Panasonic Corporation

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.

Ikeda Electric Co., Ltd.

Activelink Co., Ltd.

Keisuke Ueda

Masafumi Yamamoto

Hisaya Takikita

Katunobu Hamamoto

Naoki Onishi

Katsunobu Hamamoto

Takashi Kawakami

Toshihiko Ishiko

Makoto Hasegawa

Kenichi Fukuda

Katsunori Sakuragi

Hideshi Fukutani

Katsuyoshi Nakada

Nobuo Ukita

Kei Mitsuyasu

Hiromichi Fujimoto

Tsuguo Inazawa

Go Shirogauchi

Motoshi Hori

Tatsuro Mizutani

Tomohiro Sasakawa

Tetsuya Hamana

Kouichi Ikegami

Kazuhiko Tachibana

Takuya Sakai

A lighting device which outputs a DC current to a load, the lighting device including: a downconverter circuit which includes a switching element and steps down a DC voltage input to the downconverter circuit; and a controller which controls turning on and off of the switching element, wherein the controller has operating modes including a detection mode in which the controller detects a time taken for a current through the switching element to reach a predetermined value after the switching element turns on, the current through the switching element representing the DC current output to the load.

Lighting device and lighting fixture for current control with a solid-state lighting element

A no-load detection circuit includes an inductance device, an impedance device and a switch circuit. The inductance device is interposed between a choke coil and a first output terminal, which is at a high potential side, so as to be magnetically coupled to the choke coil. The impedance device is connected in series with the inductance device between the inductance device and the first output terminal. The switch circuit is configured to be turned on when a value of electric potential at the first output terminal exceeds a predetermined reference value. The control circuit is configured to stop the switching control if the switch circuit is turned on.

LED power supply

An LED lighting device includes a DC/DC power converter having output terminals coupled to respective lamp sockets. A controller receives signals from a current sensor and a voltage sensor, and controls the DC/DC power converter to increase/decrease an output voltage based on a sensed output current with respect to a target value. A sensed output voltage is compared to predetermined upper and lower limit values, and the DC/DC power converter is disabled when the output voltage exceeds the predetermined upper limit value or falls below the predetermined lower limit. The controller further measures an accumulated lighting time of the device, and after the accumulated lighting time has exceeded a predetermined switching time, decreases the upper limit value monotonously or in increments as the accumulated lighting time passes.

LED driver with end-of-life detection circuitry

An LED lighting device includes a converter for converting a power source voltage into a DC voltage and outputting it to an LED unit; and a controller for controlling an output of the converter. The converter has a chopper circuit including a series circuit of an inductance element and a capacitor; a switching element connected to the inductance element in series and turned on/off by the controller; and a diode as discharging path of the inductance element during an OFF state of the switching element. The controller controls an on/off time of the switching element such that a current supplied to the LED unit during a specific time period after a lighting operation is started becomes smaller than a current supplied to the LED unit in a steady state by using a voltage generated in a secondary coil of the inductance coil as an operating voltage thereof.

LED lighting device and illumination apparatus including same

An LED lighting device includes a power converter for outputting a variable output voltage, two LED lamps being connected in series between output terminals of the power converter; a current detector for detecting an output current from the power converter; a first detector for detecting the output voltage of the power converter and generating a first detection voltage corresponding to the output voltage; a second detector for detecting an applied voltage to one of the two LED lamps and generating a second detection voltage corresponding to the applied voltage; and a controller for controlling the power converter to adjust the output voltage to thereby make the output current coincide with a target value. The controller controls the power converter to decrease the output voltage if at least one of the second detection voltage and the deference between the first and the second detection voltage does not fall within a range.

A muscle force assisting can increase a bending angle of a second attachment with respect to a first attachment. The muscle force assisting device includes the first attachment arranged along one bone of a joint, the second attachment arranged along the other bone of the joint, and an artificial muscle having one end provided on the first attachment and having the other end provided on the second attachment, an actuator that is extensible or contractible by supplying or discharging a substance such as gas, liquid and solid, or a mixture thereof is used as the artificial muscle, and the muscle force assisting device assists motion of a user's elbow, knee and wrist, the one end of the artificial muscle can be displaced with respect to the first attachment, the one end of the artificial muscle is displaced, and a bending angle of the second attachment with respect to the first attachment is increased as compared with a case where the one end of the artificial muscle is not displaced.

Muscle force assisting device and its operating method

An illumination lighting apparatus is connected to, as an external apparatus, any of a human body sensing sensor configured to detect presence/absence of a person, an illuminance sensor configured to detect space illuminance, and a dimmer which arbitrarily adjusts the space illuminance, and is configured to produce an output control signal for controlling an optical output of a light source based on a signal output from the external apparatus. The illumination lighting apparatus includes: an external apparatus determining unit configured to determine which kind of the external apparatus is connected based on the signal output from the external apparatus; and a signal processing unit configured to produce the output control signal based on the signal output from the external apparatus.

