WO1999051486A1

WO1999051486A1 - A method of driving a means of transport by using the energy of human's muscles and a hydraulic transmission to embody this method

Info

Publication number: WO1999051486A1
Application number: PCT/BY1998/000011
Authority: WO
Inventors: Galina Grigoryevna Budkevich; Evgeny Alexandrovich Starodetko; Georgy Evgenievich Starodetko; Konstantin Evgenievich Starodetko; Anatoly Borisovich Markovsky
Original assignee: Galina Grigoryevna Budkevich; Starodetko Evgeny Alexandrovic; Georgy Evgenievich Starodetko; Starodetko Konstantin Evgeniev; Anatoly Borisovich Markovsky
Priority date: 1998-03-25
Filing date: 1998-12-30
Publication date: 1999-10-14
Also published as: AU1744999A

Abstract

The invention relates to means of a transmission driven by using the muscular energy of a human and it can be used in bicycles, in carriages for an invalid or a veteran and in other transport facilities. In order to have efficient consumption of the energy developed by a human with his motions, a hydraulic transmission comprises a pump (1) and a hydraulic motor (2) including work chambers (3, 4) and exhaust chambers (5, 6), first (7) and second (8) accumulators of liquid. The first accumulator (7) is equipped by a gas cushion or by a spring-loaded piston and is connected with exhaust chambers of the pump (5) and the hydraulic motor (6). The pump (1) is connected with a mechanism actuated by muscles of a human, for example, with pedals (9) and the hydraulic motor is connected with the propeller with a wheel (10). The transmission further comprises a relief valve (11) and connecting pipelines. Further the hydraulic motor (6) is installed in the wheel (10) directly, and the second accumulator (8) is filled with a liquid completely and it is connected with the chambers (3) in the pump and with the chambers (4) in the hydraulic motor by means of the distributors (12 and 13).

Description

DESCRIPTION A METHOD OF DRIVING A MEAN OF TRANSPORT BY USING THE ENERGY OF HUMAN S MUSCLES AND A HYDRAULIC TRANSMISSION TO EMBODY THIS METHOD Technical Field

The invention relates to vehicle transmissions driven by using a power of the human's muscles and it can be used in bicycles, carriages for invalids, veterans and in other transport facilities. Background Art More than 16 000 patents related to improvements in pedal transport facilities are registered for today, and among them hydra-mechanical drive designs were created, in which pedals of a bicycle operate as piston devices (see [1] pages 21...22).

However, the known method of using a hydraulic transmission in a vehicle driven by a power of the human's muscles requires usage of complicated transmission thus resulting to additional losses in the process of power tramsmitting. In addition, there is a problem to adjust hydraulic transmission according to human's abilities and according to traffic's conditions.

The known technical solutions permit to decrease a human's power consumption, for example, to decrease the mass of a pedal's drive mechanism as a result of using the Cardan shaft, to replace a chain transmission by a drive which transforms a reciprocating motion into a rotational motion, to install additional engines, electric motors or internal combustion engines (see [2] pages 11...15). However, all these technical solutions did not get a wide application due to their essential disadvantage caused by a necessity to acquire new skills in driving and to increase a drive complexity and a vehicle cost. Hydraulic systems got a wide application for transmitting a mechanical power in various machines due to simple communications, good indices in specific transmitted power, safety in usage and in maintenance. The power in these systems is transmitted by compressed liquid basically, while resuming that liquid is incompressible, and a mechanical work is received due to using a pressure of liquid created in a pump with this pressure being reduced in a hydraulic drive of an executive mechanism. For example, a tool carrier LII104M is described in [3], pages 269...271, fig. 14.10, having the hydraulic power transmission to the hydraulic motors installed in driving wheels of this tool carrier. However, the known machines having hydraulic transmissions do not cover all possibilities to save an energy. The losses caused by increased a mass and by complicated a mechanism of the power transmission to wheels, the losses, caused by incompatibility of the power source performance and the operational conditions on a vehicle, result to an inadequate efficiency of the hydraulic drive and make difficult a usage of the known hydraulic transmissions to drive a vehicle by human muscles.

Among the known technical solutions the closest object related with both claimed the method and the transmission on the strength of essential features is the method and the transmission, described in the invention [4], which was taken as a prototype of the claimed invention by the authors.

