Upper Limb Exoskeleton

The present invention relates a wearable exoskeleton for a user having a torso with an upper limb to support motion of the said upper limb. The wearable exoskeleton comprises a first fixed frame mountable to the torso, an upper arm brace and a first group of actuators for moving the upper arm brace relative to the first fixed frame. In an example the present invention is for use in post-stroke therapy.Design EngineeringIndustrial Design Engineerin

Hydrometallurgical recovery of rare earth elements from mine tailings and WEEE

The present study proposes three distinct processes to recycle rare earth elements (REE) from two low-grade secondary resources: REE-containing mine tailings and ferrous scrap from shredded waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The first developed process extracts both REE and phosphorus from the apatite mineral contained within the mine tailings by way of acidic leaching, followed by cryogenic crystallization and solvent extraction to purify both the REE and P products. This process successfully recovers 70–100% of the REE from the apatite and over 99% of its P. The second developed process is a low-cost, efficient method to recover Nd from the ferrous scrap of shredded WEEE. This is achieved by a water corrosion step followed by acidic leaching and precipitation. The overall Nd recovery of this approach is over 90%. The final process recovers both the Nd and the Fe from the shredded WEEE scrap. This is done by smelting the shredded WEEE scrap prior to leaching to produce metallic Fe- and a Nd-rich slag. The recovery rates of both Nd and Fe are over 90% and minimal waste is produced; however, the energy consumption is considerable.(OLD) MSE-3Materials Science and Engineerin

Woningontwerp op Vinex-locaties

Dit boek is het resultaat van een onderzoek naar het woningontwerp op Vinexlocaties. Centraal thema in het onderzoek is de aansluiting van het woningaanbod op de woningvraag nu en in de toekomst. Het onderzoek is op eigen initiatief van het Onderzoeksinstituut OTB geëntameerd. Het is gefinancierd door het Stimuleringsfonds voor Architectuur, het Directoraat -Generaal van de Volkshuisvesting van het Ministerie van VROM en het Onderzoeksinstituut OTB. De onderzoekers zijn dank verschuldigd aan een commissie, die het onderzoek begeleid heeft. In deze commissie zaten ir. A. Hebly van Architecten Hebly/Theunissen, dr. ir. N. de Vreeze van De Architectengroep, ir. H. Westra van de Stuurgroep Experimenten Volkshuisvesting en vertegenwoordigers van het Ministerie van VROM. Tevens willen we alle gemeenten, projectontwikkelaars, makelaars en architecten bedanken voor het beschikbaar stellen van brochuremateriaal en tekeningen van Vinexlocaties en -woningen. Ten slotte bedank ik de vertegenwoordigers van consumentenorganisaties, projectontwikkelaars en ontwerpers die hebben deelgenomen aan de expertmeetings.OTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen

Multidimensional aspects of GeoBIM data: New standards needed

OTB ResearchOTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen

Validating algorithms for calculation of the shape of a flexible blade

Methods and tools are developed to measure, analyze and compare physical and virtual blade shapes. An application is presented using measured data and the results of two blade shape calculation algorithms. A measuring method has been developed and a set-up for measuring physical blades was built. Tools were implemented to compare and evaluate the calculated and measured shapes. From the analysis of the measured data and the calculated results of the involved algorithms it could be concluded that none of the algorithms used initially could be applied directly for our shape calculations. The developed tools and methods have been found useful for the adaptation and fine-tuning of the algorithms, which is demonstrated in two examples.Industrial Design Engineerin

3D Pilot: Eindrapport werkgroep 3D Use cases

GIS TechnologyOTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen

Dithiacrown ether substituted porphyrazines: Synthesis, single-crystal structure, and control of aggregation in solution by complexation of transition-metal ions

Contains fulltext : 10154.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Is accommodation a confounder in pupillometry research?

