Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The University of Tokyo

Mercari, Inc.

Ryuma Niiyama

Hiroshi Ishii

Jifei Ou

Lining Yao

Sean Follmer

Hiroki Sato

Yoshihiro Kawahara

Ryosuke Yamamura

Young Ah Seong

To provide a moving device that can be used as a mobility device to transport objects and can be improved in portability. The moving device that is movable with rotation of wheels includes a body unit inflated by injection of fluid and deflated by discharge of the fluid, a support body provided on a predetermined surface of the body unit, and the wheels provided in the support body, wherein the interior of a predetermined portion of the body unit that receives a load from an object contacting the body unit is formed with a drop-stitch structure, and the drop-stitch structure after injection of the fluid has tensile forces in directions approximately perpendicular to the direction of the load applied to the predetermined portion by the object.

Moving device

In exemplary implementations of this invention, a shape controller controls the shape of a bladder as the bladder inflates. The shape controller includes a first set of regions and a second set of regions. The second set of regions is more flexible than the first set of regions. The shape controller is embedded within, or adjacent to, a wall of the bladder. When the bladder is inflated, the overall shape of the bladder bends in areas adjacent to the more flexible regions of the shape controller. For example, the shape controller may comprise paper and the more flexible regions may comprise creases in the paper. Or, for example, the more flexible regions may comprise notches or indentations. In some implementations of this invention, a multi-state shape display changes shape as it inflates, with additional bumps forming as pressure in the display increases.

Methods and apparatus for shape control

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Ryuma Niiyama