The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 04, 2022
Filed:
Mar. 23, 2020
Empower Robotics Corporation, Lexington, MA (US);
John W. Meincke, II, Medfield, MA (US);
Kosuke Takeuchi, Waltham, MA (US);
Sheng Liu, Cambridge, MA (US);
Haruhiko Harry Asada, Lincoln, MA (US);
Empower Robotics Corporation, Lexington, MA (US);
Abstract
Methods and system to partially support the weight of a human user engaged in task performance at ground level are presented herein. An upper body support system includes multiple degrees of freedom to adapt the physical geometry of the support system to meet the demands of the task at hand. Each degree of freedom of the upper body support system is passively controlled by the human user from a convenient user interface. In some embodiments, each end-effector of the support system is positioned and fixed in three degrees of freedom over a relatively large workspace by manually controlling the brake torque of two rotational joints and the state of a locking mechanism of a linear joint. In another aspect, an end-effector is removeably attached to the support system with a quick-change coupler. In some embodiments, a swivel joint mechanism compensates for misalignment with the work environment.