JP2001130458A - Stair lift mechanism for electric wheelchair - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a stair lift mechanism that drives an electric wheelchair up and down stairs by the use of a drive motor on the electric wheelchair. SOLUTION: An electric wheelchair body 1 has a plurality of engaging and supporting members 8 adapted to slidably engage guide rails 22 laid along a side wall surface of stairs while maintaining a fixed attitude of the wheelchair body 1. A smaller-diameter rotary member 10 is disposed outside a driving wheel 3 on the electric wheelchair, for rotation on the same or a parallel axis. The rotary member is provided with a plurality of equiangular engaging elements 11 in the periphery, and is engaged with and disengaged from a drive motor 2 for the driving wheel 3 via a clutch 13B. In addition to the guide rails 22, stairs along which the electric wheelchair is lifted and lowered are equipped with a row of drive guides 24 for generating driving force in the lifting and lowering directions of the stairs when the engaging elements 11 are engaged with guide surfaces 24a.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a stair-lifting mechanism for an electric wheelchair, which can move up and down stairs.
More specifically, a simple guide is provided on the side wall surface of the stairs, and a simple elevating mechanism is attached to the electric wheelchair, so that the stairs can be attached to the wheelchair using the driving motor of a normal electric traveling wheelchair. The present invention relates to a stair climbing mechanism for an electric wheelchair, which can also be moved up and down.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, when a user of a wheelchair is raised or lowered along a stair at a station or the like, a stair lifting device provided along a side wall surface of the stair is often used. This stair climbing device is usually configured such that a wheelchair is placed on a movable platform that can be moved up and down along a guide on a side wall surface of the stairs, and the movable platform is moved up and down electrically. Is very effective in reducing the labor of the person carrying the device with the user.

[0003] However, in the above-described stair climbing device, not only must the moving table always be located somewhere on the side wall surface of the stairs, but the moving table has a driving mechanism for driving up and down. In addition, if a mobile base is provided with a locked cover in order to suppress unnecessary use or prevent damage, etc., the entire device will become even larger, which will hinder the use of stairs by ordinary people. Or partially restrict the use of stairs. Further, there is a problem that the installation of the stair climbing device provided with the moving table is relatively expensive.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an electric wheelchair stair-climbing mechanism which solves such a problem, and its basic technical problems have been previously proposed by the present inventors. Crawling type moving mechanism (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-27922)
No. 8 etc.), the equipment provided on the stairs is significantly simplified, and the electric wheelchair is equipped with a simple ascending and descending mechanism that can move up and down the stairs using its driving motor to drive the wheelchair itself. An object of the present invention is to provide a stair-lifting mechanism for an electric wheelchair, wherein the stairs are moved up and down by a motor for use.

[0005] In the above-mentioned proposed crawl-type moving mechanism, a guide rail is generally installed along a wall surface such as a stair,
The moving table is slidably engaged with the guide rail, and can be moved along the guide rail by a driving mechanism while maintaining its position. In particular, the moving mechanism is mounted on the moving table. By providing several engaging elements around a rotating member provided at the tip of the rotating shaft, the engaging elements are sequentially engaged with driving guides arranged side by side on the wall surface to generate a driving force, The moving table can be moved at a substantially constant speed along the guide rail.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided an electric wheelchair with a stair-lifting mechanism for solving the above-mentioned problems. In addition to providing a plurality of engagement support members that slidably engage in a state where the posture is kept constant, a rotation member having a smaller diameter than the driving wheel that rotates on the same or parallel axis as the driving wheel of the electric wheelchair is provided. , A plurality of engaging elements are equally arranged around the rotating member, and the rotating member can be freely moved toward and away from the driving motor of the driving wheel by a clutch.
On the stairs where the electric wheelchair goes up and down, along the side wall surface,
Along with installing the guide rail, the rotation of the rotating member causes a plurality of engaging elements on the rotating member to sequentially engage with the guide surfaces to provide the wheelchair body with a driving force along the stairs ascending / descending direction or a supporting force for preventing dropping. The drive guides that are generated are arranged in rows.

In the above-described stair-lifting mechanism of the electric wheelchair, it is effective that the rotation transmitted from the output side of the driving motor of the driving wheel to the rotating member by the clutch is set to a low speed sufficiently reduced by the speed reduction mechanism compared to the driving wheel. .

