JP2001018881A - Vehicle with auxiliary power equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To execute the control of high accuracy by controlling the output of an auxiliary power driving part of a vehicle travelling part by subdividing the change of a digital value detected by a sensor capable of simultaneously detecting the magnitude of the muscular driving force and a speed of a vehicle, and outputting the same. SOLUTION: The data on muscular driving force detected by a sensor 9 every predetermined time is taken by a control part 10 comprising a microcomputer, and the auxiliary power is determined on the basis of the data to drive a vehicle. On this occasion, the output of the sensor 9 is step-wise, so that the inclination of the output change is determined on the basis of the time when the output is changed by the control part 10, and the data is converted on the basis of the changed time. By executing the control on the basis of the obtained data, the data approximating to the data of the actual muscular driving force can be used in the control, which improves the accuracy of the control.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle with an auxiliary power unit that is driven using human power and auxiliary power of an auxiliary power unit.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a known driving device such as an electric motor is provided as an auxiliary power device, and the auxiliary power of the auxiliary power device is applied to the human or human driving force of an operator or a user to drive and drive the vehicle. A vehicle with an auxiliary power unit is known. Specifically, for example, an auxiliary power generated by driving an electric motor is added to a pedal depression force (rotational force) generated by an operator depressing a pedal, or a rotational force generated by turning a hand rim, and a wheel is added. There is a bicycle with an electric motor that rotates and runs, a wheelchair with an electric motor, or a luggage carrier. In such a vehicle with an auxiliary power device, the vehicle is driven by controlling the ratio of the above-mentioned auxiliary power to the detected manual driving force (hereinafter referred to as “auxiliary ratio”).

In such a conventional vehicle with an auxiliary power unit, a torque detecting unit for detecting a manual driving force is constituted by a mechanical torque sensor using a planetary gear and a displacement sensor. For this reason, this conventional vehicle with an auxiliary power unit uses a displacement sensor composed of a variable resistor or the like, so that a human-powered driving force can be output as an analog value with high accuracy. However, the structure of the torque detection unit is large and the weight is reduced. Was difficult.

Further, in this conventional vehicle with an auxiliary power unit, the torque detecting unit, a human-powered driving unit connected to a drive sprocket, and an auxiliary power driving unit connected to the driving sprocket are housed in a case. For this reason, in this conventional vehicle with an auxiliary power unit, the structure of the case becomes large and the weight of the vehicle also increases. Further, as a conventional vehicle with an auxiliary power device, a general vehicle controlled only by information of a pedaling force or a motor using a vehicle acceleration and an inclinometer together as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-99683. , And a human-powered drive detection unit and an acceleration detection unit are separately required as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 10-147150.
There are those that determine the power to be applied to the motor.

[0005]

However, the above-mentioned conventional vehicle with an auxiliary power unit has a large structure and a heavy weight. Although the above problem can be solved by using a thin and lightweight digital output sensor using an encoder or the like, there is a problem that the resolution of the digital output by the encoder is limited and the resolution becomes coarse.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and uses a sensor using a thin and lightweight encoder and subdivides its digital output to provide high-precision control close to analog output. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle with a power unit.

[0007]

A vehicle with an auxiliary power unit is provided with a vehicle running unit constituting a basic structure for running the vehicle, a human powered unit for applying a manual driving force to the vehicle running unit, An auxiliary power drive unit that applies auxiliary power to the vehicle traveling unit; and a crankshaft and a pedal crank are elastically connected to each other. A sensor unit for simultaneously detecting and digitally outputting the speed of the vehicle, and controlling the output of the auxiliary power drive unit of the vehicle traveling unit based on the human driving force and the vehicle speed obtained by subdividing the change in the digital value detected from the sensor unit. It is characterized by having a control unit for performing.

