Products

Products

Additional products with similar rocking units to be developed at a later date include single bed rocking beds for the medical market, a rocking recliner designed for rest and short daytime sleep, a rocking Nap Pod designed for short daytime sleep, single and double rocking beds equipped with movable substrates with a transformable shape, rocking beds whose support bases are equipped with swivel or non-swivel bases, and rocking beds with a swivel or non-swivel bed base.

All of the above types of single and double rocking beds, rocking recliners, and Nap Pods have been described in detail in a provisional patent application to the USPTO entitled “Rocking Bed and Rocking Device” (Provisional Application 63/666,724).

The rocking bed has a modular design consisting of 10 modules:

 - support base,

- electrical power supply,

- lifting mechanism (1 or 2 electric motors with lifting mechanical or hydraulic or hybrid power drive),

- support system,

- a flat non-transformable movable substrate or a shape-transformable movable substrate,

- internal and external noise and vibration isolation system,

- cooling and warm air utilization system,

- control system, interactive communication with the user and with external networks, user safety system.

 On top of the flat non-transformable movable substrate is attached a mattress, which may be flat or with an adjustable shape. A flexible mattress is attached to the transformable movable substrate from above, which can be shaped in the same way as the transformable movable substrate.

The design of the rocking unit and the working principles of the rocking bed, recliner and Nap Pod are not fundamentally different from each other, but their functionality may have differences to reduce cost.

The main principles of rocking beds, rocking chair-recliner and rocking Nap Pod - no noise and vibration, smooth movement, sufficient power of the power unit to achieve acceleration, perceived by the otolithic system of the human vestibular apparatus, a wide range of frequency, amplitude, shape (mode) of movement.

These principles are achieved by using modern low-speed collectorless DC electric motors on permanent magnets, advanced control system, no contact of moving metal parts in the structure, double-circuit system of sound and vibration protection.

Rocking beds, rocking chair-recliner and rocking Nap Pod are powered by household electricity, models with a support base equipped with swivel wheels have electric batteries. All product types operate under the common Canopen or EtherCat communication protocols. When developing product components, a custom data transfer protocol can be developed.

Rocking beds, rocking recliners and Nap Pods operate under the control of a high-level controller that receives and sends data to external servers to collect, process and analyze information.

The cost of rocking beds, rocking recliners and Nap Pods depends significantly on the cost of electronic, mechanical and hydraulic components, which should be developed and produced by the company itself or by contract manufacturing without excessive functionality, rather than purchased from third-party manufacturers.

Rocking bed

A rocking bed is a mattress support with a movable top side, called the movable substrate, and a fixed bottom side, called the support base. All elements of the rocking bed are attached to the upper surface of the support base.

The movable substrate is driven by mechanical, hydraulic or hybrid mechanical and hydraulic actuators (movers) attached by their fixed parts to the support base or to the movable carriages of the linear motion axis, and by their movable parts to the lower surface of the movable substrate.

The flat, non-transformable movable substrate may have one or two degrees of freedom: plane-parallel movement relative to a vertical axis in a horizontal or inclined position (one degree of freedom), plane-parallel movement relative to a vertical axis, rotation relative to a transverse or longitudinal axis, and a superposition of said movement and rotation (two degrees of freedom). If the support base is equipped with wheels, the movable substrate may additionally acquire up to three degrees of freedom - horizontal movement, rotation relative to the vertical axis and superposition thereof.

The movable substrate of the sleeping place can be transformable in form, consisting of several flat independent and dependent elements, in this case a flexible mattress repeating the form of the transformable substrate is attached thereto, and the number of degrees of freedom of the transformable movable substrate depends on the number of independent elements and types of fastening of the movers (actuators) thereto.

The flat movable substrate is driven by one or two dependent actuators (one degree of freedom) or two independent actuators (two degrees of freedom).

The design of the rocking bed, the number of degrees of freedom of the flat non-transformable or transformable movable substrate depends on the design of the support system acting in conjunction with hydraulic, mechanical or hybrid actuators. The support system provides strength and horizontal stability of the rocking bed in static or dynamic operation, and enables the rocking bed to be used as stationary furniture.

