Sri International

Colin Electronics Co., Ltd.

Other

University of California

Roy D Kornbluh

Ronald E Pelrine

Joseph S Eckerle

Harsha Prahlad

Qibing Pei

Scott E Stanford

Thomas P Low

Jonathan R Heim

Brian Keith McCoy

Richard P Heydt

Alexander Steele Kernbaum

Pablo E Garcia

Jose P Joseph

Richard Mahoney

Paul Michael Birkmeyer

Seajin Oh

Katherine Goss Witherspoon

Adam Arnold Edward Ziemba

Patrick Denis Lincoln

Bryan Chavez

Marcus Rosenthal

Daniel McConnell Aukes

Seiki Chiba

Jon Heim

Neville A Bonwit

Susan Kim

Philip A Von Guggenberg

Annjoe Wong-Foy

Donald E Czyzyk

Youssef Iguider

Eric J Shrader

Karen Shakespear Koenig

Paul Gallagher

Sunity Kumar Sharma

Grit Denker

Gerry B Andeen

Rukman Senanayake

Eric A Edwards

David E Huber

Roger H Schmidt

Rudolf Elbrecht

Ziyang Zhang

Subramanian Venkat Shastri

Rujun Ma

Oibing Pei

Jonathon R Heim

Brian K Mccoy

Sierra J Lincoln

Karl D Van Dyk

Geoffrey A Mangus

Harsha E Prahlad

Patrick Allen Bournes

A solid-state heat transporting device including a heat transporting element whose uniformity of contact with one or multiple surfaces is controllable so that various amounts of heat may be transported to and from the one or multiple surfaces. The heat transporting element uses the electrocaloric effect to absorb and release the heat and the uniformity of contact is controlled using an electrostatic effect which may change the shape of the heat transporting element. In one embodiment, the heat transporting element is an electrostatically actuated P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) polymer stack achieving a high specific cooling power of 2.8 W/g and a COP of 13 (the highest reported coefficient of performance to date) when used as a cooling device.

Electrocaloric cooling with electrostatic actuation

A flexible exosuit includes rigid and flexible elements configured to couple forces to a body of a wearer. Further, the flexible exosuit includes flexible linear actuators and clutched compliance elements to apply and/or modulate forces and/or compliances between segments of the body of the wearer. The flexible exosuit further includes electronic controllers, power sources and sensors. The flexible exosuit can be configured to apply forces to the body of the wearer to enable a variety of applications. In some examples, the flexible exosuit can be configured to augment the physical strength or endurance of the wearer. In some examples, the flexible exosuit can be configured to train the wearer to perform certain physical tasks. In some examples, the flexible exosuit can be configured to record physical activities of the wearer.

Electrolaminate clutches for an exosuit system

An apparatus includes a housing that includes an inner space, an inlet connected to the inner space, and a plurality of outlets connected to the inner space. The housing allows an inner cable of a Bowden cable to pass therethrough such that the inner cable passes through the inlet, the inner space, and any of the plurality of outlets. The apparatus also includes an inner hub rotatably mounted in the inner space of the housing. The inner hub is configured to receive and guide the inner cable passing through the housing such that the inner cable forms a curved path about the inner hub. The apparatus includes a socket configured to receive the Bowden cable. The socket can be coupled to the housing at a plurality of different positions to select any of the plurality outlets such that the inner cable of the Bowden cable passes through the selected outlet.

Efficient bowden cable system

A process for sorting materials using material-selective electroadhesive grippers is disclosed. At least one of an electroadhesive surface or a plurality of articles is manipulated such that multiple ones of the plurality of articles are at least intermittently proximate the electroadhesive surface. Voltage is applied to one or more electrodes in the electroadhesive surface to thereby cause the electroadhesive surface to selectively adhere to a subset of the plurality of articles based on the subset of the plurality of articles having different material properties than others of the plurality of articles. While the voltage is applied, the electroadhesive surface is moved with respect to the others of the plurality of articles to thereby separate the subset of the plurality of articles from the others of the plurality of articles.

Handling and sorting materials using electroadhesion

Twisted string actuators for an exosuit system

The present invention relates to an adaptable input/output device. One embodiment of a hardware device for facilitating an interaction between a computing system and a user includes: an interaction surface for supporting the interaction, a single actuator capable of driving a first region of the interaction surface, and a first selective clamping mechanism capable of restricting movement of one or more second regions of the interaction surface that partly intersect the first region, wherein a displacement of one or more desired portions of the interaction surface is dynamically controllable.

Adaptable input/output device

Exosuit system

An electroadhesive device includes an outer surface adapted to interface with a surface of a foreign substrate, a plurality of electrodes, and a semi-conductive insulation material disposed adjacent to at least one of the electrodes. Each electrode has a respective conductive volume and is configured to apply a voltage at a respective location of the outer surface, and the difference in voltage between applied voltages includes an electrostatic adhesion voltage that produces an electrostatic force between the device and the substrate that is suitable to maintain a current position of the device relative to the substrate. The insulation material can be polyurethane or any other suitable material having a resistance of about 10to 10ohms*m. The insulation material effectively operates to expand the conductive volume of the electrodes when they are actuated.

Materials for electroadhesion and electrolaminates

An electroadhesive cleaning device or system includes electrode(s) that produce electroadhesive forces from an input voltage to adhere debris against an electroadhesive surface, from which the debris is removed when the forces are controllably modified. Controlling the input voltage may designate the size of debris to be cleaned. A power source provides the input voltage, and the electroadhesive surface can be a continuous track across one or more rollers to move the device across a dirty foreign surface. Electrodes can be arranged in an interdigitated pattern having differing pitches that can be actuated selectively to clean debris of different sizes. Sensors can detect the amount of debris adhered to the electroadhesive surface, and reversed polarity pulses can help repel items away from the electroadhesive surface in a controlled manner.

Electroadhesive surface cleaner

An active electroadhesive cleaning device or system includes electrode(s) that produce electroadhesive forces from an input voltage to adhere dust or other foreign objects against an interactive surface, from which the foreign objects are removed when the forces are controllably altered. User inputs control the input voltage and/or designate the size of foreign objects to be cleaned. An active power source provides the input voltage, and the interactive surface can be a continuous track across one or more rollers to move the device across a dirty foreign surface. Electrodes can be arranged in an interdigitated pattern having differing pitches that can be actuated selectively to clean foreign objects of different sizes. Sensors can detect the amount of foreign particles adhered to the interactive surface, and reversed polarity pulses can help repel items away from the interactive surface in a timely and controlled manner.

Active electroadhesive cleaning

A multilayer electrolaminate structure includes a first electrolaminate layer and a second electrolaminate layer disposed adjacent the first electrolaminate layer. Each of the first and second electrolaminate layers is rotatable about a common axis independently of the other electrolaminate layer when the multilayer electrolaminate structure is in a first state and clamps to the other electrolaminate layer when the multilayer electrolaminate structure is in a second state.

Multilayer electrolaminate braking system

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Roy D Kornbluh