Herein, we propose a method to estimate fatigue damage of a thin metal film at the micro scale with high accuracy. With progress in the miniaturization of flexible printed circuits, estimation of damage at the micro scale is required to improve the reliability of industrial processing. Despite this necessity, it has been difficult to accurately evaluate the damage at the micro scale using conventional

The use and application of robotic arms in helping the aged and vulnerable persons are increasing gradually. In order to achieve safer and reliable human-robot interaction and its wider adoption, the requirements for the humanoid motion of robotic arms are becoming more stringent. This paper presents a humanoid motion planning method for a robotic arm based on the physics of human arm and reinforcement

This paper presents a novel framework for the analysis of a 3-RRR spherical parallel manipulator with coaxial input axes (coaxial SPM) with the focus on its infinite rotational motion capabilities and its effects on the manipulator’s characteristics. The framework consists of three phases. At first, an approach for obtaining unique solutions of forward and inverse kinematics problems is introduced

X-in-the Loop (XiL) enables component tests concerning the remaining system to support early validation in the context of frontloading. The system under test is connected with the physical or virtual remaining system. The performance variables of the bidirectional interactions must be adapted to the prototype, especially for testing a scaled prototype integrated into a remaining system. By applying

Lower limb exoskeleton robot (LLER) can help patients with lower limb paralysis to carry out effective rehabilitation training. However, LLER is a kind of nonlinear system with the strong dynamic coupling between joints and the parameter perturbation following different poses of the robot. They will damage the control performance in the process of trajectory tracking. To solve these problems, a novel

Collision detection methods could reduce collision forces and improve safety during physical human-robot interaction without additional sensing devices. However, current collision detection methods result in an unavoidable trade-off between sensitivity to collisions, peaking value reduction near the initial time, and immunity to measurement noise. In this paper, a novel nonlinear extended state momentum

Designing robotic devices to assist or emulate the ankle is challenging due to the joint’s complexity and the fundamental role in walking. T-FLEX is an ankle exoskeleton based on vsa for rehabilitation and assistance of people with ankle dysfunctions. This device has presented promising motor recovery results for a stroke patient during a rehabilitation program. However, human walking applications

Active Magnetic Bearings (AMB) are mechatronic systems that support a rotating shaft using magnetic levitation. The standard AMB architecture includes two radial actuators and one for the axial direction. An alternative geometry with cone-shaped magnetic cores allows for a more compact layout without a dedicated axial actuator. However, this configuration reduces the axial force generation capability

With the rise of small batch production, the need to shorten the development cycle has become urgent. This work aims to allow people without expert knowledge to program the robot in a single demonstration to reduce development costs. The idea of this work is to record frame relations between objects during the demonstration as templates. Then the robot is programmed by the template sequence to simplify

A slim manipulator with redundant degrees of freedom can be of great use for inspection and maintenance in confined spaces. Cable-actuation is often preferred because of the possible proximal placement of the actuators. However, tension induced elongation and friction of the cables may substantially vary under different manipulator poses. It is then difficult to achieve high positioning accuracy under

Camless engine valve train for gasoline engines particularly port injection engines offer major improvements over traditional system with fixed valve timing and lift, in terms of efficiency, maximum torque and power, and emissions. Electromagnetic driven valve actuators are very promising in this context, but there are significant control problems. The use of displacement sensor could add extra cost

The present study proposes a simple mass-micromanipulation method for tiny particles by expanding our previous finding that submillimeter-scale particles scattered at the bottom of a water-filled rectangular container align at specific positions when the particles are subject to standing waves induced by lateral oscillations of the container at specific frequencies. First, this unique phenomenon (termed

Data-driven prediction methods often encounter problems in industrial applications due to noise, data redundancy, and insufficient labeled data. Preprocessing the data is required to improve prediction accuracy. At present, most data preprocessing methods are independent of each other and the correlation between methods is relatively small, resulting in repeated redundancy and reduced efficiency. To

The development of artificial muscles has focused on a high energy–weight ratio and soft structures, however, little work has been done towards muscle-like contraction behaviors. This unfortunately leads to a lack of comfort and safety, which is especially important for robotic applications like orthotics and exoskeletons. In this paper, we propose a contraction control method for a tendon-sheath artificial

In this paper, anti-swing control for a hydraulic loader crane is presented. The difference between hydraulic and electric cranes are discussed to show the challenges associated with hydraulic actuation. The hanging load dynamics and relevant kinematics of the crane are derived to create the 2-DOF anti-swing controller. The anti-swing controller is added to the electro-hydraulic motion controller via

