1144 results about "Two degrees of freedom" patented technology

A fixation device for use in association with ALIF procedures includes a couple of spaced plates having integral spikes on facing surfaces thereof for pressing into spinal processes of adjacent vertebrae. One of the plates has a spherical socket which captures a spherical head end of a post whose other end is received through an aperture in the other plate. The socket mounting is arranged to enable the post to pivot therein for at least two degrees of freedom to a limited extent, enabling angulation between the two plates so as to accommodate the different thicknesses and orientations of the spinal processes on adjacent vertebrae. The reception of the post in the second plate enables adjustment of spacing between the plates to accommodate effective installation of the assembly on the spinal processes by a compression instrument, and permanent reliable maintenance of that spacing following removal of the compression instrument. The cross-sectional configuration of the post and a receiver aperture in the plate inhibits rotation of the plate relative to the post about the post axis, and a set screw in the apertured plate engages a flat on the post fixing the inter-plate space as adjusted.

A method of providing spatially metered haptic sensations to a user includes detecting motion of a surgical instrument within two degrees of freedom; repeatedly determining whether the surgical instrument has moved by an incremental distance in a particular direction with respect to some portion of a patient's body; and imparting a discrete haptic sensation upon a user each time it is determined that the surgical instrument has moved by the incremental distance in a particular direction.

An apparatus for interfacing the movement of a shaft with a computer includes a support, a gimbal mechanism having two degrees of freedom, and three electromechanical transducers. When a shaft is engaged with the gimbal mechanism, it can move with three degrees of freedom in a spherical coordinate space, where each degree of freedom is sensed by one of the three transducers. A fourth transducer can be used to sense rotation of the shaft around an axis. The method includes the steps of defining an origin in 3-dimensional space, physically constraining a shaft in the 3-dimensional space such that a portion of the shaft always intersects the origin and such that a portion of the shaft extending beyond the origin defines a radius in a spherical coordinate system, transducing a first electrical signal related to a first angular coordinate of the radius with a first transducer, transducing a second electrical signal related to a second angular coordinate with a second transducer, transducing a third electrical signal related to the length of the radius with a third transducer, and coupling the transducers to a computer.

A robotic system that includes a remote controlled robot with at least five degrees of freedom and a teleconferencing function. The robot may include a camera, a monitor and a holonomic platform all attached to a robot housing. The robot may be controlled by a remote control station that also has a camera and a monitor. The remote control station may be linked to a base station that is wirelessly coupled to the robot. The cameras and monitors allow a care giver at the remote location to monitor and care for a patient through the robot. The holonomic platform provides three degrees of freedom to allow the robot to move about a home or facility to locate and/or follow a patient. The robot also has mechanisms to provide at least two degrees of freedom for the camera.

Surgical tools having a two degree-of-freedom wrist, wrist articulation by linked tension members, mechanisms for transmitting torque through an angle, and minimally invasive surgical tools incorporating these features are disclosed. An elongate intermediate wrist member is pivotally coupled with a distal end of an instrument shaft so as to rotate about a first axis transverse to the shaft, and an end effector body is pivotally coupled with the intermediate member so as to rotate about a second axis that is transverse to the first axis. Linked tension members interact with attachment features to articulate the wrist. A torque-transmitting mechanism includes a coupling member, coupling pins, a drive shaft, and a driven shaft. The drive shaft is coupled with the driven shaft so as to control the relative orientations of the drive shaft, the coupling member, and the driven shaft.

The invention relates to a needle guidance system provided by a needle with a steerable tip. The needle has a cannula and a stylet. The stylet adjacent to its tip has a naturally curved portion The stylet is movable in two degrees of freedom with respect to the cannula-axial translation and axial rotation with respect to the cannula axis. When extended, the stylet curves off-axis and provides cannula tip steering. Driving and/or steering systems may be provided to the orientation and relatively move the stylet.

A robotically controlled endoscopic medical instrument that includes an end effector coupled to a wrist. The wrist provides two separate degrees of freedom about the same pivot point. The end effector can be moved and actuated by pins. The pins allow for a compact minimally invasive medical instrument that has a wrist with two degrees of freedom.

