Wheel assembly with multi-sphere omniwheels and omnidirectional devices including the wheel assembly

Number: 9573416
Published: 2017-02-21
Filed: 2015-10-23
Assignee: Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Inventors: Niemeyer; Gunter D. et al.
CPC: B60B19/003; B60B19/14
Verdict: High Hardware
Source: Google Patents · FreePatentsOnline

The keeper's note

Omnidirectional wheel-assembly hardware using multi-sphere omniwheels — droid/robot locomotion mechanism.

Abstract

An omniwheel is presented that may be included with additional omniwheels in a wheel assembly, which can be used in nearly any omnidirectional device such as a robot, a park ride or other vehicle, and the like. The omniwheel includes a wheel support or frame, and a first roller pivotally supported on the wheel support. Further, the omniwheel includes a second roller pivotally supported on the wheel support. The first and second rollers are each generally spherical in shape and have equal outer diameters. The first and second rollers each has a pair of recessed contact surfaces at opposite poles. Each of the first and second rollers is supported in the wheel support for freewheeling about a rotation axis passing through the opposite poles, and the first and second rollers areoriented in the wheel support to have their rotation axes offset relative to each other by an offset angle.

Background

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS(1) FIGS. 1-6 illustrate exemplary omniwheels available for use on omnidirectional vehicles or devices (e.g., robots) at the time of the inventors' design of the new omniwheels (and omnidirectional devices) described herein;(2) FIG. 7 is a top perspective view of a portion of an omnidirectional wheelassembly of the present description showing use of a pair of spherical rollers for each omniwheel of the assembly;(3) FIG. 8 is a top perspective view of the omnidirectional wheelassembly of FIG. 7 showing all four omniwheels of the assembly;(4) FIG. 9 is a top perspective view of an omnidirectional wheel assembly similar to those shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 but with the pairs of rollers arranged to non-coplanar (e.g., with the support arms for the omniwheels angled downward (or upward) rather than all being coplanar as in FIGS. 7 and 8);(5) FIG. 10 illustrates a top view of a 4-legged wheel assembly showing its guaranteed area of support;(6) FIG. 11 illustrates a top view of a wheel assembly using an octagon configuration of the rollers of the omniwheels to provide a guaranteed area of support;(7) FIGS. 12A-12E illustrate views of omniwheel embodiments and components showing use of a combination of trimming or removal of polar caps or poles and angularly offset pairs of rollersto provide clearance from obstacles in a dual-sphere omniwheel;(8) FIGS. 13A-13D illustrate views of a tri-sphere/roller omniwheel and its components adapted to provide larger

Claims

1. An omnidirectional wheel assembly, comprising: a wheel support frame; and a plurality of omniwheels mounted to the wheel support frame, wherein each of the omniwheels includes at least two spherically-shaped rollers of equal outer diameter, wherein each of the spherically-shaped rollers is pivotal both about a minor axis extending centrally therethrough and a major axis extending orthogonal to the minor axis, wherein each of the spherically-shaped rollers includes a pair of recessed contact surfaces atopposite poles, and wherein the spherically-shaped rollers in each of the omniwheels are angularly offset from each other by at least 45 degrees as measured between the minor axesof adjacent pairs of the spherically-shaped rollers. 7. An omnidirectional wheel assembly, comprising: a wheel support; and at least four omniwheels mounted to the wheel support, wherein each of the omniwheels includes at least two spherically-shaped rollers, wherein each of the spherically-shaped rollers is pivotal both about a minor axis extending centrally therethrough and a major axis extending orthogonal to the minor axis, and wherein the spherically-shaped rollers in each of the omniwheels are angularly offset from each other by at least 45 degrees as measured between the minor axes of adjacent pairs of the spherically-shaped rollers. 13. An omnidirectional wheel assembly, comprising: a wheel support frame; and a plurality of omniwheels mounted to the wheel support frame, wherein each of the omniwheels includes at least two spherically-shaped rollers of equal outer diameter, wherein each of the spherically-shaped rollers is pivotal both about a minor axis extending centrally therethrough and a major axis extending orthogonal to the minor axis, and wherein each of the spherically-shaped roller includes a pair of recessed contact surfaces at opposite poles.