FIE L D OF TH E INVE N TI O N

In preferred forms the present invention relates to aged and disabled care vehicles.

BA C KGRO UND TO TH E INVE N TI O N There are a number of problems associated with loading aged or disabled persons into aged or disable care vehicles. For this reason several transport aids including wheelchair lift systems and sliding transfer plates have been developed.

Present aged and disabled care vehicles with wheelchair lift systems generally comprise a minibus or small commuter bus. The minibus or small commuter bus will generally include a wheelchair lift having a loading platform that is arranged to extend vertically in a storage condition within the vehicle.

Such wheelchair loading platforms are typically hinged at a lower position when stored. The hinging action provided allows the loading platform to be moved from being in the vertical stored condition to a horizontally extended position at about car floor height. The loading platform is then typically shifted vertically, using a number of hydraulic cylinders or extending arm, to slightly above the ground for ready wheelchair access.

In the industry this is the widely adopted methodology for wheelchair lift systems for aged and disabled care vehicles. An example of a wheelchair lift system adopting this methodology is described in US20050238471 filed 29 September 2004 to Karapet Ablabutyan et al.

Figure 1 of drawings attached hereto illustrates the loading platform 10 of the wheelchair lift described in US 20050238471 when stored. Figure 2 illustrates the various standard positions adopted by the loading platform 10.

Another form of transport aid used in the industry comprises a sliding transfer plate for a seat. An example of a sliding transfer plate is described in US6129403 filed 21 July 1999 to Steven J. Townsend. Figure 3 illustrates the sliding transfer plate of US6129403. As shown the plate 12 is mounted to a seat of a vehicle to assist an aged or disabled person sit on the seat. Whilst a background to the invention has been provided, it is to be recognised that any discussion in the present specification is intended to explain the context of the invention. It is not to be taken as an admission that the material formed part of the prior art base or relevant general knowledge in any particular country or region. S UMMARY O F TH E INVE N TI O N

According to a first aspect of preferred embodiments herein described there is provided a loading system for a vehicle, the loading system comprising: a rotational arrangement for relocating a wheelchair from a first rotational orientation to a second rotational orientation; wherein the rotational arrangement is adapted to allow the wheelchair to be loaded into the vehicle in the first rotational orientation and be rotated using the rotational arrangement to the second rotational orientation.

Preferably the rotational arrangement comprises a rotatable platform mounted within the body of the vehicle, the rotatable platform being adapted to rotate by at least 180 degrees.

Preferably the rotatable arrangement includes securing means for securing the wheelchair in a desirable position on the rotatable platform.

Preferably the securing means are adapted to extend upwardly from the rotatable arrangement to engage the wheels of the wheelchair.

Preferably the loading system includes a loading arrangement having loading platform adapted to be extended from a retracted position in the vehicle underneath the upper surface of the rotational arrangement to an extended position providing a loading ramp for the wheelchair.

Preferably the loading platform provides a conveyor arrangement adapted to assist with driving the wheelchair up the loading platform.

Preferably the loading arrangement is adapted to actively alter the configuration of the loading platform to assist with aligning the wheelchair.

Preferably the loading arrangement includes an active weight sensor control with fuzzy logic to manoeuvre the wheelchair.

Preferably the loading platform provides a series depressions and elevations to assist with engaging the wheels of the wheelchair. Preferably the loading system is adapted to provide an elevation to assist with ready movement of the wheelchair from the loading arrangement to the rotational arrangement.

Preferably the rotational arrangement includes an active weight sensor control with fuzzy logic to manoeuvre the wheelchair. According to a second aspect of preferred embodiments herein described there is provided a loading system for a vehicle, the loading system comprising: a loading arrangement that is adapted to extend and retract a car seat unit to and from a retracted position inside the vehicle and an extended position outside the vehicle, the loading arrangement being adapted to advantageously allow a person to be seated outside the vehicle on the car seat unit and then be loaded into the vehicle by the action of the extension arrangement.