A trajectory structure is configured for contact with a surface to dictate an insertion trajectory of a pin relative to the surface. A location structure is configured to allow longitudinal passage of at least a portion of the pin therethrough to dictate an insertion location of the pin relative to the surface. An elongate handling rod is connected to the trajectory structure and the location structure. The handling rod supports the trajectory structure and the location structure for manipulation by a user. The handling rod spaces the trajectory structure and the location structure longitudinally apart. The trajectory structure is connected to the handling rod for trajectory adjustment in at least two degrees of freedom relative to the handling rod. The insertion trajectory of the pin insertion is substantially dependent upon the trajectory adjustment. A method for inserting an elongate guide pin into a bone surface is also provided.

The present invention provides a kit for bone surgery comprising a chirurgical drill and a base frame for positioning of said drill on an anatomical part of a patient. The base frame comprises at least one guiding tube with a cylindrical inner surface of predetermined diameter and also comprises a longitudinal cutout for direct view of the drilling site. The kit further comprises a burr-ring with a cylindrical outer surface of predetermined diameter arranged to be placed around the chirurgical drill. The diameter of the cylindrical outer surface of the burr-ring is slightly less than the diameter of the cylindrical inner surface of the guiding tube such that the burr-ring and the guiding tube are at most in a two-degree of freedom relationship along the longitudinal axis of the guiding tube when the burr-ring is engaged in the guiding tube. The invention also provides a bone surgery method using the kit.

There is provided a manipulator simplified in maintenance and operation thereof, the manipulator having the freedom of two-degree-of-freedom of rotation and gripping, and being capable of ensuring force feedback or force sensation with excellent operationability.

A link mechanism 3 is provided between an operating part 1 and a working part 2. The link mechanism 3 comprises four driving rods 3a to 3d and first and second coupling members of the same structure, 41, 42 provided at opposite ends of the driving rods. First and second working members 2a, 2b move correspondingly to operations of first and second operating members 1a, 1b with the aid of the link mechanism 3. For example, provided that the first and second operating members 1a, 1b might be opened and closed, the first and second working members 2a, 2b might be opened and closed (gripping). And also, provided that the first and second operating members 1a, 1b are changed in their yaw angles, the working members 2a, 2b are also correspondingly changed in their yaw angle. Similarly, once the first and second operating members 1a, 1b are changed in their pitch angles, the working members 2a, 2b might be also correspondingly changed in their pitch angles.

The invention relates to an electronic device for determining a first positional information and a second positional information regarding a user input object, such as at least one user hand or at least one stylus, the electronic device comprising: a touch-sensitive surface; contact-free detection means; and controller means that are operatively connected to the touch-sensitive surface and to the contact-free detection means; wherein the first positional information depends on where the user input object contacts the touch-sensitive surface, and wherein the second positional information depends on the spatial configuration of the user input object with regard to the touch-sensitive surface, characterized in that the controller means are adapted for simultaneously and/or alternately determining the first positional information via the touch-sensitive surface and the second positional information via the contact free detection means.

A compact four degrees of freedom parallel mechanism suitable for use as a hand control or wrist is provided that has backdrivability, is singularity free and has a large workspace and a large force reflecting capability. The structure is light but rigid, and the electric actuators are all placed on the ground or base and provide independent control of each degree of freedom. Each degree of freedom is connected to an actuator either directly or through a cable drive system. The first two degrees of freedom are created by two identical pantographs pivoted together on pivoted joints to define a hemispherical motion of an object (end point) about a center point (hemisphere center). The third and fourth degrees of freedom represent rotation and sliding motions of the object around and along the radius of the created hemisphere, respectively. The axes of these latter degrees of freedom are concentric, and these axes intersect with the axis of the pantographs pivoted joints at the hemispheric center.

A rehabilitation system that combines robotics and interactive gaming to facilitate performance of task-specific, repetitive exercise to enable individuals undergoing rehabilitation to improve the performance of coordinated movements of the ankle, and to practice balance activities, is disclosed. More specifically, the rehabilitation system includes at least one two degree-of-freedom robotic, haptic interface for a mammalian foot and interactive gaming hardware that is coupled to a controller, to provide a virtual reality-like environment.

