CN112455210A

CN112455210A - Universal driving wheel and automatic vehicle body

Info

Publication number: CN112455210A
Application number: CN201910848298.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 万杰; 陆一平
Original assignee: Qingyuan Global Technology Services Ltd
Current assignee: Qingyuan Global Technology Services Ltd
Priority date: 2019-09-09
Filing date: 2019-09-09
Publication date: 2021-03-09
Also published as: TW202110668A

Abstract

The invention provides a universal driving wheel and an automatic vehicle body. The universal driving wheel includes: a first in-wheel drive element; a tire disposed to wrap around a periphery of the first in-wheel drive element; a connector configured to connect the first in-wheel drive element and the tire such that the first in-wheel drive element drives the tire to rotate along a first axis; and the steering element is arranged to be connected with the connecting piece, so that the steering element drives the connecting piece to rotate along a second shaft and enables the tire and the first in-wheel driving element to move by taking the second shaft as a circle center, wherein the extending direction of the first shaft is vertical to the extending direction of the second shaft.

Description

Universal driving wheel and automatic vehicle body

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a moving member and a vehicle body, and more particularly to a universal driving wheel and an automated vehicle body.

Background

An automatic production line is one of the main development means for improving productivity and optimizing production, and an automatic car body for providing transportation and delivery functions is one of the indispensable technologies in the automatic production line. In order to achieve an omni-directional (universal) moving function of an automated vehicle body, a universal driving wheel having a driving force is one of many techniques that need to be developed.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a universal driving wheel and an automated vehicle body, wherein the universal driving wheel has the advantages of small volume, fast reaction speed and uncomplicated structure.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a universal driving wheel, wherein the universal driving wheel includes: a first in-wheel drive element; a tire disposed to wrap around a periphery of the first in-wheel drive element; a connector configured to connect the first in-wheel drive element and the tire such that the first in-wheel drive element drives the tire to rotate along a first axis; and the steering element is arranged to be connected with the connecting piece, so that the steering element drives the connecting piece to rotate along a second shaft and enables the tire and the first in-wheel driving element to move by taking the second shaft as a circle center, wherein the extending direction of the first shaft is vertical to the extending direction of the second shaft.

In an embodiment of the present invention, an offset distance is provided between the first shaft and the second shaft, and when the steering element rotates the connecting member, the tire and the first in-wheel driving element perform a circular motion with the second shaft as a center and the offset distance as a radius.

In an embodiment of the invention, the steering element further comprises a second in-wheel drive element arranged to rotate the link along the second axis.

In an embodiment of the invention, the universal driving wheel further comprises a housing, and the steering element comprises a servo motor and a bearing, wherein the link is connected to the housing through the bearing, and the servo motor is configured to rotate the link relative to the housing.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the universal driving wheel further includes an absolute rotary encoder disposed on a side of the steering element away from the tire to rotate along the second axis with the connecting member and provide at least one positioning datum corresponding to a rotational position of the connecting member.

Furthermore, another embodiment of the present invention provides an automated vehicle body, wherein the automated vehicle body comprises: a base plate; and a plurality of universal drive wheels configured to couple to the base plate. Wherein each said universal drive wheel comprises: a first in-wheel drive element; a tire disposed to wrap around a periphery of the first in-wheel drive element; a connector configured to connect the first in-wheel drive element and the tire such that the first in-wheel drive element drives the tire to rotate along a first axis; and the steering element is arranged to be connected with the connecting piece, so that the steering element drives the connecting piece to rotate along a second shaft and enables the tire and the first in-wheel driving element to move by taking the second shaft as a circle center, wherein the extending direction of the first shaft is vertical to the extending direction of the second shaft.

In an embodiment of the present invention, in each of the universal driving wheels, an offset distance is provided between the first shaft and the second shaft, and when the steering element rotates the connecting member, the tire and the first in-wheel driving element perform a circular motion with the second shaft as a center and the offset distance as a radius.

In an embodiment of the invention, each of the universal drive wheels further comprises a second in-wheel drive element arranged to rotate the link along the second axis.

In an embodiment of the invention, each of the universal driving wheels further includes a housing, the connecting member and the steering element are accommodated in the housing, and each of the universal driving wheels is connected to the base plate through the housing.

In an embodiment of the invention, in each of the universal drive wheels, the steering element comprises a servomotor and a bearing, wherein the link is connected to the housing via the bearing, the servomotor being arranged to rotate the link relative to the housing.

