Patent ID: 6428050
Filing Date: 2002-08-06
Classification: A63C

Abstract:
A motorized skate, which comprises:a means for retaining a foot of a user; a drive wheel; a rail to which said drive wheel is rotatably attached and to which said foot retaining means is attached; one or more permanent magnets attached to said drive wheel with opposite magnetic poles adjacent to one another; one or more electromagnets attached to said rail and arranged generally in a plane that is substantially parallel to each plane containing said permanent magnets, said electromagnets being sufficiently close to said permanent magnets that magnetic fields of said electromagnets and said permanent magnets will interact with one another; a sensor that produces a signal only so long as a pole having a given polarity of one of said permanent magnets is near said sensor; a switch for activating said electromagnets by connecting said electromagnets to a source of electrical power; and a computer, said computer being capable of receiving input of a desired speed of rotation for said drive wheel, said computer being in communication with said sensor so that said computer receives a signal from said sensor only so long as a pole having a given polarity of one of said permanent magnets is near said sensor, said computer also being in communication with said switch in order to close said switch, said computer being capable of being programmed to produce a signal to close said switch periodically from a time a pole of the given polarity of one of said permanent magnets has approached said sensor until an opposite pole of said permanent magnet approaches said sensor, and said computer producing such a periodic signal to close said switch for a total period that the total period said switch is closed will create an average voltage that produces a desired speed of rotation for said drive wheel.