Portable Infant Rocker With Multi-Axis Soothing Motion
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Newborn babies and infants often require motion to soothe and sleep, but in settings like hospitals or incubators, constant individual attention and movement may not be feasible, especially for premature babies.
Innovation Solution
A portable rocker assembly that imparts motion in various degrees of freedom, including lateral translation, vertical translation, pivoting, and elevation changes, using a carrier assembly and support assembly with motor assemblies and a control system to provide soothing motion patterns.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If newborn babies are regularly picked up and held to provide motion, then the babies are soothed and can sleep better, but constant individual attention is not feasible due to staffing levels
Solution Approach 1:
The rocker provides self-service motion to infants, automatically rocking them without requiring human operators. The device includes motors that generate rocking motions in multiple degrees of freedom, allowing the system to serve itself and the infants independently of staff availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The manual mechanical action of picking up and holding babies is replaced by an automated mechanical rocking system. The device uses motors and linkages to generate physiological rocking motions that mimic natural movement patterns, substituting human physical intervention with automated mechanical motion.
2Reliability
If premature newborn babies are placed in hospital incubators, then they are protected and monitored, but it is not possible to regularly pick them up due to their delicate state
Solution Approach 1:
The rocker is designed with universal applicability to work with premature infants in incubators as well as full-term infants in cribs or bassinets. The device can be positioned inside incubators and provides the necessary rocking motion without requiring removal of the infant from the protective incubator environment.
3Ease of operation
If a rocker provides motion in multiple degrees of freedom, then it more effectively soothes babies, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The rocking motion is segmented into multiple independent degrees of freedom, each controlled by separate motors. The system provides lateral translation, vertical translation, and rotational motions as distinct controllable components, allowing complex soothing patterns to be built from simpler individual motion elements.
Data Source
AI summary
A rocker for supporting an infant or other item includes a carrier assembly and a support assembly. The carrier assembly has a support platform. The support assembly is disposed below the carrier assembly is operable to selectively impart motion to the carrier assembly in a plurality of different motion patterns. The motion patterns can include one or more of translation along a first linear direction, translation along a second linear direction perpendicular to the first linear direction, yaw relative to a first axis, pitch relative to a second axis that is perpendicular to the first axis, roll about a third axis that is perpendicular to the first and second axes, and elevation changes relative to the support assembly.