JPH072154A - Vehicle for ascending and descending stair - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To ascend and descend stairs through simple structure without damaging the corner part of the step of a stair. CONSTITUTION:A vehicle for ascending descending stairs comprises a car body; front and rear arm members 4 and 5; front and rear wheels 2a, 2b, 3a, and 3b; a drive part; an arm rotation drive part; front and rear sensors; and a control part. The arm members 4 and 5 are arranged in a vertically extended state to the front and the rear parts and the right and the left sides of a car body and rotatable around the respective intermediate parts thereof. Front and rear wheels are rotatably mounted to the two ends of the arm members 4 and 5. The drive causes drive of the front and rear wheels. The arm rotation drive part causes rotation of the front and rear arm members. The respective sensors detect the difference between steps of stairs. The control part controls the drive part and the arm rotation drive part based on detected results from respective sensors.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a stair climbing car, and more particularly to a stair climbing car capable of climbing the stairs without damaging the corners of the steps of the stairs.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional stair climbing vehicle, a so-called crawler type vehicle is generally used. A crawler type stair climbing vehicle has a plurality of wheels on the lower part of the vehicle body, and an endless track is arranged on the outer periphery of these wheels. Then, a hook or the like is provided on the outer surface of the endless track, and the stairs are raised or lowered by circulating this.

In such a conventional crawler type stair climbing vehicle, since a member such as a claw is hooked at a corner of each step of the stair to ascend and descend the stair, the corner of the step may be damaged. . Further, in the conventional crawler type stair climbing vehicle, there is a problem that the structure becomes complicated because it is necessary to provide a plurality of wheels under the vehicle body. An object of the present invention is to make it possible to move up and down stairs with a simple structure without damaging the corners of the steps of the stairs.

[0004]

A stair climbing vehicle according to the present invention comprises a vehicle body, a front arm member and a rear arm member, front wheels and rear wheels, a driving means, a rotation driving means, and a step detecting means. , And control means. The front and rear arm members are arranged on both left and right sides of the front and rear portions of the vehicle body so as to extend in the vertical direction, and are rotatable around their intermediate portions. The front and rear wheels are rotatably attached to both ends of the left and right front arm members and rear arm members. The drive means is means for driving the front and rear wheels. The rotation driving means is means for rotating the front and rear arm members. The step detecting means is means for detecting a step of stairs. The control means is means for controlling the drive means and the rotation drive means based on the detection result of the step detection means.

[0005]

In the stair climbing vehicle according to the present invention, rotatable arm members are provided at both left and right sides of the front and rear portions of the vehicle body, and wheels are provided at both ends thereof. During normal traveling, one of these wheels is brought into contact with the road surface for traveling. Further, for example, when climbing stairs, the step detecting means detects that each wheel is in contact with or close to the step of the stairs. According to the detection result, the arm member to which the wheel reaching the step is attached is
Rotate 80 °. As a result, the wheel that has reached the step can rotate around the wheel attached to the other end of the arm member as a fulcrum, and can get over the step. By repeating such an operation for the front wheels and the rear wheels, the stairs are climbed.

[0006] Here, since the stairs are moved up and down while the wheels are brought into contact with the staircase surface by the rotation of the arm member, it is possible to move up and down without catching the corners of the steps of the stairs, that is, without damaging the corners. it can. Further, the structure is simpler than that of the conventional crawler type stair climbing vehicle.

[0007]

1 shows a stair climbing vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention. Further, FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view thereof. This stair climbing vehicle includes a vehicle body 1 and a pair of front wheels 2a, 2
b and a pair of left and right rear wheels 3a, 3b. Left and right front wheels 2a, 2b and rear wheels 3a, 3b
Are rotatably attached to both ends of the front and rear arm members 4 and 5, respectively. The front arm member 4 is arranged on both left and right sides of the front portion of the vehicle body 1 so as to extend in the vertical direction, and can rotate about the intermediate portion in the vertical direction by 180 °. Similarly, the rear arm member 5 is arranged on both left and right sides of the rear portion of the vehicle body 1 so as to extend in the up-and-down direction.
It is possible to rotate every 80 °. Furthermore, each wheel 2a, 2
The b, 3a, 3b can be rotated in the forward and reverse directions by drive motors 6, 7 provided on the lower surface of the vehicle body 1. A steering mechanism (not shown) is provided on the lower surface of the vehicle body 1, and the front wheels 2a and 2b can be steered by this steering mechanism.

