249 results about "Bowden cable" patented technology

The present invention relates, generally, to the reduction or elimination of permanent and catastrophic herniations in Bowden cables or coil pipes in articulating devices or snake-like robots. More particularly, the present invention relates managing the coil pipes in a spiral pattern along the articulating device or snake-like robot to reduce or eliminate the necessity of the Bowden cables or coil pipes to slide along the length of the articulating device or snake-like robot. Reduction or elimination of the necessity for the Bowden cables or coil pipes to slide reduces or eliminates catastrophic herniations in articulating devices or snake-like robots undergoing one or more articulations.

When a pressure receiving plate provided at a seat back moves to a rear side of a vehicle body when a vehicle is collided from behind, a Bowden cable transmits movement of the pressure receiving plate to a headrest ascending mechanism as a tensile load, thereby quickly ascending a headrest to reliably hold a head of an occupant. The Bowden cable transmits only the tensile load, and hence the Bowden cable is not buckled. Reduction in weight is made possible as compared with the case using a rod for transmitting a compression load. Since the Bowden cable is light, it is not required to unreasonably place the pressure receiving plate at a position near the headrest ascending mechanism for reduction in weight, and hence the pressure receiving plate can be placed at the optimal position where a sufficient driving force is obtained at the time of collision. Thus, a headrest is ascended with favorable responsiveness upon a rear-end collision of a vehicle while using a thin transmission member with low rigidity.

The invention provides a wearable upper limb exoskeleton rehabilitation device, which includes a fixed backboard served as a base; a driver module can make torque force transfer to each joint by Bowden cable; an exoskeleton module of elbow join is used for coupled rehabilitation movement. rehabilitative training of the elbow, coupled rehabilitation of forearm and exoskeleton of the upper arm and the exoskeleton; a mechanical hard limit device for joint, can achieve mechanical hard limit protection for a forearm connecting rod and a upper arm connecting rod; a three direction adjustable adaptive module, the position of joint winch in the shoulder adduction is adjusted to adopt different somatotype of the patients; a shoulder joint module, the shoulder joint module can achieve rehabilitation training for abduction degree of freedom in the shoulder and rehabilitation training of shoulder flexion and extension degree. The Wearable upper limb exoskeleton rehabilitation device makes use of the wearable structure to realize the free movement of patients during rehabilitation training.

A lumbar support to be installed in a seat has an apex that varies vertically along a guide rail. The guide rail has an upper stop and a lower stop. A bowing element disposed on the guide rail travels in a substantially vertical plane. A first bowden cable draws an upper of the bowing element downward until a lower portion of the bowing element is in abutment with the lower stop such that a low convexity is formed in the bowing element as the bowden cable continues to draw the upper portion of said bowing element further towards the lower stop. A second bowden cable draws a lower portion of the bowing element upward until the upper portion of the bowing element is in abutment with the upper stop and such that a high convexity is formed in the bowing element as the bowing element continues to draw said lower portion of the bowing element further towards the upper stop.

The invention provides a soft-bodied robot glove for hand movement function recovery. The soft-bodied robot glove comprises a decision processing module, a driving module, a flexible exoskeleton glove and a Bowden cable. The decision processing module is electrically connected with the driving module. One end of the Bowden cable is connected with the finger end of the flexible exoskeleton glove, and the other end of the Bowden cable is connected to a winch of the driving module. The decision processing module drives the Bowden cable through the winch of the driving module. By the adoption of the flexible exoskeleton glove, compared with a rigid exoskeleton, the wear comfort can be improved. The driving module and the flexible exoskeleton glove are separated, so that the wear burden on a user is reduced.

The invention discloses an unpowered wearable auxiliary walking assisting mechanism. The unpowered wearable auxiliary walking assisting mechanism comprises driving force formation assemblies and knee joint assisting executing assemblies. Based on a lever principle and a crank slide block structure mechanism, the walking assisting mechanism disclosed by the invention adopts a working manner of same-side parallel driving input of left and right feet; a self-gravity effect of a human body is utilized and Bowden cables are used as a medium for transmitting a pulling force between the driving force formation assemblies and the knee joint assisting executing assemblies; the driving force formation assembly of the left foot provides a driving force for a left leg knee joint auxiliary torque executing assembly; the driving force formation assembly of the right foot provides a driving force for a right leg knee joint auxiliary torque executing assembly, so that torques for assisting left and right leg knee joints to bend and extend are generated in a walking process, and the aim of assisting walking is realized. The unpowered wearable auxiliary walking assisting mechanism disclosed by the invention has small inertia; the defects that the inertia of rigid mechanisms including a common leg assisting mechanism or an external skeleton robot and the like is great, damages to knee joints of people are easy to cause, the comfort is poor and the like are overcome, and the safety and comfort of the mechanism are remarkably improved.

