Description:

Title of Invention:

Omni-directional Electric Coaster-wheel Car

Technical Field:

Automotives

0002 Background Art:

For 150 years since Etienne Lenoir invented the internal combustion engine (patented in 1860) and mounted it on a wheeled chassis, this cylinder/piston form of engine has been inherent in what generations have known as the automobile. While electric motors have existed for some time, their lack of power and shortness of range and operating time due to lack of battery power have prevented them from seriously competing for much more than a fringe and token share of the global automobile market.

For several decades now the noxious pollution effects of petrol and diesel engine emissions have been accepted as a prime source of urban air pollution with its associated lung diseases as well as of urban noise pollution. Over the past decade, the awareness of human-engendered "hot house gas" emissions as a principal source of global warming, with its menacing consequences, has become accepted world-wide, and the role of internal-combustion automobile emissions as a major source of these emissions has received world-wide acceptance as well.

This growing awareness of ecological issues is also starting to lead public opinion and automotive industry opinion to the realization that a conventional combustion-engine automobile is not only a performance unit unto itself, but a significant and currently damaging part of the world ecosystem. An ecologically sustainable automobile for the future will need to be low-emission not only in its operation but across its entire product life cycle from construction to operation to recycling.

Alternative models of ecology-driven urban traffic planning, designed to reduce pollution by reducing automobile congestion, have now been implemented in several major cities around the world, and computer-operated central traffic management and control systems, which would actually take the "driving" out of the hands of the on-board "driver", are being considered as part of the longer-term ecological traffic-control solution by some forward-looking urban planners. Such systems favor the use of zero- emission electric cars. Over the past two decades, the demand for low-emission automobiles, expressed in public and market opinion and in government policy, has led small and major automakers alike to research more fuel-efficient combustion motors and alternative motors. While the electric motor was always the logical ideal, its severe limitations due to battery power has so far prevented it from widespread acceptance. Hybrid engines have been introduced as a bridge between the current era of petrol engines and the future era of electric motors, and various systems for "cleaning" diesel emissions are currently being developed and introduced to the market. Yet these current "solutions" merely mitigate the symptoms without truly solving the problem of the emission pollution inherent in any internal combustion engine. Fire consumes oxygen and produces C02.

One crucial factor that has changed dramatically in the past decade is the marked improvement in battery capacity, and given the excellent track record of the electric product industry in consistently doubling capacities while more than halving costs, there is scope for optimism that the lithium battery and its successors will significantly increase motor battery capacity for automobiles. Given the gargantuan scale of the world automobile market, the battery makers have every incentive to develop products to sell to this huge new market if even a tenth of automobiles go electric.

In sum, the global automobile industry is currently entering a period of radical transition from its dependence on the petroleum-fueled internal combustion engine of its first 150 years, towards a future of primarily electric-motor-powered cars. The invention which is the subject of this patent is an original electric car chassis aimed at maximizing the benefits of the electric motor for urban transportation while minimizing its current disadvantages.

Summary of Invention:

0003 Technical Problem

The petroleum-fueled internal combustion engine is at present the overwhelming standard for automobile power. However, it produces pollution in the form of gas and particle emissions, as well as noise pollution, which are now increasingly judged to be socially unacceptable in terms of global warming, public health, and the quality of urban life.

However, the electric motor, its obvious alternative, which has no air pollution and little noise pollution, still lacks sufficient power and range due to limited battery capacities to be widely adopted at present. 0004 Solution to Problem

There is only one avenue of true progress towards solving this problem, and that is to move forward with the flow of time and technology, leaving Lenoir and Otto's internal combustion piston engine of the 19th Century behind, and moving forward into the 21st Century age of purely electric motor vehicles.

Through its unique design, this invention helps solve the principal problem of an electric motor car for city driving: short range and run-time between recharges. It also offers radically improved handling, with bidirectional steering apparatuses and 360° driveability from a fixed point at stand-still. Finally, with an eye to the future, it is fully compatible with and well-suited for remote-controlled driving by central urban traffic management and control systems.

This city car chassis is a logical extreme of minimalist automobile design, reducing the power consumption of the car to accommodate the limited capacity of batteries through the combined application of:

1. one single traction wheel, located centrally on both the lateral and longitudinal central axes of the chassis, powered by one in-wheel electric motor, and four tractionless coaster wheels placed at the four corners of the chassis which provide stabilizing suspension support and steering,

2. bidirectional steering, with two opposite-facing steering wheels located at each end of the car, permitting fully equal steering and driving in either the forward or rearward senses of movement (ref.: WPC Patent Application, "A Method of Bidirectional Automotive Transport", International Application number PCT/IB2010/000279, International filing date 11 February 2010, John Victor Gano), and 360° steering capability from a stand-still at fixed point (i.e. without turning).

0006 Advantageous Effects of Invention

The principal advantages of this vehicle invention are that:

1. its ultra-light-weight construction and single small in-wheel-mounted electric motor reduce electric power consumption and thus increase its range and running time between recharges compared to existing electric cars, with whatever battery is used.

2. its versatile bidirectional steering permitting 360° movement from a fixed point allow it to stop on the road and move 90° laterally into and out of a narrow parking space, without the need for the back-and-forward filling of the "parallel parking" maneuver, which regularly causes delay and back-up of traffic on city streets. 1296

0006 Advantageous Effects of Invention (continued)

3. its bidirectional versatility increases its driving safety in parking situations such as parking lots and garages, where the limited peripheral visibility of drivers of conventional cars (seen through rear-view mirrors) leads to many accidents with pedestrians, bicycles or skate-boards crossing laterally behind the backing car unaware mat it is backing, as well as reducing the all-too-common low speed scrapes and "fender bender" collisions that occur in parking lots while backing up.