Much psychological research uses pupil diameter measurements to investigate the cognitive and emotional effects of visual stimuli. A potential problem is that accommodating at a nearby point causes the pupil to constrict. This study examined to what extent accommodation is a confounder in pupillometry research. Participants solved multiplication problems at different distances (Experiment 1) and looked at line drawings with different monocular depth cues (Experiment 2) while their pupil diameter, refraction, and vergence angle were recorded using a photorefractor. Experiment 1 showed that the pupils dilated while performing the multiplications, for all presentation distances. Pupillary constriction due to accommodation was not strong enough to override pupil dilation due to cognitive load. Experiment 2 showed that monocular depth cues caused a small shift in refraction in the expected direction. We conclude that, for the young student sample we used, pupil diameter measurements are not substantially affected by accommodation.Medical Instruments & Bio-Inspired TechnologyHuman-Robot Interactio

Multifunctional ZrB₂-rich Zr_1-xCr_xB_y thin films with enhanced mechanical, oxidation, and corrosion properties

Refractory transition-metal (TM) diborides have high melting points, excellent hardness, and good chemical stability. However, these properties are not sufficient for applications involving extreme environments that require high mechanical strength as well as oxidation and corrosion resistance. Here, we study the effect of Cr addition on the properties of ZrB2-rich Zr1-xCrxBy thin films grown by hybrid high-power impulse and dc magnetron co-sputtering (Cr-HiPIMS/ZrB2-DCMS) with a 100-V Cr-metal-ion synchronized bias. Cr metal fraction, x = Cr/(Zr + Cr), is increased from 0.23 to 0.44 by decreasing the power PZrB2 applied to the DCMS ZrB2 target from 4000 to 2000 W, while the average power, pulse width, and frequency applied to the HiPIMS Cr target are maintained constant. In addition, y decreases from 2.18 to 1.11 as a function of PZrB2, as a result of supplying Cr to the growing film and preferential B resputtering caused by the pulsed Cr-ion flux. ZrB2.18, Zr0·77Cr0·23B1.52, Zr0·71Cr0·29B1.42, and Zr0·68Cr0·32B1.38 films have hexagonal AlB2 crystal structure with a columnar nanostructure, while Zr0·64Cr0·36B1.30 and Zr0·56Cr0·44B1.11 are amorphous. All films show hardness above 30 GPa. Zr0.56Cr0.44B1.11 alloys exhibit much better toughness, wear, oxidation, and corrosion resistance than ZrB2.18. This combination of properties makes Zr0·56Cr0·44B1.11 ideal candidates for numerous strategic applications.Team Arjan Mo

Vacuum Deposited Perovskites with a Controllable Crystal Orientation

The preferential orientation of the perovskite (PVK) is typically accomplished by manipulation of the mixed cation/halide composition of the solution used for wet processing. However, for PVKs grown by thermal evaporation, this has been rarely addressed. It is unclear how variation in crystal orientation affects the optoelectronic properties of thermally evaporated films, including the charge carrier mobility, lifetime, and trap densities. In this study, we use different intermediate annealing temperatures Tinter between two sequential evaporation cycles to control the Cs0.15FA0.85PbI2.85Br0.15 orientation of the final PVK layer. XRD and 2D-XRD measurements reveal that when using no intermediate annealing primarily the (110) orientation is obtained, while when using Tinter = 100 °C a nearly isotropic orientation is found. Most interestingly for Tinter > 130 °C a highly oriented PVK (100) is formed. We found that although bulk electronic properties like photoconductivity are independent of the preferential orientation, surface related properties differ substantially. The highly oriented PVK (100) exhibits improved photoluminescence in terms of yield and lifetime. In addition, high spatial resolution mappings of the contact potential difference (CPD) as measured by KPFM for the highly oriented PVK show a more homogeneous surface potential distribution than those of the nonoriented PVK. These observations suggest that a highly oriented growth of thermally evaporated PVK is preferred to improve the charge extraction at the device level.Photovoltaic Materials and DevicesTeam Peyman TaheriChemE/Opto-electronic MaterialsTeam Arjan MolChemE/O&O groe