Steering apparatus for the electric cart without the revolution of the arm

Abstract

The electric carts are useful for aged people, because their mileage is enough long for the dairy use. Most of them have the steering mechanism using the bar type handle. The operators must grip the bar with both hands operating the accelerator bar. Since the grips of ordinary handle are located behind the handle axis, those grips would be moved with long distance. The wrists of operator should be wrenched, and the operator would move outside to make their wrists easy. This kind of motion results the movement of the center of gravity and increase the danger to overturn. In order to reduce this risk, we propose the new type of steering device based on the parallel four-links. Since the grips of proposed handle move on the straight way, the posture of operators' wrists would not be changed. This type of handle seems to be useful for the electric cart.