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Sample records for sample manipulation system

  1. A New Cryogenic Sample Manipulator For SRC's Scienta 2002 System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gundelach, Chad T.; Fisher, Mike V.; Hoechst, Hartmut

    2004-01-01

    We discuss the first bench tests of a sample manipulator which was recently designed at SRC for the Scienta 2002 User system. The manipulator concept utilizes the 10 deg. angular window of the Scienta in the horizontal plane (angle dispersion) by rotating the sample normal around the vertical axis while angular scans along the vertical axis (energy dispersion) are continuous within ±30 deg. relative to the electron lens by rotating the sample around the horizontal axis. With this concept it is possible to precisely map the entire two-dimensional k-space of a crystal by means of stitching together 10 deg. wide stripes centered +15 deg. to -50 deg. relative to the sample normal. Three degrees of translational freedom allow positioning the sample surface at the focal point of the analyzer. Two degrees of rotational freedom are available at this position for manipulating the sample. Samples are mounted to a standard holder and transferred to the manipulator via a load-lock system attached to a prep chamber. The manipulator is configured with a cryogenic cold head, an electrical heater, and a temperature sensor permitting continuous closed-loop operation for 20-380 K

  2. A Gas-Spring-Loaded X-Y-Z Stage System for X-ray Microdiffraction Sample Manipulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shu Deming; Cai Zhonghou; Lai, Barry

    2007-01-01

    We have designed and constructed a gas-spring-loaded x-y-z stage system for x-ray microdiffraction sample manipulation at the Advanced Photon Source XOR 2-ID-D station. The stage system includes three DC-motor-driven linear stages and a gas-spring-based heavy preloading structure, which provides antigravity forces to ensure that the stage system keeps high-positioning performance under variable goniometer orientation. Microdiffraction experiments with this new stage system showed significant sample manipulation performance improvement

  3. Using joined minicomputer-microcomputer systems for intricate sample and data manipulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meng, J.D.

    1980-09-01

    We have produced, over the past three years, three automated x-ray fluorescence based elemental analysis systems, that combine a minicomputer and a microcomputer to perform intricate sample and data manipulations. The mini-micro combination facilitates the reuse of sizable sections of hardware and programs for different x-ray analysis projects. Each of our systems has been a step closer to an optimum general solution. The combination reaps economic benefits throughout development, fabrication and maintenance, an important consideration for designers of custom-built, one-of-a-kind data analysis systems such as these

  4. Manipulation of biological samples using micro and nano techniques.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castillo, Jaime; Dimaki, Maria; Svendsen, Winnie Edith

    2009-01-01

    The constant interest in handling, integrating and understanding biological systems of interest for the biomedical field, the pharmaceutical industry and the biomaterial researchers demand the use of techniques that allow the manipulation of biological samples causing minimal or no damage to their natural structure. Thanks to the advances in micro- and nanofabrication during the last decades several manipulation techniques offer us the possibility to image, characterize and manipulate biological material in a controlled way. Using these techniques the integration of biomaterials with remarkable properties with physical transducers has been possible, giving rise to new and highly sensitive biosensing devices. This article reviews the different techniques available to manipulate and integrate biological materials in a controlled manner either by sliding them along a surface (2-D manipulation), by grapping them and moving them to a new position (3-D manipulation), or by manipulating and relocating them applying external forces. The advantages and drawbacks are mentioned together with examples that reflect the state of the art of manipulation techniques for biological samples (171 references).

  5. Manipulator for rotating and translating a sample holder

    Science.gov (United States)

    van de Water, Jeroen [Breugel, NL; van den Oetelaar, Johannes [Eindhoven, NL; Wagner, Raymond [Gorinchem, NL; Slingerland, Hendrik Nicolaas [Venlo, NL; Bruggers, Jan Willem [Eindhoven, NL; Ottevanger, Adriaan Huibert Dirk [Malden, NL; Schmid, Andreas [Berkeley, CA; Olson, Eric A [Champaign, IL; Petrov, Ivan G [Champaign, IL; Donchev, Todor I [Urbana, IL; Duden, Thomas [Kensington, CA

    2011-02-08

    A manipulator for use in e.g. a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) is described, said manipulator capable of rotating and translating a sample holder (4). The manipulator clasps the round sample holder between two members (3A, 3B), said members mounted on actuators (2A, 2B). Moving the actuators in the same direction results in a translation of the sample holder, while moving the actuators in opposite directions results in a rotation of the sample holder.

  6. Iterative learning control with sampled-data feedback for robot manipulators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Delchev Kamen

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper deals with the improvement of the stability of sampled-data (SD feedback control for nonlinear multiple-input multiple-output time varying systems, such as robotic manipulators, by incorporating an off-line model based nonlinear iterative learning controller. The proposed scheme of nonlinear iterative learning control (NILC with SD feedback is applicable to a large class of robots because the sampled-data feedback is required for model based feedback controllers, especially for robotic manipulators with complicated dynamics (6 or 7 DOF, or more, while the feedforward control from the off-line iterative learning controller should be assumed as a continuous one. The robustness and convergence of the proposed NILC law with SD feedback is proven, and the derived sufficient condition for convergence is the same as the condition for a NILC with a continuous feedback control input. With respect to the presented NILC algorithm applied to a virtual PUMA 560 robot, simulation results are presented in order to verify convergence and applicability of the proposed learning controller with SD feedback controller attached

  7. Development of the heavy manipulator vehicle system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Herbst, C.; Paustian, P.; Kruger, W.

    1993-01-01

    After the severe reactor accident of Tschernobyl in 1986 MaK System started to develop a Heavy Manipulator Vehicle System under contract from German nuclear technology assistance company ''KHG'' (Kerntechnische Hilfsdienst GmbH). The system comprises a remote controlled manipulator vehicle, a mobile mission control stand as well as a transport/service unit. In order to fulfill the high demands of this complex system a couple of new developments had to be started. The paper describes some of these developments and gives an overview about the main features of the Heavy Manipulator Vehicle System (HMV). (author)

  8. Manipulation Robustness of Collaborative Filtering Systems

    OpenAIRE

    Benjamin Van Roy; Xiang Yan

    2009-01-01

    A collaborative filtering system recommends to users products that similar users like. Collaborative filtering systems influence purchase decisions, and hence have become targets of manipulation by unscrupulous vendors. We provide theoretical and empirical results demonstrating that while common nearest neighbor algorithms, which are widely used in commercial systems, can be highly susceptible to manipulation, two classes of collaborative filtering algorithms which we refer to as linear and a...

  9. Advanced manipulator system for large hot cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vertut, J.; Moreau, C.; Brossard, J.P.

    1981-01-01

    Large hot cells can be approached as extrapolated from smaller ones as wide, higher or longer in size with the same concept of using mechanical master slave manipulators and high density windows. This concept leads to a large number of working places and corresponding equipments, with a number of penetrations through the biological protection. When the large cell does not need a permanent operation of number of work places, as in particular to serve PIE machines and maintain the facility, use of servo manipulators with a large supporting unit and extensive use of television appears optimal. The advance on MA 23 and supports will be described including the extra facilities related to manipulators introduction and maintenance. The possibility to combine a powered manipulator and MA 23 (single or pair) on the same boom crane system will be described. An advance control system to bring the minimal dead time to control support movement, associated to the master slave arm operation is under development. The general television system includes over view cameras, associated with the limited number of windows, and manipulators camera. A special new system will be described which brings an automatic control of manipulator cameras and saves operator load and dead time. Full scale tests with MA 23 and support will be discussed. (author)

  10. MEMS 6 degrees of freedom parallel micro manipulator for TEM sample manipulation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brouwer, Dannis Michel; de Jong, B.R.; Soemers, Herman

    2005-01-01

    Up till now MEMS actuators acted either only in-plane or only out-of plane restricting to 3 DOF manipulation. A design for a millimeter-sized manipulator with 6 degrees of freedom to manipulate a micron-sized substrate at nanometer resolution over strokes of 10 microns with a position stability

  11. System Integration for Real-time Mobile Manipulation

    OpenAIRE

    Oftadeh, Reza; Aref, Mohammad M.; Ghabcheloo, Reza; Mattila, Jouni

    2014-01-01

    Mobile manipulators are one of the most complicated types of mechatronics systems. The performance of these robots in performing complex manipulation tasks is highly correlated with the synchronization and integration of their low-level components. This paper discusses in detail the mechatronics design of a four wheel steered mobile manipulator. It presents the manipulator ’s mechanical structure and electrical interfaces, designs low-level software architecture based on embedded PC-based con...

  12. System Integration for Real-Time Mobile Manipulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Reza Oftadeh

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Mobile manipulators are one of the most complicated types of mechatronics systems. The performance of these robots in performing complex manipulation tasks is highly correlated with the synchronization and integration of their low-level components. This paper discusses in detail the mechatronics design of a four wheel steered mobile manipulator. It presents the manipulator's mechanical structure and electrical interfaces, designs low-level software architecture based on embedded PC-based controls, and proposes a systematic solution based on code generation products of MATLAB and Simulink. The remote development environment described here is used to develop real-time controller software and modules for the mobile manipulator under a POSIX-compliant, real-time Linux operating system. Our approach enables developers to reliably design controller modules that meet the hard real-time constraints of the entire low-level system architecture. Moreover, it provides a systematic framework for the development and integration of hardware devices with various communication mediums and protocols, which facilitates the development and integration process of the software controller.

  13. Nonlinear Dynamics of Controlled Synchronizations of Manipulator System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qingkai Han

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The nonlinear dynamics of the manipulator system which is controlled to achieve the synchronization motions is investigated in the paper. Firstly, the control strategies and modeling approaches of the manipulator system are given, in which the synchronization goal is defined by both synchronization errors and its derivatives. The synchronization controllers applied on the manipulator system include neuron synchronization controller, improved OPCL synchronization controller, and MRAC-PD synchronization controller. Then, an improved adaptive synchronized control strategy is proposed in order to estimate online the unknown structure parameters and state variables of the manipulator system and to realize the needed synchronous compensation. Furthermore, a robust adaptive synchronization controller is also researched to guarantee the dynamic stability of the system. Finally, the stability of motion synchronizations of the manipulator system possessing nonlinear component is discussed, together with the effect of control parameters and joint friction and others. Some typical motions such as motion bifurcations and the loss of synchronization of it are obtained and illustrated as periodic, multiperiodic, and/or chaotic motion patterns.

  14. Vehicle-manipulator systems modeling for simulation, analysis, and control

    CERN Document Server

    From, Pal Johan; Pettersen, Kristin Ytterstad

    2014-01-01

    Furthering the aim of reducing human exposure to hazardous environments, this monograph presents a detailed study of the modeling and control of vehicle-manipulator systems. The text shows how complex interactions can be performed at remote locations using systems that combine the manipulability of robotic manipulators with the ability of mobile robots to locomote over large areas.  The first part studies the kinematics and dynamics of rigid bodies and standard robotic manipulators and can be used as an introduction to robotics focussing on robust mathematical modeling. The monograph then moves on to study vehicle-manipulator systems in great detail with emphasis on combining two different configuration spaces in a mathematically sound way. Robustness of these systems is extremely important and Modeling and Control of Vehicle-manipulator Systems effectively represents the dynamic equations using a mathematically robust framework. Several tools from Lie theory and differential geometry are used to obtain glob...

  15. Preliminary safety equipment list for Tank 241-C-106 Manipulator Retrieval System, Project W-340

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guthrie, R.L.

    1994-01-01

    This document identifies the anticipated safety classification of the estimated major subsystems, based on the projected major functions, that will be used as guidance for the development of the conceptual design of the Manipulator Retrieval System for Tank 241-C-106. This document is intended to be updated as the design of the Manipulator Retrieval System evolves through the conceptual and definitive design phases. The Manipulator Retrieval System is to be capable of removing the hardened sludge heel at the bottom of single shell Tank 241-C-106 and to perform an overall clean out of the tank that leaves a maximum of 360 ft 3 (TPA milestone M-45-00). The thickness of the heel prior to initiation of waste retrieval with the Manipulator Retrieval System is estimated to be 1- to 2-ft. The Manipulator Retrieval System is currently in the pre-conceptual phase with no definitive systems or subsystems. The anticipated retrieval functions for the Manipulator Retrieval System is based on Table 6-2 of WHC-SD-W340-ES-001, Rev. 1. Projected equipment to accomplish these functions were based on the following systems and equipment: Rotary Mode Core Sampling Equipment (WHC-SD-WM-SEL-032); Light Duty Utility Arm System Equipment (WHC-SD-WM-SEL-034); Single Shell Tanks Equipment (WHC-SD-WM-SEL-020)

  16. Optical Manipulation System Using a Plurality of Optical Traps

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    2006-01-01

    The present invention relates to an optical manipulation system (10) for generation of a plurality of optical traps for manipulation of micro-objects including nano-objects using electromagnetic radiation forces in a micro-object manipulation volume (14), the system comprising a spatially modulat...

  17. System for Packaging Planetary Samples for Return to Earth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badescu, Mircea; Bar-Cohen, Yoseph; Backes, paul G.; Sherrit, Stewart; Bao, Xiaoqi; Scott, James S.

    2010-01-01

    A system is proposed for packaging material samples on a remote planet (especially Mars) in sealed sample tubes in preparation for later return to Earth. The sample tubes (Figure 1) would comprise (1) tubes initially having open tops and closed bottoms; (2) small, bellows-like collapsible bodies inside the tubes at their bottoms; and (3) plugs to be eventually used to close the tops of the tubes. The top inner surface of each tube would be coated with solder. The side of each plug, which would fit snugly into a tube, would feature a solder-filled ring groove. The system would include equipment for storing, manipulating, filling, and sealing the tubes. The containerization system (see Figure 2) will be organized in stations and will include: the storage station, the loading station, and the heating station. These stations can be structured in circular or linear pattern to minimize the manipulator complexity, allowing for compact design and mass efficiency. The manipulation of the sample tube between stations is done by a simple manipulator arm. The storage station contains the unloaded sample tubes and the plugs before sealing as well as the sealed sample tubes with samples after loading and sealing. The chambers at the storage station also allow for plug insertion into the sample tube. At the loading station the sample is poured or inserted into the sample tube and then the tube is topped off. At the heating station the plug is heated so the solder ring melts and seals the plug to the sample tube. The process is performed as follows: Each tube is filled or slightly overfilled with sample material and the excess sample material is wiped off the top. Then, the plug is inserted into the top section of the tube packing the sample material against the collapsible bellowslike body allowing the accommodation of the sample volume. The plug and the top of the tube are heated momentarily to melt the solder in order to seal the tube.

  18. Development of an advanced robot manipulator system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oomichi, Takeo; Higuchi, Masaru; Shimizu, Yujiro; Ohnishi, Ken

    1991-01-01

    A sophisticated manipulator system for an advanced robot was developed under the 'Advanced Robot Technology Development' Program promoted and supported by the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology of MITI. The authors have participated in the development of a fingered manipulator with force and tactile sensors applicable to a masterslave robot system. Our slave manipulator is equipped with four fingers. Though the finger needs many degrees of freedom so as to be suitable for skilful handing of an object, our fingers are designed to have minimum degree of freedom in order to reduce weight. Each finger tip was designed to be similar to a human finger which has flexibility, softness and contact feeling. The shape of the master finger manipulator was so designed that the movement of the fingers is smoother and that the constraint feeling of the operator is smaller. We were adopted to a pneumatic pressure system for transmitting the tactile feeling of the slave fingers to the master fingers. A multiple sensory bilateral control system which gives an operator a feeling of force and tactile reduces his feeling of constraint in carrying out work with a robot system. (author)

  19. Collision Detection for Underwater ROV Manipulator Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Satja Sivčev

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Work-class ROVs equipped with robotic manipulators are extensively used for subsea intervention operations. Manipulators are teleoperated by human pilots relying on visual feedback from the worksite. Operating in a remote environment, with limited pilot perception and poor visibility, manipulator collisions which may cause significant damage are likely to happen. This paper presents a real-time collision detection algorithm for marine robotic manipulation. The proposed collision detection mechanism is developed, integrated into a commercial ROV manipulator control system, and successfully evaluated in simulations and experimental setup using a real industry standard underwater manipulator. The presented collision sensing solution has a potential to be a useful pilot assisting tool that can reduce the task load, operational time, and costs of subsea inspection, repair, and maintenance operations.

  20. Whole arm manipulation planning based on feedback velocity fields and sampling-based techniques.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Talaei, B; Abdollahi, F; Talebi, H A; Omidi Karkani, E

    2013-09-01

    Changing the configuration of a cooperative whole arm manipulator is not easy while enclosing an object. This difficulty is mainly because of risk of jamming caused by kinematic constraints. To reduce this risk, this paper proposes a feedback manipulation planning algorithm that takes grasp kinematics into account. The idea is based on a vector field that imposes perturbation in object motion inducing directions when the movement is considerably along manipulator redundant directions. Obstacle avoidance problem is then considered by combining the algorithm with sampling-based techniques. As experimental results confirm, the proposed algorithm is effective in avoiding jamming as well as obstacles for a 6-DOF dual arm whole arm manipulator. Copyright © 2013 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Description of European Space Agency (ESA) Remote Manipulator (RM) System Breadboard Currently Under Development for Demonstration of Critical Technology Foreseen to be Used in the Mars Sample Receiving Facility (MSRF)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vrublevskis, J.; Duncan, S.; Berthoud, L.; Bowman, P.; Hills, R.; McCulloch, Y.; Pisla, D.; Vaida, C.; Gherman, B.; Hofbaur, M.; Dieber, B.; Neythalath, N.; Smith, C.; van Winnendael, M.; Duvet, L.

    2018-04-01

    In order to avoid the use of 'double walled' gloves, a haptic feedback Remote Manipulation (RM) system rather than a gloved isolator is needed inside a Double Walled Isolator (DWI) to handle a sample returned from Mars.

  2. Development of a Control System for PRIDE Remote Servo-manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Jong Kwang; Park, Byung Suk; Lee, Hyo Jik; Kim, Kyung Tae; Kim, Sung Hyun; Park, Hee Sung; Kim, Young Hwan; Jung, Jae Hoo; Kim, Ki Ho; Kim, Ho Dong

    2009-12-01

    KAERI is developing the PRIDE(PyRoprocess Integrated inactive DEmonstration) facility to verify the integrated performance of full Pyroprocess flow. A main process cell in the PRIDE facility will be filled with argon gas which prohibits direct access by human operators. Therefore, all the operation and maintenance of the process equipment is performed remotely through a master-slave manipulation. This research focuses on the design, fabrication, and interface of a control system which integrates several hardware systems such as a dual arm master-slave servo-manipulator, a horizontally moving transporter for a master manipulator, a bridge transporter for a slave manipulator, a chain hoist, camera systems and their display system, a manual console, and a pendant, etc. Also, a bilateral force-reflection controller considering an elasticity and vibration modes of wire cable has been developed for master-slave remote manipulation. The results obtained in this study will be applied for the force-reflection control of the bridge-transported master-slave servo-manipulator system for use in the PRIDE facility. Since this research is an essential work in robotics related fields, the results would be widely used for developing power manipulators and process automation equipment

  3. Development of a Control System for PRIDE Remote Servo-manipulator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Jong Kwang; Park, Byung Suk; Lee, Hyo Jik; Kim, Kyung Tae; Kim, Sung Hyun; Park, Hee Sung; Kim, Young Hwan; Jung, Jae Hoo; Kim, Ki Ho; Kim, Ho Dong

    2009-12-15

    KAERI is developing the PRIDE(PyRoprocess Integrated inactive DEmonstration) facility to verify the integrated performance of full Pyroprocess flow. A main process cell in the PRIDE facility will be filled with argon gas which prohibits direct access by human operators. Therefore, all the operation and maintenance of the process equipment is performed remotely through a master-slave manipulation. This research focuses on the design, fabrication, and interface of a control system which integrates several hardware systems such as a dual arm master-slave servo-manipulator, a horizontally moving transporter for a master manipulator, a bridge transporter for a slave manipulator, a chain hoist, camera systems and their display system, a manual console, and a pendant, etc. Also, a bilateral force-reflection controller considering an elasticity and vibration modes of wire cable has been developed for master-slave remote manipulation. The results obtained in this study will be applied for the force-reflection control of the bridge-transported master-slave servo-manipulator system for use in the PRIDE facility. Since this research is an essential work in robotics related fields, the results would be widely used for developing power manipulators and process automation equipment.

  4. W-026, acceptance test report manipulator system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watson, T.L.

    1997-01-01

    The purpose of the WRAP Manipulator System Acceptance Test Plan (ATP) is to verify that the 4 glovebox sets of WRAP manipulator components, including rail/carriage, slave arm, master controller and auxiliary equipment, meets the requirements of the functional segments of 14590 specification. The demonstration of performance elements of the ATP are performed as a part of the Assembly specifications. Manipulator integration is integrated in the performance testing of the gloveboxes. Each requirement of the Assembly specification will be carried out in conjunction with glovebox performance tests

  5. Counterweight system for master-slave manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haaker, L.W.; Jelatis, D.G.

    1981-01-01

    A counterweight system is described for use in a remote control master-slave manipulator. The manipulator consists of a rotatable horizontal support adapted to extend through the wall and two longitudinally extensible arms, a master and a slave, pivotally connected one to each end of the support. Within the support there is a means of translating linear motion to rotary motion for transfer through the barrier wall and retranslating to linear motion. (U.K.)

  6. MACS, the manipulation and collimation system on the NPD at LANSCE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bourke, M.A.M.; Goldstone, J.A.; Lovell, K.J.

    1991-01-01

    The practical problems associated with beam collimation and specimen manipulation at a pulsed neutron source are identical to those on a steady state source. However extra constraints result from the limited space available and from the time of flight analysis of the diffracted neutrons. A manipulation and collimation system (MACS) has been designed for the neutron powder diffractometer (NPD) at the Los Alamos spallation neutron source (LANSCE). It provides specimen motion and aperture positioning with accuracies of better than 0.1mm and is constructed as a rigid unit. For flat sided specimens sampling volumes less than 30 mm 3 have been obtained demonstrating the viability of making spatially resolved strain measurements at a pulsed neutron source. 3 figs

  7. Task-oriented control of Single-Master Multi-Slave Manipulator System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kosuge, Kazuhiro; Ishikawa, Jun; Furuta, Katsuhisa; Hariki, Kazuo; Sakai, Masaru.

    1994-01-01

    A master-slave manipulator system, in general, consists of a master arm manipulated by a human and a slave arm used for real tasks. Some tasks, such as manipulation of a heavy object, etc., require two or more slave arms operated simultaneously. A Single-Master Multi-Slave Manipulator System consists of a master arm with six degrees of freedom and two or more slave arms, each of which has six or more degrees of freedom. In this system, a master arm controls the task-oriented variables using Virtual Internal Model (VIM) based on the concept of 'Task-Oriented Control'. VIM is a reference model driven by sensory information and used to describe the desired relation between the motion of a master arm and task-oriented variables. The motion of slave arms are controlled based on the task oriented variables generated by VIM and tailors the system to meet specific tasks. A single-master multi-slave manipulator system, having two slave arms, is experimentally developed and illustrates the concept. (author)

  8. Manipulator system man-machine interface evaluation program. [technology assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malone, T. B.; Kirkpatrick, M.; Shields, N. L.

    1974-01-01

    Application and requirements for remote manipulator systems for future space missions were investigated. A manipulator evaluation program was established to study the effects of various systems parameters on operator performance of tasks necessary for remotely manned missions. The program and laboratory facilities are described. Evaluation criteria and philosophy are discussed.

  9. Equations of Motion of Free-Floating Spacecraft-Manipulator Systems: An Engineer's Tutorial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Markus Wilde

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The paper provides a step-by-step tutorial on the Generalized Jacobian Matrix (GJM approach for modeling and simulation of spacecraft-manipulator systems. The General Jacobian Matrix approach describes the motion of the end-effector of an underactuated manipulator system solely by the manipulator joint rotations, with the attitude and position of the base-spacecraft resulting from the manipulator motion. The coupling of the manipulator motion with the base-spacecraft are thus expressed in a generalized inertia matrix and a GJM. The focus of the paper lies on the complete analytic derivation of the generalized equations of motion of a free-floating spacecraft-manipulator system. This includes symbolic analytic expressions for all inertia property matrices of the system, including their time derivatives and joint-angle derivatives, as well as an expression for the generalized Jacobian of a generic point on any link of the spacecraft-manipulator system. The kinematics structure of the spacecraft-manipulator system is described both in terms of direction-cosine matrices and unit quaternions. An additional important contribution of this paper is to propose a new and more detailed definition for the modes of maneuvering of a spacecraft-manipulator. In particular, the two commonly used categories free-flying and free-floating are expanded by the introduction of five categories, namely floating, rotation-floating, rotation-flying, translation-flying, and flying. A fully-symbolic and a partially-symbolic option for the implementation of a numerical simulation model based on the proposed analytic approach are introduced and exemplary simulation results for a planar four-link spacecraft-manipulator system and a spatial six-link spacecraft manipulator system are presented.

  10. Design and Modelling of Distributed Industrial Manipulation System with Wireless Operated Moving Manipulation

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Belda, Květoslav; Píša, P.

    2015-01-01

    Roč. 4, č. 3 (2015), s. 69-75 ISSN 1805-3386 Institutional support: RVO:67985556 Keywords : Manipulation system * wireless communication * distributed systems * production lines * physical modelling * DC motors * robotic s Subject RIV: BC - Control Systems Theory http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2015/AS/belda-0448098.pdf

  11. Expert operator preferences in remote manipulator control systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sundstrom, E.; Draper, J.V.; Fausz, A.; Woods, H.

    1995-06-01

    This report describes a survey of expert remote manipulator operators designed to identify features of control systems related to operator efficiency and comfort. It provides information for designing the control center for the Single-Shell Tank Waste Retrieval Manipulator System (TWRMS) Test Bed, described in a separate report. Research questions concerned preferred modes of control, optimum work sessions, sources of operator fatigue, importance of control system design features, and desired changes in control rooms. Participants comprised four expert remote manipulator operators at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who individually have from 9 to 20 years of experience using teleoperators. The operators had all used rate and position control, and all preferred bilateral (force-reflecting) position control. They reported spending an average of 2.75 h in control of a teleoperator system during a typical shift. All were accustomed to working in a crew of two and alternating control and support roles in 2-h rotations in an 8-h shift. Operators reported that fatigue in using remote manipulator systems came mainly from watching TV monitors and making repetitive motions. Three of four experienced symptoms, including headaches and sore eyes, wrists, and back. Of 17 features of control rooms rated on importance, highest ratings went to comfort and support provided by the operator chair, location of controls, location of video monitors, video image clarity, types of controls, and control modes. When asked what they wanted to change, operators said work stations designed for comfort; simpler, lighter hand-controls; separate controls for each camera; better placement of remote camera; color monitors; and control room layouts that support crew interaction. Results of this small survey reinforced the importance of ergonomic factors in remote manipulation

  12. Control system for the Fermilab Master-Slave servo manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ducar, R.J.

    1977-01-01

    A control system for the Fermilab Master-Slave servo manipulator was developed. This new system offers a significant improvement in operational performance over the extant servo design with additional emphasis on simplicity of operation and maintainability. The servo manipulator is force-reflecting in each of the seven independent bilateral motions. Master force multiplication is automatically increased as the slave force is increased to its fifty pound capacity. The design incorporates triac control of the low inertia two-phase servomotors and makes extensive use of digital circuits in the servo loops. The manipulator is utilized in servicing radioactive beam-line targeting equipment

  13. Multi-purpose mid-plane manipulator for plasma surface interaction research in KSTAR

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Son, S.H., E-mail: ssh0609@nfri.re.kr [National Fusion Research Institute, Daejeon 305-333 (Korea, Republic of); Hong, S.-H. [National Fusion Research Institute, Daejeon 305-333 (Korea, Republic of); Department of Electrical Engineering, HanYang University, Seoul 133-791 (Korea, Republic of); Department of Accelerator and Nuclear Fusion Physics and Engineering, Korea University of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-333 (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Junghee [National Fusion Research Institute, Daejeon 305-333 (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Jun Young [National Fusion Research Institute, Daejeon 305-333 (Korea, Republic of); Department of Accelerator and Nuclear Fusion Physics and Engineering, Korea University of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-333 (Korea, Republic of); Kim, H.S. [National Fusion Research Institute, Daejeon 305-333 (Korea, Republic of); Ding, F.; Luo, G.-N. [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 1126 (China); Németh, J.; Zoletnik, S. [Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics (RMI), Wigner RCP, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest (Hungary); Fenyvesi, A. [Institute for Nuclear Physis (MTA Atomki), Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Devrecent (Hungary); Pitts, R. [ITER Organization, Route de Vinon-surVerdon, 13115 Saint Paul-lez-Durance (France)

    2016-11-01

    Highlights: • A multi-purpose mid-plane manipulator system has been developed and installed at the mid-plane of the KSTAR vacuum vessel. • It presents mechanial structure and function for multi-purpose manipulator system. • The changeable head part allows change the samples and probe during inter-shot/day without breaking vacuum system in KSTAR which gives flexibility for various PSI studies in a campaign. - Abstract: A multi-purpose mid-plane manipulator system has been developed and installed at the mid-plane of the KSTAR vacuum vessel. The system serves as user facility which allows to cover various topics of researches in plasma-surface interaction (PSI) including material sample test and PSI diagnostic. The multi-purpose mid-plane manipulator system has a 4 m long cantilever structure with a 3 m long moving shaft. The system is equipped with a differential pumping system for the independent installation and removal of samples and diagnostic without vacuum break of KSTAR. The sample mounting head at the end of the shaft can reach the position of the outer boundary of ∼10 cm away from the last closed flux surface (LCFS). In this paper, selected PSI related experiments by using the manipulator are introduced.

  14. Multi-purpose mid-plane manipulator for plasma surface interaction research in KSTAR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Son, S.H.; Hong, S.-H.; Kim, Junghee; Kim, Jun Young; Kim, H.S.; Ding, F.; Luo, G.-N.; Németh, J.; Zoletnik, S.; Fenyvesi, A.; Pitts, R.

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • A multi-purpose mid-plane manipulator system has been developed and installed at the mid-plane of the KSTAR vacuum vessel. • It presents mechanial structure and function for multi-purpose manipulator system. • The changeable head part allows change the samples and probe during inter-shot/day without breaking vacuum system in KSTAR which gives flexibility for various PSI studies in a campaign. - Abstract: A multi-purpose mid-plane manipulator system has been developed and installed at the mid-plane of the KSTAR vacuum vessel. The system serves as user facility which allows to cover various topics of researches in plasma-surface interaction (PSI) including material sample test and PSI diagnostic. The multi-purpose mid-plane manipulator system has a 4 m long cantilever structure with a 3 m long moving shaft. The system is equipped with a differential pumping system for the independent installation and removal of samples and diagnostic without vacuum break of KSTAR. The sample mounting head at the end of the shaft can reach the position of the outer boundary of ∼10 cm away from the last closed flux surface (LCFS). In this paper, selected PSI related experiments by using the manipulator are introduced.

  15. Development of manipulator system with good portability and usability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1990-01-01

    Recently, accompanying the development of such elementary technologies as control technology, communication technology and ultrasmall, high accuracy sensor technology, the demand for the development of small, light weight manipulator systems which have the ingenuity comparable with human arms and can be moved and installed in any place becomes high. This time, by combining these elementary technologies with robot technology, the electric multi-articulate manipulator which can be applied to the ultrasonic flaw inspection of the welded parts and others in the various machinery and equipment for nuclear power stations was developed, and in the function confirmation test, the good results were obtained. This manipulator was developed jointly with five electric power companies. It was necessary to solve the subjects for the development. The system is composed of the equipment to be carried to a site and the equipment always installed in a control room, that is, ten components in total. The feature of the system is shown. The design of equipment constitution and control of the manipulator proper, the control technique, the function confirmation test and the results are reported. (K.I.)

  16. An integrated open-cavity system for magnetic bead manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abu-Nimeh, F T; Salem, F M

    2013-02-01

    Superparamagnetic beads are increasingly used in biomedical assays to manipulate, transport, and maneuver biomaterials. We present a low-cost integrated system designed in bulk CMOS to manipulate and separate biomedical magnetic beads. The system consists of 8 × 8 coil-arrays suitable for single bead manipulation, or collaborative multi-bead manipulation, using pseudo-parallel executions. We demonstrate the flexibility of the design in terms of different coil sizes, DC current levels, and layout techniques. In one array module example, the size of a single coil is 30 μm × 30 μm and the full array occupies an area of 248 μm × 248 μm in 0.5 μm CMOS technology. The programmable DC current source supports 8 discrete levels up to 1.5 mA. The total power consumption of the entire module is 9 mW when running at full power.

  17. Manipulating Quantum Coherence in Solid State Systems

    CERN Document Server

    Flatté, Michael E; The NATO Advanced Study Institute "Manipulating Quantum Coherence in Solid State Systems"

    2007-01-01

    The NATO Advanced Study Institute "Manipulating Quantum Coherence in Solid State Systems", in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, August 29-September 9, 2005, presented a fundamental introduction to solid-state approaches to achieving quantum computation. This proceedings volume describes the properties of quantum coherence in semiconductor spin-based systems and the behavior of quantum coherence in superconducting systems. Semiconductor spin-based approaches to quantum computation have made tremendous advances in the past several years. Coherent populations of spins can be oriented, manipulated and detected experimentally. Rapid progress has been made towards performing the same tasks on individual spins (nuclear, ionic, or electronic) with all-electrical means. Superconducting approaches to quantum computation have demonstrated single qubits based on charge eigenstates as well as flux eigenstates. These topics have been presented in a pedagogical fashion by leading researchers in the fields of semiconductor-spin-based qu...

  18. Control system design concepts for improving bilateral characteristics of master-slave manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hewitt, J.E.; Siva, K.V.

    1986-01-01

    The paper concerns control system design concepts for improving bilateral characteristics of master-slave manipulators. In particular, the article concentrates on the identification of the remote manipulative process itself from studying direct manipulation with hand tools. Bilateral servo loop systems in operator controlled manipular systems are discussed, as well as Bond Graph modelling techniques. The performance of different kinds of bilateral servos are compared. (U.K.)

  19. Active cooling system for Tokamak in-vessel operation manipulator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yuan, Jianjun, E-mail: yuanjj@sjtu.edu.cn; Chen, Tan; Li, Fashe; Zhang, Weijun; Du, Liang

    2015-10-15

    Highlights: • We summarized most of the challenges of fusion devices to robot systems. • Propose an active cooling system to protect all of the necessary components. • Trial design test and theoretical analysis were conducted. • Overall implementation of the active cooling system was demonstrated. - Abstract: In-vessel operation/inspection is an indispensable task for Tokamak experimental reactor, for a robot/manipulator is more capable in doing this than human being with more precise motion and less risk of damaging the ambient equipment. Considering the demanding conditions of Tokamak, the manipulator should be adaptable to rapid response in the extreme conditions such as high temperature, vacuum and so on. In this paper, we propose an active cooling system embedded into such manipulator. Cameras, motors, gearboxes, sensors, and other mechanical/electrical components could then be designed under ordinary conditions. The cooling system cannot only be a thermal shield since the components are also heat sources in dynamics. We carry out a trial test to verify our proposal, and analyze the active cooling system theoretically, which gives a direction on the optimization by varying design parameters, components and distribution. And based on thermal sensors monitoring and water flow adjusting a closed-loop feedback control of temperature is added to the system. With the preliminary results, we believe that the proposal gives a way to robust and inexpensive design in extreme environment. Further work will concentrate on overall implementation and evaluation of this cooling system with the whole inspection manipulator.

  20. Control of an automated mobile manipulator using artificial immune system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deepak, B. B. V. L.; Parhi, Dayal R.

    2016-03-01

    This paper addresses the coordination and control of a wheeled mobile manipulator (WMM) using artificial immune system. The aim of the developed methodology is to navigate the system autonomously and transport jobs and tools in manufacturing environments. This study integrates the kinematic structures of a four-axis manipulator and a differential wheeled mobile platform. The motion of the developed WMM is controlled by the complete system of parametric equation in terms of joint velocities and makes the robot to follow desired trajectories by the manipulator and platform within its workspace. The developed robot system performs its action intelligently according to the sensed environmental criteria within its search space. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed immune-based motion planner for WMM, simulations as well as experimental results are presented in various unknown environments.

  1. Manipulation of biological samples using micro and nano techniques

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Castillo, Jaime; Dimaki, Maria; Svendsen, Winnie Edith

    2009-01-01

    to their natural structure. Thanks to the advances in micro- and nanofabrication during the last decades several manipulation techniques offer us the possibility to image, characterize and manipulate biological material in a controlled way. Using these techniques the integration of biomaterials with remarkable...

  2. Neutron activation analysis of chemical impurities in manipulated samples of omeprazole

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sepe, Fernanda Peixoto; Leal, Alexandre Soares; Gomes, Tatiana Cristina Bomfim; Menezes, Maria Angela de Barros Correia; Silva, Maria Aparecida

    2011-01-01

    In this work, samples of Omeprazole (C 17 H 19 N 3 O 3 S), a largely used drug in the treatment of dyspepsia and peptic ulcer, were acquired from five different pharmacies of manipulation - or retail pharmacies which prepare personalized drugs under medical recommendation - in Belo Horizonte/Brazil and investigated using the k 0 - Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA). The preliminary results showed the presence of elements not foreseen in the original formula. It confirms the potential risk offered by medicines without suitable inspection. (author)

  3. Design requirements and performance requirements for reactor fuel recycle manipulator systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grundmann, J.G.

    1975-01-01

    The development of a new generation of remote handling devices for remote production work in support of reactor fuel recycle systems is discussed. These devices require greater mobility, speed and visual capability than remote handling systems used in research activities. An upgraded manipulator system proposed for a High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor fuel refabrication facility is described. Design and performance criteria for the manipulators, cranes, and TV cameras in the proposed system are enumerated

  4. Application of identification techniques to remote manipulator system flight data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shepard, G. D.; Lepanto, J. A.; Metzinger, R. W.; Fogel, E.

    1983-01-01

    This paper addresses the application of identification techniques to flight data from the Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (RMS). A description of the remote manipulator, including structural and control system characteristics, sensors, and actuators is given. A brief overview of system identification procedures is presented, and the practical aspects of implementing system identification algorithms are discussed. In particular, the problems posed by desampling rate, numerical error, and system nonlinearities are considered. Simulation predictions of damping, frequency, and system order are compared with values identified from flight data to support an evaluation of RMS structural and control system models. Finally, conclusions are drawn regarding the application of identification techniques to flight data obtained from a flexible space structure.

  5. CHAMP: A bespoke integrated system for mobile manipulation

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Van Eden, B

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available for Mobile Manipulation Beatrice van Eden, Benjamin Rosman, Daniel Withey, Terence Ratshidaho, Mogomotsi Keaikitse, Ditebogo Masha, Ashley Kleinhans, and Ahmed Shaik Mobile Intelligent Autonomous Systems Modelling and Digital Science Council for Scientific... as a rear caster. Each arm has 7 DoF, with an attached Barrett hand. UMAN [19], the UMass Mobile MANipulator also uses a 7 DoF Barrett WAM, with a three-fingered Barrett hand. The arm is mounted on modified Nomadic XR4000 mobile base having four caster...

