Infant Care Apparatus

An infant care apparatus comprising:

• a base;
• a drive mechanism coupled to the base and having a first motion assembly and a second motion assembly;
• a movable stage movably mounted to the base and operatively coupled to the first motion assembly so that the first motion assembly imparts a first cyclic motion in a first direction to the movable stage, and the second motion assembly is dependent from the movable stage so that the second motion assembly imparts a second cyclic motion in a second direction independent of the first cyclic motion in the first direction imparted by the first motion assembly;
• an infant support disposed to effect stand-alone infant care support of an infant on the infant care apparatus and coupled to the second motion assembly so that the second cyclic motion and the first cyclic motion is imparted to the infant support, and the infant support is configured to move cyclically in both the first direction and the second direction relative to the base;
• and
• a controller communicably coupled to the drive mechanism, and configured so as to move the infant support, with separate impetus separately imparted on the infant support by the first cyclic motion and the second cyclic motion, in both the first direction and the second direction with a selectably variable motion path selected, with the controller, from a number of different selectably variable motion paths,
• wherein the controller is configured to effect selection of the selectably variable motion path by separate variance of motion characteristic of the separate respective first cyclic motion and second cyclic motion determined from a common selection input to the controller selecting and corresponding to but one of the selectably variable motion path so that selection of each selectably variable motion path by separate variance of motion characteristic of the separate respective first cyclic motion and second cyclic motion is effected with a corresponding common selection input.

A method for controlling an infant care apparatus, the method comprising:

• providing a base of the infant care apparatus;
• providing a drive mechanism coupled to the base and having a first motion assembly and a second motion assembly;
• providing a movable stage movably mounted to the base and operatively coupled to the first motion assembly for imparting a first cyclic motion in a first direction to the movable stage;
• providing an infant support disposed to effect stand-alone infant care support of an infant on the infant care apparatus and coupled to the second motion assembly, the second motion assembly imparting a second cyclic motion in a second direction independent of the first cyclic motion in the first direction imparted by the first motion assembly, wherein the second cyclic motion and the first cyclic motion are imparted to the infant support moving the infant support cyclically in both the first direction and the second direction relative to the base;
• moving, with a controller communicably coupled to the drive mechanism, the infant support, with separate impetus separately imparted on the infant support by the first cyclic motion and the second cyclic motion respectively driven by the first and the second motors, in both the first direction and the second direction with a selectably variable motion path selected, with the controller, from a number of different selectably variable motion paths;
• and
• effecting, with the controller, selection of the selectably variable motion path by separate variance of motion characteristic of the separate respective first cyclic motion and second cyclic motion determined from a common selection input to the controller such that the controller effects the selection corresponding to only one of the selectably variable motion paths so that selection of each selectably variable motion path by separate variance of motion characteristic of the separate respective first cyclic motion and second cyclic motion is effected with a corresponding common selection input.