The invention taken as a prototype in the essence of a method describes a method of driving a mean of transport by using the energy of human's muscles comprising the motion of human's extremities is transformed into a circular rotation of a propeller, for example, of a wheel in a bicycle. In the essence of a device the invention taken as a prototype realizes a combined transmission, which comprises a traditional chain transmission from the pedal driving gear to the driven gear of a rear wheel of a bicycle and a hydraulic transmission, which in turn comprises a pump and a hydraulic motor both having the work and exhaust chambers, a first and a second accumulators, with the first accumulator being equipped with a gas cushion or with a spring- loaded piston and being connected with the exhaust chambers of the pump and of the hydraulic motor. Further, the pump is connected with a mechanism driven by human muscles to produce motion. Further, the hydraulic motor is connected with a propeller, and the transmission comprises a relief valve and connecting pipelines.

Due to an additional hydraulic drive in the invention taken as a prototype the load for a human being in changeable traffic conditions is decreased as a result of usage of an energy preliminary accumulated in the hydraulic drive to rotate the wheel of a bicycle. The prototype further comprises a relief valve controlled by a hand to decrease a liquid pressure in the accumulator in a case of necessity.

However, the invention taken as a prototype does not cover all possibilities of a hydraulic transmission used in a mean of transport driven by human muscles. The losses resulted from an increased mass and a complicated mechanism to transmit power to wheels, the losses, caused by an incompatibility of the human's abilities and the certain operational conditions of a vehicle, result to an inadequate efficiency of the technical solution taken as a prototype, therefore this solution is not used in an industrial production.

The aim of the claimed invention is to improve a method of transmitting power developed by human muscles to wheels of a mean of transport by means of bringing in correspondence the power source performance and the certain conditions of the vehicle motion, and, moreover, by means of creating a complex scheme of a vehicle drive which is able to ensure an efficient consumption of the power developed by human being in a motion providing an achievement of the minimal expenditures. As a result of solution of the above formulated aim the new technical outcome is achieved concluding in the creature of the hydraulic drive for a bicycle or for other vehicle driven by a power of the human's muscles, and this outcome provides the high economy, the absence of mechanical transmission, the enlarges possibilities in technology to create a new mean of transport driven by human's muscles. Disclosure of Invention

This technical outcome is achieved as a result that in embodiment of a method of a vehicle motion by use of human's muscles power, in which a motion of human's extremities is transformed into rotation of a propeller, for example a wheel, in accordance with the invention a motion of human's extremities is transformed into a power of an impulse of the deformed liquid, then this power is accumulated and this power is transmitted and transformed into a mechanical power of rotating propeller in case of need, while a transformation of a liquid power is realized in the cylinders of a pump and/or the hydraulic motor, and, moreover, a process of a power production and a process of a power usage are carried out independently due to the power transmission being carried out with using only one impulse of the deformed liquid.

A hydraulic transmission to embody the claimed method comprises a pump

and a hydraulic motor both having the work and exhaust chambers, a first and a

second accumulators, with the first accumulator being equipped with a gas

cushion or with a spring-loaded piston and being connected with the exhaust

chambers of the pump and of the hydraulic motor, with the pump being

connected with a mechanism driven by human muscles to produce a motion and

with hydraulic motor being connected with a propeller. Further, the transmission

comprises a relief valve and connecting pipelines, moreover, according to the invention, the hydraulic motor is installed directly in the propeller, the second

accumulator is filled with liquid completely and it is connected with the work

chambers of both the pump and the hydraulic motor by means of distributors,

with pump's distributor being driven from a shaft of the pump and with the

hydraulic motor's distributor is driven from the second accumulator

hydraulically. Further, the hydraulic motor distributor is equipped with a limiter

which is connected with the propeller by kinematics manner additionally, and the

limiter is equipped with a locking element for fixation of two positions of the

limiter, while this locking element interacts with the stop pins mounted on the

propeller.

According to the invention an installation comprises a hydraulic

transmission in which the check valve is installed between the pump distributor

and the second accumulator, and the relief valve is installed between the first and

the second accumulators and is made controllable according to a pressure in the

second accumulator.

Moreover, according to the invention its embodiment in a bicycle design is

made so that the pump is a radial-plunger type one, with it's housing having a

guide, which interacts with plungers of the pump. The housing of the pump is

installed in a frame of a bicycle, while it's work cylinders and plungers are

installed in a part of the shaft connected with pedals. Further, the hydraulic motor

is a radial-plunger type motor and is installed in a hub of the wheel, having a guide which interacts with the plungers of the hydraulic motor, while the work

cylinders and the plungers of the hydraulic motor are installed in a part of an

immovable axis mounted in the frame of the bicycle.

