JP3470139B2 - Manual electric wheelchair - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a manual electric wheelchair adapted to supplement human operating force with auxiliary power from an electric motor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there are two types of wheelchairs used by persons with disabilities as means of transportation, namely, manual wheelchairs and electric wheelchairs, and persons with disabilities currently use one of them depending on the degree of the obstacle. .

[0003] By the way, for a physically handicapped person suffering from a disease in which the muscular strength is gradually reduced, switching from a manual wheelchair to an electric wheelchair is accompanied by great mental distress.

Therefore, a manual electric wheelchair is proposed as an intermediate existence between the manual wheelchair and the electric wheelchair.
This manual electric wheelchair is to reduce the burden on a disabled person by detecting the human power (operation force) applied to the wheel and applying a driving force of a magnitude corresponding to the human power to the wheel as auxiliary power. According to this, the physically handicapped person can operate as if he / she were in a wheelchair, and the mental distress was alleviated.

By the way, current wheelchairs including such a manual electric wheelchair are provided with a handle or the like for an assistant to push the wheelchair. For example, a person with disabilities pushes the wheelchair to the assistant in a room or the like. You can get it and move it.

[0006]

However, in the existing wheelchairs including the manual electric wheelchair, a device for assisting the operation force of the caregiver is not provided.
For an elderly caregiver who has insufficient physical strength, the movement of pushing a wheelchair involves a large physical burden.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a manual electric wheelchair capable of reducing the physical burden on an assistant.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has a pair of left and right large-diameter wheels which are arranged on both sides of a seat and whose upper edges are above the seat. and hand rim, and the manpower detecting means for detecting the magnitude of the human power applied to the hand rim, and the electric drive means for driving the wheels, in response to said magnitude of said sensed by the human power detecting means manpower In a manual electric wheelchair having a control means for controlling each electric drive means, a grip portion for an assistant behind a seat detects a direction and a magnitude of an operation force of an assistant applied to the grip portion. And a signal from the operating force detecting means is also input to the control means, and based on a signal from each of the human power detecting means of the hand rim portion or the operating force detecting means of the caregiver grip portion. hand, Serial and its control means controls each of the electric driving means.

According to the present invention, the operation force of the caregiver is the operation force.
Since it is supplemented by the auxiliary power controlled based on the signal from the detection means , the caregiver can easily operate the wheelchair with a smaller force, and the physical load on the wheelchair is reduced.

Further, since the direction of the operation force of the caregiver is also detected by the operation force detecting means, it is possible to determine the push / pull operation of the caregiver, and, for example, reverse the wheel on the pulling side (reverse).
If so, the wheelchair can be easily turned on the spot.

[0011]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view of a manual electric wheelchair according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the same, FIG. 3 is a rear view of the same, and FIG. Direction sectional view, FIG. 5 is a half cutaway sectional view of the axle showing the mounting structure of the encoder that is the input detection means, and FIG. 6 is a side view showing the configuration of the auxiliary power unit (electric motor and power transmission mechanism). 7 is a plan view of the same, FIG. 8 is a side view of the brake device portion, FIG. 9 is a front view of the same, and FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the battery installation structure.

The manual electric wheelchair 1 according to the present invention is an auxiliary power unit (Power Assist) for an existing folding manual wheelchair.
As shown in FIG. 1, the front and rear parts of a pipe frame-shaped frame 2 are movably supported by a pair of left and right casters 3 and wheels 4.

A cloth seat 5 (see FIGS. 2 and 3) on which a person with a physical disability should sit is stretched in the center of the frame 2, and the bottom surface of the center of the seat 5 is also made of cloth. A bag-shaped box 6 is provided, and a battery 7 is stored in the box 6. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 10, the thin battery 7 ′ may be detachably attached to the pair of front and rear cross members 2a of the frame 2 via the hooks 7a ′.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the upper ends of the pair of left and right handle arms 2b which are erected upward from the rear of the frame 2 are bent rearward, and an assistant is provided at the bent portion. A grip 8 is attached. A pair of left and right armrests 9 for the physically handicapped are attached to the upper center of the frame 2, and a step 10 is attached to the lower front end of the frame 2.
Is attached. Then, at the rear end of the pair of left and right arms 2c extending in the front-rear direction at the lower part of the frame 2,
Another arm 2d is movably fitted in the front-rear direction, and a roller 11 is rotatably supported by the rear end of each arm 2d. The arm 2d is configured to be movable in the front-rear direction by engaging a pin 12 projecting from the arm 2c with a long hole, and this is always operated by a spring (not shown) that is compressed between the arm 2d and the arm 2d. It is biased backwards.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 5, each of the pair of left and right wheels 4 is rotatably supported via a ball bearing 15 on an axle 14 supported by a bracket 13 attached to the frame 2. However, on the outside of each wheel 4, a ring-shaped hand rim 16 to be turned by a handicapped person by hand is provided. This hand rim 16
Axles 14 are supported via four spokes 17, bearings 18 and bearings 15 so as to be able to rotate independently of the wheels 4.