  6. Neutron activation analysis of chemical impurities in manipulated samples of omeprazole

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sepe, Fernanda Peixoto; Leal, Alexandre Soares; Gomes, Tatiana Cristina Bomfim; Menezes, Maria Angela de Barros Correia; Silva, Maria Aparecida, E-mail: asleal@cdtn.br [Nuclear Technology Development Centre/Brazilian Commission for Nuclear Energy (CDTN/CNEN-MG), Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil)

    2011-07-01

    In this work, samples of Omeprazole (C{sub 17}H{sub 19}N{sub 3}O{sub 3}S), a largely used drug in the treatment of dyspepsia and peptic ulcer, were acquired from five different pharmacies of manipulation - or retail pharmacies which prepare personalized drugs under medical recommendation - in Belo Horizonte/Brazil and investigated using the k{sub 0} - Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA). The preliminary results showed the presence of elements not foreseen in the original formula. It confirms the potential risk offered by medicines without suitable inspection. (author)

  7. Subwavelength image manipulation through oblique and herringbone layered acoustic systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Chunhui; Jia, Han; Ke, Manzhu; Li, Yixiang; Liu, Zhengyou

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, an oblique and a herringbone layered acoustic structure are experimentally and theoretically demonstrated to manipulate acoustic subwavelength images. An imaging resolution of less than one tenth of a wavelength is achieved with both optimized systems, and lateral image shift has been realized by an oblique layered system. The thicknesses of both the oblique and the herringbone layered acoustic systems are largely reduced through utilizing the oblique or herringbone wave propagation path instead of the vertical wave propagation path in the rectangular layered planar acoustic system. With smaller size and subwavelength image manipulation, the acoustic systems are more favourable for practical application. (paper)

  8. Biological effects of direct and indirect manipulation of the fascial system. Narrative review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parravicini, Giovanni; Bergna, Andrea

    2017-04-01

    Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) is effective in improving function, movement and restoring pain conditions. Despite clinical results, the mechanisms of how OMT achieves its' effects remain unclear. The fascial system is described as a tensional network that envelops the human body. Direct or indirect manipulations of the fascial system are a distinctive part of OMT. This review describes the biological effects of direct and indirect manipulation of the fascial system. Literature search was performed in February 2016 in the electronic databases: Cochrane, Medline, Scopus, Ostmed, Pedro and authors' publications relative to Fascia Research Congress Website. Manipulation of the fascial system seems to interfere with some cellular processes providing various pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cells and molecules. Despite growing research in the osteopathic field, biological effects of direct or indirect manipulation of the fascial system are not conclusive. To elevate manual medicine as a primary intervention in clinical settings, it's necessary to clarify how OMT modalities work in order to underpin their clinical efficacies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Advance of the new MA 23 force reflecting manipulator system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vertut, Jean; Coiffet, Philippe; Petit, Michel

    1976-01-01

    This new bilateral servo manipulator system is under development since 1974, in close cooperation between different french organizations with the leadership of the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique. This Group is facing in the same Technology different applications covering nuclear remote manipulation, undersea remote work, second generation industrial robots and manipulators for handicaped persons. Brief description of the different arms ranging from 5kg to 20kg mass capacity are given with corresponding tested performances. They all use original electric DC actuators with extremely low friction and zero backlash, with only cables and tapes. System works in different modes: the direct master slave force reflecting mode, an advanced tape recording programmer, minicomputer control, and the combined modes. Work is concentrated on full dynamic control and force control by minicomputer

  10. Screw-System-Based Mobility Analysis of a Family of Fully Translational Parallel Manipulators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ernesto Rodriguez-Leal

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper investigates the mobility of a family of fully translational parallel manipulators based on screw system analysis by identifying the common constraint and redundant constraints, providing a case study of this approach. The paper presents the branch motion-screws for the 3-RP̲C-Y parallel manipulator, the 3-RCC-Y (or 3-RP̲RC-Y parallel manipulator, and a newly proposed 3-RP̲C-T parallel manipulator. Then the paper determines the sets of platform constraint-screws for each of these three manipulators. The constraints exerted on the platforms of the 3-RP̲C architectures and the 3-RCC-Y manipulators are analyzed using the screw system approach and have been identified as couples. A similarity has been identified with the axes of couples: they are perpendicular to the R joint axes, but in the former the axes are coplanar with the base and in the latter the axes are perpendicular to the limb. The remaining couples act about the axis that is normal to the base. The motion-screw system and constraint-screw system analysis leads to the insightful understanding of the mobility of the platform that is then obtained by determining the reciprocal screws to the platform constraint screw sets, resulting in three independent instantaneous translational degrees-of-freedom. To validate the mobility analysis of the three parallel manipulators, the paper includes motion simulations which use a commercially available kinematics software.

  11. Manipulator systems for nuclear reactor decommissioning which can take end effectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lampersberger, E.; Hell, W.; Vrba, H.

    1995-01-01

    The development of a remote-handling system on the basis of the new master-slave manipulator will decisively influence the possibilities of remote-controlled manipulation in nuclear technology under the premises of -high availability - universal range of application - a standard normal for industry - maintenance friendlyness. (orig.) [de

  12. Dexterous Manipulation: Making Remote Manipulators Easy to Use

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    HARRIGAN, RAYMOND W.; BENNETT, PHIL C.

    2001-01-01

    Perhaps the most basic barrier to the widespread deployment of remote manipulators is that they are very difficult to use. Remote manual operations are fatiguing and tedious, while fully autonomous systems are seldom able to function in changing and unstructured environments. An alternative approach to these extremes is to exploit computer control while leaving the operator in the loop to take advantage of the operator's perceptual and decision-making capabilities. This report describes research that is enabling gradual introduction of computer control and decision making into operator-supervised robotic manipulation systems, and its integration on a commercially available, manually controlled mobile manipulator

  13. A kinematic analysis of the modified flight telerobotic servicer manipulator system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crane, Carl; Carnahan, Tim; Duffy, Joseph

    1992-01-01

    A reverse kinematic analysis is presented of a six-DOF subchain of a modified seven-DOF flight telerobotic servicer manipulator system. The six-DOF subchain is designated as a TR-RT chain, which describes the sequence of manipulator joints beginning with the first grounded hook joint (universal joint) T, where the sequence R-R designates a pair of revolute joints with parallel axes. At the outset, it had been thought that the reverse kinematic analysis would be similar to a TTT manipulator previously analyzed, in which the third and fourth joints intersected at a finite point. However, this is shown not the case, and a 16th-degree tan-half-angle polynomial is derived for the TR-RT manipulator.

  14. Weather and Climate Manipulation as an Optimal Control for Adaptive Dynamical Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sergei A. Soldatenko

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The weather and climate manipulation is examined as an optimal control problem for the earth climate system, which is considered as a complex adaptive dynamical system. Weather and climate manipulations are actually amorphous operations. Since their objectives are usually formulated vaguely, the expected results are fairly unpredictable and uncertain. However, weather and climate modification is a purposeful process and, therefore, we can formulate operations to manipulate weather and climate as the optimization problem within the framework of the optimal control theory. The complexity of the earth’s climate system is discussed and illustrated using the simplified low-order coupled chaotic dynamical system. The necessary conditions of optimality are derived for the large-scale atmospheric dynamics. This confirms that even a relatively simplified control problem for the atmospheric dynamics requires significant efforts to obtain the solution.

  15. Sampled control of vibration in suspended cask by using vibration manipulation functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kotake, Shigeo

    2014-01-01

    Safe and reliable operation is most important for decommissioning the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant. Especially it requires for transferring spent nuclear fuels from fuel pool to storage cask. Since the heavy cask will be suspended during the transferring operation, there is a risk of dropping it in case of the strike of large earthquakes. In this study, we introduce analytical functions to suppress residual vibration of a suspended cask by using vibration manipulation function. Hence the oscillation of the cask can be feedforward or sampled-data controlled by moving a trolley with analog actuator, the possible risk could be reduced. (author)

  16. Development of a control system for a heavy object handling manipulator. Application to a remote maintenance system for ITER blanket module

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshimi, Takashi; Tsuji, Kouichi; Miyagawa, Shinichi; Kubo, Tomomi; Kakudate, Satoshi; Tada, Eisuke

    2001-01-01

    This paper describes a control system for the heavy object handling manipulator. It has been developed for the blanket module remote maintenance system of ITER (International Thermonuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor). A rail-mounted vehicle-type manipulator is proposed for the precise handling of a blanket module which is about 4 tons in weight. Basically, this manipulator is controlled by teaching-playback technique. When grasping or releasing the module, the manipulator sags and the position of the end-effector changes about 50 [mm]. Applying only the usual teaching-playback control makes the smooth operation of setting/removing modules to/from the vacuum vessel wall difficult due to this position change. To solve this proper problem of heavy object handling manipulator, we have developed a system which uses motion patterns generated from two kinds of teaching points. These motion patterns for setting/removing heavy objects are generated by combining teaching points for positioning the manipulator with and without grasping the object. When these motion patterns are applied, the manipulator can transfer the object's weight smoothly at the setting/removing point. This developed system has been applied to the real-scale mock-up of the vehicle manipulator and through the actual module setting/removing experiments, we have verified its effectiveness and realized smooth maintenance operation. (author)

  17. MANOLA - demonstration of the manipulator and transport vehicle system; MANOLA. Vorstellung des Manipulator- und Transportwagensystems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kern, P.; Gentes, S. [Karlsruher Institut fuer Technologie (KIT), Karlsruhe (Germany). Inst. fuer Technologie und Management im Baubetrieb, Technologie und Management des Rueckbaus kerntechnischer Anlagen

    2011-07-01

    The deconstruction of nuclear facilities has triggered the construction of remote handling systems. For the decontamination of surfaces the use of automatic robotics has significantly decreased the dose rate of the personnel and increased the efficiency. The authors describe the carrier system for the project MANOLA (manipulator controlled laser ablation technology) that can not only move in vertical and horizontal direction but also circumnavigate obstacles. This has reduced the cycle time and increased the efficiency. The weight of the transport vehicle is also reduced compared to the previous system AMANDA.

  18. In-vessel maintenance remote manipulator system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jimenez, E.

    1978-01-01

    The radiation environment within the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) vacuum vessel necessitates the development of a Remote Manipulator System (RMS) to perform required periodic inspection and maintenance tasks. The RMS must be able to perform dexterous operations and handle loads that exceed human capabilities. The limited size of the access ports on the TFTR vacuum vessel and the performance profile, defined by the various handling requirements, present unique design constraints. The design approach and formulation of a RMS configuration which satisfies TFTR requirements is presented herein

  19. Introduction of a system of monitoring and automation of manipulator for hotcell in net

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fernandes, Guilherme Bezerra; Campos, Tarcisio Passos Ribeiro de [Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil). Programa de Pos-graduacao em Ciencias e Tecnicas Nucleares]. E-mails: guilhermemaster@gmail.com; campos@nuclear.ufmg.br

    2007-07-01

    Herein, the paper addresses the improvements on the automation procedures and security aspects of a hot cell developed by the NRI/PCTN for manipulating sealed radioactive sources. For such, it was necessary the construction of a vision system, a operational system for the manipulator and auxiliary systems for grasping. For the vision system, a set of five CCD cameras coupled with electromechanical device provide orientation into a solid angle made of 180 deg (x-axis) and 180 deg (z-axis), assembled with gears motors. Two cameras are placed into the hot cell and three outside. The system of operation of the manipulator have been reconstructed including: software, firmware and the electronics in order to improve the control of the eight freedom degrees through microcontroller circuits. The auxiliary systems involve two devices that allow the opening and closing the recipes in which the radioactive source is enclosed. Three distinct keyboards, one for each system, had also been developed for independent control without computer. All the systems when integrated allow the remote operation, that is, operated by remote control at large distance, promoting the security of the operators in the manipulation of the radioactive sources. (author)

  20. Mechatronic Development and Vision Feedback Control of a Nanorobotics Manipulation System inside SEM for Nanodevice Assembly

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhan Yang

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Carbon nanotubes (CNT have been developed in recent decades for nanodevices such as nanoradios, nanogenerators, carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNTFETs and so on, indicating that the application of CNTs for nanoscale electronics may play a key role in the development of nanotechnology. Nanorobotics manipulation systems are a promising method for nanodevice construction and assembly. For the purpose of constructing three-dimensional CNTFETs, a nanorobotics manipulation system with 16 DOFs was developed for nanomanipulation of nanometer-scale objects inside the specimen chamber of a scanning electron microscope (SEM. Nanorobotics manipulators are assembled into four units with four DOFs (X-Y-Z-θ individually. The rotational one is actuated by a picomotor. That means a manipulator has four DOFs including three linear motions in the X, Y, Z directions and a 360-degree rotational one (X-Y-Z-θ stage, θ is along the direction rotating with X or Y axis. Manipulators are actuated by picomotors with better than 30 nm linear resolution and <1 micro-rad rotary resolution. Four vertically installed AFM cantilevers (the axis of the cantilever tip is vertical to the axis of electronic beam of SEM served as the end-effectors to facilitate the real-time observation of the operations. A series of kinematic derivations of these four manipulators based on the Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H notation were established. The common working space of the end-effectors is 2.78 mm by 4.39 mm by 6 mm. The manipulation strategy and vision feedback control for multi-manipulators operating inside the SEM chamber were been discussed. Finally, application of the designed nanorobotics manipulation system by successfully testing of the pickup-and-place manipulation of an individual CNT onto four probes was described. The experimental results have shown that carbon nanotubes can be successfully picked up with this nanorobotics manipulation system.

  1. Mechatronic Development and Vision Feedback Control of a Nanorobotics Manipulation System inside SEM for Nanodevice Assembly

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Zhan; Wang, Yaqiong; Yang, Bin; Li, Guanghui; Chen, Tao; Nakajima, Masahiro; Sun, Lining; Fukuda, Toshio

    2016-01-01

    Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have been developed in recent decades for nanodevices such as nanoradios, nanogenerators, carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNTFETs) and so on, indicating that the application of CNTs for nanoscale electronics may play a key role in the development of nanotechnology. Nanorobotics manipulation systems are a promising method for nanodevice construction and assembly. For the purpose of constructing three-dimensional CNTFETs, a nanorobotics manipulation system with 16 DOFs was developed for nanomanipulation of nanometer-scale objects inside the specimen chamber of a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Nanorobotics manipulators are assembled into four units with four DOFs (X-Y-Z-θ) individually. The rotational one is actuated by a picomotor. That means a manipulator has four DOFs including three linear motions in the X, Y, Z directions and a 360-degree rotational one (X-Y-Z-θ stage, θ is along the direction rotating with X or Y axis). Manipulators are actuated by picomotors with better than 30 nm linear resolution and SEM) served as the end-effectors to facilitate the real-time observation of the operations. A series of kinematic derivations of these four manipulators based on the Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) notation were established. The common working space of the end-effectors is 2.78 mm by 4.39 mm by 6 mm. The manipulation strategy and vision feedback control for multi-manipulators operating inside the SEM chamber were been discussed. Finally, application of the designed nanorobotics manipulation system by successfully testing of the pickup-and-place manipulation of an individual CNT onto four probes was described. The experimental results have shown that carbon nanotubes can be successfully picked up with this nanorobotics manipulation system. PMID:27649180

  2. Mechatronic Development and Vision Feedback Control of a Nanorobotics Manipulation System inside SEM for Nanodevice Assembly.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Zhan; Wang, Yaqiong; Yang, Bin; Li, Guanghui; Chen, Tao; Nakajima, Masahiro; Sun, Lining; Fukuda, Toshio

    2016-09-14

    Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have been developed in recent decades for nanodevices such as nanoradios, nanogenerators, carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNTFETs) and so on, indicating that the application of CNTs for nanoscale electronics may play a key role in the development of nanotechnology. Nanorobotics manipulation systems are a promising method for nanodevice construction and assembly. For the purpose of constructing three-dimensional CNTFETs, a nanorobotics manipulation system with 16 DOFs was developed for nanomanipulation of nanometer-scale objects inside the specimen chamber of a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Nanorobotics manipulators are assembled into four units with four DOFs (X-Y-Z-θ) individually. The rotational one is actuated by a picomotor. That means a manipulator has four DOFs including three linear motions in the X, Y, Z directions and a 360-degree rotational one (X-Y-Z-θ stage, θ is along the direction rotating with X or Y axis). Manipulators are actuated by picomotors with better than 30 nm linear resolution and <1 micro-rad rotary resolution. Four vertically installed AFM cantilevers (the axis of the cantilever tip is vertical to the axis of electronic beam of SEM) served as the end-effectors to facilitate the real-time observation of the operations. A series of kinematic derivations of these four manipulators based on the Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) notation were established. The common working space of the end-effectors is 2.78 mm by 4.39 mm by 6 mm. The manipulation strategy and vision feedback control for multi-manipulators operating inside the SEM chamber were been discussed. Finally, application of the designed nanorobotics manipulation system by successfully testing of the pickup-and-place manipulation of an individual CNT onto four probes was described. The experimental results have shown that carbon nanotubes can be successfully picked up with this nanorobotics manipulation system.

  3. Interactive Web-based e-learning for Studying Flexible Manipulator Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abul K. M. Azad

    2008-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract— This paper presents a web-based e-leaning facility for simulation, modeling, and control of flexible manipulator systems. The simulation and modeling part includes finite difference and finite element simulations along with neural network and genetic algorithm based modeling strategies for flexible manipulator systems. The controller part constitutes a number of open-loop and closed-loop designs. Closed loop control designs include the classical, adaptive, and neuro-model based strategies. Matlab software package and its associated toolboxes are used to implement these. The Matlab web server is used as the gateway between the facility and web-access. ASP.NET technology and SQL database are utilized to develop web applications for access control, user account and password maintenance, administrative management, and facility utilization monitoring. The reported facility provides a flexible but effective approach of web-based interactive e-learning facility of an engineering system. This can be extended to incorporate additional engineering systems within the e-learning framework.

  4. Design and real-time control of a robotic system for fracture manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dagnino, G; Georgilas, I; Tarassoli, P; Atkins, R; Dogramadzi, S

    2015-08-01

    This paper presents the design, development and control of a new robotic system for fracture manipulation. The objective is to improve the precision, ergonomics and safety of the traditional surgical procedure to treat joint fractures. The achievements toward this direction are here reported and include the design, the real-time control architecture and the evaluation of a new robotic manipulator system. The robotic manipulator is a 6-DOF parallel robot with the struts developed as linear actuators. The control architecture is also described here. The high-level controller implements a host-target structure composed by a host computer (PC), a real-time controller, and an FPGA. A graphical user interface was designed allowing the surgeon to comfortably automate and monitor the robotic system. The real-time controller guarantees the determinism of the control algorithms adding an extra level of safety for the robotic automation. The system's positioning accuracy and repeatability have been demonstrated showing a maximum positioning RMSE of 1.18 ± 1.14mm (translations) and 1.85 ± 1.54° (rotations).

  5. Concept Design of the Payload Handling Manipulator System. [space shuttle orbiters

    Science.gov (United States)

    1975-01-01

    The design, requirements, and interface definition of a remote manipulator system developed to handle orbiter payloads are presented. End effector design, control system concepts, and man-machine engineering are considered along with crew station requirements and closed circuit television system performance requirements.

  6. SVM-Based Control System for a Robot Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Foudil Abdessemed

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Real systems are usually non-linear, ill-defined, have variable parameters and are subject to external disturbances. Modelling these systems is often an approximation of the physical phenomena involved. However, it is from this approximate system of representation that we propose - in this paper - to build a robust control, in the sense that it must ensure low sensitivity towards parameters, uncertainties, variations and external disturbances. The computed torque method is a well-established robot control technique which takes account of the dynamic coupling between the robot links. However, its main disadvantage lies on the assumption of an exactly known dynamic model which is not realizable in practice. To overcome this issue, we propose the estimation of the dynamics model of the nonlinear system with a machine learning regression method. The output of this regressor is used in conjunction with a PD controller to achieve the tracking trajectory task of a robot manipulator. In cases where some of the parameters of the plant undergo a change in their values, poor performance may result. To cope with this drawback, a fuzzy precompensator is inserted to reinforce the SVM computed torque-based controller and avoid any deterioration. The theory is developed and the simulation results are carried out on a two-degree of freedom robot manipulator to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach.

  7. Simulation analysis of control strategies for a tank waste retrieval manipulator system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schryver, J.C.; Draper, J.V.

    1995-01-01

    A network simulation model was developed for the Tank Waste Retrieval Manipulator System, incorporating two distinct levels of control: teleoperation and supervisory control. The model included six error modes, an attentional resource model, and a battery of timing variables. A survey questionnaire administered to subject matter experts provided data for estimating timing distributions for level of control-critical tasks. Simulation studies were performed to evaluate system behavior as a function of control level and error modes. The results provide important insights for development of waste retrieval manipulators

  8. Physics Based Vision Systems for Robotic Manipulation

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — With the increase of robotic manipulation tasks (TA4.3), specifically dexterous manipulation tasks (TA4.3.2), more advanced computer vision algorithms will be...

  9. Manipulator comparative testing program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Draper, J.V.; Handel, S.J.; Sundstrom, E.; Herndon, J.N.; Fujita, Y.; Maeda, M.

    1986-01-01

    The Manipulator Comparative Testing Program examined differences among manipulator systems from the United States and Japan. The manipulator systems included the Meidensha BILARM 83A, the Model M-2 of Central Research Laboratories Division of Sargent Industries (CRL), and the GCA Corporation PaR Systems Model 6000. The site of testing was the Remote Operations Maintenance Demonstration (ROMD) facility, operated by the Fuel Recycle Division in the Consolidated Fuel Reprocessing Program at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). In all stages of testing, operators using the CRL Model M-2 manipulator had consistently lower times to completion and error rates than they did using other machines. Performance was second best with the Meidensha BILARM 83A in master-slave mode. Performance with the BILARM in switchbox mode and the PaR 6000 manipulator was approximately equivalent in terms of criteria recorded in testing. These data show no impact of force reflection on task performance

  10. Assembly, destruction and manipulation of atomic, molecular and complex systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Le Padellec, Arnaud Pierre Frederic

    2003-04-01

    In this report for Accreditation to Supervise Researches (HDR), the author first indicates his professional curriculum (diplomas, teaching activities, responsibilities in the field of education and research, publications), and then proposes a presentation of his scientific works and researches. He notably proposes an overview of the different experimental techniques he implemented: CRYRING storage ring, confluent beams, flow post-discharge with mass spectrometry and Langmuir probe, crossed beams, and so on. He reports works dealing with the manipulation and destruction of atomic, molecular and complex systems: detachment of atomic anions by electronic impact, detachment and dissociation of small carbon aggregates by electronic impact, dissociative recombination, dissociative ionisation and excitation, creation of pairs of ions, manipulation of sodium fluoride aggregates. He finally presents research projects regarding the assembly of molecular and complex systems

  11. Powered manipulator control arm

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Le Mouee, Theodore; Vertut, Jean; Marchal, Paul; Germon, J.C.; Petit, Michel

    1975-01-01

    A remote operated control arm for powered manipulators is described. It includes an assembly allowing several movements with position sensors for each movement. The number of possible arm movements equals the number of possible manipulator movements. The control systems may be interrupted as required. One part of the arm is fitted with a system to lock it with respect to another part of the arm without affecting the other movements, so long as the positions of the manipulator and the arm have not been brought into complete coincidence. With this system the locking can be ended when complete concordance is achieved [fr

  12. Hydraulic manipulator research at ORNL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kress, R.L.; Jansen, J.F.; Love, L.J.

    1997-01-01

    Recently, task requirements have dictated that manipulator payload capacity increase to accommodate greater payloads, greater manipulator length, and larger environmental interaction forces. General tasks such as waste storage tank cleanup and facility dismantlement and decommissioning require manipulator life capacities in the range of hundreds of pounds rather than tens of pounds. To meet the increased payload capacities demanded by present-day tasks, manipulator designers have turned once again to hydraulics as a means of actuation. In order to successfully design, build, and deploy a new hydraulic manipulator (or subsystem), sophisticated modeling, analysis, and control experiments are usually needed. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has a history of projects that incorporate hydraulics technology, including mobile robots, teleoperated manipulators, and full-scale construction equipment. In addition, to support the development and deployment of new hydraulic manipulators, ORNL has outfitted a significant experimental laboratory and has developed the software capability for research into hydraulic manipulators, hydraulic actuators, hydraulic systems, modeling of hydraulic systems, and hydraulic controls. The purpose of this article is to describe the past hydraulic manipulator developments and current hydraulic manipulator research capabilities at ORNL. Included are example experimental results from ORNL's flexible/prismatic test stand

  13. Hydraulic manipulator research at ORNL

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kress, R.L.; Jansen, J.F. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States); Love, L.J. [Oak Ridge Inst. for Science and Education, TN (United States)

    1997-03-01

    Recently, task requirements have dictated that manipulator payload capacity increase to accommodate greater payloads, greater manipulator length, and larger environmental interaction forces. General tasks such as waste storage tank cleanup and facility dismantlement and decommissioning require manipulator life capacities in the range of hundreds of pounds rather than tens of pounds. To meet the increased payload capacities demanded by present-day tasks, manipulator designers have turned once again to hydraulics as a means of actuation. In order to successfully design, build, and deploy a new hydraulic manipulator (or subsystem), sophisticated modeling, analysis, and control experiments are usually needed. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has a history of projects that incorporate hydraulics technology, including mobile robots, teleoperated manipulators, and full-scale construction equipment. In addition, to support the development and deployment of new hydraulic manipulators, ORNL has outfitted a significant experimental laboratory and has developed the software capability for research into hydraulic manipulators, hydraulic actuators, hydraulic systems, modeling of hydraulic systems, and hydraulic controls. The purpose of this article is to describe the past hydraulic manipulator developments and current hydraulic manipulator research capabilities at ORNL. Included are example experimental results from ORNL`s flexible/prismatic test stand.

  14. Compliant Aerial Manipulators

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bartelds, T.; Capra, A.; Hamaza, S.

    2016-01-01

    joints. The approach aims at limiting the influence of impacts on the controlled attitude dynamics in order to allow the aerial manipulator to remain stable during and after impact. The developed concept is intended to convert kinetic energy into potential energy, which is permanently stored into elastic...... elements by means of directional locking mechanisms. The proposed approach has been tested on a 2 d.o.f. manipulator mounted on a quadrotor UAV. The manipulation system has one active rotational d.o.f. compensating for pitch movements of the UAV and one passive linear joint which is in charge of absorbing...... the impact energy. The device has been used to validate the method through experiments, in comparison with a rigid manipulator. The results show that the proposed approach and the developed mechanical system achieve stable impact absorption without bouncing away from the interacting environment. Our work has...

  15. Preliminary evaluation of the Accident Response Mobile Manipulation System for accident site salvage operations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Trujillo, J.M.; Morse, W.D.; Jones, D.P.

    1994-01-01

    This paper describes and evaluates operational experiences with the Accident Response Mobile Manipulation System (ARMMS) during simulated accident site salvage operations which might involve nuclear weapons. The ARMMS is based upon a teleoperated mobility platform with two Schilling Titan 7F Manipulators

  16. A portable modular architecture for robotic manipulator control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Butler, P.L.

    1993-01-01

    A control architecture has been developed to provide a framework for robotic manipulator control. This architecture, called the Modular Integrated Control Architecture (MICA), has been successfully applied to two different manipulator systems. MICA is a portable system in two respects. First, it can be used for the control of different types of manipulator systems. Second, the MICA code is portable across several operating environments. This portability allows the sharing of common control code among various systems. A major portion of MICA is the precise control of multiple processors that have to be coordinated to control a manipulator system. By having NUCA control the processor synchronization, the system developer can concentrate on the specific aspects of a new manipulator system. MICA also provides standard functions for trajectory generation that can be used for most manipulators. Custom trajectory generators can be easily added to suit the needs of a particular robotic control system. Another facility that MICA provides is a simulation of the manipulator, allowing the control code to be simulated before trying it on a manipulator system. Using this technique, one can develop code for a manipulator system without risking damage to the arm during development

  17. Hierarchical control system of advanced robot manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oomichi, Takeo; Okino, Akihisa; Nishihara, Masatoshi; Sakamoto, Taizou; Matsuda, Koichi; Ohnishi, Ken

    1990-01-01

    We introduce a double arm with 4-finger's manipulator system which process the large volume of information at high speed. This is under research/development many type of works in the harsh condition. Namely, hierarchization of instruction unit in which motion control system as real time processing unit, and task planning unit as non-real time processing unit, interface with operation through the task planning unit has been made. Also, high speed processing of large volume information has been realized by decentralizing the motion control unit by function, hierarchizing the high speed processing unit, and developing high speed transmission, IC which does not depend on computer OS to avoid the delay in transmission. (author)

  18. Simulation of robot manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kress, R.L.; Babcock, S.M.; Bills, K.C.; Kwon, D.S.; Schoenwald, D.A.

    1995-01-01

    This paper describes Oak Ridge National Laboratory's development of an environment for the simulation of robotic manipulators. Simulation includes the modeling of kinematics, dynamics, sensors, actuators, control systems, operators, and environments. Models will be used for manipulator design, proposal evaluation, control system design and analysis, graphical preview of proposed motions, safety system development, and training. Of particular interest is the development of models for robotic manipulators having at least one flexible link. As a first application, models have been developed for the Pacific Northwest Laboratories' Flexible Beam Testbed which is a one-Degree-Of-Freedom, flexible arm with a hydraulic base actuator. Initial results show good agreement between model and experiment

  19. Gravity-Based Precise Cell Manipulation System Enhanced by In-Phase Mechanism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Koji Mizoue

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a gravity-based system capable of generating high-resolution pressure for precise cell manipulation or evaluation in a microfluidic channel. While the pressure resolution of conventional pumps for microfluidic applications is usually about hundreds of pascals as the resolution of their feedback sensors, precise cell manipulation at the pascal level cannot be done. The proposed system successfully achieves a resolution of 100 millipascals using water head pressure with an in-phase noise cancelation mechanism. The in-phase mechanism aims to suppress the noises from ambient vibrations to the system. The proposed pressure system is tested with a microfluidic platform for pressure validation. The experimental results show that the in-phase mechanism effectively reduces the pressure turbulence, and the pressure-driven cell movement matches the theoretical simulations. Preliminary experiments on deformability evaluation with red blood cells under incremental pressures of one pascal are successfully performed. Different deformation patterns are observed from cell to cell under precise pressure control.

  20. Mechanical Design of a Manipulation System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Keemink, A.Q.L.; Fumagalli, M.; Stramigioli, S.; Carloni, R.

    In this paper, we present the mechanical design and modeling of a manipulation system for unmanned aerial vehicles, which have to physically interact with environments and perform ultrasonic non-destructive testing experiments and other versatile tasks at unreachable locations for humans. The

  1. Cavity Mediated Manipulation of Distant Spin Currents Using a Cavity-Magnon-Polariton.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bai, Lihui; Harder, Michael; Hyde, Paul; Zhang, Zhaohui; Hu, Can-Ming; Chen, Y P; Xiao, John Q

    2017-05-26

    Using electrical detection of a strongly coupled spin-photon system comprised of a microwave cavity mode and two magnetic samples, we demonstrate the long distance manipulation of spin currents. This distant control is not limited by the spin diffusion length, instead depending on the interplay between the local and global properties of the coupled system, enabling systematic spin current control over large distance scales (several centimeters in this work). This flexibility opens the door to improved spin current generation and manipulation for cavity spintronic devices.

  2. Composite Sliding Mode Control for a Free-Floating Space Rigid-Flexible Coupling Manipulator System

    OpenAIRE

    Congqing, Wang; Pengfei, Wu; Xin, Zhou; Xiwu, Pei

    2013-01-01

    The flexible space manipulator is a highly nonlinear and coupled dynamic system. This paper proposes a novel composite sliding mode control to deal with the vibration suppression and trajectory tracking of a free-floating space rigid-flexible coupling manipulator with a rigid payload. First, the dynamic equations of this system are established by using Lagrange and assumed mode methods and in the meantime this dynamic modelling allows consideration of the modelling errors, the external distur...

  3. Modeling, Simulation and Position Control of 3DOF Articulated Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hossein Sadegh Lafmejani

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, the modeling, simulation and control of 3 degrees of freedom articulated robotic manipulator have been studied. First, we extracted kinematics and dynamics equations of the mentioned manipulator by using the Lagrange method. In order to validate the analytical model of the manipulator we compared the model simulated in the simulation environment of Matlab with the model was simulated with the SimMechanics toolbox. A sample path has been designed for analyzing the tracking subject. The system has been linearized with feedback linearization and then a PID controller was applied to track a reference trajectory. Finally, the control results have been compared with a nonlinear PID controller.

  4. Phononic fluidics: acoustically activated droplet manipulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reboud, Julien; Wilson, Rab; Bourquin, Yannyk; Zhang, Yi; Neale, Steven L.; Cooper, Jonathan M.

    2011-02-01

    Microfluidic systems have faced challenges in handling real samples and the chip interconnection to other instruments. Here we present a simple interface, where surface acoustic waves (SAWs) from a piezoelectric device are coupled into a disposable acoustically responsive microfluidic chip. By manipulating droplets, SAW technologies have already shown their potential in microfluidics, but it has been limited by the need to rely upon mixed signal generation at multiple interdigitated electrode transducers (IDTs) and the problematic resulting reflections, to allow complex fluid operations. Here, a silicon chip was patterned with phononic structures, engineering the acoustic field by using a full band-gap. It was simply coupled to a piezoelectric LiNbO3 wafer, propagating the SAW, via a thin film of water. Contrary to the use of unstructured superstrates, phononic metamaterials allowed precise spatial control of the acoustic energy and hence its interaction with the liquids placed on the surface of the chip, as demonstrated by simulations. We further show that the acoustic frequency influences the interaction between the SAW and the phononic lattice, providing a route to programme complex fluidic manipulation onto the disposable chip. The centrifugation of cells from a blood sample is presented as a more practical demonstration of the potential of phononic crystals to realize diagnostic systems.

  5. Remote inspection manipulators for AGR II: Babcock Power's interstitial manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Whyley, S.R.

    1985-01-01

    The interstitial manipulator has been designed and built by Babcock Power for the remote visual inspection of AGR II reactors at Heysham and Torness. Its five drives are operated from a console local to the manipulator on the pile cap, or from a similar console located remotely. The need to operate from an interstitial ISI standpipe has restricted the size of the components entering the reactor, and this has consequently provided the major design constraint. A detailed structural assessment of the manipulator was carried out to demonstrate the ability to operate with payloads in excess of the largest camera weight of 13.6 kg. The manipulator finite element model was also used to determine static deflections, and, as a consequence, has provided data from which the control system is able to predict accurately the camera's position. Other computer aided design techniques have enabled the step by step sequences of manipulator deployment, in the restricted space available, to be successfully demonstrated. (author)

  6. Control system developments for a range of kinematically redundant hydraulic manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, A.L.; Rice, P.S.; Thiruarooran, C.

    2000-01-01

    This paper describes a range of control system improvements developed and implemented for in-reactor use during the last three years. Novel control techniques have been developed to provide accurate closed-loop velocity control of pumped hydraulic manipulator joints under a wide range of operating conditions. As a result the supervisory computer system can provide accurate trajectory following, even when more than ten joints are required to move simultaneously. Accurately coordinated motion has given rise to some spectacular gains in in-reactor performance in terms of deployment time, safety and accessibility. The same low-level control improvements have made it feasible to integrate and use the 'geometric controller' to provide accurate resolved motion control of a kinematically redundant manipulator. Examples of recent in-reactor use of all these techniques are given. (author)

  7. Stainless steel decontamination manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sullivan, R.J.

    1986-01-01

    Three, large-volume coverage manipulator systems were designed and built for the Defense Water Processing Facility at the Savannah River Laboratory. These stainless steel systems will be used for high-pressure spray decontamination of waste containers and large process equipment modules. Each system has a manipulator arm, folding boom, and vertical drive and guide structure. Handling capacity is 45 kg, horizontal reach is 4.6 m with a 180-deg swing motion, and the vertical travel is 6 m. The system is remotely removable and replaceable in modules using an overhead crane and an impact wrench. The manipulator arm has seven motions: Shoulder rotation and pivot, elbow pivot, wrist pivot and rotation, and grip open-close. All motions are variable speed and are slip-clutch protected to prevent overloading from external forces (collisions)

  8. The direct manipulation shell

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Allen, M.E.; Christiansen, M.

    1992-01-01

    Accelerator controls systems provide parameter display pages which allow the operator to monitor and manipulate selected control points in the system. Display pages are generally implemented as either hand-crafted, purpose-built programs; or by using a specialized display page layout tool. These two methods of display page development exhibit the classic trade-off between functionality vs. ease of implementation. In the Direct Manipulation Shell we approach the process of developing a display page in a manifestly object-oriented manner. This is done by providing a general framework for interactively instantiating and manipulating display objects. (author)

  9. Final Report - Spent Nuclear Fuel Retrieval System Manipulator System Cold Validation Testing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    D.R. Jackson; G.R. Kiebel

    1999-01-01

    Manipulator system cold validation testing (CVT) was performed in support of the Fuel Retrieval System (FRS) Sub-Project, a subtask of the Spent Nuclear Fuel Project at the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington. The FRS will be used to retrieve and repackage K-Basin Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) currently stored in old K-Plant storage basins. The FRS is required to retrieve full fuel canisters from the basin; clean the fuel elements inside the canister to remove excessive uranium corrosion products (or sludge); remove the contents from the canisters; and sort the resulting debris, scrap, and fuel for repackaging. The fuel elements and scrap will be collected in fuel storage and scrap baskets in preparation for loading into a multi canister overpack (MCO), while the debris is loaded into a debris bin and disposed of as solid waste. The FRS is composed of three major subsystems. The Manipulator Subsystem provides remote handling of fuel, scrap, and debris; the In-Pool Equipment subsystem performs cleaning of fuel and provides a work surface for handling materials; and the Remote Viewing Subsystem provides for remote viewing of the work area by operators. There are two complete and identical FRS systems, one to be installed in the K-West basin and one to be installed in the K-East basin. Another partial system will be installed in a cold test facility to provide for operator training

  10. Final Report - Spent Nuclear Fuel Retrieval System Manipulator System Cold Validation Testing

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    D.R. Jackson; G.R. Kiebel

    1999-08-24

    Manipulator system cold validation testing (CVT) was performed in support of the Fuel Retrieval System (FRS) Sub-Project, a subtask of the Spent Nuclear Fuel Project at the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington. The FRS will be used to retrieve and repackage K-Basin Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) currently stored in old K-Plant storage basins. The FRS is required to retrieve full fuel canisters from the basin; clean the fuel elements inside the canister to remove excessive uranium corrosion products (or sludge); remove the contents from the canisters; and sort the resulting debris, scrap, and fuel for repackaging. The fuel elements and scrap will be collected in fuel storage and scrap baskets in preparation for loading into a multi canister overpack (MCO), while the debris is loaded into a debris bin and disposed of as solid waste. The FRS is composed of three major subsystems. The Manipulator Subsystem provides remote handling of fuel, scrap, and debris; the In-Pool Equipment subsystem performs cleaning of fuel and provides a work surface for handling materials; and the Remote Viewing Subsystem provides for remote viewing of the work area by operators. There are two complete and identical FRS systems, one to be installed in the K-West basin and one to be installed in the K-East basin. Another partial system will be installed in a cold test facility to provide for operator training.

  11. Rotational manipulation of single cells and organisms using acoustic waves.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmed, Daniel; Ozcelik, Adem; Bojanala, Nagagireesh; Nama, Nitesh; Upadhyay, Awani; Chen, Yuchao; Hanna-Rose, Wendy; Huang, Tony Jun

    2016-03-23

    The precise rotational manipulation of single cells or organisms is invaluable to many applications in biology, chemistry, physics and medicine. In this article, we describe an acoustic-based, on-chip manipulation method that can rotate single microparticles, cells and organisms. To achieve this, we trapped microbubbles within predefined sidewall microcavities inside a microchannel. In an acoustic field, trapped microbubbles were driven into oscillatory motion generating steady microvortices which were utilized to precisely rotate colloids, cells and entire organisms (that is, C. elegans). We have tested the capabilities of our method by analysing reproductive system pathologies and nervous system morphology in C. elegans. Using our device, we revealed the underlying abnormal cell fusion causing defective vulval morphology in mutant worms. Our acoustofluidic rotational manipulation (ARM) technique is an easy-to-use, compact, and biocompatible method, permitting rotation regardless of optical, magnetic or electrical properties of the sample under investigation.

