Patent ID: 11938752
Assignee: WHILL, INC.
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  Y | IPC B

Claim 15:
16. An omnidirectional wheel whose outer circumference surface is formed with a plurality of rollers and which rotates around a rotation axis of the axle, the omnidirectional wheel comprising:
a rotating part that rotates around the rotation axis of the axle; and
a plurality of supports which is arranged in a circumferential direction of the rotating part and each of which is mounted on the rotating part to support the plurality of rollers on the rotating part, wherein
the plurality of rollers includes a plurality of small-diameter rollers and a plurality of large-diameter rollers having a larger outside diameter than the small-diameter rollers,
the small-diameter rollers and the large-diameter rollers alternate with each other in the circumferential direction,
each of the supports has a first arm that supports one end side in an axial direction of a corresponding small-diameter roller that is a corresponding one of the plurality of small-diameter rollers, and a second arm that supports the other end side in the axial direction of the corresponding small-diameter roller,
a corresponding large-diameter roller that is a corresponding one of the plurality of large-diameter rollers is supported by the first arm of one of two supports that are adjacent to each other in the circumferential direction and the second arm of the other one of the two supports,
in the first arm, a large-diameter-roller support part that supports the corresponding large-diameter roller is disposed on an inner side in a radial direction of the rotating part relative to a small-diameter-roller support part that supports one end side in the axial direction of the corresponding small-diameter roller,
the first arm has a base-end-side part that extends in the axial direction of the corresponding small-diameter roller,
the base-end-side part connects a fixed part to be fixed to the rotating part and the large-diameter-roller support part to each other,
a part of an inner surface of the base-end-side part in the radial direction and an inner circumference surface of the corresponding large-diameter roller face each other,
a center portion, in a wheel width direction, of the part of the inner surface bulges toward the inner side in the radial direction, and
a distance between the part of the inner surface and the inner circumference surface of the corresponding large-diameter roller is not larger than 2 mm.