It comprises a supporting structure in which at least one arm is slidably attached. Each arm comprises first and second members hinged to each other. The first member is rotatably hinged to the supporting structure and it can be rotated about a longitudinal axis and the second member may receive a joint having at least two degrees of freedom for attaching a tool. The longitudinal axis of the first member is substantially perpendicular to an axis joining the first member and the second member to each other. A simplified architecture is obtained allowing for accurate and efficient spatial movement of the tool holding arm.

The invention concerns a print robot for large format three-dimensional printing on a fixed surface ( 11 ) having five motorized axes, comprising an inkjet printing block ( 13 ), means for displacing and orientating this printing assembly along several axes, at least one control unit controlling these means and a drying device to dry the ink sprayed onto said surface ( 11 ), wherein these means comprise: a carrier ( 15 ) with three degrees of freedom in translation, ensuring the positioning of the printing assembly allowing its horizontal, vertical and depth translation, a wrist ( 16 ) with two degrees of freedom which supports and orientates the printing assembly ( 13 ) allowing its rotations along two perpendicular axes. The invention also concerns a process implementing this robot.

A link extends between a distal member and a proximal member of a wearable device, such as an exoskeleton, orthosis or prosthesis for a human lower limb. One or other of the distal member and the proximal member includes a crossing member. The link extends from the crossing member of the distal member or the proximal member, to the other of the distal member or the proximal member. Actuation of the link translates to a force at the distal or proximal member that is normal to a major longitudinal axis extending through the distal and proximal members. In one embodiment, a sliding link of a device configured for use with a human joint tracks two degrees of freedom of the joint.

An apparatus and method for interfacing the motion of a user-manipulable object with a computer system includes a user object physically contacted or grasped by a user. A 3-D spatial mechanism is coupled to the user object, such as a stylus or a medical instrument, and provides three degrees of freedom to the user object. Three grounded actuators provide forces in the three degrees of freedom. Two of the degrees of freedom are a planar workspace provided by a closed-loop linkage of members, and the third degree of freedom is rotation of the planar workspace provided by a rotatable carriage. Capstan drive mechanisms transmit forces between actuators and the user object and include drums coupled to the carriage, pulleys coupled to-grounded actuators, and flexible cables transmitting force between the pulleys and the drums. The flexibility of the cable allows the drums to rotate with the carriage while the pulleys and actuators remain fixed to ground. The interface also may include a floating gimbal mechanism coupling the linkage to the user object. The floating gimbal mechanism includes rotatably coupled gimbal members that provide three degrees of freedom to the user object and capstan mechanisms coupled between sensors and the gimbal members for providing enhanced sensor resolution.

A force feedback mouse interface device connected to a host computer and providing realistic force feedback to a user. The mouse interface device includes a mouse object and a linkage coupled to the mouse that includes a plurality of members rotatably coupled to each other in a planar closed-loop linkage and including two members coupled to ground and rotatable about the same axis. Two actuators, preferably electromagnetic voice coils, provide forces in the two degrees of freedom of the planar workspace of the mouse object. Each of the actuators includes a moveable coil portion integrated with one of the members of the linkage and a magnet portion coupled to the ground surface through which the coil portion moves. The grounded magnet portions of the actuators can be coupled together such that a common flux path between the magnet portions is shared by both magnets. At least one sensor is coupled to the ground surface that detects movement of the linkage and provides a sensor signal including information from which a position of the mouse object in the planar workspace can be determined.

A method for scanning a surface of a workpiece 1 at a constant scanning speed /v_a/ using a scanning probe 2 mounted on a support 3 on a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) 4. The CMM contains a first set of drive means (6, 7, 8) to move the support according to three linear axis (x,y,z), and the support 3 contains a second set of drive means (14, 17) for actuating the movement of the scanning probe 2 with two degrees of freedom relative to said support 3. The method involves control means 33 coupled to the sets of drive means (6, 14, 17), and memory means for storing theoretical profiles and coordinates of the surface to scan.