[0008] In the electric wheelchair stair climbing mechanism having the above-described structure, when the electric wheelchair reaches the top or bottom of the stairs to be moved up and down, the plurality of engaging support members provided on the wheelchair main body are moved to the side wall surface of the stairs. When the clutch is switched and the driving force of the driving motor for the driving wheel is transmitted to the rotating member while the posture of the wheelchair body is kept constant by engaging with the guide rail provided on the rotating member, the engaging element on the rotating member Are sequentially engaged with the guide surfaces of the drive guides provided on the side wall surface of the stairs, so that a driving force is applied to the wheelchair main body in the ascending and descending direction of the stairs, and the wheelchair main body is slidably engaged with the guide rails. While being held in a predetermined posture by the joint support member or the like, the motor is driven up and down along the steps by the drive motor. When the wheelchair body descends the stairs due to its own weight, the engaging member of the rotating member engages with the guide surface of the drive guide to act on the wheelchair body to support the fall of the wheelchair. A drive guide may be provided to drive in both directions.

According to such an electric wheelchair stair-lifting mechanism, it is not necessary to always dispose the electric wheelchair moving base somewhere on the side wall surface of the stairs, and it is also necessary to provide a drive motor for the electric wheelchair itself. Since the stairs are moved up and down by the driving force, the guide rails similar to the generally installed handrails and the drive guides with which the engaging elements are engaged need only be arranged on the side walls of the stairs. The equipment provided on the stairs can be significantly simplified, so that they do not hinder the use of the stairs by the general public or partially limit the use of the stairs.

The electric wheelchair also includes a plurality of engagement support members slidably engaged with the guide rails, a rotating member for moving up and down stairs using a driving motor, and a driving member for driving the driving wheel. It is only necessary to attach a simple lifting mechanism such as a clutch that comes in contact with and separates from the motor.Since the drive motor of the electric wheelchair itself is used for ascending and descending the stairs, the structure added to the wheelchair is relatively simple, and as a result, In addition, the stair elevating mechanism can be provided at low cost as a whole.

[0011]

1 and 2 show an example of a configuration of an electric wheelchair used in the present invention, and FIG. 3 schematically shows a configuration of a lifting mechanism of the electric wheelchair. b)
Shows a modification of the clutch and the speed reduction mechanism in FIG. FIG. 5 shows a configuration of a stair for raising and lowering the electric wheelchair and a guide provided on a side wall thereof in relation to a rotating member of the electric wheelchair.

The stair-lifting mechanism for an electric wheelchair according to the present invention is generally designed so that the wheelchair can also move up and down stairs by using a drive motor for a normal wheelchair that is electrically driven. The electric wheelchair shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is connected to a frame of a main body 1, a drive motor 2 that can be rotated forward and backward, a pair of left and right driving wheels 3 that are driven to rotate by the motor 2, and a steering device. Not only is it provided with an operating device 6 for controlling the driving of the front steered wheels 4, the driving wheels 3 and the steered wheels 4, but also a seat required as an original wheelchair,
It has armrests, backrests, leg rests and other equipment.

As shown in FIG. 5, a pair of upper and lower guide rails 22 are provided on the side wall surface 21 of the stairs 20 to be raised and lowered.
The frame is provided with a plurality of engagement support members 8 slidably engaged with the pair of guide rails 22, 22 while keeping the posture of the wheelchair body 1 constant. These engagement support members 8 may be any members as long as they slide while holding the pipe-shaped guide rails 22 and move the wheelchair body 1 along the guide rails 22, 22. The guide rail 22 can be constituted by a plurality of rotatable rollers 8a or the like which sandwich the guide rail 22 in a gripped state. Alternatively, the guide rail 22 can be constituted by a pair of sandwiching pieces which slide on the guide rail. These engagement support members 8 need to be rotated with respect to the frame of the wheelchair main body 1 in accordance with the directions of the guide rails 22 that are curved from the horizontal state to the inclined state along the stairs. Mounted rotatably.

The engaging support member 8 is for supporting the weight of the wheelchair main body 1 on the guide rails 22 and 22. At the same time, the wheelchair main body 1 is stably held on the guide rail, and from there. It is necessary to have a function to prevent it from falling off. It is desirable that the engagement support member 8 such as the roller 8a or the holding piece has a function or a shape for preventing the detachment, but the engagement support member 8 bears only the weight of the wheelchair, Means for preventing the engagement support member 8 from dropping off the guide rail may be separately provided. The guide rails 22, 22
Is constructed by providing a pipe-shaped member along the side wall surface 21 of the stairs, similarly to the handrail of the stairs, but it can also be used as the handrail of the stairs.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a disk-like rotating member 1 having a smaller diameter than the driving wheel 3 that rotates on the same axis as the driving wheel 3 is provided outside the driving wheel 3 of the electric wheelchair.
0, and a plurality of engaging elements 11
Are equally divided. It is desirable that these engaging elements 11 be constituted by projecting vertically rotatable rollers from the outer surface of the rotating member 10, but they can slide on a drive guide 24 (FIG. 5) on a step side wall surface described later. If it is, there is no need for the roller.

