Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Kazuo Yokoyama

Katsuhiko Asai

Atsushi Ono

Hiroshi Watanabe

Masaki Yamamoto

Hiroshi Sakakima

Teruhiro Shiono

Masahiro Birukawa

Osamu Kusumoto

Masayoshi Hiramoto

Michihito Ueda

Yousuke N Irie

Takao Tohda

Sachio Nagamitsu

Kimiya Ikushima

Taketoshi Yonezawa

Tatsuo Ito

Motoshi Shibata

Yuji Adachi

Nobuyasu Yamagishi

Yasunao Okazaki

Shinichi Mizuguchi

Hideki Kuwajima

Satoru Fujii

Masahiko Hashimoto

Shoichi Ishihara

Nozomu Matsukawa

Ushio Sangawa

Hiroyuki Kado

Shinichi Yamamoto

Yuriko Kaneko

Kaoru Matsuoka

Hideo Kurokawa

Tsutomu Mitani

Kiyotaka Wasa

Shigeru Hayakawa

Junichi Asada

Sadayoshi Hotta

Osamu Yamada

Yoshihiro Matsuo

Isaku Kanno

Akio Murata

Akio Kuroe

Eiichi Hirota

Kenichi Sakamoto

Michio Okajima

Takuya Iwamoto

Yuji Kudoh

Fumiko Yokotani

Ryuji Nishiyama

Ryuji Nichiyama

An optical microphone includes: an acousto-optic medium section having a pair of principal surfaces and at least one lateral surface provided therebetween; a restraint section which is in contact with the at least one lateral surface for preventing a shape change of the acousto-optic medium section; and a light emitting section for emitting a light wave so as to propagate through the acousto-optic medium section between the pair of principal surfaces. The pair of principal surfaces are in contact with an environmental fluid through which an acoustic wave to be detected is propagating and are capable of freely vibrating, and an optical path length variation of a light wave propagating through the acousto-optic medium section, which is caused by the acoustic wave that comes into the acousto-optic medium section from at least one of the pair of principal surfaces and propagates through the acousto-optic medium section, is detected.

Optical microphone

There is provided a polymer actuator including a first electrode layer as an active member layer made of a conductive polymer, a second electrode layer opposing to the first electrode layer, and an electrolyte placed between the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer, so that the polymer actuator is driven by a voltage applied between both the electrode layers, wherein the electrolyte is constituted by a first electrolyte layer having a sliding function and a second electrolyte layer having an insulation maintaining function.

Polymer actuator

A fluid transporting device is provided with a pump chamber that has a pump function for sucking and discharging a fluid, and is filled therein with the fluid, a casing unit which forms one portion of a wall surface of the pump chamber, a diaphragm which is formed by a conductive polymer film that is subjected to electrochemomechanical expansion and contraction, and forms one portion of the wall surface of the pump chamber, an electrolyte chamber that contains an electrolyte therein, with one portion of the electrolyte being made in contact with the diaphragm, a power supply that applies a voltage to the diaphragm, and a pressure maintaining unit that maintains a pressure of the diaphragm within a predetermined range by moving or deforming the one portion of the wall surface of the electrolyte chamber.

Fluid transporting device using conductive polymer

A fluid transporting device is provided with a pump chamber that has a pump function for sucking and discharging a fluid, and is filled therein with the fluid, a casing unit which forms one portion of a wall surface of the pump chamber, a diaphragm which is formed by a conductive polymer film that is subjected to electrochemomechanical expansion and contraction, and forms one portion of the wall surface of the pump chamber, an electrolyte chamber that contains an electrolyte therein, with one portion of the electrolyte being made in contact with the diaphragm, a power supply that applies a voltage to the diaphragm, and a pressure maintaining unit that maintains a pressure to be applied to the diaphragm.

There are provided a lens holder being capable of holding a lens and having flange portions at opposite end portions thereof along an optical axis, a planary-driven actuator including driving arm portions having lens holder support points for holding the outer surface of the lens holder at a plurality of opposing positions and having free-end side contact portions, a lens-holder retaining plate having spring-characteristic portions, and fixing frames which form the outer surfaces of a lens holder driving device and fix the respective components.

Lens holder driving device and image pickup unit employing planary-driven polymer actuator

Conductive polymer films are respectively connected to fixed frames via a link member, and an electrolyte holding layer is placed so as to be made in contact with the conductive polymer films. The fixed frames are regulated by the link member.

