5247 results about "Limit switch" patented technology

A surgical instrument including a shaft having proximal and distal ends, an end effector, a transmission mechanism and a limit switch, and a method of operating the end effector is provided. The end effector is disposed at the distal end of the shaft and has an end effector component configured to move between a first position and a second position. The transmission mechanism includes a motor and a drive system coupled with the end effector component to move the end effector component between the first position and the second position. The limit switch is operably coupled to the motor and has a first state corresponding to the end effector component being between the first position and the second position, and a second state corresponding to the end effector component being at one of the first position or the second position.

In an aspect, a medication delivering injector which includes a housing having opposing proximal and distal ends and an accessible internal cavity for inserting and removing a medicament container such as a syringe. The injector is designed to hold and manipulate a medication delivery device such as a large variety of standard and non-standard medical syringes with fixed or attached needles, assembled such that centrally located is a cylinder containing a liquid medicament and attached either permanently or removably to the distal end of the cylinder, is a hypodermic needle or cannula in fluidic communication with the cylinder. The needle can be from one-half inches to one-and-one-half inches in length in the illustrated embodiment and other sizes are possible by changes in scale of the injector. At the proximal end of the cylinder is an opening with an inserted seal or bung with an attached rod thus constituting a plunger. The central medicament containing cylinder could also be a standard medicament cartridge. Hereinafter, both are referred to as a “syringe”. A lid or access cover which, in an open position permits insertion and removal of the syringe into/from the housing in a horizontal fashion thus providing ease of loading. The syringe is inserted with the needle end toward the distal end of the housing and the plunger toward the proximal end of the housing. A movable carriage is disposed in the proximal end of the housing and slides in the axial direction forwards and rearwards such that a syringe, whose proximal end is gripped by the carriage, so moves with the carriage such that the needle exits the housing at the distal end of the housing and pierces the tissue of the patient prior to dispensing of the medicament, and then is retracted after the medicament has been dispensed by retraction of the carriage. Attached to the carriage is an actuator which pushes on the syringe plunger causing the medicament contained within the syringe cylinder to be dispensed through the needle into the patient's tissue. In one embodiment suitable for both removable needle and fixed needle syringes, the proximal end of the syringe including the syringe finger flange is gripped by an elastomeric flange grip which resides within the carriage, while the syringe distal end resides in and is supported by a “syringe guide” which is attached to the carriage and thus moved with it. In another embodiment which is so made to accommodate syringes with removable needles and their safe disposal, the syringe flange at the proximal end of the cylinder is gripped by an elastomeric flange grip which resides in the carriage as described above, while the syringe distal end is supported by a needle which resides in a removable disposable needle shield. The needle guide is biased toward the carriage and thus, the syringe body is compressed and guided as the carriage moves forward and rearward.

Both the movement of the carriage and the actuator are controlled by servo motors which are controlled by electronics and a microcontroller so operating such that speeds and accelerations are controlled smoothly and gently so as to avoid the stop/start motion of motors controlled by limit switches and simple electronics or the vibration and abruptness such as result from injectors powered by compressed springs or gas. Furthermore, the forces are adaptive to the loads imposed and the requirements necessary for the proper dispensation of medicaments with high viscosity or sensitivity to shear forces.

The housing, approximately midway between proximal and distal ends, is affixed by a hinge such that the device can be folded in half to provide for a more compact device to be stored and transported.

On the distal end of the housing are electrical sensor pads in communication with the microcontroller such that contact with the patient's skin and the angle at which the injector is held against the skin and the steadiness with which the injector is being held can be ascertained. Within the housing are a haptic vibrator and an audio speaker, both producing a vibration which is variable in pitch in such a manner that biofeedback is provided to the injector user as to the pressure, angle and steadiness with which they are holding the injector against the skin. This facilitates the action of injection oneself in the gluteus muscle where visual feedback isn't available to the patient.

