A linear energy harvesting device that includes a housing and a piston that moves at least partially through the housing when it is compressed or extended from a rest position. When the piston moves, hydraulic fluid is pressurized and drives a hydraulic motor. The hydraulic motor drives an electric generator that produces electricity. Both the motor and generator are central to the device housing. Exemplary configurations are disclosed such as monotube, twin-tube, tri-tube and rotary based designs that each incorporates an integrated energy harvesting apparatus. By varying the electrical characteristics on an internal generator, the kinematic characteristics of the energy harvesting apparatus can be dynamically altered. In another mode, the apparatus can be used as an actuator to create linear movement. Applications include vehicle suspension systems (to act as the primary damper component), railcar bogie dampers, or industrial applications such as machinery dampers and wave energy harvesters, and electro-hydraulic actuators.

A cylinder is installed within a case, and an output shaft and an arm that is integrated thereto and extends in a radial direction are installed within the cylinder. A piston extending in an arc slides and is displaced in a circumferential direction of the cylinder within the cylinder. One end portion of the piston is rotatably connected to the arm. The cylinder is internally provided with a first pressure chamber in which the arm is housed and a second pressure chamber in which the other end portion of the arm is slidably installed. A pressure medium is fed into one of the first and second pressure chambers and discharged from the other, and the output shaft pivots in a rotational direction.

A rotor mechanism for use in moving fluid. The rotor mechanism has six rotor units spherically arranged, with at least one rotor unit including a port through it's body. Each rotor has the form of a truncated cone with two symmetric spiral recesses provided on the lateral surface of the rotor which acts to cooperate with the adjacent rotors. Rotation of at least one rotor unit causes rotation of adjacent rotor units which thereby moves fluid without compression between the outside of the mechanism and the port via a central substantially spherical free space cavity formed by the cooperation of inner surfaces of the rotor units. The rotor mechanism is fully submersible.

A rotary actuator includes a housing defining an arcuate chamber including a cavity, a fluid port in fluid communication with the cavity, and an open end. A rotor assembly includes an output shaft and a rotor arm extending outward. An arcuate-shaped piston is disposed in said housing for reciprocal movement in the arcuate chamber through the open end, wherein a seal, the cavity, and the piston define a pressure chamber, and a portion of the piston contacts the first rotor arm. A central actuation assembly includes a central mounting point formed in an external surface of the output shaft, said central mounting point proximal to the longitudinal midpoint of the shaft, and an actuation arm removably attached at a proximal end to the central mounting point, said actuation arm adapted at a distal end for attachment to an external mounting feature of a member to be actuated.

An internal combustion engine, configured in the form of an enclosed powered flywheel, operating in a horizontal plane, which functions both as an on-board gyroscope, to stabilize a vehicle from rolling over, and to simultaneously provide vehicular locomotion, through a power train, with the flywheel rotated by at least one fueled piston, of a hosting combustion chamber, internal to the flywheel.

A linear energy harvesting device that includes a housing and a piston that moves at least partially through the housing when it is compressed or extended from a rest position. When the piston moves, hydraulic fluid is pressurized and drives a hydraulic motor. The hydraulic motor drives an electric generator that produces electricity. Both the motor and generator are central to the device housing. Exemplary configurations are disclosed such as monotube, twin-tube, tri-tube and rotary based designs that each incorporates an integrated energy harvesting apparatus. By varying the electrical characteristics on an internal generator, the kinematic characteristics of the energy harvesting apparatus can be dynamically altered. In another mode, the apparatus can be used as an actuator to create linear movement. Applications include vehicle suspension systems (to act as the primary damper component), railcar bogie dampers, or industrial applications such as machinery dampers and wave energy harvesters, and electro-hydraulic actuators.

A rotary combustion engine system is provided with compression unit and expansions unit offset which communicate through a transfer port. Each unit defines a toroidal chamber extending annularly about a central cavity, and a plurality of curved pistons displaced within the toroidal chamber to variably form a plurality of sub-chambers therein. A rotor member in each unit is eccentrically coupled to a mechanical member and linked by a plurality of swing rod members to the curved pistons. The curved pistons of the expansion unit are advanced by recursive combustion within sub-chambers defined therebetween, to drive angular displacement of the rotor member. The rotor member in the compression unit is angularly displaced with the mechanical member to incrementally advance the unit's curved pistons for recursive compression of air within sub-chambers defined therebetween. The compressed air is recursively passed through the transfer port to the sub-chambers of the expansion unit for combustion.

The invention relates to a piston machine which comprises: a housing with a chamber with has a substantially circle sector-shaped cross-section; a pivotal piston which is designed as a pivoting element, is arranged in the housing and comprises a first working surface, wherein the housing and the piston define at least one first variable working chamber; a drive or output which is connected to the piston; and an outlet which is arranged in the working chamber for discharging a working fluid. The housing has a cooling opening in at least one housing wall, said opening leading to the chamber at least for convectively cooling a piston side opposite the first working surface by means of a coolant.

A rotary actuator includes a housing having an interior boundary that defines a central bore and has interior recesses, a chamber housing assembly disposed in the central bore and having an arcuate chamber, the arcuate chamber comprising a cavity, an exterior boundary of the chamber housing assembly having exterior recesses, each of the exterior recesses aligned with a respective one of the interior recesses, pins residing between the interior boundary and the exterior boundary, each of the pins mated to one of the exterior recesses and a corresponding one of the interior recesses to maintain an orientation of the chamber housing assembly with respect to the housing, a rotor assembly rotatably journaled in the chamber housing assembly and comprising a rotary output shaft and a rotor arm, and an arcuate-shaped piston disposed in the chamber housing assembly for reciprocal movement in the arcuate chamber.

A method of operating an internal combustion engine having a housing, a piston mounted in the housing for complex motion about a plurality of axes and coupled to a shaft, and wherein occur phases of compression, combustion, and expansion in the housing, and wherein, in the compression phase, air introduced through an intake port into the housing is compressed by reducing volume of a compression chamber in the housing from an initial volume to a second volume that is less than the initial volume, and in the expansion phase, byproducts of combustion expand from the second volume to a third volume that is greater than the initial volume.