This paper presents a new magnetic levitation system, MagTable, which provides six-degrees-of-freedom (6-DOF) and completely contactless operation of a magnetized object. The MagTable consists of a planar array of square coils and a permanent magnet type carrier. The maximum levitation height of the carrier is 30mm within a 400mm × 200mm horizontal translation range. The novelty of this research lies

Active learning is a decision-making process. In both abstract and physical settings, active learning demands both analysis and action. This is a review of active learning in robotics, focusing on methods amenable to the demands of embodied learning systems. Robots must be able to learn efficiently and flexibly through continuous online deployment. This poses a distinct set of control-oriented challenges—one

In order to avoid the distortion dangers to the colon, caused by spiral-type capsule robot, a Low Torsional Torque Capsule Robot (LTTCR) is developed, capable of non-contact steering swimming motion in a tortuous pipe, filled with silicone oil. Due to the non-contact and suspension state of motion, the robot is isolated from the colon and inner pipe wall, achieving low torsional effect on the intestines

This paper presents to develop multi-sensor integration and fusion for controlling a multi-degree-of-freedom (DOF) spherical motion platform (SMP) by utilizing four compliant spherical wheels. A cockpit sphere is not directly connected to a motion basis but spherical spheres with the compliant mechanism. The compliant wheel enables the SMP to achieve not only six-DOF motion, including unlimited rotational

The hybridization of automotive powertrains increases due to legislative regulations in order to reduce emissions. Hybrid Dual-Clutch Transmissions, where an electric machine is included in the transmission, play a key role in this topic because of their significantly lower losses in contrast to other transmission concepts. On the one hand the hybridization results in new functionalities such as boosting

It is a huge challenge for an amphibious robot with a high locomotory performance to locomote in amphibious environments, including crawling on rough terrains, maneuvering underwater, and launching and landing motion between land and water. To deal with such a challenge, a miniature bio-inspired Amphibious Spherical Robot (ASRobot) with a Legged, Multi-vectored Water-jet Composite Driving Mechanism

This paper presents a design framework for the discrete-time Sliding mode control with Decoupled disturbance compensator and Auxiliary state (SDA) method in industrial servo applications. In particular, the discrete-time SDA method is formulated to provide an excellent tracking performance even in the presence of control input saturation and disturbance. Moreover, it preserves the separation principle

This paper presents a dynamic model for the identification of asymmetric hysteresis in the force response of the fingertip under cyclic local deformation of the fingertip soft tissues. Viscoelastic effects, marked anisotropy and nonlinearity contribute to the hysteretic behaviour of the force of the fingertip undergoing indentation. The fingertip force in response to an indentation stimulus varies

Ankle–foot orthoses (AFOs) are braces worn by individuals with gait impairments to support ankle motion. AFO rotational stiffness is a key mechanical property that affects gait biomechanics. However, it is unclear how design choices affect AFO stiffness and what specific stiffness ranges impact gait. This stems largely from the absence of commercial devices or established guidelines for measuring AFO

The increasingly strict limits on pollutant emissions are pushing the car industry towards the electrification of the powertrain and chassis. This scenario has driven the automotive field to the use of energy harvesters. Among these, regenerative shock absorbers are mechatronic devices that enable the energy recovery from road irregularities, thus yielding benefits in terms of fuel saving and ride

This work investigates the position regulation in Cartesian space of a class of inextensible soft continuum manipulators with pneumatic actuation subject to model uncertainties and to unknown external disturbances that act on the tip. Soft continuum manipulators are characterised by high structural compliance which results in a large number of degrees-of-freedom, only a subset of which can be actuated

This paper proposes a hybrid controller for a seat suspension equipped with an advanced electromagnetic damper (EMD) system to meet the requirement with vibration isolation and energy saving. The friction of seat suspension has considerable influence on the system dynamic. Applying a constant model to describe the friction is unreliable due to the long term wear and tear. Therefore, an observer is

A hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) docking simulator is an important validation facility on the ground for space docking. To reproduce the space docking process, the HIL docking simulator needs to solve the simulation distortion problem. In this paper, a force and moment compensation approach is presented to achieve a high-fidelity HIL simulation for a six degree-of-freedom docking simulator. The whole loop

In this paper, a novel method for early estimation of a human’s action intention is presented. Human intention, modeled as a goal location associated with a hand motion and eye gaze dynamics, is inferred by fusing information from collected hand motion and gaze motion data. The algorithm, called Human Intention Estimator with Variable Structure (HIEVS), uses two variable structure Interacting Multiple

