Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Hideharu Izumi

Toru Takenaka

Shinichiro Kobashi

Taiji Koyama

Kazuya Kuwabara

Makoto Hirano

Hiroshi Gomi

Masao Sasaki

Masashi Shinohara

Tsutomu Takahashi

Tsuneo Endoh

Kazushi Hamaya

Hiroyuki Makino

Kengo Ishimitsu

Seiji Nishimoto

Haruhiko Komatsu

Taizo Kitamura

In a wheel for use in an omni-directional vehicle, gravel and other foreign matters are prevented from being trapped between free rollers forming the wheel, and traveling vibrations and noises are minimized at the same time. The wheel includes an annular member and a plurality of free rollers each rotatably supported by the annular member around a corresponding tangential line of the annular member, and a gap member is placed between each adjacent pair of the free rollers to fill a gap defined between the free rollers.

Wheel, and friction drive device and omni-directional vehicle using the same

A drive unit includes a main wheel having an annular member, and a plurality of driven rollers that are rotatably attached to the annular member, a plurality of first drive rollers and a plurality of second drive rollers, which are provided with the annular member between them and arranged such that they make contact with the outer peripheral faces of the driven rollers, a first holder and a second holder, which are arranged with the annular shaft between them and respectively hold the plurality of first drive rollers and the plurality of second drive rollers while allowing them to rotate, and a first drive unit and a second drive unit that rotationally drive the first holder and the second holder respectively; grooves are formed in the outer peripheral faces of the driven rollers at an angle to the circumferential direction thereof.

Drive unit

In an inverted pendulum type vehicle configured to travel on a ground surface while maintaining an upright posture under an inverted pendulum control, comprising a base frame supporting a propulsion unit, the propulsion unit including a main wheel configured to roll on the ground surface, and a seat unit provided on the base frame for supporting hips of a rider, the seat unit includes a saddle having at least a center located ahead of an axial line extending between a rotational center line of the main wheel and a gravitational center of the inverted pendulum type vehicle. Thereby, even when there is an obstacle on the ground surface behind the vehicle, the main wheel rolling on the ground surface is prevented from coming into contact with the obstacle, and the boarding of the rider on the vehicle is facilitated.

Inverted pendulum type vehicle

In a friction drive device comprising first free rollers and second free rollers contacting each other at the outer circumferential surfaces thereof to frictionally transmit power from the second free rollers to the first free rollers, in order to minimize the slippage between the first and second free rollers, minimize the power loss and cause the first free rollers to move as designed, an outer peripheral part of each first free roller defining an outer circumferential surface thereof has a different stiffness from that of an outer peripheral part of each second free roller defining an outer circumferential surface thereof.

Friction drive device and OMNI-directional vehicle using the same

Heat generated by a drive source of a friction drive device such as an electric motor is allowed to efficiently dissipate to the atmosphere, and the friction drive device and an omni-directional vehicle using the same is designed in a highly compact manner. Left and right electric drive devices are placed on a central axial line of left and right rotatable drive members, and external teeth members serving as output members of the electric drive devices are directly connected to the respective rotatable drive members in a torque transmitting and heat transmitting relationship.

Friction drive device and omni-directional vehicle using the same

[Task] To allow a wheel that provides a performance required for use in an omni-directional vehicle to be manufactured in an efficient manner. [Solution] An annular member () comprises a C-shaped main body () and a complementary member () defining an endless annular shape jointly with the main body (), a joint () between the main body () and complementary member () includes mating surfaces that are non-perpendicular to the cross sectional center line of the annular member, and the main body () and the complementary member () are fixedly joined to each other by using a threaded bolt () passed radially through the mating surfaces.

An inverted pendulum type moving body moving over a floor surface in a self standing manner, the inverted pendulum type moving body comprising: an information acquisition unit obtaining a state information indicating a current state of an another moving body; and a movement control unit controlling a movement of a self moving body, based on the state information, so that a state of the self moving body with respect to the current state of the another moving body satisfies a predetermined condition established so that the self moving body and the another moving body moves in alignment.

Inverted pendulum type moving body

The omni-directional drive device comprises a main wheel () comprising an endless annular member rotatable around a center of cross section perpendicular to a corresponding tangential line, electric motors (R andL) for producing rotative forces around the rotation axis of the main wheel () and around the center of cross section perpendicular to a corresponding tangential line of the main wheel () and an arrangement (rotary members (R andL) fitted with free rollers (R andL)) for converting the rotational forces of the electric motors (R andL) to the rotational forces around the rotation center of the main wheel () and around the center (C) of cross section perpendicular to a corresponding tangential line of the main wheel ().

