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:
Jul. 09, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 21, 2001
Dean L. Kamen, Bedford, NH (US);
Robert R. Ambrogi, Manchester, NH (US);
John David Heinzmann, Manchester, NH (US);
Richard Kurt Heinzmann, Francestown, NH (US);
David Herr, Compton, NH (US);
John B. Morrell, Manchester, NH (US);
DEKA Products Limited Partnership, Manchester, NH (US);
Abstract
A vehicle for transporting a payload over a surface that may be irregular and may include stairs. The vehicle has a support for supporting the payload and a ground contacting element movable with respect to a local axis, where the local axis can be moved with respect to some second axis that has a defined relation with respect to the support. The vehicle also has a motorized drive arrangement for permitting controllable motion of the ground contacting element so as to operate in an operating condition that is unstable with respect to tipping in at least a fore-aft plane when the motorized drive arrangement is not powered. The vehicle also has an input device for receiving an indication from an assistant who is not disposed on the vehicle of a direction of desired motion of the vehicle.