The distance between the pair of front wheels 2a and 2b and the distance between the pair of rear wheels 3a and 3b are the maximum of the upper wheels when the lower wheels are in contact with the stairs. The lower part is set so as to be located above the upper staircase. A seat 8 and an operation panel 9 are provided on the upper surface of the vehicle body 1.
And are provided. On the operation panel 9, a lever for steering operation, a main switch, and a travel mode selection button for switching the travel mode between a normal travel mode, a stair up mode and a stair down mode,
A lever for controlling the traveling speed, a brake switch, a display unit, and other switches are provided.

The stair climbing vehicle is provided with a control unit 20 as shown in FIG. The controller 20 controls the RA
It is provided with a microcomputer including M, ROM and CPU. The operation panel 9, the front sensor 21, the rear sensor 22, and other input / output units are connected to the control unit 20. Here, each sensor 21, 22 detects that each wheel 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b has come into contact with the step of the stairs when climbing the stairs, and each wheel 2a, 2b, It is detected that 3a and 3b are in a state immediately before they are separated from the stairs. The control unit 20 includes a drive motor 6 for driving the front wheels 2a and 2b, a front wheel drive unit 23, and a drive motor 7 for the rear wheels 3.
a rear wheel drive unit 24 for driving a and 3b, a front arm rotation drive unit 25 for rotating the front arm member 4 180 °, and a rear arm rotation drive unit for driving the rear arm member 5 180 °. 26 and a brake unit 27 for braking are connected.

Next, the traveling control operation will be described with reference to the control flowcharts shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 and the operation explanatory diagrams shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. When the main switch on the operation panel 9 is turned on, initialization is performed in step S1. In this initial setting, processing such as setting the traveling mode to the normal traveling mode is performed. Next, in step S2, it is determined whether or not the button designating the normal traveling mode is pressed, and in step S3, it is determined whether or not the stop button is pressed. Further, in step S4, it is determined whether or not the stair up button for climbing the stairs has been pressed, and in step S5, it is determined whether the stair down button for descending the stairs has been pressed. Further, in step S6, it is determined whether or not another key is pressed.

When the button for selecting the normal traveling mode is pressed, the routine proceeds from step S2 to step S10 to execute the normal traveling processing. In this normal traveling process, only one of the front and rear wheels 2 and 3 is driven to perform forward traveling or backward traveling. When the stop button is pressed, the process moves from step S3 to step S11 to drive the brake unit 31. As a result, braking is performed and the vehicle stops. If the stairs up button is pressed, the process proceeds from step S4 to step S12 and the stairs up process described later is executed. When the stairs down button is further pressed, the process proceeds from step S5 to step S13 to execute the stairs down process. If another key is pressed, steps S6 to S6
Then, the process shifts to step 14 and the processing corresponding to the pressed key is executed.
In this way, the processing corresponding to the operation of each button or lever of the operation panel 9 is executed until the main switch is turned off.

Next, the staircase up process will be described in detail. When the stairs up mode is selected, one of the front and rear wheels 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b is driven to move forward in step S20 of FIG. Next, in step S21, it is determined whether or not the front sensor 21 is turned on. The front sensor 21 is a sensor for determining whether or not the front wheels 2a, 2b have come into contact with the stepped portion of the stairs, and if NO in step S21, the process proceeds to step S22.
In step S22, it is determined whether the rear sensor 22 is turned on. The rear sensor 22 is for determining whether or not the rear wheels 3a, 3b are in contact with the stepped portion of the stairs, and if NO is determined in step S22, step S2 is performed.
Move to 3. In step S23, it is determined whether or not the vehicle has traveled a predetermined distance after starting the forward movement. When the stairs up process is being executed, if the sensors 21 and 22 proceed for a predetermined distance without being turned on, it is determined that all the steps of the stairs have been overcome. That is, in this case, YES is determined in step S23 and the stairs up process is ended.

