JPH10226387A - Personal driving force detection mechanism for assist vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a personal driving force detection mechanism for an assist vehicle simple and difficult to generate damage and deterioration by reducing a cost. SOLUTION: In an assist vehicle provided with an electric motor generating auxiliary drive force in accordance with personal drive force generated by an occupant, the vehicle has a twist bar means 401 generating a twist in a rotational direction by the personal drive force, twist displacement means 402 loosely fitted to this twist bar means 401 to be displaced by a twist of this twist bar means in its axial direction, and a displacement sensor 405 detecting a displacement amount in the axial direction of this twist displacement means 402 to be provided in a car body side.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a human driving force detecting mechanism for an assist vehicle equipped with a bicycle assist electric motor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is an assisted vehicle in which a battery and an electric motor are mounted on a bicycle, and when mechanical power is required on an uphill or the like, the electric motor is started to run as an electric bicycle. It is known (for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 50-136145, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-100790).
And Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-244496.

[0003] The assist vehicle is configured to generate an auxiliary driving force in accordance with a human driving force generated by a passenger. Therefore, the assist vehicle includes a mechanism for detecting a human driving force generated by the passenger. ing. As a mechanism for detecting the human driving force, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-100790, a human driving force is applied to a torsion bar, and the magnitude of the torsion is measured by a potentiometer (rotation angle detector). ) Or with a strain gauge attached to a torsion bar. Further, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-244496, a method of detecting a chain tension is also known.

[0004]

In the conventional method of detecting the torsion angle of a torsion bar with a potentiometer (rotation angle detector) or a strain gauge, the twisting rod on which the potentiometer or the strain gauge rotates is used. Since it is mounted, a special signal transmission means such as a slip ring is required to transmit these detection signals from the rotating side to the vehicle body side (fixed side), which is complicated, expensive, and deteriorates due to wear. There are also problems.

[0005] Further, in the method of detecting the tension of the chain, the detection mechanism is exposed to the outside, so that it is damaged by contact with other vehicles or the like in a bicycle parking lot or the like, and the dust is clogged and deteriorated. There is a possibility that. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a simple and inexpensive human driving force detection mechanism that is less likely to be damaged or deteriorated.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A human driving force detecting mechanism for an assist vehicle according to the present invention includes a torsion bar means for generating a torsion in a rotational direction by a human driving force, and the torsion rod means. A torsion displacement means loosely fitted to the torsion rod means so as to be movable in the axial direction by the torsion of the torsion means, and a displacement sensor provided on the vehicle body side for detecting the amount of displacement of the torsion displacement means in the axial direction. Have.

[0007]

FIG. 3 is an external view of an assist vehicle provided with a human driving force detecting mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 denotes a rotary drive unit with a built-in electric motor, reference numeral 2 denotes a battery, and reference numeral 3 denotes a controller. The above components are connected to each other by signal lines and power supply lines extending along the frame of the bicycle, but these signal lines and power supply lines are not shown in order to avoid complication. Have been.

When the rider of this bicycle pedals on the pedal 11, torque is transmitted to the rotation drive unit 1 via the gear 12, the chain 13, and the gear 14 on the rear wheel side, and the torque is further transmitted to the rotation drive unit 1. The power is transmitted to the rear wheels 15 via the spokes 16 connecting the rear wheels 15, and the bicycle runs.

As shown in the sectional view of FIG. 4, the rotation drive unit 1 has a rotation shaft 100 rotatably held at the center of rotation of the rear wheel 15 via a bearing, and an outer peripheral surface of the rotation shaft 100. And four permanent magnets 103, 104, etc., which are fixed at intervals of 90 ° in the circumferential direction and alternately change the polarity in the order of N, S, N, S, and the rotating shaft 10.
0, which are arranged at intervals of 90 ° in the circumferential direction of 0 and with a predetermined gap between each of the permanent magnets.
An electric motor comprising a plurality of coils 103, 104, etc., and a rotating cylindrical body 105 fixed on the inner peripheral surface of the four coils and held rotatably around a rotating shaft 100 via bearings. ing. Although reference numerals are omitted to avoid complicating the drawing, each of the above bearings is illustrated by an X mark and a square symbol surrounding the X mark.

