Grasping Strategies for a Dexterous Hand during Teleoperation

Telerobotics is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that deals with the control of robots at a distance in a manner that entails the intuition and the physical involvement of the operator controlling the robot. The end of the robotic manipulator consists of a device called an end effector that is used to hold the tools. Most telerobotic systems employ a simple single degree of freedom end effector called a parallel jaw gripper. Since such end effectors have just one degree of freedom and hence limited dexterity, it is essential to develop special fixtures to be attached to the tool that is grasped. The current research attempts to employ a multi fingered end effector, which has multiple degrees of freedom in an attempt to reduce tool fixturing costs and ensure ease of operation. The research integrates the end effector into an existing telerobotic system, develops and implements grasping strategies based on human grasp observations and experimental grasp by demonstration validation for specific tool and objects in an attempt to find stable grasps. The strategies developed are further implemented by designing a master controller for the end effector and integrating it with a human machine interface and the overall system

Prevalence, treatments and outcomes of coronary artery disease in Indians: A systematic review

Aim: To conduct a systematic review on the prevalence, risk factors, treatments and outcomes of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) in Indians. Methods and results: We conducted a systematic review of studies in Indians with CAD from Jan 1969 to Oct 2012. Initial search yielded 3885 studies and after review 288 observational studies were included. The prevalence of CAD in urban areas was 2.5%–12.6% and in rural areas, 1.4%–4.6%. The prevalence of risk factors was: smoking (8.9–40.5%), hypertension (13.1–36.9%) and diabetes mellitus (0.2–24.0%). The median time to reach hospital after an MI was 360 min. In hospital rates of drug use were: antiplatelets 68%–97.9%, beta blockers 47.3%–65.8% and ACEIs 27.8–56.8%. Conclusions: In this first systematic review of CAD in India, prevalence of risk factors is high, treatments delayed and use of evidence based treatments variable