27 research outputs found
Design and Development of Sensor Integrated Robotic Hand
Most of the automated systems using robots as agents do use few sensors according to the need. However, there are situations where the tasks carried out by the end-effector, or for that matter by the robot hand needs multiple sensors. The hand, to make the best use of these sensors, and behave autonomously, requires a set of appropriate types of sensors which could be integrated in proper manners.
The present research work aims at developing a sensor integrated robot hand that can collect information related to the assigned tasks, assimilate there correctly and then do task action as appropriate. The process of development involves selection of sensors of right types and of right specification, locating then at proper places in the hand, checking their functionality individually and calibrating them for the envisaged process. Since the sensors need to be integrated so that they perform in the desired manner collectively, an integration platform is created using NI PXIe-1082.
A set of algorithm is developed for achieving the integrated model. The entire process is first modelled and simulated off line for possible modification in order to ensure that all the sensors do contribute towards the autonomy of the hand for desired activity.
This work also involves design of a two-fingered gripper. The design is made in such a way that it is capable of carrying out the desired tasks and can accommodate all the sensors within its fold. The developed sensor integrated hand has been put to work and its performance test has been carried out. This hand can be very useful for part assembly work in industries for any shape of part with a limit on the size of the part in mind.
The broad aim is to design, model simulate and develop an advanced robotic hand. Sensors for pick up contacts pressure, force, torque, position, surface profile shape using suitable sensing elements in a robot hand are to be introduced. The hand is a complex structure with large number of degrees of freedom and has multiple sensing capabilities apart from the associated sensing assistance from other organs. The present work is envisaged to add multiple sensors to a two-fingered robotic hand having motion capabilities and constraints similar to the human hand. There has been a good amount of research and development in this field during the last two decades a lot remains to be explored and achieved.
The objective of the proposed work is to design, simulate and develop a sensor integrated robotic hand. Its potential applications can be proposed for industrial environments and in healthcare field. The industrial applications include electronic assembly tasks, lighter inspection tasks, etc. Application in healthcare could be in the areas of rehabilitation and assistive techniques.
The work also aims to establish the requirement of the robotic hand for the target application areas, to identify the suitable kinds and model of sensors that can be integrated on hand control system. Functioning of motors in the robotic hand and integration of appropriate sensors for the desired motion is explained for the control of the various elements of the hand. Additional sensors, capable of collecting external information and information about the object for manipulation is explored.
Processes are designed using various software and hardware tools such as mathematical computation MATLAB, OpenCV library and LabVIEW 2013 DAQ system as applicable, validated theoretically and finally implemented to develop an intelligent robotic hand. The multiple smart sensors are installed on a standard six degree-of-freedom industrial robot KAWASAKI RS06L articulated manipulator, with the two-finger pneumatic SHUNK robotic hand or designed prototype and robot control programs are integrated in such a manner that allows easy application of grasping in an industrial pick-and-place operation where the characteristics of the object can vary or are unknown. The effectiveness of the actual recommended structure is usually proven simply by experiments using calibration involving sensors and manipulator. The dissertation concludes with a summary of the contribution and the scope of further work
NASA SBIR abstracts of 1991 phase 1 projects
The objectives of 301 projects placed under contract by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are described. These projects were selected competitively from among proposals submitted to NASA in response to the 1991 SBIR Program Solicitation. The basic document consists of edited, non-proprietary abstracts of the winning proposals submitted by small businesses. The abstracts are presented under the 15 technical topics within which Phase 1 proposals were solicited. Each project was assigned a sequential identifying number from 001 to 301, in order of its appearance in the body of the report. Appendixes to provide additional information about the SBIR program and permit cross-reference of the 1991 Phase 1 projects by company name, location by state, principal investigator, NASA Field Center responsible for management of each project, and NASA contract number are included
Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 284)
This bibliography lists 974 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in Oct. 1992. The coverage includes documents on design, construction, evaluation, testing, operation, and performance of aircraft (including aircraft engines) and associated components, equipment, and systems. It also includes research and development in aerodynamics, aeronautics, and ground support equipment for aeronautical vehicles
Anatomy of a Pin-Up: A Genealogy of Sexualized Femininity Since the Industrial Age