The rocking bed does not require attachment to the ceiling, floor or wall, the shape and dimensions of the rocking bed are the same as those of a conventional fixed bed.

The rocking bed with a flat non-transformable substrate allows the use of any mattress on the market - a regular flat mattress, an adjustable shape mattress, an adjustable mattress, an adjustable temperature mattress, an adjustable firmness mattress, or a mattress that has all adjustments at the same time, or a regular mattress without adjustments of any design.

Hydraulic power drive

The hydraulic lifting mechanism (hydraulic power drive) comprises two hydraulic cylinders, at least piston cavities of which are hydraulically connected to each other, one of which is in a vertical position with its cage attached to the upper surface of the rocking bed support base and its rod attached to the lower surface of the movable substrate and is the direct mover; the other hydraulic cylinder is in a horizontal position with its cage stationary and attached to the rocking bed support base and is the direct mover

When the rotor of the electric motor rotates the screw of the linear motion axis, the movable carriage is moved by the nut (or ball screw or roller screw), as a result of which the rod attached to the carriage and the piston of the horizontally positioned hydraulic cylinder also move, pushing the hydraulic fluid from the piston cavity of the horizontally positioned hydraulic cylinder into the piston cavity of the vertically positioned hydraulic cylinder, as a result of which the piston is pushed out of the piston cavity of the horizontally positioned hydraulic cylinder into the piston cavity of the vertically positioned hydraulic cylinder.

Reversal is accomplished by the gravity of the user, the mattress and the movable substrate when the hydraulic fluid is forced out of the piston cavity of the vertical hydraulic cylinder into the piston cavity of the horizontal hydraulic cylinder, moving the carriage of the linear motion axis, with the electric motor acting as an electric power generator. The position of the moving substrate is monitored in real time by a linear displacement sensor, the information from which is fed to the electric motor driver and to a high-level controller.

Similar lifting and lowering processes occur when not only piston cavities but also rod cavities are hydraulically connected. When using double rod or pseudo double rod hydraulic cylinders, the return stroke can occur due to the flow of hydraulic fluid from the piston cavity to the rod cavity of the vertically positioned hydraulic cylinder.

The reversal is accomplished by the gravity of the user, the mattress, and the movable substrate when the carriages “part” from the center stationary support and the electric motor acts as an electric power generator. The position of the movable substrate is monitored in real time by a linear motion sensor, the information from which is fed to the electric motor driver and a high-level controller.

In the above-described hydraulic design, hydraulic leverage is possible when the inner diameters of the horizontal and vertical hydraulic cylinders are not equal, which may result in an increase in the force on the rod of the vertical hydraulic cylinder or its displacement.

Mechanical Power Actuator

Mechanical power drive consists of an axis of linear motion, which has three fixed supports - the central and two lateral, between which differently equally move two moving carriages, which have a constant symmetrical position relative to the central fixed support due to the opposite direction of the thread of the screw, changing in the central support, and the screw is connected to the rotor of the electric motor, and moving carriages linearly move due to a pair of nut-screw (or screw-ball-screw-screw gear or screw-roller-screw).

When the rotor of the electric motor rotates the screw of the linear motion axis, the moving carriages move towards the central stationary support, the base of the isosceles triangle whose cathetes are the lifting rods decreases, and the height of the triangle increases, i.e. the upper horizontal axis is lifted.

Hybrid power train

The hybrid power drive is a combination of mechanical and hydraulic power drives. Instead of lifting rods, hydraulic lifting cylinders are used, whose cages are pivotally connected to the movable carriages from below and whose rods are pivotally connected to the upper horizontal axis from above. The rods of the lifting hydraulic cylinders are driven by one or more horizontally arranged hydraulic cylinders, the cages of which are stationary, and the rods are attached to the movable carriages. When the carriages move, the piston rod of the horizontally positioned hydraulic cylinder pushes hydraulic fluid into the lifting hydraulic cylinders, causing the lifting hydraulic cylinder rods to rise.