The hand rim 16 is elastically connected to the wheel 4 at four points on the entire circumference thereof by the structure shown in FIG.

That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the hand rim 16
A slider 19 is slidably fitted in a circumferential direction in a space S defined by a part of the slider, and when the force is not applied to the hand rim 16, the slider 19 contracts to the left and right thereof. The mounted springs 20 and 21 are stationary in the neutral position as shown.

On the other hand, a rod 22 is attached to the rim 4a of the wheel 4, the rod 22 extends to the hand rim 16 side (outward side), and the tip of the rod 22 is attached to the cover 23 attached to the hand rim 16. It is inserted and fitted in the central portion of the slider 19 through the elongated hole 23a.

If the handicapped person holds the hand rim 16 by hand and turns it in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 4, the slider 1
Since 9 slides in the opposite direction to the hand rim 16, one spring 21 contracts, the other spring 20 extends, and the reaction force of the spring 21 causes the slider 19 and the rod 2 to move.
It is transmitted to the wheel 4 via 2 and the wheel 4 is rotationally driven in the arrow direction. At this time, relative rotation corresponding to the amount of expansion and contraction of the springs 20 and 21 occurs between the hand rim 16 and the wheel 4.

By the way, since the expansion and contraction amounts of the springs 20 and 21 are proportional to the magnitude of the force applied to the hand rim 16 by the handicapped person, the relative rotation amount between the hand rim 16 and the wheel 4 is the magnitude of the force applied to the hand rim 16. Therefore, by measuring the relative rotation amount between the two, it is possible to detect the magnitude of the human power applied to the hand rim 16. The maximum value of the amount of expansion and contraction of the springs 20 and 21 is the maximum amount of movement L of the slider 19 when the rod 22 engages with the elongated hole 23a of the cover 23. In the engaged state, the hand rim 1
The force applied to 6 is transmitted from the hand rim 16 via the rod 22 directly to the wheel 4.

Thus, in this embodiment, as the input detecting means for detecting the human power applied to the hand rim 16, a pair of encoders 24A and 24B for detecting the rotation angle of the wheel 4 and the hand rim as shown in FIG. A pair of encoders 25A and 25B for detecting the rotation angle of 16 are used, and the difference between the rotation angles of the wheel 4 and the hand rim 16 is used as the relative rotation amount between the two to determine the magnitude of the human power applied to the hand rim 16. I'm trying to ask. here,
The encoders 24A and 25A are fixed to the axle 14 side, the encoder 24B is fixed to the wheel 4 side, and the encoder 25B is fixed to the hand rim 16 side.

As the means for detecting the rotation angles of the wheel 4 and the hand rim 16, any phase detecting means other than the encoder can be used.

On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, at the upper position of each wheel 4 of the frame 2, a pair of left and right electric motors 26 constituting a power generation source of the auxiliary power unit, and the electric motor 26. A pair of left and right power transmission mechanisms 27 for transmitting the driving force to the wheels 4 are attached, and the details of these configurations are shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. The electric motors 26 are driven to rotate by receiving electric power from the battery 7.

That is, in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, 28 is a bracket fixed to the frame 2, another bracket 29 is bonded to the bracket 28, and the operating lever 30 is attached to the bracket 29. The shaft 31 is rotatably pivoted, and one end of the transmission case 32 is pivotally pivoted on a shaft 33.

As shown in FIG. 6, an arc-shaped engaging groove 32a is formed at one end of the transmission case 32, and a guide pin 34 protruding from the bracket 29 is formed in the engaging groove 32a. It is slidably engaged.

