JPH0734721Y2 - Wheel unit - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial field of application> The present invention relates to a wheel unit, and in particular, for constructing a self-propelled vehicle that can freely perform forward traveling, backward traveling, lateral traveling, curve traveling, etc. It is suitable for use in.

<Prior Art> Recently, in a warehouse truck, a work vehicle, a robotic vehicle, etc., by disposing a plurality of wheels on a chassis and individually controlling the plurality of wheels, It has been proposed that the undercarriage can freely perform forward traveling, backward traveling, lateral traveling, curve traveling and the like.

When constructing such a self-propelled vehicle, a plurality of wheels are arranged on the chassis. Techniques for attaching wheels to the chassis are proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 53-140728, 54-133560 and 56-11101.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> Various technologies for supporting wheels have been proposed in the above publications. For example, a technique for attaching wheels to a chassis through a mounting plate is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 54-133560 and Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 56-1110.
Although it is shown in the publication No. 1, the wheels shown in these publications are not the drive wheels that rotate by receiving the driving force from the motor, so the wheels should be driven by the driving force of the drive motor. It does not serve as a reference when using.

On the other hand, the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 53-140728 discloses a technique in which a pair of drive wheels are rotated by a drive motor via a unit casing. However, in this case, the pair of drive wheels are mounted so as to project to the outside of the unit casing. That is, since no consideration is given to making the entire configuration small and compact, the vehicle is not designed to be a self-propelled vehicle by being attached to the chassis of an arbitrary vehicle.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention can be easily configured as a self-propelled vehicle that can freely perform forward traveling, backward traveling, lateral traveling, curve traveling, etc. by simply attaching it to the chassis of an arbitrary vehicle. It is an object of the present invention to provide a wheel unit capable of being used.

<Means for Solving the Problems> A wheel unit of the present invention comprises a mounting plate 12 for mounting on an undercarriage 2 of an arbitrary vehicle such as a transport vehicle or a working vehicle, and an axis around an axis orthogonal to the surface direction of the mounting plate 12. Swivel mechanism 14 having a swivel center shaft 15 rotatable in any direction, and fixed to one end of the swivel center shaft 15 so that the swivel mechanism 14 can swivelly attach to the mounting plate 12 via the swivel mechanism 14. Unit casing 3 and bearings 6 attached to both sides of a support plate 5 provided in the central portion of the unit casing 3, and one end of each bearing 6 is rotatably supported. By fixing the two shafts 7 horizontally provided in the unit casing 3 and the shafts 7 respectively,
A pair of element wheels 4a, 4b arranged in parallel with each other in the unit casing 3 with a predetermined space therebetween, and the unit casing for individually and independently driving the pair of element wheels 4a, 4b. 3 and two output shafts 9a, 9b of which are connected to the other end of the shaft 7 via a coupling 8 respectively, and the mounting plate 12 A wheel that is characterized in that a self-propelled vehicle that can freely perform forward traveling, backward traveling, lateral traveling, curve traveling, etc. can be simply configured by simply mounting the vehicle on the underside of the chassis 2 of the vehicle. It is a unit.

<Operation> The unit casing 3 is rotatably attached to the mounting plate 12, and a pair of element wheels 4a and 4b are rotatably disposed inside the unit casing 3 and on the surface of the unit casing 3. By installing two brake / geared motors 9 so as to drive the pair of element wheels 4a, 4b, a self-propelled vehicle can be configured only by mounting the mounting plate 12 on the lower surface of the chassis 2 of the vehicle. It is possible to reduce the size of the wheel unit that can be used.

<Embodiment> Next, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a wheel unit showing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a wheel unit body. The wheel unit body 1 is attached to the bottom surface of a chassis 2 of a vehicle such as a transportation vehicle and used to enable a desired traveling mode such as turning traveling, front-rear left-right traveling, and curve traveling. In order to enable such various traveling modes, a pair of element wheels 4a, 4b are rotatably arranged in parallel in the unit casing 3 having an opening at the bottom.

