Harris Corporation

Laurance H Davis, Iii

Matthew D Summer

Paul Michael Bosscher

Dennis A Green

Robert Fred Varley

Ralph Trosa

James A Stiver

Lane R Smith

A robotic arm is mounted on a personal mobility device, such as a wheelchair, scooter or the like, and is controlled with a user input interface, also mounted on the personal mobility device. The user input interface has a grip operable by the user to move in a plurality of orthogonal directions, both spatially and angularly, having articulating arms supporting a housing with a pivot member.

Haptic manipulation system for wheelchairs

A robot body includes a front half and rear half and a rotatable and driven articulating joint interconnecting the front half and rear half. Multi-limbed legs extend from the robot body and are adapted to engage a ground surface to form a support polygon for each half and for the robot body. A controller is operative with each leg for determining the position and orientation of the robot body with respect to a support polygon, mapping the posture of the robot body with respect to the ground surface via the articulating joint, and determining a direction and magnitude of locomotion and translating a trajectory of locomotion to specific limb motions for each leg.

Control system and related method for multi-limbed, multi-legged robot

A dual cantilevered electromagnet-based gripping mechanism has a reduced number of parts and operates with low power demand properties for use in micro-tool applications. Juxtaposed, cantilever-supported electromagnets, to which object engagement elements, such as gripping pincers, are attached, have their cores made of a low permeability material, such as stainless steel, that does not retain an induced magnetic field once the energizing current is terminated. By controlling the energizing current through the coils of the electromagnets, the magnitude of mutual magnetic attraction against the spring forces of their supporting cantilever arms is defined. This allows mutual separation between the electromagnets and object engagement force to be controlled, for seizure, retention, and release of an object. The displacement vs. current characteristic of the device has a hysteresis profile, which allows the coil energizing current to be reduced to a very low 'sustaining' value that minimizes power dissipation, yet keeps the gripping elements closed on the object. To release the object, the energizing current is controllably reduced, which collapses the magnetic fields in the electromagnets and allows the spring force of the cantilever arms to return the gripping elements to their default open positions.

Dual cantilevered electromagnet-based gripping apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Malabar, FL, United States of America

Laurance H Davis, Iii