JP2010030523A - Two-wheeled vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a two-wheeled vehicle enhancing responsiveness during acceleration/deceleration. <P>SOLUTION: The two-wheeled vehicle 1 comprises a vehicle body 2, and wheels 3A, 3B (the wheel 3B is not shown) arranged coaxially on right and left sides of the vehicle body 2, and the center of gravity G of the vehicle is located below the center S of the wheels 3A, 3B. Two driving motors for rotating the wheels 3A, 3B, a front auxiliary wheel 8, and a rear auxiliary wheel 10 not brought into ground contact with a road surface R in a normal condition, and auxiliary wheel ground contact motors 11, 12 for vertically moving the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 are provided on the vehicle body 2. The two-wheeled vehicle 1 has an ECU which controls the auxiliary wheel ground contact motor 12 so that the rear auxiliary wheel 10 is moved downwardly during the sudden acceleration and brought into ground contact with the road surface R based on the detection value of an accelerator opening sensor, and also controls the auxiliary wheel ground contact motor 11 so that the front auxiliary wheel 8 is moved downwardly during the sudden deceleration and brought into ground contact with the road surface R. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a two-wheeled vehicle having two wheels disposed on both left and right sides of a vehicle body.

In recent years, various two-wheeled automobiles with two wheels have been proposed in order to realize miniaturization and simplification of automobiles. For example, a two-wheeled vehicle described in Patent Document 1 includes a vehicle body and two wheels disposed coaxially on the left and right sides of the vehicle body, and the center of gravity of the vehicle is located below the center of the wheel.
Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-302068

  By the way, when accelerating / decelerating the two-wheeled vehicle described in Patent Document 1, the acceleration / deceleration operation is started after the vehicle body is tilted to a certain angle, which may reduce the response during acceleration / deceleration.

  The objective of this invention is providing the two-wheeled motor vehicle which can improve the responsiveness at the time of acceleration / deceleration.

  The present invention is a two-wheeled vehicle comprising a vehicle body and two wheels arranged coaxially on the left and right sides of the vehicle body, the vehicle center of gravity being positioned below the center of the wheel, A first auxiliary wheel attached to one of the front and rear ends of the vehicle and a second auxiliary wheel attached to the front and rear other end of the vehicle body. The first auxiliary wheel contacts the road surface during vehicle acceleration, and otherwise the road surface. The second auxiliary wheel is configured to be grounded to the road surface when the vehicle is decelerated, and not to be grounded to the road surface otherwise.

  In such a two-wheeled vehicle of the present invention, when the vehicle is accelerated, the first auxiliary wheels attached to the front and rear end sides of the vehicle body are brought into contact with the road surface, so that the inclination of the vehicle body is suppressed accordingly. For this reason, the time until the vehicle starts to accelerate is shortened. Further, when the vehicle is decelerated, the second auxiliary wheels attached to the front and rear other ends of the vehicle body are brought into contact with the road surface, so that the inclination of the vehicle body is suppressed accordingly. For this reason, the time until the vehicle begins to decelerate is shortened. As a result, the responsiveness during acceleration / deceleration of the vehicle is enhanced.

  Preferably, first driving means for moving the first auxiliary wheel in the vertical direction, second driving means for moving the second auxiliary wheel in the vertical direction, detection means for detecting the acceleration / deceleration command value of the vehicle, and detection means When the acceleration command value is detected by the control unit, the first driving means is controlled to ground the first auxiliary wheel on the road surface according to the acceleration command value, and when the deceleration command value is detected by the detection means, Control means for controlling the second drive means so as to ground the second auxiliary wheel to the road surface in accordance with the deceleration command value.

  In this case, at the time of vehicle acceleration, the first auxiliary wheel can be grounded to the road surface earlier by moving the first auxiliary wheel downward (road surface side) by the first driving means. Further, when the vehicle is decelerated, the second auxiliary wheel is moved downward by the second driving means, so that the second auxiliary wheel can be brought into contact with the road surface earlier by that amount. Therefore, the response at the time of acceleration / deceleration of the vehicle can be further enhanced.