According to this configuration, a vehicle with a high-precision auxiliary power unit using a thin and lightweight encoder can be obtained.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is directed to a vehicle running section constituting a basic structure for running a vehicle, and a human driven section for applying a manual driving force to the vehicle running section. An auxiliary power drive unit for providing auxiliary power to the vehicle running unit; a magnitude of human driving force based on a phase shift of an output of an encoder attached to each of the crankshaft and the pedal crank elastically; A sensor unit for simultaneously detecting the speed of the vehicle from the speed and digitally outputting the output, and an output of the auxiliary power drive unit of the vehicle traveling unit based on the human driving force and the vehicle speed obtained by subdividing the change in the digital value detected from the sensor unit. This is a vehicle equipped with an auxiliary power unit equipped with a control unit for performing the control of the above. A small and lightweight encoder type digital output sensor can obtain a finely divided output with high accuracy. Such an action can be obtained a simple and lightweight high-precision auxiliary power unit with vehicle.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to the first aspect, wherein a change in a human-powered driving force of a digital value is linearly approximated from two or more values. This has the effect that the human-powered driving force detected by the digital value can be increased in resolution on a straight line.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to the first aspect, wherein a change in a human-powered driving force of a digital value is approximated by a curve from two or more values. This has the effect that the human-powered driving force detected as a digital value can be improved in resolution on a quadratic or higher order curve.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to any one of the first to third aspects, wherein the value of the manual driving force is detected at predetermined time intervals. There is an effect that the human driving force can be detected and controlled at regular time intervals.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, wherein the value of the manual driving force is detected every time there is a change in the sensor output. Therefore, an operation that a human-powered driving force corresponding to a change in sensor output can be obtained is obtained.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the value of the manual driving force is set to an average value within a certain time.
4. The vehicle with the auxiliary power unit according to any one of 4), wherein the effect of an erroneous signal from the sensor unit due to noise or the like can be reduced, and an effect of achieving higher resolution can be obtained.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to the fourth or sixth aspect, wherein the time is changed when the vehicle starts, when the vehicle runs, and when the vehicle stops. Thus, the operation that the human-powered driving force in the traveling state of the vehicle can be detected can be obtained.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to any one of the first to seventh aspects, wherein the next human driving force is predicted from a change in the past human driving force. Therefore, an effect that the auxiliary power can be output without time delay can be obtained.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the auxiliary power is reduced to zero when the vehicle is provided with a manual driving force for deceleration by manual braking. This is a vehicle with an auxiliary power unit, and has the effect of discriminating between deceleration due to the application of a brake and deceleration due to a change in traveling environment, and eliminating erroneous assistance during braking.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a structural view showing a schematic structure of a vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a vehicle with an auxiliary power unit shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a vehicle. 3 is a structural diagram of the sensor unit of the embodiment, FIG. 4 is an output waveform diagram of the sensor unit of the embodiment, FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a control principle of the embodiment, and FIG. It is a conceptual diagram for explaining the control principle of another embodiment. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a vehicle running unit for running the vehicle, 2 denotes a human-powered driving unit for driving the vehicle running unit 1, and 3 denotes an auxiliary power for providing auxiliary power to the vehicle running unit 1. Drive unit.

The vehicle traveling section 1 has wheels 1a, 1b for traveling the vehicle in contact with the road surface, and support mechanisms 1c, 1d for rotatably supporting the wheels 1a, 1b, respectively. In the vehicle running unit 1, the manual driving force from the manual driving unit 2 and the auxiliary power from the auxiliary power driving unit 3 are supplied to the rear wheels 1b, which are the driving wheels, whereby the front wheels 1a and the rear wheels 1b rotate. The vehicle runs. The human power drive unit 2 includes a crankshaft 4, a pair of pedal cranks 5 mounted on both ends of the crankshaft 4, and a pedal 6 attached to each pedal crank 5 for receiving human power provided by an operator or a user. Have.

Further, in order to transmit a manual driving force, which is a force based on human power, from the crankshaft 4 to the rear wheel 1b, the manual driving unit 2 elastically applies the power to the crankshaft 4 via a manual driving transmission mechanism (not shown). Connected drive sprocket 7,
And a chain 8 engaged with the drive sprocket 7
Is provided. Reference numeral 9 denotes a sensor unit, and the crankshaft 4
And an encoder 12 that rotates in conjunction with the drive sprocket 7 and an elastic member is disposed between the crankshaft 4 and the drive sprocket 7. The encoders 11 and 12 are slits which are arranged at equal intervals in the circumferential direction on the respective disk plates 13 and 14 of the thin disk plate 13 connected to the crankshaft 4 and the thin disk plate 14 connected to the drive sprocket 7 respectively. Rows 13a, 14a, photointerrupter group 13 composed of one or more transmissive photointerrupters arranged for each of the disk plates 13, 14
b, 14b. Reference numeral 10 denotes a control unit provided with a microcomputer. The control unit 10 captures data of the manual driving force detected by the sensor unit 9 at regular time intervals, determines an auxiliary power based on the data, and causes the vehicle to run. Reference numeral 15 denotes manual driving force, reference numeral 16 denotes digital value data output from the sensor unit, and reference numeral 17 denotes human driving force data converted by the control unit 10.

The vehicle with the auxiliary power configured as described above will be described. When no manual driving force is applied, the outputs of the encoders 11 and 12 are both as shown in FIG. When the pedal 6 is depressed by human power, the force is transmitted to the crankshaft 4 via the pedal crank 5, and the elastic member between the pedal and the drive sprocket 7 expands and contracts. 4 (a) and the output of the encoder 12 is FIG. 4 (b).
become that way. The output of the digital value is transmitted from the sensor unit 9 to the control unit 10. The sensor unit 9 quantifies the difference between the encoder outputs, and when the output based on the actual manual driving force becomes a value like 15, the sensor unit 9 samples the sensor output at regular intervals (for example, every 1 msec) without detecting a change in the sensor output. When the digital output is performed, the output changes when the sensor output exceeds the threshold value.