A cable lock device includes a body 204, 616 and a frictional shoe 208, 608 operable to engage a Bowden cable 120, wherein, in a first mode, the Bowden cable 120 moves freely in first and second opposing directions 304, 308 and, in a second mode, the shoe inhibits the Bowden cable from moving in the first direction 304 while allowing the Bowden cable to move freely in the second direction 308.

The present invention relates to a connecting unit for the transmission of pulling movements to one end of at least one bowden cable, in particular for a parking brake of a vehicle. The present invention further relates to a method for establishing a connection between a bowden cable and a pulling element for the transmission of pulling movements, as it is preferably used during the assembly of parking brakes in vehicles.The connecting unit comprises a support with at least one opening for the mounting of the connecting unit, a pulling element with at least one receptacle for the end of the at least one bowden cable and a guiding element, where the end of the at least one bowden cable can engage the receptacle, and the guiding element is arranged between the at least one opening of the support and the at least one receptacle. The guiding element deflects the end of the at least one bowden cable under a movement in direction of the receptacle through the at least one opening of the support to the side to engage the receptacle.

The head support unit may be attached by attachment means (13) to a chair, e.g. a wheel chair. A set screw (15) permits vertical adjustment. The head rest (19) may be horizontally moved by the user into the desired position. This movement takes place without a recognizable movement in vertical direction. The head rest (19) is carried by a slender lever parallelogram (18) which is operatively connected by a flexible Bowden-cable (21) to the motor (23) located at a distance on the chair. This flexible connection (21) permits not only to put the motor (23) at a suitable location away from the head of the user, but does also not hinder a vertical adjustment of the head rest (19) by means of the vertical support bar (11) and the set screw (15).

The invention relates to a wearable power-assisting flexible outer garment for lower limbs. The flexible power-assisting outer garment comprises an outer garment body, Bowden cable units, two linear traction units and a gait detection unit. Normal walking motion can be assisted when a human body wears the power-assisting flexible outer garment for lower limbs. The outer garment body is attached to the skin of the lower limbs or the surface of clothes; the Bowden cable units are distributed along the outer garment body; according to a signal of the gait detection unit, the linear traction units drive Bowden cables to pull and assist ankle joints and hip joints of the human body at appropriate moments. The two linear traction units are stacked together to be placed in a backpack, each linear traction unit pulls two sets of Bowden cable units to respectively pull the hip joints and the ankle joints of the lower limbs of the human body, so as to assist in the forward flexion of the hip joints and the downward flexion of the ankle joints to reduce acting forces required by Achilles tendon of feet and thighs and shanks to lift legs, thereby reducing energy consumption of corresponding muscles of the lower limbs of the human body and assisting the lower limes in moving.

[Object] To provide a hybrid actuator attaining both driving force and responsiveness, capable of reducing inertia of a movable portion.

[Solution] A pneumatic air muscle has a cylinder (112) provided in a flexible member (100) forming a pneumatic artificial muscle. At the center of an upper lid element (109) of the cylinder, a through hole is opened, and an inner wire (103) of a Bowden cable passes through this through hole and is coupled by means of a spring (106) to a bottom portion of the cylinder. When the pneumatic artificial muscle contracts, the inner wire (103) and the pneumatic air muscle move together because of the stopper (105), and the contraction force is transmitted. In contrast, when the pneumatic air muscle extends, the stopper (105) is disengaged, while the tension of inner wire (103) is kept by the spring (106) to prevent slacking.

A ratcheting, locking actuator for selectively positioning ergonomic devices is disclosed. The actuator has an overrunning, locking clutch in a housing, a lever, a hanging ratchet and a pulley for anchoring a traction element. The pulley is driven by a gear which is driven by the one of two ratchet pawls in either of two selectable directions. The drive direction is controlled by a lever to which a ratchet post is attached. Engagement and disengagement of the ratchet pawls with the drive gear is controlled by steps on the housing. The actuator is especially useful for controlling traction elements such as bowden cables for ergonomic devices such as lumbar supports.