Foot drop is the inability to dorsiflex the ankle (raise the toes) due to neuromuscular impairment, and this common condition can cause trips and falls. Current treatments for chronic foot drop provide dorsiflexion support, but they either impede ankle push off or are not suitable for all patients. Powered ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) can counteract foot drop without these drawbacks, but they are heavy

This paper discusses the motion control problem of kinematically redundant hybrid parallel robots that were recently proposed. The kinematic and dynamic models are firstly reviewed. It is pointed out that the robot can be decomposed into two parts and that each part can be analysed independently. A new hybrid approach is proposed based on this property of the robot. This approach includes an adapted

This paper presents a modeling framework for permanent magnet linear synchronous motors based on magnetic equivalent circuits. In comparison to the commonly used dq0 model, the proposed modeling approach is able to systematically include magnetic saturation effects and has no restriction to harmonic motor quantities. In contrast to existing work, a differential magnetic equivalent circuit network is

A novel sliding mode control combined with extended state observer (ESO) is proposed for an ankle exoskeleton driven by electrical motor. During the process of assisting, it is necessary to design an effective controller for assisting torque of ankle exoskeleton. However, the parameter uncertainty of complex dynamics model and the irregular motion of human ankle may affect the torque control accuracy

We describe a novel 3D path following control framework for articulated robots in applications where constant speed travel along a path is desirable, such as robotic surface finishing tasks. Given the desired robot configuration sequence with a list of waypoints along a path, a trajectory optimization scheme based on direct collocation is proposed to determine the Cartesian path and the maximum constant

To solve the problem of the control accuracy in electrohydraulic loading systems caused by load increment, this paper proposes a multi-cylinder electrohydraulic digital loading (MEDL) technology for accurate reproduction of large load. A traditionally used single cylinder loading (SCL) is replaced by a new hydraulic cylinders group that includes N hydraulic cylinders at each point, in which one is

Reactive multi-robot manipulation can be of great assistance in many applications. In this article a distributed cooperation strategy for object manipulation with multiple robots in un-modelled environments is proposed to tackle workpiece transportation and dynamic obstacle avoidance simultaneously. A decentralised optimisation process will run first to generate robot pose references and then a joint-level

Robotic manipulation of objects using the sole tactile feedback is a challenge. If the contact between the robot end effector and the manipulated object is distributed, the robot can exchange both friction forces and torques with it. The friction highly influences the motion of the object. By controlling the friction it is possible to perform complex manipulation tasks, such as moving the object with

This article deals with a robust self-balancing control scheme for the Two-In-Wheeled Self-Balancing Electric-Vehicle (TIW-SB-EV). Due to time-varying and unknown torque load, uncertainties on system parameters, and the lack of knowledge of the friction components, the approach proposes the design and implementation of an active disturbance rejection control based on the extended state observer (ESO)

This paper presents a new scheme of adaptive sliding mode control (ASMC) for a piezoelectric ultrasonic motor driven X–Y stage to meet the demand of precision motion tracking while addressing the problems of unknown nonlinear friction and model uncertainties. The system model with Coulomb friction and unilateral coupling effect is first investigated. Then the controller is designed with adaptive laws

Precision mechatronics and nanotechnology communities can both benefit from a course centered around an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). Developing an AFM can provide precision mechatronics engineers with a valuable multidisciplinary hands-on training experience. In return, such expertise can be applied to the design and implementation of new precision instruments, which helps nanotechnology researchers

In order to facilitate a ball-joint-like spherical motor to operate with positioning systems to offer cascaded 6-DOF motion, a control method for precisely manipulating the spherical motor orientation in moving frame is proposed. By characterizing the cascaded motion with a pendulum-cart model, the rotor dynamics operated in moving frame is formulated. The properties of the dynamic model and the system

In nanopositioning systems with capacitive displacement sensors, the analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion time is not negligible, particularly for the sub-nano resolution cases with 16 (or more) digital bits. The sensor induced delay will complicate modeling and control of such systems, due to the infinite dimensionality of the delay block. In this paper, we analyze the piezoelectric nanopositioner with

This article describes a monolithic nanopositioner constructed from in-plane bending actuators which provide greater deflection than previously reported extension actuators, at the expense of stiffness and resonance frequency. The proposed actuators are demonstrated by constructing an XY nanopositioning stage with a serial kinematic design. Analytical modeling and finite-element-analysis accurately

