
- a second wheel;
- a connection body, the connection body being interposed between the first wheel and
- the second wheel, the first wheel, the second wheel and the connection body being aligned along, and centered to, a longitudinal axis, wherein the connection body comprises:
- i) a first drum coaxially located in a central region of the connection body, the first drum supporting a hollow arm projecting radially from the first drum;
- and
- ii) a second drum coaxially located inside the first drum, the robotic two-wheeled vehicle further comprising:
- a first actuator adapted to drive and rotate the first wheel;
- a second actuator adapted to drive and rotate the second wheel;
- a third actuator adapted to drive and rotate the first drum;
- and
- a fourth actuator adapted to drive and rotate the second drum, the first actuator, the
- second actuator, the third actuator and the fourth actuator being controlled independently of each other.
10 more elements
A robotic two-wheeled vehicle comprising:
- a first wheel;
- a second wheel;
- a connection body, the connection body being interposed between the first wheel and the second wheel, the first wheel, the second wheel and the connection body being aligned along, and centered to, a longitudinal axis, wherein the robotic two-wheeled vehicle comprises a mechanism for deploying one or more instruments and/or sensors from at least one of the first wheel and second wheel towards an external environment, one or more of the instruments and/or sensors being mounted on the mechanism, wherein the mechanism is associated to at least one of the first wheel and the second wheel, wherein the mechanism is a single degree-of freedom four-bar mechanism.
A robotic two-wheeled vehicle comprising:
- a first wheel;
- a second wheel;
- a connection body, the connection body being interposed between the first wheel and
- the second wheel, the first wheel, the second wheel and the connection body being aligned along, and centered to, a longitudinal axis, wherein the connection body comprises:
- i) a first drum coaxially located in a central region of the connection body, the first drum supporting a hollow arm projecting radially from the first drum;
- and
- ii) a second drum coaxially located inside the first drum;
- the robotic two-wheeled vehicle further comprising:
- a first actuator and a second actuator, the first actuator connected to the first drum, and the second actuator connected to the second drum;
- and
- a tether housed in the hollow arm and fixedly connected to the second drum,
- wherein spinning the first drum in a first direction and spinning the second drum in a direction opposite the direction of rotation of the first drum, the tether is wound or unwound about the second drum,
- wherein spinning the first drum and the second drum in a same direction of rotation, the second drum rotates without reeling or unreeling the tether on the second drum, whereby the reeling and the unreeling of the tether is independent of motion of the first wheel and the second wheel.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.