  At this time, when the acceleration command value detected by the detection means is lower than the predetermined value, the control means controls the first drive means so that the first auxiliary wheel does not contact the road surface, and is detected by the detection means. When the deceleration command value is lower than the predetermined value, it is preferable to control the second drive means so that the second auxiliary wheel is not brought into contact with the road surface.

  The coaxial two-wheeled vehicle in which the left and right wheels are coaxially arranged has an advantage that a small turn is more easily operated during constant speed running or slow acceleration / deceleration than when sudden acceleration / deceleration is performed. Therefore, when the acceleration command value is lower than the predetermined value, the first auxiliary wheel is not grounded on the road surface, and when the deceleration command value is lower than the predetermined value, the second auxiliary wheel is not grounded on the road surface. As a result, operations (such as turning on the spot) utilizing the advantages of the coaxial two-wheeled vehicle can be carried out smoothly.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the response at the time of acceleration / deceleration of a two-wheeled vehicle can be improved, and the useless time which arises at the time of acceleration / deceleration can be saved.

  Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of a two-wheeled vehicle according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the description of the drawings, the same or equivalent elements are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic side view showing an embodiment of a two-wheeled vehicle according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of the two-wheeled vehicle shown in FIG.

  In each figure, a two-wheeled vehicle 1 according to the present embodiment includes a vehicle body 2 and wheels 3A and 3B that are coaxially disposed on the left and right sides of the vehicle body 2 and are rotatably attached to the vehicle body 2 via axles. ing.

  The two-wheeled vehicle 1 has a low center-of-gravity structure in which the vehicle center of gravity G when the person A rides is positioned below the center S of the wheels 3A and 3B. In order to raise the center S of the wheels 3A, 3B above the vehicle center of gravity G, the sizes of the wheels 3A, 3B are sufficiently larger than the vehicle body 2. Further, the bottom surface 2a of the vehicle body 2 has a tapered shape such that the distance (vehicle height) from the road surface R becomes longer from the attachment position of the wheels 3A, 3B toward the front end and the rear end of the vehicle body 2.

  The vehicle body 2 is provided with drive motors 5A and 5B for driving the wheels 3A and 3B to rotate through the drive chains 4A and 4B, respectively. A seat 6 on which the occupant A sits is disposed on the floor frame 2 b of the vehicle body 2.

  Although not specifically shown, the vehicle body 2 includes a battery, an accelerator operation unit (for example, an accelerator pedal) for driver A to perform a driving operation, a brake operation unit (for example, a brake pedal), a steering operation unit (for example, a steering wheel). ) Etc. are provided.

  A front auxiliary wheel 8 is attached to the front end side portion of the floor frame 2b via a support body 7, and a rear auxiliary wheel 10 is attached to the rear end side portion of the floor frame 2b via a support body 9. . The supports 7 and 9 are rotatable with respect to the floor frame 2b. The vehicle body 2 includes an auxiliary wheel grounding motor 11 that moves the front auxiliary wheel 8 in the vertical direction by rotating the support body 7, and a rear auxiliary wheel 10 in the vertical direction by rotating the support body 9. An auxiliary wheel grounding motor 12 to be moved is provided. At normal times, the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 are in a state of floating without being brought into contact with the road surface R, as shown in FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control system of the two-wheeled vehicle 1. In the figure, the motorcycle 1 further includes an accelerator opening sensor 13, a pitch angle sensor 14, a rotational angular velocity sensor 15, position sensors 16 and 17, and an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) 18.