The invention further provides variants of an embodiment in which a

surface of the guides interacting with the plungers of both the pump and the

hydraulic motor is made as a closed quadratic curve. Moreover the pump and the

hydraulic motor both have even number of cylinders, the every pair of the

cylinders and the plungers is installed in opposite manner, the axes of the every

pair are parallel and are disposed in a one plane which is perpendicular to the

axis of rotation and the axes of every pair are shifted symmetrically relative to the

axis of rotation. Further, the plungers of the hydraulic motor are provided with a

magnetic inserts.

Further, one variant is provided in which more than one hydraulic motor is

connected with the second accumulator by means of corresponding distributors,

with the axes of corresponding pairs of cylinders in each hydraulic motor and the

axes of symmetry of the guides interacting with corresponding plungers are

turned relative to each other in the plane of their disposition uniformly.

Moreover, a variant is possible, in which more than one set of all elements of the

hydraulic transmission is installed with the axes of corresponding pairs of the

cylinders in each set and the axes of symmetry in the guides interacting with

corresponding plungers are turned relative to each other in the plane of their disposition at the preliminary chosen angle, with the said angle of the disposition

of the axes is chosen relative to each other to be uniform for the hydraulic motor

and the said angle of the disposition of the axes is derived from the ergonomic

characteristics of the motions for the human's extremities.

In realisation of the method of a vehicle motion by a human's muscles

power the distinctive feature of the claimed invention is that the motion's power

of human extremities is transformed into the power of a deformed liquid impulse,

then this power is accumulated and in a case of necessity is transmitted to

transform the power of the deformed liquid impulse into a mechanical power of a

rotating propeller.

The power transmission due to an impulse of the deformed liquid gives in

practice the unlimited possibilities for the power disposal during a machine

operation. When a liquid and walls of the parts containing liquid are deformed, a

work spent for deformation is transformed into an internal energy of bodies as

well as, for example, a work for a spring compression is transformed into a

potential energy of the compressed spring. In this case an energy can be kept

without losses and in the any time can be used completely.

The other distinctive feature of the claimed method is that the

transformation of liquid power is fulfilled in the cylinders of a pump and/or a

hydraulic motor, while a process of a power production and a process of a power usage are carried out independently due to power transmission being carried out

with usage only the one impulse of the deformed liquid.

The using the cylinders of both a pump and a hydraulic motor to transform

a power of the deformed liquid permits to unify parts of the hydraulic

transmission and to use in this transmission the reliable and tested technical

solutions. Particularly due to the power transmission is performed with only one

impulse of the deformed liquid there is the possibility to transform the deformed

liquid energy in the cylinders of a pump and of a hydraulic motor independently

from each other because the impulse of the deformed liquid created in the pump

is kept until it will be required by the hydraulic motor. Such method of

transforming power makes unnecessary any additional means to adjust power

transmission; the one impulse of the deformed liquid is either present or absent in

a hydraulic system, and the propeller can use the impulse existing in a hydraulic

system particularly at corresponding moment of the time independently from the

time when this impulse was created in a hydraulic system. Therefore, the main

disadvantage of the known methods of transmitting a mechanical energy by

means of hydraulic systems - the presence of a lot of various adjusting and

distributing devices, thus producing great volume losses (about 15%) - is

avoided.

The said feature of the power transmission in one impulse of the deformed

liquid permits to embody automatic compliance of human's abilities with traffic conditions for a people having practically any kind of framing at any practical

conditions of the operation. In the claimed hydraulic transmission the impulse of

the deformed liquid is either present or it is absent. Because of this fact an

adjustment of transmitted power is performed by the number of the transmitted

impulses. In the same way a speed of a wheel rotation is adjusted by changing

the number of the impulses transmitted in a unit of the time, i.e. the frequency of

the impulses. With a frequency control an useful power can be changed in a wide

range. Usage of a such system of adjustment essentially increases both an

efficiency and a safety of this system in operation. A young and trained

sportsman will be able to speed up his bicycle to velocity 100 km/h, transmitting

to it's wheels the adequate amount of energy, producing the impulses of the

deformed liquid with high frequency, but an old and weak man on a three-wheel

bicycle will ascend a steep road rather slowly according to produced amount of

an energy in a form of the deformed liquid impulses.