In this way, it waits for each sensor 21, 22 to turn on. The vehicle starts to move forward, for example front wheel 2
When b reaches the first step of the stairs, the front sensor 21 is turned on. Then, YES is determined in step S21, and the process proceeds to step S24. In step S24, the traveling is temporarily stopped. And it transfers to step S25 and rotates the forearm member 4 as shown in FIG.4 (b). As a result, the upper front wheel 2a comes into contact with the step surface one step higher, and the front arm member 4 rotates with the front wheel 2a as a fulcrum. And 180 from the previous state
Stop while rotating (see Fig. 4 (c)). When these processes are completed, the process returns to step S20 and the forward movement is started again. Then, as shown in FIG. 4 (d), the front wheels 2a come into contact with the step of the stairs, and thus steps S21 to S25 are executed in the same manner as described above.

By repeating the above process, the front wheels 2a and 2b alternately come in contact with the step surface of the stairs to climb the stairs. Then, as shown in FIG. 5A, for example, when the rear wheel 3b reaches the step of the stairs, the rear sensor 22 is turned on. In this case, YES is determined in step S22, and the process proceeds from step S22 to step S26. In step S26, the traveling is temporarily stopped. Then, the process proceeds to step S27, and the rear arm member 5 is rotated. As a result, the rear wheel 3a located above contacts the upper step surface, and the rear arm member 5 rotates with the rear wheel 3a as a fulcrum. Then, it is rotated 180 ° from the previous state. This allows
The rear wheel 3b can climb over stairs.

By repeating such processing, it is possible to climb the stairs while rotating the front and rear arm members 4 and 5 and driving the wheels. Further, when the stairs have been climbed and the vehicle has moved to the flat road, as described above, YES is determined in step S23, and the vehicle transits to the normal traveling mode. When going down the stairs, each sensor 21, 22
Thus, the position immediately before each wheel deviates from the step surface of the stairs is detected, and the process opposite to that at the time of stair up is executed. That is, depending on the detection result of each sensor, the front and rear arm members 4 and 5 descend while rotating in the opposite direction.

In such an embodiment, the stairs can be moved up and down without damaging the corners of the step surfaces of the stairs. Also, 1 on each of the left and right sides of the front and rear of the vehicle body.
Only the pair of wheels need be provided, and the structure is simple. Moreover, since there are few components to be controlled, the control at the time of climbing the stairs becomes simple. Further, since only two wheels are attached to each arm 4 and 5, the diameter of each wheel can be made larger than that in the case where the wheels are arranged at each vertex of a triangle, for example, and stable traveling is possible.

Further, in the above embodiment, the front arm member 4
Also, since the rear arm member 5 is rotatable, the wheel base can be changed by changing the rotation angle of each arm member 4, 5. In addition, each arm member 4,
If the vehicle 5 is maintained in a 90 ° rotated state from the posture shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle height becomes low, which makes it easy to get on and off the vehicle, and enables eight-wheel traveling to stabilize the traveling.

[Other Embodiments] The angle between the vehicle body and the seat may be variable so that the seat remains horizontal when climbing up and down the stairs.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, a rotatable arm is provided at the front and rear of the vehicle body, wheels are attached to both ends of the arm, and the stairs are raised and lowered while rotating the arm. The structure allows the stairs to go up and down without damaging the corners of the steps.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a stair climbing vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic bottom view of the stair climbing vehicle.

FIG. 3 is a control block diagram of the stair climbing vehicle.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the stair climbing vehicle when climbing stairs.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the stair climber when climbing stairs.

FIG. 6 is a control flowchart of the stair climbing vehicle.

FIG. 7 is a control flowchart of a stair up mode of the stair climbing vehicle.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 vehicle body 2a, 2b front wheel 3a, 3b rear wheel 4 front arm member 5 rear arm member 20 control unit 21, 22 sensor 23, 24 wheel drive unit 25, 26 arm rotation drive unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A stair climbing vehicle for climbing up and down stairs, which is arranged so as to extend in the vertical direction on the vehicle body and on both left and right sides of the front portion and the rear portion of the vehicle body, and is rotatable around an intermediate portion thereof. Left and right front arm members and rear arm members, front and rear wheels rotatably mounted on both ends of the left and right front arm members and rear arm members, and for driving the front wheels and rear wheels Driving means, rotation driving means for rotating the front and rear arm members, step detecting means for detecting the step of the stairs, and the driving means and the rotation driving based on the detection result of the step detecting means. A stair climbing vehicle comprising: a control means for controlling the means.