Patent attributes
In a traveling apparatus, a front wheel supporting member is coupled to a rear wheel supporting member rotatably around a pivot axis and with a support shaft in such a way that a wheel base length will become variable according to a relative posture of the front wheel supporting member and the rear wheel supporting member. Control is performed so that the greater the wheel base length, the greater a speed of the traveling apparatus in a forward direction will become. When the wheel base length is one at which the speed in the forward direction becomes substantially zero, while the front wheel is oriented in a straight traveling direction, an intersection point where the pivot axis crosses a road surface is located at a position offset from a grounding point where the front wheel is grounded on the road surface toward a side of the rear wheel.