Advanced Strategies for Robot Manipulators

Amongst the robotic systems, robot manipulators have proven themselves to be of increasing importance and are widely adopted to substitute for human in repetitive and/or hazardous tasks. Modern manipulators are designed complicatedly and need to do more precise, crucial and critical tasks. So, the simple traditional control methods cannot be efficient, and advanced control strategies with considering special constraints are needed to establish. In spite of the fact that groundbreaking researches have been carried out in this realm until now, there are still many novel aspects which have to be explored

International Workshop on Vibration Isolation Technology for Microgravity Science Applications

The International Workshop on Vibration Isolation Technology for Microgravity Science Applications was held on April 23-25, 1991 at the Holiday Inn in Middleburg Heights, Ohio. The main objective of the conference was to explore vibration isolation requirements of space experiments and what level of vibration isolation could be provided both by present and planned systems on the Space Shuttle and Space Station Freedom and by state of the art vibration isolation technology

The 31st Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium

The proceedings of the 31st Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium are reported. Topics covered include: robotics, deployment mechanisms, bearings, actuators, scanners, boom and antenna release, and test equipment. A major focus is the reporting of problems and solutions associated with the development and flight certification of new mechanisms

The Telecommunications and Data Acquisition Report

This quarterly publication provides archival reports on developments in programs in space communications, radio navigation, radio science, and ground-based radio and radar astronomy. It reports on activities of the Deep Space Network (DSN) in planning, supporting research and technology, implementation, and operations. Also included are standardization activities at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for space data and information systems

Smart actuation and sensing for meso-scale surgical robotic systems

This dissertation presents the development of meso-scale surgical robotics based on smart actuation and sensing for minimally invasive surgery (MIS). By replacing conventional straight tools by steerable surgical robots, surgical outcomes can potentially be improved due to more precise, stable, and flexible manipulation. Since bending and torsion are the two fundamental motion forms required by surgical tools to complete general surgical procedures, compact torsion and bending modules, both integrated with intrinsic sensors for motion feedback, have been developed based on shape memory alloy (SMA). The developed actuation and sensing techniques have been applied on a robot for neurosurgical intracerebral hemorrhage evacuation (NICHE) and a steerable catheter for atrial fibrillation (AFib) treatment. The NICHE robot consists of a straight stem, an SMA torsion module, and an SMA bending module as a distal bending tip. By synchronizing the motion of the stem, the bending module, and the torsion module, the robot is capable of tip articulation within the brain to remove hemorrhage effectively through suction and electrocauterization. In addition, a skull-mounted robotic headframe has been developed based on a Stewart platform to manipulate the NICHE robot. The robotic catheter is developed by integrating multiple SMA bending modules with flexible braid reinforced tubing. Polymer 3D-printing is used to fabricate all the structural components due to its relatively low cost, short fabrication period, and capability of fabricating complicated structures with high accuracy. The developed surgical robotic systems have been thoroughly evaluated using phantom or cadaver models under computed tomography (CT) and/or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guidance. The imaging-guided experimental studies showed that the developed robotic systems consisting of smart actuation and sensing were compatible with CT and MR imaging.Ph.D