  12. Portable ultrahigh-vacuum sample storage system for polarization-dependent total-reflection fluorescence x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Watanabe, Yoshihide, E-mail: e0827@mosk.tytlabs.co.jp; Nishimura, Yusaku F.; Suzuki, Ryo; Beniya, Atsushi; Isomura, Noritake [Toyota Central R& D Labs., Inc., Yokomichi 41-1, Nagakute, Aichi 480-1192 (Japan); Uehara, Hiromitsu; Asakura, Kiyotaka; Takakusagi, Satoru [Catalysis Research Center, Hokkaido University, Kita 21-10, Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0021 (Japan); Nimura, Tomoyuki [AVC Co., Ltd., Inada 1450-6, Hitachinaka, Ibaraki 312-0061 (Japan)

    2016-03-15

    A portable ultrahigh-vacuum sample storage system was designed and built to investigate the detailed geometric structures of mass-selected metal clusters on oxide substrates by polarization-dependent total-reflection fluorescence x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (PTRF-XAFS). This ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) sample storage system provides the handover of samples between two different sample manipulating systems. The sample storage system is adaptable for public transportation, facilitating experiments using air-sensitive samples in synchrotron radiation or other quantum beam facilities. The samples were transferred by the developed portable UHV transfer system via a public transportation at a distance over 400 km. The performance of the transfer system was demonstrated by a successful PTRF-XAFS study of Pt{sub 4} clusters deposited on a TiO{sub 2}(110) surface.

  13. Teleoperation and computer control of a backhoe/manipulator system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Amazeen, C.A.; Bishop, S.S.

    1987-01-01

    Teleoperation of the U.S. Army's Small Emplacement Excavator (SEE) is now in the prototype stage of development. Initial work is directed towards remotely controlling the SEE backhoe attachment as well as a Belvoir Research, Development, and Engineering Center (BRDEC)-developed heavy-lift manipulator (HLM). The HLM is an alternate end effector for the backhoe. Primitive computer control of the backhoe, with a bucket as an end effector, has been achieved. This paper presents the current and planned system configurations and discusses system applications

  14. Coherent generation and dynamic manipulation of double stationary light pulses in a five-level double-tripod system of cold atoms

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bao Qianqian; Zhang Xiaohang; Gao Junyan; Zhang Yan; Cui Cuili; Wu Jinhui [College of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun 130012 (China)

    2011-12-15

    We study a five-level double-tripod system of cold atoms for efficiently manipulating the dynamic propagation and evolution of a quantum probe field by modulating four classical control fields. Our numerical results show that it is viable to transform the quantum probe field into a pair of two-color stationary light pulses mutually coupled through two wave packets of atomic spin coherence. The pair of stationary light pulses can be released either from the sample entrance and exit synchronously or just from the sample exit with a controlled time delay. In addition, the two-color stationary light pulses are immune to the fast decay originating from the higher-order Fourier components of atomic spin and optical coherence, and may exhibit the quantum limited beating signals with their characteristic frequency determined by detunings of the four classical control fields. These results could be explored to design novel photonic devices, such as optical routing, beam splitter, and beat generator, for manipulating a quantum light field.

  15. Coherent generation and dynamic manipulation of double stationary light pulses in a five-level double-tripod system of cold atoms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bao Qianqian; Zhang Xiaohang; Gao Junyan; Zhang Yan; Cui Cuili; Wu Jinhui

    2011-01-01

    We study a five-level double-tripod system of cold atoms for efficiently manipulating the dynamic propagation and evolution of a quantum probe field by modulating four classical control fields. Our numerical results show that it is viable to transform the quantum probe field into a pair of two-color stationary light pulses mutually coupled through two wave packets of atomic spin coherence. The pair of stationary light pulses can be released either from the sample entrance and exit synchronously or just from the sample exit with a controlled time delay. In addition, the two-color stationary light pulses are immune to the fast decay originating from the higher-order Fourier components of atomic spin and optical coherence, and may exhibit the quantum limited beating signals with their characteristic frequency determined by detunings of the four classical control fields. These results could be explored to design novel photonic devices, such as optical routing, beam splitter, and beat generator, for manipulating a quantum light field.

  16. Control of a high precision macro-micro robotic manipulator system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cho, Whang

    1997-01-01

    A controller for macro-micro robotic manipulator system in which kinematically independent two robotic sub-systems work together to improve the accuracy of the motion is proposed. A nonlinear feedback linearization scheme is employed as basic architecture for the controller and additional formulations about the controller structure are made to assure the robustness of the overall control action and to restrict the motion of micro sub-system close to its nominal position without causing saturation of joint associated with micro-robot. (author)

  17. Comprehending emergent systems phenomena through direct-manipulation animation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aguirre, Priscilla Abel

    This study seeks to understand the type of interaction mode that best supports learning and comprehension of emergent systems phenomena. Given that the literature has established that students hold robust misconceptions of such phenomena, this study investigates the influence of using three types of interaction; speed-manipulation animation (SMN), post-manipulation animation (PMA) and direct-manipulation animation (DMA) for increasing comprehension and testing transfer of the phenomena, by looking at the effect of simultaneous interaction of haptic and visual channels on long term and working memories when seeking to comprehend emergent phenomena. The questions asked were: (1) Does the teaching of emergent phenomena, with the aid of a dynamic interactive modeling tool (i.e., SMA, PMA or DMA), improve students' mental model construction of systems, thus increasing comprehension of this scientific concept? And (2) does the teaching of emergent phenomena, with the aid of a dynamic interactive modeling tool, give the students the necessary complex cognitive skill which can then be applied to similar (near transfer) and/or novel, but different, (far transfer) scenarios? In an empirical study undergraduate and graduate students were asked to participate in one of three experimental conditions: SMA, PMA, or DMA. The results of the study found that it was the participants of the SMA treatment condition that had the most improvement in post-test scores. Students' understanding of the phenomena increased most when they used a dynamic model with few interactive elements (i.e., start, stop, and speed) that allowed for real time visualization of one's interaction on the phenomena. Furthermore, no indication was found that the learning of emergent phenomena, with the aid of a dynamic interactive modeling tool, gave the students the necessary complex cognitive skill which could then be applied to similar (near transfer) and/or novel, but different, (far transfer) scenarios

  18. Manipulation Robustness of Collaborative Filtering

    OpenAIRE

    Benjamin Van Roy; Xiang Yan

    2010-01-01

    A collaborative filtering system recommends to users products that similar users like. Collaborative filtering systems influence purchase decisions and hence have become targets of manipulation by unscrupulous vendors. We demonstrate that nearest neighbors algorithms, which are widely used in commercial systems, are highly susceptible to manipulation and introduce new collaborative filtering algorithms that are relatively robust.

  19. Characterization of steady streaming for a particle manipulation system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amit, Roni; Abadi, Avi; Kosa, Gabor

    2016-04-01

    Accurate positioning of biological cells or microscopic particle without directly contacting them is a challenging task in biomedical engineering. Various trapping methods for controlling the position of a particle have been suggested. The common driving methods are based on laser and ultrasonic actuation principles. In this work we suggest a design for a hydrodynamic particle manoeuvring system. The system operates using steady streaming in a viscous fluid media induced by high frequency vibration of piezoelectric cantilevers. A particle within the workspace of the system can be trapped and manipulated to a desired position by the fairly unidirectional flow field created by the beams. In this paper, the flow field in the particle manipulation system is characterized numerically and experimentally. We find that the flow field resembles the analytical solutions of a flow field created by an oscillating sphere. Furthermore, we validate numerically the quadratic relation between the steady streaming velocity and the vibration amplitude of the beam. The calibration of the piezoelectric actuator's oscillation amplitudes enables effective positioning of particles with a diameter of 20 um to 1 mm. We find that a 30X0.8X2 mm(3) piezoelectric beam vibrating at its first resonance frequency, 200 Hz, is able to move a particle at a typical flow velocity ranging between 0.05 mm/sec and 0.13 mm/s in 430 cSt Si oil (Re=0.2).

  20. Application of model based control to robotic manipulators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petrosky, Lyman J.; Oppenheim, Irving J.

    1988-01-01

    A robot that can duplicate humam motion capabilities in such activities as balancing, reaching, lifting, and moving has been built and tested. These capabilities are achieved through the use of real time Model-Based Control (MBC) techniques which have recently been demonstrated. MBC accounts for all manipulator inertial forces and provides stable manipulator motion control even at high speeds. To effectively demonstrate the unique capabilities of MBC, an experimental robotic manipulator was constructed, which stands upright, balancing on a two wheel base. The mathematical modeling of dynamics inherent in MBC permit the control system to perform functions that are impossible with conventional non-model based methods. These capabilities include: (1) Stable control at all speeds of operation; (2) Operations requiring dynamic stability such as balancing; (3) Detection and monitoring of applied forces without the use of load sensors; (4) Manipulator safing via detection of abnormal loads. The full potential of MBC has yet to be realized. The experiments performed for this research are only an indication of the potential applications. MBC has no inherent stability limitations and its range of applicability is limited only by the attainable sampling rate, modeling accuracy, and sensor resolution. Manipulators could be designed to operate at the highest speed mechanically attainable without being limited by control inadequacies. Manipulators capable of operating many times faster than current machines would certainly increase productivity for many tasks.

  1. Project W-340 tank 241-C-106 manipulator system closeout summary

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McDaniel, L.B.

    1995-02-01

    This document summarizes the work that was ongoing when Project W-340 was put on hold. Project W-340: Tank 241-C-106 Manipulator Retrieval System, was a candidate FY98 Major System Acquisition. The project was to develop, procure and deploy a Long Reach Manipulator (LRM) waste retrieval system to provide an alternate method to completing the in-tank demonstration of Single Shell Tank waste retrieval technology. The need for enhanced capabilities derives from (1) the inability of the baseline technology to retrieve certain hard waste forms; (2) uncertainty in the quantity of leakage which will be allowed. Numerous studies over the years have identified an arm architecture as a promising retrieval technology to overcome these concerns. The W340 project was intended to further develop and demonstrate this alternative, as part of selecting the best approach for all tanks. Prior to completing the effort, it was determined that an LRM system was too architecture specific and was envisioned to be too expensive for a one time demonstration of retrieval technology. At the time the work was stopped, an effort was underway to broaden the project scope to allow alternatives to an arm-based system

  2. Control of master-slave manipulator using virtual force

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kosuge, Kazuhiro; Fukuda, Toshio; Itoh, Tomotaka; Sakamoto, Keizoh; Noma, Yasuo.

    1994-01-01

    We propose a control system for a master-slave manipulator system having a rate-controlled slave manipulator. In this system, the master manipulator is stiffness-controlled in the Cartesian coordinate system, and the slave manipulator is damping-controlled in the Cartesian coordinate system. The desired velocity of the slave arm is given by a displacement of the master arm from a nominal position. The operator feels virtual contact force from the environment because the contact force is proportional to the displacement when the slave arm motion is constrained by the environment. The proposed method is experimentally applied to manipulators with three degrees of freedom. The experimental results illustrate the validity of the proposed system. (author)

  3. Improvement of the M/S manipulator maintenance at OSL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kuwana, Koichi; Ouchi, Hiroshi; Ito, Yutaka; Sato, Yoshihiro; Midorikawa, Mituhiro; Hayakawa, Tuyoshi

    2010-01-01

    The safeguards inspection samples from the JNFL Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant (RRP) are received and analyzed at the On Site Laboratory (OSL). Since the samples from the input accountancy tank of the RRP contain a lot of fission products, they are treated in a hot-cell line with a M/S (Master /Slave) manipulator. Special equipment and tools were used for the maintenance of the M/S manipulator, especially for the exchange of the M/S manipulator. However, the manipulator exchange work was not easy due to the limitation of the space in the OSL. For solution to this problem, a monorail and monorail hoist equipment was installed onto wall surface of analytical room close to each M/S manipulator, and then it made the exchange of M/S manipulator easy without special equipment and tools. Additionally, operator was freed from the burden of working space arranging for the exchange of M/S manipulator such as removing of analytical equipments. This report represents the improvement of operation for the exchange of M/S manipulator with installation of monorail and hoist equipment. (author)

  4. MODULAR MANIPULATOR FOR ROBOTICS APPLICATIONS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Geisinger, Joseph W. Ph.D.

    2001-01-01

    ARM Automation, Inc. is developing a FR-amework of modular actuators that can address the DOE's wide range of robotics needs. The objective of this effort is to demonstrate the effectiveness of this technology by constructing a manipulator FR-om these actuators within a glovebox for Automated Plutonium Processing (APP). At the end of the project, the system of actuators was used to construct several different manipulator configurations, which accommodate common glovebox tasks such as repackaging. The modular nature and quickconnects of this system simplify installation into ''hot'' boxes and any potential modifications or repair therein. This work focused on the development of self-contained robotic actuator modules including the embedded electronic controls for the purpose of building a manipulator system. Both of the actuators developed under this project contain the control electronics, sensors, motor, gear train, wiring, system communications and mechanical interfaces of a complete robotics servo device. Test actuators and accompanying DISC(trademark)s underwent validation testing at The University of Texas at Austin and ARM Automation, Inc. following final design and fabrication. The system also included custom links, an umbilical cord, an open architecture PC-based system controller, and operational software that permitted integration into a completely functional robotic manipulator system. The open architecture on which this system is based avoids proprietary interfaces and communication protocols which only serve to limit the capabilities and flexibility of automation equipment. The system was integrated and tested in the contractor's facility for intended performance and operations. The manipulator was tested using the full-scale equipment and process mock-ups. The project produced a practical and operational system including a quantitative evaluation of its performance and cost

  5. Managing collaboration in the nanoManipulator

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hudson, Thomas C.; Heiser, Aron T.; Sonnenwald, Diane H.

    2003-01-01

    We designed, developed, deployed, and evaluated the Collaborative nanoManipulator (CnM), a system supporting remote collaboration between users of the nanoManipulator interface to atomic force microscopes. To be accepted by users, the shared nanoManipulator application had to have the same high...... level of interactivity as the single user system and the application had to support a user's ability to interleave working privately and working collaboratively. This paper briefly describes the entire collaboration system, but focuses on the shared nanoManipulator application. Based on our experience...... developing the CnM, we present: a method of analyzing applications to characterize the requirements for sharing data between collaborating sites, examples of data structures that support collaboration, and guidelines for selecting appropriate synchronization and concurrency control schemes....

  6. Remote sampling and analysis of highly radioactive samples in shielded boxes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kirpikov, D.A.; Miroshnichenko, I.V.; Pykhteev, O.Yu.

    2010-01-01

    The sampling procedure used for highly radioactive coolant water is associated with high risk of personnel irradiation and uncontrolled radioactive contamination. Remote sample manipulation with provision for proper radiation shielding is intended for safety enhancement of the sampling procedure. The sampling lines are located in an isolated compartment, a shielded box. Various equipment which enables remote or automatic sample manipulation is used for this purpose. The main issues of development of the shielded box equipment intended for a wider ranger of remote chemical analyses and manipulation techniques for highly radioactive water samples are considered in the paper. There were three principal directions of work: Transfer of chemical analysis performed in the laboratory inside the shielded box; Prevalence of computer-aided and remote techniques of highly radioactive sample manipulation inside the shielded box; and, Increase in control over sampling and determination of thermal-hydraulic parameters of the coolant water in the sampling lines. The developed equipment and solutions enable remote chemical analysis in the restricted volume of the shielded box by using ion-chromatographic, amperometrical, fluorimetric, flow injection, phototurbidimetric, conductometric and potentiometric methods. Extent of control performed in the shielded box is determined taking into account the requirements of the regulatory documents as well as feasibility and cost of the technical adaptation of various methods to the shielded box conditions. The work resulted in highly precise determination of more than 15 indexes of the coolant water quality performed in on-line mode in the shielded box. It averages to 80% of the total extent of control performed at the prototype reactor plants. The novel solutions for highly radioactive sample handling are implemented in the shielded box (for example, packaging, sample transportation to the laboratory, volume measurement). The shielded box is

  7. Analysis and improvement of digital control stability for master-slave manipulator system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshida, Koichi; Yabuta, Tetsuro

    1992-01-01

    Some bilateral controls of master-slave system have been designed, which can realize high-fidelity telemanipulation as if the operator were manipulating the object directly. While usual robot systems are controlled by software-servo system using digital computer, little work has been published on design and analysis for digital control of these systems, which must consider time-delay of sensor signals and zero order hold effect of command signals on actuators. This paper presents a digital control analysis for single degree of freedom master-slave system including impedance models of both the human operator and the task object, which clarifies some index for the stability. The stability result shows a virtual master-slave system concepts, which improve the digital control stability. We first analyze a dynamic control method of master-slave system in discrete-time system for the stability problem, which can realize high-fidelity telemanipulation in the continuous-time. Secondly, using the results of the stability analysis, the robust control scheme for master-slave system is proposed, and the validity of this scheme is finally confirmed by the simulation. Consequently, it would be considered that any combination of master and slave modules with dynamic model of these manipulators is possible to construct the stable master-slave system. (author)

  8. Agent Control for Reconfigurable Open Kinematic Chain Manipulators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janez Sluga

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a method for the autonomous control of differently structured open kinematic chains based on multi-agent system technology. The appropriate level of distributing local autonomy (agents to a manipulative structure is defined, which makes it possible to dynamically change the number, type and structure of manipulative components without modifying their behavioural logic. To achieve fast reconfigurable and scalable manipulative systems, a new multi-agent method is developed for controlling the manipulator kinematics. The new method enables independent manipulator structure from the control system because of its structural and system modularity. The proposed method consists of kinematic equations for use in an agent environment, agent motion-planning algorithms, evaluation functions, agent control logic and kinematic algorithms. The results of simulations and real-world experiments demonstrate the usefulness of the approach for different non-redundant and redundant manipulation structures.

  9. MODULAR MANIPULATOR FOR ROBOTICS APPLICATIONS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Joseph W. Geisinger, Ph.D.

    2001-07-31

    ARM Automation, Inc. is developing a framework of modular actuators that can address the DOE's wide range of robotics needs. The objective of this effort is to demonstrate the effectiveness of this technology by constructing a manipulator from these actuators within a glovebox for Automated Plutonium Processing (APP). At the end of the project, the system of actuators was used to construct several different manipulator configurations, which accommodate common glovebox tasks such as repackaging. The modular nature and quickconnects of this system simplify installation into ''hot'' boxes and any potential modifications or repair therein. This work focused on the development of self-contained robotic actuator modules including the embedded electronic controls for the purpose of building a manipulator system. Both of the actuators developed under this project contain the control electronics, sensors, motor, gear train, wiring, system communications and mechanical interfaces of a complete robotics servo device. Test actuators and accompanying DISC{trademark}s underwent validation testing at The University of Texas at Austin and ARM Automation, Inc. following final design and fabrication. The system also included custom links, an umbilical cord, an open architecture PC-based system controller, and operational software that permitted integration into a completely functional robotic manipulator system. The open architecture on which this system is based avoids proprietary interfaces and communication protocols which only serve to limit the capabilities and flexibility of automation equipment. The system was integrated and tested in the contractor's facility for intended performance and operations. The manipulator was tested using the full-scale equipment and process mock-ups. The project produced a practical and operational system including a quantitative evaluation of its performance and cost.

  10. Microtechnology for cell manipulation and sorting

    CERN Document Server

    Tseng, Peter; Carlo, Dino

    2017-01-01

    This book delves into the recent developments in the microscale and microfluidic technologies that allow manipulation at the single and cell aggregate level. Expert authors review the dominant mechanisms that manipulate and sort biological structures, making this a state-of-the-art overview of conventional cell sorting techniques, the principles of microfluidics, and of microfluidic devices. All chapters highlight the benefits and drawbacks of each technique they discuss, which include magnetic, electrical, optical, acoustic, gravity/sedimentation, inertial, deformability, and aqueous two-phase systems as the dominant mechanisms utilized by microfluidic devices to handle biological samples. Each chapter explains the physics of the mechanism at work, and reviews common geometries and devices to help readers decide the type of style of device required for various applications. This book is appropriate for graduate-level biomedical engineering and analytical chemistry students, as well as engineers and scientist...

  11. Automatic camera tracking for remote manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stoughton, R.S.; Martin, H.L.; Bentz, R.R.

    1984-07-01

    The problem of automatic camera tracking of mobile objects is addressed with specific reference to remote manipulators and using either fixed or mobile cameras. The technique uses a kinematic approach employing 4 x 4 coordinate transformation matrices to solve for the needed camera PAN and TILT angles. No vision feedback systems are used, as the required input data are obtained entirely from position sensors from the manipulator and the camera-positioning system. All hardware requirements are generally satisfied by currently available remote manipulator systems with a supervisory computer. The system discussed here implements linear plus on/off (bang-bang) closed-loop control with a +-2-deg deadband. The deadband area is desirable to avoid operator seasickness caused by continuous camera movement. Programming considerations for camera control, including operator interface options, are discussed. The example problem presented is based on an actual implementation using a PDP 11/34 computer, a TeleOperator Systems SM-229 manipulator, and an Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) camera-positioning system. 3 references, 6 figures, 2 tables

  12. Automatic camera tracking for remote manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stoughton, R.S.; Martin, H.L.; Bentz, R.R.

    1984-04-01

    The problem of automatic camera tracking of mobile objects is addressed with specific reference to remote manipulators and using either fixed or mobile cameras. The technique uses a kinematic approach employing 4 x 4 coordinate transformation matrices to solve for the needed camera PAN and TILT angles. No vision feedback systems are used, as the required input data are obtained entirely from position sensors from the manipulator and the camera-positioning system. All hardware requirements are generally satisfied by currently available remote manipulator systems with a supervisory computer. The system discussed here implements linear plus on/off (bang-bang) closed-loop control with a +-2 0 deadband. The deadband area is desirable to avoid operator seasickness caused by continuous camera movement. Programming considerations for camera control, including operator interface options, are discussed. The example problem presented is based on an actual implementation using a PDP 11/34 computer, a TeleOperator Systems SM-229 manipulator, and an Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) camera-positioning system. 3 references, 6 figures, 2 tables

  13. SAMSIN: the next-generation servo-manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Adams, R.H.; Jennrich, C.E.; Korpi, K.W.

    1985-01-01

    The Central Research Laboratories (CRL) Division of Sargent Industries is now developing SAMSIN, a next-generation servo-manipulator. SAMSIN is an acronym for Servo-Actuated Manipulator Systems with Intelligent Networks. This paper discusses the objectives of this development and describes the key features of the servo-manipulator system. There are three main objectives in the SAMSIN development: adaptability, reliability, and maintainability. SAMSIN utilizes standard Sargent/CRL sealed master and slave manipulator arms as well as newly developed compact versions. The mechanical arms have more than 20 yr of successful performance in industrial applications such as hot cells, high vacuums, fuel pools, and explosives handling. The servo-actuator package is in a protective enclosure, which may be sealed in various ways from the remote environment. The force limiting characteristics of the servo-actuators extend motion tendon life. Protective bootings increase the reliability of the arms in an environment that is high in airborne contamination. These bootings also simplify the decontamination of the system. The modularity in construction permits quick removal and replacement of slave arms, wrist joints, tong fingers, and actuator packages for maintenance. SAMSIN utilizes readily available off-the-shelf actuator and control system components. Each manipulator motion uses the same actuator and control system components

  14. Test bed control center design concept for Tank Waste Retrieval Manipulator Systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sundstrom, E.; Draper, J.V.; Fausz, A.

    1995-01-01

    This paper describes the design concept for the control center for the Single Shell Tank Waste Retrieval Manipulator System test bed and the design process behind the concept. The design concept supports all phases of the test bed mission, including technology demonstration, comprehensive system testing, and comparative evaluation for further development and refinement of the TWRMS for field operations

  15. Modeling, Simulation and Position Control of 3 Degree of Freedom Articulated Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hossein Sadegh Lafmejani

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, the modeling, simulation and control of 3 degree of freedom articulated robotic manipulator have been studied. First, we extracted kinematics and dynamics equations of the mentioned manipulator by using the Lagrange method. In order to validate the analytical model of the manipulator we compared the model simulated in the simulation environment of Matlab with the model was simulated with the SimMechanics toolbox. A sample path has been designed for analyzing the tracking subject. The system has been linearized with feedback linearization and then a PID controller was applied to track a reference trajectory. Finally, the control results have been compared with a nonlinear PID controller.

  16. MATHEMATICAL MODEL MANIPULATOR ROBOTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O. N. Krakhmalev

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available A mathematical model to describe the dynamics of manipulator robots. Mathematical model are the implementation of the method based on the Lagrange equation and using the transformation matrices of elastic coordinates. Mathematical model make it possible to determine the elastic deviations of manipulator robots from programmed motion trajectories caused by elastic deformations in hinges, which are taken into account in directions of change of the corresponding generalized coordinates. Mathematical model is approximated and makes it possible to determine small elastic quasi-static deviations and elastic vibrations. The results of modeling the dynamics by model are compared to the example of a two-link manipulator system. The considered model can be used when performing investigations of the mathematical accuracy of the manipulator robots.

  17. Manipulating stored phonological input during verbal working memory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cogan, Gregory B.; Iyer, Asha; Melloni, Lucia; Thesen, Thomas; Friedman, Daniel; Doyle, Werner; Devinsky, Orrin; Pesaran, Bijan

    2016-01-01

    Verbal working memory (vWM), involves storing and manipulating information in phonological sensory input. An influential theory of vWM proposes that manipulation is carried out by a central executive while storage is performed by two interacting systems: A phonological input buffer that captures sound-based information and an articulatory rehearsal system that controls speech motor output. Whether, when, and how neural activity in the brain encodes these components remains unknown. Here, we read-out the contents of vWM from neural activity in human subjects as they manipulate stored speech sounds. As predicted, we identify storage systems that contain both phonological sensory and articulatory motor representations. Surprisingly however, we find that manipulation does not involve a single central executive but rather involves two systems with distinct contributions to successful manipulation. We propose, therefore, that multiple subsystems comprise the central executive needed to manipulate stored phonological input for articulatory motor output in vWM. PMID:27941789

  18. 3D Laser Scanner for Underwater Manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palomer, Albert; Ridao, Pere; Youakim, Dina; Ribas, David; Forest, Josep; Petillot, Yvan

    2018-04-04

    Nowadays, research in autonomous underwater manipulation has demonstrated simple applications like picking an object from the sea floor, turning a valve or plugging and unplugging a connector. These are fairly simple tasks compared with those already demonstrated by the mobile robotics community, which include, among others, safe arm motion within areas populated with a priori unknown obstacles or the recognition and location of objects based on their 3D model to grasp them. Kinect-like 3D sensors have contributed significantly to the advance of mobile manipulation providing 3D sensing capabilities in real-time at low cost. Unfortunately, the underwater robotics community is lacking a 3D sensor with similar capabilities to provide rich 3D information of the work space. In this paper, we present a new underwater 3D laser scanner and demonstrate its capabilities for underwater manipulation. In order to use this sensor in conjunction with manipulators, a calibration method to find the relative position between the manipulator and the 3D laser scanner is presented. Then, two different advanced underwater manipulation tasks beyond the state of the art are demonstrated using two different manipulation systems. First, an eight Degrees of Freedom (DoF) fixed-base manipulator system is used to demonstrate arm motion within a work space populated with a priori unknown fixed obstacles. Next, an eight DoF free floating Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator System (UVMS) is used to autonomously grasp an object from the bottom of a water tank.

  19. Design principles for six degrees-of-freedom MEMS-based precision manipulators

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brouwer, Dannis Michel

    2007-01-01

    In the future, the precision manipulation of small objects will become more and more important for appliances such as data storage, micro assembly, sample manipulation in microscopes, cell manipulation, and manipulation of beam paths by micro mirrors. At the same time, there is a drive towards

  20. An overview of the Accident Response Mobile Manipulation System (ARMMS)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morse, W.D.; Hayward, D.R.; Jones, D.P.; Sanchez, A.; Shirey, D.L.

    1993-01-01

    The development of a high mobility platform integrated with high strength manipulation is under development at Sandia National Laboratories. The mobility platform used is a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV). Manipulation is provided by two Titan 7F Schilling manipulators integrated onboard the HMMWV. The current state of development is described and future plans are discussed

  1. Solar maximum mission panel jettison analysis remote manipulator system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bauer, R. B.

    1980-01-01

    A study is presented of the development of the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) configurations for jettison of the solar panels on the Solar Maximum Mission/Multimission Satellite. A valid RMS maneuver between jettison configurations was developed. Arm and longeron loads and effector excursions due to the solar panel jettison were determined to see if they were within acceptable limits. These loads and end effector excursions were analyzed under two RMS modes, servos active in position hold submode, and in the brakes on mode.

  2. Understanding pharmaceutical research manipulation in the context of accounting manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Abigail

    2013-01-01

    The problem of the manipulation of data that arises when there is both opportunity and incentive to mislead is better accepted and studied - though by no means solved - in financial accounting than in medicine. This article analyzes pharmaceutical company manipulation of medical research as part of a broader problem of corporate manipulation of data in the creation of accounting profits. The article explores how our understanding of accounting fraud and misinformation helps us understand the risk of similar information manipulation in the medical sciences. This understanding provides a framework for considering how best to improve the quality of medical research and analysis in light of the current system of medical information production. I offer three possible responses: (1) use of the Dodd-Frank whistleblower provisions to encourage reporting of medical research fraud; (2) a two-step academic journal review process for clinical trials; and (3) publicly subsidized trial-failure insurance. These would improve the release of negative information about drugs, thereby increasing the reliability of positive information. © 2013 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

  3. A microcontroller-based three degree-of-freedom manipulator testbed. M.S. Thesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Robert Michael, Jr.

    1995-01-01

    A wheeled exploratory vehicle is under construction at the Mars Mission Research Center at North Carolina State University. In order to serve as more than an inspection tool, this vehicle requires the ability to interact with its surroundings. A crane-type manipulator, as well as the necessary control hardware and software, has been developed for use as a sample gathering tool on this vehicle. The system is controlled by a network of four Motorola M68HC11 microcontrollers. Control hardware and software were developed in a modular fashion so that the system can be used to test future control algorithms and hardware. Actuators include three stepper motors and one solenoid. Sensors include three optical encoders and one cable tensiometer. The vehicle supervisor computer provides the manipulator system with the approximate coordinates of the target object. This system maps the workspace surrounding the given location by lowering the claw, along a set of evenly spaced vertical lines, until contact occurs. Based on this measured height information and prior knowledge of the target object size, the system determines if the object exists in the searched area. The system can find and retrieve a 1.25 in. diameter by 1.25 in. tall cylinder placed within the 47.5 sq in search area in less than 12 minutes. This manipulator hardware may be used for future control algorithm verification and serves as a prototype for other manipulator hardware.

  4. A Study of Accuracy and Time Delay for Bilateral Master-Slave Industrial Robotic Arm Manipulator System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mansor Nuratiqa Natrah

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Bilateral master-slave industrial robotic arm manipulator system is an advanced technology used to help human to interact with environments that are unreachable to human, due to its remoteness or perilous. The system has been used in different areas such as tele-surgery, autonomous tele-operation for sea and space operation and handling explosive or high radiation operation fields. It is beneficial both for science and society. Remarkably, the system is not common and generally used in Malaysia. Likewise, the number of research conducted that focused about this technology in our country manufacturing industry are not yet discovered and existent. The implementation of this bilateral manipulator system in an industrial robot could be useful for industrial imminent and development over our country and people, specifically for production yield size and human operative. Hence, the study of bilateral robotic arm manipulator system in an industrial robot and analyzation of its performance and time delay in 3 differ controllers will be discussed to attest the efficiency and its effectiveness on the said design system. The experiment conducted was on KUKA youBot arm in V-Rep simulation with three different controllers (P, PD, PID.

  5. Neuromimetic Sound Representation for Percept Detection and Manipulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chi Taishih

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available The acoustic wave received at the ears is processed by the human auditory system to separate different sounds along the intensity, pitch, and timbre dimensions. Conventional Fourier-based signal processing, while endowed with fast algorithms, is unable to easily represent a signal along these attributes. In this paper, we discuss the creation of maximally separable sounds in auditory user interfaces and use a recently proposed cortical sound representation, which performs a biomimetic decomposition of an acoustic signal, to represent and manipulate sound for this purpose. We briefly overview algorithms for obtaining, manipulating, and inverting a cortical representation of a sound and describe algorithms for manipulating signal pitch and timbre separately. The algorithms are also used to create sound of an instrument between a "guitar" and a "trumpet." Excellent sound quality can be achieved if processing time is not a concern, and intelligible signals can be reconstructed in reasonable processing time (about ten seconds of computational time for a one-second signal sampled at . Work on bringing the algorithms into the real-time processing domain is ongoing.

  6. Control of free-flying space robot manipulator systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cannon, Robert H., Jr.

    1990-01-01

    New control techniques for self contained, autonomous free flying space robots were developed and tested experimentally. Free flying robots are envisioned as a key element of any successful long term presence in space. These robots must be capable of performing the assembly, maintenance, and inspection, and repair tasks that currently require human extravehicular activity (EVA). A set of research projects were developed and carried out using lab models of satellite robots and a flexible manipulator. The second generation space robot models use air cushion vehicle (ACV) technology to simulate in 2-D the drag free, zero g conditions of space. The current work is divided into 5 major projects: Global Navigation and Control of a Free Floating Robot, Cooperative Manipulation from a Free Flying Robot, Multiple Robot Cooperation, Thrusterless Robotic Locomotion, and Dynamic Payload Manipulation. These projects are examined in detail.

  7. Long-reach manipulators for decommissioning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Webster, D.A.; Challinor, S.F.

    1993-01-01

    A survey of redundant facilities at Sellafield has identified that in many cases the conventional means of deploying remote handling equipment are not appropriate and that novel means must be employed. However, decommissioning is not a value adding activity and so expensive one off designs must be avoided. The paper will describe BNFL's approach to the synthesis from proprietary parts of a manipulator which can lift 3 te at a horizontal reach of over 5 metres and yet can still perform the dextrous manipulation necessary to remove small items. It will also cover the development of the manipulator control systems and the adaption of commercial handtools to be manipulator friendly. (author)

  8. 3D Laser Scanner for Underwater Manipulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Albert Palomer

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Nowadays, research in autonomous underwater manipulation has demonstrated simple applications like picking an object from the sea floor, turning a valve or plugging and unplugging a connector. These are fairly simple tasks compared with those already demonstrated by the mobile robotics community, which include, among others, safe arm motion within areas populated with a priori unknown obstacles or the recognition and location of objects based on their 3D model to grasp them. Kinect-like 3D sensors have contributed significantly to the advance of mobile manipulation providing 3D sensing capabilities in real-time at low cost. Unfortunately, the underwater robotics community is lacking a 3D sensor with similar capabilities to provide rich 3D information of the work space. In this paper, we present a new underwater 3D laser scanner and demonstrate its capabilities for underwater manipulation. In order to use this sensor in conjunction with manipulators, a calibration method to find the relative position between the manipulator and the 3D laser scanner is presented. Then, two different advanced underwater manipulation tasks beyond the state of the art are demonstrated using two different manipulation systems. First, an eight Degrees of Freedom (DoF fixed-base manipulator system is used to demonstrate arm motion within a work space populated with a priori unknown fixed obstacles. Next, an eight DoF free floating Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator System (UVMS is used to autonomously grasp an object from the bottom of a water tank.

  9. Failed fuel rod detection system and computerized manipulator during outages

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boehm, H.H.; Foerch, H.

    1984-01-01

    During regular outages spent fuel assemblies need to be replaced and relocated within the core. Defective fuel rods in particular fuel assemblies have to be removed from further service and before delivery of such faulty fuel assemblies to a reprocessing plant. The system which Brown Boveri Reaktor GmbH and Krautkraemer have developed in the Federal Republic of Germany is capable of directly locating the defective rods in a proper fuel assembly. Inspection times are comparable to those of standard sipping methods, with the advantages of immediately available results and direct identification of the defective fuel rods. During the repair of fuel assemblies this system allows withdrawal of individual defective rods. With the sipping method all the fuel rods of a defective fuel assembly need to be removed and inspected by eddy current testing. During steam generator inspection and repair personnel are exposed to ample radiation. A remotely controlled, computerized manipulator was used to significantly reduce the radiation dose by automating steps in the procedures; at the same time inspection and repair times were reduced. The main features of the manipulator are a rigid component construction of the leg and two arms, and a resolver control for horizontal and vertical motion that enables rapid and accurate access to a desired tube (author)

  10. Computer control of a multi-link manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holt, J.E.; Thiruarooran, C.

    1988-01-01

    The Central Electricity Generating Board has a requirement for a manipulator which can deploy to its work location around obstacles. A multilink manipulator has been designed for this purpose. A computer control system designed to ease manipulator operation is described. Using the control program, the manipulator may be deployed using just 2 joysticks. Experience in the use of the program with an inspection manipulator at Sizewell 'A' Nuclear Power Station is discussed. When used to control a manipulator of 9 hydraulically actuated degrees of freedom, a control accuracy of about 1.5% of full extension has been achieved. (author)

  11. Manipulator Comparative Testing Program: Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Draper, J.V.; Handel, S.J.; Sundstrom, E.; Herndon, J.N; Fujita, Y.; Maeda, M.

    1987-02-01

    The manipulator systems tested included the Meidensha BILARM 83A, the Central Research Laboratories Model M-2, and the GCA PaR Systems Model 6000. Six manipulator and control mode combinations were evaluated: (1) the BILARM in master/slave mode without force reflection, (2) the BILARM in master/slave mode with force reflection, (3) the Model M-2 in master/slave mode without force reflection, (4) the Model M-2 in master/slave mode with force reflection, (5) the BILARM with switchbox controls, and (6) the PaR 6000 with switchbox controls. The experiments examined differences between master/slave systems with and without force reflection and differences between master/slave systems and switchbox-controlled systems. A fourth experiment examined the relative contributions of the remote viewing system and the manipulator system to the performance of remote handling tasks. Results of the experiments showed that operators using the Model M-2 in master/slave mode had significantly faster times to completion than operators using the BILARM in master/slave mode, with about the same error rate per trial. Operators were slower using the BILARM with force reflection than without it, and they committed more errors. There was no statistically significant difference between force-reflection and nonforce-reflection conditions for the M-2 manipulator for any of the performance criteria. Tasks and procedures used in this testing were not sensitive to differences within any single system. No inferences about the effect of force reflection on remote task performance should be made from these data. The two manipulator systems in switchbox mode had significantly slower times to completion than any system in master/slave mode, with approximately the same error rate per trial. There were no significant differences between the BILARM in switchbox mode and the PaR arm

  12. Manipulator system for remote maintenance of fusion experimental reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shibanuma, Kiyoshi; Munakata, Tadashi; Murakami, Shin; Kondoh, Mitsunori.

    1991-01-01

    We have completed the conceptual design for a rail-mounted vehicle type remote maintenance system for the fusion experimental reactor (FER), which will be the first D-T burning reactor in Japan. We have fabricated a 1/5-scale model and confirmed the feasibility of the design. In this system, a rail is deployed into the vessel and supported at four horizontal ports. A vehicle then moves along the rail and handles in-vessel components with manipulators. The advantages of this concept are the high stiffness and high reliability of the rail, and the high mobility of the vehicle for efficient maintenance operations. In the FER, this concept is considered to be the first option for in-vessel maintenance. This paper describes the conceptual design of the system and the feasibility study using the 1/5-scale model. (author)

  13. Development of design system of manipulator for fusion reactor maintenance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ida, Toshio; Niikura, Setsuo; Ishiguro, Akiko; Yamada, Masao; Matsuoka, Fushiki

    1989-01-01

    A program which supports designers of a manipulator for in-vessel maintenance of a fusion reactor has been developed. The main purpose of this program is to provide the designer with a promising manipulator specification by furnishing useful information. It combines a technique of knowledge engineering with numerical solutions. This program consists of three parts: The first part is to generate candidates for the manipulator using a knowledge base; the second is to evaluate both static and dynamic properties of each candidate through numerical simulation of the maintenance task; and the third is to select the candidates having better performance and feasibility on the basis of the simulation data and knowledge base. The feasibility of the method used in this program is confirmed by the preliminary application. This application also emphasizes the importance of the knowledge base for the candidate generation and selection. Although the degree of freedom of the manipulator is restricted to less than 7 degrees in this study, further development of the capability of manipulator simulation (seven or more degrees of freedom) will enhance the effectiveness of this program. (orig.)

