Nanoparticle shape effects on squeezed MHD flow of water based Cu, Al2O3 and SWCNTs over a porous sensor surface

Impact of nanoparticle shape on the squeezed MHD flow of water based metallic nanoparticles over a porous sensor surface in the presence of heat source has been investigated. In distinctly most paramount studies, three distinctive forms of nanoparticle shapes are employed into account, i.e. sphere ðm ¼ 3:0Þ, cylinder ðm ¼ 6:3698Þ and laminar ðm ¼ 16:1576Þ. The controlling partial differential equations (PDEs) are regenerated into ordinary differential equations (ODEs) by manipulating consistent conformity conversion and it is determined numerically by handling Runge Kutta Fehlberg method with shooting technique. It is noticed that the solid volume fraction and nanoparticle shape have powerful outputs in squeezing flow phenomena, the sphere shape nanoparticle in Cu – water and cylindrical shape in SWCNTs-water in the presence of magnetic field along with thermal radiation energy has better improvement on heat transfer as compared with the other nanoparticle shapes in different flow regimes

Improving grasping forces during the manipulation of unknown objects

© 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting /republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other worksMany of the solutions proposed for the object manipulation problem are based on the knowledge of the object features. The approach proposed in this paper intends to provide a simple geometrical approach to securely manipulate an unknown object based only on tactile and kinematic information. The tactile and kinematic data obtained during the manipulation is used to recognize the object shape (at least the local object curvature), allowing to improve the grasping forces when this information is added to the manipulation strategy. The approach has been fully implemented and tested using the Schunk Dexterous Hand (SDH2). Experimental results are shown to illustrate the efficiency of the approach.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Manipulation of unknown objects to improve the grasp quality using tactile information

This work presents a novel and simple approach in the area of manipulation of unknown objects considering both geometric and mechanical constraints of the robotic hand. Starting with an initial blind grasp, our method improves the grasp quality through manipulation considering the three common goals of the manipulation process: improving the hand configuration, the grasp quality and the object positioning, and, at the same time, prevents the object from falling. Tactile feedback is used to obtain local information of the contacts between the fingertips and the object, and no additional exteroceptive feedback sources are considered in the approach. The main novelty of this work lies in the fact that the grasp optimization is performed on-line as a reactive procedure using the tactile and kinematic information obtained during the manipulation. Experimental results are shown to illustrate the efficiency of the approachPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Adaptive Synergies for the Design and Control of the Pisa/IIT SoftHand

In this paper we introduce the Pisa/IIT SoftHand, a novel robot hand prototype designed with the purpose of being robust and easy to control as an industrial gripper, while exhibiting high grasping versatility and an aspect similar to that of the human hand. In the paper we briefly review the main theoretical tools used to enable such simplification, i.e. the neuroscience-based notion of soft synergies. A discussion of several possible actuation schemes shows that a straightforward implementation of the soft synergy idea in an effective design is not trivial. The approach proposed in this paper, called adaptive synergy, rests on ideas coming from underactuated hand design. A synthesis method to realize a desired set of soft synergies through the principled design of adaptive synergy is discussed. This approach leads to the design of hands accommodating in principle an arbitrary number of soft synergies, as demonstrated in grasping and manipulation simulations and experiments with a prototype. As a particular instance of application of the synthesis method of adaptive synergies, the Pisa/IIT SoftHand is described in detail. The hand has 19 joints, but only uses 1 actuator to activate its adaptive synergy. Of particular relevance in its design is the very soft and safe, yet powerful and extremely robust structure, obtained through the use of innovative articulations and ligaments replacing conventional joint design. The design and implementation of the prototype hand are shown and its effectiveness demonstrated through grasping experiments, reported also in multimedia extensio