To examine the influence of the configuration of a cable-driven parallel robot (CDPR) on its stiffness and stiffness controllability, a concept for a cable tension constraint workspace (CTCW) of CDPRs is introduced. Using a static force analysis, a static CDPR model was established and its stiffness model and a method for optimizing the cable tension were reviewed. To analyze and appraise the CDPR

In autonomous vehicles the driver will become a passenger. By ensuring a high level of ride comfort through active suspensions, the driver's ability to perform various tasks such as reading, drawing and texting can be enhanced. A high-performance shaker rig can conveniently be used to test the ride comfort improvement by means of various active suspensions under laboratory conditions. The paper deals

Robots are an indispensable part of modern production lines. Usually working in designated areas, they are separated from human workers in order to avoid collisions. A safe collaborative work environment is enabled by so-called soft robots, which constitute a human-friendly alternative to classical rigid industrial robots. However, modeling soft robots proves difficult and results in a lack of accuracy

Dynamic links of high-precision stage systems consist of wires and hoses that are used for example to transport electrical current to the actuators and sensors or cooling liquids to the stages. During stage motion, these dynamic links typically express complex hysteretic behavior due to internal friction and viscoelastic properties. As such, dynamic links give rise to unwanted disturbances acting on

In the paper, the event-based switching controller (ESC) is utilized to achieve better tracking performance compared with the neural network controller in circumstance of parameter uncertainty and unknown disturbance for the parallel manipulator. The ESC optimizes the choice of the neural weights by combining the prior knowledge of the system dynamics and the estimation of the system parameters. To

Percutaneous nephrolithotomy is a procedure used to treat patients with large or irregularly shaped kidney stones. Surgical instruments are inserted through a small incision to access the kidney and remove the calculi. Surgeons who have less experience with the procedure manifest significantly higher rates of complications due to the procedure’s steep learning curve. This issue is further exacerbated

Elastic manipulators often result from lightweight construction or safety requirements in human–robot-collaboration scenarios. In many cases, vibration-damping becomes necessary to enable stable and precise operation, which imposes high demands on controllers. A fundamental challenge for link-elastic manipulators with general kinematics and no dedicated damping actuators is the potential inability

In manufacturing automation, there is a strong need for highly integrated intelligent components and subsystems. In this context, a novel two-stage pneumatic piezoelectric-actuated valve has recently been developed. It covers a wide range of pneumatic products and functions in one compact component and enables flexible and adaptive plant operation. The valve consists of four poppet main-stage valves

This paper presents an optimized design and motion planning method of a hydraulically driven leg for jumping. The knee joint range was enlarged, and the desired torque profile was achieved using a four-bar linkage. The dynamics of the robot were considered during the motion planning, and the optimal trajectory was obtained by linear programming. Simulations and experiments showed that the leg could

Vehicle-to-Vehicle communication can cogently improve traffic safety because it grants drivers better situational awareness and strengthens inter-cooperation among them. However, the current policy obliges the safety-critical messages, i.e., Basic Safety Messages (BSMs) and Event Safety Messages (ESMs), to be transmitted exclusively in one single channel over the Dedicated Short-Range Communication

The electro-hydraulic servo steering system (EHSSS) is the key element to determine the handling and stability of heavy vehicles. Accurate steering control is challenged due to its complicated structure and a wide range of steering loads. In this paper, an output feedback integral sliding mode control (ISMC) method based on high-gain observer is proposed to solve this issue. First, a new Hurwitz matrix

This paper presents a piecewise constant strain kinematic model for concentric tube robots (CTR) in externally loaded conditions. It discretizes the pre-curved tubes comprising the robot into a finite number of pieces and involves external effects as a set of wrench vectors exerted along the robot backbone. Constant strain lets us describe the pieces with helices in which shear deformation and elongation

Since under-inflated wheels may lead to unsafe driving conditions, in many countries all the new cars must be equipped with tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS). Such devices can be “direct”, in case air pressure sensors are employed, or “indirect”, if low tires are detected by comparing relative wheel speeds, typically via already available speed sensors. While the former are perfectly suited but

This paper focuses on the vibration rejection problem for the nonminimum-phase long-distance laser pointing system on the moving platform. Due to the unstable approximate inverse of nonminimum-phase property, the disturbance-observer based control (DOBC) methods inevitably sacrifice numerous vibration rejection capabilities to stabilize the system. In this paper, a compensatory disturbance-observer-based