Patent ID: 7779941

Claim:
An apparatus for initiating movement of a wheeled cart, wherein said apparatus comprises: a control assembly; a drive wheel, wherein said drive wheel is one of a plurality of wheels of the wheeled cart; a motor, wherein said motor is electrically connected to said control assembly such that said control assembly is operable to activate said motor to operate in either a forward direction or a rearward direction, and wherein said motor is selectively coupled to said drive wheel to drivingly rotate said drive wheel in either the forward direction or the rearward direction based upon the activation by said control assembly; a clutch, wherein said clutch is selectively energized to couple said drive wheel to said motor and thereby drivingly rotate said drive wheel, and is selectively de-energized to decouple said drive wheel from said motor and thereby permit said drive wheel to freely rotate; and a run timer, wherein said run timer is energized to count down upon activation of said motor to drive said cart in the forward direction or rearward direction, and wherein at an end of a predetermined time period, said run timer times-out and de-energizes the clutch to decouple the motor from the drive wheel; a rechargeable battery, wherein said rechargeable battery is connected to said motor and is adapted to be recharged when said drive wheel is rotated while said motor is deactivated and decoupled from said drive wheel; and a generator, wherein said generator is electrically connected to said battery and is mechanically coupled to said drive wheel so as to generate a current to charge the battery by the rotation of the drive wheel while the motor is deactivated and decoupled from said drive wheel.