  The accelerator opening sensor 13 is a sensor that detects an operation amount (accelerator opening) of an accelerator operating unit (not shown) as a vehicle acceleration / deceleration command value. The pitch angle sensor 14 is a sensor that detects the pitch angle of the vehicle body 2. The rotational angular velocity sensor 15 is a sensor that detects the rotational angular velocities of the wheels 3A and 3B. The position sensor 16 is a sensor that detects the vertical position of the front auxiliary wheel 8 with respect to the vehicle body 2, and the position sensor 17 is a sensor that detects the vertical position of the rear auxiliary wheel 10 with respect to the vehicle body 2.

  The ECU 18 includes a CPU, a memory such as a ROM and a PAM, an input / output circuit, and the like. The ECU 18 includes a wheel control unit 19 and an auxiliary wheel control unit 20.

  The wheel control unit 19 acquires a vehicle speed command value or an acceleration command value based on the detection value of the accelerator opening sensor 13, and obtains the target rotational angular velocity of the wheels 3A and 3B that follows the command value. The drive motors 5A and 5B are controlled according to the target rotational angular velocity. At this time, the wheel controller 19 inputs the detection values of the pitch angle sensor 14 and the rotational angular velocity sensor 15 and drives the rotational angular velocities of the wheels 3A and 3B to become the target rotational angular velocity and suppress the pitch vibration of the vehicle body 2. The motors 5A and 5B are feedback controlled. That is, the wheel control unit 19 not only controls the speed (acceleration) of the vehicle, but also performs posture stabilization control of the vehicle body 2 at the same time.

  The auxiliary wheel control unit 20 obtains the target vertical direction positions of the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 with respect to the vehicle body 2 based on the detection value of the accelerator opening sensor 13, and the auxiliary wheel grounding according to the target vertical direction position. The motors 11 and 12 are controlled. At this time, the auxiliary wheel control unit 20 inputs the detection values of the position sensors 16 and 17, and the auxiliary wheels so that the vertical positions of the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 with respect to the vehicle body 2 become the target vertical direction position. The ground motors 11 and 12 are feedback-controlled.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing details of the procedure of auxiliary wheel control processing by the auxiliary wheel control unit 20.

  In the figure, first, based on the detection value of the accelerator opening sensor 13, it is determined whether or not an accelerator operation has been performed (step S101). When the accelerator operation is performed, it is determined based on the detected value of the accelerator opening sensor 13 whether the accelerator operation performs rapid acceleration or rapid deceleration (step S102). At this time, the sudden acceleration state is a state where the vehicle acceleration is higher than a preset acceleration threshold, and the sudden deceleration state is a state where the vehicle acceleration is higher than a preset deceleration threshold. The determination of sudden acceleration or sudden deceleration is made based on the accelerator opening itself detected by the accelerator opening sensor 13 or the differential value of the accelerator opening.

  In addition, as a method for determining sudden acceleration or sudden deceleration, for example, an acceleration sensor for detecting vehicle acceleration (including deceleration) is provided, and vehicle jerk obtained by differentiating the vehicle acceleration itself or the vehicle acceleration. You may go based on. In addition, a brake sensor that detects the amount of brake operation may be provided, and the sudden deceleration may be determined based on the detection value of the brake sensor.

  When the accelerator operation performs rapid acceleration or rapid deceleration, the inclination angle (pitch angle) of the vehicle body 2 is predicted and calculated (step S103). When the vehicle suddenly accelerates, the vehicle body 2 tilts in the direction in which the rear portion of the vehicle body 2 is lowered, and when the vehicle suddenly decelerates, the vehicle body 2 tilts in the direction in which the front portion of the vehicle body 2 is lowered.

  Subsequently, based on the inclination angle of the vehicle body 2 obtained in step S103, a target vertical position (described above) for grounding the front auxiliary wheel 8 or the rear auxiliary wheel 10 on the road surface R is calculated (step S104). At this time, when the vehicle suddenly accelerates, the target vertical position of the rear auxiliary wheel 10 for grounding the rear auxiliary wheel 10 to the road surface R (see FIG. 5B) is obtained, and when the vehicle suddenly decelerates Then, a target vertical direction position of the front auxiliary wheel 8 for grounding the front auxiliary wheel 8 on the road surface R (see FIG. 5C) is obtained.

