Multi-articulated link knee joint

Abstract

A multi-articulated link knee joint includes: a knee unit in which an upper link unit rotates relative to a lower link unit by a multi-articulated link mechanism including a plurality of link units including the upper link unit and the lower link unit; a relative position detector for detecting a relative position of the upper link unit relative to the lower link unit; and an angle detector for obtaining a bending angle of the knee unit from the detected relative position.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A multi-articulated link knee joint comprising:
 a knee unit in which an upper link unit is structured to rotate relative to a lower link unit by a multi-articulated link mechanism including a plurality of link units including the upper link unit and the lower link unit;   a magnet provided at the upper link unit;   a magnetic sensor provided at the lower link unit, the magnetic sensor structured to detect an intensity of a magnetic field generated by the magnet; and   an angle detector structured to obtain a bending angle of the knee unit based on the intensity of the magnetic field detected by the magnetic sensor.   
     
     
         2 . The multi-articulated link knee joint according to  claim 1 ,
 wherein the magnet has an arc shape extending in a rotation direction of the upper link unit, and   a center of the arc shape is eccentric with respect to a rotation axis of the upper link unit.   
     
     
         3 . A multi-articulated link knee joint comprising:
 a knee unit in which an upper link unit is structured to rotate relative to a lower link unit by a multi-articulated link mechanism including the upper link unit, the lower link unit, and an anterior link unit and a posterior link unit rotatably supporting the upper link unit with respect to the lower link unit;   a relative position detector structured to detect a rotation angle of each of the anterior link unit and the posterior link unit with respect to the lower link unit,   an angle detector obtains a bending angle of the knee unit based on the rotation angles of the anterior link unit and the posterior link unit detected by the relative position detector.   
     
     
         4 . A multi-articulated link knee joint comprising:
 a knee unit in which an upper link unit is structured to rotate relative to a lower link unit by a multi-articulated link mechanism including a plurality of link units including the upper link unit and the lower link unit;   a first acceleration sensor provided at the upper link unit; and   a second acceleration sensor provided at the lower link unit,   an angle detector obtains a bending angle of the knee unit on the basis of detection results of the first acceleration sensor and the second acceleration sensor.