Multiplexed onto the electrical sensor pads, is a TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) generator which is operational (at the user's choice) just before and during the injection to interrupt or quench the pain of tissue perforation often accompanied with needle injections.

Contained on the surface of the housing such as on the access cover, is a display such that user menus, device state, directions, and battery charge status, etc. are displayed. Also contained on the surface of the housing, on the proximal half, are buttons which control the menus and selections that are shown on the display. These selections provide for the user to set such parameters as hypodermic insertion speed and medicament dispensing speeds, the preferred mode of user biofeedback which can include: speech mode (which can be accompanied by musical themes and ringtones, plus variable pitch tone and haptic vibration), MP3 mode (which has speech muted but includes musical ringtones and variable pitch tone and haptic vibration), and haptic mode (which is haptic vibration and audio tone queues needed for injector position biofeedback and readiness), plus mute mode (which provides no audio but the haptic vibration remains), and none, which provides no vibrational biofeedback, yet the display information always remains available.

Also contained on the surface of the housing on the distal half, is an “injection initiate” button which causes the sequences required for performance of an injection to occur if said button is “enabled”.

Contained within the electronics and its operating program is the ability to audibly play pre-recorded human speech in any language such that: directions in the form of consecutive steps which are required to load the medicament container (syringe) into the device, consecutive steps to perform an injection, steps to remove and properly dispose of parts, to alert of device status and menu choices, etc. can be played through the audio speaker. Also contained within the electronics and program is the ability to play musical ringtones as a distraction during the needle insertion and injection or when a scheduled injection alarm is reached, or calming human voice exhibiting bedside manner during the needle insertion and injection.

Also contained within the electronics and software is a real-time clock-calendar which can store a patient's injection schedule and play a musical ringtone as an alarm as each scheduled injection becomes due. Also contained within the electronics and software are the ability to communicate with a personal computer through a USB port, which can also charge the injector's rechargeable battery. The battery in one embodiment, consists of three AAA batteries which can be rechargeable or non-rechargeable. The USB port in combination with an application running on the personal computer, is used to download the injection schedule into the real-time clock-calendar and to download ringtones and musical themes of the user's choice and to download foreign language sets for the pre-recorded human language feature.

The injector can be further equipped with the capability to aspirate the tissue by drawing back on the plunger thus creating a vacuum into which fluids will flow. These fluids enter the syringe cylinder where they can be checked for the presence of blood by optical absorption in the red spectrum. This information is useful in the instances where intramuscular injections are to be given with drugs whose ‘Full Prescribing Information’ instructs the patient to aspirate and check for blood in the syringe which indicates that the puncture of a vein has occurred, and if so detected, to abort the injection and then re-inject into a different location.

Provided is an ice maker that includes a mold including a plurality of cavities for receiving water to be frozen into ice pieces, a driver operatively connected to the mold for adjusting a position of the mold to a plurality of different locations during an ice making cycle, and a controller. A limit switch is located at a plurality of different positions along a range of travel of the mold to be actuated and transmit a signal indicative of the mold's arrival at the different locations. The mold can travel along path including first portion having a first axis of rotation and a substantially vertical portion, and can be driven by a motor with a drive shaft rotatable about a single axis of rotation. The motor can drive both the mold and a bail arm, and the mold can be leveled upon reaching a predetermined location. The ice maker can perform a Dry Cycle in response to detecting an anomaly during ice making.

The invention relates to an end effector of a fruit and vegetable picking robot. The end effector mainly consists of a clamping system, a cutting system and a sensor system. The clamping system mainly adopts a mechanism formed by cylinder sliding chutes to drive two fingers to open and close, thus realizing the action of grasping apples; the cutting system adopts a DC motor with 12V as the power source to drive blades to rotate nearly a circle around the fingers by the transmission of steel wires or the transmission of steel wire trolley wheels, thus cutting apple stems at any position along the circumferential direction of the fingers; the sensor system consists of an opto-electrical position switch, a pressure sensor, a micro-vision sensor, a touch sensor and a limit switch and plays a role of connecting motions and controlling the process during the process of clamping and cutting the apple stems. The end effector has a simple and reliable picking way, good commonality, low control difficulty, low cost, which ensures an intelligentized picking, thus meeting the demands of a football-like fruit picking robot and being conducive to realizing the practical utilization and commercialization of fruit picking robots.