That is, the magnetic poles of the electric motor are formed from the rotating shaft 100 and four permanent magnets fixed at equal intervals on the outer peripheral surface thereof, and are fixed at equal intervals to the rotating cylindrical body 105 and the inner peripheral surface thereof. The armature of the electric motor is formed from the four coils thus formed. Power is supplied to each coil from the power supply line 108 through the brush 106 and the commutator 107. A multi-stage gear 14 for speed change is fixed to one end of the rotating shaft 100, and the torque applied to the pedal 11 by human power is transmitted to one of the multi-stage gears 14 via the chain 13, That is, the rotating magnetic pole is rotated.

For the sake of simplicity, assuming that the other end (not shown) of the power supply line 108 is open, each coil of the armature is rotated in a direction in which the rotation of the magnetic pole is prevented with the rotation of the magnetic pole by human power. An electromotive force is generated to operate as a no-load generator, and the armature is rotated by the rotation of the magnetic pole to rotate in the same direction. As a result, the torque generated when the rider of this bicycle pedals is transmitted to the armature of the electric motor, and the rotating cylinder 105 rotates. The torque transmitted to the rotating cylinder 105 is transmitted to the planetary gear 11
It is transmitted to the external rotating cylinder 112 via 0 and 111. The torque transmitted to the external rotating cylinder 112 is
Numerous spokes 1 with one end fixed to the outer periphery
, 114, 115, 116,.
The bicycle is driven by the rotation of the rear wheel 15.

Actually, the other end (not shown) of the power supply line 108 is connected to a control circuit in the controller 3, and the control circuit supplies the coils 104 and 105 via the power supply line 108, the brush 106, and the commutator 107. And the like. As a result, this electric motor also operates as a rotating armature type electric motor in parallel with the above-described operation of transmitting the human torque. That is, a total torque of the torque generated by the human power and the electric torque generated by the electric power supplied from the power supply line 108 is generated in the rotating cylindrical body 105 of the armature. As described above, the electric motor having the structure of FIG. 4 has a function of transmitting the torque obtained by adding the human torque and the electric torque to the rotating cylinder 105. The electric torque is increased or decreased in accordance with an increase or decrease in human torque generated by a passenger pedaling.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are a sectional view and a partial plan view, respectively, showing the structure of a torque sensor as an embodiment of a human driving force detecting mechanism according to the present invention. This torque sensor includes a rotating shaft 400 that is rotated by a pedal 11 (not shown) connected to both ends, a cylindrical body 401 having one end fixed to the rotating shaft 400, and outer peripheral surfaces of the rotating shaft 400 and the cylindrical body 401. A sliding body 402 is slidably held in the axial direction against the elastic force of the springs 403 and 404, and a displacement sensor 405.

The cylindrical body 401 for transmitting the torque of the rotating shaft 400 to the gear 12 is formed of a thin cylinder having insufficient rigidity against torsion.
The protrusion 401a formed on the outer peripheral surface is displaced in the circumferential direction by an angle proportional to the magnitude of the transmission torque. As shown in FIG. 7, the protrusion 401a is formed in the slider 402 at a predetermined angle with respect to the axial direction thereof.
2a, the slider 402 has the protrusion 401
a slides in the axial direction by a magnitude proportional to the amount of displacement in the circumferential direction.

An outer peripheral surface of the slider 402 is formed with a tapered surface whose outer diameter changes in the axial direction, and the tip of the displacement sensor 405 is in contact with the tapered surface. As a result, as the slider 402 slides in the axial direction, the position of the tip of the displacement sensor 405 changes, and the amount of change in this position is proportional to the torsion angle generated in the cylindrical body 401, that is, the transmission torque. Detected as a quantity.

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram showing the configuration of a control unit in the controller 3 together with related parts such as a displacement sensor 405 of a torque sensor and an electric motor. Reference numeral 301 denotes a sawtooth wave voltage generation circuit, 302 denotes an impedance conversion circuit, 303 is a DC amplifier circuit, 304 is a comparison circuit, 305 is a power switch drive circuit, and 306 is a power switch circuit.

The sawtooth voltage generator 301 generates a sawtooth voltage having an amplitude adjusted by the variable resistor Rg for gain adjustment, and supplies the voltage to the inverting input terminal of the comparator 304.
On the other hand, the DC voltage output from the displacement sensor 405 of the torque sensor is supplied to the DC amplifier circuit 303 via the impedance conversion circuit 302, and the amplified DC voltage is supplied to the non-inverting input terminal of the comparison circuit 304. . The saw-tooth waveform voltage supplied to the inverting input terminal of the comparison circuit 304 is sliced by the DC voltage supplied to the non-inverting input terminal, and a rectangular voltage waveform having a duty ratio that changes according to the magnitude of the DC voltage. And supplied to the power switch driver 305.

