Patent Application
20100081358
1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to a toy vehicle, and particularly, to a toy vehicle with a terrain monitoring system.
2. Description of Related Art
Level ground is a basic factor for a toy vehicle moving smoothly. If the terrain is rugged or any obstacles in the path of the toy vehicle, the toy vehicle may have to change course or even turn back from its intended course. However, conventional toy vehicles are not equipped with any terrain detector to detect obstacles and to avoid these obstacles.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a toy vehicle with a terrain detecting system for detecting terrain and other obstacles in the path of the toy vehicle and automatically controlling the toy vehicle to avoid the obstacles.
Refering to
The chassis 110 further includes a flange 116 formed along the edge of the chassis 110 and protruding away from the upper surface 114. The chassis 110 defines one or more pairs of through holes 118 adjacent to the sensor unit 130 correspondingly. A screen 113 extends perpendicularly between each pair of the through holes 118 for reducing interference between the light and light. One or more back covers 115, corresponding to the through holes 118, extend from the upper surface 114 of the chassis 110 partially surrounding the through holes 118 correspondingly. The screen 113 is perpendicularly connected to the back cover 115. Each back cover 115 is higher than the corresponding screen 113 for forming a receiving space upon the screen 113 for receiving the sensor unit 130.
Refering to
The sensor units 130 are attached on the top ends of the light guide members 128 of each of the light guide plates 120 and partially surrounded by the back covers 115 correspondingly. The emitter 132 and the detector 134 of each sensor unit 130 are aligned with the first protrusion 124 and the second protrusion 126 of each of the light guide plates 120 correspondingly. The emitter 132 of the sensor unit 130 is configured for probing the ambient environment by emitting light at intervals. The detector 134 of the sensor unit 130 receives the light at certain wavelength emitted by the sensor unit, and sends a signal to the driving unit 170 to control the toy vehicle 100 according to a propagation delay of a light at certain wavelength emitted from the emitter 132 and the certain wavelength light received by the detector 134.
Each wheel assemblies 140 includes a driving module 142 and a wheel 144 rotatably attached to the driving module 142. The driving modules 142 of the wheel assemblies 140 are symmetrically mounted on the upper surface 114 of the chassis 110. The wheels 144 extend out of the lower surface 112 of the chassis 110 by a predetermined distance.
The chassis 110, light guide plates 120 and sensor units 130 cooperately form a terrain monitoring system (not label) which can be used in any vehicles such as automobiles, trucks and so on to detect terrain and other obstacles and automatically control the moving device to avoid the obstacles.
In use, the emitter 132 of the detector 130 emits light, and the light travels through the light guide plate 120 away from the toy vehicle 100 into the ambient environment until being reflected. The light may come from the terrain or other obstacles (not shown). Then the detector 134 computes the propagation delay of the light emitted from the emitter 132 and received by the detector 134. When the propagation delay is determined to exceed a predetermined value, a continue signal is sent by the detector 134 of the sensor unit 130 to the driving unit 170 to control the toy vehicle 100 to continue on the current path. When the propagation delay is below the predetermined value, the sensor unit 130 will send an avoid signal to the driving unit 170 to control the toy vehicle 100 to steer away from the current path.
Understandably, if a toy vehicle 100 employes two wheel assemblies 140 which are arranged in a form capable of stably supporting the chassis 110 and other elements of the toy vehcile 100, the roller 150 can be canceled.
It is believed that the present embodiments and their advantages will be understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the examples hereinbefore described merely being preferred or exemplary embodiments of the disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200810304689.1 | Sep 2008 | CN | national |