Omni-directional drive device and omni-directional vehicle using the same

Provided is a vehicle that can make tight turns without significantly changing an attitude of a rider, and is highly convenient in narrow places. A omni-directional one-wheeled vehicle comprises a vehicle body () and a secondary wheel () configured to contact a ground surface at a point displaced from a contact point of a driven road wheel ().

Omni-directional vehicle

Provided is an inverted pendulum mobile vehicle such as a single-passenger coaxial two-wheel vehicle which is capable of turning with a small turning radius without causing discomfort to a rider or a vehicle occupant or causing a cargo or the like on the vehicle from shifting or falling off from the vehicle. The vehicle comprises a wheel supporting frame (), a body frame () supported by the wheel supporting frame so as to be rotatable around a vertical axial line and carry a rider and or a cargo and a body coupler () that couples the body frame relative to the wheel supporting frame in a prescribed dynamic positional relationship. Thereby, even when the wheel supporting frame undergoes a rapid yaw movement either while traveling in a fore-and-aft direction or remaining stationary, the body frame that carries a vehicle occupant or a cargo is allowed to follow the yaw movement of the wheel supporting frame at a slower angular speed and/or acceleration/deceleration so that the vehicle occupant is prevented from experiencing discomfort and the cargo is prevented from shifting on the body frame or falling off from the vehicle.

Inverted pendulum mobile vehicle

In a frictional drive vehicle, a load acting on the vehicle such as the weight of a rider is converted into a force that urges two frictionally engaging parts (L,R,) toward each other. Thereby, the contact pressure between the two frictionally engaging parts is maintained at an optimum level under all conditions. A weight of a rider may be transmitted to a drive member that frictionally engages a main wheel via a four-link parallel link mechanism ().

Friction drive vehicle

Provided is an omni-directional drive device that does not complicate the arrangement for a power source for a drive source such as an electric motor, and achieves a high durability and an ease of maintenance. A drive force in a first direction is produced by a movement of a first moveable member () itself, and a drive force in a second direction is produced by the rotation of first free rollers () retained by the first moveable member, the rotation of the first free rollers () being caused by engagement with second free rollers () that are retained by a second moveable member () and rotative actuation of the second moveable member (). Electric motors serving as drive sources may be mounted on base members (and).

A piston for an internal combustion engine includes a crown part, a land part extending from the crown part, a skirt part adjoining the land part, and a linking boss protruding from a reverse surface of the crown part and forming a spherical joint with a small end of a connecting rod. The piston is divided into an upper piston part having the land part, and a lower piston part having the skirt part and a plurality of molded plate members formed by press-molding plates.

Piston for internal combustion engine

Heat transfer members (H, H, H, H) are sequentially disposed within an exhaust port (), within a pre-catalytic device (), and on the downstream of a main catalytic device (); the exhaust port (), the pre-catalytic device (), and the main catalytic device () being provided in an exhaust passage () of an internal combustion engine. The heat transfer surface density (heat transfer area/volume) of the heat transfer members (H) on the upstream side of the exhaust passage () is the lowest, and that of the heat transfer members (H) on the downstream side is the highest. Thus, even though the temperature of the exhaust gas is higher on the upstream side of the exhaust passage () than it is on the downstream side of the exhaust passage (), a uniform heat transfer performance across all of the heat exchangers (H, H, H, H) may be maintained.

Heat exchanger

First heat exchangers (HHH) are disposed within an exhaust port (), within a pre-catalytic device (), and on the downstream of a main catalytic device (); the exhaust port (), the pre-catalytic device (), and the main catalytic device () being provided in each exhaust passage () of a multicylinder internal combustion engine. These first heat exchangers (HHH) are independently provided for each of the exhaust passages (), and a second heat exchanger (H) is disposed in a section where these exhaust passages () are combined. Since the first heat exchangers (HHH) are disposed on the upstream side of the exhaust passage (), high heat exchange efficiency can be obtained by high temperature exhaust gas, and, moreover, the occurrence of exhaust interference can be avoided, thereby preventing any decrease in the output of the internal combustion engine.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Hideharu Izumi