Pin-up images have played an important role in American culture, in both their illustrated and photographic configurations. The pin-up is viewed as a significant representational cultural artifact of idealistic and aspirational femininity and of consumerism and material wealth, especially reflective of the mid-twentieth century period in America spanning the 1930s to the 1960s. These images not only reflect great shifts in social mores and women’s social status, but also affected changes in both areas in turn. Furthermore, pin-up images internationally circulated in magazines, advertising and promotional material, contributed to the manner in which America was idealized in Europe and beyond. Crucially, they influenced how an eroticized and glamorous, yet unrealistic, example of femininity came to be generalized as a desirous model of femininity. In recent years there has been vital, though limited, scholarly research into the cultural and social impact of pin-up imagery, to which this thesis adds to. This thesis takes a genealogical approach, charting the development of popular female-centric “pin-up” imagery in America since the 1860s and up to the 1960s, and its resurgence since the 1980s onwards. In doing so this thesis aims to provide a social, political and cultural context to the emergence of a specific archetypal sexualized femininity, with the aim of challenging the tendency to dismiss sexualized imagery as “anti-feminist” or as trivial. Toward that end, I examine the complexity of intentions behind the production of “pin-up” images. In taking this revisionist approach I am better able to conclusively analyze the reasons for the resurgence and reappropriation of pin-up imagery in late-twentieth- and early-twenty-first-century popular culture, and consider what the gendered cultural implications may be
NASA SBIR abstracts of 1992, phase 1 projects
The objectives of 346 projects placed under contract by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are described. These projects were selected competitively from among proposals submitted to NASA in response to the 1992 SBIR Program Solicitation. The basic document consists of edited, non-proprietary abstracts of the winning proposals submitted by small businesses. The abstracts are presented under the 15 technical topics within which Phase 1 proposals were solicited. Each project was assigned a sequential identifying number from 001 to 346, in order of its appearance in the body of the report. Appendixes to provide additional information about the SBIR program and permit cross-reference of the 1992 Phase 1 projects by company name, location by state, principal investigator, NASA Field Center responsible for management of each project, and NASA contract number are included
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The conceptual design of 3D miniaturised / integrated products as examined through the development of a novel red blood cell / plasma separation device
This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThe aim of this research is to examine the conceptual design issues concerned with integrating product capabilities that can only be generated at the micro- scale (through feature sizes generally of the order of 100nm to 100μm) directly into 3-dimensional products at the macro-scale. Such macro-scale products could accordingly contain internal devices that are too small to be seen or touched by unaided human designers, which begs the question as to how to enable designers to work with objects which are beyond direct human experience, and how can the necessary collective discussion take place within teams of designers, and between these teams and those responsible for product manufacture?
This thesis examines and tests a concept that theoretical 2-dimensional diagrams of function may be transformed into 3-dimensional working structures using procedures allied to those used by graphic designers to create solid objects from 2-dimensional prototype geometries through, for example, extrusion or rotation.
Applying such procedures to theoretical diagrams in order to transform them into scalable 3-dimensional devices is not yet in general use at the macro-scale, but with increasing recognition of the unique capabilities of the micro- scale the idea may grow in appeal to alleviate the difficulties of conceiving of functional structures that, when built, will be too small to experience directly. Furthermore this design method, through its basis upon a common currency of functional diagrams, may overcome many of the problems of describing and discussing the design and manufacture of normally intangible objects in 3 dimensions. Finally, it is shown through the example of a novel Red Blood Cell / Plasma Separation Device that the geometric transformation process can lead to the design of functional structures which would not readily be arrived at intuitively, and that may be effectively and efficiently integrated into host products
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Multistable Shell Structures
Multistable structures, which possess by definition more than one stable equilibrium configuration, are capable of adapting their shape to changing loading or environmental conditions and can further improve multi-purpose ultra-lightweight designs. Whilst multiple methods to create bistable shells have been proposed, most studies focussed on free-standing ones. Considering the strong influence of support conditions on related stability thresholds, surprisingly little is known about their influence on multistable behaviour. In fact, the lack of analytical models prevents a full understanding and constitutes a bottle-neck in the development process of novel shape-changing structures. The relevance becomes apparent in a simple example: whilst an unsupported sliced tennis ball can be stably inverted without experiencing a reversion, fixing
its edge against rotation erodes bistability by causing an instantaneous snap-back to the initial configuration. This observation reveals the possibility to alter the structural response dramatically by a simple change of the support conditions.