In the example of FIG. 1, the support plate 5 is arranged in the center of the unit casing 3, and the bearings 6 are arranged on both sides of the support plate 5. Then, by the bearing 6, the element wheel 4
The coupling 8 is supported on the output shafts 9a and 9b of the brake / geared motor 9 which supports one end of the shaft 7 to which a and 4b are fixed and which has the other end disposed on the unit casing 3. An example in which they are connected and supported through is shown.

By configuring in this way, the pair of element wheels 4
The structure which supports a and 4b independently and can be driven,
It is possible to make the unit casing 3 as small as the size thereof.

The brake / geared motor 9 includes a rotation drive control unit 10
It is configured to be driven while individually controlling the number of rotations and the direction of rotation, and the number of rotations and the direction of rotation at that time are detected by detection means (not shown), and the above-mentioned through the signal circuit 11 Rotation drive controller
It is designed to be fed back to 10. Therefore, the pair of element wheels 4a and 4b rotate independently of each other.

Next, reference numeral 12 is a mounting plate for mounting the wheel unit body 1 on the bottom surface of the chassis 2 and is provided with a plurality of bolt insertion holes 13 for facilitating the mounting.

The unit casing 3 is attached to the mounting plate 12 via the swivel mechanism 14, so that the unit casing 3 is rotatably supported with respect to the mounting plate 12. Although various mechanisms can be considered as such a turning mechanism 14,
In the example of FIG. 1, an example in which the turning center shaft 15 is rotatably supported at the center of the upper portion of the unit casing 3 is shown. That is, the ball bearings 16 and 17 are fitted on the turning center shaft 15. An example in which these ball bearings 16 and 17 are fitted and supported by a fitting cylinder 18 attached to the attachment plate 12 is shown. A collar 19 is provided approximately in the center of the turning center shaft 15.
The ball bearings 16 and 17 are arranged so as to sandwich the brim 19. On the other hand, Tsuba 19
Since the ball bearing 16 arranged on the lower side is supported by the bottom surface 18a of the fitting cylinder 18, the turning center shaft 15 does not fall downward. Further, since the stop ring 20 is arranged on the upper side of the ball bearing 17 arranged on the upper side of the collar 19, the turning center shaft 15 does not move upward.

The wheel unit main body 1 configured in this way is used, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, by disposing the wheel unit main body 1 at each of the four corners of the bottom surface of the chassis of a transport vehicle or the like. Incidentally, reference numeral 24 in the drawing denotes a speed / direction support portion, which is constituted by a steering wheel and an accelerator when directly provided on the vehicle. Further, in the case of performing it remotely, it may be configured by a push button or the like.

Next, the operation will be described based on the above configuration.

Since the wheel unit body 1 of the present invention is constructed as described above, it can be easily attached to the chassis 2 of an arbitrary vehicle to construct a self-propelled vehicle. For this attachment, a bolt insertion hole similar to the bolt insertion hole 13 formed in the mounting plate 12 is bored in the chassis 2. And bolts 22, nuts 23
The wheel unit body 1 can be attached to the chassis 2 only by fixing the mounting plate 12 to the chassis 2 using. Further, as described above, since the rotation mechanism and the direction control mechanism are incorporated in the wheel unit main body 1 in advance, it is not necessary to arrange any more drive mechanism. After the wheel unit main body 1 is attached to the chassis 2 in this manner, each of the brake / geared motors 9 and the rotary drive control unit 10 is connected by a power line 24. As a result, the preparation for operation is completed, and the speed / direction control unit 21 is operated to start the operation.

That is, when it is desired to move the chassis 2 forward, the speed / direction control unit 21 is set to move forward and the rotation drive control unit 10 rotates all the brake / geared motors 9 in the positive direction at the same rotation speed. Therefore, the chassis 2 is indicated by an arrow 25 in FIG.
Move forward as indicated by. Further, if the speed / direction control unit 21 is set to the backward direction and operated, the rotation drive control unit 10 rotates all the brake / geared motors 9 in the opposite direction at the same number of rotations. It retreats as indicated by arrow 26 in the figure.

