Hand writing using SCORBOT arm

Advisors: Peng Yung Woo.Committee members: Donald S. Zinger; Martin kocanda.Robot arm is a robot manipulator with similar functions of a human arm. There are many research and industrial applications where robot arm is replacing humans. This thesis aims at analyzing and achieving the human-like behavior by robot arm manipulators. Writing skills would be a significant challenge in this research. This thesis aims at developing a robot arm which can help people in writing. A pen is mounted on the end of the robot's gripper and is programmed to write down the words that are instructed to it.The patterns of handwriting are studied, and a strategy is developed to plan the trajectory of each letter. These paths are transformed into the vector form of joint angles and robot axis position in which order and speed of the movement can be developed to imitate human hand writing. The practicality of these methods is demonstrated by using the SCORBOT-ER-4u robot arm from Intelitek. It is a five-link arm similar to a human arm and has five degrees of freedom. It is a coordinate-based robotic system with encoder feedback. The system runs on syntax-based software SCORBASE, translated to robotic actuation by proprietary control hardware. Through this thesis, it has been proven that the algorithm developed can allow the robotic arm to write. This thesis could be a stepping stone for more opportunities in advanced robotic experiments at the Robotics and Intelligent Systems Laboratory.M.S. (Master of Science

FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF RAMIPRIL MOUTH DISSOLVING FILMS

Objective: The present investigation was aimed at preparation and evaluation of mouth dissolving films (MDFs) of Ramipril to enhance patient convenience, compliance and to improve bioavailability. Methods: MDFs with 0.5% w/w Ramipril were prepared by a solvent casting method using a wet film applicator. The effects of film formers, wetting/solubilizing, saliva stimulating agents and film modifiers on the physicomechanical and in vitro Ramipril release from MDFs were evaluated. Results: The MDFs prepared were transparent, smooth and showed no re-crystallization upon storage. MDFs casted with hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) E3 as film former and polyethylene glycol (PEG-400) as plasticizer showed superior Ramipril release rates and good physicomechanical properties when compared to MDFs with E5 and E15 as film formers. HPMC E3 MDFs with polyvinyl pyrrolidone K30 (PVP K30) and sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) gave superior drug release properties than MDFs without PVP K30 and SLS. The HPMC E3 MDFs with citric acid (CA) as saliva stimulating and xylitol as soothing agent gave significantly superior in vitro drug release than the MDFs without CA and xylitol. Release kinetics data reveals diffusion as a drug release mechanism. Conclusion: From the obtained results, it can be concluded that the administration of Ramipril as MDF may provide a quick onset of action with enhanced oral bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy

Formulation and Evaluation of Chlorpheniramine Maleate Mouth Dissolving Films

The present investigation was aimed at preparation and evaluation of mouth dissolving films (MDFs) of an anti-histamine drug, Chlorpheniramine Maleate (CPM) to enhance convenience and compliance to the elderly and paediatric patients. The MDFs were prepared using wet film applicator and evaluated for physicochemical and physicomechanical properties. MDFs were prepared with 0.6% and 0.8% w/w CPM. The MDFs with 0.8% w/w drug load showed re-crystallisation within 10 days, while the MDFs with 0.6% w/w CPM load were transparent with no re-crystallization. The effect of film formers, film thickness, film modifiers, saliva stimulating and soothing agents on the physicomechanical properties and CPM release from MDFs were evaluated. MDFs casted at 30mil thickness containing poly ethylene glycol (PEG-400) as plasticizer showed superior CPM release rates along with good physicomechanical properties. MDFs with hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) E3 as film former gave superior CPM release rate when compared to E5 and E15 formulations. MDFs with poly vinyl pyrrolidone K30 (PVPK30) gave superior drug release properties when compared to MDFs without PVP K30. The MDFs with citric acid (CA) and xylitol gave superior CPM release than the other MDFs. Release kinetics data reveals diffusion as drug release mechanism

Experimental study on a dual compensation chamber loop heat pipe with dual bayonet tubes