The invention relates to a four-leg robot mechanism based on a bionic design. The four-leg robot mechanism consists of a body frame and four legs. The body frame consists of a front plate and a rear plate, two sides of the body frame are provided with flexible handles, and the robot mechanism is convenient to convey; each leg comprises a hip, a huckle, a knee and a crural part; the hip realizes two freedom degrees by adopting a differential bevel gear; the hip and the huckle are connected by an expansion sleeve to realize fast and convenient assembly and disassembly; the bevel gear drive motion is adopted by the knee; the crural part comprises a large cylinder, a small cylinder, a conical spring and a force sensor; and the large cylinder and the small cylinder are connected through the conical spring, so that the external impact force generated in the walking process of the robot can be buffered, the force sensor on a sole can acquire ground acting force, and the external environment can be conveniently sensed in real time and the robot can be subjected to balanced control conveniently. Through the bionic design idea, a spinal cord and a flexible foot mechanism of the robot are stimulated and designed, the flexibility of the robot movement is improved, the impact of the ground to the robot is reduced, and the robot mechanism has a compact structure and is convenient to install.

The invention concerns turbochargers, or more particularly to multivariable dual stage series turbochargers having two degrees of freedom. A multistage series turbocharger apparatus has a low pressure turbocharger comprising a low pressure compressor and a low pressure turbine; a high pressure turbocharger comprising a high pressure compressor and a high pressure turbine, and a exhaust gas recirculation device. A controller controls the operation of at least two of the low pressure compressor, high pressure compressor, low pressure turbine, high pressure turbine, and exhaust gas recirculation device such that at least one operating parameter is maintained at about a selected value.

The invention discloses an ankle-joint exercising device based on paralleling mechanism, which comprises the following parts: rotary mechanism with one free degree, spherical paralleling mechanism with two free degrees and tray, wherein the spherical paralleling mechanism is composed of mobile platform to fix tray, two branched chains and fixed platform, which connect each other through driving spoke; the fixed platform of spherical paralleling mechanism connects rotary component of rotary mechanism rigidly, which is set on the rack bearing of rotary mechanism through driving spoke to form 3 free degrees; the tray is assembled on the mobile platform of spherical paralleling mechanism.

The invention provides a follow-up type nasal endoscope operation auxiliary robot. The follow-up type nasal endoscope operation auxiliary robot comprises a guide rail adapter fitted to guide rails of different operation beds, an automatic lifting mechanism which is connected to the guide rail adapter and is lifted in the direction perpendicular to the operation beds, an automatic stretching mechanism which is connected to the tail end of the automatic lifting mechanism and stretches in a plane parallel to the operation beds, a two-degree-of-freedom RCM mechanism connected to the tail end of the automatic stretching mechanism, an automatic tail end adjusting mechanism which is connected to the tail end of the RCM mechanism and drives a nasal endoscope to conduct depth feeding and angle compensation and a controller which controls the automatic lifting mechanism, the automatic stretching mechanism, the RCM mechanism and the automatic tail end adjusting mechanism to move. A doctor is replaced with the robot in an operation to hold the nasal endoscope, appropriate adjustment in good time is carried out along with an operation instrument, the left hand of the doctor is liberated, picture swing occurring in the operation is overcome, the labor intensity of the doctor is reduced, and complications are reduced.

An airborne reconnaissance system comprising: (1) Gimbals having at least two degrees of freedom; (2) At least one array of light sensors positioned on the gimbals, for being directed by the same within at least two degrees of freedom; (3) Map storage means for storing at least one Digital Elevation Map of an area of interest, divided into portions; (4) Inertial Navigation System for real-time providing to a gimbals control unit navigation and orientation data of the aircraft with respect to a predefined global axes system;(5) Portion selection unit for selecting, one at a time, another area portion from the area of interest; and (6) servo means for directing the gimbals. The system uses data from the inertial navigation system and from the digital elevation map for real-time calculating direction to selected area portions, and for maintaining the direction during integration of light from the terrain, and for producing corresponding images of area portions.

