| 摘要 |
A wheeled vehicle is steered by a yoke or other operator control the movement of which is limited so that the operator's hands need not change position on the control. The steering is under the control of a microprocessor responsive to an input from the control, the vehicle's speedometer, and to accelerometers responsive to forces acting on the vehicle laterally and perpendicular to the roadway. The relationship between the position of the steerable wheels and the displacement of, or force applied to, the operator control is a function that depends on the magnitude of the displacement or force, speed, and one or more time derivatives of the displacement of, or force on, the operator control. The relationship between the position of the steerable wheels and the displacement of, or force on, the control is overridden when the lateral force is such that the vehicle is in danger of rolling over. |
| 主权项 |
1. In a wheeled vehicle having a set of steered wheels, each of said wheels being steerable through a limited angular range about a steering axis, a steering system comprising actuator means connected to said steered wheels for steering each of said steered wheels, a manual operator control graspable by at least one of an operator's left and right hands, an encoder connected to and operable by said manual operator control and providing an output which is a function of an input applied to said manual operator control, said input being the displacement of, or a force applied manually to, said manual operator control, a vehicle speed sensor, a control unit connected to receive the output of said encoder and an output of said vehicle speed sensor, said control unit including a microprocessor and providing a driving output for driving said actuator means, wherein the relationship between the angle about which each of said steered wheels is steered about its steering axis by said actuator means to the magnitude of the input applied to the manual operator control is a variable dependent upon at least one independent variable including the speed of travel of the vehicle as sensed by said vehicle speed sensor, wherein the input applied to said manual operator control can be varied throughout a range sufficient to cause said steered wheels to be steered through the entirety of their limited angular ranges, at least when the speed of the vehicle is within a range from zero to an intermediate speed, while the operator's hand remains in fixed, contacting, relationship with said manual operator control. |
