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:
Nov. 19, 2002
Filed:
Aug. 08, 2000
Yoshimitsu Ishida, Wako, JP;
Tadashi Hanaoka, Wako, JP;
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A four-wheel vehicle capable of permitting a driver to perform a turning operation with a good operability. One of front and rear pairs of left and right wheels, to which a running torque produced by a driving source is not transmitted, are rotated on respective axes perpendicular to the ground. The one pair of left and right wheels are rotated from straight traveling positions taken when the vehicle is running to angular positions along tangential directions of an arc passing the axes perpendicular to the ground on a neighborhood of a center point of a rotating axle for running the vehicle of the other of front and rear pairs of left and right wheels. As a left or right turn instruction is generated in response to a manipulation, motors are applied with a gradually increasing driving voltage, such that the motors apply rotating torques to the one pair of left and right wheels to turn the vehicle body on the neighborhood of the center point of rotating axles for running the vehicle of the other pairs of left and right wheels.