The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 26, 2000
Filed:
Dec. 16, 1998
Kiichi Suyama, Yokohama, JP;
Seiji Mizukami, Kodaira, JP;
Toshihide Kawabe, Kure, JP;
Yoshio Ido, Kure, JP;
Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd., , JP;
CXR Corporation, , JP;
Abstract
A running apparatus within a pipe runs such that a center axis of a main body of the running apparatus is automatically coincided with a center axis of the pipe during running, and smoothly runs within a curved pipe. The running apparatus comprises two pairs of wheel supporting arms (3a, 3a', 3b, 3b') having an end rotatably fixed to an end portion of the main body (1) of the running apparatus, a wheel for driving the running (5) fixed to each of the other ends of two pairs of wheel supporting arms and rotated by a drive mechanism (a motor), an interlocking mechanism (a slider and a link) provided with a spring for urging two pairs of wheel supporting arms to which the wheels for driving the running are fixed in such a manner as to open around the one end of the main body of the running apparatus, a rotational potentiometer for measuring an angle of incline of each of two pairs of wheel supporting arms so as to output a data of an angle of incline and an attitude control portion (20) for returning an attitude of the main body of the running apparatus to a normal attitude state by controlling the drive mechanism on the basis of the data of the angle of incline with respect to each of two pairs of wheel supporting arms output from the rotational potentiometer.