  14. Managing collaboration in the nanoManipulator

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hudson, Thomas C.; Helser, Aren T.; Sonnenwald, Diane H.

    2004-01-01

    We designed, developed, deployed, and evaluated the Collaborative nanoManipulator (CnM), a distributed, collaborative virtual environment system supporting remote scientific collaboration between users of the nanoManipulator interface to atomic force microscopes. This paper describes the entire...

  15. Tension Stiffened and Tendon Actuated Manipulator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doggett, William R. (Inventor); Dorsey, John T. (Inventor); Ganoe, George G. (Inventor); King, Bruce D. (Inventor); Jones, Thomas C. (Inventor); Mercer, Charles D. (Inventor); Corbin, Cole K. (Inventor)

    2015-01-01

    A tension stiffened and tendon actuated manipulator is provided performing robotic-like movements when acquiring a payload. The manipulator design can be adapted for use in-space, lunar or other planetary installations as it is readily configurable for acquiring and precisely manipulating a payload in both a zero-g environment and in an environment with a gravity field. The manipulator includes a plurality of link arms, a hinge connecting adjacent link arms together to allow the adjacent link arms to rotate relative to each other and a cable actuation and tensioning system provided between adjacent link arms. The cable actuation and tensioning system includes a spreader arm and a plurality of driven and non-driven elements attached to the link arms and the spreader arm. At least one cable is routed around the driven and non-driven elements for actuating the hinge.

  16. Development of a maintenance manipulator for TFTR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holloway, C.

    1986-01-01

    The maintenance manipulator is a device permanently connected to the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) vacuum vessel and is located in close proximity to the tokamak. It is used for the inspection and maintenance of in-vessel components whilst the machine remains under vacuum. The total system comprises a vacuum vessel ante-chamber that houses the manipulator, an articulated boom and carriage that transports and positions a dexterous end-effector, and end-effector that supports maintenance tooling, and an inspection system. Because of the maintenance manipulator's operating environment, there are many challenging engineering features, i.e., temperatures up to 150 0 C, changing magnetic fields in space and time that act on the manipulator whilst it is at rest, neutron neutron fluxes of up to 10/sup 11/cm/sup -2/s/sup -1/, and, last but not least, UHV conditions. This paper describes the development of the vacuum system, the maintenance manipulator, and inspective devices. It includes the methods employed to overcome the engineering difficulties and the application of information gained from other advanced technology programs, such as space and nuclear fission

  17. Robotic design analysis based on teleoperated manipulator data collection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stoughton, R.S.; Martin, H.L.

    1985-01-01

    Extensive data collection was performed on a servomanipulator system (TeleOperator Systems SM-229) to determine the motion range and mechanical power usage of the manipulator under direct human control. More than 50 hours of various manipulation operations were performed while joint positions and motor currents were recorded. Reduction of these data yielded histograms of the manipulator usage patterns revealing areas where future manipulator motion ranges and drive systems could be optimized. This report develops a graphical representation of mechanical power usage that relates torque and velocity to the total usage time. Methods of interpreting this representation are discussed and generalized for use in analyzing robotic systems. The resulting technique will allow designers to reevaluate an operating system and determine how to improve that system's design

  18. Hierarchical Robot Control System and Method for Controlling Select Degrees of Freedom of an Object Using Multiple Manipulators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdallah, Muhammad E. (Inventor); Platt, Robert (Inventor); Wampler, II, Charles W. (Inventor)

    2013-01-01

    A robotic system includes a robot having manipulators for grasping an object using one of a plurality of grasp types during a primary task, and a controller. The controller controls the manipulators during the primary task using a multiple-task control hierarchy, and automatically parameterizes the internal forces of the system for each grasp type in response to an input signal. The primary task is defined at an object-level of control, e.g., using a closed-chain transformation, such that only select degrees of freedom are commanded for the object. A control system for the robotic system has a host machine and algorithm for controlling the manipulators using the above hierarchy. A method for controlling the system includes receiving and processing the input signal using the host machine, including defining the primary task at the object-level of control, e.g., using a closed-chain definition, and parameterizing the internal forces for each of grasp type.

  19. Manipulating mesoscopic multipartite entanglement with atom-light interfaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stasinska, J.; Rodo, C.; Paganelli, S.; Birkl, G.; Sanpera, A.

    2009-01-01

    Entanglement between two macroscopic atomic ensembles induced by measurement on an ancillary light system has proven to be a powerful method for engineering quantum memories and quantum state transfer. Here we investigate the feasibility of such methods for generation, manipulation, and detection of genuine multipartite entanglement (Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger and clusterlike states) between mesoscopic atomic ensembles without the need of individual addressing of the samples. Our results extend in a nontrivial way the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen entanglement between two macroscopic gas samples reported experimentally in [B. Julsgaard, A. Kozhekin, and E. Polzik, Nature (London) 413, 400 (2001)]. We find that under realistic conditions, a second orthogonal light pulse interacting with the atomic samples, can modify and even reverse the entangling action of the first one leaving the samples in a separable state.

  20. A shuttle and space station manipulator system for assembly, docking, maintenance cargo handling and spacecraft retrieval (preliminary design). Volume 1: Management summary

    Science.gov (United States)

    1972-01-01

    A preliminary design is established for a general purpose manipulator system which can be used interchangeably on the shuttle and station and can be transferred back and forth between them. Control of the manipulator is accomplished by hard wiring from internal control stations in the shuttle or station. A variety of shuttle and station manipulator operations are considered including servicing the Large Space Telescope; however, emphasis is placed on unloading modules from the shuttle and assembling the space station. Simulation studies on foveal stereoscopic viewing and manipulator supervisory computer control have been accomplished to investigate the feasibility of their use in the manipulator system. The basic manipulator system consists of a single 18.3 m long, 7 degree of freedom (DOF), electrically acutated main boom with an auxiliary 3 DOF electrically actuated, extendible 18.3 m maximum length, lighting, and viewing boom. A 3 DOF orientor assembly is located at the tip of the viewing boom to provide camera pan, tilt, and roll.

  1. Manipulation robot system based on visual guidance for sealing blocking plate of steam generator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Duan Xingguang; Wang Yonggui; Li Meng; Kong Xiangzhan; Liu Qingsong

    2016-01-01

    To reduce labor intensity and irradiation exposure time inside the steam generator during the maintenance period of the nuclear power plant, a blocking plate manipulation robot system, including manipulation robot and pneumatic control console, is developed as an automatic remote-control tool to help staff to complete sealing steam generator primary pipes. The manipulation robot for fastening/loosening bolts utilizes visual guidance for target position, and the recognition algorithm is exerted to extract the bolt center coordinate values from image captured by camera in the procedure. The control strategy based on the position and current feedback is proposed for single bolt operation and whole bolts automatic operation. Meanwhile, the virtual interactive interface and remote monitoring are designed to improve the operability and safety. Finally, the relative experiments have verified the work effectiveness and the future work would be discussed. (author)

  2. Development of a piezo-actuated micro-teleoperation system for cell manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zareinejad, M; Rezaei, S M; Abdullah, A; Shiry Ghidary, S

    2009-03-01

    Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) requires long training and has low success rates, primarily due to poor control over the injection force. Making force feedback available to the operator will improve the success rate of the injection task. A macro-micro-teleoperation system bridges the gap between the task performed at the micro-level and the macroscopic movements of the operator. The teleoperation slave manipulator should accurately position a needle to precisely penetrate a cell membrane. Piezoelectric actuators are widely used in micromanipulation applications; however, hysteresis non-linearity limits the accuracy of these actuators. This paper presents a novel approach for utilizing a piezoelectric nano-stage as slave manipulator of a teleoperation system. The Prandtl-Ishlinskii (PI) model is used to model actuator hysteresis in a feedforward scheme to cancel out this non-linearity. To deal with the influence of parametric uncertainties, unmodelled dynamics and PI identification error, a perturbation term is added to the slave model and applies a sliding mode-based impedance control with perturbation estimation. The stability of entire system is guaranteed by Llewellyn's absolute stability criterion. The performance of the proposed controller was investigated through experiments for cell membrane penetration. The experimental results verified the accurate position tracking in free motion and simultaneous position and force tracking in contact with a low stiffness environment.

  3. SeqKit: A Cross-Platform and Ultrafast Toolkit for FASTA/Q File Manipulation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei Shen

    Full Text Available FASTA and FASTQ are basic and ubiquitous formats for storing nucleotide and protein sequences. Common manipulations of FASTA/Q file include converting, searching, filtering, deduplication, splitting, shuffling, and sampling. Existing tools only implement some of these manipulations, and not particularly efficiently, and some are only available for certain operating systems. Furthermore, the complicated installation process of required packages and running environments can render these programs less user friendly. This paper describes a cross-platform ultrafast comprehensive toolkit for FASTA/Q processing. SeqKit provides executable binary files for all major operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX, and can be directly used without any dependencies or pre-configurations. SeqKit demonstrates competitive performance in execution time and memory usage compared to similar tools. The efficiency and usability of SeqKit enable researchers to rapidly accomplish common FASTA/Q file manipulations. SeqKit is open source and available on Github at https://github.com/shenwei356/seqkit.

  4. Reconfigurable mobile manipulation for accident response

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anderson, Robert J.; Morse, William D.; Shirey, David L.; Cdebaca, DanielL M.; Hoffman, John P. Jr.; Lucy, William E.

    2000-01-01

    The need for a telerobotic vehicle with hazard sensing and integral manipulation capabilities has been identified for use in transportation accidents where nuclear weapons are involved. The Accident Response Mobile Manipulation System (ARMMS) platform has been developed to provide remote dexterous manipulation and hazard sensing for the Accident Response Group (ARG) at Sandia National Laboratories. The ARMMS' mobility platform is a military HMMWV [High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle] that is teleoperated over RF or Fiber Optic communication channels. ARMMS is equipped with two high strength Schilling Titan II manipulators and a suite of hazardous gas and radiation sensors. Recently, a modular telerobotic control architecture call SMART (Sandia Modular Architecture for Robotic and Teleoperation) has been applied to ARMMS. SMART enables input devices and many system behaviors to be rapidly configured in the field for specific mission needs. This paper summarizes current SMART developments applied to ARMMS

  5. On the Dynamics and Control of Free-floating Space Manipulator Systems in the Presence of Angular Momentum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kostas Nanos

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, the control of free-floating space manipulator systems with non-zero angular momentum (NZAM, for both motions in the joint and Cartesian space, is studied. Considering NZAM, dynamic models in the joint and Cartesian space are derived. It is shown that the NZAM has a similar result to the effect of gravity in terrestrial fixed base manipulators. Based on these similarities, the application of controllers similar to the ones used for the compensation of gravity in terrestrial fixed base manipulators is proposed here to compensate the effect of angular momentum. To confirm the asymptotic stability of the closed-loop systems, some structural properties of the dynamic models must be satisfied. It is shown that despite the presence of angular momentum, these structural properties still apply. Thus, the proposed controllers can drive the system in the desired position despite the presence of angular momentum. However, the NZAM imposes constraints on the system workspace, where the end-effector can be driven in the Cartesian space. Limitations are discussed and the application of the proposed controllers is illustrated by examples.

  6. Combined long reach and dexterous manipulation for waste storage tank applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burks, B.L.; Armstrong, G.A.; Butler, P.L.; Boissiere, P.

    1991-01-01

    One of the highest priority environmental restoration tasks within the Department of Energy (DOE) is the remediation of single-shell waste storage tanks (WSTs), especially those suspected of, or documented as, leakers. Most currently proposed approaches for remediation of large underground WSTs require application of remotely operated long-reach (greater than 10 m), high-lift capacity (greater than 200 kg) manipulator systems. Because of the complexity of in-tank hardware, waste forms, remediation tasks, and variety of end-effector tools, these manipulator systems must also be capable of performing a diverse set of dexterous manipulations. This presentation will describe the integration of a Spar RMS 2500 manipulator system, a Schilling Titan-7F manipulator, and control systems developed at ORNL and SNL to provide a combined long reach and dexterous manipulation system. The purpose of integrating these two manipulator systems was to study and demonstrate their combined performance, evaluate design requirements for a deployed system, and provide a testbed for control and end-effector technologies that might be applicable to remediation of WSTs. 5 refs

  7. Nonlinear Control of Hydraulic Manipulator for Decommissioning Nuclear Reactor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Myoung-Ho; Lee, Sung-Uk; Kim, Chang-Hoi; Choi, Byung-Seon; Moon, Jei-Kwon [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-10-15

    Robot technique is need to decommission nuclear reactor because of high radiation environment. Especially, Manipulator systems are useful for dismantling complex structure in a nuclear facility. In addition, Hydraulic system is applied to handle heavy duty object. Since hydraulic system can demonstrate high power. The manipulator with hydraulic power is already developed. To solve this problem, various nonlinear control method includes acceleration control. But, it is difficult because acceleration value is highly noisy. In this paper, the nonlinear control algorithm without acceleration control is studied. To verify, the hydraulic manipulator model had been developed. Furthermore, the numerical simulation is carried out. The nonlinear control without acceleration parameter method is developed for hydraulic manipulator. To verify control algorithm, the manipulator is modeled by MBD and the hydraulic servo system is also derived. In addition, the numerical simulation is also carried out. Especially, PID gain is determined though TDC algorithm. In the result of numerical simulation, tracking performance is good without acceleration control. Thus, the PID though TDC with SMC is good for hydraulic manipulator control.

  8. Nonlinear Control of Hydraulic Manipulator for Decommissioning Nuclear Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Myoung-Ho; Lee, Sung-Uk; Kim, Chang-Hoi; Choi, Byung-Seon; Moon, Jei-Kwon

    2016-01-01

    Robot technique is need to decommission nuclear reactor because of high radiation environment. Especially, Manipulator systems are useful for dismantling complex structure in a nuclear facility. In addition, Hydraulic system is applied to handle heavy duty object. Since hydraulic system can demonstrate high power. The manipulator with hydraulic power is already developed. To solve this problem, various nonlinear control method includes acceleration control. But, it is difficult because acceleration value is highly noisy. In this paper, the nonlinear control algorithm without acceleration control is studied. To verify, the hydraulic manipulator model had been developed. Furthermore, the numerical simulation is carried out. The nonlinear control without acceleration parameter method is developed for hydraulic manipulator. To verify control algorithm, the manipulator is modeled by MBD and the hydraulic servo system is also derived. In addition, the numerical simulation is also carried out. Especially, PID gain is determined though TDC algorithm. In the result of numerical simulation, tracking performance is good without acceleration control. Thus, the PID though TDC with SMC is good for hydraulic manipulator control

  9. The development of radiation hardened tele-robot system - Development of path-planning and control technology for tele-operated redundant manipulator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chang, Pyung Hun; Park, Ki Cheol; Park, Suk Ho [Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Taejon (Korea)

    1999-04-01

    This project focuses on the development of the control system for a teleoperated redundant manipulator, which performs many tasks dexterously, while avoiding obstacles, instead of human workers in the extreme situations like nuclear power plants. To this end, four consecutive research works have been performed. First, two new methods for global path-planning have been developed to inspect the global behavior of the redundant manipulator. Second, characteristics of optimal solutions(COS) under inequality constraints have been analyzed and, using the COS, how to greatly enhance the conventional redundancy resolution methods in terms of performance and repeatability has also been proposed. Third, an effective control method for a redundant manipulator has been developed, which incorporates all kinds of physical limits into practical inequality constraints and is computationally efficient for real-time purposes. Finally, using this control method as the controller of the slave redundant manipulator and developing a master manipulator, the inertial torque and gravitation torque of which are negligible, a force-reflected teleoperation control system has been developed. Through the teleoperation control system, human operator can accurately control the position and the force of the end-effector of the slave manipulator while feeling the interaction force between the slave and the workpiece. In addition, the slave redundant manipulator autonomously can control the impedance and can optimize a given performance measure while avoiding physical limits such as joint angle limits and obstacles. 49 refs., 43 figs., 10 tabs. (Author)

  10. Global Energy-Optimal Redundancy Resolution of Hydraulic Manipulators: Experimental Results for a Forestry Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jarmo Nurmi

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper addresses the energy-inefficiency problem of four-degrees-of-freedom (4-DOF hydraulic manipulators through redundancy resolution in robotic closed-loop controlled applications. Because conventional methods typically are local and have poor performance for resolving redundancy with respect to minimum hydraulic energy consumption, global energy-optimal redundancy resolution is proposed at the valve-controlled actuator and hydraulic power system interaction level. The energy consumption of the widely popular valve-controlled load-sensing (LS and constant-pressure (CP systems is effectively minimised through cost functions formulated in a discrete-time dynamic programming (DP approach with minimum state representation. A prescribed end-effector path and important actuator constraints at the position, velocity and acceleration levels are also satisfied in the solution. Extensive field experiments performed on a forestry hydraulic manipulator demonstrate the performance of the proposed solution. Approximately 15–30% greater hydraulic energy consumption was observed with the conventional methods in the LS and CP systems. These results encourage energy-optimal redundancy resolution in future robotic applications of hydraulic manipulators.

  11. Multilink manipulator computer control: experience in development and commissioning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holt, J.E.

    1988-11-01

    This report describes development which has been carried out on the multilink manipulator computer control system. The system allows the manipulator to be driven using only two joysticks. The leading link is controlled and the other links follow its path into the reactor, thus avoiding any potential obstacles. The system has been fully commissioned and used with the Sizewell ''A'' reactor 2 Multilink T.V. manipulator. Experience of the use of the system is presented, together with recommendations for future improvements. (author)

  12. The evolution of teleoperated manipulators at ORNL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kress, R.L.; Jansen, J.F.; Noakes, M.W.; Herndon, J.N.

    1996-01-01

    ORNL has made significant contributions to teleoperator and telerobotics technology for two decades and continues with an aggressive program today. Examples of past projects are: (1) the M2 servomanipulator, which was the first digitally controlled teleoperator; (2) the Advanced Servomanipulator (ASM), which was the first remotely maintainable teleoperator; (3) the CESARm/Kraft dissimilar teleoperated system; and (4) the Laboratory Telerobotic Manipulator (LTM), a 7-Degree-of-Freedom (7-DOF) telerobot built as a prototype for work in space. More recently, ORNL has become heavily involved with Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (ERWM) robotics programs funded by the Department of Energy (DOE). The ERWM program requires high payloads and high dexterity. As a result, a hydraulically actuated, dual-arm system comprised of two 6-DOF arms mounted on a 5-DOF base has been constructed and is being used today for various research tasks and for decontamination and dismantlement activities. All of these teleoperated manipulator systems build upon the experiences gained throughout the almost two decades of development. Each system incorporates not only the latest technology in computers, sensors, and electronics, but each new . system also adds at least one new feature to the technologies already developed and demonstrated in the previous system(s). As a result of this process, a serious study of these manipulator systems is a study in the evolution of teleoperated manipulator the systems in general. This provides insight not only into the research and development paths chosen in the past, but also into the appropriate directions for future teleoperator and telerobotics research. This paper examines each of the teleoperated/telerobotic systems developed at ORNL, summarizes their features and capabilities, examines the state of the most current telerobotic system (the Dual Arm Work Module), PM provides direction for a Next Generation Telerobotic Manipulator system

  13. Positional control of space robot manipulator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurochkin, Vladislav; Shymanchuk, Dzmitry

    2018-05-01

    In this article the mathematical model of a planar space robot manipulator is under study. The space robot manipulator represents a solid body with attached manipulators. The system of equations of motion is determined using the Lagrange's equations. The control problem concerning moving the robot to a given point and return it to a given trajectory in the phase space is solved. Changes of generalized coordinates and necessary control actions are plotted for a specific model.

  14. Modeling manipulation in medical education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dailey, Jason I

    2010-05-01

    As residents and medical students progress through their medical training, they are presented with multiple instances in which they feel they must manipulate the healthcare system and deceive others in order to efficiently treat their patients. This, however, creates a culture of manipulation resulting in untoward effects on trainees' ethical and professional development. Yet manipulation need not be a skill necessary to practice medicine, and steps should be taken by both individuals and institutions to combat the view that the way medicine must be practiced "in the real world" is somehow different from what one's affective moral sense implores.

  15. Novel Approaches to Manipulating Bacterial Pathogen Biofilms: Whole-Systems Design Philosophy and Steering Microbial Evolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Penn, Alexandra S

    2016-01-01

    Understanding and manipulating bacterial biofilms is crucial in medicine, ecology and agriculture and has potential applications in bioproduction, bioremediation and bioenergy. Biofilms often resist standard therapies and the need to develop new means of intervention provides an opportunity to fundamentally rethink our strategies. Conventional approaches to working with biological systems are, for the most part, "brute force", attempting to effect control in an input and effort intensive manner and are often insufficient when dealing with the inherent non-linearity and complexity of living systems. Biological systems, by their very nature, are dynamic, adaptive and resilient and require management tools that interact with dynamic processes rather than inert artefacts. I present an overview of a novel engineering philosophy which aims to exploit rather than fight those properties, and hence provide a more efficient and robust alternative. Based on a combination of evolutionary theory and whole-systems design, its essence is what I will call systems aikido; the basic principle of aikido being to interact with the momentum of an attacker and redirect it with minimal energy expenditure, using the opponent's energy rather than one's own. In more conventional terms, this translates to a philosophy of equilibrium engineering, manipulating systems' own self-organisation and evolution so that the evolutionarily or dynamically stable state corresponds to a function which we require. I illustrate these ideas with a description of a proposed manipulation of environmental conditions to alter the stability of co-operation in the context of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm infection of the cystic fibrosis lung.

  16. Surgical manipulation of mammalian embryos in vitro.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naruse, I; Keino, H; Taniguchi, M

    1997-04-01

    Whole-embryo culture systems are useful in the fields of not only embryology but also teratology, toxicology, pharmacology, and physiology. Of the many advantages of whole-embryo culture, we focus here on the surgical manipulation of mammalian embryos. Whole-embryo culture allows us to manipulate mammalian embryos, similarly to fish, amphibian and avian embryos. Many surgical experiments have been performed in mammalian embryos in vitro. Such surgical manipulation alters the destiny of morphogenesis of the embryos and can answer many questions concerning developmental issues. As an example of surgical manipulation using whole-embryo culture systems, one of our experiments is described. Microsurgical electrocauterization of the deep preaxial mesodermal programmed cell death zone (fpp) in the footplate prevented the manifestation of polydactyly in genetic polydactyly mouse embryos (Pdn/Pdn), in which fpp was abolished.

  17. Manipulators inspired by the tongue of the chameleon.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Debray, Alexis

    2011-06-01

    Chameleons have developed a specialized ballistic tongue which elongates more than six times its rest length at speeds higher than 3.5 m s(-1) and accelerations 350 m s(-2), with a highly flexible mobile part, and which applies no continuous force during forward motion. These characteristics are possible because this tongue consists of two highly specialized systems, an ejection system for the forward motion and an accordion-like system for the retraction. Four manipulators inspired by the tongue of the chameleon and based on this design have been developed, resulting in three characteristics similar to the tongue of the chameleon: extensibility of the manipulator, flexibility of the mobile part, and absence of continuous force during the forward motion. The first manipulator mimics the basic mechanism of the tongue of the chameleon and reproduced its basic performances. A second manipulator performs a catching function at a speed of 3.5 m s(-1) with an acceleration of 573 m s(-2) while elongating seven times its rest length. The design of this manipulator is such that the dc motor used for retraction applies a torque 25 times its rated torque. Moreover, during the retraction, the mobile part of the manipulator moves due to its own inertia, allowing the dc motor to rotate at full velocity. In another manipulator, the addition of an elastomer in the mobile part allows for control of the retraction velocity. A model for these two manipulators compares well with the experimental data. Finally, the addition of wings on the mobile part allows us to take the advantage of aerodynamic effects, which is unusual for manipulators.

  18. Manipulators inspired by the tongue of the chameleon

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Debray, Alexis

    2011-01-01

    Chameleons have developed a specialized ballistic tongue which elongates more than six times its rest length at speeds higher than 3.5 m s -1 and accelerations 350 m s -2 , with a highly flexible mobile part, and which applies no continuous force during forward motion. These characteristics are possible because this tongue consists of two highly specialized systems, an ejection system for the forward motion and an accordion-like system for the retraction. Four manipulators inspired by the tongue of the chameleon and based on this design have been developed, resulting in three characteristics similar to the tongue of the chameleon: extensibility of the manipulator, flexibility of the mobile part, and absence of continuous force during the forward motion. The first manipulator mimics the basic mechanism of the tongue of the chameleon and reproduced its basic performances. A second manipulator performs a catching function at a speed of 3.5 m s -1 with an acceleration of 573 m s -2 while elongating seven times its rest length. The design of this manipulator is such that the dc motor used for retraction applies a torque 25 times its rated torque. Moreover, during the retraction, the mobile part of the manipulator moves due to its own inertia, allowing the dc motor to rotate at full velocity. In another manipulator, the addition of an elastomer in the mobile part allows for control of the retraction velocity. A model for these two manipulators compares well with the experimental data. Finally, the addition of wings on the mobile part allows us to take the advantage of aerodynamic effects, which is unusual for manipulators.

  19. Manipulators inspired by the tongue of the chameleon

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Debray, Alexis, E-mail: debray.alexis@canon.co.jp [Canon Incorporation, 3-30-2, Shimomaruko, Ohta-ku, Tokyo 146-8501 (Japan)

    2011-06-15

    Chameleons have developed a specialized ballistic tongue which elongates more than six times its rest length at speeds higher than 3.5 m s{sup -1} and accelerations 350 m s{sup -2}, with a highly flexible mobile part, and which applies no continuous force during forward motion. These characteristics are possible because this tongue consists of two highly specialized systems, an ejection system for the forward motion and an accordion-like system for the retraction. Four manipulators inspired by the tongue of the chameleon and based on this design have been developed, resulting in three characteristics similar to the tongue of the chameleon: extensibility of the manipulator, flexibility of the mobile part, and absence of continuous force during the forward motion. The first manipulator mimics the basic mechanism of the tongue of the chameleon and reproduced its basic performances. A second manipulator performs a catching function at a speed of 3.5 m s{sup -1} with an acceleration of 573 m s{sup -2} while elongating seven times its rest length. The design of this manipulator is such that the dc motor used for retraction applies a torque 25 times its rated torque. Moreover, during the retraction, the mobile part of the manipulator moves due to its own inertia, allowing the dc motor to rotate at full velocity. In another manipulator, the addition of an elastomer in the mobile part allows for control of the retraction velocity. A model for these two manipulators compares well with the experimental data. Finally, the addition of wings on the mobile part allows us to take the advantage of aerodynamic effects, which is unusual for manipulators.

  20. Improvement of a Robotic Manipulator Model Based on Multivariate Residual Modeling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Serge Gale

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available A new method is presented for extending a dynamic model of a six degrees of freedom robotic manipulator. A non-linear multivariate calibration of input–output training data from several typical motion trajectories is carried out with the aim of predicting the model systematic output error at time (t + 1 from known input reference up till and including time (t. A new partial least squares regression (PLSR based method, nominal PLSR with interactions was developed and used to handle, unmodelled non-linearities. The performance of the new method is compared with least squares (LS. Different cross-validation schemes were compared in order to assess the sampling of the state space based on conventional trajectories. The method developed in the paper can be used as fault monitoring mechanism and early warning system for sensor failure. The results show that the suggested methods improves trajectory tracking performance of the robotic manipulator by extending the initial dynamic model of the manipulator.

  1. Manipulating quantum information on the controllable systems or subspaces

    OpenAIRE

    Zhang, Ming; Xi, Zairong; Wei, Jia-Hua

    2010-01-01

    In this paper, we explore how to constructively manipulate qubits by rotating Bloch spheres. It is revealed that three-rotation and one-rotation Hamiltonian controls can be constructed to steer qubits when two tunable Hamiltonian controls are available. It is demonstrated in this research that local-wave function controls such as Bang-Bang, triangle-function and quadratic function controls can be utilized to manipulate quantum states on the Bloch sphere. A new kind of time-energy performance ...

  2. Species-specific ant brain manipulation by a specialized fungal parasite.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Bekker, Charissa; Quevillon, Lauren E; Smith, Philip B; Fleming, Kimberly R; Ghosh, Debashis; Patterson, Andrew D; Hughes, David P

    2014-08-29

    A compelling demonstration of adaptation by natural selection is the ability of parasites to manipulate host behavior. One dramatic example involves fungal species from the genus Ophiocordyceps that control their ant hosts by inducing a biting behavior. Intensive sampling across the globe of ants that died after being manipulated by Ophiocordyceps suggests that this phenomenon is highly species-specific. We advance our understanding of this system by reconstructing host manipulation by Ophiocordyceps parasites under controlled laboratory conditions and combining this with field observations of infection rates and a metabolomics survey. We report on a newly discovered species of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis sensu lato from North America that we use to address the species-specificity of Ophiocordyceps-induced manipulation of ant behavior. We show that the fungus can kill all ant species tested, but only manipulates the behavior of those it infects in nature. To investigate if this could be explained at the molecular level, we used ex vivo culturing assays to measure the metabolites that are secreted by the fungus to mediate fungus-ant tissue interactions. We show the fungus reacts heterogeneously to brains of different ant species by secreting a different array of metabolites. By determining which ion peaks are significantly enriched when the fungus is grown alongside brains of its naturally occurring host, we discovered candidate compounds that could be involved in behavioral manipulation by O. unilateralis s.l.. Two of these candidates are known to be involved in neurological diseases and cancer. The integrative work presented here shows that ant brain manipulation by O. unilateralis s.l. is species-specific seemingly because the fungus produces a specific array of compounds as a reaction to the presence of the host brain it has evolved to manipulate. These studies have resulted in the discovery of candidate compounds involved in establishing behavioral manipulation

  3. Automated visual attention manipulation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bosse, T.; Lambalgen, R. van; Maanen, P.P. van; Treur, J.

    2009-01-01

    In this paper a system for visual attention manipulation is introduced and formally described. This system is part of the design of a software agent that supports naval crew in her task to compile a tactical picture of the situation in the field. A case study is described in hich the system is used

  4. Control of free-flying space robot manipulator systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cannon, Robert H., Jr.

    1989-01-01

    Control techniques for self-contained, autonomous free-flying space robots are being tested and developed. Free-flying space robots are envisioned as a key element of any successful long term presence in space. These robots must be capable of performing the assembly, maintenance, and inspection, and repair tasks that currently require astronaut extra-vehicular activity (EVA). Use of robots will provide economic savings as well as improved astronaut safety by reducing and in many cases, eliminating the need for human EVA. The focus of the work is to develop and carry out a set of research projects using laboratory models of satellite robots. These devices use air-cushion-vehicle (ACV) technology to simulate in two dimensions the drag-free, zero-g conditions of space. Current work is divided into six major projects or research areas. Fixed-base cooperative manipulation work represents our initial entry into multiple arm cooperation and high-level control with a sophisticated user interface. The floating-base cooperative manipulation project strives to transfer some of the technologies developed in the fixed-base work onto a floating base. The global control and navigation experiment seeks to demonstrate simultaneous control of the robot manipulators and the robot base position so that tasks can be accomplished while the base is undergoing a controlled motion. The multiple-vehicle cooperation project's goal is to demonstrate multiple free-floating robots working in teams to carry out tasks too difficult or complex for a single robot to perform. The Location Enhancement Arm Push-off (LEAP) activity's goal is to provide a viable alternative to expendable gas thrusters for vehicle propulsion wherein the robot uses its manipulators to throw itself from place to place. Because the successful execution of the LEAP technique requires an accurate model of the robot and payload mass properties, it was deemed an attractive testbed for adaptive control technology.

  5. Research towards ultrasonic systems to assist in-vessel manipulations in liquid metal cooled reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dierckx, Marc; Van-Dyck, Dries

    2013-06-01

    We describe the state of the art of the research towards ultrasonic measurement methods for use in lead-bismuth cooled liquid metal reactors. Our current research activities are highly focused on specific tasks in the MYRRHA system, which is a fast spectrum research reactor cooled with the eutectic mixture of lead and bismuth (LBE) and is conceived as an accelerator driven system capable of operating in both sub-critical and critical mode. As liquid metal is opaque to light, normal visual feedback during fuel manipulations in the reactor vessel is not available and must therefore be replaced by a system that is not hindered by the opacity of the coolant. In this respect ultrasonic measurement techniques have been proposed and even developed in the past for operation in sodium cooled reactors. To our knowledge, no such systems have ever been deployed in lead based reactors and we are the first to have a research program in this direction as will be detailed in this paper. We give an overview of the acoustic properties of LBE and compare them with the properties of sodium and water to theoretically show the feasibility of ultrasonic systems operating in LBE. In the second part of the paper we discuss the results of the validation experiments in water and LBE. A typical scene is ultrasonically probed by a mechanical scanning system while the signals are processed to render a 3D visualization on a computer screen. It will become clear that mechanical scanning is capable of producing acceptable images but that it is a time consuming process that is not fit to solve the initial task to providing feedback during manipulations in the reactor vessel. That is why we propose to use several dedicated ultrasonic systems each adapted to a specific task and capable to provide real-time feedback of the ongoing manipulations, as is detailed in the third and final part of the paper. (authors)

  6. Interpersonal relationship manipulation at a personal level

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreja Hribernik

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Manipulation is not unknown or strange to any of us. We have all experienced it, or perhaps even practiced it. It is wrong not to recognize it, to find excuses for it, and, above all, it is wrong not to decide to change one’s behaviour. Long-lasting use of manipulation leaves consequences on all the parties involved: the victim, the observer and the perpetrator. Manipulation is a relation between persons which does not consider the needs of everybody involved. It means exploitation and misleading, inhumane and unethical behaviour on the part of the manipulator, which he uses in order gain success, self-confirmation and to achieve his goals. In the act of manipulation personal boundaries of the other person are violated since the manipulator enforces his dominance and subjectedness of the victim. The manipulator invades the victim’s personal integrity, limiting their potential. He isolates, controls and intimidates them; by devises a system to catch the victims, to entangle them in his net and suck them up like a spider. If the manipulation is very successful, the other person does not recognize it as such; they consider themselves happy to be cooperating with the manipulator, as they identify his goals as their own. Therefore, the manipulator can be said to have stolen the manipulated person’s soul.

  7. A digital joint controller for manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holt, E.J.; Palmer, D.E.B.

    1993-01-01

    Nuclear Electric's hydraulic heavy duty manipulators are used at a number of Magnox Power Stations for a wide variety of tasks. In recent years there has been a trend towards the use of manipulators for tasks requiring increasing precision of tip positioning. In order to meet this requirement, a digital controller has been designed to replace the analogue controller board used in almost all manipulator control systems. The new controller allows the programming of a wide range of closed loop control algorithms. Position and drive signal data may be passed to and from the controller by digital means, allowing direct connection to a graphical display system and/or a computer executing a guidance algorithm. The hardware and software design are outlined and performance in the laboratory and the field is reported. (author)

  8. Manipulations of Totalitarian Nazi Architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antoszczyszyn, Marek

    2017-10-01

    The paper takes under considerations controversies surrounding German architecture designed during Nazi period between 1933-45. This architecture is commonly criticized for being out of innovation, taste & elementary sense of beauty. Moreover, it has been consequently wiped out from architectural manuals, probably for its undoubted associations with the totalitarian system considered as the most maleficent in the whole history. But in the meantime the architecture of another totalitarian system which appeared to be not less sinister than Nazi one is not stigmatized with such verve. It is Socrealism architecture, developed especially in East Europe & reportedly containing lots of similarities with Nazi architecture. Socrealism totalitarian architecture was never condemned like Nazi one, probably due to politically manipulated propaganda that influenced postwar public opinion. This observation leads to reflection that maybe in the same propaganda way some values of Nazi architecture are still consciously dissembled in order to hide the fact that some rules used by Nazi German architects have been also consciously used after the war. Those are especially manipulations that allegedly Nazi architecture consisted of. The paper provides some definitions around totalitarian manipulations as well as ideological assumptions for their implementation. Finally, the register of confirmed manipulations is provided with use of photo case study.

  9. Single-molecule imaging and manipulation of biomolecular machines and systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iino, Ryota; Iida, Tatsuya; Nakamura, Akihiko; Saita, Ei-Ichiro; You, Huijuan; Sako, Yasushi

    2018-02-01

    Biological molecular machines support various activities and behaviors of cells, such as energy production, signal transduction, growth, differentiation, and migration. We provide an overview of single-molecule imaging methods involving both small and large probes used to monitor the dynamic motions of molecular machines in vitro (purified proteins) and in living cells, and single-molecule manipulation methods used to measure the forces, mechanical properties and responses of biomolecules. We also introduce several examples of single-molecule analysis, focusing primarily on motor proteins and signal transduction systems. Single-molecule analysis is a powerful approach to unveil the operational mechanisms both of individual molecular machines and of systems consisting of many molecular machines. Quantitative, high-resolution single-molecule analyses of biomolecular systems at the various hierarchies of life will help to answer our fundamental question: "What is life?" This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "Biophysical Exploration of Dynamical Ordering of Biomolecular Systems" edited by Dr. Koichi Kato. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. REMOTE IN-CELL SAMPLING IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM AT THESAVANNAH RIVER SITE (SRS) DEFENSE WASTE PROCESSING FACILITY (DWPF)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marzolf, A

    2007-01-01

    Remote Systems Engineering (RSE) of the Savannah River National Lab (SRNL) in combination with the Defense Waste Processing Facility(DWPF) Engineering and Operations has evaluated the existing equipment and processes used in the facility sample cells for 'pulling' samples from the radioactive waste stream and performing equipment in-cell repairs/replacements. RSE has designed and tested equipment for improving remote in-cell sampling evolutions and reducing the time required for in-cell maintenance of existing equipment. The equipment within the present process tank sampling system has been in constant use since the facility start-up over 17 years ago. At present, the method for taking samples within the sample cells produces excessive maintenance and downtime due to frequent failures relative to the sampling station equipment and manipulator. Location and orientation of many sampling stations within the sample cells is not conducive to manipulator operation. The overextension of manipulators required to perform many in-cell operations is a major cause of manipulator failures. To improve sampling operations and reduce downtime due to equipment maintenance, a Portable Sampling Station (PSS), wireless in-cell cameras, and new commercially available sampling technology has been designed, developed and/or adapted and tested. The uniqueness of the design(s), the results of the scoping tests, and the benefits relative to in-cell operation and reduction of waste are presented

  11. Sampling based motion planning with reachable volumes: Application to manipulators and closed chain systems

    KAUST Repository

    McMahon, Troy

    2014-09-01

    © 2014 IEEE. Reachable volumes are a geometric representation of the regions the joints of a robot can reach. They can be used to generate constraint satisfying samples for problems including complicated linkage robots (e.g. closed chains and graspers). They can also be used to assist robot operators and to help in robot design.We show that reachable volumes have an O(1) complexity in unconstrained problems as well as in many constrained problems. We also show that reachable volumes can be computed in linear time and that reachable volume samples can be generated in linear time in problems without constraints. We experimentally validate reachable volume sampling, both with and without constraints on end effectors and/or internal joints. We show that reachable volume samples are less likely to be invalid due to self-collisions, making reachable volume sampling significantly more efficient for higher dimensional problems. We also show that these samples are easier to connect than others, resulting in better connected roadmaps. We demonstrate that our method can be applied to 262-dof, multi-loop, and tree-like linkages including combinations of planar, prismatic and spherical joints. In contrast, existing methods either cannot be used for these problems or do not produce good quality solutions.

