Ykk Corporation

The University of Tokyo

Yuki Asano

Tomoko Taguchi

Kenji Hasegawa

Masayuki Inaba

Hisanori Kato

Kei Okada

Xiaojun Sun

Hiroki Fukushima

A knee joint that is capable of widening a moveable range, and that has good energy efficiency and is small and lightweight is described. Also described is a knee joint that is of an active type, but comparatively inexpensive. A drive section moves a driven member. An elastic member is arranged between the driven member and a linear motion member. The linear motion member elastically moves in at least one direction, in accordance with movement of the driven member, by way of the elastic member. A crank mechanism can realize bending and extension of the knee joint by converting linear motion of the linear motion member to rotational motion.

Knee joint

A female snap is provided with: a first member for at least partially establishing an opening into which a post is inserted; and a second member which is able to restrict expansion of the opening in order to either increase the force needed for engagement/disengagement, or prohibit engagement/disengagement, of the post with respect to the female snap. The extent of expansion of the opening that is permitted by the second member varies depending on the relative positions of a contracting part of the second member and a contacted part of the first member in a peripheral direction going around the direction of insertion of the post into the opening.

Female snap button and snap button

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Yuki Asano