Dual compensation chamber loop heat pipe (DCCLHP) holds great application potential in the future aircraft thermal management. In this work, a DCCLHP with dual bayonet tubes was first proposed and fabricated, aiming to improve its startup performance especially at small heat loads in the terrestrial surroundings. Extensive experimental validation was conducted at three typical attitudes of the evaporator/CCs, i.e., the vertical attitude, 45° tilt angle and the horizontal attitude, mainly focusing on its startup characteristics and heat transport capability. According to the experimental results, the DCCLHP with dual bayonet tubes can successfully realize the startup at small heat loads in whatever attitudes of the evaporator/CCs in the ground condition, and reach a heat transport limit greater than 400 W over a distance of 2.0 m. No obvious operating instability was observed in the DCCLHP operation. In addition, a new flow mechanism was observed in the experiment, i.e., a local natural circulation of the working fluid driven by gravity occurred in the loop composed of the evaporator, the CCs, the bayonet tubes, and the branches of the liquid line. This local circulation of working fluid was identified to appear only when the evaporator/CCs were at a certain tilt angle and the heat loads were relatively small

Experimental study on evaporation of pentane from a heated capillary slot

An experimental investigation of evaporation of a pentane meniscus from a heated capillary slot is presented. A novel aspect of this study is that both the wicking height and steady state evaporation mass flow rate are measured simultaneously. Based on a macroscopic force balance, the apparent contact angle of the evaporating meniscus is experimentally estimated from the wicking height and mass flow rate. This is compared with the results obtained using evaporating thin-film theory. The experimentally estimated contact angle is slightly larger than that obtained from the thin-film model but both show similar trends. Further, it is found that the reduction in the meniscus height is primarily due to an increase in the apparent contact angle. The liquid and vapor pressure drops in the capillary are insignificant relative to the capillary pressure. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Effect of Heat Pipe Figure of Merit on an Evaporating Thin Film

The performance of a two-phase heat transport device such as the loop heat pipe is influenced by the evaporative heat transfer coefficient in the evaporator. From previous experiments with loop heat pipes, it has been observed that fluids with a high heat pipe figure of merit have a high heat transfer coefficient. Considering an evaporating extended thin film, this paper theoretically corroborates this experimental observation by deriving a direct link between the evaporative heat flux at the interface and the fluid figures of merit (namely interline heat flow parameter and heat pipe figure of merit) in the thin film. Numerical experiments with different working fluids clearly show that a fluid with high figure of merit also has a high cumulative heat transfer in the microregion encompassing the evaporating thin film. Thus, a loop heat pipe or heat pipe that uses a working fluid with a high interline heat flow parameter and heat pipe figure of merit will lead to a high evaporative heat transfer coefficient

Numerical investigation of an evaporating meniscus in a heated capillary slot

This paper numerically studies heat transfer and fluid flow from an evaporating meniscus of a wetting fluid within a heated capillary. A simplified steady state mathematical model is developed for predicting the wicking height of the meniscus and the evaporation mass flow rate which includes: (1) one-dimensional flow and energy equations for the liquid and vapor regions, (2) one-dimensional model for the evaporating meniscus region, and (3) two-dimensional energy equation for the capillary wall. Three parameters, namely, apparent contact angle, cumulative heat transfer, and evaporating meniscus height characterize the evaporating meniscus region. In this paper, the apparent contact angle in the evaporating meniscus is uniquely deduced from the meniscus curvature at the centre of the capillary using the thickness profile obtained from standard extended meniscus theory (which includes the evaporating thin film and bulk meniscus regions). Correlations are obtained for the cumulative heat transfer, apparent contact angle and evaporating meniscus height as a function of the difference between the wall and saturation temperatures from the evaporating thin film theory for the meniscus region, which is called as micromodel. The macroscopic model accounts for wall heat conduction and heat transfer with fluid flow in the liquid and vapor regions. The micromodel deals with heat transfer and fluid flow in the evaporating meniscus region. In this paper, a novel scheme to link the ``macroscopic'' momentum and energy equations in the capillary slot and the evaporating meniscus through the correlations developed above is proposed. Using this numerical model, the wicking height and the evaporation mass flow rate are estimated and the results are compared with previously conducted experiments. The trends in the numerical results of the mathematical model correlate reasonably well with the experimental data