In an embodiment of the present invention, each of the universal driving wheels further includes an absolute rotary encoder disposed on a side of the steering element away from the tire to rotate along the second axis with the connecting member and provide at least one positioning datum corresponding to a rotational position of the connecting member.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the automated vehicle body further comprises a plurality of processors; and a plurality of motor drivers, each of which is configured to be connected to one of the plurality of processing units, and each of which is electrically connected to the steering element and the first in-wheel motor, wherein each of the processors is configured to transmit a first rotation signal to rotate the first in-wheel driving element and transmit a second rotation signal to rotate the steering element by the motor driving unit.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the automated vehicle body further comprises: the input/output device is connected with the processor and is configured to receive a movement signal, and the processor acquires the movement signal from the input/output device and generates the first rotation signal and the second rotation signal; and a control unit connected to the input-output unit and configured to provide the movement signal.

Compared with the prior art, the universal driving wheel has the advantages of small volume, high reaction speed and uncomplicated framework. The universal driving wheel of the invention can greatly simplify the design of mechanism elements and reduce the volume by using the driving element in the first wheel, and simultaneously can improve the integral manufacturing yield. The automatic vehicle body provided by the invention can transmit a moving signal to control the driving motor and the steering element in the wheel in real time due to the application of the universal driving wheel, and can save more volume for other elements.

In order to make the aforementioned and other objects of the present invention more comprehensible, preferred embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below:

drawings

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a universal driving wheel according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2A is a schematic top view of a universal driving wheel according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2B is an enlarged partial cross-sectional view of an automated vehicle body and universal drive wheels according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic sectional view of a universal driving wheel according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The following description of the embodiments refers to the accompanying drawings for illustrating the specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. Furthermore, directional phrases used herein, such as, for example, upper, lower, top, bottom, front, rear, left, right, inner, outer, lateral, peripheral, central, horizontal, lateral, vertical, longitudinal, axial, radial, uppermost or lowermost, etc., refer only to the orientation of the attached drawings. Accordingly, the directional terms used are used for explanation and understanding of the present invention, and are not used for limiting the present invention.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a universal driving wheel according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and it should be particularly noted that the present embodiment mainly provides a relative connection relationship between each element of a device capable of providing a universal movement function efficiently, so that only some elements are shown in a simplified manner, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

Referring to fig. 1, the universal driving wheel 100 includes an in-wheel driving element 110, a tire 120, a connecting member 130 and a steering element 140. The first in-wheel drive element 110 is configured to drive each tire 120, such as an in-wheel drive motor. The tire 120 may be sleeved on the first in-wheel drive element 110, i.e., disposed to wrap around the periphery of the first in-wheel drive element. The first in-wheel drive element 110 may also include a stationary element of the tire 120, such as a hub, rim, bearing, etc., and the stationary element may be formed between the first in-wheel drive element 110 and the tire 120, without limiting the invention to fig. 1.

The tire 120 may be formed of a material such as resin, but the material forming the tire 120 of the present invention is not limited thereto. The first in-wheel drive element 110 may rotate the tire 120 along the first axis I1. Specifically, the first in-wheel drive element 110 drives the tire 120 to rotate relative to the connecting member 130. For example, the first in-wheel driving element 110 of the present embodiment is connected to the connecting member 130 through the fixing element 131. The connecting member 130, which may be a rigid bracket, such as a metal bracket, is configured to connect the first in-wheel drive element 110 and the tire 120 and is rotatable via the steering member 140 along the second axis I2, while being fixable in position relative to the first in-wheel drive element 110 and the steering member 140 in at least one direction. The present invention is not limited to the connecting member 130 of the one-sided connection of the present embodiment. In other embodiments, the connector 130 may be a fork (formed) structure configured to connect with the first in-wheel drive element 110 and the tire 120.

In this embodiment, the steering element 140 may be a ring bearing and may be configured to rotate along the second axis I2 to drive the tire 120 and the first in-wheel driving element 110 to move circumferentially around the second axis I2. On the other hand, the extending direction d1 of the first shaft I1 and the extending direction d2 of the second shaft I2 are perpendicular to each other. Therefore, by rotating the second axle I2, the universal driving wheel 100 can provide a steering effect, and rotating the tire 120 along the first axle I1 can drive the universal driving wheel 100 to move forward, backward or further rotate, thereby providing a universal movement effect.

On the other hand, since the universal driving wheel 100 of the present embodiment is driven by the first in-wheel driving element 110, the circuit design and the mechanism design can be greatly simplified, and a large number of gears are not required to drive the tire to rotate.

On the other hand, the universal driving wheel 100 of the present embodiment can further maintain an offset distance between the first shaft I1 and the second shaft I2 by the connecting member 130. Specifically, the link 130 allows the first shaft I1 and the second shaft I2 to maintain a spacing in a direction such that the steering element 140 further provides a turning function when the link 130 and the tire 120 are turned.

