Walk, Grasp, Support, Ride, Fly: Honda Patents That Expand Mobility

What is it?

"Legged mobile robot control system" addresses a biped robot walking while holding a person's hand. External force at the hand can be used as part of the control input so the machine responds to the human rather than following only a fixed path.

Walking next to someone becomes a whole-body coordination problem: the physical connection between person and robot is itself a communication channel.

What is it?

"Robot hand" lays out a palm with five fingers corresponding to the thumb, index, middle, ring and little fingers. FIG. 1 makes the human-like arrangement immediately visible, while later figures develop the links and sensing structures inside the fingertips.

A two-jaw industrial gripper can be simpler, but a five-finger hand is better matched to tools and objects designed around human anatomy.

What is it?

"Sign language action generating device and communication robot" generates a series of sign-language motions from word-level actions. FIG. 2 shows the biped robot that performs the resulting movements.

Sign language is not only a set of static hand shapes. Moving from one word to the next must also be smooth and must avoid collisions between arms, fingers and the body.

What is it?

"Walking assist device" combines a saddle-like load-transmitting seat with articulated links extending to the user's feet. Motors drive the links in a direction that pushes the seat upward, relieving part of the load on the legs.

The user still walks under their own power. Rather than replacing walking, the device changes how much of the body's weight the legs must carry.

What is it?

"Motion assist apparatus" places actuators around the waist and connects them to frames attached to the thighs and upper body. The system assists returning from a forward-leaning posture and maintaining a tilted posture.

Unlike the leg-focused walking assist device, the target here is the torso and the muscular effort required to hold or recover a working posture.

What is it?

"Omnidirectional vehicle" describes a compact seated mobility machine using an omnidirectional travel mechanism and inverted-pendulum-style posture control. FIG. 1 shows the narrow front profile of the vehicle.

Conventional vehicles separate forward travel from steering. This architecture is intended to move sideways and diagonally as well, making the machine behave more like a person moving through a room.

What is it?

"Automated mobility device and vehicle interface" links a motorized wheelchair or similar device with a vehicle. FIG. 7 shows the mobility device positioned inside the vehicle, while the specification describes automatic positioning and navigation using visual data.

For a wheelchair user, entering a car can involve moving the mobility device itself, not merely transferring the passenger into another seat. The patent treats that transition as part of one mobility system.

What is it?

The 2024 publication "Robot" describes a self-propelled base, torso and camera-equipped head that can transmit captured images to a user terminal. Around the torso is a separate cover connected through elastic members and driven so that it can swing in multiple directions.

Some claims describe receiving the remote user's audio and making the cover oscillate with different timing when the user speaks or laughs. The mechanism adds physical expression to a telepresence-style machine, alongside video and sound.

What is it?

"Accompanying mobile body" goes beyond keeping a fixed measured distance behind a person. It predicts the user's future position from movement direction and speed, then drives toward an accompanying target. FIG. 14 shows the cart keeping its distance as it overtakes a sharply turning user and moves ahead.

A simple follower can lag when a person turns suddenly. The patent describes changing the prediction timing and following behavior using cues such as body, head or gaze direction.

What is it?

FIG. 1 of "Vertical take-off and landing aircraft" shows a fuselage, front and rear wings, two longitudinal booms, eight VTOL rotors and two cruise rotors. Lift and forward propulsion are split between different rotor groups.

Rather than asking one rotor system to perform every phase, the design separates vertical work from cruise propulsion and uses fixed wings once the aircraft is moving forward.