Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Nidec-shimpo Corporation

Honda Patents & Technologies North America, LLC

Wataru Yada

Tsutomu Yoshino

Hiroshi Yamanouchi

Hiroshi Gomi

Shinichiro Kobashi

Minoru Uchida

Takeshi Echizenya

Yusuke Muto

Jun Inada

Toru Takenaka

Masahiro Shimizu

Tomokazu Sakamoto

Seiji Kato

Yoshinobu Shiomi

Yoshinari Takemura

Sachiko Yamamoto

Katsutoshi Tada

Daisuke Nohara

Masaki Goto

Taihei Tsubone

Kyohei Haizumi

Ritsuya Oshima

Hidetaka Nagano

Makoto Hasegawa

Kazushi Akimoto

Kazushi Hamaya

Shoei Abe

Hiroshi Iwakami

Yuichi Uebayashi

Hironori Waita

Norio Deguchi

Tsuyoshi Yadori

Nozomi Kamiyama

Hiroshi IWakami

Yuhi Nakagawa

Ken Oizumi

Shigeo Kobayashi

Kazuki Mori

A vehicle includes: a vehicle body frame; a drive unit provided on the vehicle body frame and movable on a floor surface; a seat disposed above the vehicle body frame to support buttocks of a user; a lift unit provided between the vehicle body frame and the seat to raise and lower the seat between a low position and a high position; at least one first leg extending downward from the seat and provided with a roller at a lower end thereof; and at least one second leg extending downward from the seat and provided with a contact member at a lower end thereof. When the seat is in the high position, the roller and the contact member are separated from the floor surface, and when the seat is in the low position, the roller and the contact member contact the floor surface.

Vehicle

A vehicle includes: a vehicle body frame; a drive unit provided on the vehicle body frame and movable on a floor surface; a seat disposed above the vehicle body frame to support buttocks of a user; a lift unit provided between the vehicle body frame and the seat to raise and lower the seat between a low position and a high position; and an operation device provided on at least one of a left side portion and a right side portion of the seat. The operation device includes an operation panel having an operation surface that faces upward, a lever extending upward and forward from a rear portion of the operation panel, and multiple operation members provided on the operation surface. At least one of the multiple operation members is disposed in a position overlapping with the lever as seen from above.

Vehicle comprising a vehicle body frame, a drive unit provided on the vehicle body frame and movable on a floor surface, a seat disposed above the vehicle body frame

A rotary drive device includes a pair of drive force transmissions, a pair of decelerators, a pair of carriers, and at least one coupler. Driving rollers are included in the pair of drive force transmissions. Driving rollers transmit drive force to a main wheel. The main wheel includes driven rollers. The pair of drive force transmissions are rotatable about a rotation axis. The pair of carriers accommodate at least a portion of the decelerators. The pair of carriers oppose each other in an axial direction along the rotation axis. The pair of carriers include a first carrier and a second carrier that are directly or indirectly coupled by the at least one coupler.

Rotary drive device

To provide a frictional drive unit that can arrange drive rollers with high density and facilitate an attachment operation of the drive rollers, a frictional drive unitincludes a pair of drive disks, a plurality of drive rollersrotatably supported by an outer circumferential portion of each drive disk, a pair of actuatorsconfigured to independently rotate the pair of drive disks, and an annular main wheelarranged between the pair of drive disks and coming into contact with the drive rollers. Each drive roller includes a roller shaftand a round roller bodyprovided on an intermediate portion of the roller shaft. Each drive disk includes plural pairs of bearing grooveseach receiving both ends of the roller shaft of each drive roller. Each bearing grooves open toward the main wheel.

Frictional drive unit

A vehicle includes: a vehicle body frame; a drive unit provided on the vehicle body frame and movable on a floor surface; a seat disposed above the vehicle body frame to support buttocks of a user; a lift unit provided between the vehicle body frame and the seat to raise and lower the seat between a low position and a high position; and at least one support member extending downward from the seat and provided, at a lower portion thereof, with a footrest for supporting soles of the user. The support member is provided to be displaceable vertically relative to the seat, and the support member is displaced such that a distance between the seat and the footrest when the seat is in the high position is greater than a distance between the seat and the footrest when the seat is in the low position.

Vehicle including a drive unit and a seat provided on the drive unit via a lift unit

A rotary drive device in a mobile body includes a main wheel and a pair of drive assemblies opposing each other and each driving the main wheel. The main wheel includes driven rollers. One of the pair of drive assemblies includes a motor, a motor case, a drive force transmission, and driving rollers. The driving rollers are in the drive force transmission along a circumferential direction, and contact at least a portion of the driven rollers from one side of the rotary drive device of the axial direction. The drive force transmission rotates to transmit a drive force of the motor to the main wheel via the driving rollers. At least a portion of the motor case opposes at least a portion of the driving rollers in the axial direction.