The claimed method is embodied due to a distinctive feature of a design,

particularly in the claimed hydraulic transmission the hydraulic motor is installed

in the propeller directly, the second accumulator is completely filled by a liquid

and is connected by means of the distributors with work chambers of both the

pump and the hydraulic motor with the pump distributor drive being made from

the pump shaft and with the hydraulic motor distributor drive being made from

the second accumulator in hydraulic way. Further, the hydraulic motor distributor drive is additionally equipped with a limiter connected with a propeller in

kinematics manner, while the limiter is equipped with a locking element fixing

the two positions of the limiter and interacting with the stop pins mounted on the

propeller.

The presence of the second accumulator completely filled by liquid and

connected by means of distributors with the work chambers of both the pump and

the hydraulic motor permits to produce a power transmission between the pump

and the hydraulic motor through this second accumulator which plays a role of

the hydraulic spring in which the impulse of the deformed liquid is stored and to

adjust a power of transmitted energy to the propeller by means of the impulse

number introduced into the second hydraulic accumulator from the pump and

discharged from it to the hydraulic motor. The independence of a deformed liquid

impulse delivery into the second hydraulic accumulator is provided by that the

drive of the pump distributor is made from the pump shaft, and the independence

of an impulse delivery to the hydraulic motor is provided by that the drive of the

hydraulic motor distributor is made from the second accumulator in hydraulic

way, with this hydraulic motor distributor drive being additionally equipped with

a limiter which is connected with the propeller in kinematics manner, while the

limiter is equipped with a locking element fixing its two positions and interacting

with the stop pins mounted on the propeller. Therefore, at any time, when a work

stroke is produced in the pump, the impulse of the deformed liquid is produced and is delivered into the second hydraulic accumulator. At the same time the

impulse may be delivered into the hydraulic motor when the following conditions

coincide: a presence of the deformed liquid impulse in second hydraulic

accumulator, a propeller is in such position in which its stop pin leaves to fix a

limiter and this limiter can take the position permitting the hydraulic motor

distributor to change its position to deliver liquid into work cylinder of the

hydraulic motor.

The following distinctive features of hydraulic transmission permit to

exclude an undesirable transmission of the deformed liquid impulse, particularly

a check valve is installed between the pump distributor and the second

accumulator, thus excluding return of a produced impulse back to a pump,

moreover, a relief valve is installed between the first and the second

accumulators and this valve is made controllable according to pressure in the

second accumulator, thus preventing a next deformed liquid impulse to be

delivered to the second accumulator, if at any reason the existed impulse was not

delivered into the hydraulic motor, for example, a propeller was braked and a

human being produces power acting to the pump.

The design of the claimed installation can be embodied in the various

variants in which the claimed method is realized. A pump, a hydraulic motor, a

distributor can be implemented in any known variant of the construction. All

these variants broaden technologic abilities to use this invention. All variants of the hydraulic transmission embodiment become possible providing the particular

condition that the hydraulic impulse transmission is used, the power is

transformed into a deformed liquid power with a unit impulse of the liquid

deformation being produced in every stroke, and this unit impulse is then stored

in the second hydraulic accumulator and is used in the hydraulic motor in a case

of necessity. The claimed invention provides an interaction between a source and

a receiver of a mechanical power due to a deformation of both a liquid and a

pipeline in which this liquid is included, thus significantly broadening

technological abilities of such power transmission. The hydraulic impulse

transmission provides the interaction of an engine and a power user due to net

hydraulic coupling without any transmitting shafts, the gears, the levers and other

mechanical links.

One of the variants of the clamed invention embodiment in a bicycle

design is the hydraulic transmission having following distinctive features: a pump

is the radial-plunger type pump, its housing is installed in the frame of a bicycle

and having a guide which interacts with pump plungers, its work cylinders and

plungers are installed in a part of the shaft connected with pedals. Further, a

hydraulic motor is the radial-plunger type motor and this motor is installed in a

wheel hub provided with a guide which interacts with the hydraulic motor

plungers, and the work cylinders and the plungers of the hydraulic motor are installed in a part of an immovable axis which is mounted in the frame of a

bicycle.

The said distinctive features, in authors' opinion, permit in the best way to

use in a bicycle the claimed method of a vehicle motion by use of human's

muscles power. The embodiment of both the pump and the hydraulic motor is

made as radial-plunger type devices permits to unify parts of the hydraulic

transmission which are the most complicated in technology: the cylinders, the

plungers, the guides, - and in the same time to dispose the elements of the

transmission in existing dimensions of the units in a bicycle, thus permitting to

use an existing technologic equipment of the bicycle industry.