A handle assembly for a vehicle door and a method of operating the handle assembly is disclosed. The door handle assembly may include a pivot bracket mounted in the vehicle door, a handle arm pivotally mounted to the pivot bracket, a handle alignable flush with a door handle cutout, and a motor assembly operatively engaging the handle arm to selectively cause pivoting of the handle arm relative to the pivot bracket. The door handle assembly may also include a handle depression limit switch, a handle flush button, or a handle extension limit switch in communication with a control module that controls the motor.

The invention discloses a pushing mechanism for a minimally invasive surgical robot, which is an end executor for a minimally invasive surgical robot, which comprises an axially feeding part and a circumferentially rotating part, wherein the axially feeding part comprises two symmetric axially feeding modules, and each axially feeding mold comprises a motor, a guide rail, a screw, a clamping module and a limiting switch; and a clamping module clamps a guide pipe or guide wire and does linear action along a guide rail through the screw, and when contacting the limiting switch, the clamping module changes movement direction. The circumferentially rotating part comprises a motor, a pair of external gear, rotating discs and a connecting rod; the front and rear rotating discs are connected by a connecting rod to form a rotating cylinder body, and the two axially feeding modules are fixed on the front and rear rotating discs respectively; and the rotating cylinder body rotates to drive the axially feeding part to rotate, and thus, the rotation direction of the guide tube or guide wire can be changed. Different guide tubes or guide wires can be clamped and pushed, and the modular design is convenient for detachment and disinfection.

A gate opener has a gate that rotates between an open and a closed position in order to allow or retard ingress and egress through the gate. A plate is secured to the ground while a motor is secured to a post of the gate and is rotatably secured to the plate. Activation of the motor causes the post to rotate and thereby swing the gate open. Subsequent activation of the motor causes the post to counterrotate and thereby swing the gate closed. Appropriate limit switches delimit the arc of travel of the gate.

A control-mode switching device includes: a plurality of actuators (2, 6, 7) that conduct different movement; driving means (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15) that drive the actuators; a plurality of control levers (22a-22c) that command operation of the driving means; a plurality of limit switches (72a-72e) that detect arrival of the control levers to the proximity of an end of a control range; a mode judging means (controller 23) that judges whether a priority operation mode is taken or not in accordance with a combination of on/off conditions of the limit switches; and a drive controlling means (controller 23) that, when it is judged by the mode judging means that the priority operation mode is taken, controls the driving means so that an output of selected one or more of the driving means becomes larger than that in a normal mode or the power ratio as compared with the other driving means becomes larger.

The invention discloses a transformer substation inspection robot system for detecting equipment in a box and a method thereof. The transformer substation inspection robot system comprises a robot and an automatic unlocking system installed outside the box. The automatic unlocking system comprises an electromagnetic lock and a control device. The control device comprises a single-chip microcomputer, a wireless communication module, an electromagnetic relay, a door-closing limiting switch and an alarm module. The automatic unlocking system is installed on a box door. The control device is installed in a lock body. The electromagnetic lock can be remotely controlled to be opened or closed by the robot and can also be manually opened or closed through a key. Through communication with the automatic unlocking system, the box lock can be automatically opened, and therefore detection and operation of the equipment in the box can be realized; the automatic unlocking system is compatible with a common key unlocking mode, and therefore an automatic robot inspection mode and a traditional manual inspection mode can coexist; a robot pan-tilt is provided with a lifting mechanism, and therefore the range of the equipment capable of being detected by the robot is greatly expanded.