The electric motor 26 is attached to the transmission case 32, the output shaft 26a of the electric motor 26 faces the inside of the transmission case 32, and a gear 35 is attached to the end thereof.

Further, in the transmission case 32, the worm 36
A worm shaft 37 formed integrally with is rotatably housed, and a gear 38 meshing with the gear 35 is connected to the worm shaft 37. Furthermore, the transmission case 32
A drive shaft 39 is housed therein at a right angle to the worm shaft 37 and rotatably accommodated therein. A worm wheel 40 meshing with the worm 36 is attached to one end of the drive shaft 39. Then, the transmission case 32 of the drive shaft 39
A roller 41 that is brought into contact with and separated from the tire 4b of the wheel 4 is attached to the other end extending outward. The worm gear mechanism composed of the worm 36 and the worm wheel 40 constitutes a reverse drive prevention mechanism that blocks the transmission of power from the wheel 4 to the electric motor 26.

Further, one end of a link 42 is pivotally attached to the transmission case 32 by a pin 43, and the other end of the link 42 is attached to an arm 44 integrally attached to the tip of the operating lever 30 by a pin 45. Are linked by. A spring 46 is stretched between the pin 43 and the vicinity of the shaft 31 of the operation lever 30.

When the operating lever 30 is pushed upward as shown by the solid line in FIG. 6, the operating lever 30 is urged clockwise by the urging force of the spring 46 to move upward. The roller 41 held in contact with the stopper 48 is stationary, and at this time, the roller 41 held by the transmission case 32 is pressed against the tire 4b of the wheel 4 with a predetermined force as shown in the drawing.

When the operating lever 30 is pushed downward from the solid line position in FIG. 6, as shown by the chain line in FIG.
The bending direction of the link 42 and the arm 44 is reversed, and the operation lever 30 receives a counterclockwise urging force from the spring 46 and comes into contact with the lower stopper 47 to stand still, and the transmission case 32 is rotated about the shaft 33. It rotates in the clockwise direction, so that the roller 41 separates from the tire 4b of the wheel 4.
The counterclockwise rotation of the transmission case 32 is restricted by the engagement of the guide pin 34 with the engagement groove 32a.

By the way, when the operation lever 30 is operated to disengage the roller 41 from the tire 4b of the wheel 4 as described above, the application of the auxiliary power from the electric motor 26 to the wheel 4 is cut off. The detachment of 41 is necessary when the wheelchair 1 is to be run manually, when the battery 7 has run out, and the like.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 1, a brake device 50 is provided at the front position of the wheel 4 of the frame 2.

Details of the structure of the brake device 50 will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9.

In the figure, reference numeral 51 denotes a case fixed to the frame 2, and an electric motor 52 is provided in the case 51.
Is stored, and a gear 53 is attached to an end portion of the output shaft 52a of the electric motor 52.

Rotating shafts 54 and 55 are housed in the case 51 so as to be parallel to each other and rotatable, and gears 56 and 57 of different sizes are connected to the rotating shaft 54.
The gear 56 meshes with the gear 53, and the gear 57 meshes with a gear 58 connected to one end of the rotary shaft 55.

A brake lever 59 is attached to the other end of the rotary shaft 55 extending outside the case 51.

On the other hand, one end of an arm 60 is rotatably attached to the case 51 by a shaft 61, and the other end of the arm 60 has a brake shoe 62 which comes in contact with and separates from the tire 4b of the wheel 4. Are mounted at a right angle. The middle portion of the arm 60 is connected to one end of the brake lever 59 by a link 63. A spring 66 is stretched between a pin 64 protruding from the brake lever 59 and a shaft 65 connecting the link 63 to the arm 60.

When the brake lever 59 is pushed forward (leftward in FIG. 8) as shown by the solid line in FIG. 8, the brake lever 59 is counterclockwise by the urging force of the spring 66. Is pushed forward by the stopper 6
The brake shoe 62 connected to the front end of the arm 60 is pressed against the tire 4b of the wheel 4 with a predetermined force as shown in the figure.