As shown schematically in FIG. 3, the electric wheelchair is driven by connecting the clutch 13A by operating the operating device 6 (FIGS. 1 and 2) from the output side of the driving motor 2 for the driving wheel 3. The output shaft of the driving motor 2 is connected to the driving wheel 3 via a reduction gear 14A, and the output shaft of the driving motor 2 is connected to the rotating member 10 via a reduction gear 14B by connection of a clutch 13B. The deceleration drive is performed. The reduction gears 14A and 14B are
A desired reduction ratio is obtained by a combination of large and small gears shown schematically. Therefore, during normal traveling in which the electric wheelchair travels on a flat surface, the driving wheel 3 is decelerated by the connection of the clutch 13A, and when climbing up or down stairs, the connection of the clutch 13A is disconnected and the clutch 13B is connected at the same time. 10 are connected to transmit the reduced rotation. When the rotation is transmitted to the rotating member 10, the rotation may also be transmitted to the driving wheel 3 and the driving wheel may be idled temporarily.

FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b) show another example of the structure of a clutch and a speed reducer for transmitting rotation from the drive motor 2 to the driving wheel 3 and the rotating member 10. FIG. FIG. 3A shows a case where the rotation axes of the driving wheel 3 and the rotating member 10 are displaced in parallel, and the rotation is transmitted to them via the clutches 13A and 13B and the speed reducers 14A and 14B (the structure is omitted). It is configured so that: Also, FIG. 3B shows that the axis of rotation of the driving wheel 3 and the rotating member 10 corresponds to FIG.
Is on the same axis as in the case of
13B shows a configuration example in which the configurations of 13B and the speed reducers 14A and 14B are different from those in the case of FIG.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 5, a pair of upper and lower pipe-shaped guide rails 22, 22 are provided along a side wall surface 21 of the stairs 20 on which the electric wheelchair moves up and down. Along with the rails 22, a number of drive guides 24 are arranged along the rails. The drive guide 24 has a guide surface 24 on which the plurality of engaging elements 11 on the rotating member 10 are sequentially engaged by the rotation of the rotating member 10.
a, a driving force is generated in the wheelchair main body 1 along the direction of ascending and descending the stairs 20 by the engagement of the engaging element 11 with the driving guide 24 and the rotation. This drive mechanism corresponds to the crawl-type moving mechanism previously proposed by the present inventors. In the illustrated example, two guide rails 22 are installed in parallel on the side wall surface 21 of the stairs 20, but the required number of guide rails 22 can be installed.

The drive guide 24 disposed on the stairs is used when the rotating member 10 moves along the pair of guide rails 22, that is, when the wheelchair body 1 moves.
Within the range of movement of the engaging element 11 on the rotating member 10 (between the straight lines L1 and L2 in FIG. 5), it is deviated to one side (lower left side in the figure) of the movement trajectory L of the rotation center O of the rotating member 10. The guide surface 24a formed by these surfaces is arranged at a constant interval, and when the engaging element 11 of the rotating member 10 engages with the guide surface 24a and rotates at a constant speed, the rotating member 10 The rotation center is provided with a substantially constant velocity in the moving direction on the side wall surface 21 in the moving direction, and is a surface which is curved and inclined substantially in a cycloid curve, and is arranged in parallel at regular intervals.

The length of the drive guides 24 is such that at least one engaging element 11 is always
During the return stroke until each engaging element 11 is disengaged from the guide surface 24a of the drive guide and engages with the guide surface 24a of the next drive guide. It is formed in a length that does not interfere with the length.

Therefore, in FIG.
Is engaged with the guide surface 24a of the drive guide 24, the rotating member 10 rotates counterclockwise, and while the engaging element 11 moves on the guide surface 24a of the drive guide 24,
The wheelchair main body 1 is moved in the traveling direction via the rotating member 10, but before the engaging element 11 comes off the guide surface 24a and enters the return stroke, the next engaging element 11 is located immediately next to the moving direction. Guide surface 24 of drive guide 24 (upper left)
on the guide surface 24a, and at that time, since each guide surface 24a is curved in a cycloid curve shape, the rotating member 10 is always moved in the moving direction on the wall surface of the building. Can be moved at a substantially constant speed.