  12. Sampling based motion planning with reachable volumes: Application to manipulators and closed chain systems

    KAUST Repository

    McMahon, Troy; Thomas, Shawna; Amato, Nancy M.

    2014-01-01

    © 2014 IEEE. Reachable volumes are a geometric representation of the regions the joints of a robot can reach. They can be used to generate constraint satisfying samples for problems including complicated linkage robots (e.g. closed chains and graspers). They can also be used to assist robot operators and to help in robot design.We show that reachable volumes have an O(1) complexity in unconstrained problems as well as in many constrained problems. We also show that reachable volumes can be computed in linear time and that reachable volume samples can be generated in linear time in problems without constraints. We experimentally validate reachable volume sampling, both with and without constraints on end effectors and/or internal joints. We show that reachable volume samples are less likely to be invalid due to self-collisions, making reachable volume sampling significantly more efficient for higher dimensional problems. We also show that these samples are easier to connect than others, resulting in better connected roadmaps. We demonstrate that our method can be applied to 262-dof, multi-loop, and tree-like linkages including combinations of planar, prismatic and spherical joints. In contrast, existing methods either cannot be used for these problems or do not produce good quality solutions.

  13. Rotor-Flying Manipulator: Modeling, Analysis, and Control

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bin Yang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Equipping multijoint manipulators on a mobile robot is a typical redesign scheme to make the latter be able to actively influence the surroundings and has been extensively used for many ground robots, underwater robots, and space robotic systems. However, the rotor-flying robot (RFR is difficult to be made such redesign. This is mainly because the motion of the manipulator will bring heavy coupling between itself and the RFR system, which makes the system model highly complicated and the controller design difficult. Thus, in this paper, the modeling, analysis, and control of the combined system, called rotor-flying multijoint manipulator (RF-MJM, are conducted. Firstly, the detailed dynamics model is constructed and analyzed. Subsequently, a full-state feedback linear quadratic regulator (LQR controller is designed through obtaining linearized model near steady state. Finally, simulations are conducted and the results are analyzed to show the basic control performance.

  14. Probabilistic approach to manipulator kinematics and dynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rao, S.S.; Bhatti, P.K.

    2001-01-01

    A high performance, high speed robotic arm must be able to manipulate objects with a high degree of accuracy and repeatability. As with any other physical system, there are a number of factors causing uncertainties in the behavior of a robotic manipulator. These factors include manufacturing and assembling tolerances, and errors in the joint actuators and controllers. In order to study the effect of these uncertainties on the robotic end-effector and to obtain a better insight into the manipulator behavior, the manipulator kinematics and dynamics are modeled using a probabilistic approach. Based on the probabilistic model, kinematic and dynamic performance criteria are defined to provide measures of the behavior of the robotic end-effector. Techniques are presented to compute the kinematic and dynamic reliabilities of the manipulator. The effects of tolerances associated with the various manipulator parameters on the reliabilities are studied. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the procedures

  15. Can we manipulate root system architecture to control soil erosion?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ola, A.; Dodd, I. C.; Quinton, J. N.

    2015-09-01

    Soil erosion is a major threat to soil functioning. The use of vegetation to control erosion has long been a topic for research. Much of this research has focused on the above-ground properties of plants, demonstrating the important role that canopy structure and cover plays in the reduction of water erosion processes. Less attention has been paid to plant roots. Plant roots are a crucial yet under-researched factor for reducing water erosion through their ability to alter soil properties, such as aggregate stability, hydraulic function and shear strength. However, there have been few attempts to specifically manipulate plant root system properties to reduce soil erosion. Therefore, this review aims to explore the effects that plant roots have on soil erosion and hydrological processes, and how plant root architecture might be manipulated to enhance its erosion control properties. We demonstrate the importance of root system architecture for the control of soil erosion. We also show that some plant species respond to nutrient-enriched patches by increasing lateral root proliferation. The erosional response to root proliferation will depend upon its location: at the soil surface dense mats of roots may reduce soil erodibility but block soil pores thereby limiting infiltration, enhancing runoff. Additionally, in nutrient-deprived regions, root hair development may be stimulated and larger amounts of root exudates released, thereby improving aggregate stability and decreasing erodibility. Utilizing nutrient placement at specific depths may represent a potentially new, easily implemented, management strategy on nutrient-poor agricultural land or constructed slopes to control erosion, and further research in this area is needed.

  16. Hydraulic manipulator design, analysis, and control at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kress, R.L.; Jansen, J.F. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Robotics and Process Systems Div.; Love, L.J. [Oak Ridge Inst. for Science and Education, TN (United States); Basher, A.M.H. [South Carolina State Univ., Orangeburg, SC (United States)

    1996-09-01

    To meet the increased payload capacities demanded by present-day tasks, manipulator designers have turned to hydraulics as a means of actuation. Hydraulics have always been the actuator of choice when designing heavy-life construction and mining equipment such as bulldozers, backhoes, and tunneling devices. In order to successfully design, build, and deploy a new hydraulic manipulator (or subsystem) sophisticated modeling, analysis, and control experiments are usually needed. To support the development and deployment of new hydraulic manipulators Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has outfitted a significant experimental laboratory and has developed the software capability for research into hydraulic manipulators, hydraulic actuators, hydraulic systems, modeling of hydraulic systems, and hydraulic controls. The hydraulics laboratory at ORNL has three different manipulators. First is a 6-Degree-of-Freedom (6-DoF), multi-planer, teleoperated, flexible controls test bed used for the development of waste tank clean-up manipulator controls, thermal studies, system characterization, and manipulator tracking. Finally, is a human amplifier test bed used for the development of an entire new class of teleoperated systems. To compliment the hardware in the hydraulics laboratory, ORNL has developed a hydraulics simulation capability including a custom package to model the hydraulic systems and manipulators for performance studies and control development. This paper outlines the history of hydraulic manipulator developments at ORNL, describes the hydraulics laboratory, discusses the use of the equipment within the laboratory, and presents some of the initial results from experiments and modeling associated with these hydraulic manipulators. Included are some of the results from the development of the human amplifier/de-amplifier concepts, the characterization of the thermal sensitivity of hydraulic systems, and end-point tracking accuracy studies. Experimental and analytical

  17. Hydraulic manipulator design, analysis, and control at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kress, R.L.; Jansen, J.F.; Basher, A.M.H.

    1996-09-01

    To meet the increased payload capacities demanded by present-day tasks, manipulator designers have turned to hydraulics as a means of actuation. Hydraulics have always been the actuator of choice when designing heavy-life construction and mining equipment such as bulldozers, backhoes, and tunneling devices. In order to successfully design, build, and deploy a new hydraulic manipulator (or subsystem) sophisticated modeling, analysis, and control experiments are usually needed. To support the development and deployment of new hydraulic manipulators Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has outfitted a significant experimental laboratory and has developed the software capability for research into hydraulic manipulators, hydraulic actuators, hydraulic systems, modeling of hydraulic systems, and hydraulic controls. The hydraulics laboratory at ORNL has three different manipulators. First is a 6-Degree-of-Freedom (6-DoF), multi-planer, teleoperated, flexible controls test bed used for the development of waste tank clean-up manipulator controls, thermal studies, system characterization, and manipulator tracking. Finally, is a human amplifier test bed used for the development of an entire new class of teleoperated systems. To compliment the hardware in the hydraulics laboratory, ORNL has developed a hydraulics simulation capability including a custom package to model the hydraulic systems and manipulators for performance studies and control development. This paper outlines the history of hydraulic manipulator developments at ORNL, describes the hydraulics laboratory, discusses the use of the equipment within the laboratory, and presents some of the initial results from experiments and modeling associated with these hydraulic manipulators. Included are some of the results from the development of the human amplifier/de-amplifier concepts, the characterization of the thermal sensitivity of hydraulic systems, and end-point tracking accuracy studies. Experimental and analytical

  18. Haptic Manipulation of Deformable Objects in Hybrid Bilateral Teleoperation System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan Manuel Ibarra-Zannatha

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this work is the integration of a virtual environment containing a deformable object, manipulated by an open kinematical chain virtual slave robot, to a bilateral teleoperation scheme based on a real haptic device. The virtual environment of this hybrid bilateral teleoperation system combines collision detection algorithms, dynamical, kinematical and geometrical models with a position–position and/or force–position bilateral control algorithm, to produce on the operator side the reflected forces corresponding to the virtual mechanical interactions, through a haptic device. Contact teleoperation task over the virtual environment with a flexible object is implemented and analysed.

  19. Interaction control of a redundant mobile manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chung, J.H.; Velinsky, S.A.; Hess, R.A.

    1998-01-01

    This paper discusses the modeling and control of a spatial mobile manipulator that consists of a robotic manipulator mounted on a wheeled mobile platform. The Lagrange-d'Alembert formulation is used to obtain a concise description of the dynamics of the system, which is subject to nonholonomic constraints. The complexity of the model is increased by introducing kinematic redundancy, which is created when a multilinked manipulator is used. The kinematic redundancy is resolved by decomposing the mobile manipulator into two subsystems: the mobile platform and the manipulator. The redundancy resolution scheme employs a nonlinear interaction-control algorithm, which is developed and applied to coordinate the two subsystems' controllers. The subsystem controllers are independently designed, based on each subsystem's dynamic characteristics. Simulation results show the promise of the developed algorithm

  20. METALLOGRAPHIC SAMPLE PREPARATION STATION-CONSTRUCTIVE CONCEPT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    AVRAM Florin Timotei

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we propose to present the issues involved in the case of the constructive conception of a station for metallographic sample preparation. This station is destined for laboratory work. The metallographic station is composed of a robot ABB IRB1600, a metallographic microscope, a gripping device, a manipulator, a laboratory grinding and polishing machine. The robot will be used for manipulation of the sample preparation and the manipulator take the sample preparation for processing.

  1. Guide to improving the performance of a manipulator system for nuclear fuel handling through computer controls. Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Evans, J.M. Jr.; Albus, J.S.; Barbera, A.J.; Rosenthal, R.; Truitt, W.B.

    1975-11-01

    The Office of Developmental Automation and Control Technology of the Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology of the National Bureau of Standards provides advising services, standards and guidelines on interface and computer control systems, and performance specifications for the procurement and use of computer controlled manipulators and other computer based automation systems. These outputs help other agencies and industry apply this technology to increase productivity and improve work quality by removing men from hazardous environments. In FY 74 personnel from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory visited NBS to discuss the feasibility of using computer control techniques to improve the operation of remote control manipulators in nuclear fuel reprocessing. Subsequent discussions led to an agreement for NBS to develop a conceptual design for such a computer control system for the PaR Model 3000 manipulator in the Thorium Uranium Recycle Facility (TURF) at ORNL. This report provides the required analysis and conceptual design. Complete computer programs are included for testing of computer interfaces and for actual robot control in both point-to-point and continuous path modes

  2. A Method on Dynamic Path Planning for Robotic Manipulator Autonomous Obstacle Avoidance Based on an Improved RRT Algorithm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Kun; Ren, Bingyin

    2018-02-13

    In a future intelligent factory, a robotic manipulator must work efficiently and safely in a Human-Robot collaborative and dynamic unstructured environment. Autonomous path planning is the most important issue which must be resolved first in the process of improving robotic manipulator intelligence. Among the path-planning methods, the Rapidly Exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm based on random sampling has been widely applied in dynamic path planning for a high-dimensional robotic manipulator, especially in a complex environment because of its probability completeness, perfect expansion, and fast exploring speed over other planning methods. However, the existing RRT algorithm has a limitation in path planning for a robotic manipulator in a dynamic unstructured environment. Therefore, an autonomous obstacle avoidance dynamic path-planning method for a robotic manipulator based on an improved RRT algorithm, called Smoothly RRT (S-RRT), is proposed. This method that targets a directional node extends and can increase the sampling speed and efficiency of RRT dramatically. A path optimization strategy based on the maximum curvature constraint is presented to generate a smooth and curved continuous executable path for a robotic manipulator. Finally, the correctness, effectiveness, and practicability of the proposed method are demonstrated and validated via a MATLAB static simulation and a Robot Operating System (ROS) dynamic simulation environment as well as a real autonomous obstacle avoidance experiment in a dynamic unstructured environment for a robotic manipulator. The proposed method not only provides great practical engineering significance for a robotic manipulator's obstacle avoidance in an intelligent factory, but also theoretical reference value for other type of robots' path planning.

  3. Female directors and real activities manipulation: Evidence from China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jin-hui Luo

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Unlike previous studies that focus on accrual-based earnings management, this study analyzes real activities manipulation and investigates whether female directors on boards of directors (BoDs affect managers’ real activities manipulation. Using a large sample of 11,831 firm-year observations from Chinese listed companies from the 2000 to 2011 period, we find that higher female participation on BoDs is associated with lower levels of real activities manipulation, and that this negative relationship is stronger when female directors have higher ownership. These results hold for a battery of robustness checks. Overall, our findings indicate that board gender diversity may serve as a substitute mechanism for corporate governance to curb real activities manipulation and thus provide interested stakeholders with higher quality earnings reports.

  4. Sistem kontrol gerak kinematika robot gripper manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wayan Widhiada

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstrak Sistem robot manipulator ini merupakan mekanisme lengan yang terdiri dari serangkaian segmen yang digunakan untuk menangkap dan memindahkan benda dengan beberapa derajat kebebasan. Dalam perkembangannya, robot manipulator telah digunakan dalam melaksanakan misi tertentu dan membantu operasi di ruang angkasa. Robot biasanya berinteraksi dengan sistem tangan, dan dalam kegiatan industri tangan biasanya disebut sebagai gripper. Penulis menggunakan metode simulasi teknik yang dapat menentukan sistem gerak kinematika robot. Simulasi teknik adalah metode yang digunakan untuk mendesain dan menganalisa gerakan robot dimana hasil dari respon gerakan robot yang didapat mendekati hasil dalam keadaan sebenarnya. Simulasi juga dapat menghemat waktu dan biaya yang digunakan dalam mendesain robot gripper manipulator lima jari dengan elemen prismatik. Dengan menggunakan kontrol PID diharapkan respon gerak kinematik dari setiap joint robot manipulator mencapai perfomance yang terbaik seperti overshoot yang kecil, dan kondisi tenang (steady state dalam waktu yang singkat disertai dengan keselahan penggerak yang kecil. Melalui proses Advance tuning pada PID kontrol selesai didapatkan parameter penguat pada PID kontrol yaitu Kp = 0.7194, Ki = 8.306 dan Kd = 0.0061sehingga tercapai performance gerakan kinematika robot gripper manipulator yang terbaik sesuai yang dikehendaki oleh user dengan rise time yang singkat 0.52 detik, waktu puncak yang singkat 0.52 detik, maksimum overshoot yang kecil 1,8%, kesetebailan response dicapai pada 0.76 detik dan kesalahan penggerak yang sangat kecil 0.32%. Kata kunci: Robot gripper manipulator, PID control, gerakan kinematika Abstract A robot gripper manipulator system mechanism comprising a series of segments that are used to capture and move objects with multiple degrees of freedom. In the process, the robot manipulator has been used in carrying out the specific mission and assist operations in space. Robot manipulator

  5. Manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wilcock, P.D.

    1984-01-01

    The patent concerns a manipulator, which enables operations to be carried out remotely from the operator. The device is suitable for use in handling of radioactive materials and other hazardous liquids or gases. The specifications are given, and the movements of the manipulator arm described. (U.K.)

  6. Two different strategies of host manipulation allow parasites to persist in intermediate-definitive host systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vries, de L.J.; Langevelde, van F.

    2018-01-01

    Trophically transmitted parasites start their development in an intermediate host, before they finish the development in their definitive host when the definitive host preys on the intermediate host. In intermediate-definitive host systems, two strategies of host manipulation have been evolved:

  7. Early Childhood Math: Make It Manipulative!

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stone, Janet I.

    1987-01-01

    Maintains that early childhood teachers should provide young children with creative, stimulating, and manipulative (hands-on) experiences rather than workbook pages in early mathematics programs. Presents reasons and corresponding counterpositions for using workbooks and suggests sample activities which teachers can use to make mathematics more…

  8. On the dynamics of chain systems. [applications in manipulator and human body models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huston, R. L.; Passerello, C. E.

    1974-01-01

    A computer-oriented method for obtaining dynamical equations of motion for chain systems is presented. A chain system is defined as an arbitrarily assembled set of rigid bodies such that adjoining bodies have at least one common point and such that closed loops are not formed. The equations of motion are developed through the use of Lagrange's form of d'Alembert's principle. The method and procedure is illustrated with an elementary study of a tripod space manipulator. The method is designed for application with systems such as human body models, chains and cables, and dynamic finite-segment models.

  9. The function-manipulating-system SERVUS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thurnay, K.

    1985-04-01

    SERVUS is a service-utility to store functions resulting from a numerical calculation in specially fitted data sets and display them later on. SERVUS enables also the user to manipulate the stored functions, before displaying them. The functions can be presented either as number-columns, or as a family of curves or as surfaces of functions. The paper describes the steps, needed for allocating a SERVUS-data set, for storing a function in this set, for reading a function from this data set, for cataloguing the functions, stored in the set, for copying a SERVUS-data set, for deleting stored functions, for printing stored functions and for drawing two or three-dimensional pictures of them. (orig.) [de

  10. A Medical Manipulator System with Lasers in Photodynamic Therapy of Port Wine Stains

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xingtao Wang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Port wine stains (PWS are a congenital malformation and dilation of the superficial dermal capillary. Photodynamic therapy (PDT with lasers is an effective treatment of PWS with good results. However, because the laser density is uneven and nonuniform, the treatment is carried out manually by a doctor thus providing little accuracy. Additionally, since the treatment of a single lesion can take between 30 and 60 minutes, the doctor can become fatigued after only a few applications. To assist the medical staff with this treatment method, a medical manipulator system (MMS was built to operate the lasers. The manipulator holds the laser fiber and, using a combination of active and passive joints, the fiber can be operated automatically. In addition to the control input from the doctor over a human-computer interface, information from a binocular vision system is used to guide and supervise the operation. Clinical results are compared in nonparametric values between treatments with and without the use of the MMS. The MMS, which can significantly reduce the workload of doctors and improve the uniformity of laser irradiation, was safely and helpfully applied in PDT treatment of PWS with good therapeutic results.

  11. SSSFD manipulator engineering using statistical experiment design techniques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnes, John

    1991-01-01

    The Satellite Servicer System Flight Demonstration (SSSFD) program is a series of Shuttle flights designed to verify major on-orbit satellite servicing capabilities, such as rendezvous and docking of free flyers, Orbital Replacement Unit (ORU) exchange, and fluid transfer. A major part of this system is the manipulator system that will perform the ORU exchange. The manipulator must possess adequate toolplate dexterity to maneuver a variety of EVA-type tools into position to interface with ORU fasteners, connectors, latches, and handles on the satellite, and to move workpieces and ORUs through 6 degree of freedom (dof) space from the Target Vehicle (TV) to the Support Module (SM) and back. Two cost efficient tools were combined to perform a study of robot manipulator design parameters. These tools are graphical computer simulations and Taguchi Design of Experiment methods. Using a graphics platform, an off-the-shelf robot simulation software package, and an experiment designed with Taguchi's approach, the sensitivities of various manipulator kinematic design parameters to performance characteristics are determined with minimal cost.

  12. Ion Mobility Separations of Isomers based upon Long Path Length Structures for Lossless Ion Manipulations Combined with Mass Spectrometry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Deng, Liulin [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA; Ibrahim, Yehia M. [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA; Baker, Erin S. [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA; Aly, Noor A. [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA; Hamid, Ahmed M. [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA; Zhang, Xing [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA; Zheng, Xueyun [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA; Garimella, Sandilya V. B. [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA; Webb, Ian K. [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA; Prost, Spencer A. [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA; Sandoval, Jeremy A. [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA; Norheim, Randolph V. [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA; Anderson, Gordon A. [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA; Tolmachev, Aleksey V. [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA; Smith, Richard D. [Biological Sciences Division and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd Richland, WA 99352 USA

    2016-07-01

    Mass spectrometry (MS)-based multi-omic measurements, including proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, and glycomics, are increasingly transforming our ability to characterize and understand biological systems, but, presently have limitations due to the chemical diversity and range of abundances of biomolecules in complex samples. Advances addressing these challenges increasingly are based upon the ability to quickly separate, react and otherwise manipulate sample components for analysis by MS. Here we report on a new approach using Structures for Lossless Ion Manipulations (SLIM) to enable long serpentine path ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) separations followed by MS analyses. This approach provides previously unachieved mobility biomolecule isomer separations for biomolecular species, in conjunction with more effective ion utilization, and producing a basis for the improved characterization of very small samples.

  13. Motion planning for gantry mounted manipulators

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olsen, Anders Lau; Petersen, Henrik Gordon

    2007-01-01

    We present a roadmap based planner for finding robot motions for gantry mounted manipulators for a line welding application at Odense Steel Shipyard (OSS). The robot motions are planned subject to constraints on when the gantry may be moved. We show that random sampling of gantry configurations...

  14. State of the art in design and control of master-slave manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Ki Ho; Kim, Seung Ho; Kim, Byung Soo; Kim, Chang Hoi; Jung, Seung Ho; Kwang, Suk Yeoung; Seo, Yong Chil; Lee, Young Kwang

    1998-03-01

    The use of remotely operated robots and other mechanical devices as replacements of human workers in hazardous environments is a growing field of research. In particular, master-slave manipulators have been extensively used in the nuclear industries governed by the ALARA principle for more than four decades. There, however, are still few successful implementations of complex and high degree-of-freedom systems. The master manipulator is an input device which interfaces with the human operator on one side and with the slave manipulator on the other. Bilateral force-reflecting control plays a key supporting role in successful dexterous manipulation of the master-slave manipulators. Great increase in performance of the master-slave manipulator system can be achieved through good design of mechanical hardware and proper implementation of the embedded control strategies. This report presents some of design issues relevant to designers of the master manipulator as man-machine interface device in the master-slave manipulator system. Significant design parameters for both the replica and universal master manipulators are evaluated. In addition, the report describes the various control schemes of the bilateral force-reflecting master-slave manipulators, discusses the analysis and synthesis of the control loop between the master and slave manipulators, and examines the necessary position and force information on both sides. (author). 80 refs., 2 tabs., 15 figs

  15. Application of Shuttle Remote Manipulator System technology to the replacement of fuel channels in the Pickering CANDU reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stratton, D.; Butt, C.

    1982-04-01

    Spar Aerospace Limited of Toronto was the prime contractor to the National Research Council of Canada for the design and development of the Shuttle Remote Manipulator (SRMS). Spar is presently under contract to Ontario Hydro to design and build a Remote Manipulation Control System to replace the fuel channels in the Pickering A Nuclear Generating Station. The equipment may be used to replace the fuel channels in six other early generation CANDU reactors

  16. Manipulation of microfluidic droplets by electrorheological fluid

    KAUST Repository

    Zhang, Menying

    2009-09-01

    Microfluidics, especially droplet microfluidics, attracts more and more researchers from diverse fields, because it requires fewer materials and less time, produces less waste and has the potential of highly integrated and computer-controlled reaction processes for chemistry and biology. Electrorheological fluid, especially giant electrorheological fluid (GERF), which is considered as a kind of smart material, has been applied to the microfluidic systems to achieve active and precise control of fluid by electrical signal. In this review article, we will introduce recent results of microfluidic droplet manipulation, GERF and some pertinent achievements by introducing GERF into microfluidic system: digital generation, manipulation of "smart droplets" and droplet manipulation by GERF. Once it is combined with real-time detection, integrated chip with multiple functions can be realized. © 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

  17. Synergy-Based Bilateral Port: A Universal Control Module for Tele-Manipulation Frameworks Using Asymmetric Master–Slave Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brygo, Anais; Sarakoglou, Ioannis; Grioli, Giorgio; Tsagarakis, Nikos

    2017-01-01

    Endowing tele-manipulation frameworks with the capability to accommodate a variety of robotic hands is key to achieving high performances through permitting to flexibly interchange the end-effector according to the task considered. This requires the development of control policies that not only cope with asymmetric master–slave systems but also whose high-level components are designed in a unified space in abstraction from the devices specifics. To address this dual challenge, a novel synergy port is developed that resolves the kinematic, sensing, and actuation asymmetries of the considered system through generating motion and force feedback references in the hardware-independent hand postural synergy space. It builds upon the concept of the Cartesian-based synergy matrix, which is introduced as a tool mapping the fingertips Cartesian space to the directions oriented along the grasp principal components. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach, the synergy port has been integrated into the control system of a highly asymmetric tele-manipulation framework, in which the 3-finger hand exoskeleton HEXOTRAC is used as a master device to control the SoftHand, a robotic hand whose transmission system relies on a single motor to drive all joints along a soft synergistic path. The platform is further enriched with the vision-based motion capture system Optitrack to monitor the 6D trajectory of the user’s wrist, which is used to control the robotic arm on which the SoftHand is mounted. Experiments have been conducted with the humanoid robot COMAN and the KUKA LWR robotic manipulator. Results indicate that this bilateral interface is highly intuitive and allows users with no prior experience to reach, grasp, and transport a variety of objects exhibiting very different shapes and impedances. In addition, the hardware and control solutions proved capable of accommodating users with different hand kinematics. Finally, the proposed control framework offers a

  18. Synergy-Based Bilateral Port: A Universal Control Module for Tele-Manipulation Frameworks Using Asymmetric Master-Slave Systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brygo, Anais; Sarakoglou, Ioannis; Grioli, Giorgio; Tsagarakis, Nikos

    2017-01-01

    Endowing tele-manipulation frameworks with the capability to accommodate a variety of robotic hands is key to achieving high performances through permitting to flexibly interchange the end-effector according to the task considered. This requires the development of control policies that not only cope with asymmetric master-slave systems but also whose high-level components are designed in a unified space in abstraction from the devices specifics. To address this dual challenge, a novel synergy port is developed that resolves the kinematic, sensing, and actuation asymmetries of the considered system through generating motion and force feedback references in the hardware-independent hand postural synergy space. It builds upon the concept of the Cartesian-based synergy matrix, which is introduced as a tool mapping the fingertips Cartesian space to the directions oriented along the grasp principal components. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach, the synergy port has been integrated into the control system of a highly asymmetric tele-manipulation framework, in which the 3-finger hand exoskeleton HEXOTRAC is used as a master device to control the SoftHand, a robotic hand whose transmission system relies on a single motor to drive all joints along a soft synergistic path. The platform is further enriched with the vision-based motion capture system Optitrack to monitor the 6D trajectory of the user's wrist, which is used to control the robotic arm on which the SoftHand is mounted. Experiments have been conducted with the humanoid robot COMAN and the KUKA LWR robotic manipulator. Results indicate that this bilateral interface is highly intuitive and allows users with no prior experience to reach, grasp, and transport a variety of objects exhibiting very different shapes and impedances. In addition, the hardware and control solutions proved capable of accommodating users with different hand kinematics. Finally, the proposed control framework offers a

  19. [An Introduction to A Newly-developed "Acupuncture Needle Manipulation Training-evaluation System" Based on Optical Motion Capture Technique].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Ao; Yan, Xing-Ke; Liu, An-Guo

    2016-12-25

    In the present paper, the authors introduce a newly-developed "Acupuncture Needle Manipulation Training-evaluation System" based on optical motion capture technique. It is composed of two parts, sensor and software, and overcomes some shortages of mechanical motion capture technique. This device is able to analyze the data of operations of the pressing-hand and needle-insertion hand during acupuncture performance and its software contains personal computer (PC) version, Android version, and Internetwork Operating System (IOS) Apple version. It is competent in recording and analyzing information of any ope-rator's needling manipulations, and is quite helpful for teachers in teaching, training and examining students in clinical practice.

  20. Probe manipulators for Wendelstein 7-X and their interaction with the magnetic topology

    Science.gov (United States)

    M, RACK; D, HÖSCHEN; D, REITER; B, UNTERBERG; J, W. COENEN; S, BREZINSEK; O, NEUBAUER; S, BOZHENKOV; G, CZYMEK; Y, LIANG; M, HUBENY; Ch, LINSMEIER; the Wendelstein 7-X Team

    2018-05-01

    Probe manipulators are a versatile addition to typical plasma edge diagnostics. Equipped with material samples they allow for detailed investigation of plasma–wall interaction processes, such as material erosion, deposition or impurity transport pathways. When combined with electrical probes, a study of scrape-off layer and plasma edge density, temperature and flow profiles as well as magnetic topologies is possible. A mid-plane manipulator is already in operation on Wendelstein 7-X. A system in the divertor region is currently under development. In the present paper we discuss the critical issue of heat and power loads, power redistribution and experimental access to the complex magnetic topology of Wendelstein 7-X. All the aforementioned aspects are of relevance for the design and operation of a probe manipulator in a device like Wendelstein 7-X. A focus is put on the topological region that is accessible for the different coil current configurations at Wendelstein 7-X and the power load on the manipulator with respect to the resulting different magnetic configurations. Qualitative analysis of power loads on plasma-facing components is performed using a numerical tracer particle diffusion tool provided via the Wendelstein 7-X Webservices.

  1. Machine Learnig for Robotic Manipulation in cluttered environments

    OpenAIRE

    Alet Puig, Ferran

    2016-01-01

    In this thesis we focus on designing the planner for MIT s entry in the Amazon Picking Challenge, a robotic competition aiming at pushing the frontiers of manipulation until robots can substitute human pickers in warehouses. Given a set of manipulation primitives (such as grasping, suction, scooping, placing or pushing) we designed a system capable of learning a planner from a set of manipulation experiments. After learning, given any configuration of objects, the planner can come up with the...

  2. Currency Manipulation versus Current Account Manipulation

    OpenAIRE

    Junning Cai

    2005-01-01

    It is said that a country’s currency peg can become currency manipulation representing protracted government intervention in the foreign exchange market that gives it unfair competitive advantage in international trade yet prevents effective balance of payments in its trade partners. Regarding this widespread fallacy, this paper explains why currency peg is not currency manipulation even when it keeps a country’s currency undervalued. We clarify that 1) government is inherently a major player...

  3. From bioseparation to artificial micro-organs: microfluidic chip based particle manipulation techniques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stelzle, Martin

    2010-02-01

    Microfluidic device technology provides unique physical phenomena which are not available in the macroscopic world. These may be exploited towards a diverse array of applications in biotechnology and biomedicine ranging from bioseparation of particulate samples to the assembly of cells into structures that resemble the smallest functional unit of an organ. In this paper a general overview of chip-based particle manipulation and separation is given. In the state of the art electric, magnetic, optical and gravitational field effects are utilized. Also, mechanical obstacles often in combination with force fields and laminar flow are employed to achieve separation of particles or molecules. In addition, three applications based on dielectrophoretic forces for particle manipulation in microfluidic systems are discussed in more detail. Firstly, a virus assay is demonstrated. There, antibody-loaded microbeads are used to bind virus particles from a sample and subsequently are accumulated to form a pico-liter sized aggregate located at a predefined position in the chip thus enabling highly sensitive fluorescence detection. Secondly, subcellular fractionation of mitochondria from cell homogenate yields pure samples as was demonstrated by Western Blot and 2D PAGE analysis. Robust long-term operation with complex cell homogenate samples while avoiding electrode fouling is achieved by a set of dedicated technical means. Finally, a chip intended for the dielectrophoretic assembly of hepatocytes and endothelial cells into a structure resembling a liver sinusoid is presented. Such "artificial micro organs" are envisioned as substance screening test systems providing significantly higher predictability with respect to the in vivo response towards a substance under test.

  4. Acoustic Devices for Particle and Cell Manipulation and Sensing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yongqiang Qiu

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available An emerging demand for the precise manipulation of cells and particles for applications in cell biology and analytical chemistry has driven rapid development of ultrasonic manipulation technology. Compared to the other manipulation technologies, such as magnetic tweezing, dielectrophoresis and optical tweezing, ultrasonic manipulation has shown potential in a variety of applications, with its advantages of versatile, inexpensive and easy integration into microfluidic systems, maintenance of cell viability, and generation of sufficient forces to handle particles, cells and their agglomerates. This article briefly reviews current practice and reports our development of various ultrasonic standing wave manipulation devices, including simple devices integrated with high frequency (>20 MHz ultrasonic transducers for the investigation of biological cells and complex ultrasonic transducer array systems to explore the feasibility of electronically controlled 2-D and 3-D manipulation. Piezoelectric and passive materials, fabrication techniques, characterization methods and possible applications are discussed. The behavior and performance of the devices have been investigated and predicted with computer simulations, and verified experimentally. Issues met during development are highlighted and discussed. To assist long term practical adoption, approaches to low-cost, wafer level batch-production and commercialization potential are also addressed.

  5. Novel Techniques for Quantum State Manipulation in Mesoscopic Systems

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Lukin, Mikhail

    2005-01-01

    ...-out. We showed how realistic charge manipulation and measurement techniques, combined with the exchange interaction, allowed for the robust generation and purification of four particle spin entangled...

  6. Development of an optimum end-effector with a nano-scale uneven surface for non-adhesion cell manipulation using a micro-manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Horade, M; Kojima, M; Kamiyama, K; Kurata, T; Mae, Y; Arai, T

    2015-01-01

    In order to realize effective micro-manipulation using a micro-manipulator system, an optimum end-effector is proposed. Cell-manipulation experiments using mouse fibroblast cells are conducted, and the usability of the proposed end-effector is confirmed. A key advantage of the micro-manipulator is high-accuracy, high-speed 3D micro- and nano-scale positioning. Micro-manipulation has often been used in research involving biological cells. However, there are two important concerns with the micro-manipulator system: gripping efficiency and the release of gripped objects. When it is not possible to grip a micro-object, such as a cell, near its center, the object may be dropped during manipulation. Since the acquisition of exact position information for a micro-object in the vertical direction is difficult using a microscope, the gripping efficiency of the end-effector should be improved. Therefore, technical skill or operational support is required. Since, on the micro-scale, surface forces such as the adsorption force are greater than body forces, such as the gravitational force, the adhesion force between the end-effector and the object is strong. Therefore, manipulation techniques without adhesion are required for placed an object at an arbitrary position. In the present study, we consider direct physical contact between the end-effector and objects. First, the design and materials of the end-effector for micro-scale manipulation were optimized, and an end-effector with an optimum shape to increase the grip force was fabricated. Second, the surface of the end-effector tip was made uneven, and the adhesion force from increasing on the micro-scale was prevented. When an end-effector with an uneven surface was used, release without adhesion was successful 85.0% of the time. On the other hand, when an end-effector without an uneven surface was used, release without adhesion was successful 6.25% of the time. Therefore, the superiority of a structure with an uneven

  7. Trends and applications of integrated automated ultra-trace sample handling and analysis (T9)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kingston, H.M.S.; Ye Han; Stewart, L.; Link, D.

    2002-01-01

    Full text: Automated analysis, sub-ppt detection limits, and the trend toward speciated analysis (rather than just elemental analysis) force the innovation of sophisticated and integrated sample preparation and analysis techniques. Traditionally, the ability to handle samples at ppt and sub-ppt levels has been limited to clean laboratories and special sample handling techniques and equipment. The world of sample handling has passed a threshold where older or 'old fashioned' traditional techniques no longer provide the ability to see the sample due to the influence of the analytical blank and the fragile nature of the analyte. When samples require decomposition, extraction, separation and manipulation, application of newer more sophisticated sample handling systems are emerging that enable ultra-trace analysis and species manipulation. In addition, new instrumentation has emerged which integrate sample preparation and analysis to enable on-line near real-time analysis. Examples of those newer sample-handling methods will be discussed and current examples provided as alternatives to traditional sample handling. Two new techniques applying ultra-trace microwave energy enhanced sample handling have been developed that permit sample separation and refinement while performing species manipulation during decomposition. A demonstration, that applies to semiconductor materials, will be presented. Next, a new approach to the old problem of sample evaporation without losses will be demonstrated that is capable of retaining all elements and species tested. Both of those methods require microwave energy manipulation in specialized systems and are not accessible through convection, conduction, or other traditional energy applications. A new automated integrated method for handling samples for ultra-trace analysis has been developed. An on-line near real-time measurement system will be described that enables many new automated sample handling and measurement capabilities. This

  8. Development the interface system of master-slave manipulator and external input device on the graphic simulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Song, T. J.; Lee, J. Y.; Kim, S. H.; Yoon, J. S.

    2002-01-01

    The master-slave manipulator is the generally used as remote handling device in the hot cell, in which the high level radioactive materials such as spent fuels are handled. To analyze the motion of remote handling device and to simulate the remote handling operation task in the hot cell, the 3D graphic simulator which has been installed the master-slave manipulator is established. Also the interface program of external input device with 6 DOF(degree of Freedom) is developed and connected to graphic simulator with LLTI(Low Level Tele-operation Interface) which provides a uniquely optimized, high speed, bidirectional communication interface to one or more of system and processes

  9. Remote manipulation techniques in the maintenance and repair of nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rininsland, H.; Boehme, G.

    1986-01-01

    Remote manipulation means the application of multi-purpose devices featuring high mobility and universal applicability. The paper describes such a remote manipulation system (manipulation vehicle MF1 and MF2, master-slave manipulator, TFTR maintenance manipulator) which can be used flexibly in the NNP during maintenance and repair and in incident and accident situations. Connecting elements and tools can be redesigned for remote manipulation to meet the specific application environments. (DG) [de

  10. A Model Vision of Sorting System Application Using Robotic Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maralo Sinaga

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available Image processing in today’s world grabs massive attentions as it leads to possibilities of broaden application in many fields of high technology. The real challenge is how to improve existing sorting system in the Moduler Processing System (MPS laboratory which consists of four integrated stations of distribution, testing, processing and handling with a new image processing feature. Existing sorting method uses a set of inductive, capacitive and optical sensors do differentiate object color. This paper presents a mechatronics color sorting system solution with the application of image processing. Supported by OpenCV, image processing procedure senses the circular objects in an image captured in realtime by a webcam and then extracts color and position information out of it. This information is passed as a sequence of sorting commands to the manipulator (Mitsubishi Movemaster RV-M1 that does pick-and-place mechanism. Extensive testing proves that this color based object sorting system works 100% accurate under ideal condition in term of adequate illumination, circular objects’ shape and color. The circular objects tested for sorting are silver, red and black. For non-ideal condition, such as unspecified color the accuracy reduces to 80%.

  11. Indicial tensor manipulation on MACSYMA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bogen, R.A.; Pavelle, R.

    1977-01-01

    A new computational tool for physical calculations is described. It is the first computer system capable of performing indicial tensor calculus (as opposed to component tensor calculus). It is now operational on the symbolic manipulation system MACSYMA. The authors outline the capabilities of the system and describe some of the physical problems considered as well as others being examined at this time. (Auth.)

  12. Automated, Ultra-Sterile Solid Sample Handling and Analysis on a Chip

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mora, Maria F.; Stockton, Amanda M.; Willis, Peter A.