When the brake lever 59 is pulled rearward from the position shown by the solid line in FIG. 8 manually or electrically, the bending direction of the brake lever 59 and the link 63 is reversed as shown by the chain line in FIG. The lever 59 receives an urging force in the clockwise direction from the spring 66 and abuts against the stopper 67 at the rear to stand still, and the arm 60 rotates in the clockwise direction around the shaft 61. Therefore, the brake shoe 62 is attached to the tire 4b of the wheel 4. Leave from.

The electric operation of the brake lever 59 will now be described with reference to FIG.
When the electric motor 52 is rotationally driven by receiving electric power from the electric motor 52, the rotation of the electric motor 52 is transmitted to the rotary shaft 55 through the gears 53, 56, 57 and 58, and the rotary shaft 55 and the brake attached thereto. The lever 59 is rotated by a predetermined angle.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the electric motor 2 is provided below the one brake device 50 of the frame 2.
A control device 70 for controlling the driving of 6, 52 is attached. The control device 70 is also driven by the supply of electric power from the battery 7.

By the way, in the present embodiment, each of the pair of left and right grips 8 for the caregiver has the grip 8
An operating force detecting means 80 is provided for detecting the direction and magnitude of the operating force of the caregiver applied to.

Here, the structure of each operating force detecting means 80 will be described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12. 11 is a side view of the grip portion, and FIG. 12 is a sectional view taken along the line BB of FIG.

As shown in the figure, a cylindrical slider 81 is slidably fitted in the end portion of the handle arm 2b, and when the grip 8 is not subjected to an operating force, the slider 81 is It is held in the neutral position by springs 82 and 83 arranged on both sides of.

Further, on both sides of the slider 81, a linear potentiometer 84 for detecting the amount of forward movement (leftward in the figure) of the slider 81 (the amount of pushing of the grip 8) and the rear of the slider 81 (in the figure). Linear potentiometers 85 for detecting the amount of movement to the right (the amount of pull of the grip 8) are provided respectively.

On the other hand, the grip 8 is constructed by covering a tubular collar 8a with a skin 8b, which is a handle arm 2b.
The outer circumference of the end is slidably capped. Then, the pin 86 which is horizontally extended inside the grip 8 penetrates the long hole 2b-1 formed in the handle arm 2b and the slider 81. Therefore, in the slider 31, the pin 86 has the long hole 2b-1. Within the range where it can slide within -1, it moves back and forth in the handle arm 2b together with the grip 8.

When the caregiver holds the left and right grips 8 by hand and pushes them forward, the manual electric wheelchair 1 is advanced by the caregiver. At this time, the front of the grip 8 and the slider 81 is moved. The amount of movement to is detected by the niria potentiometer 84.

By the way, when the grip 8 and the slider 81 move forward, the front side spring 82 contracts and the rear side spring 83 extends by the amount of these movements, but the reaction force of the spring 82 is directly proportional to the contraction amount. From the amount of movement of the grip 8 and the slider 81 (the amount of contraction of the spring 82) detected by the linear potentiometer 84, the magnitude of the operation force (pushing force) of the caregiver applied to the grip 8 can be obtained. Further, by detecting the amount of movement of the grip 8 and the slider 81 by the front linear potentiometer 84, the direction of the operating force can be determined, and it can be seen that the grip 8 is pushed forward.

On the contrary, when the grip 8 and the slider 81 move rearward, the spring 83 on the rear side is moved by the amount of these movements.
Although the spring 82 on the front side expands, the reaction force of the spring 83 is directly proportional to the amount of contraction of the spring 83. Therefore, the amount of movement of the grip 8 and the slider 81 detected by the linear potentiometer 85 (the amount of contraction of the spring 83) makes the grip 8 The amount of operation force (pulling force) of the caregiver applied to is required. In addition, the rear linear potentiometer 85
By detecting the amount of movement of the grip 8 and the slider 81, the direction of the operating force can be determined, and the grip 8
You can see that is pulled backwards.

Here, the configuration of the control device 70 is shown in FIG.
It will be described based on.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control device 70. The control device 70 detects the rotation angles of the encoders 24A and 24B for detecting the rotation angle of the wheels 4 and the hand rim 16. The encoder 25
Wheels 4, hand rim 16 in response to signals from A and 25B
Discriminating means 71, 72 for discriminating the rotation direction of the
And encoders 24A corresponding to the discriminated rotation directions,
Pulse from 24B, 25A, 25B up or dow
Counting means 73, 74 for counting n, and the grip 8 by a signal from the counting means 73, 74 or an assistant
From the operating force detecting means 80 for detecting the operating force applied to the
The calculation means 75 calculates the auxiliary power on the basis of the signal , and the motor control means 77 for driving and controlling the electric motor 26 to generate the auxiliary power calculated by the calculation means 75.