A seat reclining apparatus for a vehicle, including a stationary bracket and a movable bracket provided integral with a seat cushion and seat back, respectively. The movable bracket is equipped with a driving device. A speed-reduction unit is provided including an input shaft, a stationary member and a movable member. A forward-inclination mechanism is provided including a lock plate, an engaging-disengaging device and a restrictive device. The engaging-disengaging device is adapted to bring the lock plate and the movable bracket into one of an engagement state and a disengagement state. The movable bracket is connected to the stationary bracket through the speed-reduction unit and the forward-inclination mechanism. The seat reclining apparatus is further provided with a limit switch for powering off the driving device when the movable bracket and the lock plate are brought into the disengagement state.

The invention discloses an inner system for controlling the gestures of an underwater robot, comprising a main controller connected with an adjustment mechanism, a gesture sensor, and an upper computer controller, wherein the adjustment mechanism is a balance adjustment mechanism arranged inside the underwater robot, and comprises a gravity slider, a double-shaft drive motor, a worm, a guiderail, a slide bar, a limit switch and a mechanism platform; the double-shaft drive motor is connected with the worm to drive the worm to rotate bidirectionally; the worm drives the slide bar to perform planar movement through the transmission of a lead screw; one end of the slide bar is connected with the lead screw of the worm and penetrates the gravity slider, while the other end thereof is connected with the guiderail by a slider and drives the gravity slider to move in a plane so as to realize the gravity adjustment of the underwater robot and control the transverse swing and longitudinal incline gestures of the underwater robot. The control system for gestures can be widely applied to the gesture control of the underwater robot.

A brake (42) is tested in an elevator system (10) including a car (12) and a counterweight (14) connected to the car (12) by a rope (16). The car (12) is positioned at a reference position in the hoistway (HW) adjacent to a hoistway limit switch (23), and the brake (42) is engaged to hold the car (12) at the reference position. The rotating member (46) is then driven to provide a testing force on the brake (42) that simulates a load in the elevator car (12) of at least a maximum rated load for the car (12). The brake test is terminated if the hoistway limit switch (23) is actuated.

The invention discloses a resistance heat tension straightening device and a straightening method thereof. A fixed pulley is arranged at the center of the top end of a support (6); and a cylinder (5)is fixed on the lower surface of a beam of the support. One end of a steel wire of the fixed pulley is fixed on the beam of the support (6), and the other end of the steel wire of the fixed pulley isfixedly connected with a connecting ring of an upper clamping head (4). Two ends of a titanium alloy bar are respectively clamped in the upper clamping head (4) and a lower clamping head (3); and a balance weight (2) is hung below the lower clamping head (3). Output terminals of a power supply (1) are communicated with two ends of the bar by wires respectively. The weight of the balance weight andthe tension straightening length of the bar are obtained by calculation. The bar triggers a limit switch when reaching a preset tension straightening length, the power supply is disconnected, and straightening is stopped. The resistance heat tension straightening device is characterized by high straightening precision, simple device structure and operation method, low surface oxidization of short-term heated materials, and small residual stress inside the materials after hot straightening, and is applicable to metallic materials with higher resistivity.

The invention discloses a rolling linear guide friction force dynamic detection device and detection method thereof. The device comprises a bed body, a servo motor, a worktable, a mother lead screw, arolling linear guide, a slide block, an S type tension sensor, a forward limit switch, a reverse limit switch, a motion control card, a control panel and the like; based on the detection method of the device, firstly parameter is set, loading and running-in are carried out on the linear guide to be detected, then dynamic measurement is carried out on friction force and the measured data is analyzed, and finally the test data and result is saved and printed, qualification decision is given and measurement process is finished. The method of the invention can display distribution situation of dynamic measurement data in real time by a computer, and maximum, minimum and mean value thereof are calculated and compared with design standard of corresponding product and then are judged to be qualified or not; compared with the existing static detection method, the method has the advantages of high efficiency, high stability and high reliability.

