Electric bicycle component

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9447869-B2
Application number	US-201514632046-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 26, 2015
Priority date	May 23, 2014
Publication date	Sep 20, 2016
Grant date	Sep 20, 2016

Abstract

An electric bicycle component is basically provided that is capable of realizing finer control of the transmission device according to the riding environment. The electric bicycle component includes a control unit that is mounted to a bicycle. The control unit includes a controller and an acceleration detection unit. The acceleration detection unit includes programmed to detect an acceleration of the bicycle. The controller programmed to select one of a first to a third shifting conditions based on the acceleration detected by the acceleration detection unit, and controls an actuator of the transmission device based on the selected shifting condition.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electric bicycle component comprising:
a controller programmed to control a transmission device of a bicycle; and
an acceleration detection unit programmed to detect a moving average value of a change in speed over a period of time at a plurality of points as an acceleration of the bicycle;
the controller being programmed to select one of a plurality of shifting conditions based on at least the acceleration that has been detected by the acceleration detection unit, the controller being programmed to output a command to control the transmission device based on the shifting condition that has been selected.

2. The electric bicycle component according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a manual force detection unit programmed to detect a manual force that is applied to a pedal of the bicycle,
the controller being programmed to control the transmission device based on the shifting condition that has been selected and the manual force that has been detected by the manual force detection unit.

3. The electric bicycle component according to claim 1 , wherein
the controller is programmed to change the shifting condition that has been selected to a different shifting condition based on the acceleration that has been detected by the acceleration detection unit.

4. The electric bicycle component according to claim 1 , wherein
the controller is programmed to select a first shifting condition of the shifting conditions upon making an assessment that the bicycle is traveling at a substantially stable speed based on the acceleration that has been detected by the acceleration detection unit.

5. The electric bicycle component according to claim 1 , wherein
the controller is programmed to select a second shifting condition of the shifting conditions upon making an assessment that the bicycle is substantially accelerating based on the acceleration that has been detected by the acceleration detection unit.

6. The electric bicycle component according to claim 1 , wherein
the controller is programmed to select a third shifting condition of the shifting conditions upon making an assessment that the bicycle is substantially decelerating based on the acceleration that has been detected by the acceleration detection unit.

7. The electric bicycle component according to claim 2 , wherein
each of the shifting conditions comprises at least one assessment value; and
the controller is programmed to control the transmission device based on the manual force that has been detected by the manual force detection unit and the at least one assessment value for the shifting condition that has been selected.

8. The electric bicycle component according to claim 7 , wherein
the controller is programmed to control the transmission device to upshift when the manual force that has been detected by the manual force detection unit is the same as a first assessment value of the at least one assessment value for the shifting condition that has been selected, or is less than the first assessment value.

9. The electric bicycle component according to claim 7 , wherein
the controller is programmed to control the transmission device to downshift when the manual force that has been detected by the manual force detection unit is the same as a second assessment value of the at least one assessment value for the shifting condition that has been selected, or is greater than the second assessment value.

10. The electric bicycle component according to claim 7 , wherein
the at least one assessment value for each of the shifting conditions comprises at least first and second assessment values, the first assessment value being less than the second assessment value.

11. The electric bicycle component according to claim 7 , wherein
the controller is configured to receive a shift command from a manual shift command input unit; and
the controller is programmed to control the transmission device to upshift or to downshift, based on the shift command received from the manual shift command input unit, and to change the at least one of the assessment value for the shifting condition that has been selected to a value different from that prior to receiving the shift command.

12. The electric bicycle component according to claim 11 , wherein
the controller is programmed to control the transmission device to upshift when the manual force that has been detected by the manual force detection unit is the same as a first assessment value of the at least one of the assessment value for the shifting condition that has been selected, or is less than the first assessment value,
the controller is programmed to control the transmission device to upshift when a first shift command to upshift the transmission device has been received, and
the controller is programmed to change the first assessment value to a value that is greater than that prior to receiving the first shift command.

13. The electric bicycle component according to claim 11 , wherein
the at least one assessment value for each of the shifting conditions comprises at least a second assessment value;
the controller is programmed to control the transmission device to downshift when the manual force that has been detected by the manual force detection unit is the same as a second assessment value of the at least one of the assessment value for the shifting condition that has been selected, or is greater than the second assessment value;
the controller is programmed to control the transmission device to downshift when a second shift command to downshift the transmission device has been received; and
the controller is programmed to change the second assessment value to a value that is less than that prior to receiving the second shift command.

14. The electric bicycle component according to claim 11 , wherein
the at least one of the assessment value for each of the shifting conditions comprises at least first and second assessment values, the first assessment value having a default value that is less than a default value of the second assessment value for each of the shifting conditions.

15. The electric bicycle component according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a speed detection unit programmed to detect a speed of the bicycle;
the controller being programmed to control the transmission device based on the speed of the bicycle when the manual force detection unit has not detected the manual force for a prescribed period of time.

16. The electric bicycle component according to claim 15 , wherein
the speed detection unit detects the speed of the bicycle based on a signal that is output from a dynamo of the bicycle.

17. The electric bicycle component according to claim 1 , wherein
the acceleration detection unit detects the acceleration of the bicycle based on a signal that is output from a dynamo of the bicycle.

18. The electric bicycle component according to claim 17 , wherein
the acceleration detection unit detects an average value of the acceleration of the bicycle over a prescribed period of time, based on the signal that is output from the dynamo of the bicycle.

19. The electric bicycle component according to claim 2 , wherein
the manual force detection unit detects the manual force that is applied to the pedal of the bicycle based on a signal that is output from a strain sensor that outputs a signal that changes according to strain of a crank of the bicycle.

20. The electric bicycle component according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a storage unit having the shi

Assignees

• Shimano Kk

Inventors

• Tetsuka Toshio
• Mori Shintaro

Classifications

• B62M25/08 Primary

  with electrical or fluid transmitting systems · CPC title

• F16H61/0213 Primary

  characterised by the method for generating shift signals · CPC title

• F16H2061/0234

  Adapting the ratios to special vehicle conditions · CPC title

• F16H59/48

  Inputs being a function of acceleration · CPC title

• F16H59/44

  dependent on machine speed {, e.g. the vehicle speed} (F16H59/46 takes precedence) · CPC title