Towards a universal end effector : the design and development of production technology's intelligent robot hand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology in Engineering and Automation at Massey University

Research into robot hands for industrial use began in the early 1980s and there are now many examples of robot hands in existence. The reason for research into robot hands is that standard robot end effectors have to be designed for each application and are therefore costly. A universal end effector is needed that will be able to perform any parts handling operation or use other tools for other industrial operations. Existing robot hand research would therefore benefit from new concepts, designs and control systems. The Department of Production Technology is developing an intelligent robot hand of a novel configuration, with the ultimate aim of producing a universal end effector. The concept of PTIRH (Production Technology's Intelligent Robot Hand) is that it is a multi-fingered manipulator with a configuration of two thumbs and two fingers. Research by the author for this thesis concentrated on five major areas. First, the background research into the state of the art in robot hand research. Second, the initiation, development and analysis of the novel configuration concept of PTIRH. Third, specification, testing and analysis of air muscle actuation, including design, development and testing of a servo pneumatic control valve for the air muscles. Fourth, choice of sensors for the robot hand, including testing and analysis of two custom made air pressure sensors. Fifth, definition, design, construction, development, testing and analysis of the mechanical structure for an early prototype of PTIRH. Development of an intelligent controller for PTIRH was outside the scope of the author's research. The results of the analysis on the air muscles showed that they could be a suitable direct drive actuator for an intelligent robotic hand. The force, pressure and position sensor results indicate that the sensors could form the basis of the feedback loop for an intelligent controller. The configuration of PTIRH enables it to grasp objects with little reliance on friction. This was demonstrated with an early prototype of the robot hand, which had one finger with actuation and three other static digits, by successfully manually arranging the digits into stable grasps of various objects

Nonverbal communication in EFL teaching

XXI Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la Facultat de Ciències Humanes i Socials (Any 2016)In recent years a number of researchers have stressed the importance of nonverbal communication – especially Kinesics – in the teaching and learning of languages (Bernsen, 2002; Jung, 2003; González, 2004; Querol-Julián and Belles-Fortuño, 2010; Surkamp, 2014). This paper aims to investigate the importance of gestures in the communication process and how the appropriate use of nonverbal communication enhances classroom interaction and contributes to conveying meaning. EFL language teaching can benefited from nonverbal communication when this is used in an effective way. The paper examines a small corpus of two videos taken from YouTube in which EFL teachers’ discourse and co-speech gestures (McNeill, 1992) were analysed. Results suggest that teachers used primarily iconic hand movements, which in turn enhanced students’ acquisition of the target language (TL). Finally, a section of pedagogical implications will focus on the appropriate use of gestures in a number of interactive activities

The Cowl - v.5 - n.21 - Apr 19, 1940

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 5, Number 21 - April 19, 1940. 4 pages

Barnes Hospital Bulletin

https://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/bjc_barnes_bulletin/1153/thumbnail.jp

Using Adobe Flash Lite on mobile phones for psychological research: reaction time measurement reliability and inter-device variability

Mobile telephones have significant potential for use in psychological research, possessing unique characteristics—not least their ubiquity—that may make them useful tools for psychologists. We examined whether it is possible to measure reaction times (RTs) accurately using Adobe Flash Lite on mobile phones. We ran simple and choice RT experiments on two widely available mobile phones, a Nokia 6110 Navigator and a Sony Ericsson W810i, using a wireless application protocol (WAP) connection to access the Internet from the devices. RTs were compared within subjects with those obtained using a Linux-based millisecond-accurate measurement system. Results show that measured RTs were significantly longer on mobile devices, and that overall RTs and distribution of RTs varied across device