Preferably the loading arrangement includes a lowering mechanism for lowering the car seat unit as the car seat unit is moved from the retracted to the extended condition.

Preferably the car seat unit includes a seat belt for securing the occupant and at least one storage compartment for the occupant' s belongings.

According to a third aspect of preferred embodiments herein described there is provided a method of loading a wheelchair into a vehicle comprising: extending a platform; allowing the wheelchair to be moved into the vehicle using the platform; and rotating the wheelchair from a first orientation to a second orientation when in the vehicle in order to position the wheelchair.

Preferably the method includes rotating the wheelchair to face in a third orientation.

According to a fourth aspect of preferred embodiments herein described there is provided a method of loading and aged or disabled person into a vehicle including: extending one or more car seats from the vehicle; and loading a person into the vehicle on each car seat. Preferably there is provided a family sized car having a wheel chair loading system.

According to a fifth aspect of preferred embodiments herein described there is provided a vehicle chair for a motor vehicle comprising: a car seat; and a relocation mechanism; the relocation mechanism being adapted to allow the car seat to be rotated between a seated condition and a loading condition wherein in the seated condition the occupant of the car seat is suitably positioned for driving of the vehicle; and in the loading condition the front of the car seat is in a position in the vicinity of the opening of the car door associated with the car seat.

Preferably the relocation mechanism is adapted to rotate the car seat over about 90 degrees and relocate the car seat such that the car seat is within or extends outside the associated opening of the car door.

Preferably there is provided a vehicle including a vehicle chair wherein the vehicle allows allow aged or disable persons to be readily loaded into the vehicle.

According to a sixth aspect of preferred embodiments herein described there is provided a method of assisting aged or disable persons into a vehicle comprising: rotating a seat and translating the car seat towards the opening of the associated car door.

According to a seventh aspect of preferred embodiment herein described there is provided a loading system for a vehicle, the loading system comprising: a loading ramp for being extended from the vehicle towards the ground, the loading ramp having a conveyor arrangement and drive mechanism to assist with urging items up the ramp.

Preferably the loading ramp includes rotatable roller elements.

Embodiments of the present invention herein described preferably provide systems and methods in which:

(i) Loading systems allow aged and disabled persons to be readily positioned in a comfortable position on a seat of a transport vehicle;

(ii) Loading systems provide for the ready transfer of a wheelchair in and out of a vehicle;

(iii) Loading systems that assist with providing the wheelchair occupant in a number of desirable positions with respect to a vehicle.

(iv) Loading systems in which the wheelchair occupant is readily secured in position.

(v) Loading systems that provide aged and disabled persons with greater sense of independence and freedom; (vi) Loading systems that provide advantageous balance, positioning and stability.

It is to be recognised that other aspects, preferred forms and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the present specification including the detailed description, drawings and claims. The present invention is to be construed beneficially to the applicant. BRIE F D E S C RIPTIO N OF D RAWIN GS

In order to facilitate a better understanding of the present invention, several preferred embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying Figures 4 to 19.

DE TAIL E D DE S C RIPTIO N O F TH E E MB O D IME N T S As discussed, Figures 1 to 3 show arrangements following concepts that have been previously adopted by some systems in the past. Figures 4 to 8 show systems and methods according to preferred embodiments of the present invention.

It is to be appreciated that each of the embodiments is specifically described and that the present invention is not to be construed as being limited to any specific feature or element of any one of the embodiments. Neither is the present invention to be construed as being limited to any feature of a number of the embodiments or variations described in relation to the embodiments.

Referring to Figure 4 there is shown a vehicle 14 according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention. The vehicle 14 includes a loading system 16 providing a rotational arrangement 1 _. 8. The rotational arrangement 18 advantageously provides a rotatable platform 20. The rotatable platform 20 is provided for relocating a wheelchair 22 carrying an occupant 24 from a first rotational orientation 26 (shown in Figure 5) to a second rotational orientation 28 (shown in Figure 6).