The rotation transmitted to the rotating member 10 requires a large driving force when ascending along the stairs. Therefore, it is desirable that the rotation be sufficiently reduced by the speed reduction mechanism 14B than that of the driving wheel 3. For example, on a flat ground, a wheelchair with a running speed of 100 m / min is set at 2 m / min on stairs.
If the rotation diameter of the engaging element 11 on the rotating member 10 is half the diameter of the driving wheel 3, the reduction ratio is 1/25. As the deceleration mechanism 14B for performing this deceleration (FIGS. 3 and 4A and FIG. 4B), an appropriate mechanism can be adopted. For example, it is necessary to transmit the rotation via a belt or a gear. It is also possible to perform slow deceleration.

When the stairs 20 have a steep gradient and the wheelchair body 1 can descend the stairs 20 by its own weight when descending the stairs, the rotating member 10 is reversely rotated by the driving motor 2 for the driving wheel. Engagement element 11 of rotating member 10
Is engaged with the guide surface 24a of the drive guide 24 to generate a supporting force for preventing the wheelchair body 1 from dropping rapidly. However, as shown in FIG. If there is a landing in the middle of the stairs and it is necessary to drive in both directions of the stairs, a drive guide 2 for both directions of ascending and descending to correspond to the ascending and descending.
4 and 25 can be provided to drive in both directions.

The guide surface 25a of the drive guide 25 for gentle lowering or horizontal movement is
Within the motion range (between the straight lines L1 and L2 in FIG. 5)
The wheel guide main body 1 is moved (downward) by engaging the engaging element 11 of the rotating member 10 with the drive guide 25 in a state of being symmetric with respect to the drive guide 24 and at a constant interval. When the wheelchair body 1 attempts to descend the stairs due to its own weight,
1 engages with the guide surface 24a of the drive guide 24 to apply a support force to the wheelchair body 1 to prevent the fall. When the wheelchair main body 1 does not descend by its own weight, a plurality of engaging elements are provided in the same manner as when the stairs are raised by the drive guide 24, except that the rotation direction of the rotating member 10 by the drive motor 2 is reversed. 11 are sequentially engaged with the guide surfaces 25a of the drive guides 25, so that the wheelchair body 1 generates a driving force in the descending direction of the stairs. As described above, even when the drive guides 24 and 25 for both the up and down directions are provided, when the rotation member 10 rotates in the up and down direction, each of the engagement members other than the engagement member that moves on the guide surface 24a or 25a. No interference with 24 or 25.

Next, referring to FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, the wheelchair approaches the stairs, and a pair of upper and lower guide rails 22,
The engagement support members 8, 8 are engaged with the
Equipment suitable for the case where the 0 engaging element 11 is engaged with the drive guide 24 to start climbing the stairs will be described. As can be seen from FIG.
When approaching, first, the upper and lower engagement support members 8,
8 is respectively engaged with a pair of upper and lower guide rails 22, 22. In this case, it is necessary to adjust the position of the driving wheel 3 by adjusting the running line of the wheelchair to the guide rails 22. Grooves 27 (a pair of left and right) provided on the traveling path are
The wheelchair can be positioned in the left-right direction by dropping the driving wheel 3 into the groove 27 when approaching the stairs.

Further, the wheelchair is driven by the rotation of the driving wheel 3 so that the engaging element 11 of the rotating member 10 is driven by the driving guide 2.
It is necessary to switch the driving to ascending the stairs by engaging with the fourth guide surface 24a. Therefore, a roller 28 for idling the driving wheel 3 of the wheelchair is disposed on the road surface at the position where the switching is performed. The wheelchair in which the driving wheel 3 has reached the roller 28 has the clutch 13
When the rotating member 10 is rotated by the switching of the rotation direction, the next engagement element 11 engaged with the guide surface 24a of the drive guide 24
Is engaged with the first drive guide 24, the rotating member 10
Driving of the wheelchair main body 1 is started, and the wheelchair starts to climb up the stairs. The grooves 27 and the rollers 28 have been described as being suitable for the case where the wheelchair approaches the stairs and starts climbing the stairs. However, in the practice of the present invention, the wheelchair starts to climb the stairs without being particular about these. Any other suitable means can be used.

In the electric wheelchair stair climbing mechanism having the above-described structure, when the electric wheelchair reaches a position above or below a stair to be moved up and down, a plurality of engaging support members 8 provided on the wheelchair main body 1 are used to move the stairs. When the clutch 13 is switched to transmit the driving force of the driving motor 2 of the driving wheel 3 to the rotating member 10 while engaging the guide rail 22 provided on the side wall surface 21 and keeping the posture of the wheelchair body 1 constant. The engaging element 11 on the rotating member 10 is sequentially engaged with the guide surface 24a of the drive guide 24 provided on the side wall surface 21 of the stairs, so that the wheelchair main body 1 is provided with a driving force along the ascending and descending direction of the stairs. 1 is held in a predetermined posture by the guide rail 22 and is driven up and down along the stairs 20 by the drive motor 2.