The following distinctive features, in particular: a surface of the guides

interacting with the plungers of both a pump and a hydraulic motor is made as a

closed quadratic curve, an even number of cylinders is installed in both the pump

and the hydraulic motor, in the every pair of cylinders the plungers are installed

in opposite manner, the axes of every pair are parallel, are disposed in one plane

which is perpendicular to the axis of rotation and are shifted symmetrically

relative to the axis - permit to achieve an optimal correlation of the forces arising

during a pump and a hydraulic motor operation, thus increasing a reliability of the

hydraulic transmission operation.

The additional distinctive feature of the invention is that the plungers of the

hydraulic motor are equipped with a magnet inserts. This distinctive feature permits to fix the plungers in a top dead center when a pressure of deformed

liquid is absent and to provide an easy free rotation of the propeller due to

disengaging the hydraulic motor from the propeller.

One more distinctive feature of the invention is that the more than one

hydraulic motor can be connected by means of the corresponding distributors to

the second hydraulic accumulator, with the axes of the corresponding pairs of

cylinders in the every hydraulic motor and the axes of symmetry of the guides

interacting with the corresponding plungers are disposed uniformly relative to

each other in the plane of their disposition. This feature permits to provide more

uniform delivery of a power to the propeller. As soon as in the second hydraulic

accumulator an impulse of the deformed liquid is produced, it will be claimed by

the particular hydraulic motor which will be ready to take a power impulse at the

nearest moment according to the angle position of the propeller (the plungers of

this motor are in a top dead centre). Therefore, the probability for produced a

power impulse to be unused (for a deformed liquid impulse to be relieved into the

first hydraulic accumulator) is significantly decreases, thus improving an

effectiveness of the hydraulic transmission.

Further, in the claimed hydraulic transmission an additional variant is

possible in which a number of assemblies including the all elements of a

hydraulic transmission is installed more than one assembly, with the axes of the

corresponding pairs of the cylinders in every assembly and the axes of symmetry of the guides interacting with the corresponding plungers being disposed in the

plane of their disposition at a preliminary chosen angle relative to each other,

while the said angle of axes disposition relative to each other is chosen uniform

for the hydraulic motor and this angle is derived from ergonomic characteristics

of the human's extremities motions for the pump.

In the process of an rotation a transmission the impulses of deformed

liquid can be delivered on more than one hydraulic line with a moment of the

impulse transmission according to the angle of disposition in a source and in a

user mechanisms being shifted in time on a quantity multiple of a hydraulic line

number, therefore providing the absence of dead centers during a torque

transmission to a wheel. This technical solution permits to improve the

acceleration characteristics of a vehicle, i. e. to increase the speed more quickly

and more uniformly during taking-off and speed-up. In this case due to said

above independence of the processes in the impulse creating and the impulse

usage the shift of the impulse transmission moment according to the angle of a

disposition in a pump may be optimized taking into account how a pump is

driven: by the human's legs or by the human's hands, what a pose is taken by a

driver and what the motions would be optimal for a driver.

The said above a distinctive features of the claimed invention in

comparison with the known technical solutions permit to create a vehicle driven

by the human's muscles which is more simple essentially relative to known ones. This vehicle operates with a minimal losses, has the minimal dimensions and

weight, it is comfortable in operation, therefore, this vehicle provides

competitiveness on the modern market. The said above features of the invention

permit, for example, to create a reliable, safe and comfortable bicycle in a wide

variety of needs.

Brief Description of Drawings

Fig.l shows a schematic diagram of the hydraulic transmission which

explains an embodiment of the claimed method.

Fig. 2 shows a view of a bicycle equipped with the claimed hydraulic

transmission (the left-side view).

Fig. 3 shows the right-side view of the rear wheel and the pedals of a

bicycle.

Fig. 4 shows the sectional view A - A on the fig. 2.