For example, as shown in fig. 1, the universal driving wheel 100 maintains an offset distance in the direction d3 perpendicular to the directions d1 and d2 at the same time by the connecting member 130. Therefore, when the steering member 140 rotates the connecting member 130, the tire 120 and the first in-wheel drive element 110 move substantially circularly along the direction d4 with the second axis I2 as the center and the offset as the radius.

Fig. 2A is a schematic top view of a universal driving wheel according to a first embodiment of the present invention. Referring to fig. 2A, the first in-wheel drive element 110 of the universal drive wheel 100 rotates the tire 120 along the first axis I1, and the connecting member 130 connects the steering element 140 and the first in-wheel drive element 110 to maintain an offset distance w between the second axis I2 and the first axis I1 in the direction d 3. Therefore, the turning speed and the moving speed can be increased when the turning element 140 is turned.

Alternatively, the steering element 140 may comprise a second in-wheel drive element (not shown), such as another in-wheel drive motor. Therefore, the overall mechanism complexity of the universal driving wheel 100 can be further simplified, and the universal movement and rotation effects can be achieved by the in-wheel driving motors, and better speed and rotation torque can be provided.

On the other hand, the universal driving wheel 100 further comprises an absolute rotary encoder 150 disposed on a side of the steering member 140 away from the tire 120 to provide at least one positioning data corresponding to the rotational position of the link 130 to indicate the rotational position of the steering member 140. The positioning data can be generated by matching optical shielding and magnetic induction elements, but the invention is not limited thereto.

In the present embodiment, the motion between the first in-wheel drive element 110 and the steering element 140 is coupled, and the kinematic decoupling thereof is accomplished within the same microprocessor (micro-processor) or digital signal processor (digital signal processor). For example, when the gimbaled drive wheel 100 of the present embodiment is moving, the microprocessor or digital signal processor as described above decouples the motion of the gimbaled drive wheel 100 so that the real-time velocity of the steering element 140 can be directly used to compensate for the velocity of the first in-wheel drive element 110. Based on this motion decoupling, the universal drive wheel 100 of the present embodiment does not require any external communication interface to accomplish.

The universal driving wheel of the present invention will be further described with reference to the automated vehicle body of the present invention. In the following second embodiment, the automated vehicle body 200 of the present invention employs the universal driving wheel as described in the above first embodiment, and therefore the following description will be assisted by the same reference numerals.

Fig. 2B is an enlarged partial cross-sectional view of an automated vehicle body and universal drive wheels according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Referring to fig. 2B, the automated cart body 200 mainly includes a bottom plate 210, a working area 220, and a plurality of universal wheels 100.

The working area 220 is an area for carrying goods, personnel, mechanical arms, and the like to provide various application functions, and is not intended to limit the present invention. In the second embodiment of the present invention, the universal swivel wheel 100 further includes a housing 150. The steering element 140 is connected to the base plate 210 through the housing 150 to couple the caster wheel 100 to the automated vehicle body 200.

In the present embodiment, the automated vehicle body 200 further includes a plurality of

processors

231A, 231B and

motor drivers

230A, 230B connected thereto, respectively. In the present embodiment, the

processors

231A and 231B are, for example, Microprocessor Controllers (MCUs) or Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), and are configured to process vector Control (FOC), convert received motion information into a first rotation Signal to drive the first in-wheel driving element 110 through, for example, motion decoupling (motion decoupling), and drive the steering element 140 through a second rotation Signal. In detail, taking the processor 231A as an example, the processor 231A itself can move and rotate correspondingly as required, so as to generate a first rotation signal by the FOC and generate a second rotation signal by another FOC, and then respectively provide the first rotation signal to the first in-wheel driving element 110 and the second rotation signal to the steering element 140.

In the present embodiment, the first rotation signal and the second rotation signal are transmitted to the first in-wheel driving unit 110 and the steering element 140 through the

motor drivers

230A and 230B, and the automated vehicle body 200 further includes input/

output devices

232A and 232B configured to be connected to the controller 240. The input/

output devices

232A, 232B are respectively connected to the

processors

231A, 231B, and the

processors

231A, 231B receive the movement signal from the controller 240 through the input/

output devices

232A, 232B.

As can be seen from the above, the universal driving wheels 100 in the automated cart body 200 can be driven by a

single processor

231A or 231B, and there is no need to additionally provide multiple processing and computing elements for individual control, which not only shortens the time required for signal transmission, but also provides a higher response rate. Meanwhile, the number of the elements used is greatly simplified, and the whole volume is further reduced.