An adjuster device for height adjustment of a headrest (1, 2) on a seat (3) is disclosed, comprising a head support, provided with adjuster means (4) which may move in an adjustment direction (A), embodied such as to be able to engage with a headrest (1, 2) which may be inserted in the headrest housing, whereby drive means for generating an adjustment movement for the adjuster means (4) are further provided. The drive means (4) thus form a physically-separate unit from the headrest housing. The transmission of the adjustment movement of the drive means (8) to the adjuster means (4) is carried out by means of a flexible transmission means (16), such as, for example, a flexible shaft or a bowden cable. The drive unit (8) can thus be positioned independently of the headrest housing.

A front hood safety closure system for motor vehicles includes a rotary latch disposed in a manner allowing it to swivel about an axis, a catch hook assigned to it, a striker as well as a retaining pawl likewise disposed in a manner allowing it to swivel about an axis, in the closed position of the front hood, the rotary latch being operatively connected to the striker located on the front hood in that the rotary latch receives the middle limb of the substantially U-shaped striker within a fork-shaped recess adapted to the shape of the striker, and when the locking of the front hood is released, the striker being operatively connected to the catch hook performing a safety function upon release of the retention by the rotary latch, both the rotary latch and the retaining pawl being assigned a stop, and the retaining pawl being operable by a Bowden cable or electromotive drive.

The catch hook is able to be swiveled, independently of the rotary latch, about an axis extending parallel to the axis of rotation of the rotary latch.

The invention discloses a flexible rope-driven elbow joint exoskeleton robot with a compensation device. The invention relates to the exoskeleton robot and aims at solving the problems that existing auxiliary rehabilitation equipment is single in function and not suitable for rehabilitation training. The robot comprises a back plate, a driving device, a shoulder joint device, a big arm device witha length adjusting function, a dislocation compensation device, an elbow joint flexion and extension device, an elbow joint self-rotation device, a forearm device with a length adjusting function andtwo sets of Bowden cables. The driving device is mounted on one side surface of the back plate; the shoulder joint device is mounted on one side of the back plate; the shoulder joint device, the bigarm device with the length adjusting function, the dislocation compensation device, the elbow joint flexion and extension device, the elbow joint self-rotation device and the forearm device with the length adjusting function are connected in sequence; one ends of the two sets of Bowden cables are connected to the driving device; the other end of one set of the Bowden cables is connected to the elbow joint flexion and extension device; and the other end of the other set of the Bowden cables is connected to the elbow joint self-rotation device. The robot is used for the field of rehabilitation training.

A switchgear cabinet with at least one cabinet door, which can be locked by a lock element of the switchgear cabinet body wherein, in a locked position of the cabinet door, a locking engagement between the lock element and a counter-lock element can be released by a triggering device, which is in an operative connection with the lock element or the counter-lock element via an actuating unit. So that the cabinet door can be opened in a simple way from the inside of the switchgear cabinet, the actuating unit of this invention is designed as a Bowden cable, with one end connected to the triggering device via a connecting element and an other end connected with the lock element or the counter-lock element. The triggering device has a rotatory body which is pivotably seated about an axis of rotation. The end of the Bowden cable is fastened eccentrically offset with respect to the axis of rotation on the rotatory body, and a lever with a handle is connected to the rotatory body.

The invention provides a rigid-flexible hybrid driven wearable power-assisted exoskeleton which comprises a left leg exoskeleton body and a right leg exoskeleton body, and any one of the left leg exoskeleton body and the right leg exoskeleton body comprises a thigh rod, a shank rod, a flexible knee joint, a knee Bowden cable, a knee Bowden cable winding drum, a knee joint driving motor, an ankle Bowden cable, an ankle Bowden cable winding drum and an ankle driving motor. By means of the rigid-flexible hybrid mode, the rigid-flexible hybrid support system can be formed by matching the flexiblevariable hinge structure with the rigid leg rod structures of the thighs and the shanks at the lower limb joints of a human body, the inertia of a motion part mechanism of the system is greatly reduced, and meanwhile the size of a lower limb structure is reduced.