Walking Wheel Assembly with Offset Camshaft for Non-Planar Surfaces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional mobility devices, such as casters and carriage assemblies, face challenges in efficiently and stably moving objects across uneven or irregular surfaces and small obstructions, leading to instability and potential tipping, especially when handling heavy loads.
Innovation Solution
A mobility device with a walking wheel assembly and an offset camshaft, where the forward wheel pivots over non-planar areas while the rearward wheel remains on the planar surface, allowing smooth traversal and incorporating a deflector assembly for enhanced stability and ease of assembly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional mobility devices use single wheel assemblies, then the device structure is simple, but the device cannot smoothly traverse non-planar surfaces and causes instability
Solution Approach 1:
The wheel assembly is segmented into a leading wheel and a trailing wheel connected by an offset camshaft. This segmentation allows each wheel to independently respond to surface variations, with the leading wheel navigating non-planar areas while the trailing wheel maintains stability on planar surfaces, resolving the contradiction between reliability and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The offset camshaft mechanism enables dynamic adjustment of wheel positions and orientations in response to surface conditions. As the leading wheel encounters non-planar areas, the camshaft dynamically pivots the wheel upward while the trailing wheel remains grounded, providing adaptive stability that improves reliability without requiring a overly complex fixed structure.
2Ease of operation
If the wheel assembly uses offset camshaft mechanism, then the device can traverse non-planar areas smoothly, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The offset camshaft utilizes curved cam surfaces that convert rotational motion into the desired pivoting motion of the wheel. This curved geometry enables smooth traversal of non-planar surfaces through mechanical advantage, achieving ease of operation while maintaining manufacturability through standard cam mechanism fabrication techniques.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If conventional casters are used on uneven surfaces, then the device structure is simple, but the object may tip or stop suddenly causing injury or damage
Solution Approach 1:
The leading wheel is positioned to proactively encounter and navigate non-planar surface features before the trailing wheel reaches them. The offset camshaft mechanism prepares the wheel assembly for upcoming surface variations by continuously adjusting wheel positions, preventing sudden stops and tipping that could cause harm, while maintaining a manageable structural complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A mobility device for moving an object across a surface having a non-planar obstruction to allow movement of the object over the obstruction. The mobility device has a walking wheel assembly and an attachment mechanism. The walking wheel assembly has at least two wheels and an offset camshaft. The offset camshaft has a lobe associated with each wheel. The lobes are in a non-linear relationship such that one wheel is a leading wheel and one wheel is a trailing wheel. The offset camshaft allows the leading and trailing wheels to pivot upward and downward independent of each other. The attachment mechanism attaches the walking wheel assembly to the object. The mobility device can include a deflector assembly having a pair of deflector arms that are pivotally connected to a cam-axle which is attached to the offset camshaft to help guide the mobility device over non-planar areas.