The hydraulic transmission comprises the pump 1 and the hydraulic motor

2 both having the work chambers 3, 4 and the exhaust chambers 5, 6, the first 7

and the second 8 accumulators of a liquid. The first accumulator is equipped with

a gas cushion or with a spring-loaded piston and it is connected with the exhaust

chambers of the pump 5 and of the hydraulic motor 6. Further, the pump 1 is

connected with a mechanism driven by the human's muscles, for example with

the pedals 9, and the hydraulic motor is connected with a propeller - the wheel

10. The transmission also comprises the relief valve 11 and the connecting pipelines. Also the hydraulic motor 6 is installed directly in the wheel 10, the

second accumulator 8 is filled with liquid completely and is connected by means

of the distributors 12 and 13 with the work chambers 3 of the pump and the work

chambers 4 of the hydraulic motor. The pump distributor 12 is driven with the

pump shaft, and the hydraulic motor distributor 13 is driven in a hydraulic

manner from the second accumulator 8, with the drive of the hydraulic motor

distributor being additionally equipped with the spring-loaded limiter 14 in

kinematics way being connected with the propeller 10. Further, the limiter 14 is

equipped with the locking element 15 fixing its two positions and interacting with

the stop pins 16. There are four stop pins 16 mounted on the propeller 10 at angle

90° (in the fig.l one of the stop pins 16 is not seen under the limiter 14).

Moreover, the check valve 17 is installed between the pump distributor 12

and the second accumulator 8, and the relief valve 11 is installed between the

first 7 and the second 8 accumulators and is made controllable according to the

pressure in the second accumulator 8.

When using this hydraulic transmission in a bicycle the pump is made as a

radial-plunger type pump, as it is shown schematically in the fig. 1, its housing is

equipped with the guide 18 interacting with the pump plungers and is installed

and mounted in the bicycle frame, its work cylinders and plungers are installed in

a part of the pump shaft, which is connected with the pedals. Further, the

hydraulic motor is also made as a radial-plunger type motor and it is installed in the hub of the wheel 10 which is equipped with the guide 19 interacting with the

hydraulic motor plungers, with the work cylinders and the plungers of the

hydraulic motor being installed in a part of the immovable axis which is mounted

in the frame of a bicycle, while the hydraulic motor plungers are provided with

the magnetic inserts 20.

The guides 18 and 19 have the surfaces which interact with the plungers of

the pump and the hydraulic motor correspondingly, these surfaces are made as

the closed quadratic curves, for example, as the ellipses shown in fig. 1. Both the

pump and the hydraulic motor have even number of cylinders, in the every pair of

the cylinder's plungers are installed in the opposite way, with axes of the every

pair are parallel, are disposed in one plane which is perpendicular to an axis of

rotation and are shifted symmetrically relative to the above said axis, as it is

shown in the fig. 1.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

The claimed method of operation for this installation will be described

with the help of the schematic diagram of the hydraulic transmission for a bicycle

which is shown in the fig. 1. It operates in following manner.

Before beginning an operation the hydraulic system of the installation is

filled with a liquid completely by delivering the liquid through the hydraulic

accumulator 7, and in the accumulator some positive pressure (an initial pressure) of a gas cushion is created or a spring-loaded piston is used to provide an

absence of a gas bubbles in the hydraulic system.

In the initial state before the beginning of a motion the liquid in the all

elements of the hydraulic transmission is made under above mentioned minimal

pressure created during a preparation. When the pedals are not rotated and the

bicycle is moved simply by an inertia, then the distributor 13 is always disposed

in the position shown in the fig. 1, even then, when the stop pins 16 will lift the

locking element 15, because the initial pressure is not sufficient to overcome the

force of the spring in the limiter 14 and to replace the distributor 13 into its

second position. When the plungers of the hydraulic motor 2 are in an arbitrary

initial position, they interact with the guide 19 during a rotation of the wheel 10

and come to the top dead center, the magnetic inserts 20 will attract the plungers

of the hydraulic motor housing and in this position they will be fixed. Therefore,

the hydraulic motor becomes turned out, a liquid will not be delivered by its

plungers. It means that the bicycle moves as an usual traditional bicycle having

free-wheel clutch.

As soon as a bicyclist begins to rotate the pedals 9, the plungers of the

pump 1 being revolved around the guide 18 and eject the liquid situated in the

work chambers 3 of the pump into the second hydraulic accumulator 8 through

the check valve 17. Then the distributor 12 connects the work chambers 3 with

the pump discharge line through the ports shown on the fig. 1 with the dashed lines. Because of the hydraulic system is filled with liquid completely there is an

elastic deformation of the liquid in the hydraulic accumulator on an amount of the

liquid volume pushed out from the work chambers 3 of the both pump cylinders.

The liquid pressure reaches up to 350 ... 500 atm.