Drive disks are configured to rotate a main wheel by applying a frictional force thereto. Each of the drive disks includes a base and a plurality of rollers. The base includes a first sheet metal member and a second sheet metal member. The first sheet metal member includes a first central part and a plurality of first arm parts. The second sheet metal member includes a second central part and a plurality of second arm parts. Each of the rollers has a first end and a second end. Each of the first arm parts includes a first supporting part and a second supporting part. Each of the second arm parts includes a third supporting part and a fourth supporting part. The first supporting part and the second supporting part are inclined to each other. The third supporting part and the fourth supporting part are inclined to each other.

Drive disks

Drive disks are configured to rotate a main wheel by applying a frictional force thereto. Each of the drive disks includes a base and a plurality of rollers. The base includes a first sheet metal member and a second sheet metal member. The first sheet metal member includes a first central part and a plurality of first arm parts. The second sheet metal member includes a second central part and a plurality of second arm parts. Each of the rollers has a first end and a second end in an axial direction thereof. Each of the first arm parts and each of the second arm parts support the first end of one of two rollers adjacent to each other and the second end of the other of the two rollers adjacent to each other.

A manufacturing apparatus for a drive disk includes: an upper member and a lower member each including a base and protrusions. Each protrusion is defined by a plurality of surfaces including a first side surface inclined with respect to opposed surfaces of the drive disk and a second side surface parallel to the opposed surfaces. The first side surface of the protrusion of the upper member and the first side surface of the protrusion of the lower member are parallel to each other and face away from each other. The second side surface of the protrusion of the upper member and the second side surface of the protrusion of the lower member face away from each other. The first side surface of the protrusion of the upper member and the first side surface of the protrusion of the lower member come into contact with each other to form the slot.

Manufacturing apparatus for drive disk

The vehicle is provided with a seat which is movable between a high position and a low position, and configured to be grounded when the seat is at the low position, and a support leg extending substantially downward from the seat of the vehicle. The support leg is movable between a retracted position positioned close to a vehicle body frame and a deployed position positioned remote from the vehicle body frame, the support leg being configured to be at the retracted position when the seat is at the high position, and to move from the retracted position to the deployed position when the seat moves from the high position to the low position.

Vehicle provided with lift unit for seat

The vehicle is provided with a lift unit includes a fixed base () supported by a vehicle body frame, a movable base () connected to a seat base supporting a seat (), and supported by the fixed base so as to be movable between a lowered position and a reference position higher than the lowered position relative to the fixed base, an engagement device () configured to selectively retain the movable base to the fixed base at the reference position, an electric lift mechanism () configured to move the movable base vertically relative to the seat base, and a control unit () controlling the engagement device and the electric lift mechanism.

In a propulsion device including a main wheel having a plurality of driven rollers fitted on and arranged circumferentially along an annular core member so as to be rotatable around tangential lines of the annular core member at respective positions thereof on the annular core member, a pair of drive disks positioned on either side of the main wheel in an individually rotatable manner, a plurality of drive rollers supported along an outer periphery of each drive disk so as to be each rotatable around a rotational center line extending in a skewed relationship to a rotational center line of the corresponding drive disk, and a drive unit for individually rotatively driving the drive disks, a plurality of guide rollers are rotatably supported by a body frame and engage at least one driven roller not engaged by any of the drive rollers from either side.

Frictional propulsion device and vehicle using same

Provided is an omni-wheel including an annular core member for rotatively supporting a plurality of free roller that is light, economical and strong. The omni-wheel comprises an annular core member having at least one junction defined by mutually circumferentially opposing ends thereof, a plurality of sleeve members defining an inner bore and passed onto the core member and a free roller rotatably supported on an outer surface of each sleeve member in a coaxial relationship, wherein the mutually opposing ends of the annular core member at each junction are fitted into either end of the inner bore of the corresponding sleeve member.

Omni-wheel, frictional propulsion device and omni-directional vehicle

In a frictional propulsion device comprising a frame, a main wheel including driven rollers rotatably supported by an annular core member about a tangential direction and a pair of drive disks each carrying drive rollers rotatable about a rotational center line at an angle with respect to both a tangential line of the drive disk and the rotational center line of the drive disk such that the drive rollers at least partly engage the driven rollers, each drive disk includes a hub rotatably supported by the support shaft, a disk member attached to a peripheral part of the hub, and holder beams arranged circumferentially between the hub and the disk member such that each holder beam is attached to the hub at a first end thereof and to the disk member at a second end thereof, each drive roller being rotatably supported by a corresponding adjoining pair of holder beams.

Frictional propulsion device and omni-directional vehicle

In a frictional propulsion device comprising a main wheel including driven rollers rotatably supported by an annular core member about a tangential direction and a pair of drive disks each carrying a plurality of drive rollers rotatable about a rotational center line at an angle with respect to both a tangential line of the drive disk and the rotational center line of the drive disk such that the drive rollers at least partly engage the driven rollers, a diameter of a drive side contact circle is smaller than a diameter of a driven side contact circle, and the drive disks are vertically offset relative to the main wheel so that only those drive rollers adjoining the main wheel are in contact with the driven rollers.

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Wako, Japan

Wataru Yada