introduction to the special issue on the 2015 workshop on history of mechanism and machine science

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A Historical Account on Italian Mechanism Models

This illustration-based paper presents and account of Italian History on the collections mechanism models that were used and still can be used in design, teaching, and research activities not only on research and development of mechanical systems. A conceptual procedure is outlined for the development and use of mechanism models mainly at reduced scaled size. Main Italian collections of mechanism models are introduced with their historical values and current status. Those examples are reported also to show the value of Cultural Heritage that mechanism models and corresponding developments may have as worthful for preservation and understanding of past achievements in mechanism design and its application even in other frames

Service Robotics Special Issue (2014/2015) Editorial

Service robots have attracted attention for more than a couple of decades, but have only recently become widely accepted in experienced markets, at least in some sectors. Thus, an increased interest for developing new service robots and applying robotic systems for new service tasks has emerged. Innovation is expected not only in terms of successful tasks, but even in developing robotic systems for tasks in other new areas

Designing Bioinspired Robots Editorial

This IJARS issue is dedicated to a new international conference series, which has been promoted by ENEA and IARP (International Advanced Robotics Programme). The first conference, entitled Bio-inspired Robotics, was held on 14th-15th May 2014 at the ENEA's Frascati Centre. The conference was dedicated to young researchers and scholars with promising ideas, methods and products for innovation and technology transfer in the field of service robots with bio-inspired design and operation

Analysis of a wearable robotic system for ankle rehabilitation

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. As one of the most commonly injured joints of the human body, the ankle is often subject to sprains or fractures that require motion assistance to recover mobility. Whereas physiotherapists usually perform rehabilitation in one-on-one sessions with patients, several successful robotic rehabilitation solutions have been proposed in the last years. However, their design is usually bulky and requires the patient to sit or stand in a static position. A lightweight wearable device for ankle motion assistance, the CABLEankle, is here proposed for motion ankle exercising in rehabilitation and training. The CABLEankle is based on a cable-driven S-4SPS parallel architecture, which enables motion assistance over the large motion range of the human ankle in a walking gait. The proposed mechanism design is analyzed with kinematic and static models, and the force closure workspace of the mechanism is discussed with analytical results. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed design is investigated through numerical simulations over the ankle motion range as a characterization of the peculiar motion

introduction to the special issue on the viii latin american congress on mechanical engineering

This special issue on Advances in mechanical engineering from Latin-America contains papers that have been presented at COLIM 2014, the VIII Latin-American Congress on Mechanical Engineering held in Cuenca (Ecuador) from November 25 to 27, 2014. The conference has been the eighth event of a series of conferences which started in Merida, Venezuela in1999 as a conference activity mainly for promoting mechanical engineering in South America community. The previous conferences have been held in Quito, Ecuador in 2001, in Lima, Peru in 2003, in Morelia, Mexico in 2005, in Cucuta, Colombia in 2008, in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2010, and in Cuzco, Peru in 2012. The congress focuses on today's technical challenges, research updates, research and development innovations that are shaping the future of mechanical engineering for industrial and non-industrial applications. The congress also has the goal to encourage exchanging experiences and to build up international cooperation networks by inviting researchers, teachers, students and professionals from engineering disciplines in sharing experiences and results. In the latest years, the event has received an increased attention, as it can be seen from the fact that the 2014 congress proceedings contain 128 papers contributions, from all around the world. This special issue has been obtained as a result of a second review process and selection among the best presented papers at COLIM 2014. The content of the papers cover several aspects of mechanical engineering with challenges in the area of interests in Latin-America from theoretical aspects up to practical industrial and non-industrial applications, such as science applied to mechanical engineering, design of machines and components, manufacture of machines, automotive engineering, and methods and techniques for engineering education. We would like to express grateful thanks to the members of the International Scientific Committee for 2014 COLIM conference (listed below), for co-operating enthusiastically for the success of the COLIM event and this special issue: Simon Figueroa (Venezuela), Conference Chair Marco Ceccarelli (Italy), Conference Co-Chair Rene Vinicio Sanchez (Ecuador), Conference Co-Chair Victor Cardenas (Ecuador) Jose Felix Vazquez (Mexico) Jaime Cervantes de Gortari (Mexico) Jose Carlos Miranda (Mexico) Lisa Lugo (Paraguay) Cesar Alejandro Isaza (Colombia

Kinematic Analysis of a Continuum Parallel Robot

Conference Paper presented at EUCOMES 2016 held in Nantes, France, from 20 to 23 September 2016Continuum Parallel Robots are mechanical devices with closed loops where kinematic pairs have been eliminated and motion is obtained by large deformations of certain elements. Most compliant mechanisms use notches in thick elements to produce the effect of kinematic pairs. A few are designed so that slender elements can deform and produce the desired motion. Some microelectromechanical systems have used this principle to create bistable planar mechanisms. The purpose of this work is to extend such principle in the field of macro mechanisms for manipulation. The aim is to design the counterparts to some classical parallel manipulators solving the corresponding kinematic problems. In doing this, the authors will have to work out the most efficient way to solve a position problem where geometry and forces are involved. Such compliant mechanisms could be combined in the future with tensegrity systems to enhance the available workspace. In this first report, we will focus on the simplest planar parallel mechanism of two degrees of freedomThe authorswish to acknowledge the financial support received fromthe Spanish Government through theMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad (Project DPI2015-64450-R) and the Regional Government of the Basque Country through the Departamento de Educación, Universidades e Investigación (Project IT445-10) and UPV/EHU under program UFI 11/29. Also, the support of ERASMUS program is gratefully acknowledged by the fourth autho