As described above, the duty ratio of the rectangular voltage waveform changes according to the slice level with respect to the sawtooth voltage, that is, the DC voltage value output from the DC amplification circuit 303. This DC voltage value is output from the potentiometer 204
Output voltage of the DC amplification circuit 303, that is, the variable resistor Rv
Is changed according to the amplification gain set by The variable resistance value of the variable resistor Rv is arbitrarily adjusted according to a power assist ratio change command issued by a rider due to rotation of a grip of a handle of a bicycle or the like.

The rectangular voltage waveform output from the comparison circuit 304 is amplified by a power switch driver 305 provided with a photocoupler at the preceding stage, supplied to a power switch circuit 306, and supplied to a switching element Q composed of a power FET. Turn on / off. By turning on / off the switching element Q, an exciting current having an appropriate duty ratio is supplied from the battery 4 having a terminal voltage of 12 volts to the coils 103 and 104 of the armature of the electric motor shown in FIG. The duty ratio of the exciting current increases with an increase in the manually generated torque detected by the potentiometer 204, and increases with an increase in the amplification gain of the amplifier circuit 303. As the duty ratio of the exciting current increases, the generated torque of the electric motor increases.

The relationship between the human torque and the electric torque is as follows:
By setting the circuit constant of each part in FIG. 5 to an appropriate value, it can be set to an appropriate value. As an example, the relationship shown in FIG. 6 is set. In this relationship, when the human torque increases to some extent, an electric torque is generated, and the electric torque increases with an increase in the auxiliary ratio commanded by the occupant. As the relationship between the human torque and the electric torque, an appropriate value such as a curve characteristic can be set.

When the passenger stops generating human torque on a downhill or the like, the rotation shaft 100 of the electric motor shown in FIG. 4, ie, the rotation of the magnetic pole is stopped, but the armature rotates with the rotation of the rear wheel 15. Persist the state. In this state, the motor operates as a rotating armature type DC generator, and a regenerative operation is performed in which the generated DC power is recovered by the battery 2 via the power supply line 108.

[0022]

As described above in detail, the human driving force detecting mechanism for an assist vehicle according to the present invention comprises a torsion rod means for generating a torsion in the rotational direction by a human driving force, and the torsion means. A torsion displacement means loosely fitted to the torsion rod means so as to be movable in the axial direction thereof, and a displacement sensor provided on the vehicle body side for detecting an amount of displacement of the torsion displacement means in the axial direction. Therefore, there is an advantage that a simple and inexpensive human driving force detecting mechanism that is less likely to be damaged or deteriorated can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of a human driving force detection mechanism of an assist vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial plan view showing a configuration of a human driving force detection mechanism of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an external view showing a configuration of an assist vehicle including the human driving force detection mechanism of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of a driving unit 1 of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram showing an example of a configuration of a control circuit in a controller 3 of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a relationship between a detected human driving force and a driving torque generated by an electric motor.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Drive part 2 Battery 3 Controller 100 Rotary axis 101,102 Permanent magnet 103,104 Coil 105,112 Rotating cylindrical body 110,111 Planetary gear 113-116 Spoke 301 Sawtooth wave voltage generation circuit 303 DC amplification circuit 304 Comparison circuit 305 Power switch driver 306 Power switch circuit 400 rotation Shaft 401 Cylindrical body 402 Slider 405 Displacement sensor

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An assist vehicle having an electric motor for generating an auxiliary driving force in accordance with a human driving force generated by a passenger, comprising: a torsion rod means for generating a torsion in a rotational direction by the human driving force; A torsion displacement means which is loosely fitted to the torsion rod means and is displaced in the axial direction by the torsion of the torsion rod means; and a torsion displacement means provided on the vehicle body for detecting the amount of displacement of the torsion displacement means in the axial direction. And a displacement sensor for detecting the human driving force of the assist vehicle. 2. The torsion displacement means according to claim 1, wherein said torsion displacement means has an outer peripheral surface whose height changes smoothly in the axial direction of said torsion bar, and said displacement sensor is provided at a tip portion on said outer peripheral surface of said torsion displacement means. A human driving force detecting mechanism for an assist vehicle, comprising a rod-shaped body which is brought into contact with and which moves up and down as the displacement sensor moves in the axial direction.