Patent ID: 8423274

Claim:
An inverted pendulum vehicle comprising: a vehicle body that includes a riding section and a vehicle main body; means for controlling torque of a drive wheel according to tilt of the vehicle body and rotation of a drive wheel; a limiting mechanism having a leading end portion that is in ground contact when the vehicle is in an ingress/egress standstill position at which the occupant gets on and off the seat, to thereby limit a tilt angle of the vehicle body; a riding section movement mechanism moving the riding section relative to the vehicle main body; and raising control means for raising the vehicle body, while moving the riding section with the riding section movement mechanism such that the center of gravity of the vehicle body is positioned on a vertical line that passes through a ground contact point of the drive wheel, and wherein, in starting from the ingress/egress standstill position with the tilt angle of the vehicle body limited by the limiting mechanism, the raising control means moves the riding section until the center of gravity of the vehicle body is positioned on the vertical line that passes through the ground contact point of the drive wheel and then starts raising the vehicle body, and wherein, to establish the ingress/egress standstill position, the raising control means tilts the vehicle body forward until the leading end portion of the limiting mechanism contacts the ground and the riding section movement mechanism moves the riding section forward so that the center of gravity of the vehicle body is located forward of the vertical line that passes through the ground contact point of the drive wheel.