This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2018-0072355, filed on Jun. 22, 2018, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The following disclosure relates to a gyro cart, and more particularly, to a gyro cart which is prevented from being overturned using the principle of a gyroscope to preserve the momentum based on a rotational force generated as a flywheel of the gyroscope installed in the cart rotates when the cart turns to run.
An electronic stability control (ESC) is built in recently released vehicles to prevent an accident by controlling a brake, an engine output, and the like, according to a speed, rotation, slip, or position of vehicles.
Although vehicles have a built-in device such as an ESC, carts which are used to operate or which are used for delivery in a certain facility, such as a golf course, do not include the above-described ESC but are manufactured to have a simple structure including a power source or a steering device for financial reasons or for a relatively stable running environment (not a fast speed, determined route, etc.) in many cases.
As described above, a cart having a simple structure has a relatively tall vehicle body to thus have a high center of gravity, and since the cart does not have a separate ESC, the cart may be overturned due to a centrifugal force acting on the cart when rotating, while running at a relatively high speed. In particular, when a lot of luggage is loaded on the cart, the center of gravity becomes higher so that when a centrifugal force is generated, the cart may be more easily overturned, leading to problems that a running speed of the cart is limited or the cart needs to be operated by a skilled driver, which are the problems to be solved.
[Patent document]
Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1840650 (Entitled “Electric Cart for Transporting Freight”, published on Mar. 15, 2018)
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention is directed to providing a gyro cart which is stabilized in posture according to directions in which a driver operates the cart through a relatively simple configuration, thereby being prevented from being overturned when rotated.
In one general aspect, a gyro cart includes: a body; a pair of gyro units each including a rotatable flywheel and installed at both ends with respect to a running direction of the body; a steering device formed at the body and rotated by a driver to control a running direction of the body; a direction detecting unit detecting whether the steering device is rotating, a rotation direction of the steering device, and a rotation degree of the steering device; and a controller selectively operating the flywheel included in the gyro unit according to whether the steering device is rotating, the rotation direction of the steering device, and the rotation degree of the steering device detected by the direction detecting unit.
The controller may rotate the flywheel included in a first gyro unit positioned in a rotation direction when the driver rotates the steering device.
The controller may rotate the flywheel included in a second gyro unit positioned in an opposite direction of rotation when the driver rotates the steering device, and a rotation speed of the flywheel included in the first gyro unit is faster than a rotation speed of the flywheel included in the second gyro unit.
The controller may increase or decrease the rotation speed of the flywheel included in the first gyro unit according to the rotation degree of the steering device or the running speed of the body.
A direction of a rotation axis of the flywheel is the same as the running direction of the body.
The gyro unit may include a rotary unit for rotating the flywheel.
A single gyro unit may include at least one flywheel disposed in the running direction.
The single gyro unit may include a plurality of the flywheels and further include a plurality of rotary units for rotating the plurality of flywheels, respectively.
The gyro cart may further include an up-down adjusting unit adjusting an up-down position of the flywheel, and the controller may operate the up-down adjusting unit according to a rotation degree of the steering device or a running speed of the body.
The up-down adjusting unit may include a rotary unit installed at the body, a rotating unit coupled to a rotary shaft of the rotary unit and rotating at a predetermined angle, and a rod connecting the rotating unit and the gyro unit, the gyro unit may be hinge-coupled to the body and rotate at a predetermined angle with respect to a portion hinge-coupled to the body according to rotation of the rotating unit, and the controller may adjust an up-down position of the gyro unit by rotating the rotating unit according to a rotation degree of the steering device or a running speed of the body.
Other features and aspects will be apparent from the following detailed description, the drawings, and the claims.
Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the gyro cart according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As illustrated in
The body 100 is a part in which various devices for driving the gyro cart according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention are installed. As shown in
However, a configuration of the body 100 of the present invention is not limited to
A steering wheel 110 provided on the body 100 is installed on a front side of the body 100 and physically connected to the steering device 300. The steering wheel 110 may be changed in direction as the driver operates the steering device 300.
As illustrated in
The gyro unit 200 controls a balance of the gyro cart by adjusting a rotation and a degree of rotation of the flywheel 210 according to a rotation direction of the gyro cart according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
Each of the gyro units 200 provided at both ends of the body 100 may operate separately.
For the operation of the gyro unit 200 described above, the gyro unit 200 may include a rotary unit (not shown) for rotating the flywheel 210. The rotary units included in the gyro units 200 installed at both ends of the body 100 may be individually controlled by the controller (to be described later). The rotary units may be generally used motors.
The flywheel 210 is rotated by a rotary unit and generates inertia.
A rotation axis of the flywheel 210 is the same as a moving direction of the cart, and a single gyro unit 200 may include at least one flywheel 210. In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in
When the two flywheels 210 are formed on the single gyro unit 200 as shown in
The steering device 300 may be a general handle formed on the body 100 to operate the body, that is, the moving direction of the cart, and may be the general handle as shown in
The direction detecting unit may detect a rotation direction of the steering device 300 operated by the driver, and the rotation direction of the steering device 300 detected by the direction detecting unit is transmitted to the controller (to be described later).
The direction detecting unit not only detects the direction in which the steering device 300 is rotated but also detects a degree of rotation of the steering device 300 when the gyro cart according to the present invention turns right or left.