Flat-plate lamination-type conductive polymer actuator and flat-plate lamination-type conductive polymer actuator device as well as operating method thereof

A working robot arm and an object recognizing unit used for recognizing a moving body such as a person and an animal are prepared, and while an object recognized by the object recognizing unit is blocked by a shielding operation by the use of the robot arm or a trunk portion of a robot mechanism unit, a job is carried out by the working robot arm so that it becomes possible to actively ensure a working space of the robot mechanism unit, and consequently to continue the job safely.

Robot apparatus performing shielding operation of an object from workspace

A plane thin-type polymer actuator is provided with a conductive active member serving as a first electrode layer, and a second electrode layer, with at least a first electrolytic layer made in contact with the active member layer. The first electrolytic layer being sealed between the two electrode layers so that, by applying an electric field between the two electrode layers, the active member layer is expanded and contracted. In this structure, the first electrolytic layer is a solid-state electrolyte having a specific elastic modulus, or a liquid-state electrolyte. A holding member is provided to maintain the thickness between the active member layer and the second electrode layer.

Polymer actuator having active member layer that expands or contracts upon application of electric field

A multi-joint drive mechanism includes a bone-member layer member () in which a plurality of bone members are arranged in arrays and in a generally planar fashion, the plurality of bone members being movably coupled at coupling portions (A), and elastically expanding/contracting members () which are arranged so as to stretch over the coupling portions on one side or both sides of the bone-member layer member and moreover which are fixed between the plurality of bone members, wherein the multi-joint drive mechanism drives flexural motions of joints between the plurality of adjoining bone members by expanding or contracting the elastically expanding/contracting member.

Articulated driving mechanism, method of manufacturing the mechanism, and holding hand and robot using the mechanism

A first liquid and a second liquid are sealed in a cell, and the first liquid and the second liquid are not mixed with each other, and have different refractive indexes, with the interface of the two liquids being remained stationary by an edge portion of a movable opening member that is made in contact with the interface of the two liquids so that an actuator that is coupled to the movable opening member controls a shape of the interface of the two liquids by driving the movable opening member.

Varifocal lens device

An actuator as a drive source of robots and the like is usable for housekeeping assistance, job assistance, and nursing help. The drive source itself is small, light, flexible, and safe. A manufacturing method for a planar electrode support therefor is also described. The actuator has an electrolyte layer in contact with a conductive polymer layer disposed in between a first electrode having the conductive polymer layer attached thereto and opposite second electrode, for deforming the conductive polymer layer by application of electric fields to the electrodes. The first electrode has low rigidity in a longitudinal direction of the conductive polymer layer to facilitate expansion and contraction thereof.

Actuator and method for manufacturing planar electrode support for actuator

A working robot arm and an object recognizing unit used for recognizing a moving body such as a person and an animal are prepared, and while an object recognized by the object recognizing unit is blocked by a shielding operation by the use of one portion of a robot mechanism unit, a job is carried out by the working robot arm so that it becomes possible to actively ensure a working space of the robot mechanism unit, and consequently to continue the job safely.

Robot apparatus

Two conductive polymer films, one of which swells and the other of which shrinks by an oxidation-reduction reaction, are connected to a link mechanism for reciprocally converting shrinkage-directional displacements of one film to swell-directional displacements of the other film, so that driving force in the expansion direction of one conductive polymer film can be generated by driving force in contraction direction of the other conductive polymer film.

Conductive polymer actuator

A laminated-type multi-joint portion drive mechanism includes a bone member having at least two elastic deformation portions, a laminated-type pneumatic tube member having at least twoline-tubes which are stacked on the bone member and which are connected to a pneumatic drive source, and a planar-type joint-portion deformation member which is stacked on the laminated-type pneumatic tube member and has pneumatic operation chambers which are placed at joint portions confronting the deformation portions, respectively, and which are connected to the tubes, wherein when pneumatic pressure is applied to one of the pneumatic operation chambers, the joint portion corresponding to the pneumatic operation chamber to which the pneumatic pressure is applied is deformable.

Laminated-type multi-joint portion drive mechanism and manufacturing method therefor, grasping hand and robot arm provided with the same

A magnetic head for reproducing a signal recorded on a recording medium, includes a substrate, a magnetic head core provided on the substrate, having a magnetic gap, and a magnetoresistance device provided on the magnetic head core. The magnetic head core is provided in such a manner that a thickness direction of the magnetic head core around the magnetic gap is substantially the same as a track width direction of the recording medium.

Recording/reproducing head and recording/reproducing apparatus incorporating the same

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Osaka, Japan

Kazuo Yokoyama