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US 12,703,116 B2Granted
Unified pneumatic and electrical connector system and method
AssigneeRoam Robotics Inc.
InventorsEitan Cher, Ashley Swartz, Zack Stephanchick, Ronald Lam, Phillip Dao Pham, Kevin Conrad Kemper, Timothy Alan Swift
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An exoskeleton system including one or more unitary cables comprising at least a first unitary cable configured to extend from an exoskeleton device to a first actuator unit, the first unitary cable comprising: one or more power lines, one or more fluid lines, one or more communication lines, and a cable connector that includes a first connector side and a second connector side.
Claims20
An exoskeleton system comprising:
- a left and right leg actuator unit configured to be respectively coupled to a left and right leg of a user, the left and right leg actuator units each including:
- an upper arm and a lower arm that are rotatably coupled via a joint, the joint adapted to a knee of the user with the upper arm adapted to an upper leg portion of the user above the knee and with the lower arm adapted to a lower leg portion of the user below the knee, and
- a fluidic bellows actuator that extends between the upper arm and lower arm;
- and
- an exoskeleton device that includes:
- a fluidic system, and
- a processor and memory, the memory storing instructions, that when executed by the processor, are configured to control the fluidic system to introduce fluid to the bellows actuators of the left and right leg actuator units;
- and
- a plurality of unitary cables, comprising a first unitary cable extending from the exoskeleton device to the right leg actuator unit and a second unitary cable extending from the exoskeleton device to the left leg actuator unit, the first and second unitary cables each comprising:
- one or more electrical power lines configured to convey electrical power from the exoskeleton device to the left or right leg actuator unit,
- one or more fluid lines configured to convey the fluid from the exoskeleton device to the respective bellows actuators of the left or right leg actuator unit,
- one or more communication lines configured to convey communication signals from the exoskeleton device to the left or right leg actuator unit,
- a sheath that surrounds and encloses the one or more electrical power lines, the one or more fluid lines, and the one or more communication lines, and
- a cable connector comprising:
- a first connector side having a release button and a first coupling face that includes a first pin array and a fluidic connector surrounded by a first cylindrical magnet,
- a second connector side having a second coupling face that includes a second pin array configured to operably couple and de-couple with the first pin array, a fluid stem surrounded by a second cylindrical magnet, the fluid stem configured to operably couple and de-couple with the fluidic connector of the first connector side, the second cylindrical magnet configured to couple and de-couple with the first cylindrical magnet of the first connector side, and
- a first and a second cable portion extending respectively from the first and second connector sides,
- wherein actuating the release button causes the first and second coupling faces to disengage, including causing the first and second cylindrical magnets to decouple, causing the first and second pin arrays to de-couple, and causing the fluid stem and fluidic connector to de-couple.
15 more elements
An exoskeleton system comprising:
- one or more actuator units that comprise one or more fluidic actuators;
- an exoskeleton device that includes:
- a fluidic system, and
- a device configured to control the fluidic system to introduce fluid to the one or more fluidic actuators of the one or more actuator units;
- and
- one or more unitary cables, comprising at least a first unitary cable extending from the exoskeleton device to a first actuator unit, the first unitary cable comprising:
- one or more electrical power lines configured to convey electrical power from the exoskeleton device to the first actuator unit,
- one or more fluid lines configured to convey the fluid from the exoskeleton device to a first fluidic actuator of the first actuator unit,
- one or more communication lines configured to convey communication signals from the exoskeleton device to the first actuator unit, and
- a cable connector comprising:
- a first connector side having a first coupling face that includes a first pin array, a fluidic connector, and a first magnet, and
- a second connector side having a second coupling face that includes a second pin array configured to operably couple and de-couple with the first pin array, a fluid stem configured to operably couple and de-couple with the fluidic connector of the first connector side, and a second magnet configured to couple and de-couple with the first magnet of the first connector side.
9 more elements
An exoskeleton system comprising:
- an exoskeleton device;
- a first actuator unit;
- and
- one or more unitary cables comprising at least a first unitary cable configured to extend from the exoskeleton device to the first actuator unit, the first unitary cable comprising:
- one or more power lines,
- one or more fluid lines,
- one or more communication lines, and
- a cable connector comprising:
- a first connector side having a first coupling face that includes a first pin array, a first fluidic connector, and a first magnet, and
- a second connector side having a second coupling face that includes a second pin array configured to operably couple and decouple with the first pin array, a second fluid connector configured to operably couple and decouple with the first fluidic connector of the first connector side, and a second magnet configured to couple and decouple with the first magnet of the first connector side.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.