The lock includes a latch member moveable between a retracted position where the truck door can be moved and an extended position where movement of the door is prevented. The latch member is moved by a reversible motor connected to drive a threaded screw through a set of speed reduction gears. An internally threaded drive nut is moveable along the screw. The drive nut has a radially extending protrusion which engages a slot formed in the latch member. Limit switches are tripped by the latch member at either end of its path of movement. The drive nut is situated between two springs. A control circuit is provided to regulate the energization of the motor and other functions of the lock.

Wafer probing test apparatus includes a main body, a test head having a plurality of pogo pins at its bottom surface, a probe card for engagement with the test head, a position sensor for sensing when the test head is oriented properly for docking with the probe card, and a docking height sensor for sensing when the test head arrives at the proper docking height. The sensors include a plurality of position sensor protrusions and at least one height sensor protrusion formed on the bottom of the test head, a plurality of position limit switches and a down limit switch. The switches are operated in response to the insertion and withdrawal of the position sensor protrusions into and from holes formed in the probe card.

An operator for opening and closing movable barriers such as garage doors comprising a pass point limit system which is a component of an operating head. The operator is responsive to remote control from a wall panel or other location remote from the operating head to enable setting and adjustment of door travel limits from a remote location, without requiring installation of limit switches separate from the operating head.

The invention discloses an intelligent medicine case system. The intelligent medicine case system comprises an intelligent medicine case device and is characterized by further comprising a wearable recognition device, a mobile communication terminal and a computer, the wearable recognition device is communicated with the intelligent medicine case device by means of radio-frequency communication, and the mobile communication terminal is communicated with the intelligent medicine case device by means of wireless communication; the intelligent medicine case device comprises a master control unit, at least one medicine case unit and a loudspeaker, the master control unit, the at least one medicine case unit and the loudspeaker are connected, the loudspeaker is arranged on the wall of the master control unit, the master control unit consists of a microcontroller and a power module, and the microcontroller is respectively connected with a communication module, a WiFi (wireless fidelity) module, a radio-frequency recognition module, a key, a speech synthesis module, an indicator lamp, an electromagnetic valve interface and a limit switch interface. The intelligent medicine case system has the advantages of simple structure, modular design, functional completeness, high intelligence and convenience and effectiveness in use. The invention further discloses a medicine taking reminding and medicine getting method for the intelligent medicine case system.

The invention discloses a kiwi fruit picking end actuator which comprises a clamping mechanism, a rotary picking mechanism, an approaching mechanism, a sensing system and a control system. The clamping mechanism comprises a scissor structure formed by front arc-face finger a rear arc-face finger and is capable of separating and reliable gripping of adjacent fruits. The rotary picking mechanism uses a reduction stepping motor to drive the clamping mechanism to rotate so as to separate stems and fruits. The approaching mechanism drives the front finger to approach the fruits. The sensing system comprises a pressure sensor, an infrared photoelectric switch, a Hall position sensor and a limit switch which are respectively used for detecting a clamping force threshold, fruit positions and mechanism reset information and controlling rotation angle of the reduction stepping motor, wherein the pressure sensor and the infrared photoelectric switch are mounted on the inner side of the front finger, the Hall position sensor and the limit switch are mounted on a frame. The control system comprises a single-chip microcomputer and a stepping motor controller and is used for controlling the whole system by the aid of the sensing system. By the actuator simple in mechanical structure, accurate positioning, separating and reliable gripping of the fruits are achieved, and lossless picking of the fruits is realized.

A safety station for use in a process plant includes one or more leverless limit switches to detect activation of one or more parts of the safety station. The safety station further includes a wireless transmitter coupled to the leverless limit switches to transmit signals associated with the safety station to a base station device, which is communicatively coupled to one or more control and/or monitoring devices.