At this time, when the output changes from 16a to 16b, the slope of the output change (1
/ T1) and obtain data 17 based on the time changed to 16b.
Convert to If the time until the next change 16c is longer than t1, the output 16b is fixed. As soon as it is shorter than t1, the output is set to 16b. By using these data for control, high-precision control can be performed by using data approximated to actual data of the manual driving force 15 for control.

In this embodiment, the actual human driving force 15 is sampled at regular intervals to detect the digital value sensor output 16, but the digital value sensor output 16 is detected using an external interrupt terminal such as a microcomputer. The same effect can be obtained by sampling each time the output changes.

Although the data 17 used for the control is approximated by a linear line from the output of the digital value of the sensor, the data 17 is used to prevent the sudden start when a manual driving force is applied.
8, it may be approximated by a quadratic or higher-order curve.

Also, by changing the sampling time at the time of starting, running, and stopping the vehicle, the starting, running, and
Control suitable for the characteristics at the time of stoppage can be performed.

In addition, by predicting an approximate value from the digital value data of the sensor unit based on the characteristic to which the human driving force 15 is applied when the pedal 6 makes one rotation and using it for the control, the control can be performed without time delay. .

Further, by making it possible to determine that the brake has been applied to the control unit 10 and setting the auxiliary power to zero, it is possible to prevent the supply of extra auxiliary power when the brake is applied.

Incidentally, the encoders 11 and 12 may use magnetic detecting elements in addition to the optical encoders.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram for explaining the control principle of a second embodiment of the present invention. When the actual human driving force 15 is applied, the digital value output of the sensor unit 9 becomes as shown in FIG. At this time, an average value of the data sampled every time (for example, 1 msec) for a certain time (for example, 10 msec) is obtained for each time, and is converted into data 19. By using the data 19 for control, high-precision control can be performed by using data approximated to actual data of the manual driving force 15 for control.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a vehicle with an auxiliary power unit that performs high-precision control by using a sensor using a thin and lightweight encoder and subdividing its digital output. Can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a structural diagram showing a schematic configuration of a vehicle with auxiliary power according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a vehicle with auxiliary power according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a partially cutout structural view of the sensor according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an output waveform diagram of a sensor unit according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a control principle according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a control principle of another embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a control principle according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vehicle running part 1a Wheel 1b Wheel 1c Support mechanism 1d Support mechanism 2 Human power drive part 3 Auxiliary power drive part 4 Crank shaft 5 Pedal crank 6 Pedal 7 Drive sprocket 8 Chain 9 Sensor part 10 Control part 11 Encoder 12 Encoder 13 Disk plate 13a Slit array 13b Photointerrupter group 14 Disk plate 14a Slit array 14b Photointerrupter group 15 Human driving force 16 Digital value data output from sensor unit 17 Control unit converted human driving force data 18 Control unit converted human driving force Force data 19 Average data

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle running unit constituting a basic structure for running a vehicle, a human powered unit for applying a manual driving force to the vehicle running unit, and an auxiliary power drive for providing an auxiliary power to the vehicle running unit. , A sensor that detects the magnitude of the human-powered driving force from the phase shift of the output of the encoder attached to each of the parts and the crankshaft and the pedal crank, and simultaneously detects the speed of the vehicle from the rotation speed of the encoder, and outputs a digital signal. A vehicle with an auxiliary power device, comprising: a control unit that controls output of an auxiliary power drive unit of the vehicle traveling unit based on a human driving force and a vehicle speed obtained by subdividing a change in a digital value detected from the sensor unit. . 2. The vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to claim 1, wherein the change in the manual driving force of the digital value is linearly approximated from two or more values. 3. The vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to claim 1, wherein a change in the human-powered driving force of the digital value is approximated by a curve of two or more orders from two or more values. 4. The vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to claim 1, wherein the value of the manual driving force is detected at certain time intervals. 5. The vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to claim 2, wherein the value of the manual driving force is detected every time there is a change in the sensor output. 6. The vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to claim 1, wherein the value of the manual driving force is an average value within a certain period of time. 7. The vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to claim 4, wherein the time is changed between when the vehicle starts, when the vehicle runs, and when the vehicle stops. 8. The vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to claim 1, wherein a next manual driving force is predicted from a change in a past manual driving force. 9. The vehicle with an auxiliary power unit according to claim 1, wherein the auxiliary power is reduced to zero when a manual driving force for deceleration is applied to the vehicle by manual braking.