The calculating means 75 calculates the relative rotation amount of the wheel 4 and the hand rim 16 based on the deviation of the number of pulses counted by the pulse counting means 73 and 74, and based on this result, the relative rotation amount is added to the hand rim 16. The magnitude of the applied human power is obtained, or the direction and magnitude of the operation force of the caregiver applied to each grip 8 in response to the detection signals from the linear potentiometers 84 and 85 of the operation force detection means 80 are obtained and obtained. The auxiliary power to be applied to the wheels 4 is calculated by multiplying the human power or the operating force by a predetermined ratio.

By the way, FIG. 13 shows the configuration of only the control device 70 for one wheel 4, but the control device 70 includes the same elements as described above for the other wheel 4.

Thus, the manual electric wheelchair 1 according to the present invention
In the above, the encoder 2 which is a human power detecting means for detecting a human power applied to the hand rim 16 by a physically handicapped person
4A, 24B, 25A, 25B and an operation force detecting means 8 for detecting an operation force applied to the grip 8 by an assistant.
0, the electric motor 26, the power transmission mechanism 27, and the control device 70 constitute an auxiliary power device.

Next, the operation of the manual electric wheelchair 1 will be described with reference to FIG.
4 will be described below. It should be noted that FIG. 14 is a timing chart showing temporal changes in speed and driving force of the wheelchair 1.

The operation lever 30 is operated to press the roller 41 against the tire 4b of the wheel 4 as shown in FIG. 6, and the brake lever 59 of the brake device 50 is operated to move the brake shoe 62 to the tire of the wheel 4. When the manual electric wheelchair 1 is released from 4b, the manual electric wheelchair 1 is ready to run.

When the handicapped person turns the pair of left and right hand rims 16 by hand in the above state, the human power (driving force) F _M applied to each hand rim 16 is the encoder 24 as described above.
A, 24B, 25A, and 25B detect the rotation angle difference between the hand rim 16 and the wheel 4 separately on the left and right sides, and the detection signal is sent to the control device 70.

By the way, the human power F _M applied to the hand rim 16 changes in a sine curve shape as shown in FIG. 14, and the human power F _M is intermittently applied to the hand rim 16.

When the left and right human power F _M detection signals are manually input to the control device 70 as described above, the control device 70 has a magnitude proportional to the human power F _M applied to the hand rim 16 as described above. Driving force F _A of each of the electric motors 26
To generate a driving force F _A. As a result, as shown in FIG. 14, each wheel 4 is rotationally driven by a driving force F (= F _M + F _A ) having a magnitude obtained by adding the auxiliary power F _A to the human power F _M , and thereby the manual electric wheelchair. 1, the handicapped person can operate the manual electric wheelchair 1 easily with a small driving force F _M, which is about ½ of the total driving force F, and with a feeling of a conventional manual wheelchair, It does not have the psychological pain of using a conventional electric wheelchair.

Here, the transmission path of the auxiliary power F _A will be described with reference to FIG. 7. Rotational power of the electric motor 26 is transmitted to the roller 41 via the gears 35 and 38, the worm 36, the worm wheel 40 and the drive shaft 39. The roller 41
Is driven to rotate, and the wheels 4 are rotated by the rotation of the roller 41.
Is driven to rotate and a part of the driving force F of the wheels 4 is borne by the auxiliary power F _A.

As shown in FIG. 14, the wheels 4 are intermittently driven at appropriate time intervals, but the manual electric wheelchair 1 coasts from one drive to the next.

Therefore, when the manual electric wheelchair 1 travels, its speed V changes as shown in FIG. 14, the speed V reaches the maximum value V _max when the driving force F is maximum, and thereafter the coasting is performed. The speed V gradually decreases with time.