  Subsequently, the auxiliary wheel grounding motors 11 and 12 are feedback-controlled so that the vertical position of the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 with respect to the vehicle body 2 is the target vertical position (step S105). At this time, when the vehicle suddenly accelerates, the auxiliary wheel grounding motor 12 is controlled so that the vertical position of the rear auxiliary wheel 10 with respect to the vehicle body 2 becomes the target vertical position, and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 is grounded to the road surface R. When the vehicle decelerates suddenly, the auxiliary wheel grounding motor 11 is controlled so that the vertical position of the front auxiliary wheel 8 with respect to the vehicle body 2 becomes the target vertical position, so that the front auxiliary wheel 8 contacts the road surface R. .

  Further, it is desirable that the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 are gently grounded with respect to the road surface R so that the vehicle body 2 does not vibrate when the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 contact the road surface R. In this case, for example, by using a force sensor that detects a load when the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 are in contact with the road surface R, the ground load of the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 is controlled. The front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 are grounded so that the vibration of the vehicle body 2 is alleviated.

  On the other hand, when it is determined in step S102 that the accelerator operation does not suddenly accelerate or decelerate, the auxiliary wheel grounding motors 11 and 12 are controlled so that the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 do not touch the road surface R. (Procedure S106). At this time, the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 may be left as they are without moving with respect to the vehicle body 2, or the front auxiliary wheel 8 or the rear auxiliary wheel 10 is moved upward with respect to the vehicle body 2. (See FIG. 6).

  Next, the operation of the two-wheeled vehicle 1 of the present embodiment will be described. When the vehicle is stopped or traveling at a constant speed, the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 are in a state of floating with respect to the road surface R as shown in FIG.

  At the time of sudden acceleration of the vehicle, as shown in FIG. 5B, the vehicle body 2 tends to tilt so that the front part of the vehicle body 2 is raised. At that time, depending on the acceleration obtained from the detected value of the accelerator opening sensor 13 By controlling the auxiliary wheel grounding motor 12 so that the rear auxiliary wheel 10 moves downward, the rear auxiliary wheel 10 comes in contact with the road surface R quickly. At this time, since the reaction force necessary for rapid acceleration of the vehicle is obtained from the road surface R, the inclination of the vehicle body 2 can be suppressed. In FIG. 5B, the front auxiliary wheel 8 is omitted.

  At the time of sudden deceleration of the vehicle, as shown in FIG. 5C, the vehicle body 2 is tilted so that the front part of the vehicle body 2 is lowered (turned forward), but at this time, the reduction obtained from the detected value of the accelerator opening sensor 13 By controlling the auxiliary wheel grounding motor 11 so that the front auxiliary wheel 8 moves downward according to the speed, the front auxiliary wheel 8 comes in contact with the road surface R quickly. At this time, since the reaction force necessary for sudden deceleration of the vehicle is obtained from the road surface R, the inclination of the vehicle body 2 is suppressed. In FIG. 5C, the rear auxiliary wheel 10 is omitted.

  At the time of slow acceleration of the vehicle, as shown in FIG. 6A, the auxiliary wheel grounding motor 12 is controlled so that the rear auxiliary wheel 10 moves upward even if the vehicle body 2 is tilted so that the front part of the vehicle body 2 is raised. This prevents the rear auxiliary wheel 10 from contacting the road surface R. In FIG. 6A, the front auxiliary wheel 8 is omitted.

  At the time of slow deceleration of the vehicle, as shown in FIG. 6B, the auxiliary wheel grounding motor 11 is controlled so that the front auxiliary wheel 8 moves upward even when the vehicle body 2 is tilted so that the front part of the vehicle body 2 is lowered. By doing so, the front auxiliary wheel 8 is prevented from contacting the road surface R. In FIG. 6B, the rear auxiliary wheel 10 is omitted.