Also, when you want to drive the chassis 2 laterally,
Based on the operation of the direction control unit 21, the rotation drive control unit 10 gives a difference in the rotation speed of the brake / geared motor 9, or as shown by arrows 27 and 28 in FIG. It can be performed by rotating in the opposite direction. That is, when the element wheels 4a and 4b are rotated in opposite directions, the unit casing 3 rotates about the turning center shaft 15 as the center of rotation. Therefore, after rotating the unit casing 3 by 90 degrees in this way, if all of the brake / geared motors 9 are rotated in the forward and reverse directions at the same number of rotations, it is indicated by the vertical arrows in FIG. Thus, the chassis 2 can be moved laterally.

Further, as shown in FIG.
By rotating the element wheels 4a, 4b in the same direction at the same rotation speed after turning, the chassis 2 can be turned on the spot.

Also, if only the specific element wheels 4a, 4b are rotated with different rotational speeds, the chassis 2 can be made to curve as shown in FIG.

When the chassis 2 is driven in the various driving modes as described above, it is explained that the direction of the unit casing 3 is indicated and then the element wheels 4a, 4b are rotated.
Since the rotation speed and the rotation direction of 4b are fed back to the rotation drive control unit 10 via the signal circuit 11, the rotation drive control unit 10 can automatically control the rotation direction. Therefore, the operator need only instruct the traveling direction and traveling speed of the chassis 2.

Further, when the traveling direction and traveling speed are previously determined, they can be programmed and input to a computer, so that the chassis 2 can be automatically driven unmanned.

In the present embodiment, an example in which the output shaft 9a of the brake / geared motor 9 and the shaft 7 are directly connected via the coupling 8 is shown. However, as shown in FIGS. -The geared motor 9 is arranged at right angles to the shaft 7, and the output shaft 9a and the shaft 7 are connected to each other by the bevel gear 40.
You may make it connect via.

<Effects of the Invention> As described above, according to the present invention, the vehicle can freely travel forward, backward, lateral, curve, etc. simply by attaching it to the chassis of the vehicle through the mounting plate. Can be made. Further, since the pair of element wheels 4a and 4b are arranged in the unit casing, the wheel unit can be downsized, and a plurality of chassis of a relatively small vehicle can be mounted.

[Brief description of drawings]

The attached drawings show an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a wheel unit, Fig. 2 is a side view of the wheel unit, Fig. 3 is a plan view, Fig. 4 is a control system explanatory view, FIG. 5 is a direction control explanatory diagram, FIGS. 6 to 9 are operation mode explanatory diagrams, FIG. 6 is a straight traveling mode explanatory diagram, FIG. 7 is a lateral traveling mode explanatory diagram, and FIG. 8 is a turning mode explanatory diagram. FIG. 9 and FIG. 9 are explanatory views of a curve traveling mode, and FIGS. 10 and 11 are cross-sectional views showing modified examples of the arrangement of the brake / key motor. 1 ... Wheel unit main body, 2 ... Chassis, 3 ... Unit casing, 4a, 4b ... Element wheels, 7 ... Shaft, 9
...... Brake / Geared motor, 12 …… Mounting plate, 13 ……
It shows the bolt insertion hole, 15 ... turning center axis, 16, 17 ... ball bearing, 18 ... fitting cylinder.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A swivel having a mounting plate (12) for mounting on a chassis (2) of a vehicle such as a transportation vehicle or a working vehicle, and a swivel center shaft (15) rotatable about an axis orthogonal to the plane direction of the mounting plate (12). A mechanism 14, a unit casing 3 fixed to one end of the turning center shaft 15 so as to be turnable with respect to the mounting plate 12 via the turning mechanism 14, and a center of the unit casing 3. Bearings 6 respectively attached to both sides of a support plate 5 provided in each section, and two bearings 6 each of which is rotatably supported at one end of each of the bearings 6 and is provided horizontally in the unit casing 3. By being fixed to the shaft 7 and the shafts 7, respectively,
A pair of element wheels 4a, 4b arranged in parallel with each other in the unit casing 3 with a predetermined space therebetween, and the unit casing for individually and independently driving the pair of element wheels 4a, 4b. 3 and two output shafts 9a, 9b of which are connected to the other end of the shaft 7 via a coupling 8 respectively, and the mounting plate 12 A wheel that is characterized in that a self-propelled vehicle that can freely perform forward traveling, backward traveling, lateral traveling, curve traveling, etc. can be simply configured by simply mounting the vehicle on the underside of the chassis 2 of the vehicle. unit.