Tokai Rubber Industries, Ltd.

Kyushu University

Sumitomo Riko Company Limited

Riken Corporation

Kazunobu Hashimoto

Tomonori Hayakawa

Rentaro Kato

Yuuki Saitou

Hitoshi Yoshikawa

Hideyuki Otsuka

Shigeaki Takamatsu

Atsushi Takahara

Yota Kokubo

Takeshi Nomura

Shin-ichiro Takasugi

Ryosuke Matsuno

Masanori Sato

Motoji Yamamoto

Shingi Kumagai

Tetsuya Takeuchi

Jun Kobayashi

Masaru Murayama

Yo Kato

Tetsuyoshi Shibata

Yukihide Iwamoto

Shinichiro Takasugi

Takahiro Komatsu

Toshiharu Mukai

Ryousuke Matsuno

Ayumu Kida

Wu Chifei

Toshiyuki Mihara

Shohei Sato

Shanhai Jin

Hiroshi Yoshimine

Shin-Ichiro Takasugi

A swinging leg pendulum movement aid for walking including a pair of assisting units for a left leg and a right leg each having a drive source for applying a pulling force to an auxiliary force transmission part, a joint angle sensor for detecting a joint angle of user's hip joints, and a control member for driving the drive sources of the respective assisting units corresponding to changes in the joint angle and applying an assistance force in a forward swinging direction to the swinging leg that kicked off a ground so as to aid a pendulum movement of the swinging leg.

Swinging leg pendulum movement aid for walking, and assistance force control method

A reactive ionic liquid to be used as an ionic component that is contained in an ion-containing layer in a transducer arranged in contact with a high-resistance layer as a dielectric layer of the transducer, and is restrained from migrating from the ion-containing layer to the high-resistance layer on application of a voltage is provided. The reactive ionic liquid comprises an ion pair that consists of an anion and a cation. (a) The cation (a1) is an imidazolium or quaternary ammonium cation, and (a2) comprises a reactive group that consists of an alkoxysilyl or phosphonate group. (b) The anion (b1) is a sulfonate, sulfonylimide, or nitrobenzoate anion.

Reactive ionic liquid, and ion-immobilized metal oxide particle, ion-immobilized elastomer, and transducer using same

Provided is a joint movement aid, which has a simple structure and is lightweight and which a user can easily put on and take off, and which has a novel structure capable of safely supporting a walking without impeding a user's autonomous fall-preventing movement even in a case of a disturbance such as external force on the user in a transverse direction. The walking movement aid includes a right and left pair of assisting units provided with drive sources, which exert a pulling force on flexible auxiliary force transmission parts, and a control member for controlling the respective drive sources of the assisting units corresponding to changes in a joint angle with user's hip joints.

Walking movement aid

An ion-immobilized metal oxide particle includes a metal oxide particle and an anion that itself includes a) a reactive group that consists of an alkoxysilyl group and b) an anionic group consisting of a carboxylate (&#x2014;COO) group or a sulfonate (&#x2014;SO) group, the anion being immobilized to the metal oxide particle via a silanol group derived from the reactive group. An elastomer includes the ion-immobilized metal oxide particle, and a transducer includes the elastomer.

A reactive ionic liquid to be used as an ionic component that is contained in an ion-containing layer in a transducer arranged in contact with a high-resistance layer as a dielectric layer of the transducer, and is restrained from migrating from the ion-containing layer to the high-resistance layer on application of a voltage is provided. The reactive ionic liquid comprises an ion pair that consists of an anion and a cation. In the reactive ionic liquid, (a) the anion comprises (a1) a reactive group that consists of an alkoxysilyl group and (a2) an anionic group consisting of a carboxylate (&#x2014;COO) group or a sulfonate (&#x2014;SO) group. (b) The cation (b1) consists of an imidazolium, ammonium, pyrrolidinium, morpholinium, or phosphonium cation, and (b2) does not comprise an N&#x2014;H group or a P&#x2014;H group.

A purpose is to provide a sensor assembly and a sensor module having a flexible sensor element that uses polymer material and having a component such as the sensor element and the like that hardly deteriorates and is superior in durability. A sensor assembly includes a sensor element and an exterior packaging bag enclosing the sensor element. The sensor element includes a sensor thin film made of resin or elastomer, and at least one pair of electrodes connected to the sensor thin film. The exterior packaging bag is made from laminate films having a metal foil and two resin layers arranged sandwiching the metal foil.