Advantageously the vehicle 14 comprises a family sized car where the rotational arrangement 18 occupies the rear seat position and boot. It is considered that existing available aged care and wheel chair enabled vehicles are mini-bus or small commuter bus sized vehicles. The vehicle 14 is considered to not to be too large or tall for normal family use. The vehicle 14 can be maintained in a normal garage or normal house hold yard and is relatively inexpensive to run, operate and maintain. The loading system 16 includes a locking mechanism 30 for selectively locking the rotatable platform 20 in any one of a number of rotational orientations including the first rotational orientation 26 and the second rotational orientation 28. More particularly the rotatable platform 20 is movable over 360 degrees. The locking mechanism 30 is adapted to lock the rotatable platform 20 in substantially any angular position over the 360 degrees of movement. Other embodiments are rotatable only over about 180 degrees.

The loading system 16 includes a loading arrangement 32 having loading platform 34. The loading platform 34 is adapted to be extended from a retracted position 36 (See Figure 6) located underneath the upper surface 38 of the rotatable platform 20 to an extended position 40 (See Figure 4). In the extended position 40, the loading platform 34 provides a loading ramp 42 for the wheelchair 22.

The loading ramp 42 is adapted to be extended from underneath the rotatable platform 20 and be inclined downwardly. The loading ramp 42 is advantageously able to accommodate different ground heights adj acent the vehicle 14 by adopting different angles of inclination.

In this embodiment, the loading platform 34 comprises a conveyor arrangement 44 that is advantageously adapted to assist with driving the wheelchair occupant up the loading platform 34. The conveyor arrangement 44 shown in Figure 7 is a conveyor for a packing system. The conveyor arrangement 44 would be specifically designed for the present embodiment.

As shown in Figure 7 the conveyor arrangement 44 includes a number of spaced apart rollers 46. The rollers 46 are provided in the form of cylinders that are adapted to be actively rotated by a drive mechanism 48 of the conveyor arrangement 44. As shown, the rollers 46 are arranged in series to provided alternating depressions _. 50 and elevations 52 along the conveyor surface to assist with engaging the wheels of the wheelchair 22. This advantageously serves to assist with driving the wheelchair 22 up the loading platform 20 as the drive mechanism 48 rotates the rollers 46.

In addition the loading arrangement 32 is adapted to actively alter the configuration of the loading platform 34 to assist with aligning the wheelchair 22 relative to the vehicle JA In this embodiment the loading arrangement 32 includes an active weight sensor control with fuzzy logic to position the wheelchair 22. The weight sensor control is configured to manoeuvre an abutment arrangement that actively engages the wheels of the wheelchair 22. In this embodiment, the abutment arrangement includes a number of abutment elements disposed in the channels between the rollers 46. The abutment elements are arranged to be extended and retracted and move sideways to push the wheels of the wheelchair 22.

Notably, when extended, the upper surface of the loading ramp 42 is arranged to provide a relatively smooth transition of the wheelchair 22 to the rotatable platform 22. This is assisted by the rotatable platform 22 also having roller elements 54. In addition the loading arrangement 32 is adapted to slightly elevate the loading ramp 42 to assist with movement of the wheelchair 22 from the loading platform 34 onto the rotational platform 22. In another embodiment the rotatable platform 22 is slightly lowered when the ramp 42 is extended. Various arrangements are possible.

As shown in the Figures 4 and 5, the wheelchair 22 is loaded into the vehicle 14 from the side of the vehicle 14 to dispose the wheelchair 22 in the first rotational orientation 26. Using the rotational arrangement 18 the wheelchair 22 is rotated by about 90 degrees (anti clockwise in this embodiment to the second rotational orientation 28. In this position the occupant is able readily look out the front window of the vehicle 14.