The invention provides an electric bus integrated control hardware in-loop test platform and a test method. The electric bus integrated control hardware in-loop test platform is formed by an air source component, a line control air brake system, a conventional brake component, a driving control component, a signal simulation component, a target machine, and a host computer based on line control air brake, and the electric bus integrated control hardware in-loop test method comprises an acceleration test, a brake test and a steering test. According to the test platform and the test method, accurate adjustment of the brake pressure of four wheels is realized through front and rear axle proportion relay valves and four ABS solenoid valves in a line control air brake system, and integrated control of electric buses is realized with the combination of signal simulation components including a two-degree-of-freedom rotation platform and a wheel speed simulation motor and the corresponding test method.

The invention discloses a cooking device with a middle discharge mechanism which comprises a bracket, a pot body, a middle discharge mechanism and a rotating mechanism. The pot body is tubbiness, ellipsoid-shaped and spherical crown shaped and is provided with an opening at the end part; the rotating mechanism is connected with the pot body and can drive the pot body to rotate along a rotating axis; and the middle discharge mechanism comprises an intermediate transfer device and an intermediate member, the intermediate transfer device can transfer materials in the pot body to the intermediate member and also can transfer the material in the intermediate member to the pot body when the material is cooked again. Compared with habitually use, the invention realizes the cooking automation without much manual force; in addition, the pot body has tow degrees of freedom and can realize both rotating and overturning, thereby solving the problem of uneven heating and automatic dish discharging and avoiding difficult fire control; and moreover, since the middle material discharge process is added, not only automatic or semi-automatic cooking process is realized and resources are saved, but also cooking methods and the type of cooked food are increased.

The drivetrain includes a differential mechanism having four or more input/output elements and having two degrees of freedom. The input In from an engine, the output Out to a drive shaft, and two motor-generators MGi and MGo are assigned to the elements, and one of the elements other than the element to which the output assigned is provided with brakes B. By braking the element other than the output with the brakes, a large reduction ratio can be achieved, so startability can be improved without enlarging the capacities of the motor-generators.

The invention discloses a robot used for intelligent substation patrol, comprising a moving car as a vehicle; the front part of the moving car is provided with a navigation system; the moving car is provided with a power supply, an electronic element enclosure, a mechanical arm and an information processing system; wherein, the mechanical arm is arranged on a cabin on the upper part of the enclosure and is mainly composed of a basic arm, a median arm and a forearm; the basic arm has two degrees of freedom including axial movement and circumferential rotation and has a cavity inside; the median arm has a moving pin shaft which can operate along the cavity so as to ensure that a body shrinks into the cavity and has one rotational degree of freedom around the moving pin shaft when extending out of the cavity; the forearm is arranged at the end of the median arm via a pin shaft; the cross section of the cavity is larger than the cross sections of the median arm and the forearm under folding state. The robot based on the technical proposal of the invention has high degree of functionalization and high safety.

The invention provides an exoskeleton wearable upper limb rehabilitation robot, which comprises a shoulder joint exoskeleton, an elbow joint exoskeleton, a wrist joint exoskeleton and a hand exoskeleton, wherein the shoulder joint exoskeleton has two degrees of freedom; the elbow joint exoskeleton has two degrees of freedom; the wrist joint exoskeleton has one degree of freedom; and the hand exoskeleton has three degrees of freedom, namely the robot have eight degrees of freedom. The exoskeleton wearable upper limb rehabilitation robot is driven by using a harmonic wave speed reducer and a disc type motor serving as a high-power motor to realize zero-rotation error and the good fit of driving and joints of patients. The exoskeleton wearable upper limb rehabilitation robot can be driven by a storage battery, the problem of limit of activity range in the conventional rehabilitation device is solved, and the robot is portable.

In vibration suppression apparatus and method for a hybrid vehicle, the hybrid vehicle comprises at least one main power source, a plurality of auxiliary power sources, and a planetary gear mechanism to modify a gear ratio when an output of the main power source is transmitted to a drive output member and two power sources whose torque controls are enabled to be performed are selected and a vibration suppression control signal is superposed onto each of torque commands supplied to the selected two power sources to suppress two-degrees-of-freedom vibrations of the planetary gear mechanism.