If the propeller is braked for any reason and the wheel 10 does not rotate,

then the hydraulic motor 2 and its distributor 13 take the position shown in the

fig. 1, the impulse of the deformed liquid remains in the second hydraulic

accumulator 8 during an arbitrarily long time. In this case when the rotation of

the pedals 9 is continued, the each new impulse produced by the pump 1 will be

relieved into the first hydraulic accumulator 7 by means of the relief valve 11,

and the second hydraulic accumulator will keep only one impulse of the

deformed liquid until this impulse will be received by the propeller.

When the plungers of the pump 1 reach their top dead center, the holes of

the distributor 12, shown in the fig. 1 as the darkened ones, get to the zone in

which they connect the work chambers 3 of the pump with the exhaust chamber

5, then the work chambers 3 are filled with a liquid when the pump plungers

move in a direction opposite to a work stroke.

When the impulse of the deformed liquid is present in the second hydraulic

accumulator 8 and the wheel 10 rotates, the four stop pins 16 mounted on the

propeller at angle 90° interact with a lever of the locking element 15. When the

stop pin 16 disposed on the large ellipse axis of the guide 19 acts to the locking element 15, the limiter 14 is not replaced into its second position because it is

retained by the guide 19 which is connected with the limiter 14 in kinematics

manner as shown in the fig. 1. In the position with the plungers of the hydraulic

motor being in the top dead centre and with the guide 19 being turned at 90°, the

limiter 14 leaves its fixation with the stop pin 16 and the distributor 13 replaces

to its second position under action of the high pressure in the second hydraulic

accumulator 8 and changes the position of the limiter 14 in which it is fixed with

the help of the locking element 15. The work chambers 4 of the hydraulic motor

become connected with the second hydraulic accumulator 8, with the liquid

under high pressure being acted to the plungers of the hydraulic motor, and the

plungers transmit a power impulse to the wheel 10, acting to the guide 19. In this

situation the distributor 13 is continuously in its second position locked by the

limiter 14 and by the locking element 15. As soon as the work stroke of the

hydraulic motor plungers is finished and they come into the position shown in fig.

1, the stop pin 16 will lift the locking element 15 and the limiter 14 replaces the

distributor 13 into its initial position, the locking element 15 will fix the limiter 14

in this position and then a cycle of operation for the hydraulic motor 2 will be

repeated during rotation of the wheel 10 as described above.

In such a manner the claimed hydraulic transmission which transmits a

power to wheels from a mechanism driven by human's muscles in a process of an

embodiment of the claimed method provides implementation of the all modes of an operation for a given type of a vehicle, providing that chain transmissions and

similar ones are absent in any spatial location of both a human being and wheels

of a vehicle. Further, there is a possibility for a vehicle to be complied with any

ergonomic characteristics, with the minimal power losses and the comfort in

usage being provided.

Industrial Applicability

Calculations made by the authors show that for a road bicycle the

hydraulic transmission has following parameters:

the diameter of pistons for the pump and the hydraulic motor - 10 mm;

the piston stroke - 5 ... 10 mm;

the volume of the second hydraulic accumulator - 25 ... 50 cm³.

The calculations show that in a bicycle the elements of the hydraulic

transmission can be installed inside some parts (the frame, the wheel hub, the

driving gear axis) of the industrially producing machines, thus without any doubt

performing such hydraulic transmission to be competitive with the most modern

types of the drives for the means of transport using the human's muscles. It

should be noted that it is especially advantageous to use the claimed invention in

a combined drive system of a vehicle: using the human's muscles and the engines

additionally. The independence of a power production from a power usage

caused by the power transmission with the impulses of the deformed liquid

permits to change upon a vehicle driver's choice an energy source for a motion (excluding taking a decision to run pedals or not, to deliver a fuel into the engine

or to turn on the electrical motor).

The dimensions got as a result of the calculations and the parameters of the

installation permit to decrease the weight and the dimension parameters of a

vehicle essentially, with the known materials and constructive elements to be

used, thus in positive manner introducing such vehicle to be competitive with the

most modern means of transportation using a human's muscular power.

Bibliographical data of the information sources:

1. Kravcov V.S. "A bicycle is developed for the future", magazine "The

technical aesthetics" No 6, 1985, Moscow.

2. Anisimova E.F. and others "Bicycles". Summary. Moscow: ASRITA,

the issue No 4, 1985.

3. "The hydropneumatic means and the hydraulic drive of a mobile

machine. The voluminal hydraulic & pneumatic machines and transmissions",

Andreev A.F. and others are the authors, Minsk, The Superior School, 1987.

