Improved mechanical joints that include a compact, bypassable, single-spring or nested-spring wrap-spring clutch

Abstract

The current document is directed to improved mechanical joints that each includes a compact, bypassable, single-spring or nested-spring wrap-spring clutch (“BSorNWS clutch”) and that can be incorporated into many different types of devices, appliances, and systems, including prosthetics. One application of a BSorNWS-clutch mechanical joint is as a mechanical knee within a prosthetic leg. A BSorNWS-clutch mechanical-knee component used in a prosthetic leg further includes upper-leg and lower-leg attachments that freely rotate when the prosthetic leg is unweighted but that are constrained, by weighting-induced activation of the BSorNWS-clutch, to rotate only in a lower-leg-extension direction. The BSorNWS-clutch mechanical-knee includes additional components that adjust the weighting force needed to bypass the BSorNWS clutch and to slightly relax the rotational constraint imposed by BSorNWS-clutch activation.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.