Further, since the manual electric wheelchair 1 according to this embodiment is provided with the reverse drive preventing mechanism as described above,
For example, when the handicapped person stops the operation of turning the hand rim 16 while traveling on an uphill road, the speed V of the wheelchair 1 gradually decreases during coasting and eventually becomes 0. However, the reverse rotation of the wheels 4 thereafter reversely drives. Wheelchair 1 blocked by prevention mechanism
It prevents the backsliding.

By the way, in the present embodiment, the wheelchair 1
When the coasting is started, control is performed to gradually reduce the rotation speed of the electric motor 26. Therefore, according to the manual electric wheelchair 1, the feeling of coasting obtained with the existing manual wheelchair can be directly obtained.

Further, in coasting on a downhill road, the rotational speed of the electric motor 26 is gradually decreased until a predetermined time elapses after the coasting of the wheelchair 1 is started or the wheels 4 rotate by a predetermined angle. Since the reverse drive prevention mechanism causes the wheel 4 to rotate only at a predetermined number of revolutions, a braking force similar to the engine brake acts to prevent the wheelchair 1 from overspeeding. Be done. If the handicapped person does not newly rotate the hand rim 16, the wheelchair 1 will eventually stop.

When the person with a disability is sitting on the wheelchair 1 and the caregiver pushes the wheelchair 1, the person with a disability does not rotate the hand rim 16, so that the hand rim 16 and the wheel 4 rotate integrally. Then, the relative rotation amount between the two becomes 0, and the calculation means 75 of the control device 70 makes the input to the hand rim 16 by the handicapped person 0.

However, when the caregiver pushes the left and right grips 8 with both hands forward with equal force, the forward movement amount of the left and right grips 8 is detected by each of the front linear potentiometers 84, and the respective detection signals are detected. Is sent to each calculation means 75 of the control device 70. Then, each computing means 75 causes an operating force (pushing force) applied to the left and right grips 8.
Direction, and the magnitude of the operating force is calculated, the auxiliary power F _A proportional to the magnitude of the operating force is calculated, and the result is sent to each motor control means 77. The motor control means 77 causes each electric motor 26 to obtain the required auxiliary power. Generate F _A.

Then, the auxiliary power F _A generated by the left and right electric motors 26 is moved along the same path as described above to the left and right wheels 4.
Is transmitted to the wheels 4 and the wheels 4 are rotated in the normal direction (rotation in the direction in which the wheelchair 1 advances), so that the operation force of the caregiver is supplemented by the assisting power F _A , and the caregiver has about half of the conventional force. The wheelchair 1 can be pushed easily with a small operating force, and the physical burden is halved.

On the other hand, when the caregiver pulls the left and right grips 8 with both hands rearward with the same force, the rearward movement amounts of the left and right grips 8 are detected by the rear linear potentiometers 85, respectively. Signal is control device 70
Is sent to the calculation means 75. Then, the calculation means 75 obtains the direction and magnitude of the operating force (pulling force) applied to the left and right grips 8, calculates the auxiliary power F _A proportional to the magnitude of the operating force, and outputs the result to the motor control means. 77
To the electric motor 2
The required auxiliary power F _A is generated in 6.

Then, the auxiliary power F _A generated by the left and right electric motors 26 is applied to the left and right wheels 4 along the same route as described above.
Since induced to reverse by the wheel 4 are both transmitted (rotation in the direction of the wheelchair 1 moves backward), the operation force of the similar to the caregiver supplemented by auxiliary power F _A, caregiver about 1 conventional / The wheelchair 1 can be pulled easily with a small operating force of about two.

When the caregiver turns the wheelchair 1 to the left or right, the forces applied to the left and right grips 8 are different, so the auxiliary power F _A proportional to the force is applied to the left and right wheels 4. To the left and right wheels 4 respectively.
The driving force of the wheelchair is different.
Can be easily swiveled in the desired direction.

For example, when the caregiver turns the wheelchair 1 to the left, the right wheel 4 pushes the right grip 8 with a large force as a natural operation, so that the right wheel 4 receives a larger assist power F _A , As a result, the wheelchair 1 turns left as desired, and the caregiver can easily turn the wheelchair 1 by the same operation as in the conventional case. Even when the caregiver turns the wheelchair 1 to the right, the caretaker can easily turn the wheelchair 1 to the right by the same motion as in the conventional case.

