A lift truck has a pair of driven wheels 108, 110 at one end, each with an independently controllable electrical motor, and at least one steerable wheel 104, 106 at the other end. A sensor, preferably a linear sensor, measures a signal indicating the distance between a fixed point (CP, Figure 13) on the lift truck chassis and a moveable point (RP, Figure 13) associated with the steering gear of steerable wheel 104, 106, whose output is provided to a controller to derive a lateral distance to a common centre 102 of turning circles associated with wheels of the truck. The controller calculates a required drive speed for the electric motor of each driven wheel 108, 110 according to the distance of that wheel from the calculated common centre of turning circles, and outputs a respective independent motor control signal effective to cause the drive motors to drive the driven wheels at the calculated speeds,
Differential steering arrangement for electrically driven lift trucks
2023-12-06
Patent
Electronic Resource
English
IPC: | B62D MOTOR VEHICLES , Motorfahrzeuge |
DIFFERENTIAL STEERING ARRANGEMENT FOR ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN LIFT TRUCKS
European Patent Office | 2023
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European Patent Office | 2022