Whole-Hand Robotic Manipulation with Rolling, Sliding, and Caging

Traditional manipulation planning and modeling relies on strong assumptions about contact. Specifically, it is common to assume that contacts are fixed and do not slide. This assumption ensures that objects are stably grasped during every step of the manipulation, to avoid ejection. However, this assumption limits achievable manipulation to the feasible motion of the closed-loop kinematic chains formed by the object and fingers. To improve manipulation capability, it has been shown that relaxing contact constraints and allowing sliding can enhance dexterity. But in order to safely manipulate with shifting contacts, other safeguards must be used to protect against ejection. “Caging manipulation,” in which the object is geometrically trapped by the fingers, can be employed to guarantee that an object never leaves the hand, regardless of constantly changing contact conditions. Mechanical compliance and underactuated joint coupling, or carefully chosen design parameters, can be used to passively create a caging grasp – protecting against accidental ejection – while simultaneously manipulating with all parts of the hand. And with passive ejection avoidance, hand control schemes can be made very simple, while still accomplishing manipulation. In place of complex control, better design can be used to improve manipulation capability—by making smart choices about parameters such as phalanx length, joint stiffness, joint coupling schemes, finger frictional properties, and actuator mode of operation. I will present an approach for modeling fully actuated and underactuated whole-hand-manipulation with shifting contacts, show results demonstrating the relationship between design parameters and manipulation metrics, and show how this can produce highly dexterous manipulators

Rolling-joint design optimization for tendon driven snake-like surgical robots

The use of snake-like robots for surgery is a popular choice for intra-luminal procedures. In practice, the requirements for strength, flexibility and accuracy are difficult to be satisfied simultaneously. This paper presents a computational approach for optimizing the design of a snake-like robot using serial rolling-joints and tendons as the base architecture. The method optimizes the design in terms of joint angle range and tendon placement to prevent the tendons and joints from colliding during bending motion. The resulting optimized joints were manufactured using 3D printing. The robot was characterized in terms of workspace, dexterity, precision and manipulation forces. The results show a repeatability as low as 0.9mm and manipulation forces of up to 5.6N

Development and Design of ROV Manipulator

The thesis is carried out in collaboration with the student organization UiS Subsea. The primary objective of this thesis is to design and develop a manipulator for the ROV, named YME, using the product development process (PDP). The end goal is to showcase the final product at the MATE ROV Competition 2023. The importance of sustainability has been highlighted in recent years, and this year, MATE ROV Competition focuses on the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable development (2021-2030), and challenge students to contribute to UNs Sustainability goals by seeking sustainable solutions for their projects. The product development process consisted of four phases: planning, concept development, concept generation, and product concept selection. The planning process focused on resource allocation, declaring a mission statement, and establishing a good foundation for the process ahead. Gathering benchmarking information and establishing target specifications was a crucial part of the concept development phase, prior to the concept generation process, as the information and specifications served as a guidance and outline for the concepts to be generated. By a circular economy approach, the reuse of old components within UiS Subsea was evaluated, and potential components were located. The circular economy approach influenced design decisions, and resulted in cost and timeefficiency, and contribution towards sustainability in engineering practices. Concepts were generated for both the manipulator arm and end-effector, and the most promising ones were selected for further development. Eventually one concept for the arm, and one for the end-effector, was selected and further developed through detailed design. Through detailed design, a complete CAD model of the manipulator was made, also material was selected and necessary calculations were performed. The outcome was a three degree of freedom manipulator arm with a rotating end-effector, pitch function, xv and a telescope function. Through prototyping and extensive testing, the design was evaluated and deemed sufficient according to customer needs and target specifications. The outcome of the project was a fully functional ROV Manipulator able to perform all the required MATE tasks, and contributed greatly towards the successful qualification to the 2023 MATE ROV Competition. However, there was room for further improvement and optimization of both the manipulator and the process, and hopefully the manipulator can serve as a foundation for future UiS Subsea manipulator projects.The thesis is carried out in collaboration with the student organization UiS Subsea. The primary objective of this thesis is to design and develop a manipulator for the ROV, named YME, using the product development process (PDP). The end goal is to showcase the final product at the MATE ROV Competition 2023. The importance of sustainability has been highlighted in recent years, and this year, MATE ROV Competition focuses on the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable development (2021-2030), and challenge students to contribute to UNs Sustainability goals by seeking sustainable solutions for their projects. The product development process consisted of four phases: planning, concept development, concept generation, and product concept selection. The planning process focused on resource allocation, declaring a mission statement, and establishing a good foundation for the process ahead. Gathering benchmarking information and establishing target specifications was a crucial part of the concept development phase, prior to the concept generation process, as the information and specifications served as a guidance and outline for the concepts to be generated. By a circular economy approach, the reuse of old components within UiS Subsea was evaluated, and potential components were located. The circular economy approach influenced design decisions, and resulted in cost and timeefficiency, and contribution towards sustainability in engineering practices. Concepts were generated for both the manipulator arm and end-effector, and the most promising ones were selected for further development. Eventually one concept for the arm, and one for the end-effector, was selected and further developed through detailed design. Through detailed design, a complete CAD model of the manipulator was made, also material was selected and necessary calculations were performed. The outcome was a three degree of freedom manipulator arm with a rotating end-effector, pitch function, xv and a telescope function. Through prototyping and extensive testing, the design was evaluated and deemed sufficient according to customer needs and target specifications. The outcome of the project was a fully functional ROV Manipulator able to perform all the required MATE tasks, and contributed greatly towards the successful qualification to the 2023 MATE ROV Competition. However, there was room for further improvement and optimization of both the manipulator and the process, and hopefully the manipulator can serve as a foundation for future UiS Subsea manipulator projects