4. its ease of handling makes it a more easily drivable car for senior citizens and those with diminished visual acuity, who no longer need to back up in reverse but can drive facing "forward" at either end of the chassis.

5. its complete lack of any internally mounted engine, gearbox, or transmission obviously increases the internal space available for passengers or baggage load as compared to conventional cars of equal external dimensions.

Secondly, this vehicle invention is conceived to minimize its "carbon footprint" across its entire life-cycle, from production to operation to recycling, through the application of:

6. low-weight materials

7. low-cost materials

8. recyclable materials

9. low-cost assembly

10. low-skill assembly

This is a very "green" ecological city car that reduces pollution not only in its functional operation, but as a vehicle of ecological production and recycling.

Thirdly, a main theme of future urban traffic control may well be the use of central computer programs to optimize traffic flow through remote control of individual cars within specified urban zones.

11. The complete 360° drivability of the car (bidirectional with full lateral movement from a fixed point) make it highly compatible with future web-aided or web-controlled central urban traffic control and management systems (i.e. a whole row of such cars in a land could be stopped and quickly moved 90° directly laterally to permit the passage of an emergency-response vehicle, then moved back into the lane again without disrupting their order). IB2010/001296

0007 Brief Description of Drawings

Fig. 1. Five-wheel Bidirectional Electric Coaster-wheel Car (side view)

1. Dual opposite-facing equal capability steering systems

2. Combined fiOnt/rear/brake/turn/day-run/emergency light assembly

3. Upper brake lights mounted at each end of chassis

4. One seat configuration as example

5. One centrally-fixed traction wheel

6. Four peripherally-fixed un-powered coaster wheels (for support)

7. Floor-mounted electric battery.

Fig. 2. Bidirectional Electric Coaster-wheel Car (bottom view)

5. One centrally-fixed traction wheel

6. Four peripherally-fixed un-powered coaster wheels (for support)

Fig. 3. Six-wheel Bidirectional Electric Coaster-wheel Car (front and side view)

1. Dual opposite-facing equal capability steering systems

2. Combined front/rear/brake/turn/day-run/emergency light assembly

3. Upper brake lights mounted at each end of chassis

4. One seat configuration as example

5. Two traction wheels fixed at the cross points of the central longitudinal axis and the lateral axes between the front and rear sets of coaster wheels

6. Four peripherally-fixed un-powered coaster wheels (for support and steering)

7. Floor-mounted electric battery.

Fig. 4. Six-wheel Bidirectional Electric Coaster-wheel Car (bottom view)

5. Two traction wheels fixed at the cross points of the central longitudinal axis and the lateral axes between the front and rear sets of coaster wheels

6. Four peripherally-fixed un-powered coaster wheels (for support and steering) P T/IB2010/001296

Description of Embodiments:

0008 Example: Bidirectional Electric Coaster-wheel Car (five wheel)

This 5-wheeled electric city car represents the logical minimum to which electric- powered propulsion can be reduced in a chassis: a single engine within a single traction wheel. It is designed to enhance the benefits of electric cars for city driving (zero emissions, quietness, smoothness) through improved steering and handling capability, for decreased traffic congestion and increased traffic safety, while minimizing electric cars' weaknesses of short range and running time between charges through reduced weight and friction loss from running parts.

Its wheels are distributed like the five dots on a dice, with the central dot representing the only powered traction wheel, and the four peripheral dots representing un-powered coaster wheels which provide stability and steering (roughly similar in function to the front landing-gear wheel of a jet aircraft).

This bidirectional car is equipped to drive with equal steering and power in any of the 360° directions from a fixed point at stand-still, so it can stop on the street and move directly laterally into and out of a tight parking space, or pull into a parking lot or garage and drive out facing "forward" without backing up at all . . . producing increased driver convenience and traffic flow and safety.

It is a "green" ecological car, with pollution-reduction benefits not only in its low-energy- consumption and zero emission operation, but in the "carbon footprint" across its entire life-cycle from production to recycling. This is achieved through its simple construction, low-weight low-cost materials and simple low-cost low-skill assembly. Its lack of any internally-mounted engine or power-train also increase its internal passenger/baggage space versus conventional cars of similar external dimensions.

0009 Example: Bidirectional Electric Coaster-wheel Car (six wheel)

This is a variant of the aforementioned car which features two electric-powered traction wheels instead of one. The added power and stability would equip this car with more than city-driving capability, such as highway commutes to suburbs. 0013 Industrial Applicability

This invention of a radical new chassis/propulsion design compliments and supports the strong market trend towards electric cars in the automotive industry, and the strong regulatory trend to mandatory emission controls among governments. It also supports the urban governance trend toward cities with reduced automobile pollution and congestion.

The Bidirectional Electric Coaster-wheel Car is capable of offering a very inexpensive, practical and flexible, if somewhat "futuristic", alternative to the current electric cars on the market, which are often no more than a standard pressed-steel petrol-engine chassis and power-train with only an electric motor replacing the gasoline engine.

As such, the Bidirectional Electric Coaster-wheel Car could have wide-spread market appeal among city dwellers in congested cities (Europe and Asia particularly) who value economical, convenient, and safe short-haul city driving over highway gas mileage figures.

The 360° bidirectional steerability of this car also equip it as a support element for the development of computer-controlled remote traffic control and management systems which are somewhere not too far over the horizon in urban planning. If only the best- suited cars were eligible for such programs, what would be their share of urban car markets?