Smooth control of an articulated mobile robot with switching constraints

The paper describes a smooth controller of an articulated mobile robot with switching constraints. The use of switching constraints associated with grounded/lifted wheels is an effective method of controlling various motions; e.g. the avoidance of a moving obstacle. A model of an articulated mobile robot that has active and passive wheels and active joints with switching constraints is derived. A controller that accomplishes the trajectory tracking of the robot’s head and subtasks using smooth joint input is proposed on the basis of the model. Simulations and experiments are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller

Electrical and Optical Properties of Te doped GaSb

To examine the property of impurity states in n- and p-type GaSb, the crystals were prepared by doping it with Te. The Hall and resistivity measurements were made and, simultaneously, the free carrier absorption was measured. The undoped crystals were always p-type. The perfect compensation was found to occur at the 0.003 at% amount of Te added to the melt. In the p-type GaSb, it was found that the acceptor level, which results from vacancies in Sb sub-lattice site, is located at 0.021 eV. In the n-type GaSb, the donor concentration changed from 0.5 to 10 x10¹⁸cm⁻³ by increasing the Te amount. It was suggested that the acceptor introduced into the n-type crystal corresponds to the deeper acceptor level, which was observed in the highly compensated p-type sample. The concentration of its acceptor was found to be fairly larger than that of the native acceptor

Development of a Measure to Evaluate the Quality of Dementia Care Provided by Caregivers at Unit Care Geriatric Health Service Facilities

This study was conducted to develop a measure for evaluating the quality of dementia care provided by caregivers in unit care geriatric health service facilities in Japan. A secondary factor model consisting of the following factors was used in the study. Primary factors were: "Creating a safe environment with a home-like atmosphere," "Helping residents maintain their ordinary life," "Helping maintain and improve the lifestyles of individual residents," "Providing support in a way that respects each resident\u27s unique personality," "Encouraging social interaction with others" and "Maintaining family relationships," and one secondary factor, "Quality of dementia care." The construct validity of the above measure was assessed in terms of the relationship between the factor model and an external criterion using structural equation modeling (SEM) based on data from 984 caregivers. Job satisfaction was used as the external criterion. As a result, the fit of the factor model to the data and the relationship between dementia care quality and job satisfaction were statistically supported. The Cronbach alpha coefficient for the measure was within statistically permissible limits. Based on the above results, we concluded that the measure to evaluate dementia care quality that was developed in the study is effective for evaluating the quality of dementia care provided by caregivers in unit care geriatric health service facilities