Kabushikikaisha Equos Research

Equos Research Co., Ltd.

Katsunori Doi

Nobuaki Miki

Munehisa Horiguchi

Takumi Tachibana

Takashi Naito

Masahiro Hasebe

Toshio Fukuda

Fumihiko Sakakibara

Tsukasa Hosokawa

Takayuki Matsuno

When measurements by sensors are impossible, the angular position of the vehicle is estimated from the conditions including rotation of the drive wheel and the driving torque so that the vehicle may travel in an inverted-pendulum position even in case of a failure of measurements of the vehicular position of angle. To achieve the object, the vehicle has a drive wheel rotatably mounted beneath a vehicular body, and a control unit that controls the vehicular position of angle through control of drive torque imparted to the drive wheel. The control unit has a means to estimate the vehicular angular position with respect to a vertical position from the conditions of rotation of the drive wheel and the driving torque.

Vehicle with inclination estimation

The gradient of a road surface is estimated with a change in the attitude of a vehicle also taken into consideration. As a result, the gradient of the road surface can be estimated with high accuracy, and this enables the vehicle to stably stop and travel independently of the gradient of the road surface. The vehicle has a drive wheel rotatably mounted on a vehicle body and also has a vehicle control device for controlling the attitude of the vehicle by controlling drive torque applied to the drive wheel. The vehicle control device estimates the gradient of the road surface based on the attitude of the vehicle and corrects the drive torque based on the gradient.

Inverted pendulum vehicle with stability on a slope

A vehicle provides upstanding and tilted (standstill for allowing a user to get on an off the vehicle) positions without movement of the vehicle. In the vehicle, even if the vehicle body tilts, a riding section is moved in the forward-backward direction to bring the vehicle to an orientation where the center of gravity (P) of the vehicle body is on a vertical line (V) passing through ground contact points (S) or drive wheels (). This controls the tilt angle of the vehicle body and the position of the riding section () so that the center of gravity (P) does not move. Thus, the upright position and the tilted position of the vehicle are achieved without movement of the vehicle (without rotation of the wheels). Further, influences such as an error in parameters and disturbance are compensated for by a balancer that moves in the forward-backward direction.

Vehicle

When a vehicle climbs up/down a step, driving torque suitable for the step climbing operation is applied to a driving wheel, and the center of gravity of a vehicle body is moved in an upward direction of the step. Thus, a stable traveling state and stable posture of the vehicle body can be maintained both when climbing up a step and when climbing down a step, whereby an occupant can operate the vehicle safely and comfortably even on a place having steps. In view of this, the vehicle includes: a vehicle body; a driving wheel rotatably attached to the vehicle body; and a vehicle control apparatus for controlling driving torque that is applied to the driving wheel and controlling posture of the vehicle body. When climbing up/down a step on a road, the vehicle control apparatus controls a position of center of gravity of the vehicle body in accordance with the step.

A motor vehicle has a body, a wheel rotatably supported and coaxially disposed on the body, and an occupant riding portion supported by the body. The motor vehicle is provided with a body attitude detector for detecting an attitude of the body and a body attitude controller for controlling the body attitude detected by the body attitude detector, wherein, in response to an inertial force or a centrifugal force generated by acceleration, deceleration or a turning motion of the motor vehicle, the occupant riding portion is moved so as to balance the inertial force or the centrifugal force. The motor vehicle further includes an occupant attitude controller for controlling an attitude of the occupant riding portion in accordance with a detection value detected by the body attitude detector.

Motor vehicle with dynamic balancing occupant riding portion

During vehicle operation, drive wheels are constantly monitored to see whether or not slip of drive wheels occurs and when slip is detected, posture control for slip conditions is performed by uncoupling normal posture control for the drive wheels. A balancer (weight body) which is movable in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle is provided, and posture control is performed by moving the balancer backward when the vehicle inclines forward due to slip and moving the balancer forward when the vehicle inclines backward. The detection of slip is through a comparison between the drive wheels circumferential speed Vand a vehicle running speed V

Enabled is to lighten the load on a rider and to make the rider senses a turning state at the turning time of a transverse two-wheeled vehicle. A transverse acceleration (a) at a turn controlling time is detected to make a next inclination control in accordance with the magnitude of the acceleration. (a) In the case of an acceleration (a)&#x2266;a predetermined threshold (a), the vehicle is left uninclined to prevent the vehicle body from being unnecessarily inclined and rocked against a small centrifugal force, thereby to improve the riding comfortableness. (b) In the case of the acceleration (a)&#x3e;the threshold (a), a riding portion is inclined such that the inclination angle &#x3b8;may become the larger as the acceleration (a) becomes the higher. This can reduce the load on the rider against the centrifugal force. (c) As the acceleration (a) becomes the higher, the riding portion is so inclined the more as to increase the difference between the balanced inclination angle of the vehicle body and the inclination angle of the riding portion, so that the rider can bodily sense the increase/decrease of the centrifugal force.

The disclosed vehicle has posture control of an inverted pendulum which provides good riding comfort. A balancer target position &#x3bb;* (calculated value) is determined according to target acceleration &#x3b1;* indicated by an occupant. Driving thrust Sof a balanceris determined by state feedback control so that a current balance position &#x3bb; (measured value) becomes closer to the determined balancer target position &#x3bb;*, and the balanceris driven. An output &#x3c4;of a driving wheel actuatoris determined from the current balancer position &#x3bb; (measured value) resulting from driving of the balancer. Since a driving torque is determined from an actual position of the balancer, stable upright posture control can be implemented even in a transient state which lasts until the balancerreaches the target position.

By bending and stretching a link mechanism, both left and right wheels of a vehicle can be inclined toward inside of cornering to generate a camber thrust as a lateral force, i.e. an increase in cornering force. Further, by bending and stretching the link mechanism, the passenger compartment can be inclined in accordance with inclination of a connecting link, and thus the center of gravity of the vehicle can be moved toward its inner wheel during cornering. By preventing lifting of the inner wheel during cornering, cornering performance is improved. Because the passenger compartment is inclined toward the inner wheel during cornering, centrifugal force is less likely to be felt by the occupant.

The center of gravity of a vehicle is estimated to obtain, a limit lateral acceleration a(=a, a), and the vehicle turns in a target running state (V*, &#x3b3;*) requested by an occupant provided the lateral acceleration a* does not exceed the limit lateral acceleration a. On the other hand, if the requested running state (V*, &#x3b3;*) exceeds the limit lateral acceleration a, an ideal target running state (V*, &#x3b3;*) is limited to an actual target running state (V*&#x2dc;, &#x3b3;*&#x2dc;) so that the lateral acceleration a* equals to the limit lateral acceleration a. Because turning speed and turning curvature are not limited more than necessary, it is possible to achieve maximum use of turning performance of the vehicle up to the limit thereof.

A vehicle has a drive wheel, a seat, an attitude sensor, a balancer movable relative to the seat, a drive control, an attitude control for controlling the attitude of the seat by moving the balancer and a main controller. The main controller calculates a torque Tfor tilting the seat and a torque Tfor moving the balancer forward, compares Twith Tmax (the maximum torque which can be generated by the balancer), and outputs commands to the drive control and the attitude control. When the calculated torque Texceeds Tmax, responsive to a command for Tmax, the attitude control moves the balancer to generate a reaction torque corresponding to Tmax, and the main controller supplies an adjustment torque value Tfor the drive wheel. The drive control controls the drive wheel in accordance with the drive command and the adjustment torque value T

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Katsunori Doi