Wearable chair

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11197553-B2
Application number	US-201916694558-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 25, 2019
Priority date	Apr 4, 2019
Publication date	Dec 14, 2021
Grant date	Dec 14, 2021

Abstract

A wearable chair includes: a thigh link extending in an extension direction of a wearer's thigh to be connected to the wearer's thigh; a crus link extending in an extension direction of the wearer's crus to be connected to the wearer's crus, having an upper end portion rotatably coupled to a lower end portion of the thigh link, and prevented from rotating such that an angle between the crus link and the thigh link is less than a sitting angle; and a contact link having a first end rotatably coupled to a lower end portion of the crus link and a second end coming in contact with the ground at a predetermined position from the crus link by rotating with respect to the first end with relative rotation between the thigh link and the crus link when the wearer is in a sitting position.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wearable chair, comprising:
a thigh link extending in an extension direction of a wearer's thigh to be connected to the wearer's thigh;
a crus link extending in an extension direction of the wearer's crus to be connected to the wearer's crus, having an upper end portion rotatably coupled to a lower end portion of the thigh link, and prevented from rotating such that an angle between the crus link and the thigh link is less than a sitting angle; and
a contact link having a first end rotatably coupled to a lower end portion of the crus link and a second end coming in contact with a ground at a predetermined position from the crus link by rotating with respect to the first end with relative rotation between the thigh link and the crus link when the wearer is in a sitting position,
wherein the crus link includes:
a housing having an upper end portion rotatably coupled to the lower end portion of the thigh link and a lower end portion rotatably coupled to the contact link;
a slider coupled to the housing to be able to slide in an extension direction of the housing;
a rotary ring coupled to the lower end portion of the thigh link to be able to rotate to the thigh link, and connected to the slider to slide the slider by rotating;
a stopper integrally combined with the rotary ring and locked to the lower end portion of the thigh link to rotate integrally with the rotary ring and the thigh link; and
a retainer preventing sliding between the slider and the housing when the angle between the thigh link and the crus link is the sitting angle,

wherein coupling steps protruding outward are formed on the lower end portion of the thigh link at a plurality of angular positions in a relative rotational direction to the crus link, and
wherein the rotary ring is separably coupled to the stopper, the stopper is locked to the coupling steps to rotate integrally with the thigh link when the stopper is integrally combined with the rotary ring, and the sitting angle can be changed by relative rotation of the rotary ring to the thigh link according to the angular positions of the coupling steps to which the stopper is locked.

2. The wearable chair of claim 1 , further comprising a crus holder coupled to the crus link in contact with the crus of the wearer so as to slide in the extension direction of the crus link.

3. The wearable chair of claim 2 , wherein the lower end portion of the crus link comes in contact with the ground due to the crus link sliding down with respect to the crus holder when the wearer is in the sitting position.

4. The wearable chair of claim 1 , further comprising:
stopping steps formed at the upper end portion of the crus link and stopping relative rotation of the stopper to prevent relative rotation such that the angle between the thigh link and the crus link is less than the sitting angle.

5. The wearable chair of claim 1 , wherein the retainer includes:
though-holes formed through both sides of the housing surrounding both sides of the slider; and
fixing members integrally moving in a sliding direction of the slider and disposed inside the slider to be able to slide to both sides of the slider, and when the fixing members slide to both sides of the slider and are inserted into the through-holes, sliding of the slider is stopped.

6. The wearable chair of claim 5 , wherein the retainer further includes a cam assembly disposed over the slider and coupled to the slider to be able to slide in the sliding direction of the slider, and connected to perform a straight motion by a rotational portion of the rotary ring, and
guide protrusions protruding in a direction perpendicular to a sliding direction of the fixing members are respectively formed on the fixing members, the cam assembly has a cam hole in which the guide protrusions of the fixing members are inserted and can vertically slide a predetermined distance, and the cam hole is formed such that the guide protrusions of the fixing members come close to each other when the guide protrusions slide down.

7. The wearable chair of claim 1 , wherein the contact link rotates with relative rotation between the thigh link and the crus link in a rotational section where the angle between the thigh link and the crus link is between the sitting angle and a pressing angle obtained by adding a linkage angle to the sitting angle, and the contact link is fixed in a free section where the angle between the thigh link and the crus link is the pressing angle or more even though the thigh link and the crus link rotate to each other.

8. The wearable chair of claim 7 , further comprising:
an internal gear having inner teeth on the inner side, coupled to the rotary ring to freely rotate in the free section of the thigh link and the crus link, and locked to the rotary ring to integrally rotate in the rotational section of the thigh link and the crus link; and
an external gear having outer teeth formed on the outer side to engage with the inner teeth of the internal gear and connected to the contact link to rotate with the contact link.

9. The wearable chair of claim 8 , wherein the external gear is smaller in number of teeth than the internal gear, thereby accelerating rotation of the internal gear.

10. The wearable chair of claim 1 , wherein the
slider rotates the contact link by sliding with relative rotation between the thigh link and the crus link.

11. The wearable chair of claim 10 , further comprising a transmission link having a first end connected to operate with relative rotation between the thigh link and the crus link and a second end connected to the slider, thereby converting a rotational motion according to relative rotation between the thigh link and the crus link into a straight motion of the slider.

12. The wearable chair of claim 10 , wherein the first end of the contact link is rotatably coupled to a lower end portion of the housing, and
the wearable chair further comprises a connection link having a first end portion rotatably coupled to the slider and a second end portion coupled at a predetermined distance from the first end of the contact link coupled to the lower end portion of the housing such that the slider rotates the contact link by sliding.

Assignees

• Hyundai Motor Co Ltd
• Kia Motors Corp

Inventors

• Lim Hyun Seop
• Hyun Dong Jin

Classifications

• B25J9/102

  Gears specially adapted therefor, e.g. reduction gears (gearings in general F16H) · CPC title

• B25J9/101

  using limit-switches, -stops · CPC title

• B25J9/0006 Primary

  Exoskeletons, i.e. resembling a human figure · CPC title

• B25J9/126

  Rotary actuators · CPC title

• B25J9/042

  comprising an articulated arm · CPC title