Patent ID: 11940833
Assignee: INVENTUS ENGINEERING GMBH
Field: Mechanical elements (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  F | IPC G

Claim 25:
26. An input apparatus, comprising:
an operator control device, a magnetorheological brake device, and a control device for controlling said brake device;
said operator control device including a support and an operator control lever pivotably held on said support about at least one pivot axis; and
at least one sensor for sensing a pivot angle of said operator control lever;
said brake device being configured to dampen a pivoting movement of said operator control lever about said pivot axis under control by said control device;
said control device being configured to control said brake device in dependence on a control command and to convert the control command into a haptic signal that is perceptible at said operator control lever to provide a user of the input apparatus with haptic feedback (force feedback) as a consequence of an input that is being performed or that has been performed; and
said brake device being a magnetorheological transfer device, and the magnetorheological transfer device being equipped with at least two couplable components with a coupling intensity of which can be influenced, at least one channel being provided for the purposes of influencing the coupling intensity, said channel containing a magnetorheological medium which can be influenced by a magnetic field and which contains magnetically polarizable particles, and at least one magnetic-field-generating device for generating a magnetic field in said channel is provided in order to influence the magnetorheological medium in the channel by way of the magnetic field, one of the components, being an outer component, surrounds an inner component, and at least one of said two components is mounted by way of at least one separate bearing, and a spacing between said outer component and said inner component is at least ten times a typical mean diameter of magnetically polarizable particles contained in the magnetorheological medium, and said channel can be at least partially subjected to the magnetic field of said magnetic-field-generating device in order to selectively interlink or release the particles.