When the caregiver turns the wheelchair 1 on the spot, one grip 8 is pulled and the other grip 8 is pushed as a natural motion. In this embodiment, the grip 8 is pulled. In this case, the wheel 4 on the pulled side is reversely rotated by the auxiliary power F _A proportional to the pulling force, and the wheel 4 on the pushed side is normally rotated by the auxiliary power F _A proportional to the pushing force. Therefore, the wheelchair 1 can be turned suddenly on the spot in the pulling direction.

For example, when the wheelchair 1 is turned rightward on the spot, the right hand grip 8 is pulled and the left hand grip 8 is pushed as a natural movement of the caregiver. At this time, the right wheel is pulled. The wheel 4 on the left side is reversely rotated by the proportional auxiliary power F _A , and the auxiliary power F _A proportional to the pushing force is applied to the left wheel 4.
_Since it is normally rotated by _A , the wheelchair 1 is suddenly turned rightward on the spot. In the same way, wheelchair 1
Is suddenly turned to the left on the spot.

By the way, since the grip 8 held by the helper does not move even when a vertical force acts on it, the helper applies a vertical force to the grip 8 when the wheelchair 1 passes through a step. However, no malfunction occurs in the wheelchair 1.

In this embodiment, the linear potentiometers 84 and 85 are used as means for detecting the direction and magnitude of the operating force applied to the grip 8 by the caregiver.
Any other displacement meter can be used.

[0078]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, a pair of left and right large-diameter wheels disposed on both sides of the seat and having upper edges above the seat are provided on each wheel. and hand rim, and the manpower detecting means for detecting the magnitude of the human power applied to the hand rim, and the electric drive means for driving the wheels, in response to said magnitude of said sensed by the human power detecting means manpower In a manual electric wheelchair having a control means for controlling each electric drive means, an operation force detection means for detecting a direction and a magnitude of an operation force of a caregiver applied to the grip portion for a care worker behind the seat. provided with a, and input to a signal also said control means from said operating force detecting means, based on a signal from the operation force detecting means of each manpower detecting means or caregiver grip portion of the hand rim portion, each Because you to control the dynamic driving means, the caregiver can operate comfortably the manual electric wheelchair, the effect is obtained that the physical burden is reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a manual electric wheelchair according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a manual electric wheelchair according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a rear view of the manual electric wheelchair according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a broken sectional view in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1, showing a connection structure between a hand rim and a wheel.

FIG. 5 is a semi-cut sectional view of an axle portion showing a mounting structure of an encoder which is an input detecting means.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing a configuration of an auxiliary power unit (electric motor and power transmission mechanism).

FIG. 7 is a cutaway plan view showing a configuration of an auxiliary power unit (electric motor and power transmission mechanism).

FIG. 8 is a side view of a brake device section.

FIG. 9 is a cutaway front view of a brake device section.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the battery installation structure.

FIG. 11 is a side view of a grip portion showing a configuration of an operation force detection means.

12 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control device.

FIG. 14 is a timing chart showing temporal changes in speed and driving force of a wheelchair.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Manual electric wheelchair 26 Electric motor (driving means) 27 Power transmission mechanism (driving means) 70 Control device (control means) 80 Operating force detection means 84,85 Linear potentiometer

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-3-15468 (JP, A) JP-A-4-145803 (JP, A) Actual development Sho 63-120323 (JP, U) Actual public Sho-44- 2181 (JP, Y1) US Patent 4520894 (US, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A61G 5/04

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A pair of left and right large-diameter wheels arranged on both sides of a seat, the upper edges of which are above the seat, a hand rim provided on each wheel, and a magnitude of human power applied to the hand rim. Manual type having each human power detection means for detecting, each electric drive means for driving each wheel, and control means for controlling each electric drive means according to the magnitude of the human power detected by each human power detection means In an electric wheelchair, add to the grip for the caregiver behind the seat.
Provided with an operating force detecting means for detecting the direction and magnitude of Waru caregiver operation force, a signal from the operation force detecting means be input to the control means, the manpower detecting means or caregiver of the hand rim portion A manual electric wheelchair characterized in that each of the electric drive means is controlled based on a signal from an operating force detection means of the grip portion for a vehicle. The operation force detection means 2. A caregiver grip portion, manual electric wheelchair according to claim 1 Symbol mounting, characterized in that it is constituted by a pair of operation force detecting element back and forth.