The steerable rotary wheel 100 of the present invention is not limited to the use of the steering element 140 comprising the second in-wheel drive element in the steerable rotary wheel 100 described above.

Fig. 3 is a schematic view of a universal driving wheel of a third embodiment of the present invention. Referring to fig. 3, a partial schematic view of the universal driving wheel and the base plate in the third embodiment is shown. In this embodiment, the gimbaled drive wheel 300 includes a first in-wheel drive element 310, a tire 320, a linkage 330, a steering element 340, an absolute rotary encoder 350, and a housing 360. The steering element 340 is connected to the base plate 210 through the housing 360 to couple the universal drive wheel 300 and the automated vehicle body 200. In this embodiment, the components described above are generally similar to the above-described gimbaled drive wheel 100, except that a servo motor (not shown) is included in the steering element 340 and is configured to rotate the bearing 361 to allow the link 330, the first in-wheel drive element 310, and the tire 320 to rotate along the second axis I2.

In summary, the universal driving wheel of the present invention can greatly simplify the design of the mechanism element and reduce the volume by using the driving element in the first wheel, and can also improve the overall manufacturing yield. The automatic vehicle body provided by the invention can transmit a moving signal to control the driving motor and the steering element in the wheel in real time due to the application of the universal driving wheel, and can save more volume for other elements.

While the invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, and variations that fall within the scope of the included claims.

Claims

1. A universal drive wheel, comprising:

a first in-wheel drive element;

a tire disposed to wrap around a periphery of the first in-wheel drive element;

a connector configured to connect the first in-wheel drive element and the tire such that the first in-wheel drive element drives the tire to rotate along a first axis; and

the steering element is arranged to be connected to the connecting piece, so that the steering element drives the connecting piece to rotate along a second shaft and enables the tire and the first in-wheel driving element to move around the second shaft, wherein the extending direction of the first shaft is perpendicular to the extending direction of the second shaft.

2. The universal drive wheel of claim 1, wherein said first shaft and said second shaft have an offset distance therebetween, and wherein said tire and said first in-wheel drive element move in a circular motion about said second shaft and said offset distance as a radius when said steering element rotates said connecting member.

3. The universally driven wheel of claim 1, wherein the steering element further comprises a second in-wheel drive element configured to rotate the link along the second axis.

4. The universal drive wheel of claim 1, further comprising a housing, wherein the steering member comprises a servo motor and a bearing, wherein the link is coupled to the housing via the bearing, and wherein the servo motor is configured to rotate the link relative to the housing.

5. A universal drive wheel as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an absolute rotary encoder disposed on a side of said steering member remote from said tire for rotating with said coupling member along said second axis and providing at least one positioning datum corresponding to the rotational position of said coupling member.

6. An automated vehicle body, comprising:

a base plate; and

a plurality of universal drive wheels configured to couple to the base plate, wherein each of the universal drive wheels comprises:

a first in-wheel drive element;

a tire disposed to wrap around a periphery of the first in-wheel drive element;

7. The automated vehicle body of claim 6, wherein in each of said universal drive wheels, said first axle and said second axle have an offset distance therebetween, and said tire and said first in-wheel drive element move in a circular motion about said second axle as a center and a radius of said offset distance as said steering element rotates said linkage.

8. The automated vehicle body of claim 6, further comprising a second in-wheel drive element in each of the universal drive wheels configured to rotate the link along the second axis.

9. The automated vehicle body of claim 6, wherein each of the universal drive wheels further comprises a housing in which the connector and the steering element are housed, each of the universal drive wheels being coupled to the floor through the housing.

10. The automated vehicle body of claim 9, wherein in each of the universal drive wheels, the steering element includes a servo motor and a bearing, wherein the link is coupled to the housing via the bearing, the servo motor being configured to rotate the link relative to the housing.

11. The automated vehicle body of claim 6, wherein each of the universal drive wheels further comprises an absolute rotary encoder disposed on a side of the steering member remote from the tire to rotate with the linkage along the second axis and provide at least one positioning datum corresponding to a rotational position of the linkage.

12. The automated vehicle body of claim 6, further comprising a plurality of processors; and a plurality of motor drivers, each of which is configured to be connected to one of the plurality of processing units, and each of which is electrically connected to the steering element and the first in-wheel motor, wherein each of the processors is configured to transmit a first rotation signal to rotate the first in-wheel driving element and transmit a second rotation signal to rotate the steering element by the motor driving unit.

13. The automated vehicle body of claim 12, further comprising:

the input/output device is connected with the processor and is configured to receive a movement signal, and the processor acquires the movement signal from the input/output device and generates the first rotation signal and the second rotation signal; and

a control unit connected to the input-output unit and configured to provide the movement signal.