This dissertation explores the causes of this behaviour by gaining further insight into the promoting and eschewing factors of multistability and aims to point out methods to exploit this feature in optimised ways. The aforementioned seemingly simple example requires a geometrically nonlinear perspective on shells for which analytical solutions
stay elusive unless simplifying assumptions are made. In order to captures relevant aspects in closed form, a novel semi-analytical Ritz approach with up to four degrees of freedom is derived, which enforces the boundary conditions strongly. In contrast to finite element simulations, it does not linearise the stiffness matrix and can thus explore
the full solution space spanned by the assumed polynomial deflection field. In return, this limits the method to a few degrees of freedom, but a comparison to reference calculations demonstrated an excellent performance in most cases.
First, the level of influence of the boundary conditions on the critical shape for enabling a bistable inversion is formally characterised in rotationally symmetric shells. Systematic insight is provided by connecting the rim to ground through sets of extensional and rotational linear springs, which allows use of the derived shell model as a macro-element that is connected to other structural elements. It is demonstrated that bistability is promoted by an increasing extensional stiffness, i.e. bistable roller-supported shells need to be at least twice as tall compared to their fixed-pinned counterparts. The effect of rotational springs is found to be multi-faceted: whilst preventing rotation has the tendency to hinder bistable inversions, freeing it can even allow for extra stable configurations; however, a certain case is emphasised in which an increasing rotational spring stiffness causes a mode transition that stabilises inversions.
In a second step, a polar-orthotropic material law is employed to study variations of the directional stiffness of the shell itself. A careful choice of the basis functions is required to accurately capture stress singularities in bending that arise if the radial Young’s modulus is stiffer than its circumferential equivalent. A simple way to circumvent such singularities is to create a central hole, which is shown not to hamper bistable inversions. For significantly stiffer values of the radial stiffness, a strong coupling with the support conditions is revealed: whilst roller-supported shells do not show a bistable inversion at all for such materials, fixed-pinned ones feel the most disposed to accommodate an alternative equilibrium configuration. This behaviour is explained via simplified beam models that suggest a new perspective on the influence of the hoop stiffness: based on observations in free-standing shells, it was thought to promote bistability, but it is only insofar stabilising, as it evokes radial stresses; if these are afforded by immovable supports, it becomes redundant and even slightly hindering.
Finally, combined actuation methods in stretching and bending that prescribe non-Euclidean target shapes are considered to emphasise the possibility of multifarious structural manipulations. When both methods are geared to each other, stress-free synclastic shape transformations in an over-constrained environment, or alternatively, anticlastic shape-changes with an arbitrary wave number, are achievable. Considering nonsymmetric deformations offers a richer buckling behaviour for certain in-plane actuated shells, where a secondary, approximately cylindrical buckling mode as well as a ‘hidden’ stable configuration of a higher wave number is revealed by the presented analytical model.
Additionally, it is shown that the approximately mirror-symmetric inversion of cylindrical or deep spherical shells can be accurately described by employing a simpler, geometrically linear theory that focusses on small deviations from the mirrored shape.
The results of this dissertation facilitate a versatile practical application of multistable structures via an analytical description of more realistic support conditions. The understanding of effects of the internal stiffness makes it possible to use this unique structural behaviour more efficiently by making simple cross-sectional adjustments, i.e. by adding appropriate stiffeners. Eventually, the provided theoretical framework of emerging actuation methods might inspire novel morphing structures.Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung)
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Department of Engineering, Cambridg
Technology 2000, volume 1
The purpose of the conference was to increase awareness of existing NASA developed technologies that are available for immediate use in the development of new products and processes, and to lay the groundwork for the effective utilization of emerging technologies. There were sessions on the following: Computer technology and software engineering; Human factors engineering and life sciences; Information and data management; Material sciences; Manufacturing and fabrication technology; Power, energy, and control systems; Robotics; Sensors and measurement technology; Artificial intelligence; Environmental technology; Optics and communications; and Superconductivity
Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 258)
This bibliography lists 536 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in October 1990. Subject coverage includes: design, construction and testing of aircraft and aircraft engines; aircraft components, equipment and systems; ground support systems; and theoretical and applied aspects of aerodynamics and general fluid dynamics