If the ratio of diameters of horizontal and lifting hydraulic cylinders is such that all hydraulic fluid passes from piston cavities of horizontal hydraulic cylinders into piston cavities of lifting hydraulic cylinders, i.e. any movement of the horizontal hydraulic cylinder rod causes the same movement of the lifting hydraulic cylinder rod, then the lifting formula: =, where X - movement of the carriage (rod) from the extreme (nearest to the side support) position, - half of the length of the maximum base of the triangle.

In the hybrid power drive, lifting is realized both by changing the position of the movable carriages and by extending the rods of the hydraulic lift cylinders: when the rotor of the electric motor rotates, the screw of the linear motion axis rotates, causing movement of the movable carriages, to which the cages of the lifting hydraulic cylinders are hinged from below, and movement of the rod and piston (rods and pistons) of the horizontal hydraulic cylinders, as a result of which the pistons with the rods of the lifting hydraulic cylinders are extended.

The return stroke occurs in the same way under the influence of the gravity of the user, the mattress and the movable substrate as in hydraulic and mechanical power drives.

Modifications of the design with two independent screws have been developed to allow longitudinal movement of the movable substrate in addition to vertical movement.

When using two mechanical or hybrid power drives, the dynamic support of the rocking bed, which is necessary when using a hydraulic power drive, becomes redundant.

Attachment of the upper connecting axis, to which the lifting rods or rods of lifting hydraulic cylinders are attached, to the lower surface of the movable substrate in one drive is fixed, and in the other drive is sliding, to compensate for the increase in the linear distance between the attachment points of the connecting axes when the movable substrate is rotated relative to the transverse axis. The sliding attachment allows the upper connecting axis to move parallel to the fixed axis along cylindrical guides on which linear bearings are mounted to which, in turn, the upper connecting axis is attached.

Rocking bed models

All rocking bed models planned for development at this stage of the project have rigid flat movable substrates: a single bed has one movable substrate with two degrees of freedom, driven by two mechanical or hybrid power drives, a double bed has a common support base and two movable substrates, each of which is driven by two mechanical or hybrid power drives with two electric motors, i.e. has two degrees of freedom. The movable substrates of the twin rocking bed can move independently of each other or synchronously with each other.

All designs of lifting mechanisms have “floating” coordinates of the beginning and end of the lifting and lowering cycle, functionally adjustable frequency, amplitude and shape (mode) of movements in the range limited by the physical length of the moving part of the actuator. Functional adjustment means that the propulsor moves not along a predetermined trajectory, for example, a sinusoid, with adjustable parameters of the sinusoid, but along any modeled and changeable at any time trajectory of the propulsor movements.

Rocking chair recliner

The main feature of the rocking chair-recliner consists in the possibility of rocking the user who is in the sitting, not transformed position of the chair-recliner, and in the lying position of the transformed (unfolded) chair-recliner.

The rocking recliner consists of two main elements - the rocking unit (rocking stand under the transformable seat) and the transformable seat, in which the user sits (in the folded state of the recliner) or lies down (in the unfolded state of the recliner). The functions of the legs of the rocking recliner chair are performed by the rocking unit. The lower part of the recliner seat is attached to the upper surface of the rocking block.

The Pre Seed stage of the Bedy project does not include the development of a rocking recliner chair. The economics of bringing recliner chairs to market and the expected demand will be investigated in later stages of the project.

Rocking Nap Pod

The Nap Pod is a common short-term daytime sleep device on the market, also known as the Sleep Pod, Metro Pod or Energy Pod.

The rocking Nap Pod retains the spatial design of the stationary Nap Pod.  The Nap Pod is housed in a base and vertical stand, with actuators providing reciprocating movements of a movable mattress substrate, on which the user lies, within a stationary outer cocoon.

The feasibility of producing a lulling Nap Pod is a matter of upcoming marketing and consumer research. Being significantly more expensive than a rocking bed and a rocking convertible recliner, the Nap Pod is a niche product for the affluent with limited demand.