    2013-01-01

    There are no existing ultra-sterile lab-on-a-chip systems that can accept solid samples and perform complete chemical analyses without human intervention. The proposed solution is to demonstrate completely automated lab-on-a-chip manipulation of powdered solid samples, followed by on-chip liquid extraction and chemical analysis. This technology utilizes a newly invented glass micro-device for solid manipulation, which mates with existing lab-on-a-chip instrumentation. Devices are fabricated in a Class 10 cleanroom at the JPL MicroDevices Lab, and are plasma-cleaned before and after assembly. Solid samples enter the device through a drilled hole in the top. Existing micro-pumping technology is used to transfer milligrams of powdered sample into an extraction chamber where it is mixed with liquids to extract organic material. Subsequent chemical analysis is performed using portable microchip capillary electrophoresis systems (CE). These instruments have been used for ultra-highly sensitive (parts-per-trillion, pptr) analysis of organic compounds including amines, amino acids, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, and thiols. Fully autonomous amino acid analyses in liquids were demonstrated; however, to date there have been no reports of completely automated analysis of solid samples on chip. This approach utilizes an existing portable instrument that houses optics, high-voltage power supplies, and solenoids for fully autonomous microfluidic sample processing and CE analysis with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection. Furthermore, the entire system can be sterilized and placed in a cleanroom environment for analyzing samples returned from extraterrestrial targets, if desired. This is an entirely new capability never demonstrated before. The ability to manipulate solid samples, coupled with lab-on-a-chip analysis technology, will enable ultraclean and ultrasensitive end-to-end analysis of samples that is orders of magnitude more sensitive than the ppb goal given

  13. Task-oriented structural design of manipulators based on operability evaluation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kotosaka, Shin-ya; Asama, Hajime; Takata, Shozo; Hiraoka, Hiroyuki; Kohda, Takehisa; Matsumoto, Akihiro; Endo, Isao.

    1995-01-01

    In this paper, a new method for designing the structure of manipulators based on evaluation of their adaptability to tasks is proposed. In the method, task directions are classified into three kinds of direction; operational direction, constrained direction and free direction. On each direction, condition of constraints by task environment is represented. The tasks are represented by a set of direction and condition of constraints. A new criterion, operability, is defined to quantify adaptability of manipulator to tasks, taking account of mobility in operational directions and immobility in constrained directions. The mobility and immobility is calculated based on the Jacobian matrix of manipulator. The operability evaluation method is implemented, and applied to structural design of manipulators, in which link parameters are optimized by the genetic algorithm. This system can derive suitable structure of manipulator to various tasks. The effectiveness of the system is shown concerning examples of welding tasks. (author)

  14. Dielectrophoretic Manipulation and Separation of Microparticles Using Microarray Dot Electrodes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bashar Yafouz

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper introduces a dielectrophoretic system for the manipulation and separation of microparticles. The system is composed of five layers and utilizes microarray dot electrodes. We validated our system by conducting size-dependent manipulation and separation experiments on 1, 5 and 15 μm polystyrene particles. Our findings confirm the capability of the proposed device to rapidly and efficiently manipulate and separate microparticles of various dimensions, utilizing positive and negative dielectrophoresis (DEP effects. Larger size particles were repelled and concentrated in the center of the dot by negative DEP, while the smaller sizes were attracted and collected by the edge of the dot by positive DEP.

  15. Path planning of master-slave manipulator using graphic simulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, J. Y.; Kim, S. H.; Song, T. K.; Park, B. S.; Yoon, J. S.

    2002-01-01

    To handle the high level radioactive materials such as spent fuels remotely, the master-slave manipulator is generally used as a remote handling equipment in the hot cell. To analyze the motion and to implement the training system by virtual reality technology, the simulator for M-S manipulator using the computer graphics is developed. The parts are modelled in 3-D graphics, assembled, and kinematics are assigned. The inverse kinematics of the manipulator is defined, and the slave of manipulator is coupled with master by the manipulator's specification. Also, the virtual work cell is implemented in the graphical environment which is the same as the real environment and the path planning method using the function of the collision detection for a manipulator are proposed. This graphic simulator of manipulator can be effectively used in designing of the maintenance processes for the hot cell equipment and enhance the reliability of the spent fuel management

  16. Intraocular robotic interventional surgical system (IRISS): Mechanical design, evaluation, and master-slave manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Jason T; Gerber, Matthew J; Prince, Stephen W; Chen, Cheng-Wei; Schwartz, Steven D; Hubschman, Jean-Pierre; Tsao, Tsu-Chin

    2018-02-01

    Since the advent of robotic-assisted surgery, the value of using robotic systems to assist in surgical procedures has been repeatedly demonstrated. However, existing technologies are unable to perform complete, multi-step procedures from start to finish. Many intraocular surgical steps continue to be manually performed. An intraocular robotic interventional surgical system (IRISS) capable of performing various intraocular surgical procedures was designed, fabricated, and evaluated. Methods were developed to evaluate the performance of the remote centers of motion (RCMs) using a stereo-camera setup and to assess the accuracy and precision of positioning the tool tip using an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system. The IRISS can simultaneously manipulate multiple surgical instruments, change between mounted tools using an onboard tool-change mechanism, and visualize the otherwise invisible RCMs to facilitate alignment of the RCM to the surgical incision. The accuracy of positioning the tool tip was measured to be 0.205±0.003 mm. The IRISS was evaluated by trained surgeons in a remote surgical theatre using post-mortem pig eyes and shown to be effective in completing many key steps in a variety of intraocular surgical procedures as well as being capable of performing an entire cataract extraction from start to finish. The IRISS represents a necessary step towards fully automated intraocular surgery and demonstrated accurate and precise master-slave manipulation for cataract removal and-through visual feedback-retinal vein cannulation. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  17. Acoustic manipulation: Bessel beams and active carriers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rajabi, Majid; Mojahed, Alireza

    2017-10-01

    In this paper, we address the interaction of zero-order acoustic Bessel beams as an acoustic manipulation tool, with an active spherical shell, as a carrier in drug, agent, or material delivery systems, in order to investigate the controllability of exerted acoustic radiation force as the driver. The active body is comprised of a spherical elastic shell stimulated in its monopole mode of vibrations with the same frequency as the incident wave field via an internally bonded and spatially uniformly excited piezoelectric actuator. The main aim of this work is to examine the performance of a nondiffracting and self-reconstructing zero-order Bessel beam to obtain the full manipulability condition of active carriers in comparison with the case of a plane wave field. The results unveil some unique potentials of the Bessel beams in the company of active carriers, with emphasis on the consumed power of the actuation system. This paper will widen the path toward the single-beam robust acoustic manipulation techniques and may lead to the prospect of combined tweezers and fields, with applications in delivery systems, microswimmers, and trapper designs.

  18. Fabrication of a pen-shaped portable biochemical reaction system based on magnetic bead manipulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shikida, Mitsuhiro; Inagaki, Noriyuki; Okochi, Mina; Honda, Hiroyuki; Sato, Kazuo

    2011-01-01

    A pen-shaped platform that is similar to a mechanical pencil is proposed for producing a portable reaction system. A reaction unit, as the key component in the system, was produced by using a heat shrinkable tube. A mechanical pencil supplied by Mitsubishi Pencil Co. Ltd was used as the pen-shaped platform for driving the reaction cylinder. It was actuated using an inchworm motion. We confirmed that the magnetic beads were successfully manipulated in the droplet in the cylinder-shaped reaction units. (technical note)

  19. Adaptive hybrid control of manipulators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seraji, H.

    1987-01-01

    Simple methods for the design of adaptive force and position controllers for robot manipulators within the hybrid control architecuture is presented. The force controller is composed of an adaptive PID feedback controller, an auxiliary signal and a force feedforward term, and it achieves tracking of desired force setpoints in the constraint directions. The position controller consists of adaptive feedback and feedforward controllers and an auxiliary signal, and it accomplishes tracking of desired position trajectories in the free directions. The controllers are capable of compensating for dynamic cross-couplings that exist between the position and force control loops in the hybrid control architecture. The adaptive controllers do not require knowledge of the complex dynamic model or parameter values of the manipulator or the environment. The proposed control schemes are computationally fast and suitable for implementation in on-line control with high sampling rates.

  20. Dynamic whole-body robotic manipulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abe, Yeuhi; Stephens, Benjamin; Murphy, Michael P.; Rizzi, Alfred A.

    2013-05-01

    The creation of dynamic manipulation behaviors for high degree of freedom, mobile robots will allow them to accomplish increasingly difficult tasks in the field. We are investigating how the coordinated use of the body, legs, and integrated manipulator, on a mobile robot, can improve the strength, velocity, and workspace when handling heavy objects. We envision that such a capability would aid in a search and rescue scenario when clearing obstacles from a path or searching a rubble pile quickly. Manipulating heavy objects is especially challenging because the dynamic forces are high and a legged system must coordinate all its degrees of freedom to accomplish tasks while maintaining balance. To accomplish these types of manipulation tasks, we use trajectory optimization techniques to generate feasible open-loop behaviors for our 28 dof quadruped robot (BigDog) by planning trajectories in a 13 dimensional space. We apply the Covariance Matrix Adaptation (CMA) algorithm to solve for trajectories that optimize task performance while also obeying important constraints such as torque and velocity limits, kinematic limits, and center of pressure location. These open-loop behaviors are then used to generate desired feed-forward body forces and foot step locations, which enable tracking on the robot. Some hardware results for cinderblock throwing are demonstrated on the BigDog quadruped platform augmented with a human-arm-like manipulator. The results are analogous to how a human athlete maximizes distance in the discus event by performing a precise sequence of choreographed steps.

  1. A shuttle and space station manipulator system for assembly, docking, maintenance, cargo handling and spacecraft retrieval (preliminary design). Volume 3: Concept analysis. Part 1: Technical

    Science.gov (United States)

    1972-01-01

    Information backing up the key features of the manipulator system concept and detailed technical information on the subsystems are presented. Space station assembly and shuttle cargo handling tasks are emphasized in the concept analysis because they involve shuttle berthing, transferring the manipulator boom between shuttle and station, station assembly, and cargo handling. Emphasis is also placed on maximizing commonality in the system areas of manipulator booms, general purpose end effectors, control and display, data processing, telemetry, dedicated computers, and control station design.

  2. Adaptive Control Of Remote Manipulator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seraji, Homayoun

    1989-01-01

    Robotic control system causes remote manipulator to follow closely reference trajectory in Cartesian reference frame in work space, without resort to computationally intensive mathematical model of robot dynamics and without knowledge of robot and load parameters. System, derived from linear multivariable theory, uses relatively simple feedforward and feedback controllers with model-reference adaptive control.

  3. A manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cole, G.V.; Hofmann, D.A.; Ashby, R.

    1984-01-01

    A manipulator is described, for remote handling of objects within an enclosure, by an operator outside the enclosure. The manipulator consists of a telescopically extensible arm member, the action of which is controlled by a motor-driven lead screw. (U.K.)

  4. Development of a dexterous manipulator system with redundant degrees of freedom

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Senoh, M.; Suzuki, M.; Tsuchita, K.; Kamimura, H.; Fujii, M.; Otsu, M.

    1987-01-01

    To keep plant availability as high as possible, more flexible and higher performance robots are desirable. At the same time, lower radiation exposures to operating personnel can be achieved by employing more sophisticated robotic systems. A new maintenance system has been proposed to realize consecutive disassembling and inspecting tasks by a robotic approach. The maintenance system includes three subsystems: a subsystem for the minor disassembling operations in the field; a transportation subsystem, which carries disassembled machines or components from the place where they were installed to a maintenance shop; and a subsystem for consecutive disassembling and grooming operations. Of these three subsystems, the maintenance robot for the first is the most challenging, and much development work is needed in the area of maneuverability in narrow spaces and obstacle avoidance ability. A master/slave-type manipulator with redundant degrees of freedom, mounted on a vehicle that travels along a spatially located railway, has been developed

  5. Mental Models and Deliberate Manipulation of Data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Koester, Thomas; Jakobsen, Jeanette; Brøsted, Jesper Ejdorf

    2015-01-01

    Human factors risk analysis and usability tests in telemedicine contexts primarily seek to investigate how to reduce the likelihood of slips, lapses and mistakes. However, to ensure trustworthiness in e-health data, one must also be aware of more intentional patient actions which could potentially...... compromise patient safety and/or the integrity of the system. The pilot study in this paper set out to explore mental models and deliberate manipulation of data in a Danish telemedicine setting of home monitoring among pregnant women. Results show, that patients construct mental models of the telemedicine...... system, and that the patient can utilize such mental models in attempts to manipulate their data input to get a desired output from the telemedicine system....

  6. Primary reaction control system/remote manipulator system interaction with loaded arm. Space shuttle engineering and operations support

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, E. C.; Davis, J. D.

    1978-01-01

    A study of the interaction between the orbiter primary reaction control system (PRCS) and the remote manipulator system (RMS) with a loaded arm is documented. This analysis was performed with the Payload Deployment and Retrieval Systems Simulation (PDRSS) program with the passive arm bending option. The passive-arm model simulates the arm as massless elastic links with locked joints. The study was divided into two parts. The first part was the evaluation of the response of the arm to step inputs (i.e. constant jet torques) about each of the orbiter body axes. The second part of the study was the evaluation of the response of the arm to minimum impulse primary RCS jet firings with both single pulse and pulse train inputs.

  7. Advanced Bimanual Manipulation Results from the DEXMART Project

    CERN Document Server

    2012-01-01

    Dexterous and autonomous manipulation is a key technology for the personal and service robots of the future. Advances in Bimanual Manipulation edited by Bruno Siciliano provides the robotics community with the most noticeable results of the four-year European project DEXMART (DEXterous and autonomous dual-arm hand robotic manipulation with sMART sensory-motor skills: A bridge from natural to artificial cognition). The volume covers a host of highly important topics in the field, concerned with modelling and learning of human manipulation skills, algorithms for task planning, human-robot interaction, and grasping, as well as hardware design of dexterous anthropomorphic hands. The results described in this five-chapter collection are believed to pave the way towards the development of robotic systems endowed with dexterous and human-aware dual-arm/hand manipulation skills for objects, operating with a high degree of autonomy in unstructured real-world environments.

  8. Perspectives on object manipulation and action grammar for percussive actions in primates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hayashi, Misato

    2015-11-19

    The skill of object manipulation is a common feature of primates including humans, although there are species-typical patterns of manipulation. Object manipulation can be used as a comparative scale of cognitive development, focusing on its complexity. Nut cracking in chimpanzees has the highest hierarchical complexity of tool use reported in non-human primates. An analysis of the patterns of object manipulation in naive chimpanzees after nut-cracking demonstrations revealed the cause of difficulties in learning nut-cracking behaviour. Various types of behaviours exhibited within a nut-cracking context can be examined in terms of the application of problem-solving strategies, focusing on their basis in causal understanding or insightful intentionality. Captive chimpanzees also exhibit complex forms of combinatory manipulation, which is the precursor of tool use. A new notation system of object manipulation was invented to assess grammatical rules in manipulative actions. The notation system of action grammar enabled direct comparisons to be made between primates including humans in a variety of object-manipulation tasks, including percussive-tool use. © 2015 The Author(s).

  9. How verbal and spatial manipulation networks contribute to calculation: An fMRI study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zago, L.; Petit, L.; Turbelin, M.R.; Anderson, F.; Vigneau, M.; Tzourio-Mazoyer, N.

    2008-01-01

    The manipulation of numbers required during calculation is known to rely on working memory (WM) resources. Here, we investigated the respective contributions of verbal and/or spatial WM manipulation brain networks during the addition of four numbers performed by adults, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Both manipulation and maintenance tasks were proposed with syllables, locations, or two-digit numbers. As compared to their maintenance, numbers manipulation (addition) elicited increased activation within a widespread cortical network including inferior temporal, parietal, and prefrontal regions. Our results demonstrate that mastery of arithmetic calculation requires the cooperation of three WM manipulation systems: an executive manipulation system conjointly recruited by the three manipulation tasks, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the orbital part of the inferior frontal gyrus, and the caudate nuclei; a left-lateralized, language-related, inferior fronto-temporal system elicited by numbers and syllables manipulation tasks required for retrieval, selection, and association of symbolic information; and a right superior and posterior fronto-parietal system elicited by numbers and locations manipulation tasks for spatial WM and attentional processes. Our results provide new information that the anterior intra-parietal sulcus (IPS) is involved in tasks requiring a magnitude processing with symbolic (numbers) and non-symbolic (locations) stimuli. Furthermore, the specificity of arithmetic processing is mediated by a left-hemispheric specialization of the anterior and posterior parts of the IPS as compared to a spatial task involving magnitude processing with non-symbolic material. (authors)

  10. How verbal and spatial manipulation networks contribute to calculation: An fMRI study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zago, L.; Petit, L.; Turbelin, M.R.; Anderson, F.; Vigneau, M.; Tzourio-Mazoyer, N. [Univ Paris 05, Univ Caen Basse Normandie, CEA, DSV, CNRS, CI NAPSUMR 6232, Paris (France)

    2008-07-01

    The manipulation of numbers required during calculation is known to rely on working memory (WM) resources. Here, we investigated the respective contributions of verbal and/or spatial WM manipulation brain networks during the addition of four numbers performed by adults, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Both manipulation and maintenance tasks were proposed with syllables, locations, or two-digit numbers. As compared to their maintenance, numbers manipulation (addition) elicited increased activation within a widespread cortical network including inferior temporal, parietal, and prefrontal regions. Our results demonstrate that mastery of arithmetic calculation requires the cooperation of three WM manipulation systems: an executive manipulation system conjointly recruited by the three manipulation tasks, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the orbital part of the inferior frontal gyrus, and the caudate nuclei; a left-lateralized, language-related, inferior fronto-temporal system elicited by numbers and syllables manipulation tasks required for retrieval, selection, and association of symbolic information; and a right superior and posterior fronto-parietal system elicited by numbers and locations manipulation tasks for spatial WM and attentional processes. Our results provide new information that the anterior intra-parietal sulcus (IPS) is involved in tasks requiring a magnitude processing with symbolic (numbers) and non-symbolic (locations) stimuli. Furthermore, the specificity of arithmetic processing is mediated by a left-hemispheric specialization of the anterior and posterior parts of the IPS as compared to a spatial task involving magnitude processing with non-symbolic material. (authors)

  11. Cold Atmospheric Plasma Manipulation of Proteins in Food Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tolouie, Haniye; Hashemi, Maryam; Mohammadifar, Mohammad Amin

    2017-01-01

    Plasma processing has been getting a lot of attention in recent applications as a novel, eco-friendly, and highly efficient approach. Cold plasma has mostly been used to reduce microbial counts in foodstuff and biological materials, as well as in different levels of packaging, particularly in cases...... of plasma on the conformation and function of proteins with food origin, especially enzymes and allergens, as well as protein-made packaging films. In enzyme manipulation with plasma, deactivation has been reported to be either partial or complete. In addition, an activity increase has been observed in some...... where there is thermal sensitivity. As it is a very recent application, the impact of cold plasma treatment has been studied on the protein structures of food and pharmaceutical systems, as well as in the packaging industry. Proteins, as a food constituent, play a remarkable role in the techno...

  12. Unlimited Gender: The Discursive Construction of the Travesti Identity Through the Manipulation of the Grammatical Gender System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rodrigo Borba

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates Southern Brazilian traveestis’ manipulation of the Portuguese grammatical gender system. During field work, it was verified that feminine forms are the preferred choice in the group. However, ideological and bodily tensions that surround travestis seem to force them to make use of masculine forms in specific discursive contexts. Travestis use masculine forms 1 to produce narratives about the time before their body modifications took place; 2 to report speech produced by others when talking about transvestites; 3 to talk about themselves within their family relationships; and 4 to distinguish themselves from ‘other’ travestis they do not identify with. Thus, the study shows how Southern Brazilian travestis use the Brazilian Portuguese grammatical gender system as a resource to manipulate their identities and the identities of the community they belong to.

  13. Pose Space Surface Manipulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yusuke Yoshiyasu

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Example-based mesh deformation techniques produce natural and realistic shapes by learning the space of deformations from examples. However, skeleton-based methods cannot manipulate a global mesh structure naturally, whereas the mesh-based approaches based on a translational control do not allow the user to edit a local mesh structure intuitively. This paper presents an example-driven mesh editing framework that achieves both global and local pose manipulations. The proposed system is built with a surface deformation method based on a two-step linear optimization technique and achieves direct manipulations of a model surface using translational and rotational controls. With the translational control, the user can create a model in natural poses easily. The rotational control can adjust the local pose intuitively by bending and twisting. We encode example deformations with a rotation-invariant mesh representation which handles large rotations in examples. To incorporate example deformations, we infer a pose from the handle translations/rotations and perform pose space interpolation, thereby avoiding involved nonlinear optimization. With the two-step linear approach combined with the proposed multiresolution deformation method, we can edit models at interactive rates without losing important deformation effects such as muscle bulging.

  14. Visual control of a robot manipulator using neural networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kurazume, Ryo; Sekiguchi, Minoru; Nagata, Shigemi

    1994-01-01

    This paper describes a vision-motor fusion system using neural networks, consisting of multiple vision sensors and a manipulator, for grasping an object placed in a desired position and attitude in a three-dimensional workspace. The system does not need complicated vision sensor calibration and calculation of a transformation matrix, and can thus be easily constructed for grasping tasks. An experimental system with two TV cameras and a manipulator with six degrees of freedom grasped a connector suspended in a three-dimensional workspace with high accuracy. (author)

  15. An Exploration of Dual Systems via Time Pressure Manipulation in Decision-making Problems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Lisa

    Every day, decisions need to be made where time is a limiting factor. Regardless of situation, time constraints often place a premium on rapid decision-making. Researchers have been interested in studying this human behavior and understanding its underlying cognitive processes. In previous studies, scientists have believed that the cognitive processes underlying decision-making behavior were consistent with dual-process modes of thinking. Critics of dual-process theory question the vagueness of its definition, and claim that single-process accounts can explain the data just as well. My aim is to elucidate the cognitive processes that underlie decisions which involve some level of risk through the experimental manipulation of time pressure. Using this method, I hope to distinguish between competing hypotheses related to the origin of the effect. I will explore three types of decisions that illustrate these concepts: risky decision-making involving gambles, intertemporal choice, and one-shot public goods games involving social cooperation. In our experiments, participants made decisions about gambles framed as either gains or losses; decided upon intertemporal choices for smaller but sooner rewards or larger but later rewards; and played a one-shot public goods game involving social cooperation and contributing an amount of money to a group. In each case, we experimentally manipulated time pressure, either within subjects or among individuals. Results showed under time pressure, increased framing effects under in both hypothetical and incentivized choices; and greater contributions and cooperation among individuals, lending support to the dual process hypothesis that these effects arise from a fast, intuitive system. However, our intertemporal choice experiment showed that time constraints led to increased selection of the larger but later options, which suggests that the magnitude of the reward may play larger role in choice selection under cognitive load than

  16. Manipulators in teleoperation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hamel, W.R.

    1985-01-01

    Teleoperated manipulators represent a mature technology which has evolved over nearly 40 years of applications experience. The wide range of manipulator concepts developed thus far reflect differing applications, priorities, and philosophies. The technology of teleoperated manipulators is in a rapid state of change (just as are industrial robotics) fueled by microelectronics and materials advances. Large strides in performance and dexterity are now practical and advantageous. Even though improved controls and sensory feedback will increase functionality, overall costs should be reduced as manipulator fabrication and assembly labor costs are reduced through improved manufacturing technology. As these advances begin to materialize, broader applications in nonnuclear areas should occur

  17. Data from: Two different strategies of host manipulation allow parasites to persist in intermediate-definitive host systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vries, de Lana; Langevelde, van F.

    2017-01-01

    Trophically-transmitted parasites start their development in an intermediate host, before they finish the development in their definitive host when the definitive host preys on the intermediate host. In intermediate-definitive host systems, two strategies of host manipulation have been evolved:

  18. Selective microrobot control using a thermally responsive microclamper for microparticle manipulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Go, Gwangjun; Choi, Hyunchul; Ko, Seong Young; Park, Jong-Oh; Park, Sukho; Jeong, Semi

    2016-01-01

    Microparticle manipulation using a microrobot in an enclosed environment, such as a lab-on-a-chip, has been actively studied because an electromagnetic actuated microrobot can have accurate motility and wireless controllability. In most studies on electromagnetic actuated microrobots, only a single microrobot has been used to manipulate cells or microparticles. However, the use of a single microrobot can pose several limitations when performing multiple roles in microparticle manipulation. To overcome the limitations associated with using a single microrobot, we propose a new method for the control of multiple microrobots. Multiple microrobots can be controlled independently by an electromagnetic actuation system and multiple microclampers combined with microheaters. To select a specific microrobot among multiple microrobots, we propose a microclamper composed of a clamper structure using thermally responsive hydrogel and a microheater for controlling the microclamper. A fundamental test of the proposed microparticle manipulation system is performed by selecting a specific microrobot among multiple microrobots. Through the independent locomotion of multiple microrobots with U- and V-shaped tips, heterogeneous microparticle manipulation is demonstrated in the creation of a two-dimensional structure. In the future, our proposed multiple-microrobot system can be applied to tasks that are difficult to perform using a single microrobot, such as cell manipulation, cargo delivery, tissue assembly, and cloning. (paper)

  19. Manga Vectorization and Manipulation with Procedural Simple Screentone.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yao, Chih-Yuan; Hung, Shih-Hsuan; Li, Guo-Wei; Chen, I-Yu; Adhitya, Reza; Lai, Yu-Chi

    2017-02-01

    Manga are a popular artistic form around the world, and artists use simple line drawing and screentone to create all kinds of interesting productions. Vectorization is helpful to digitally reproduce these elements for proper content and intention delivery on electronic devices. Therefore, this study aims at transforming scanned Manga to a vector representation for interactive manipulation and real-time rendering with arbitrary resolution. Our system first decomposes the patch into rough Manga elements including possible borders and shading regions using adaptive binarization and screentone detector. We classify detected screentone into simple and complex patterns: our system extracts simple screentone properties for refining screentone borders, estimating lighting, compensating missing strokes inside screentone regions, and later resolution independently rendering with our procedural shaders. Our system treats the others as complex screentone areas and vectorizes them with our proposed line tracer which aims at locating boundaries of all shading regions and polishing all shading borders with the curve-based Gaussian refiner. A user can lay down simple scribbles to cluster Manga elements intuitively for the formation of semantic components, and our system vectorizes these components into shading meshes along with embedded Bézier curves as a unified foundation for consistent manipulation including pattern manipulation, deformation, and lighting addition. Our system can real-time and resolution independently render the shading regions with our procedural shaders and drawing borders with the curve-based shader. For Manga manipulation, the proposed vector representation can be not only magnified without artifacts but also deformed easily to generate interesting results.

  20. Characteristics of manipulative in mathematics laboratory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Istiandaru, A.; Istihapsari, V.; Prahmana, R. C. I.; Setyawan, F.; Hendroanto, A.

    2017-12-01

    A manipulative is a teaching aid designed such that students could understand mathematical concepts by manipulating it. This article aims to provide an insight to the characteristics of manipulatives produced in the mathematics laboratory of Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, Indonesia. A case study was conducted to observe the existing manipulatives produced during the latest three years and classified the manipulatives based on the characteristics found. There are four kinds of manipulatives: constructivism manipulative, virtual manipulative, informative manipulative, and game-based manipulative. Each kinds of manipulative has different characteristics and impact towards the mathematics learning.

  1. Two-probe atomic-force microscope manipulator and its applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhukov, A. A.; Stolyarov, V. S.; Kononenko, O. V.

    2017-06-01

    We report on a manipulator based on a two-probe atomic force microscope (AFM) with an individual feedback system for each probe. This manipulator works under an upright optical microscope with 3 mm focal distance. The design of the microscope helps us tomanipulate nanowires using the microscope probes as a two-prong fork. The AFM feedback is realized based on the dynamic full-time contact mode. The applications of the manipulator and advantages of its two-probe design are presented.

  2. Two-probe atomic-force microscope manipulator and its applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhukov, A A; Stolyarov, V S; Kononenko, O V

    2017-06-01

    We report on a manipulator based on a two-probe atomic force microscope (AFM) with an individual feedback system for each probe. This manipulator works under an upright optical microscope with 3 mm focal distance. The design of the microscope helps us tomanipulate nanowires using the microscope probes as a two-prong fork. The AFM feedback is realized based on the dynamic full-time contact mode. The applications of the manipulator and advantages of its two-probe design are presented.

  3. Closed-loop model identification of cooperative manipulators holding deformable objects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alkathiri, A. A.; Akmeliawati, R.; Azlan, N. Z.

    2017-11-01

    This paper presents system identification to obtain the closed-loop models of a couple of cooperative manipulators in a system, which function to hold deformable objects. The system works using the master-slave principle. In other words, one of the manipulators is position-controlled through encoder feedback, while a force sensor gives feedback to the other force-controlled manipulator. Using the closed-loop input and output data, the closed-loop models, which are useful for model-based control design, are estimated. The criteria for model validation are a 95% fit between the measured and simulated output of the estimated models and residual analysis. The results show that for both position and force control respectively, the fits are 95.73% and 95.88%.

  4. [Surgical manipulators in ear surgery: a future vision?].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hofer, M; Dietz, A; Strauss, G

    2011-04-01

    Middle ear surgery bears a high risk for injury of difficult to differentiate risk structures. Thus, a precise preparation in this area must be the surgical task. However, there are human (tremor) and systematic limitations (OR setup, narrow access). Assistance systems in terms of manipulators are so far not part of the clinical routine. Although, they could compensate for the above mentioned limitations. MANIPULATORS: This work reviews existing surgical manipulator systems. The expected value is an elevated patient safety through improving surgical accuracy and the reduction of ergonomic deficits. CLINICAL APPLICATION AND DEVELOPMENT: In clinical application there are simply modified industrial robots, highly complex master slave systems and small miniature master slave systems which are directly located at the patient. A disadvantage of most systems is the limited number of applicable instruments. Often, only especially designed instruments can be used. The goal in development should be to create a compact, short distance operated master slave system. The usability of standard (already available) instruments with an easy integration into the surgical and sterilisation procedure would lower the threshold for acceptance of such systems.The surgeon will remain the key player. He can only work efficiently in an ergonomic environment and will always have the responsibility for the intervention. From the authors perspective, highly automated systems should not be the research goal. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

  5. EDITORIAL: Nonlinear optical manipulation, patterning and control in nano- and micro-scale systems Nonlinear optical manipulation, patterning and control in nano- and micro-scale systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Denz, Cornelia; Simoni, Francesco

    2009-03-01

    Nonlinearities are becoming more and more important for a variety of applications in nanosciences, bio-medical sciences, information processing and photonics. For applications at the crossings of these fields, especially microscopic and nanoscopic imaging and manipulation, nonlinearities play a key role. They may range from simple nonlinear parameter changes up to applications in manipulating, controlling and structuring material by light, or the manipulation of light by light itself. It is this area between basic nonlinear optics and photonic applications that includes `hot' topics such as ultra-resolution optical microscopy, micro- and nanomanipulation and -structuring, or nanophotonics. This special issue contains contributions in this field, many of them from the International Conference on Nonlinear Microscopy and Optical Control held in conjunction with a network meeting of the ESF COST action MP0604 `Optical Micromanipulation by Nonlinear Nanophotonics', 19-22 February 2008, Münster, Germany. Throughout this special issue, basic investigations of material structuring by nonlinear light--matter interaction, light-induced control of nanoparticles, and novel nonlinear material investigation techniques, are presented, covering the basic field of optical manipulation and control. These papers are followed by impressive developments of optical tweezers. Nowadays, optical phase contrast tweezers, twin and especially multiple beam traps, develop particle control in a new dimension: particles can be arranged, sorted and identified with high throughput. One of the most prominent forthcoming applications of optical tweezers is in the field of microfluidics. The action of light on fluids will open new horizons in microfluidic manipulation and control. The field of optical manipulation and control is a very broad field that has developed in an impressive way, in a short time, in Europe with the installation of the MP0604 network. Top researchers from 19 countries are

  6. An Adaptable Robot Vision System Performing Manipulation Actions With Flexible Objects

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bodenhagen, Leon; Fugl, Andreas R.; Jordt, Andreas

    2014-01-01

    system should be viewed as a library of new technologies that have been proven to work in close to industrial conditions. As a rather basic, but necessary part, we provide a technology for determining the shape of the object when passing on, e. g., a conveyor belt prior to being handled. The main......This paper describes an adaptable system which is able to perform manipulation operations (such as Peg-in-Hole or Laying-Down actions) with flexible objects. As such objects easily change their shape significantly during the execution of an action, traditional strategies, e. g., for solve path......, operating in real-time. Simulations have been used to bootstrap the learning of optimal actions, which are subsequently improved through real-world executions. To achieve reproducible results, we demonstrate this for casted silicone test objects of regular shape. Note to Practitioners-The aim of this work...

  7. Manipulators for production and research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Munro, Ian

    1987-01-01

    The development of caves or cells and master-slave manipulators to handle radioactive materials is discussed. Some of the most recent advances are described. A manipulator arm, a master-slave manipulator and a servomanipulator mounted on a manipulator are illustrated. Future developments are discussed - these include resolved tip control for the manipulator. (UK)

  8. Manipulator Performance Evaluation Using Fitts' Taping Task

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Draper, J.V.; Jared, B.C.; Noakes, M.W.

    1999-04-25

    Metaphorically, a teleoperator with master controllers projects the user's arms and hands into a re- mote area, Therefore, human users interact with teleoperators at a more fundamental level than they do with most human-machine systems. Instead of inputting decisions about how the system should func- tion, teleoperator users input the movements they might make if they were truly in the remote area and the remote machine must recreate their trajectories and impedance. This intense human-machine inter- action requires displays and controls more carefully attuned to human motor capabilities than is neces- sary with most systems. It is important for teleoperated manipulators to be able to recreate human trajectories and impedance in real time. One method for assessing manipulator performance is to observe how well a system be- haves while a human user completes human dexterity tasks with it. Fitts' tapping task has been, used many times in the past for this purpose. This report describes such a performance assessment. The International Submarine Engineering (ISE) Autonomous/Teleoperated Operations Manipulator (ATOM) servomanipulator system was evalu- ated using a generic positioning accuracy task. The task is a simple one but has the merits of (1) pro- ducing a performance function estimate rather than a point estimate and (2) being widely used in the past for human and servomanipulator dexterity tests. Results of testing using this task may, therefore, allow comparison with other manipulators, and is generically representative of a broad class of tasks. Results of the testing indicate that the ATOM manipulator is capable of performing the task. Force reflection had a negative impact on task efficiency in these data. This was most likely caused by the high resistance to movement the master controller exhibited with the force reflection engaged. Measurements of exerted forces were not made, so it is not possible to say whether the force reflection helped

  9. A Null Space Control of Two Wheels Driven Mobile Manipulator Using Passivity Theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shibata, Tsuyoshi; Murakami, Toshiyuki

    This paper describes a control strategy of null space motion of a two wheels driven mobile manipulator. Recently, robot is utilized in various industrial fields and it is preferable for the robot manipulator to have multiple degrees of freedom motion. Several studies of kinematics for null space motion have been proposed. However stability analysis of null space motion is not enough. Furthermore, these approaches apply to stable systems, but they do not apply unstable systems. Then, in this research, base of manipulator equips with two wheels driven mobile robot. This robot is called two wheels driven mobile manipulator, which becomes unstable system. In the proposed approach, a control design of null space uses passivity based stabilizing. A proposed controller is decided so that closed-loop system of robot dynamics satisfies passivity. This is passivity based control. Then, control strategy is that stabilizing of the robot system applies to work space observer based approach and null space control while keeping end-effector position. The validity of the proposed approach is verified by simulations and experiments of two wheels driven mobile manipulator.

  10. Sports teams as complex adaptive systems: manipulating player numbers shapes behaviours during football small-sided games

    OpenAIRE

    Silva, Pedro; Vilar, Lu?s; Davids, Keith; Ara?jo, Duarte; Garganta, J?lio

    2016-01-01

    Small-sided and conditioned games (SSCGs) in sport have been modelled as complex adaptive systems. Research has shown that the relative space per player (RSP) formulated in SSCGs can impact on emergent tactical behaviours. In this study we adopted a systems orientation to analyse how different RSP values, obtained through manipulations of player numbers, influenced four measures of interpersonal coordination observed during performance in SSCGs. For this purpose we calculated positional data ...

  11. Development and characterization of a CCD camera system for use on six-inch manipulator systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Logory, L.M.; Bell, P.M.; Conder, A.D.; Lee, F.D.

    1996-01-01

    The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has designed, constructed, and fielded a compact CCD camera system for use on the Six Inch Manipulator (SIM) at the Nova laser facility. The camera system has been designed to directly replace the 35 mm film packages on all active SIM-based diagnostics. The unit's electronic package is constructed for small size and high thermal conductivity using proprietary printed circuit board technology, thus reducing the size of the overall camera and improving its performance when operated within the vacuum environment of the Nova laser target chamber. The camera has been calibrated and found to yield a linear response, with superior dynamic range and signal-to-noise levels as compared to T-Max 3200 optic film, while providing real-time access to the data. Limiting factors related to fielding such devices on Nova will be discussed, in addition to planned improvements of the current design

  12. A Lightweight AV System for Providing a Faithful and Spatially Manipulable Visual Hand Representation

    OpenAIRE

    Pusch , Andreas; Martin , Olivier; Coquillart , Sabine

    2011-01-01

    Session: Developing new tools and technologies - Abstracts to be published in a regular issue of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking (indexed in MedLine and PsychInfo): http://online.liebertpub.com/loi/CYBER; International audience; This paper introduces the technical foundations of a system designed to embed a lightweight, faithful and spatially manipulable representation of the user's hand into an otherwise virtual world (aka Augmented Virtuality, AV). A highly intui...

  13. A motion sensing-based framework for robotic manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deng, Hao; Xia, Zeyang; Weng, Shaokui; Gan, Yangzhou; Fang, Peng; Xiong, Jing

    2016-01-01

    To data, outside of the controlled environments, robots normally perform manipulation tasks operating with human. This pattern requires the robot operators with high technical skills training for varied teach-pendant operating system. Motion sensing technology, which enables human-machine interaction in a novel and natural interface using gestures, has crucially inspired us to adopt this user-friendly and straightforward operation mode on robotic manipulation. Thus, in this paper, we presented a motion sensing-based framework for robotic manipulation, which recognizes gesture commands captured from motion sensing input device and drives the action of robots. For compatibility, a general hardware interface layer was also developed in the framework. Simulation and physical experiments have been conducted for preliminary validation. The results have shown that the proposed framework is an effective approach for general robotic manipulation with motion sensing control.

  14. Intelligent Switching Control of Pneumatic Artificial Muscle Manipulator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahn, Kyoung Kwan; Thanh, Tu Diep Cong; Ahn, Young Kong

    Problems with the control, oscillatory motion and compliance of pneumatic systems have prevented their widespread use in advanced robotics. However, their compactness, power/weight ratio, ease of maintenance and inherent safety are the factors that could potentially be exploited in sophisticated dexterous manipulator designs. These advantages have led to the development of novel actuators such as the McKibben Muscle, Rubber Actuator and Pneumatic Artificial Muscle Manipulators. However, some limitations still exist, such as deterioration of the performance of transient response due to the change of the external inertia load in the pneumatic artificial muscle manipulator. To overcome this problem, switching algorithm of control parameter using learning vector quantization neural network (LVQNN) is newly proposed, which estimates the external inertia load of the pneumatic artificial muscle manipulator. The effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm is demonstrated through experiments with different external inertia loads.

  15. Predictors of Host Specificity among Behavior-Manipulating Parasites

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fredensborg, B. L.

    2014-01-01

    specifically, hosts’ behavioral modification that involves interaction with the central nervous system presumably restricts parasites to more closely related hosts than does manipulation of the host’s behavior via debilitation of the host’s physiology. The results of the analysis suggest that phylogenetic......-specialist that has a restricted ecological niche that it masters. Parasites that manipulate hosts’ behavior are often thought to represent resource-specialists based on a few spectacular examples of manipulation of the host’s behavior. However, the determinants of which, and how many, hosts a manipulating parasite...... of parasites and hosts. Using individual and multivariate analyses, I examined the effect of the host’s and parasite’s taxonomy, location of the parasite in the host, type of behavioral change, and the effect of debilitation on host-specificity, measured as the mean taxonomic relatedness of hosts...