4. The Author's Certificate of the USSR No 1654108, B 62 M 1/14, 1989.

The Bulletin No 21, 1991 — prototype.

Claims

1. A method of driving a mean of transport by using the energy of human's

muscles comprising the motion of human's extremities is transformed into a

circular rotation of a propeller, for example, of a wheel, characterised in that

the motion of human extremities is transformed into an energy of the

impulse of the deformed liquid with this impulse have been kept and in a case of

necessity it will be transmit and will be transform into a mechanical energy of a

rotation propeller.

2. A method of driving a mean of transport by using the energy of human's

muscles as set forth in claim 1 wherein

the transformation of a liquid power is performed in the cylinders of a

pump and (or) a hydraulic motor, with the process of the power production and

the process of the power usage being made independently from each other due to

the power transmission being made with one impulse of the deformed liquid only.

3. A hydraulic transmission to embody this method, comprising a pump

and a hydraulic motor both having the work and exhaust chambers, a first and a

second accumulators, with the first accumulator being equipped with a gas

cushion or with a spring-loaded piston and being connected with the exhaust

chambers of the pump and of the hydraulic motor, with the pump being

connected with a mechanism driven by the human's muscles to produce a motion and with the hydraulic motor being connected with a propeller, and comprising

also a relief valve and connecting pipelines, characterised in that

the hydraulic motor is installed directly in the propeller,

the second accumulator is filled with a liquid completely and

the second accumulator is connected with the work chambers of both the

pump and the hydraulic motor by means of the distributors,

the pump's distributor is driven from the shaft of the pump and

the hydraulic motor's distributor is driven from the second accumulator

hydraulically,

the hydraulic motor distributor is equipped with a limiter which is

connected with the propeller by kinematics manner additionally and

the limiter is equipped with a locking element which fixes the two

positions of the limiter and

the locking element interacts with the stop pins installed on the propeller.

4. A hydraulic transmission as set forth in claim 3, which further comprises

the check valve is installed between the pump distributor and the second

accumulator.

5. A hydraulic transmission as set forth in claim 3, which further comprises

the relief valve is installed between the first and the second accumulators

and this valve is made controllable according to the pressure in the second

accumulator.

6. A hydraulic transmission as set forth in claims 3, 4, 5, which further

comprises

the pump is a radial-plunger type pump with it's housing being provided

with a guide, which interacts with the plungers of the pump,

the housing of the pump is installed in the frame of a bicycle and

the work cylinders and plungers of the pump are installed in the part of the

shaft connected with pedals,

the hydraulic motor is a radial-plunger type motor and is installed in the

hub of the wheel,

the hub is provided with a guide interacting with the plungers of the

hydraulic motor,

the work cylinders and the plungers of the hydraulic motor are installed in

the part of immovable axis, which is mounted in the frame of a bicycle.

7. A hydraulic transmission as set forth in claim 6, which further comprises

the guides interact with the plungers of both the pump and the hydraulic

motor and

the every guide is made as a closed quadratic curve.

8. A hydraulic transmission as set forth in claim 6, which further comprises

the even number of the cylinders is installed in both the pump and the

hydraulic motor, the every pair of the cylinders and the plungers is installed in an opposite

manner,

the axes of the every pair are parallel and are disposed in the one plane

which is perpendicular to the axis of rotation and

the axes of the every pair are shifted symmetrically relative to the axis of

rotation.

9. A hydraulic transmission as set forth in claim 6, which further comprises

the plungers of the hydraulic motor are provided with a magnetic inserts.

10. A hydraulic transmission as set forth in claim 6, which further

comprises

the more than one hydraulic motor is connected with the second

accumulator by means of the corresponding distributors,

the axes of the corresponding pairs of the cylinders in the each hydraulic

motor and the axes of symmetry of the guides interacting with the corresponding

plungers are turned relative to each other in the plane of their disposition

uniformly.

11. A hydraulic transmission as set forth in claim 6, which further

comprises

the amount of the assemblies included the all elements of the hydraulic

transmission is installed in a number more than one, the axes of the corresponding pairs of the cylinders in the each assembly

and the axes of symmetry of the guides interacting with corresponding plungers

are turned relative to each other in the plane of their disposition an preliminary

chosen angle.

12. A hydraulic transmission as set forth in claim 11, which further

comprises

the said angle of the axis's dispositions is chosen relative to each other to

be uniform for the hydraulic motor and

the said angle of the axis's dispositions is derived from the ergonomic

characteristic of the motions of the human's extremities for the pump.