  In the above, the support body 9 and the auxiliary wheel grounding motor 12 constitute the first driving means for moving the first auxiliary wheel (rear auxiliary wheel) 10 in the vertical direction, and the support body 7 and the auxiliary wheel grounding motor 11 are the first driving wheel. A second driving means for moving the two auxiliary wheels (front auxiliary wheels) 8 in the vertical direction is configured. The accelerator opening sensor 13 constitutes detection means for detecting a vehicle acceleration / deceleration command value. When the acceleration command value is detected by the detection unit 13, the auxiliary wheel control unit 20 of the ECU 18 controls the first drive unit 12 to ground the first auxiliary wheel 10 on the road surface R according to the acceleration command value. And when the deceleration command value is detected by the detection means 13, the control means which controls the 2nd drive means 11 is comprised so that the 2nd auxiliary wheel 8 may contact the road surface R according to the said deceleration command value.

  By the way, when the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 are not mounted on the two-wheeled vehicle having the low center of gravity as described above, the following problems occur.

  That is, when the drive motors 5A and 5B are driven and controlled to accelerate the vehicle from the stop state of the vehicle as shown in FIG. 7A, before the vehicle starts the acceleration operation as shown in FIG. 7B. Then, the vehicle body 2 starts to tilt. When the vehicle body 2 is tilted to such an extent that a reaction force for rotating the wheels 3A and 3B is generated, the vehicle starts to accelerate as shown in FIG.

但し、θ：トルクをかけたときに車体が傾く角度
Ｊ：車体の慣性モーメント
ｍ：車輪の質量
ｒ：車輪の半径
Ｍ：車体の質量
Ｌ：車体重心と車軸との間の距離
ｇ：重力加速度
τ：入力トルク Here, the following equation is derived from the equation of motion of the vehicle.

Where θ: angle at which the vehicle body tilts when torque is applied J: vehicle inertia moment m: wheel mass r: wheel radius M: vehicle mass L: distance between vehicle body center of gravity and axle g: gravity acceleration τ: Input torque

  During acceleration, the vehicle does not move until the angle θ shown in the above equation is reached. Moreover, in order to perform rapid acceleration, it is necessary to tilt the vehicle body 2 greatly. For this reason, a dead time occurs until the transition from the state shown in FIG. 7B to the state shown in FIG. 7C.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 8, there is a time lag between when the acceleration command is issued and when the vehicle is actually accelerated (see A). The solid line in FIG. 8 represents the speed command, and the broken line in FIG. 8 represents the actual vehicle speed. Even when the vehicle is decelerating, a time lag occurs after the deceleration command is issued until the vehicle actually decelerates (see B).

  On the other hand, in the two-wheeled vehicle 1 of the present embodiment, the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 are attached to the vehicle body 2 so as to be movable up and down. In addition, the rear auxiliary wheel 10 should not be brought into contact with the road surface R. And at the time of sudden acceleration, since only the rear auxiliary wheel 10 is moved downward according to the acceleration at that time and brought into contact with the road surface R, the inclination of the vehicle body 2 is suppressed. The dead time that occurs from when the vehicle is started until the vehicle is actually accelerated is shortened. Further, at the time of sudden deceleration, only the front auxiliary wheel 8 is moved downward according to the deceleration at that time and brought into contact with the road surface R, so that the inclination of the vehicle body 2 is suppressed. The dead time that occurs from when the command is issued until the vehicle actually decelerates is shortened. Therefore, the acceleration / deceleration response of the two-wheeled vehicle 1 can be improved.

  In addition, since the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 are not brought into contact with the road surface R during constant speed driving, slow acceleration, and slow deceleration, the advantages of the coaxial two-wheeled driving that the small turn is easy to use are fully utilized. Field turning and the like can be performed effectively.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the above embodiment, the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 can be moved in the vertical direction by the auxiliary wheel grounding motors 11 and 12, but as shown in FIG. The front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 may be fixed to the vehicle body 2 without the provision of 12.