  16. VIBRATION REDUCTION ON SINGLE-LINK FLEXIBLE MANIPULATOR USING H∞ CONTROL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roberd Saragih

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper is concerned with the vibration and position control of a single link flexible manipulator. Robot link manipulators are widely used in various industrial applications. It is desirable to build light weight flexible manipulators. Light flexible manipulators have a variety of applications, most significantly in space exploration,manufacturing automation, construction, mining, and hazardous operation. Timoshenko beam theory is used to derive mathematical model of a flexible manipulator. The dynamic equations of motion are obtained using the Lagrange's formulation of dynamics.The H∞ controller is designed for vibration and position control of the system. Simulations are presented and show that vibration and position control of a single flexible link can be controlled with the designed H∞ controller.

  17. An Experimental Study on Operability of Master-Slave Manipulator System using Human–in–the-Loop Type Simulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tashiro Yosuke

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Double arm Master-Slave (M-S manipulator has been attracted the attention of the robotics researchers today. The micro surgery is one of the big targets which M-S manipulator is expected to effectively perform. This paper describes about the human in the loop (HIL simulator consisted of the prototype master manipulator and the virtual simulator of slave manipulator. Today, we have a challenge injecting drugs to a chick embryo’s blood vessels that are enough cultured in an artificial eggshell. The M-S manipulator is expected to apply for such a work like a micro surgery, ex. catching a blood vessel and sticking a cylinder. The embryo is extremely sensitive so that M-S manipulator should have both high operability and high accuracy movement. To evaluate the M-S manipulator quantitatively, we develop the human in the loop (HIL simulator. The simulator is consisted with the prototype master manipulator and the virtual slave manipulator.

  18. Design Issues and Application of Cable-Based Parallel Manipulators for Rehabilitation Therapy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. Ottaviano

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available In this study, cable-based manipulators are proposed for application in rehabilitation therapies. Cable-based manipulators show good features that are very useful when the system has to interact with humans. In particular, they can be used to aid motion or as monitoring/training systems in rehabilitation therapies. Modelling and simulation of both active and passive cable-based parallel manipulators are presented for an application to help older people, patients or disabled people in the sit-to-stand transfer and as a monitoring/training system. Experimental results are presented by using built prototypes.

  19. Reconfigurable metamaterials for terahertz wave manipulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hashemi, Mohammed R.; Cakmakyapan, Semih; Jarrahi, Mona

    2017-09-01

    Reconfigurable metamaterials have emerged as promising platforms for manipulating the spectral and spatial properties of terahertz waves without being limited by the characteristics of naturally existing materials. Here, we present a comprehensive overview of various types of reconfigurable metamaterials that are utilized to manipulate the intensity, phase, polarization, and propagation direction of terahertz waves. We discuss various reconfiguration mechanisms based on optical, electrical, thermal, and mechanical stimuli while using semiconductors, superconductors, phase-change materials, graphene, and electromechanical structures. The advantages and disadvantages of different reconfigurable metamaterial designs in terms of modulation efficiency, modulation bandwidth, modulation speed, and system complexity are discussed in detail.

  20. Design compliance matrix waste sample container filling system for nested, fixed-depth sampling system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    BOGER, R.M.

    1999-01-01

    This design compliance matrix document provides specific design related functional characteristics, constraints, and requirements for the container filling system that is part of the nested, fixed-depth sampling system. This document addresses performance, external interfaces, ALARA, Authorization Basis, environmental and design code requirements for the container filling system. The container filling system will interface with the waste stream from the fluidic pumping channels of the nested, fixed-depth sampling system and will fill containers with waste that meet the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) criteria for waste that contains volatile and semi-volatile organic materials. The specifications for the nested, fixed-depth sampling system are described in a Level 2 Specification document (HNF-3483, Rev. 1). The basis for this design compliance matrix document is the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) desk instructions for design Compliance matrix documents (PI-CP-008-00, Rev. 0)

  1. Research on reconfigurable and reliable manipulators: Final report, August 15, 1994-August 14, 1996

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khosla, P.K.; Kanade, Takeo

    1996-01-01

    To address the need for a more flexible and reliable manipulator, the authors propose the concept of a rapidly deployable fault tolerant manipulator system. Such a system combines a Reconfigurable Modular Manipulator System (RMMS) with support software for rapid programming, trajectory planning, and control. This allows the user to rapidly configure a fault tolerant manipulator custom-tailored for a given task. This thesis investigates all aspects involved in such a system. It describes an RMMS prototype which consists of seven manipulator modules with a total of four degrees-of-freedom. The reconfigurability of the hardware is made transparent to the user by the supporting control software that automatically adapts itself to the current manipulator configuration. To achieve high reliability, a global fault tolerant trajectory planning algorithm is introduced. This algorithm guarantees that a manipulator can continue its task even when one of the manipulator joints fails and is immobilized. Finally, all these aspects are considered simultaneously in the task based design software, that determines the manipulator configuration, its base position, and the fault tolerant joint space trajectory that are optimally suited to perform a given task. The most important contribution of this thesis is a novel agent-based approach to solve the task based design problem. The approach is based on a genetic algorithm for which the modification and evaluation operations are implemented as autonomous asynchronous agents. Finally, the thesis presents a performance analysis of the agent-based design framework by comparing its results with those of exhaustive search, random search, and multiple restart statistical hill-climbing

  2. Research on reconfigurable and reliable manipulators: Final report, August 14, 1994--August 14, 1996

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Khosla, P.K.; Kanade, Takeo

    1996-12-31

    To address the need for a more flexible and reliable manipulator, the authors propose the concept of a rapidly deployable fault tolerant manipulator system. Such a system combines a Reconfigurable Modular Manipulator System (RMMS) with support software for rapid programming, trajectory planning, and control. This allows the user to rapidly configure a fault tolerant manipulator custom-tailored for a given task. This thesis investigates all aspects involved in such a system. It describes an RMMS prototype which consists of seven manipulator modules with a total of four degrees-of-freedom. The reconfigurability of the hardware is made transparent to the user by the supporting control software that automatically adapts itself to the current manipulator configuration. To achieve high reliability, a global fault tolerant trajectory planning algorithm is introduced. This algorithm guarantees that a manipulator can continue its task even when one of the manipulator joints fails and is immobilized. Finally, all these aspects are considered simultaneously in the task based design software, that determines the manipulator configuration, its base position, and the fault tolerant joint space trajectory that are optimally suited to perform a given task. The most important contribution of this thesis is a novel agent-based approach to solve the task based design problem. The approach is based on a genetic algorithm for which the modification and evaluation operations are implemented as autonomous asynchronous agents. Finally, the thesis presents a performance analysis of the agent-based design framework by comparing its results with those of exhaustive search, random search, and multiple restart statistical hill-climbing.

  3. Lightweight submersed 'Walking' NDE manipulators for PWR and BWR vessel weld inspection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saernmark, Ivan; Lenz, Herbert

    2008-01-01

    Three new manipulators developed by WesDyne TRC in Sweden have under the year 2007 performed three very successful inspections in the PWR reactor Ringhals 3 and the BWR reactors Ringhals 1 and Oskarshamn 1. The manipulator systems can be used to perform inspection of circumferential and vertical welds on the reactor pressure vessel, the core shroud, core shroud support in BWR reactors or vessel and core barrel welds in PWR reactors. Most other flat or curved surfaces can be inspected using the new concept through relatively simple mechanical reconfigurations of system modules. The first inspection was performed on the R3 PWR core barrel in June 2007 with a very good result. This Manipulator is designed for access in very narrow gaps and for the type of core barrels with a shield covering the whole area of the perimeter. The manipulator is attached to the inspection area by means of a new unique suction cup system. The current manipulators consist of a curved horizontal beam, with radius similar to the reactor vessel, and a straight vertical beam, forming a T-shaped structure. By alternating the application of suction cup pairs on the horizontal beam and the vertical beam and by driving the scanning motors, the manipulator performs an incremental translational movement upwards/downwards or from side to side. The principles of this system give a well defined and stable platform for global and local positioning accuracy. A combination of advanced sensor solutions provides accurate position information in the absence of other physical reference objects. The system is controlled by the new WesDyne TRC Motor Control Panel and software, the MCP is specifically designed for remote control of submersed manipulators using techniques for cable reduction

  4. Reconfigurable optical manipulation by phase change material waveguides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Tianhang; Mei, Shengtao; Wang, Qian; Liu, Hong; Lim, Chwee Teck; Teng, Jinghua

    2017-05-25

    Optical manipulation by dielectric waveguides enables the transportation of particles and biomolecules beyond diffraction limits. However, traditional dielectric waveguides could only transport objects in the forward direction which does not fulfill the requirements of the next generation lab-on-chip system where the integrated manipulation system should be much more flexible and multifunctional. In this work, bidirectional transportation of objects on the nanoscale is demonstrated on a rectangular waveguide made of the phase change material Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 (GST) by numerical simulations. Either continuous pushing forces or pulling forces are generated on the trapped particles when the GST is in the amorphous or crystalline phase. With the technique of a femtosecond laser induced phase transition on the GST, we further proposed a reconfigurable optical trap array on the same waveguide. This work demonstrates GST waveguide's potential of achieving multifunctional manipulation of multiple objects on the nanoscale with plausible optical setups.

  5. MAESTRO, a hydraulic manipulator for maintenance and decommissioning applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Olivier David; Yvan Measson; Catherine Bidard; Christine Libersa

    2006-01-01

    Compared to electric technology payload of hydraulic manipulators is very high with respect to their volume and mass. However, due to their force control limitations they were usually disqualified for precise manipulation. CEA, in collaboration with CYBERNETIX developed a complete remote handling system around the advanced hydraulic robotic arm MAESTRO. Requirements and specifications of the system were defined according to the needs of decommissioning activities in existing nuclear facilities and maintenance scenarios of the next step fusion reactor ITER. Using TAO2000 CEA controller, CEA developed specific force control loops to improve the performances of the manipulator and reach a level where the MAESTRO can be used like a traditional tele-operation master/slave system with force feedback. The complete system is composed of a 2 m long 100 kg payload 6 degrees of freedom slave hydraulic manipulator. The manipulator is mounted on an embedded unit made of a 210 bars hydraulic power pack and a 10 kGy rad hardened slave controller. The master station is made of the new generation Virtuose V6D-40-40 master arm with its TAO2000 controller. The graphical supervisor Magritte gives the operator an additional interface to manage and monitor the system. Repetitive tasks like tool picking can therefore be left to the system while the operator keeps his concentration on the main task. Thanks to the collision detection algorithm, Magritte warns the operator when the tool or any part of the Maestro arm comes too close to a delicate unit. Operational experience gained through test campaigns was gathered in an upgrade study to propose a new version of the manipulator that successfully ran through a 1000 hour endurance test. Rad-hardened components were selected and tested in nuclear facilities. Attention was paid to provide a design in which contamination is easily removed and to ease the maintenance when performed by an operator in suit. To be quickly adapted to new tasks, the

  6. Planetary Sample Caching System Design Options

    Science.gov (United States)

    Collins, Curtis; Younse, Paulo; Backes, Paul

    2009-01-01

    Potential Mars Sample Return missions would aspire to collect small core and regolith samples using a rover with a sample acquisition tool and sample caching system. Samples would need to be stored in individual sealed tubes in a canister that could be transfered to a Mars ascent vehicle and returned to Earth. A sample handling, encapsulation and containerization system (SHEC) has been developed as part of an integrated system for acquiring and storing core samples for application to future potential MSR and other potential sample return missions. Requirements and design options for the SHEC system were studied and a recommended design concept developed. Two families of solutions were explored: 1)transfer of a raw sample from the tool to the SHEC subsystem and 2)transfer of a tube containing the sample to the SHEC subsystem. The recommended design utilizes sample tool bit change out as the mechanism for transferring tubes to and samples in tubes from the tool. The SHEC subsystem design, called the Bit Changeout Caching(BiCC) design, is intended for operations on a MER class rover.

  7. Core sampling system spare parts assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Walter, E.J.

    1995-01-01

    Soon, there will be 4 independent core sampling systems obtaining samples from the underground tanks. It is desirable that these systems be available for sampling during the next 2 years. This assessment was prepared to evaluate the adequacy of the spare parts identified for the core sampling system and to provide recommendations that may remediate overages or inadequacies of spare parts

  8. Manipulator Controlled since a Smartphone by Bluetooth

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sánchez-Niño, F; Pedroza, G Rodríguez; Baldivia, E G Castillo

    2015-01-01

    We present the design of transmitter interface of data between a microcontroller and Smartphone to control a robot. We used a Bluetooth module to send the commands to control the moving of the manipulator. The system is formed by three parts: the first part, the program made in Android. It is run on the Smartphone that controls the position of the robot. The second part is the reception board based in the PIC18F4550 that energizes the joints of the manipulator. The last part is the driver. It use an integrated circuit L293D that is configured in two full bridges H. This system is a good tool for learning of programing, sensors, actuators, robotic, electronic and design electronic

  9. Emulating a robotic manipulator arm with an hybrid motion-control system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aragón-González, G; León-Galicia, A; Noriega-Hernández, M; Salazar-Hueta, A

    2015-01-01

    A motion control system with four and 1/2 degrees of freedom, designed to move small objects within a 0.25 m3 space, parallel to a horizontal table, with high speed and performance similar to a robotic manipulator arm was built. The machine employs several actuators and control devices. Its main characteristic is to incorporate a servomotor, steeper motors, electromechanical and fluid power actuators and diverse control resources. A group of actuators arranged on a spherical coordinates system is attached to the servomotor platform. A linear pneumatic actuator with an angular grip provides the radial extension and load clamping capacity. Seven inductive proximity sensors and one encoder provide feedback, for operating the actuators under closed loop conditions. Communication between the sensors and control devices is organized by a PLC. A touch screen allows governing the system remotely, easily and interactively, without knowing the specific programming language of each control component. The graphic environment on the touch screen guides the user to design and store control programs, establishing coordinated automatic routines for moving objects in space, simulation and implementation of industrial positioning or machining processes

  10. Integration of remotely operated manipulator systems for the nuclear industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blight, J.; Cornec, G.

    2003-01-01

    There is no getting away from remotely operated manipulator systems in significant part in dismantling operations, because of the actual radioactive emitting level of installations. However, some main contractors, who have been involved in dismantling projects in the past few years are reluctant to use remotely operated systems because: - equipment characteristics are not suitable for the environment and the work to be performed; - There are some design problems; - Main components do not withstand operation any longer, after some time; - There are deficiencies in the management of quality, for critical equipment problems that degrade the productivity and increase direct and indirect labour cost. As a summary therefore, equipment available on this dismantling market are reputedly unreliable and not 'industrial' (sturdy) enough. However, numerous operations in maintenance in primary loops of nuclear reactors, or in the Offshore sector, are carried out remotely, to the satisfaction of the operators and the investors. In the dismantling sector, a thorough analysis of the difficulties encountered indicates that their origin is mostly due to a lack of methodology - that needs to be addressed -, rather than a technical problem. In that context, CYBERNETIX proposes to be involved in phases upstream and downstream of the equipment supply's. Upstream: Participate in developing/validating the scenarios to be used to optimise the constraints of remote operations/equipment. Downstream: Participate actively in supporting the client on-site, ensuring that equipment are available and maintained by competent and motivated people, and thus, getting experience in order to improve the State-of-the-Art of robotic in that field. Then, the contracting authority and CYBERNETIX jointly define the limits and the content of the involvement of each party, and also define the most appropriate type of 'partnership' between the main contactor and the participating companies, and in order to

  11. Constraint solving for direct manipulation of features

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lourenco, D.; Oliveira, P.; Noort, A.; Bidarra, R.

    2006-01-01

    In current commercial feature modeling systems, support for direct manipulation of features is not commonly available. This is partly due to the strong reliance of such systems on constraints, but also to the lack of speed of current constraint solvers. In this paper, an approach to the optimization

  12. Parametric design studies of long-reach manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kwon, D.S.; March-Leuba, S.; Babcock, S.M.; Burks, B.L.; Hamel, W.R.

    1993-01-01

    A number of different approaches have been studied for remediation of waste storage tanks at various sites. One of the most promising approaches is the use of a high-capacity, long-reach manipulation (LRM) system with a variety of end effectors for dislodging the waste. LRMs may have characteristics significantly different from those of industrial robots due to the long links needed to cover the large workspace. Because link lengths are much greater than their diameters, link flexibility, as well as joint or drive train flexibility, is likely to be significant. LRMs will be required for a variety of applications in the Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Program. While each application will present specific functional, kinematic, and performance requirements, a design approach for determining the kinematic applicability and performance characteristics considering link flexibility is presented with a focus on waste storage tank remediation. This paper addresses key design issues for LRM-based waste retrieval systems. It discusses the effects of parameters such as payload capacity, storage tanks size, and access port diameter on manipulator structural design. The estimated weight, fundamental natural frequency, and static deflection of the manipulator have been calculated for various parameter conditions

  13. Manipulation of nanoparticles and biological samples through enhanced optical forces

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Benjamin

    Non-invasive optical manipulation of particles has emerged as a powerful and versatile tool for biological study and nanotechnology. We propose and demonstrate large scale nanoparticle assembly using opto-thermal force produced by conventional optical tweezers. This method is shown to allow precise concentration and assembly of particles including carbon-nanotubes, VO2 nanorods, and CdTe quantum dots. Assembled devices were shown to have good contact with patterned electrodes. In addition, we propose and demonstrate a purely optical approach to rotate and align particles using the interaction of polarized light with photonic crystal nanostructures to generate enhanced trapping force. With a weakly focused laser beam we observed efficient trapping and transportation of polystyrene beads with sizes ranging from 10 microm down to 190 nm as well as cancer cell nuclei. In addition, we demonstrated alignment of non-spherical particles using a 1-D photonic crystal structure. Bacterial cells were trapped, rotated and aligned with optical intensity as low as 17 microW/microm 2. This approach can be extended to using 2-D photonic crystal nanostructures for full rotation control.

  14. Kinematics modeling and experimentation of the multi-manipulator tooth-arrangement robot for full denture manufacturing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yong-de; Jiang, Jin-gang; Liang, Ting; Hu, Wei-ping

    2011-12-01

    Artificial teeth are very complicated in shape, and not easy to be grasped and manipulated accurately by a single robot. The method of tooth-arrangement by multi-manipulator for complete denture manufacturing proposed in this paper. A novel complete denture manufacturing mechanism is designed based on multi-manipulator and dental arch generator. Kinematics model of the multi-manipulator tooth-arrangement robot is built by analytical method based on tooth-arrangement principle for full denture. Preliminary experiments on tooth-arrangement are performed using the multi-manipulator tooth-arrangement robot prototype system. The multi-manipulator tooth-arrangement robot prototype system can automatically design and manufacture a set of complete denture that is suitable for a patient according to the jaw arch parameters. The experimental results verified the validity of kinematics model of the multi-manipulator tooth-arrangement robot and the feasibility of the manufacture strategy of complete denture fulfilled by multi-manipulator tooth-arrangement robot.

  15. An evolutionary resolution of manipulation conflict.

    Science.gov (United States)

    González-Forero, Mauricio

    2014-07-01

    Individuals can manipulate the behavior of social partners. However, manipulation may conflict with the fitness interests of the manipulated individuals. Manipulated individuals can then be favored to resist manipulation, possibly reducing or eliminating the manipulated behavior in the long run. I use a mathematical model to show that conflicts where manipulation and resistance coevolve can disappear as a result of the coevolutionary process. I find that while manipulated individuals are selected to resist, they can simultaneously be favored to express the manipulated behavior at higher efficiency (i.e., providing increasing fitness effects to recipients of the manipulated behavior). Efficiency can increase to a point at which selection for resistance disappears. This process yields an efficient social behavior that is induced by social partners, and over which the inducing and induced individuals are no longer in conflict. A necessary factor is costly inefficiency. I develop the model to address the evolution of advanced eusociality via maternal manipulation (AEMM). The model predicts AEMM to be particularly likely in taxa with ancestrally imperfect resistance to maternal manipulation. Costly inefficiency occurs if the cost of delayed dispersal is larger than the benefit of exploiting the maternal patch. I discuss broader implications of the process. © 2014 The Author(s). Evolution © 2014 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

  16. A Comparison of Concrete and Virtual Manipulative Use in Third- and Fourth-Grade Mathematics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burns, Barbara A.; Hamm, Ellen M.

    2011-01-01

    The primary purpose of this classroom experiment was to examine the effectiveness of concrete (hands-on) manipulatives as compared with virtual (computer-based) manipulatives on student review of fraction concepts in third grade and introduction of symmetry concepts in fourth grade. A pretest-posttest design was employed with a sample of 91…

  17. Acoustic levitation and manipulation for space applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, T. G.

    1979-01-01

    A wide spectrum of experiments to be performed in space in a microgravity environment require levitation and manipulation of liquid or molten samples. A novel acoustic method has been developed at JPL for controlling liquid samples without physical contacts. This method utilizes the static pressure generated by three orthogonal acoustic standing waves excited within an enclosure. Furthermore, this method will allow the sample to be rotated and/or oscillated by modifying the phase angles and/or the amplitude of the acoustic field. This technique has been proven both in our laboratory and in a microgravity environment provided by KC-135 flights. Samples placed within our chamber driven at (1,0,0), (0,1,0), and (0,0,1), modes were indeed levitated, rotated, and oscillated.

  18. Understanding Women's Subjective Sexual Arousal Within the Laboratory: Definition, Measurement, and Manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Handy, Ariel B; Stanton, Amelia M; Meston, Cindy M

    2018-04-01

    Subjective sexual arousal (SSA) is positive, cognitive engagement in sexual activity. SSA is considered an important aspect of the sexual experience, as it has been found to facilitate sexual activity and, in situations of chronically low or absent arousal, potentially cause distress. Despite the clinical implications of SSA, a thorough review of how to manipulate SSA has yet to be conducted. To review the state of knowledge about SSA in women, including its definition, measurement, and the outcomes of studies attempting to manipulate SSA within a laboratory setting. A comprehensive search of the electronic databases of PubMed and PsycINFO was conducted. The generated list of articles was reviewed and duplicates were removed. Individual articles were assessed for inclusion and, when appropriate, relevant content was extracted. The potential effects of various manipulations of SSA in a laboratory setting was the main outcome. 44 studies were included in this review. Manipulations were grouped into 3 primary categories: pharmacological (n = 16), cognitive (n = 22), and those based on changes to the autonomic nervous system (n = 6). Results suggest that cognitive manipulation is the most effective method of increasing SSA. Altering the relative balance of the 2 branches of the autonomic nervous system (the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system) also appears to be a promising avenue for increasing SSA. This review supports the use of cognitive manipulation for increasing women's SSA in a laboratory setting. Avenues for future research and recommendations for clinicians are discussed. Handy AB, Stanton AM, Meston CM. Understanding Women's Subjective Sexual Arousal Within the Laboratory: Definition, Measurement, and Manipulation. Sex Med Rev 2018;6:201-216. Copyright © 2017 International Society for Sexual Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. STRUCTURAL AND GEOMETRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE LIFTING MANIPULATORS FOR A GREEN ENVIRONMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ioana POPESCU

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The lifting and getting off the bins, to and from the body of special waste trucks, by some planar linkage – manipulators are studied. These lifting manipulators are equipped with gripper systems in order to load and unload the bins. Several kinematical schemas of type mono– and bi-mobile manipulators are analyzed, these being driven by one or two linear actuators. The kinematical geometry of these planar manipulators by means of scale drawing of the kinematical schema is displayed. Two solutions for a better efficiency and a green environment have been proposed. Finally, a modeling and simulation case of the lifting manipulator is presented.

  20. An Application of a Pneumatic Muscles Actuator for a Delta Pneumatic Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pawel A. LASKI

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The main aim of this study was to use pneumatic muscle actuators in the construction of the delta manipulator with a closed kinematic chain. The paper presents a solid models of the manipulator and the kinematic diagram. Based on the kinematic diagram and using DH notation (Denavit-Hartenberg manipulator kinematic models was determined. On the basis of developed solid model simulation studies were conducted and the shape and size of the workspace determined. On the basis of 3D models prototype of the manipulator was constructed. Experimental studies were performed to select the regulators settings P, PI, PID for one of the pair of BMDS (Bi-Muscular Driving System muscle-type drives. Based on integral quality indicators the used types of regulators were compared and proposed final controller. Performed experimental studies confirm the possibility of muscle control in the BMDS (Bi-Muscular Driving System type system drives and tuning controller settings using the Ziegler-Nichols method.

  1. Human-Manipulator Interface Using Particle Filter

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guanglong Du

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper utilizes a human-robot interface system which incorporates particle filter (PF and adaptive multispace transformation (AMT to track the pose of the human hand for controlling the robot manipulator. This system employs a 3D camera (Kinect to determine the orientation and the translation of the human hand. We use Camshift algorithm to track the hand. PF is used to estimate the translation of the human hand. Although a PF is used for estimating the translation, the translation error increases in a short period of time when the sensors fail to detect the hand motion. Therefore, a methodology to correct the translation error is required. What is more, to be subject to the perceptive limitations and the motor limitations, human operator is hard to carry out the high precision operation. This paper proposes an adaptive multispace transformation (AMT method to assist the operator to improve the accuracy and reliability in determining the pose of the robot. The human-robot interface system was experimentally tested in a lab environment, and the results indicate that such a system can successfully control a robot manipulator.

  2. Electron spin and nuclear spin manipulation in semiconductor nanosystems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hirayama, Yoshiro; Yusa, Go; Sasaki, Satoshi

    2006-01-01

    Manipulations of electron spin and nuclear spin have been studied in AlGaAs/GaAs semiconductor nanosystems. Non-local manipulation of electron spins has been realized by using the correlation effect between localized and mobile electron spins in a quantum dot- quantum wire coupled system. Interaction between electron and nuclear spins was exploited to achieve a coherent control of nuclear spins in a semiconductor point contact device. Using this device, we have demonstrated a fully coherent manipulation of any two states among the four spin levels of Ga and As nuclei. (copyright 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)

  3. Manipulation, salience, and nudges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noggle, Robert

    2018-03-01

    Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler recommend helping people make better decisions by employing 'nudges', which they define as noncoercive methods of influencing choice for the better. Not surprisingly, healthcare practitioners and public policy professionals have become interested in whether nudges might be a promising method of improving health-related behaviors without resorting to heavy-handed methods such as coercion, deception, or government regulation. Many nudges seem unobjectionable as they merely improve the quality and quantity available for the decision-maker. However, other nudges influence decision-making in ways that do not involve providing more and better information. Nudges of this sort raise concerns about manipulation. This paper will focus on noninformational nudges that operate by changing the salience of various options. It will survey two approaches to understanding manipulation, one which sees manipulation as a kind of pressure, and one that sees it as a kind of trickery. On the pressure view, salience nudges do not appear to be manipulative. However, on the trickery view (which the author favors), salience nudges will be manipulative if they increase the salience so that it is disproportionate to that fact's true relevance and importance for the decision at hand. By contrast, salience nudges will not be manipulative if they merely highlight some fact that is true and important for the decision at hand. The paper concludes by providing examples of both manipulative and nonmanipulative salience nudges. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  4. Microbial manipulation of host sex determination

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Beukeboom, Leo W.

    A recent study in the lepidopteran Ostrinia scapulalis shows that endosymbionts can actively manipulate the sex determination mechanism of their host. Wolbachia bacteria alter the sex-specific splicing of the doublesex master switch gene. In ZZ males of this female heterogametic system, the female

  5. Acoustic Resonator Optimisation for Airborne Particle Manipulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Devendran, Citsabehsan; Billson, Duncan R.; Hutchins, David A.; Alan, Tuncay; Neild, Adrian

    Advances in micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology and biomedical research necessitate micro-machined manipulators to capture, handle and position delicate micron-sized particles. To this end, a parallel plate acoustic resonator system has been investigated for the purposes of manipulation and entrapment of micron sized particles in air. Numerical and finite element modelling was performed to optimise the design of the layered acoustic resonator. To obtain an optimised resonator design, careful considerations of the effect of thickness and material properties are required. Furthermore, the effect of acoustic attenuation which is dependent on frequency is also considered within this study, leading to an optimum operational frequency range. Finally, experimental results demonstrated good particle levitation and capture of various particle properties and sizes ranging to as small as 14.8 μm.

  6. Cell manipulation in microfluidics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yun, Hoyoung; Kim, Kisoo; Lee, Won Gu

    2013-01-01

    Recent advances in the lab-on-a-chip field in association with nano/microfluidics have been made for new applications and functionalities to the fields of molecular biology, genetic analysis and proteomics, enabling the expansion of the cell biology field. Specifically, microfluidics has provided promising tools for enhancing cell biological research, since it has the ability to precisely control the cellular environment, to easily mimic heterogeneous cellular environment by multiplexing, and to analyze sub-cellular information by high-contents screening assays at the single-cell level. Various cell manipulation techniques in microfluidics have been developed in accordance with specific objectives and applications. In this review, we examine the latest achievements of cell manipulation techniques in microfluidics by categorizing externally applied forces for manipulation: (i) optical, (ii) magnetic, (iii) electrical, (iv) mechanical and (v) other manipulations. We furthermore focus on history where the manipulation techniques originate and also discuss future perspectives with key examples where available. (topical review)

  7. A 3-D Microelectrode System for Dielectrophoretic Manipulation of Microparticles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, D F; Du, H; Gong, H Q; Li, W H

    2006-01-01

    This paper presents a microfluidic system for manipulation and separation of micron-sized particles based on the combined use of negative dielectrophoresis (DEP) and hydrodynamic forces. A 3-D microelectrode structure (so called paired electrode array) are constructed face to face on the top and bottom sides of the microchannel and driven with highfrequency AC voltage to generate dielectrophoretic gates. Depending on the relative strengths of the two forces, particles such as polystyrene beads or cells carrying by a laminar flow can either penetrate the gate or settle there. This gives rise to certain applications including selectively concentrating particles from the flow, separating particles depending on their sizes or dielectric properties, and automatically positioning particles to selective locations. For this purpose, a microfluidic device consisting of the paired electrode array sitting on the channel has been fabricated using microfabrication techniques. Polystyrene beads were used to study the performance of the device. Experimental results including the concentration and separation of particles are presented

  8. DESIGN AND STUDY OF DRIVE SWIVEL JOINTS FOR HYDRAULIC MANIPULATION SYSTEMS OF MOBILE TRANSPORT-TECHNOLOGICAL MACHINES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lagerev A.V.

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents the design and principle of operation of a new type of articulated connection of adjacent links of manipulation systems of mobile transport and technological machines – the drive swivel joints to provide a rotary rela-tive movement of the links. Their design allows to combine the function of ensuring the continuity of the kinematic chain and the function of providing rotary movement adjacent units and without the use of additional external devices. The design of the device is protected by a patent of the Russian Federation. Drive swivel joints are an alternative to tra-ditional designs of articulated joints with external power hydraulic drives. Developed a mathematical optimization model. The model is based on the minimization of the mass of the drive swivel joints when you complete the necessary design, installation, operating and strength constraints. Based on this mathematical model the proposed method of com-puter-aided design of the drive swivel joints, which is implemented in a computer program. A study was conducted of the influence of the main technical characteristics and magnitude of the operational load at the optimal weight and the optimal constructive dimensions of the drive swivel joints. It is shown that at equal freight-altitude characteristics of mobile crane-manipulator the drive swivel joint allows you to exclude a number of operational shortcomings of the tra-ditional swivel: 1 development over time of the additional dynamic load of metal due to the increased clearances in connection; 2 lowering the volume of the working area of the crane due to the presence of external power of hydraulic drives; 3 the appearance of cracks due to fatigue failure of the elements of the attachment point of the hydraulic drives to the links of manipulation system. It is possible that the transfer of the hydraulic system for lower operating pressure, which increases the efficiency of the crane and the efficiency of the

  9. Design and Implementation of a Modular Manipulator Architecture

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Sosa, Ognjen

    2004-01-01

    .... This configuration is seen in many applications including planetary exploration, hazardous materials removal, and marine research and is frequently referred to as the vehicle-manipulator system...

  10. Soft Manipulators and Grippers: A Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Josie Hughes

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Soft robotics is a growing area of research which utilises the compliance and adaptability of soft structures to develop highly adaptive robotics for soft interactions. One area in which soft robotics has the ability to make significant impact is in the development of soft grippers and manipulators. With an increased requirement for automation, robotics systems are required to perform task in unstructured and not well defined environments; conditions which conventional rigid robotics are not best suited. This requires a paradigm shift in the methods and materials used to develop robots such that they can adapt to and work safely in human environments. One solution to this is soft robotics, which enables soft interactions with the surroundings whilst maintaining the ability to apply significant force. This review paper assess the current materials and methods, actuation methods and sensors which are used in the development of soft manipulators. The achievements and shortcomings of recent technology in these key areas are evaluated, and this paper concludes with a discussion on the potential impacts of soft manipulators on industry and society.

  11. Modelling atomic scale manipulation with the non-contact atomic force microscope

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Trevethan, T; Watkins, M; Kantorovich, L N; Shluger, A L; Polesel-Maris, J; Gauthier, S

    2006-01-01

    We present the results of calculations performed to model the process of lateral manipulation of an oxygen vacancy in the MgO(001) surface using the non-contact atomic force microscope (NC-AFM). The potential energy surfaces for the manipulation as a function of tip position are determined from atomistic modelling of the MgO(001) surface interacting with a Mg terminated MgO tip. These energies are then used to model the dynamical evolution of the system as the tip oscillates and at a finite temperature using a kinetic Monte Carlo method. The manipulation process is strongly dependent on the lateral position of the tip and the system temperature. It is also found that the expectation value of the point at which the vacancy jumps depends on the trajectory of the oscillating cantilever as the surface is approached. The effect of the manipulation on the operation of the NC-AFM is modelled with a virtual dynamic AFM, which explicitly simulates the entire experimental instrumentation and control loops. We show how measurable experimental signals can result from a single controlled atomic scale event and suggest the most favourable conditions for achieving successful atomic scale manipulation experimentally

  12. Towards the development of a soft manipulator as an assistive robot for personal care of elderly people

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasmin Ansari

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Manipulators based on soft robotic technologies exhibit compliance and dexterity which ensures safe human–robot interaction. This article is a novel attempt at exploiting these desirable properties to develop a manipulator for an assistive application, in particular, a shower arm to assist the elderly in the bathing task. The overall vision for the soft manipulator is to concatenate three modules in a serial manner such that (i the proximal segment is made up of cable-based actuation to compensate for gravitational effects and (ii the central and distal segments are made up of hybrid actuation to autonomously reach delicate body parts to perform the main tasks related to bathing. The role of the latter modules is crucial to the application of the system in the bathing task; however, it is a nontrivial challenge to develop a robust and controllable hybrid actuated system with advanced manipulation capabilities and hence, the focus of this article. We first introduce our design and experimentally characterize its functionalities, which include elongation, shortening, omnidirectional bending. Next, we propose a control concept capable of solving the inverse kinetics problem using multiagent reinforcement learning to exploit these functionalities despite high dimensionality and redundancy. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the design and control of this module by demonstrating an open-loop task space control where it successfully moves through an asymmetric 3-D trajectory sampled at 12 points with an average reaching accuracy of 0.79 cm ± 0.18 cm. Our quantitative experimental results present a promising step toward the development of the soft manipulator eventually contributing to the advancement of soft robotics.

  13. Cesarean section and the manipulation of exact delivery time.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fabbri, Daniele; Monfardini, Chiara; Castaldini, Ilaria; Protonotari, Adalgisa

    2016-07-01

    Physicians are often alleged responsible for the manipulation of delivery timing. We investigate this issue in a setting that negates the influence of financial incentives on physician's behavior. Working on a sample of women admitted at the onset of labor in a big public hospital in Italy we estimate a model for the exact time of delivery as driven by individual Indication to Cesarean Section (ICS) and covariates. We find that ICS does not affect the day of delivery but leads to a circadian rhythm in the likelihood of delivery. The pattern is consistent with the postponement of high ICS deliveries in the late night\\early morning shift. Our evidence hardly supports the manipulation of timing of births as driven by medical staff's "demand for leisure". Physicians seem to manipulate the exact timing of delivery to reduce exposure to risk factors extant during off-peak periods. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Computer control of ET-RR-1 hot cell manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Effat, A.M.; Rahman, F.A.

    1990-01-01

    The hot cell designed for remote handling of radioactive materials are, in effect, integral systems of safety devices for attaining adequate radiological protection for the operating personnel. Their operation involve potential hazards that are sometimes of great magnitude. The effect of an incident or accident could thus be fatal. some of these incident are due to the collision of the manipulator slave side with the radioactive objectives. Therefore in order to minimize the probability of such type of incidents, the movement of the manipulators is suggested (in the present investigation) to be kept under computer control. A model have been developed to control the movement of the hot cell manipulators in the slave side for Egypt first research reactor ET-RR-1, specially in the hidden sectors. The model is based on the use of a microprocessor and some accessories fixed to the manipulators slave side in a special manner such that it prevents the manipulator from colliding with radioactive objects. This is achieved by a signal transmitted to a specially designed brake which controls the movement of the upper arm of the manipulator master side. The hardware design of the model as well as the software are presented in details

  15. The fiber-optic imaging and manipulation of neural activity during animal behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miyamoto, Daisuke; Murayama, Masanori

    2016-02-01

    Recent progress with optogenetic probes for imaging and manipulating neural activity has further increased the relevance of fiber-optic systems for neural circuitry research. Optical fibers, which bi-directionally transmit light between separate sites (even at a distance of several meters), can be used for either optical imaging or manipulating neural activity relevant to behavioral circuitry mechanisms. The method's flexibility and the specifications of the light structure are well suited for following the behavior of freely moving animals. Furthermore, thin optical fibers allow researchers to monitor neural activity from not only the cortical surface but also deep brain regions, including the hippocampus and amygdala. Such regions are difficult to target with two-photon microscopes. Optogenetic manipulation of neural activity with an optical fiber has the advantage of being selective for both cell-types and projections as compared to conventional electrophysiological brain tissue stimulation. It is difficult to extract any data regarding changes in neural activity solely from a fiber-optic manipulation device; however, the readout of data is made possible by combining manipulation with electrophysiological recording, or the simultaneous application of optical imaging and manipulation using a bundle-fiber. The present review introduces recent progress in fiber-optic imaging and manipulation methods, while also discussing fiber-optic system designs that are suitable for a given experimental protocol. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  16. On Virtual Integrated Model of a 6DoF Manipulator Arm for Emergency Cases Interventions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gigi Naidin

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available This research deals with a virtual integrated model for a 6DoF manipulator arm dedicated to use for emergency situations intervention. The virtual model can simulates both the entire structural and mechanical configuration of the manipulator, and the driving system with automated command unit. The basic idea supposes to develop a complex simulator for kinematical and dynamic behavior analysis of 6DoF robot manipulator, and for facilely cross correlation and comparative evaluation between essential parameters and extremely bearing cases defining the manipulator working state. The analysis was developed in Matlab© - SimScape© software. The conclusions dignify the main functional capability of the manipulator supposing the capacity of driving system and mechanical structure.

  17. Specification for movable manipulator system for use in radiochemical engineering cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dixson, G.E.

    1998-01-01

    This specification was prepared to identify requirements for a movable manipulator for use in B-Ccl 1 and the REC Airlock at 324 Building. This manipulator could also be used in other hot cells at the 324 Building. This work involves retrieval, inspection, reduction and decontamination of material on the Airlock and Cell floors, in the pipe trench and on the walls. B and W Hanford Company (BWHC) recognizes that not all of the requirements are compatible and some may need to be changed, subject to agreement between the parties involved. BWHC also recognizes that in order to perform the tasks described two or more different machines with significantly different layout may be necessary. These requirements are the starting point for any proposal

  18. Design Sliding Mode Controller of with Parallel Fuzzy Inference System Compensator to Control of Robot Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Farzin Piltan

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Sliding mode controller (SMC is a significant nonlinear controller under condition of partly uncertain dynamic parameters of system. This controller is used to control of highly nonlinear systems especially for robot manipulators, because this controller is a robust and stable. Conversely, pure sliding mode controller is used in many applications; it has two important drawbacks namely; chattering phenomenon, and nonlinear equivalent dynamic formulation in uncertain dynamic parameter. The nonlinear equivalent dynamic formulation problem and chattering phenomenon in uncertain system can be solved by using artificial intelligence theorem. However fuzzy logic controller is used to control complicated nonlinear dynamic systems, but it cannot guarantee stability and robustness.  In this research parallel fuzzy logic theory is used to compensate the system dynamic uncertainty.