The controller selectively operates the gyro unit 200 according to the rotation direction of the steering device detected by the direction detecting unit. Here, the controller operates the rotary unit 220 included in the gyro unit 200 to rotate the flywheel 210. A speed of the flywheel 210 rotated by the controller may vary depending on the degree of rotation of the steering device 300 detected by the direction detecting unit and a running speed of the body.
For the operation of the controller described above, the direction detecting unit may include a communication unit capable of transmitting the detected rotation direction and the degree of rotation of the steering device 300 to the controller, and the body 100 may also include a communication unit capable of transmitting the running speed to the controller.
The reason why the controller changes the speed of the flywheel 210 that the controller rotates according to the degree of rotation of the steering device 300 detected by the direction detecting unit and the running speed of the body is because a generated centrifugal force is varied depending on the degree of rotation and running speed of the gyro cart, and thus, the inertia generated in the flywheel 210 needs to be changed in order to stabilize the posture of the gyro cart.
Hereinafter, the operation of the gyro cart according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.
In
As illustrated in
First as illustrated in
As shown in
As illustrated in
However, the degree of rotation (the predetermined angle), which is a reference based on which the controller does not operate the gyro unit 200 may vary depending on a running speed of the gyro cart according to the present invention. Specifically, when the running speed of the gyro cart is fast, the predetermined angle as an operation reference of the gyro unit 200 may be reduced, and when the running speed of the gyro cart is slow, the predetermined angle as the operation reference of the gyro unit 200 may be increased.
When the gyro cart according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention turns right as shown in
Since the rotating object, i.e., the rotating flywheel 210, has an inertia greater than when it is not rotating, a force is applied to the lower side due to the inertia increased according to rotation of the flywheel 210 included in the first gyro unit 200a even though the right side of the gyro cart according to the present invention is lifted as illustrated in
A timing at which the controller operates the flywheel 210 is when the driver rotates the steering device 300 to the right. When the driver rotates the steering device 300 to the right, the direction detecting unit transmits, to the controller, the fact that the driver has rotated the steering device 300 to the right and the degree of rotation of the steering device 300, and the controller rotates the flywheel 210 at a predetermined speed by operating the rotary unit 220 included in the first gyro unit 200a positioned on the right side in consideration of the rotation direction of the steering device 300, the speed of the gyro cart, and the degree to which the driver has rotated the steering device 300.
In the case of
In the state illustrated in
When the gyro cart according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention turns left as shown in
A timing at which the controller operates the flywheel 210 of the first gyro unit 200a is when the driver rotates the steering device 300 to the left. When the driver rotates the steering device 300 to the left, the direction detecting unit transmits, to the controller, the fact that the driver has rotated the steering device 300 to the left and the degree of rotation of the steering device 300, and the controller rotates the flywheel 210 at a predetermined speed by operating the rotary unit 220 included in the first gyro unit 200a positioned on the left side in consideration of the rotation direction of the steering device 300 operated by the user, the speed of the gyro cart, and the degree to which the driver has rotated the steering device 300.
The rotation speed of the flywheel 210 may vary depending on the running speed of the body 100 and the rotation angle of the steering device 300. This is because, as the rotation speed of the flywheel 210 increases, the inertia increases to increase a force applied to the lower side from the position where the flywheel 210 is installed. That is, the controller may increase or decrease the rotation speed of the flywheel 210 according to the running speed of the body 100 or the rotation angle of the steering device 300.
In the case of
In the state shown in
In
Therefore, the gyro cart according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may further include a balance detecting unit for detecting whether the body 100 is balanced, and the controller may stop the flywheel included in the first gyro unit on the basis of whether the body 100 is balanced as measured by the balance detecting unit, rather than the steering device 300, when operating the first gyro unit by the steering device 300.
The balance detecting unit detects not only a left/right balance of the body 100 but also a front/rear balance.
As shown in
In the exemplary embodiment described above with reference to
As shown in
The rotary unit 420 is a portion fixed in position to the body 100, and may be a general motor.
As shown in
As illustrated in
As shown in
The operation of the up-down adjusting unit 400 is rotating, by the rotary unit 420, the rotating unit 410 installed to be rotatable at a predetermined angle to the right side (when viewed from behind) with respect to the rotary shaft 411. When the rotating unit 410 is rotated to the right side at the predetermined angle as illustrated in
In this case, a central axis of the flywheel 210 installed inside the frame 230 of the gyro unit 200a positioned on the right side descends to a predetermined degree, as compared with a central axis of the rotating unit 410 as illustrated in
The rotating unit 410 of the up-down adjusting unit 400 may be returned to its original position when the right turning of the body 100 ends (the rotating unit 410 rotates to the left by a predetermined angle so as to be returned to the state illustrated in
The up-down adjusting unit 400 illustrated in
According to the gyro cart of the present invention as described above, the gyro units provided at both ends of the gyro cart are selectively operated according to an operation of the steering device by the driver, whereby an inertia of one of both sides of the gyro cart may be increased to prevent one side of the cart from being lifted when the cart turns. Therefore, the posture of the cart may be stably maintained through the relatively simple structure when the gyro cart turns, thus preventing the cart from being overturned.
The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned exemplary embodiments but may be variously applied, and may be variously modified by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains without departing from the gist of the present invention claimed in the claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2018-0072355 | Jun 2018 | KR | national |