Illumination lighting apparatus, illumination apparatus, and illumination system

A wrist assisting apparatus can smoothly bend and stretch a joint even if a turning shaft of a joint and a rotation shaft of a wearing tool are deviated from each other. Also, an excessive load is not applied to a user. The wrist assisting apparatus of the present invention includes a palm support member for supporting a hand, angle changing members connected to sides of the palm support member, a front arm wearing tool disposed along the front arm, and joint members for forming a rotation shaft of the angle changing member with respect to the front arm wearing tool, wherein the angle changing members are provided on both sides of the palm support member, the joint members are provided on the angle changing members, respectively, and the joint members are located on both sides of a wrist.

Wrist assisting apparatus

An LED lighting device includes a step-up chopper which includes a first switching element and increases an output voltage applied from a DC power supply, a step-down chopper which includes a second switching element and decreases the output voltage from the step-up chopper to apply the decreased output voltage to a light source unit having light emitting diodes, a controller which controls operations of the first and the second switching element, a current limiter which includes a current limiting element and a switch; and a voltage detection unit. The controller stops an operation of the first switching element when the voltage detection unit detects the voltage applied to the light source unit exceeding a predetermined voltage value, and the switch allows a current to flow through the path passing through the current limiting element when the operation of the first switching element is stopped.

A motion assist apparatus is provided with an attaching member that has a glove shape with finger portions and a middle hand portion that is attachable to one of hands of a user, a back-side actuator that is freely expanded and contracted, and bridged between a tip of each of the finger portions and the middle hand portion on the back side of the attaching member, and a palm-side actuator that is freely expanded and contracted, and bridged between the tip of each of the finger portions and the middle hand portion on the palm side of the attaching member, and in this structure, the palm-side actuator is provided with a wire unit formed of two wires that are disposed on each of the finger portions on the palm side from the tip of each of the finger portions on the back side to the middle hand portion along the finger portion, passing through two side portions of the finger portion, so that intervals therebetween are made different at respective positions corresponding to joints of the finger portion, and rubber artificial muscle is coupled to the wire unit and is formed on the middle hand portion.

Motion assist apparatus

An illumination apparatus, which controls a supply power supplied to a lamp according to an accumulated interval of on-time and a light control signal, is configured in which a maximum supply power supplied to the lamp according to the accumulated interval of on-time is supplied to the lamp when the supply power to the lamp corresponding to the light control signal is above the maximum supply power to the lamp according to the accumulated interval of on-time at a point when the illumination apparatus is turned on or the lamp starts lighting. When the light control signal is operated so as to exceed a level of the maximum supply power to the lamp according to the accumulated interval of on-time or the light control signal varies more than a prescribed level, the supply power is shifted to an adjustable condition so as to be higher than the maximum supply power to the lamp according to the accumulated interval of on-time.

Lighting equipment

In order to enhance stability of a discharge lamp at the time of dimming lighting even in the case where a light output is lowered, a direct current superimposing circuit superimposes a direct current voltage on an alternating current voltage applied to a fluorescent lamp, and a dimming signal correction circuit receives a detection value of a direct current voltage detection circuit and a dimming signal that is from an outside, outputs a dimming signal higher in level than the dimming signal in the case where the detection value of the direct current voltage detection circuit exceeds a first threshold value, and decreases the level of the outputted dimming signal to the level of the inputted dimming signal in the case where the detection value of the direct current voltage detection circuit falls down below a second threshold value that is equal to or less than the first threshold value. Then, an amount of alternating current power supplied to the fluorescent lamp by an inverter circuit is increased and decreased in response to fluctuations of the level of the dimming signal outputted by the dimming signal correction circuit, whereby the fluorescent lamp is dimmed.

Discharge lamp lighting device, and illuminating device

A multilayer ceramic coil () for use in a compact motor is configured so that ceramic layers () having a plurality of coil patterns () and () printed using a conductive paste are laminated, and that the coil patterns in respective layers are electrically connected via thru-holes () to form a single multilayer ceramic structure having a plurality of phases of patterned-coil.

Multilayer ceramic coil and motor using the same

A brushless motor includes (a) a rotor magnet having plural magnetic polarities and (b) a stator core facing the rotor magnet via an annular space. The stator core has plural teeth wound by coils, and a teeth width ranges from not less than 1.7 mm to not more than 2.2 mm, or an outer diameter of the rotor core vs. the teeth width ranges from not less than 8 to not more than 12. This structure allows the brushless motor to rotate with less vibrations, lower noise and lower current consumption.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Keisuke Ueda