The rotational arrangement 1_8 advantageously includes an active weight sensor control with fuzzy logic to position the wheelchair 22. The weight sensor control activates abutment elements between the rollers 54 which are actively controlled to move between the rollers and abut against the wheels of the wheelchair 22. The abutment elements include a securing arrangement for securing the wheelchair 22 in position on the rotatable platform 22. The abutment elements extend upwardly form the rotatable platform 20. In the embodiment the rotational arrangement 1_8 provides a turntable with sprocket roller chain conveyor technology (See Figure 8) with forward rolling motion and analogue weight sensor control. The weight sensor control with fuzzy logic is used with the abutment elements to manoeuvre the wheelchair 22 to a desirable position. The turntable is hydraulically rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise with a user operated remote control to move the wheelchair 22 to the from the first orientation 26 to the second orientation 28. The default reel speed is adjustable say between 0-60RPM through a tachometer. The stability limit is preferably controlled so as to be relatively optimized and preserve a desirable limit. The frame and platform are formed from galvanized steel reel. Hydraulically pop-up rubber bars (abutments) are extendable from the underneath between the rollers to secure the wheels from moving forward and backward. Furthermore, as shown in Figure 9, the loading system 16 advantageously allows the wheelchair occupant 24 to exit the vehicle in a forward direction. In order to achieve this, the rotational arrangement 1_8 is adapted to move the wheelchair to a third orientation 56 in which the wheelchair 22 faces onto the loading ramp 42. As shown in the Figures the wheelchair 22 is rotated 90 degrees from the first orientation J_8 to the second orientation 20. From the second orientation 20 to the third orientation 56 the wheelchair is rotated a further 90 degrees in the same direction.

With the wheelchair 22 in the third orientation 56 the occupant 24 can leave in a forward facing direction. This is considered to be advantageous and provide the occupant with a further degree of freedom and independence. On travelling down the ramp 42 the rollers 46 preferably provide some limited resistance to the action of gravity feed travel. In other embodiments the system may provide for controlled descent by controlling the speed of rotation of the rollers 46 and may also direct the descent using the abutment elements.

The vehicle 14 advantageous comprises a family sized car. Other vehicle sizes are of course possible. The system has not yet been developed commercially. Actuators, power electronics, sensors, sensing electronics, control system design, fuzzy logic and algorithms, signal processing, software, HSI, power management, mechanics and mechatronics will be used to in the finalised system. Various forms of conveyor are envisaged by the applicant including endless loop system as shown in Figure 10.

Referring to Figure 1 1 there is shown a loading system 58> for a vehicle 60. The loading system 58 comprises a loading arrangement 62 that is adapted to extend and retract a car seat unit 64. The car seat unit 64 is extended between a retracted position 66 (within the body 68 of the vehicle 60) and an extended position 70 (outside the body 68 of the vehicle 60). As shown in Figure 12 the loading arrangement 62 includes a lowering mechanism 72 for lowering the car seat unit 64 to a loading position 74. The loading arrangement 62 is adapted to advantageously allow a person to be seated outside the vehicle 60 on the car seat unit 64 and then be gently loaded into the vehicle 60 by the action of the loading arrangement 62.

In this embodiment the lowering mechanism 72 is adapted to lower the car seat unit 64, once the car seat unit 64 has been fully extended horizontally away from the retracted position 66. Advantageously the seat belts form part of the car seat unit 64 and are fitted to the seat occupant outside the vehicle.