Robotic manipulation with flexible link fingers

A robot manipulator is a spatial mechanism consisting essentially of a series of bodies, called "links", connected to each other at "joints". The joints can be of various types: revolute, rotary, planar, prismatic, telescopic or combinations of these. A serial connection of the links results in an open-chain manipulator. Closed-chain manipulators result from non-serial (or parallel) connections between links. Actuators at the joints of the manipulator provide power for motion. A robot is usually not designed for a very specific or repetitive task which can be done equally well by task-specific machines. Its strength lies in its ability to handle a range of tasks by virtue of being "re-programmable". Therefore, in addition to the mechanical hardware two other elements are integral to the description of a robot: sensors and control. With the advent of micro-electronics and digital computers the availability of sensors is ever increasing and the control is usually done by software executed by computers which also collect the sensory data. It is possible to model quite accurately, the dynamics of robot manipulators for purposes of control. However, for most practical robots the models are complex and numerically intensive to calculate in real-time. Traditional analyses of robot manipulators consider the whole mechanism to be rigid. Relaxation of the assumption of rigidity leads to further complication of the dynamics of the manipulator, leading to more difficulties in control. The overall motion of the manipulator is augmented by additional motion due to the dynamics of flexibility which must be considered. Sensing is also made more difficult. However, the ability to control robots with significant structural flexibilities, referred to as flexible robots in the rest of this thesis, influences robotics in many ways. It allows for consideration of new applications, observance of less conservative structural design and performance enhancements in certain classes of robotic tasks, which will be addressed in greater detail in the sections which follow

Development and Design of ROV Manipulator

The thesis is carried out in collaboration with the student organization UiS Subsea. The primary objective of this thesis is to design and develop a manipulator for the ROV, named YME, using the product development process (PDP). The end goal is to showcase the final product at the MATE ROV Competition 2023. The importance of sustainability has been highlighted in recent years, and this year, MATE ROV Competition focuses on the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable development (2021-2030), and challenge students to contribute to UNs Sustainability goals by seeking sustainable solutions for their projects. The product development process consisted of four phases: planning, concept development, concept generation, and product concept selection. The planning process focused on resource allocation, declaring a mission statement, and establishing a good foundation for the process ahead. Gathering benchmarking information and establishing target specifications was a crucial part of the concept development phase, prior to the concept generation process, as the information and specifications served as a guidance and outline for the concepts to be generated. By a circular economy approach, the reuse of old components within UiS Subsea was evaluated, and potential components were located. The circular economy approach influenced design decisions, and resulted in cost and timeefficiency, and contribution towards sustainability in engineering practices. Concepts were generated for both the manipulator arm and end-effector, and the most promising ones were selected for further development. Eventually one concept for the arm, and one for the end-effector, was selected and further developed through detailed design. Through detailed design, a complete CAD model of the manipulator was made, also material was selected and necessary calculations were performed. The outcome was a three degree of freedom manipulator arm with a rotating end-effector, pitch function, and a telescope function. Through prototyping and extensive testing, the design was evaluated and deemed sufficient according to customer needs and target specifications. The outcome of the project was a fully functional ROV Manipulator able to perform all the required MATE tasks, and contributed greatly towards the successful qualification to the 2023 MATE ROV Competition. However, there was room for further improvement and optimization of both the manipulator and the process, and hopefully the manipulator can serve as a foundation for future UiS Subsea manipulator projects