Privity of Warranty: Has the Tocsin Sounded?

Declaring their independence of an anachronism, sown in dictum and grown in error, more and more jurisdictions are participating in the movement to expunge the requirement of privity from the law of warranty. A veritable revolution against the artificial strictures of privity of warranty and its unwarranted, and all too often unjust, results has occurred in recent years. The number of jurisdictions engaged in repudiating their allegiance to this unfortunate anachronism is steadily mounting. Pennsylvania seemed to be as active in this revolution as it had been in an earlier Revolution which is regularly celebrated by appropriate ceremonies throughout the Nation, especially as it was the first jurisdiction to adopt the Uniform Commercial Code just a decade ago

A Model for Force Fluctuations in Bead Packs

We study theoretically the complex network of forces that is responsible for the static structure and properties of granular materials. We present detailed calculations for a model in which the fluctuations in the force distribution arise because of variations in the contact angles and the constraints imposed by the force balance on each bead of the pile. We compare our results for force distribution function for this model, including exact results for certain contact angle probability distributions, with numerical simulations of force distributions in random sphere packings. This model reproduces many aspects of the force distribution observed both in experiment and in numerical simulations of sphere packings

Universal Robotic Gripper based on the Jamming of Granular Material

Gripping and holding of objects are key tasks for robotic manipulators. The development of universal grippers able to pick up unfamiliar objects of widely varying shape and surface properties remains, however, challenging. Most current designs are based on the multi-fingered hand, but this approach introduces hardware and software complexities. These include large numbers of controllable joints, the need for force sensing if objects are to be handled securely without crushing them, and the computational overhead to decide how much stress each finger should apply and where. Here we demonstrate a completely different approach to a universal gripper. Individual fingers are replaced by a single mass of granular material that, when pressed onto a target object, flows around it and conforms to its shape. Upon application of a vacuum the granular material contracts and hardens quickly to pinch and hold the object without requiring sensory feedback. We find that volume changes of less than 0.5% suffice to grip objects reliably and hold them with forces exceeding many times their weight. We show that the operating principle is the ability of granular materials to transition between an unjammed, deformable state and a jammed state with solid-like rigidity. We delineate three separate mechanisms, friction, suction and interlocking, that contribute to the gripping force. Using a simple model we relate each of them to the mechanical strength of the jammed state. This opens up new possibilities for the design of simple, yet highly adaptive systems that excel at fast gripping of complex objects.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Intruders in the Dust: Air-Driven Granular Size Separation

Using MRI and high-speed video we investigate the motion of a large intruder particle inside a vertically shaken bed of smaller particles. We find a pronounced, non-monotonic density dependence, with both light and heavy intruders moving faster than those whose density is approximately that of the granular bed. For light intruders, we furthermore observe either rising or sinking behavior, depending on intruder starting height, boundary condition and interstitial gas pressure. We map out the phase boundary delineating the rising and sinking regimes. A simple model can account for much of the observed behavior and show how the two regimes are connected by considering pressure gradients across the granular bed during a shaking cycle.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Logarithmic Relaxations in a Random Field Lattice Gas Subject to Gravity

A simple lattice gas model with random fields and gravity is introduced to describe a system of grains moving in a disordered environment. Off equilibrium relaxations of bulk density and its two time correlation functions are numerically found to show logarithmic time dependences and "aging" effects. Similitudes with dry granular media are stressed. The connections with off equilibrium dynamics in others kinds of "frustrated" lattice models in presence of a directional driving force (gravity) are discussed to single out the appearance of universal features in the relaxation process.Comment: 15 pages, latex, 7 figures include