In this embodiment the loading system 58 provides the vehicle 60 with a hydraulically driven 'extend and reach out car seat unit' 64 with a sensor system 78. The sensor system 78 provides advantageous positioning, balance, stability and load handling. As shown in the Figures the loading arrangement 62 includes an arm 80. Advantageously the arm 80, in one mode, is operated with a remote control. The sensor system 78 provides a safety feature with a variable stability limit safety function that provides confident load handling, positioning and stability when extending the reach out car seat unit 64. The arm 80 is controlled using fuzzy logic optimization to preserve a balance and stability limit, with combined mechatronics, powertronics. In an embodiment shown in Figure 13 an aged or partially disabled couple can be accommodated next to one another. For this purpose, the system 58 accordingly provides two opposed extending arms on both sides of the vehicle. Depending on the circumstances one or more arms may be provided on both rear and front seats. Figure 14 illustrates and embodiment in which the seat does not lower but rather maintains the same level.

The system is also able to be automatically operated with a sensor on opening a car door. As the door open the arms 80 extend in accordance with the opening of the door. Similarly there is an auto retraction of the arms as the door is closed. The doors are advantageously top opening as shown. The retraction is also activated on pushing the seat unit 64 inwards.

The seat unit 64 advantageously includes various compartments for storage of the belongings of the seat occupant. By virtue of the compartments being readily accessible outside the vehicle (say underneath the seat), the user can be comfortable that their belongings are readily accessible and are in their possession. This is considered to provide a further degree of freedom and independence. The seat units 64, in this embodiment have down arms and seatbelt with bag pocket/coat hanging facility and possible storage, and a pull out drawer under the seat.

Figures 15 to 19 illustrate a further preferred embodiment of the present invention. The embodiment comprises a vehicle chair 82 including a relocation mechanism 84. The relocation mechanism 84 advantageously allows the vehicle chair 82 to be rotated between a seated condition 86 and a loading condition 88. In the seated condition 86 the vehicle chair 82 adopts an orientation in which the chair 82 is aligned with the longitudinal axis of the vehicle 85, is positioned entirely within the vehicle and is secured in position for driving. In the loading condition 88 the vehicle chair 82 adopts a position substantially perpendicular thereto. Referring to Figures 15 and 19 this can be considered as rotational and translational movement of the front of the seat of the chair 82 in a directly towards the opening 90 of the associated car door 92.

In the embodiment the rotation mechanism 84 includes pivot system in which the chair rotates around the general location 94 of the vehicle 8j> adjacent the car seat. The location 94 is adjacent the centre post location or latching location of the door 92.

In the loading condition 88 the vehicle chair 82 faces outwardly from the vehicle 85 in a lateral direction, allowing an individual to readily position him or herself on the chair 82 as illustrated. An intermediate position 96 is shown in Figure 18. Movement from the intermediate position 96 to the loading condition 88 involves the front of the chair 82 being moved forwardly through the opening 90.

Once the individual is in position the chair 82 is then rotated back to and is secured in the seated condition 86. In this manner an aged or disabled person can be readily loaded into the vehicle 85.

Thus there is considered to be provided a vehicle chair for a motor vehicle comprising: a car seat; and a relocation mechanism. The relocation mechanism is adapted to allow the car seat to be rotated between a seated condition and a loading condition. In the seated condition the occupant of the car seat is suitably positioned to allow driving of the vehicle. In the loading condition the front of the car seat is in a position in the vicinity of and aligned with the opening of the car door associated with the car seat.

The relocation mechanism is adapted to rotate the car seat by 90 degrees and relocate the car seat such that the car seat extends outside the associated opening of the car door. The vehicle allows aged or disable persons to be readily loaded into the vehicle. The method comprises rotating a seat and translating the car seat towards the opening of the associated car door.

It is to be recognised that various alterations and equivalent forms may be provided without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. This includes modifications within the scope of the appended claims along with all modifications, alternative constructions and equivalents. The inventor is considering extending the present invention to loading systems for goods in general for trucks and other vehicles.

There is no intention to limit the present invention to the specific embodiments shown in the drawings. The present invention is to be construed beneficially to the applicant and the invention given its full scope.

In the present specification, the presence of particular features does not preclude the existence of further features. The words 'comprising', 'including' and 'having' are to be construed in an inclusive rather than an exclusive sense.