Six degree of freedom manual controls study report

The feasibility of using degree of freedom manual controls in space in an on orbit environment was determined. Several six degree of freedom controls were tested in a laboratory environment, and replica controls were used to control robot arms. The selection of six degrees of freedom as a design goal was based on the fact that six degrees are sufficient to define the location and orientation of a rigid body in space

Ilaptic Feedback Device for Needle Insertion

Tele-surgery is one of the emerging fields which combine engineering and medical sciences. Application of tole-surgery can be found in remote communities, war-zones and disasterstricken areas. One of the most complex and tedious issue in tele-surgery is needle insertion. The surgeon relies on haptic feedback during needle insertion. The force exerted on needle during insertion is measured and reproduced at surgeon's end is known as haptic feedback. The realistic force reproduction requires haptic feedback device which should be dynamically identical to needle. The haptic feedback device enables the surgeon to sense the needle insertion remotely. The basic objective of this thesis is to design a device used for needle insertions in soft tissue. The force information from needle insertions is measured by a sensor. The force feedback produced by the device can be used in robot-assisted needle insertion. A device is designed for reality-based data that results in more accurate representation of a needle insertion haptic feedback scenario. The device is modeled dynamically and it is clear from the model that the reactive force is reproduced by the friction forces which is controlled by the motors. The system is sensitive to mass of rollers, mass of the stick and friction between the stick and rollers. The needle insertion force is modeled in three parts; force due to capsule stiffness, friction, and cutting. The force due to capsule stiffness is modeled terms of three components namely diameter of needle, elasticity of tissue and deformation of tissue. The data from model is compared with real time force data. The haptic feedback device input and output forces are compared and the highest correlation factor is 82%. The sensitivity analysis of the device is performed. The capsule stiffness force for 0.9 millimeter diameter needle is 0.98 Newton, the stiffness force for 0.8 millimeter is 0.91 Newton and stiffness force for 0.6 millimeter diameter is 0.41 Newton. The capsule stiffness force for 0.6 millimeter needle is not following the capsule stiffness model. The insertion force data was collected on chicken skin and meat. The device designed in this work is having one degree of freedom; it only produces force feedback for vertical needle insertion. This design is not able to produce the force feedback for angular needle insertion. Graphical User Interface is designed for the visual haptic feedback. The data acquisition is done with the help of a PC sound card. Future work should include the design of a multidegree of freedom haptic feedback device and to advance the GUI for audio feedback that may be extended to accommodate the design of a simulator

The Dibber: Designing a standardised handheld tool for lay-up tasks

© 2017 We present an application of engineering and ergonomics principles in the design of a standardised tool, The Dibber, which is a tool with multiple geometric features to fit the diversity of lay-up tasks used in the composites industry. The Dibber is the result of a design process, which consists of a series of observations and prototyping to extract geometric requirements for lay-up tasks. To demonstrate that it is possible to design a standardised tool prototypes of the Dibber were distributed and 91 participants gave feedback. Our results are positive and show consistent patterns of use across industry sectors, as well as between novice and expert laminators

Haptic Interaction with a Guide Robot in Zero Visibility

Search and rescue operations are often undertaken in dark and noisy environment in which rescue team must rely on haptic feedback for exploration and safe exit. However, little attention has been paid specifically to haptic sensitivity in such contexts or the possibility of enhancing communicational proficiency in the haptic mode as a life-preserving measure. The potential of root swarms for search and rescue has been shown by the Guardians project (EU, 2006-2010); however the project also showed the problem of human robot interaction in smoky (non-visibility) and noisy conditions. The REINS project (UK, 2011-2015) focused on human robot interaction in such conditions. This research is a body of work (done as a part of he REINS project) which investigates the haptic interaction of a person wit a guide robot in zero visibility. The thesis firstly reflects upon real world scenarios where people make use of the haptic sense to interact in zero visibility (such as interaction among firefighters and symbiotic relationship between visually impaired people and guide dogs). In addition, it reflects on the sensitivity and trainability of the haptic sense, to be used for the interaction. The thesis presents an analysis and evaluation of the design of a physical interface (Designed by the consortium of the REINS project) connecting the human and the robotic guide in poor visibility conditions. Finally, it lays a foundation for the design of test cases to evaluate human robot haptic interaction, taking into consideration the two aspects of the interaction, namely locomotion guidance and environmental exploration

Haptics Rendering and Applications

There has been significant progress in haptic technologies but the incorporation of haptics into virtual environments is still in its infancy. A wide range of the new society's human activities including communication, education, art, entertainment, commerce and science would forever change if we learned how to capture, manipulate and reproduce haptic sensory stimuli that are nearly indistinguishable from reality. For the field to move forward, many commercial and technological barriers need to be overcome. By rendering how objects feel through haptic technology, we communicate information that might reflect a desire to speak a physically- based language that has never been explored before. Due to constant improvement in haptics technology and increasing levels of research into and development of haptics-related algorithms, protocols and devices, there is a belief that haptics technology has a promising future

Suggested approach for establishing a rehabilitation engineering information service for the state of California

An ever expanding body of rehabilitation engineering technology is developing in this country, but it rarely reaches the people for whom it is intended. The increasing concern of state and federal departments of rehabilitation for this technology lag was the stimulus for a series of problem-solving workshops held in California during 1977. As a result of the workshops, the recommendation emerged that the California Department of Rehabilitation take the lead in the development of a coordinated delivery system that would eventually serve the entire state and be a model for similar systems across the nation

Innovating Pedagogy 2017: Exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment, to guide educators and policy makers. Open University Innovation Report 6

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This sixth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Learning In a NetworKed Society (LINKS) Israeli Center of Research Excellence (I-CORE). Themes: • Big-data inquiry: thinking with data • Learners making science • Navigating post-truth societies • Immersive learning • Learning with internal values • Student-led analytics • Intergroup empathy • Humanistic knowledge-building communities • Open Textbooks • Spaced Learnin

Fuzzy Controllers

Trying to meet the requirements in the field, present book treats different fuzzy control architectures both in terms of the theoretical design and in terms of comparative validation studies in various applications, numerically simulated or experimentally developed. Through the subject matter and through the inter and multidisciplinary content, this book is addressed mainly to the researchers, doctoral students and students interested in developing new applications of intelligent control, but also to the people who want to become familiar with the control concepts based on fuzzy techniques. Bibliographic resources used to perform the work includes books and articles of present interest in the field, published in prestigious journals and publishing houses, and websites dedicated to various applications of fuzzy control. Its structure and the presented studies include the book in the category of those who make a direct connection between theoretical developments and practical applications, thereby constituting a real support for the specialists in artificial intelligence, modelling and control fields

Computational intelligence approaches to robotics, automation, and control [Volume guest editors]

No abstract available