  In this case, only the rear auxiliary wheel 10 contacts the road surface R during sudden acceleration, and only the front auxiliary wheel 8 contacts the road surface R during sudden deceleration, and the front auxiliary wheel during constant speed traveling, slow acceleration, and slow deceleration. For example, the dead time to be suppressed is set from the maximum accelerator opening and the maximum acceleration of the vehicle so that neither the 8 nor the rear auxiliary wheel 10 contacts the road surface R, and the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 are attached accordingly. Determine the position. Even with such a structure, the inclination of the vehicle body 2 is suppressed as compared with the case where the front auxiliary wheel 8 and the rear auxiliary wheel 10 are not provided as shown in FIG. It is possible to shorten the dead time until the vehicle decelerates.

  Moreover, although the said embodiment is a two-wheeled vehicle for single passengers, it cannot be overemphasized that this invention is applicable also to the two-wheeled vehicle of several persons.

1 is a schematic side view showing an embodiment of a two-wheeled vehicle according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of the two-wheeled vehicle shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control system of the two-wheeled vehicle shown in FIG. 1. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of the procedure of the auxiliary wheel control process by the auxiliary wheel control part shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a schematic side view showing an operation state of the two-wheeled vehicle shown in FIG. 1 during constant speed running, sudden acceleration, and sudden deceleration. FIG. 2 is a schematic side view showing an operation state during slow acceleration and slow deceleration of the two-wheeled vehicle shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a schematic side view showing an operating state during acceleration of a two-wheeled vehicle on which the front auxiliary wheel and the rear auxiliary wheel shown in FIG. 1 are not mounted. It is a graph which shows the relationship between speed instruction | command and actual vehicle speed in the two-wheeled motor vehicle shown in FIG. It is a schematic side view which shows the modification of the two-wheeled motor vehicle shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Two-wheeled motor vehicle, 2 ... Vehicle body, 3A, 3B ... Wheel, 7 ... Support body (2nd drive means), 8 ... Front auxiliary wheel (2nd auxiliary wheel), 9 ... Support body (1st drive means), 10 ... rear auxiliary wheel (first auxiliary wheel), 11 ... auxiliary wheel grounding motor (second driving means), 12 ... auxiliary wheel grounding motor (first driving means), 13 ... accelerator opening sensor (detecting means), 18 ... ECU, 20 ... auxiliary wheel control unit (control means), G ... vehicle center of gravity, S ... wheel center.

Claims (3)

A two-wheeled vehicle comprising a vehicle body and two wheels arranged coaxially on the left and right sides of the vehicle body, the vehicle center of gravity being configured to be positioned below the center of the wheel,
A first auxiliary wheel attached to one of the front and rear ends of the vehicle body;
A second auxiliary wheel attached to the front and rear other end of the vehicle body,
The first auxiliary wheel is configured to contact the road surface during vehicle acceleration, and not to contact the road surface otherwise.
The two-wheeled vehicle, wherein the second auxiliary wheel is configured to contact the road surface when the vehicle decelerates, and not to contact the road surface otherwise. First driving means for moving the first auxiliary wheel in the vertical direction;
Second driving means for moving the second auxiliary wheel in the vertical direction;
Detecting means for detecting an acceleration / deceleration command value of the vehicle;
When the acceleration command value is detected by the detection means, the first drive means is controlled to ground the first auxiliary wheel on the road surface according to the acceleration command value, and the deceleration command value is detected by the detection means. 2. A control means for controlling the second drive means so as to ground the second auxiliary wheel to the road surface in response to the deceleration command value. Motorcycle.   When the acceleration command value detected by the detection means is lower than a predetermined value, the control means controls the first drive means so that the first auxiliary wheel does not contact the road surface, and the detection means 3. The two-wheeled vehicle according to claim 2, wherein when the detected deceleration command value is lower than a predetermined value, the second driving means is controlled so that the second auxiliary wheel is not brought into contact with the road surface.

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