Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Yohei Kume

Hideo Kawakami

Shohei Tsukada

Tohru Nakamura

Mizuho Sakakibara

Toshihide Ueda

Tomohiro Shimoda

Shoichi Kobayashi

Akihiro Ohta

Yoshinori Inaba

An armrest locking mechanism includes a lever and an armrest lock. The lever is configured to unlock a movement of an armrest. The armrest lock is configured to unlock a movement of the lever.

Armrest locking mechanism and integrated bed having same

A mattress can be adapted to an integrated bed that includes a main bed unit, and a wheelchair unit that is separable from the main bed unit and has a wheelchair back bottom, a wheelchair hip bottom and a wheelchair foot bottom. The mattress includes a first protrusion configured to be fastened to a back-section hole in the wheelchair back bottom, a fastener configured to be fastened to the wheelchair hip bottom, and a second protrusion configured to be fastened to a foot-section hole in the wheelchair foot bottom.

Integrated-bed mattress and integrated bed

A separable bed includes a bed portion and a wheelchair portion that is combined with the bed portion to compose the separable bed. The wheelchair portion includes a second seat portion, and a second guide portion that supports the second seat portion, the bed portion includes a first bed bottom portion, a first guide portion that supports the second seat portion and the first bed bottom portion, a lifter that performs lifting operation of the first bed bottom portion, and a controller, and the controller lowers the first guide portion to a second lower limit position in a case where separation operation is performed.

Separable bed

An electric bed includes a first driver that performs rising and lowering operation of a second frame with respect to a first frame, a controller that controls the first driver, and an input unit that instructs the controller by switch manipulation of a lowering switch of the input unit. The controller controls the first driver to lower the second frame at a basic speed when a bed height is a first predetermined height or more during depression of the lowering switch, and to lower the second frame at a first low speed slower than the basic speed when the bed height is less than the first predetermined height during the depression of the lowering switch, in case where the bed height is a height of an upper surface of the second frame.

Electric bed

A bed includes a first rail, a second rail, a wheelchair having a first armrest mounting unit to and from which the first rail is attached and detached in one side part, and a second armrest mounting unit to and from which the second rail is attached and detached in another side part. A bed main body portion has a first support portion and a second support portion, and the first support portion has a first bed mounting unit to and from which the first rail or the second rail is attached and detached in a front end. The second support portion has a second bed mounting unit to and from which the first rail or the second rail is attached and detached in a front end.

Bed and separating method of the same

A bed is composed of combining a wheelchair and a bed main body portion. The wheelchair has a seating bottom portion composed of bendably coupling a plurality of divided members, a chair bottom support member supporting the seating bottom portion, a chair base portion for fixing the chair bottom support member, and traveling wheels supporting the chair base portion. The bed main body portion has a bed bottom portion composed of bendably coupling a plurality of divided members, a bed bottom support member supporting the bed bottom portion, and a bed base portion for fixing the bed bottom support member. In a case where the wheelchair and the bed main body portion are combined, a support member supporting the seating bottom portion is switched from the chair bottom support member to the bed bottom support member.

Bed, and combining method and separating method of bed

Mattress

A wheelchair includes a first link that supports a first bottom, a second link that supports a second bottom, a third link that supports a third bottom, a fourth link that supports a fourth bottom, a first base portion that supports a fifth bottom, and a first drive link. The first drive link has a first roller and a second roller. The second link and the third link are provided with rail portions respectively. The wheelchair has wheelchair link portion allows the first roller to slide in the rail portion of the second link, and allows the second roller to slide in the rail portion of the third link.

Wheelchair and combined bed

An omni-directional electric vehicle includes: a body having a chair portion; an operation detection unit which detects an operation direction and an operation amount of an operation input; a travel control information generation unit which generates, based on the operation direction and the operation amount, travel control information including (i) a target straight-movement speed for moving the body in a forward/backward direction and (ii) a target rotation speed for rotating the body about a rotation center; and a control unit which drives a movement mechanism of the body according to the travel control information. The travel control information generation unit-changes, based on the target straight-movement speed, the rotation center for the target rotation speed from a reference position which is set virtually and fixedly to the body in the forward/backward direction.