Sensor assembly and sensor module

An object of the present invention is to provide an electrostatic capacity-type sensor which is excellent in durability and can detect bending-deformation. An electrostatic capacity-type sensor comprises a dielectric film made of an elastomer and a pair of electrodes arranged via the dielectric film, and detects the deformation based on a change in the electrostatic capacity between the pair of electrodes. The pair of electrodes have an elastomer and a conductive filler blended in said elastomer, and are expansible/contractible depending on the deformation of the dielectric film, and exhibit a small change in the conductivity even when expanded and contracted.

Electrostatic capacity-type sensor

A deformable sensor system that can be used for pressure-distribution sensors. The deformable sensor system makes it possible to obtain a pressure distribution with a much higher accuracy, while reducing the number of electrodes. The system utilizes a deformable sensor which can detect deformation as the electric resistivity of the surface increases monotonically as an elastic deformation variation in each of the elastic deformations increases. Based on a voltage being detected by means of a detecting unit, the deformable sensor electric-resistivity variation computing unit computes the variation of the electric resistivity based on the method of least squares with a restriction condition imposed thereon. The system uses such a technology as 'EIT' that is based on an inverse-problem theory. At an external-force position computing unit, a position in a pressure-receiving surface, position which receives an external force, is computed based on the computed electric-resistivity variation.

Deformable sensor system

A capacitive sensor includes a dielectric layer made of an elastomer and a pair of electrodes arranged via the dielectric layer, and detects deformation on the basis of electrostatic capacity variation between the pair of electrodes. The pair of electrodes contain an elastomer and conductive fillers filled into the elastomer, are expandable and contractible in accordance with deformation of the dielectric layer, and exhibit little conductivity variation even when the pair of electrodes expand and contract. At least one of the dielectric layer and the electrodes is formed by a printing method using a dielectric layer coating containing a formation component of the dielectric layer or an electrode coating containing a formation component of the electrode.

Capacitive sensor

A deformation sensor, which has excellent workability and a high degree of freedom in shape design and which can detect deformation and load in a wide area of components and portions, has a main body of sensor, electrodes which are connected to the main body of sensor and can output electric resistances, and a restraining component which restrains elastic deformation of at least a part of the main body of sensor. The main body of sensor has an elastomer, and spherical conductive fillers which are blended into the elastomer at a high filling rate in an approximately single-particle state, and is elastically deformable. In the main body of sensor, as an elastic deformation increases, the electric resistance increases.

Deformation sensor

A first deformation sensor is arranged in a shock transmission member which is built in a vehicle and which constitutes a transmission path of a shock applied from the outside. A second deformation sensor is arranged in an exterior member which is exposed to the outside of a vehicle. Each of the first and second deformation sensors comprises a main body of sensor which has an elastomer and spherical conductive fillers blended in the elastomer in an approximately single particle state and with a high filling rate, and in which an electric resistance increases as an elastic deformation increases, and an electrode which is connected with the main body of sensor and is able to output the electric resistance.

A crosslinked elastomer body is composed of an electrically conductive composition comprising an electrically conductive filler and an insulative elastomer (matrix). The electrically conductive filler is in a spherical particulate form and has an average particle diameter of 0.05 to 100 &#x3bc;m. The electrically conductive filler has a critical volume fraction (&#x3c6;c) of not less than 30 vol % as determined at a first inflection point of a percolation curve at which an insulator-conductor transition occurs with an electrical resistance steeply reduced when the electrically conductive filler is gradually added to the elastomer. A resistance observed under compressive strain or bending strain increases according to the strain over a resistance observed under no strain when the electrically conductive filler is present in a volume fraction not less than the critical volume fraction (&#x3c6;c) in the composition.

Crosslinked elastomer body for sensor, and production method therefor

A high damping elastomer composition that has a high damping capability and is superior in the temperature dependency of rigidity. The high damping elastomer composition has at least one styrene block polymer as a main component. The ratio of a diblock component in the overall styrene block polymer is in the range of 50 to 95 wt. %.

High damping elastomer composition

A high-damping elastomer composition comprises a styrene-isoprene-styrene triblock copolymer (component A) and a ethylene-methyl methacrylate random copolymer (component B). In the high-damping elastomer composition of the present invention, the styrene-isoprene-styrene triblock copolymer (component A) and the ethylene-methyl methacrylate random copolymer (component B) form a so-called &ldquo;islands-in-the-sea&rdquo; structure which may vary depending on the blending ratio therebetween. The components A and B are partially compatibilized with each other in a homogeneously mixed state in sea-island interfaces.

Growing community of inventors

Nagoya, Japan

Kazunobu Hashimoto