According to this stair lifting mechanism, unlike the prior art, it is not necessary to always dispose the movable wheelchair of the electric wheelchair on the side wall surface of the stairs, and it is also necessary to drive the motor 2 for driving the electric wheelchair itself. Since the stairs are moved up and down by force, a guide rail 22 similar to a generally installed handrail and a drive guide 24 with which the engaging element 11 is engaged are simply arranged on the side walls of the stairs. In addition, the equipment provided on the stairs 20 can be significantly simplified and can be manufactured at extremely low cost.

The electric wheelchair has a guide rail 22.
A plurality of engagement support members 8 slidably engaged with the motor, a rotating member 10 that moves up and down stairs using the driving motor 2, and a clutch 13 that contacts and separates the rotating member from the driving motor 2 of the driving wheel 3. It is only necessary to attach a simple mechanism for raising and lowering the stairs, and the drive motor 2 of the electric wheelchair itself is used for ascending and descending the stairs. Therefore, the structure to be added to the wheelchair is relatively simple. It becomes possible to provide the whole at low cost. Furthermore, according to such a stair-lifting mechanism for an electric wheelchair, the installation radius of the engagement element 11 in the rotating member 10 or the positional relationship between the plurality of engagement support members 8 is made constant, so that The intervals between the plurality of guide rails 22 corresponding to the inclination, the installation positions of the drive guides, and the like are standardized, so that the cost can be reduced.

In the illustrated stair-lifting mechanism of the electric wheelchair, the guide rails and the driving wheels are illustrated so as to interfere with each other depending on the inclination angle of the stairs or when the electric wheelchair moves on the landing of the stairs. Maybe they are designed and manufactured so that they do not interfere with each other.

[0031]

According to the electric wheelchair stair elevating mechanism of the present invention described in detail above, the crawl type moving mechanism proposed by the present inventor is effectively used, and the equipment provided on the stairs is extremely simple. A stair-lift mechanism for an electric wheelchair, in which an electric wheelchair is provided with a simple elevating mechanism that can move up and down stairs using its driving motor, and the stairs are raised and lowered by the wheelchair driving motor. Can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a configuration of an electric wheelchair used in the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the electric wheelchair.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view schematically showing a configuration of a mechanism for elevating and lowering the electric wheelchair.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are explanatory views schematically showing another configuration example of the clutch and the speed reduction mechanism of the electric wheelchair.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a configuration of a stair for raising and lowering the electric wheelchair and a guide provided on a side wall thereof in relation to a rotating member of the electric wheelchair.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for describing a drive guide when the electric wheelchair is driven to move up and down along stairs.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a portion where an electric wheelchair reaches a stair from a flat surface.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory view in a cross section orthogonal to the traveling direction of the electric wheelchair.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Wheelchair main body 2 Drive motor 3 Driving wheel 8 Engagement support member 10 Rotary member 11 Engagement member 13A, 13B Clutch 14A, 14B Reduction mechanism 20 Stairs 21 Side wall surface 22 Guide rail 24, 25 Drive guide 24a, 25a Guide surface

Claims (2)

[Claims] An electric wheelchair body includes a plurality of engagement support members slidably engaged with guide rails provided along side wall surfaces of stairs while maintaining a constant posture of the wheelchair body. In addition to the above, a rotating member having a smaller diameter than the driving wheel that rotates on the same or parallel axis as the driving wheel of the electric wheelchair is provided, a plurality of engaging elements are equally arranged around the rotating member, and this rotating member is By the above, it is possible to freely move to and away from the driving motor of the driving wheel, and on the stairs where the electric wheelchair moves up and down, along the side wall surface,
Along with installing the guide rail, the rotation of the rotating member causes a plurality of engaging elements on the rotating member to sequentially engage with the guide surfaces to provide the wheelchair body with a driving force along the stairs ascending / descending direction or a supporting force for preventing dropping. A stair climbing mechanism for an electric wheelchair, wherein drive guides are arranged in a row. 2. The electric wheelchair according to claim 1, wherein the rotation transmitted from the output side of the driving motor of the driving wheel to the rotating member by the clutch is set to a low speed which is sufficiently reduced by the speed reduction mechanism compared to the driving wheel. Stair climbing mechanism.