Electric vehicle and method for controlling electric vehicle

A lifting apparatus includes an upper frame, a base frame, a link mechanism for connecting the upper frame and the base frame, and a linear actuator connected to the link mechanism for driving the link mechanism. The link mechanism includes at least a T-shaped first arm slidably supported on the base frame or the upper frame and provided with connections at four points, and an L-shaped second arm provided with connections at three points.

Lifting apparatus and bed provided with the same

In a bed including a wheelchair and a bed main body portion, the wheelchair has a seating bottom portion composed of bendably coupling a plurality of divided members. A chair bottom support member supports the seating bottom portion, the chair bottom support member changing a shape of a leg bottom part in conjunction with inclination of a back bottom part. A chair base portion fixes the chair bottom support member. Front casters are provided in the chair base portion, the front casters being capable of freely changing direction. Both side wheel bottom support members are axially supported on the chair base portion. Rear casters are provided at one end of the both side wheel bottom support members, the rear casters being capable of freely changing direction. Traveling wheels are provided at the other end of both side wheel bottom support members, whose traveling direction is fixed to a straight-moving direction. Caster links couple parts of the both side wheel bottom support members on the side of the rear casters and the back bottom part of the chair bottom support member.

Wheelchair and bed

An electric vehicle which travels by driving actuators includes: a monitor unit which monitors external environment or internal environment of the electric vehicle; an alarm unit which outputs, based on monitoring information obtained by the monitoring unit, a vibration velocity signal indicating velocity which changes in a cycle; a travel information generation unit which calculates a target travel velocity based on a steering direction and a control input provided by an operator of the electric vehicle, and generates travel control information for controlling the actuators based on the target travel velocity; and a control unit which controls the actuators based on the travel control information. The travel information generation unit regenerates the travel control information by adding the vibration velocity signal to the target travel velocity upon receiving the vibration velocity signal.

Electric vehicle and method of controlling the same

A traveling vehicle () is self-propelled and docked in a quadrilateral docking area () having an entrance () on one side thereof, and includes: a docking point obtainment unit which obtains first to fourth points indicating positions of four corners of the docking area and represented in relative coordinates with respect to a position of the traveling vehicle (); a reference distance detection unit () which obtains a reference distance indicating a distance between the traveling vehicle () and the docking area (); and a movement control unit () which controls movement of the traveling vehicle () moving to the docking area (), based on the first and second points when the reference distance Ls is not shorter than a first correction distance N, and based on at least the third and fourth points when the reference distance Ls is shorter than the first correction distance N. The first and second points are located on an entrance () side of the docking area, and the third and fourth points are located on a rear side.

Traveling vehicle and bed

A contact sensor includes a conductive fabric, an insulative spacer having multiple openings, and a conductive sheet of a sheet-shaped conductor. The insulative spacer is interposed between the conductive fabric and the conductive sheet. Upon contact of a soft object such as a human body portion on the conductive fabric with force equal to or greater than a certain strength, the insulative spacer sinks in the soft object with the conductive fabric interposed therebetween. The conductive fabric is deformable in conformity with insulative pieces of the insulative spacer, such that touching of a portion of the conductive fabric on the conductive sheet provides detection of contact of the soft object.

Contact sensor, driver device, and care bed

The present invention has an object of providing an electric vehicle which makes an assisting movement based on an operation by an operator without making a movement when an operator is not operating the electric vehicle or a movement which widely differs from a movement intended by the operator in direction or distance, and a method of controlling the electric vehicle. The electric vehicle () includes an operating force measurement unit () which measures an operating force applied by an operator () to the electric vehicle (), an obstacle measurement unit () which measures a distance and a direction from the electric vehicle () to an obstacle, a virtual repulsive force calculation unit () which calculates a virtual repulsive force having a magnitude inversely proportional to a magnitude of the distance measured by the obstacle measurement unit () and a direction opposite to the direction to the obstacle, and an assisting force calculation unit () which calculates an assisting force for moving the electric vehicle () based on a resultant force of the operating force and the virtual repulsive force. The assisting force calculation unit () has an upper limit X to a magnitude of the calculated assisting force, and sets the upper limit X based on a magnitude of the operating force and an angle between a direction of the operating force and a direction of the resultant force.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Yohei Kume