TRANSPORTATION VEHICLES AND METHODS

摘要

There is provided, in a preferred embodiment, a transportation vehicle for transporting an individual over ground having a surface that may be irregular. This embodiment has a support for supporting the subject. A. ground-contacting module, movably attached to the support, serves to suspend the subject in the support over the surface. The orientation of the ground-contacting module defines fore-aft and lateral planes intersecting one another at a vertical. The support and the ground-contacting module are components of an assembly. A motorized drive, mounted to the assembly and coupled to the ground-contacting module, causes locomotion of the assembly and the subject therewith over the surface. Finally, the embodiment has a control loop, in which the motorized drive is included, for dynamically enhancing stability in the fore-aft plane by operation of the motorized drive in connection with the ground-contacting module. Included in the control loop is a directional control, letting the vehicle move, lean and turn in response to an indication of the subject, e.g. that of leaning the vehicle. The ground contacting module may be realized as a pair of ground-contacting members, laterally disposed with respect to one another. The ground-contacting members may be wheels, a duster of wheels, or includes rotatably mounted arcuate element pairs.