Power equipment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11246261-B2
Application number	US-201716342487-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 16, 2017
Priority date	Nov 25, 2016
Publication date	Feb 15, 2022
Grant date	Feb 15, 2022

Abstract

Walk-behind power equipment includes: a main body including front and rear wheels; a work unit provided on the main body; a work motor that drives the work unit; a travel motor that rotates the rear wheel; a handle extending from the main body rearward and upward; a posture detector that detects a rearward tilted state of the main body in which the rear wheel is in contact with a ground and the front wheel is not; and a control unit that drive-controls the work motor and travel motor, wherein when the main body is in the rearward tilted state, the control unit causes a rotational speed of the travel motor to be reduced compared to when the front wheel is in contact with the ground, or causes a rotational speed of the work motor to be reduced compared to when the front wheel is in contact with the ground.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A walk-behind power equipment, comprising:
a main body provided with a front wheel and a rear wheel;
a work unit provided on the main body;
a work motor that drives the work unit;
a travel motor that rotates the rear wheel;
a handle provided on the main body to extend rearward and upward;
a posture detector that detects a rearward tilted state of the main body in which the rear wheel is in contact with a ground and the front wheel is spaced from the ground; and
a control unit that drive-controls the work motor and the travel motor,
wherein when the main body is in the rearward tilted state, the control unit causes a rotational speed of the travel motor to be reduced compared to when the front wheel is in contact with the ground, or causes a rotational speed of the work motor to be reduced compared to when the front wheel is in contact with the ground,
the posture detector includes a tilt angle detector that detects a tilt angle of the main body about a lateral axis, and
during a period from when the tilt angle becomes greater than or equal to a predetermined tilt angle determination value and a change rate of the tilt angle becomes greater than or equal to a predetermined change rate determination value to when the tilt angle becomes smaller than or equal to a predetermined restoration determination value, the control unit causes the speed of the travel motor to be reduced compared to when the tilt angle is smaller than the tilt angle determination value.

2. The power equipment according to claim 1 , wherein the tilt angle detector is an acceleration sensor that outputs a signal corresponding to an acceleration, and
the control unit performs a low-pass filtering process on the signal from the acceleration sensor to remove at least a portion of the signal corresponding to a dynamic component of the acceleration, and calculates the tilt angle based on the signal that has been subjected to the filtering process.

3. The power equipment according to claim 2 , further comprising an operation inputter that inputs a signal corresponding to an operation by an operator to the control unit,
wherein the control unit drive-controls the travel motor according to the signal from the operation inputter, and changes a filter used in the low-pass filtering process according to the signal from the operation inputter.

4. The power equipment according to claim 3 , wherein the control unit increases a removal ratio of a high-frequency component of the signal from the acceleration sensor by changing the filter when acceleration or deceleration of the travel motor is determined based on the signal from the operation inputter.

5. The power equipment according to claim 1 , wherein the posture detector includes a load detector that detects a downward load applied to the handle, and
when the load is greater than or equal to a predetermined load determination value, the control unit causes the speed of the travel motor to be reduced compared to when the load is smaller than the load determination value.

6. The power equipment according to claim 1 , wherein the posture detector includes a load detector that detects a downward load applied to the handle and a tilt angle detector that detects a tilt angle of the main body about a lateral axis, and
when the load is greater than or equal to a predetermined load determination value and the tilt angle is greater than or equal to a predetermined tilt angle determination value, the control unit causes the speed of the travel motor to be lowered compared to when the load is smaller than the load determination value or the tilt angle is smaller than the tilt angle determination value.

Assignees

• Honda Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Fukano Jun
• Takeda Masato
• Muraoka Keisuke

Classifications

• A01D34/68 Primary

  with motor driven cutters or wheels · CPC title

• A01D34/826 Primary

  Noise reduction means · CPC title

• A01D34/69

  with motor driven wheels · CPC title

• A01D34/824

  Handle arrangements · CPC title

• A01D69/02

  electric · CPC title