  19. Design of the Driving and Clamp Rotation Hydraulic Control System for the Heavy Load Forging Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Geqiang

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The manipulator was equipped with full hydraulic drive. We designed the hydraulic systems for the driving and clamping rotation. We used a fuzzy PID control strategy to design the electro-hydraulic proportional control system. We built a united simulation model based on the co-simulation of MATLAB/Simulink and AMEsim. A mathematical model of the system was also established. We did separate simulations of the system’s dynamic characteristics for fast forging and normal forging working conditions. The parameters were optimized. The field test shows that the steady-state error of the hydraulic system is small and the system response is fast. The system’s rapid response speed, high precision, and stability under heavy load were realized.

  20. Master-slave manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haaker, L.W.; Jelatis, D.G.

    1981-01-01

    A remote control master-slave manipulator for performing work on the opposite side of a barrier wall, is described. The manipulator consists of a rotatable horizontal support adapted to extend through the wall and two longitudinally extensible arms, a master and a slave, pivotally connected one to each end of the support. (U.K.)

  1. Leadership Manipulation and Ethics in Storytelling

    OpenAIRE

    Auvinen, Tommi; Lämsä, Anna-Maija; Sintonen, Teppo; Takala, Tuomo

    2013-01-01

    This article focuses on exerting influence in leadership, namely manipulation in storytelling. Manipulation is usually considered an unethical approach to leadership. We will argue that manipulation is a more complex phenomenon than just an unethical way of acting in leadership. We will demonstrate through an empirical qualitative study that there are various types of manipulation through storytelling. This article makes a contribution to the literature on manipulation through leadership stor...

  2. Opioid system manipulation during testicular development: results on sperm production and sertoli cells population - doi: 10.4025/actascibiolsci.v33i2.5940 Opioid system manipulation during testicular development: results on sperm production and sertoli cells population - doi: 10.4025/actascibiolsci.v33i2.5940

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valdemiro Amaro Silva Júnior

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available The Sertoli cell has fundamental importance to the development and maintenance of spermatogenesis, as well as it has a directly proportional numerical relationship to sperm production. The proliferative period of this cell in rats occurs between 13 days pre-natal and 21 days pos-natal, when is established the final population in adult animals. The Leydig cell can modulate the Sertoli cell proliferation during fetal and neonatal period through β-endorphin. The manipulation of opioidergic system can promote changes in parameters related to development of nervous, endocrine and reproductive systems. By the way, the main purpose of this present work was to compare the effects of the blockade of opioid receptor blocking in Sertoli cells using naltrexone (50 mg kg-1 during fetal and neonatal period in Wistar rats. According to the results, the manipulation of opioidergic system during pre-natal period reduced the total length of seminiferous tubule and Sertoli cell population in adult rats, but sperm production was normal because this cell has had a compensatory response for spermatozoids support capacity.The Sertoli cell has fundamental importance to the development and maintenance of spermatogenesis, as well as it has a directly proportional numerical relationship to sperm production. The proliferative period of this cell in rats occurs between 13 days pre-natal and 21 days pos-natal, when is established the final population in adult animals. The Leydig cell can modulate the Sertoli cell proliferation during fetal and neonatal period through β-endorphin. The manipulation of opioidergic system can promote changes in parameters related to development of nervous, endocrine and reproductive systems. By the way, the main purpose of this present work was to compare the effects of the blockade of opioid receptor blocking in Sertoli cells using naltrexone (50 mg kg-1 during fetal and neonatal period in Wistar rats. According to the results

  3. Research approach and first results on agglomerate compaction in protoplanetary dust simulation in the Cloud Manipulation System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vedernikov, Andrei; Blum, Jurgen; Ingo Von Borstel, Olaf; Schraepler, Rainer; Balapanov, Daniyar; Cecere, Anselmo

    2016-07-01

    Nanometre and micrometre-sized solid particles are ubiquitous in space and on Earth - from galaxies, interstellar space, protoplanetary and debris disks to planetary rings and atmospheres, planetary surfaces, comets, interplanetary space, Earth's atmosphere. Apparently, the most intriguing problem in the picture of the formation of planets is the transition from individual microscopic dust grains to kilometre-sized planetesimals. Revealing the mechanisms of this transition is one of the main tasks of the European Space Agency's project Interaction in Cosmic and Atmospheric Particle Systems (ICAPS). It was found that Brownian motion driven agglomeration could not provide the transition within reasonable time scale. As a result, at this stage top scientific goals shifted towards forced agglomeration and concentration of particles, targeting revealing the onset of compaction, experimental study of the evolution of fractal dimensions, size and mass distribution, occurrence of bouncing. The main tasks comprise 1) development of the rapid agglomeration model 2) development of the experimental facilities creating big fractal-type agglomerates from 10 to 1000 μm from a cloud of micrometre-size grains; 3) experimental realization of the rapid agglomeration in microgravity and ground conditions; and 4) in situ investigation of the morphology, mobility, mechanical and optical properties of the free-floating agglomerates, including investigation of thermophoresis, photophoresis of the agglomerates and of the two-phase flow phenomena. To solve the experimental part of the tasks we developed a Cloud Manipulation System, realized as a breadboard (CMS BB) for long duration microgravity platforms and a simplified laboratory version (CMS LV) mostly oriented on short duration microgravity and ground tests. The new system is based on the use of thermophoresis, most favourable for cloud manipulation without creating additional particle-particle forces in the cloud with a possibility

  4. Intra-operative 3D imaging system for robot-assisted fracture manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dagnino, G; Georgilas, I; Tarassoli, P; Atkins, R; Dogramadzi, S

    2015-01-01

    Reduction is a crucial step in the treatment of broken bones. Achieving precise anatomical alignment of bone fragments is essential for a good fast healing process. Percutaneous techniques are associated with faster recovery time and lower infection risk. However, deducing intra-operatively the desired reduction position is quite challenging due to the currently available technology. The 2D nature of this technology (i.e. the image intensifier) doesn't provide enough information to the surgeon regarding the fracture alignment and rotation, which is actually a three-dimensional problem. This paper describes the design and development of a 3D imaging system for the intra-operative virtual reduction of joint fractures. The proposed imaging system is able to receive and segment CT scan data of the fracture, to generate the 3D models of the bone fragments, and display them on a GUI. A commercial optical tracker was included into the system to track the actual pose of the bone fragments in the physical space, and generate the corresponding pose relations in the virtual environment of the imaging system. The surgeon virtually reduces the fracture in the 3D virtual environment, and a robotic manipulator connected to the fracture through an orthopedic pin executes the physical reductions accordingly. The system is here evaluated through fracture reduction experiments, demonstrating a reduction accuracy of 1.04 ± 0.69 mm (translational RMSE) and 0.89 ± 0.71 ° (rotational RMSE).

  5. A Multi-Sensorial Hybrid Control for Robotic Manipulation in Human-Robot Workspaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan A. Corrales

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Autonomous manipulation in semi-structured environments where human operators can interact is an increasingly common task in robotic applications. This paper describes an intelligent multi-sensorial approach that solves this issue by providing a multi-robotic platform with a high degree of autonomy and the capability to perform complex tasks. The proposed sensorial system is composed of a hybrid visual servo control to efficiently guide the robot towards the object to be manipulated, an inertial motion capture system and an indoor localization system to avoid possible collisions between human operators and robots working in the same workspace, and a tactile sensor algorithm to correctly manipulate the object. The proposed controller employs the whole multi-sensorial system and combines the measurements of each one of the used sensors during two different phases considered in the robot task: a first phase where the robot approaches the object to be grasped, and a second phase of manipulation of the object. In both phases, the unexpected presence of humans is taken into account. This paper also presents the successful results obtained in several experimental setups which verify the validity of the proposed approach.

  6. Adaptive Neural Output Feedback Control for Uncertain Robot Manipulators with Input Saturation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rong Mei

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an adaptive neural output feedback control scheme for uncertain robot manipulators with input saturation using the radial basis function neural network (RBFNN and disturbance observer. First, the RBFNN is used to approximate the system uncertainty, and the unknown approximation error of the RBFNN and the time-varying unknown external disturbance of robot manipulators are integrated as a compounded disturbance. Then, the state observer and the disturbance observer are proposed to estimate the unmeasured system state and the unknown compounded disturbance based on RBFNN. At the same time, the adaptation technique is employed to tackle the control input saturation problem. Utilizing the estimate outputs of the RBFNN, the state observer, and the disturbance observer, the adaptive neural output feedback control scheme is developed for robot manipulators using the backstepping technique. The convergence of all closed-loop signals is rigorously proved via Lyapunov analysis and the asymptotically convergent tracking error is obtained under the integrated effect of the system uncertainty, the unmeasured system state, the unknown external disturbance, and the input saturation. Finally, numerical simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive neural output feedback control scheme for uncertain robot manipulators.

  7. MEMS-based platforms for mechanical manipulation and characterization of cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pan, Peng; Wang, Wenhui; Ru, Changhai; Sun, Yu; Liu, Xinyu

    2017-12-01

    Mechanical manipulation and characterization of single cells are important experimental techniques in biological and medical research. Because of the microscale sizes and highly fragile structures of cells, conventional cell manipulation and characterization techniques are not accurate and/or efficient enough or even cannot meet the more and more demanding needs in different types of cell-based studies. To this end, novel microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based technologies have been developed to improve the accuracy, efficiency, and consistency of various cell manipulation and characterization tasks, and enable new types of cell research. This article summarizes existing MEMS-based platforms developed for cell mechanical manipulation and characterization, highlights their specific design considerations making them suitable for their designated tasks, and discuss their advantages and limitations. In closing, an outlook into future trends is also provided.

  8. Modelling, Simulation and Testing of a Reconfigurable Cable-Based Parallel Manipulator as Motion Aiding System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gianni Castelli

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents results on the modelling, simulation and experimental tests of a cable-based parallel manipulator to be used as an aiding or guiding system for people with motion disabilities. There is a high level of motivation for people with a motion disability or the elderly to perform basic daily-living activities independently. Therefore, it is of great interest to design and implement safe and reliable motion assisting and guiding devices that are able to help end-users. In general, a robot for a medical application should be able to interact with a patient in safety conditions, i.e. it must not damage people or surroundings; it must be designed to guarantee high accuracy and low acceleration during the operation. Furthermore, it should not be too bulky and it should exert limited wrenches after close interaction with people. It can be advisable to have a portable system which can be easily brought into and assembled in a hospital or a domestic environment. Cable-based robotic structures can fulfil those requirements because of their main characteristics that make them light and intrinsically safe. In this paper, a reconfigurable four-cable-based parallel manipulator has been proposed as a motion assisting and guiding device to help people to accomplish a number of tasks, such as an aiding or guiding system to move the upper and lower limbs or the whole body. Modelling and simulation are presented in the ADAMS environment. Moreover, experimental tests are reported as based on an available laboratory prototype.

  9. Adaptive control of robotic manipulators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seraji, H.

    1987-01-01

    The author presents a novel approach to adaptive control of manipulators to achieve trajectory tracking by the joint angles. The central concept in this approach is the utilization of the manipulator inverse as a feedforward controller. The desired trajectory is applied as an input to the feedforward controller which behaves as the inverse of the manipulator at any operating point; the controller output is used as the driving torque for the manipulator. The controller gains are then updated by an adaptation algorithm derived from MRAC (model reference adaptive control) theory to cope with variations in the manipulator inverse due to changes of the operating point. An adaptive feedback controller and an auxiliary signal are also used to enhance closed-loop stability and to achieve faster adaptation. The proposed control scheme is computationally fast and does not require a priori knowledge of the complex dynamic model or the parameter values of the manipulator or the payload.

  10. Laboratory services series: a master-slave manipulator maintenance program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jenness, R.G.; Hicks, R.E.; Wicker, C.D.

    1976-12-01

    The volume of master slave manipulator maintenance at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has necessitated the establishment of a repair facility and organization of a specially trained group of craftsmen. Emphasis on cell containment requires the use of manipulator boots and development of precise procedures for accomplishing the maintenance of 287 installed units. A very satisfactory computer programmed maintenance system has been established at the Laboratory to provide an economical approach to preventive maintenance

  11. Introduction to autonomous manipulation case study with an underwater robot, SAUVIM

    CERN Document Server

    Marani, Giacomo

    2014-01-01

    “Autonomous manipulation” is a challenge in robotic technologies. It refers to the capability of a mobile robot system with one or more manipulators that performs intervention tasks requiring physical contacts in unstructured environments and without continuous human supervision. Achieving autonomous manipulation capability is a quantum leap in robotic technologies as it is currently beyond the state of the art in robotics. This book addresses issues with the complexity of the problems encountered in autonomous manipulation including representation and modeling of robotic structures, kinematic and dynamic robotic control, kinematic and algorithmic singularity avoidance, dynamic task priority, workspace optimization and environment perception. Further development in autonomous manipulation should be able to provide robust improvements of the solutions for all of the above issues. The book provides an extensive tract on sensory-based autonomous manipulation for intervention tasks in unstructured environment...

  12. Manipulating the transparency and other optical properties of metamaterials by applying a magnetic field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Strelniker, Yakov M.; Bergman, David J.; Fleger, Yafit; Rosenbluh, Michael; Voznesenskaya, Anna O.; Vinogradov, Alexey P.; Lagarkov, Andrey N.

    2010-01-01

    The light transmission through metallic films with different types of nano-structures was studied both theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that the positions of the surface plasmon resonances depend on nano-structural details. Those can be changed from sample to sample or in given sample by applying an external dc electric or magnetic field. The dependence of transmission spectrum on the shape of holes (inclusions) and external fields can be used for manipulation of the light transmission, as well as the polarization of the transmitted light and other optical properties, by external field. Two complementary situations are considered: a metal film with dielectric holes and a dielectric film with metallic islands. A new analytical asymptotic approach for calculation of the optical properties of such plasmonic systems is developed.

  13. Using Manipulatives in Math Instruction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marzola, Eileen S.

    1987-01-01

    Guidelines for teachers to better use manipulatives in the teaching of mathematics to learning disabled learners are offered including a rationale for manipulatives, selection crteria, principles underlying productive use of manipulatives, and making the transition from the concrete to the symbolic. Suggested materials and distributors are listed.…

  14. The Glymphatic-Lymphatic Continuum: Opportunities for Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hitscherich, Kyle; Smith, Kyle; Cuoco, Joshua A; Ruvolo, Kathryn E; Mancini, Jayme D; Leheste, Joerg R; Torres, German

    2016-03-01

    The brain has long been thought to lack a lymphatic drainage system. Recent studies, however, show the presence of a brain-wide paravascular system appropriately named the glymphatic system based on its similarity to the lymphatic system in function and its dependence on astroglial water flux. Besides the clearance of cerebrospinal fluid and interstitial fluid, the glymphatic system also facilitates the clearance of interstitial solutes such as amyloid-β and tau from the brain. As cerebrospinal fluid and interstitial fluid are cleared through the glymphatic system, eventually draining into the lymphatic vessels of the neck, this continuous fluid circuit offers a paradigm shift in osteopathic manipulative medicine. For instance, manipulation of the glymphatic-lymphatic continuum could be used to promote experimental initiatives for nonpharmacologic, noninvasive management of neurologic disorders. In the present review, the authors describe what is known about the glymphatic system and identify several osteopathic experimental strategies rooted in a mechanistic understanding of the glymphatic-lymphatic continuum.

  15. Conceptual design report for a Fusion Engineering Device sector-handling machine and movable manipulator system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watts, K.D.; Masson, L.S.; McPherson, R.S.

    1982-10-01

    Design requirements, trade studies, design descriptions, conceptual designs, and cost estimates have been completed for the Fusion Engineering Device sector handling machine, movable manipulator system, subcomponent handling machine, and limiter blade handling machine. This information will be used by the Fusion Engineering Design Center to begin to determine the cost and magnitude of the effort required to perform remote maintenance on the Fusion Engineering Device. The designs presented are by no means optimum, and the costs estimates are rough-order-of-magnitude

  16. Parametric Synthesis of Automatic Control System of Industrial Robot Manipulator in Compliance with Requirements of Robust Quality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. A. Nesenchuk

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper considers an application of a root-locus method for synthesis of dynamic systems with uncertainty that meet the requirements of pre-set quality. This method is used for parametric synthesis of automatic control system of industrial robot manipulator that is used for transportation of engineering products. The synthesis takes place under conditions of substantial changes in inertia moment of robot load. As a result of investigations it is possible to determine range of values of variable parameter that ensures the required quality of control system operation. A system of computer programs has been developed in order to solve the problem.

  17. Simulation of cooperating robot manipulators on a mobile platform

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murphy, Steve H.; Wen, John T.; Saridis, George N.

    1990-01-01

    The dynamic equations of motion for two manipulators holding a common object on a freely moving mobile platform are developed. The full dynamic interactions from arms to platform and arm-tip to arm-tip are included in the formulation. The development of the closed chain dynamics allows for the use of any solution for the open topological tree of base and manipulator links. In particular, because the system has 18 degrees of freedom, recursive solutions for the dynamic simulation become more promising for efficient calculations of the motion. Simulation of the system is accomplished through a MATLAB program, and the response is visualized graphically using the SILMA Cimstation.

  18. High degree-of-freedom dynamic manipulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murphy, Michael P.; Stephens, Benjamin; Abe, Yeuhi; Rizzi, Alfred A.

    2012-06-01

    The creation of high degree of freedom dynamic mobile manipulation techniques and behaviors will allow robots to accomplish difficult tasks in the field. We are investigating the use of the body and legs of legged robots to improve the strength, velocity, and workspace of an integrated manipulator to accomplish dynamic manipulation. This is an especially challenging task, as all of the degrees of freedom are active at all times, the dynamic forces generated are high, and the legged system must maintain robust balance throughout the duration of the tasks. To accomplish this goal, we are utilizing trajectory optimization techniques to generate feasible open-loop behaviors for our 28 dof quadruped robot (BigDog) by planning the trajectories in a 13 dimensional space. Covariance Matrix Adaptation techniques are utilized to optimize for several criteria such as payload capability and task completion speed while also obeying constraints such as torque and velocity limits, kinematic limits, and center of pressure location. These open-loop behaviors are then used to generate feed-forward terms, which are subsequently used online to improve tracking and maintain low controller gains. Some initial results on one of our existing balancing quadruped robots with an additional human-arm-like manipulator are demonstrated on robot hardware, including dynamic lifting and throwing of heavy objects 16.5kg cinder blocks, using motions that resemble a human athlete more than typical robotic motions. Increased payload capacity is accomplished through coordinated body motion.

  19. Fast and accurate edge orientation processing during object manipulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flanagan, J Randall; Johansson, Roland S

    2018-01-01

    Quickly and accurately extracting information about a touched object’s orientation is a critical aspect of dexterous object manipulation. However, the speed and acuity of tactile edge orientation processing with respect to the fingertips as reported in previous perceptual studies appear inadequate in these respects. Here we directly establish the tactile system’s capacity to process edge-orientation information during dexterous manipulation. Participants extracted tactile information about edge orientation very quickly, using it within 200 ms of first touching the object. Participants were also strikingly accurate. With edges spanning the entire fingertip, edge-orientation resolution was better than 3° in our object manipulation task, which is several times better than reported in previous perceptual studies. Performance remained impressive even with edges as short as 2 mm, consistent with our ability to precisely manipulate very small objects. Taken together, our results radically redefine the spatial processing capacity of the tactile system. PMID:29611804

  20. Balanced articulated manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Francois, Daniel; Germond, J.-C.; Marchal, Paul; Vertut, Jean.

    1976-01-01

    The description is given of a manipulator of the type comprising a master arm and a slave arm, capable of working in a containment restricted by a wall fitted with an aperture to introduce the slave arm into the containment. According to the invention this manipulator is permanently balanced irrespective of its distortions when it is secured to the wall of the containment in which it is desired to work. The entire manipulator is also balanced when being set up and when moved outside the containment, in relation to a supporting axle. This result is achieved in a simplified manner by giving homothetic shapes to the various component parts of the slave and master arms, the master arm having at least one balancing weight [fr

  1. Linear Perturbation Adaptive Control of Hydraulically Driven Manipulators

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, T.O.; Hansen, M.R.; Conrad, Finn

    2004-01-01

    control.Using the Lyapunov approach, under slowly time-varying assumptions, it is shown that the tracking error and the parameter error remain bounded. This bound is a function of the ideal parameters and a bounded disturbance. The control algorithm decouples and linearizes the manipulator so that each......A method for synthesis of a robust adaptive scheme for a hydraulically driven manipulator, that takes full advantage of any known system dynamics to simplify the adaptive control problem for the unknown portion of the dynamics is presented. The control method is based on adaptive perturbation...

  2. Electrostatic Transport and Manipulation of Lunar Soil and Dust

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kawamoto, Hiroyuki

    2008-01-01

    Transport and manipulation technologies of lunar soil and dust are under development utilizing the electrostatic force. Transport of particles is realized by an electrostatic conveyer consisting of parallel electrodes. Four-phase traveling electrostatic wave was applied to the electrodes to transport particles upon the conveyer and it was demonstrated that particles were efficiently transported under conditions of low frequency, high voltage, and the application of rectangular wave. Not only linear but also curved and closed transport was demonstrated. Numerical investigation was carried out with a three-dimensional hard-sphere model of the Distinct Element Method to clarify the mechanism of the transport and to predict performances in the lunar environment. This technology is expected to be utilized not only for the transport of bulk soil but also for the cleaning of a solar panel and an optical lens. Another technology is an electrostatic manipulation system to manipulate single particle. A manipulator consisted of two parallel pin electrodes. When voltage was applied between the electrodes, electrophoresis force generated in non-uniform electrostatic field was applied to the particle near the tip of the electrode. The particle was captured by the application of the voltage and released from the manipulator by turning off the voltage. It was possible to manipulate not only insulative but also conductive particles. Three-dimensional electrostatic field calculation was conducted to calculate the electrophoresis force and the Coulomb force

  3. Direct Manipulation in Virtual Reality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bryson, Steve

    2003-01-01

    Virtual Reality interfaces offer several advantages for scientific visualization such as the ability to perceive three-dimensional data structures in a natural way. The focus of this chapter is direct manipulation, the ability for a user in virtual reality to control objects in the virtual environment in a direct and natural way, much as objects are manipulated in the real world. Direct manipulation provides many advantages for the exploration of complex, multi-dimensional data sets, by allowing the investigator the ability to intuitively explore the data environment. Because direct manipulation is essentially a control interface, it is better suited for the exploration and analysis of a data set than for the publishing or communication of features found in that data set. Thus direct manipulation is most relevant to the analysis of complex data that fills a volume of three-dimensional space, such as a fluid flow data set. Direct manipulation allows the intuitive exploration of that data, which facilitates the discovery of data features that would be difficult to find using more conventional visualization methods. Using a direct manipulation interface in virtual reality, an investigator can, for example, move a data probe about in space, watching the results and getting a sense of how the data varies within its spatial volume.

  4. Application of symbolic and algebraic manipulation software in solving applied mechanics problems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsai, Wen-Lang; Kikuchi, Noboru

    1993-01-01

    As its name implies, symbolic and algebraic manipulation is an operational tool which not only can retain symbols throughout computations but also can express results in terms of symbols. This report starts with a history of symbolic and algebraic manipulators and a review of the literatures. With the help of selected examples, the capabilities of symbolic and algebraic manipulators are demonstrated. These applications to problems of applied mechanics are then presented. They are the application of automatic formulation to applied mechanics problems, application to a materially nonlinear problem (rigid-plastic ring compression) by finite element method (FEM) and application to plate problems by FEM. The advantages and difficulties, contributions, education, and perspectives of symbolic and algebraic manipulation are discussed. It is well known that there exist some fundamental difficulties in symbolic and algebraic manipulation, such as internal swelling and mathematical limitation. A remedy for these difficulties is proposed, and the three applications mentioned are solved successfully. For example, the closed from solution of stiffness matrix of four-node isoparametrical quadrilateral element for 2-D elasticity problem was not available before. Due to the work presented, the automatic construction of it becomes feasible. In addition, a new advantage of the application of symbolic and algebraic manipulation found is believed to be crucial in improving the efficiency of program execution in the future. This will substantially shorten the response time of a system. It is very significant for certain systems, such as missile and high speed aircraft systems, in which time plays an important role.

  5. EVALUATION OF STATE-OF-THE-ART MANIPULATORS AND REQUIREMENTS FOR DOE ROBOTICS APPLICATIONS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    BLACK, DEREK; GRUPINSKI, STEPHEN

    1998-10-08

    This report provides an overview of applications within the DOE complex which could benefit from the use of modular robotics technology during remediation operations. Each application area contains one or more specific tasks which are presently conducted by humans under hazardous conditions or which are deemed highly impractical, or are altogether impossible without automation. Five major areas were investigated for specific needs with respect to automation. Information was collected on Mixed Waste Operations, Contaminant Automated Analysis, Tanks, Decontamination and Dismantlement and Automated Plutonium Processing. During this investigation, information was gathered from available literature, telephone interviews with informed personnel and on-site visits. This data serves to provide design requirements and guidelines for the design of a family of modular actuators, which will be used to construct manipulators suited to each task. In addition, a survey of existing modular manipulator designs is presented. This survey addresses modular manipulators developed inside government labs and in universities for such applications as space exploration or controls research. It also addresses efforts at commercially viable industrial manipulators which have been built. This survey of robotic systems provides the reader with a glimpse into what technology currently exists in the way of modular manipulator automation and, to a degree, where this technology may be applicable or, more often, where these systems are unsuited to EM applications. From the information gathered during this study, it is possible to sufficiently define the requirements of one manipulator system which can be used to conduct automated transfer operations within Plutonium gloveboxes. This manipulator will be constructed from ARM Automation actuator modules and will provide this application with a viable option for automation within these gloveboxes. The design issues surrounding this manipulator and its

  6. Lightweight submersed 'Walking' NDE manipulators for PWR and BWR vessel weld inspection

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Saernmark, Ivan; Lenz, Herbert [WesDyne TRC AB, Stockholm (Sweden)

    2008-04-15

    Three new manipulators developed by WesDyne TRC in Sweden have under the year 2007 performed three very successful inspections in the PWR reactor Ringhals 3 and the BWR reactors Ringhals 1 and Oskarshamn 1. The manipulator systems can be used to perform inspection of circumferential and vertical welds on the reactor pressure vessel, the core shroud, core shroud support in BWR reactors or vessel and core barrel welds in PWR reactors. Most other flat or curved surfaces can be inspected using the new concept through relatively simple mechanical reconfigurations of system modules. The first inspection was performed on the R3 PWR core barrel in June 2007 with a very good result. This Manipulator is designed for access in very narrow gaps and for the type of core barrels with a shield covering the whole area of the perimeter. The manipulator is attached to the inspection area by means of a new unique suction cup system. The current manipulators consist of a curved horizontal beam, with radius similar to the reactor vessel, and a straight vertical beam, forming a T-shaped structure. By alternating the application of suction cup pairs on the horizontal beam and the vertical beam and by driving the scanning motors, the manipulator performs an incremental translational movement upwards/downwards or from side to side. The principles of this system give a well defined and stable platform for global and local positioning accuracy. A combination of advanced sensor solutions provides accurate position information in the absence of other physical reference objects. The system is controlled by the new WesDyne TRC Motor Control Panel and software, the MCP is specifically designed for remote control of submersed manipulators using techniques for cable reduction.

  7. A novel atmospheric tritium sampling system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qin, Lailai; Xia, Zhenghai; Gu, Shaozhong; Zhang, Dongxun; Bao, Guangliang; Han, Xingbo; Ma, Yuhua; Deng, Ke; Liu, Jiayu; Zhang, Qin; Ma, Zhaowei; Yang, Guo; Liu, Wei; Liu, Guimin

    2018-06-01

    The health hazard of tritium is related to its chemical form. Sampling different chemical forms of tritium simultaneously becomes significant. Here a novel atmospheric tritium sampling system (TS-212) was developed to collect the tritiated water (HTO), tritiated hydrogen (HT) and tritiated methane (CH3T) simultaneously. It consisted of an air inlet system, three parallel connected sampling channels, a hydrogen supply module, a methane supply module and a remote control system. It worked at air flow rate of 1 L/min to 5 L/min, with temperature of catalyst furnace at 200 °C for HT sampling and 400 °C for CH3T sampling. Conversion rates of both HT and CH3T to HTO were larger than 99%. The collecting efficiency of the two-stage trap sets for HTO was larger than 96% in 12 h working-time without being blocked. Therefore, the collected efficiencies of TS-212 are larger than 95% for tritium with different chemical forms in environment. Besides, the remote control system made sampling more intelligent, reducing the operator's work intensity. Based on the performance parameters described above, the TS-212 can be used to sample atmospheric tritium in different chemical forms.

  8. "Little Helper" - An Autonomous Industrial Mobile Manipulator Concept

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mads Hvilshoj

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the concept "autonomous industrial mobile manipulation" (AIMM based on the mobile manipulator "Little Helper" - an ongoing research project at Aalborg University, Denmark, concerning the development of an autonomous and flexible manufacturing assistant. The paper focuses on the contextual aspects and the working principles of AIMM. Furthermore, the paper deals with the design principles and overall hardware and software architectures of "Little Helper" from a functional and modular mechatronics point of view, in order to create a generic AIMM platform. The design challenges faced in the project is to integrate commercial off‐the‐shelf (COTS and dedicated highly integrated systems into an autonomous mobile manipulator system with the ability to perform diverse tasks in industrial environments. We propose an action based domain specific communication language for AIMM for routine and task definition, in order to lower the entry barriers for the users of the technology. To demonstrate the "Little Helper" concept a full‐scale prototype has been built and different application examples carried out. Experiences and knowledge gained from this show promising results regarding industrial integration, exploitation and maturation of the AIMM technology.

  9. Selective manipulation of superparamagnetic beads by a magnetic microchip

    KAUST Repository

    Gooneratne, Chinthaka Pasan

    2013-07-01

    In this paper, a magnetic microchip (MMC) is presented, to first trap and then selectively manipulate individual, superparamagnetic beads (SPBs) to another trapping site. Trapping sites are realized through soft magnetic micro disks made of Ni80Fe20, and SPB motion is controlled by current-carrying, tapered, conducting lines made of Au. The MMC was realized using standard microfabrication techniques and provides a cheap and versatile platform for microfluidic systems for cell manipulation. © 2013 IEEE.

  10. A set of decentralized PID controllers for an n–link robot manipulator

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    A class of stabilizing decentralized proportional integral derivative (PID) controllers for an -link robot manipulator system is proposed. The range of decentralized PID controller parameters for an -link robot manipulator is obtained using Kharitonov theorem and stability boundary equations. Basically, the proposed design ...

  11. Pneumatic artificial muscle actuators for compliant robotic manipulators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robinson, Ryan Michael

    Robotic systems are increasingly being utilized in applications that require interaction with humans. In order to enable safe physical human-robot interaction, light weight and compliant manipulation are desirable. These requirements are problematic for many conventional actuation systems, which are often heavy, and typically use high stiffness to achieve high performance, leading to large impact forces upon collision. However, pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) are actuators that can satisfy these safety requirements while offering power-to-weight ratios comparable to those of conventional actuators. PAMs are extremely lightweight actuators that produce force in response to pressurization. These muscles demonstrate natural compliance, but have a nonlinear force-contraction profile that complicates modeling and control. This body of research presents solutions to the challenges associated with the implementation of PAMs as actuators in robotic manipulators, particularly with regard to modeling, design, and control. An existing PAM force balance model was modified to incorporate elliptic end geometry and a hyper-elastic constitutive relationship, dramatically improving predictions of PAM behavior at high contraction. Utilizing this improved model, two proof-of-concept PAM-driven manipulators were designed and constructed; design features included parallel placement of actuators and a tendon-link joint design. Genetic algorithm search heuristics were employed to determine an optimal joint geometry; allowing a manipulator to achieve a desired torque profile while minimizing the required PAM pressure. Performance of the manipulators was evaluated in both simulation and experiment employing various linear and nonlinear control strategies. These included output feedback techniques, such as proportional-integral-derivative (PID) and fuzzy logic, a model-based control for computed torque, and more advanced controllers, such as sliding mode, adaptive sliding mode, and

  12. A giant magnetoresistance ring-sensor based microsystem for magnetic bead manipulation and detection

    KAUST Repository

    Gooneratne, Chinthaka P.

    2011-03-28

    In this paper a novel spin valvegiant magnetoresistance(GMR) ring-sensor integrated with a microstructure is proposed for concentrating, trapping, and detecting superparamagnetic beads (SPBs). Taking advantage of the fact that SPBs can be manipulated by an external magnetic field, a unique arrangement of conducting microrings is utilized to manipulate the SPBs toward the GMR sensing area in order to increase the reliability of detection. The microrings are arranged and activated in such a manner so as to enable the detection of minute concentrations of SPBs in a sample. Precise manipulation is achieved by applying current sequentially to the microrings. The fabricated ring-shaped GMR element is located underneath the innermost ring and has a magnetoresistance of approximately 5.9%. By the performed experiments it was shown that SPBs could be successfully manipulated toward the GMR sensing zone.

  13. A giant magnetoresistance ring-sensor based microsystem for magnetic bead manipulation and detection

    KAUST Repository

    Gooneratne, Chinthaka P.; Giouroudi, Ioanna; Liang, Cai; Kosel, Jü rgen

    2011-01-01

    In this paper a novel spin valvegiant magnetoresistance(GMR) ring-sensor integrated with a microstructure is proposed for concentrating, trapping, and detecting superparamagnetic beads (SPBs). Taking advantage of the fact that SPBs can be manipulated by an external magnetic field, a unique arrangement of conducting microrings is utilized to manipulate the SPBs toward the GMR sensing area in order to increase the reliability of detection. The microrings are arranged and activated in such a manner so as to enable the detection of minute concentrations of SPBs in a sample. Precise manipulation is achieved by applying current sequentially to the microrings. The fabricated ring-shaped GMR element is located underneath the innermost ring and has a magnetoresistance of approximately 5.9%. By the performed experiments it was shown that SPBs could be successfully manipulated toward the GMR sensing zone.

  14. Conjugate Gradient Algorithms For Manipulator Simulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fijany, Amir; Scheid, Robert E.

    1991-01-01

    Report discusses applicability of conjugate-gradient algorithms to computation of forward dynamics of robotic manipulators. Rapid computation of forward dynamics essential to teleoperation and other advanced robotic applications. Part of continuing effort to find algorithms meeting requirements for increased computational efficiency and speed. Method used for iterative solution of systems of linear equations.

  15. Geometric control of manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thiruarooran, C.

    1996-01-01

    Resolved motion control enables the end effector to be moved as a rigid body in space without having to work out manually the joint combinations needed. Since a rigid body in space has three independent translational and three independent rotational movements, a manipulator with at least six joints can be controlled in this way. Normally the manipulator has more than six joints providing an infinite number of ways of moving the tip in the desired direction and this redundancy can be exploited in a variety of ways. Resolved motion tests performed on a hydraulically operated heavy duty manipulator at the Dungeness nuclear power plant are described. The results have shown that manipulators with as many as ten joints can be controlled under resolved tip motion and the areas which are critical to the performance of this type of control have been identified. (UK)

  16. A Structure-dependent matrix representation of manipulator kinematics and its inverse solution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sasaki, Shinobu

    1987-03-01

    In this paper, derivation of kinematic equations for a six-link manipulator is presented using the homogeneous transformation (A i -matrix) based on Denavit-Hartenberg method, and additionally a solution procedure of its inverse problem is outlined. In order to examine the validity of a system of equations, solutions were compared with the exact ones of the inverse kinematics (for the same type of a manipulator) expressed in arbitrarily given co-ordinate systems. Through complete agreement of joint solutions between the two, the present purpose was accomplished. As shown in this paper, an explicit description between adjacent links will give a possible clue to a systematic treatment of the inverse problem for a class of manipulators. (author)

  17. A comparative neutron activation analysis study of common generic manipulated and reference medicines commercialized in Brazil

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leal, A.S.; Menezes, M.A.B.C.; Rodrigues, R.R.; Andonie, O.; Vermaercke, P.; Sneyers, L.

    2008-01-01

    In this work, a comparative study of neutron activation analysis (NAA) was performed by the nuclear institutes: CDTN/CNEN-Brazil, CCHEN-Chile and the SCK.CEN-Belgium aiming to investigate some generic, manipulated and reference medicines largely commercialized in Brazil. Some impurities such as: As, Ba, Br, Ce, Co, Cr, Eu, Fe, Hf, Sb, Sc, Sm, Ti and Zn were found, and the heterogeneity of the samples pointed out the lack of an efficient public system of quality control

  18. Impedance Control of a Redundant Parallel Manipulator

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Méndez, Juan de Dios Flores; Schiøler, Henrik; Madsen, Ole

    2017-01-01

    This paper presents the design of Impedance Control to a redundantly actuated Parallel Kinematic Manipulator. The proposed control is based on treating each limb as a single system and their connection through the internal interaction forces. The controller introduces a stiffness and damping...

  19. Control of a flexible bracing manipulator: Integration of current research work to realize the bracing manipulator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwon, Dong-Soo

    1991-01-01

    All research results about flexible manipulator control were integrated to show a control scenario of a bracing manipulator. First, dynamic analysis of a flexible manipulator was done for modeling. Second, from the dynamic model, the inverse dynamic equation was derived, and the time domain inverse dynamic method was proposed for the calculation of the feedforward torque and the desired flexible coordinate trajectories. Third, a tracking controller was designed by combining the inverse dynamic feedforward control with the joint feedback control. The control scheme was applied to the tip position control of a single link flexible manipulator for zero and non-zero initial condition cases. Finally, the contact control scheme was added to the position tracking control. A control scenario of a bracing manipulator is provided and evaluated through simulation and experiment on a single link flexible manipulator.

  20. Three-dimensional mid-air acoustic manipulation by ultrasonic phased arrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ochiai, Yoichi; Hoshi, Takayuki; Rekimoto, Jun

    2014-01-01

    The essence of levitation technology is the countervailing of gravity. It is known that an ultrasound standing wave is capable of suspending small particles at its sound pressure nodes. The acoustic axis of the ultrasound beam in conventional studies was parallel to the gravitational force, and the levitated objects were manipulated along the fixed axis (i.e. one-dimensionally) by controlling the phases or frequencies of bolted Langevin-type transducers. In the present study, we considered extended acoustic manipulation whereby millimetre-sized particles were levitated and moved three-dimensionally by localised ultrasonic standing waves, which were generated by ultrasonic phased arrays. Our manipulation system has two original features. One is the direction of the ultrasound beam, which is arbitrary because the force acting toward its centre is also utilised. The other is the manipulation principle by which a localised standing wave is generated at an arbitrary position and moved three-dimensionally by opposed and ultrasonic phased arrays. We experimentally confirmed that expanded-polystyrene particles of 0.6 mm, 1 mm, and 2 mm in diameter could be manipulated by our proposed method.

  1. Manipulative Properties of Asymmetric Double Quantum Dots via Laser and Gate Voltage

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shun-Cai, Zhao; Zheng-Dong, Liu

    2009-01-01

    We present a density matrix approach for the theoretical description of an asymmetric double quantum dot (QD) system. The results show that the properties of gain, absorption and dispersion of the double QD system, the population of the state with one hole in one dot and an electron in another dot transferred by tunneling can be manipulated by a laser pulse or gate voltage. Our scheme may demonstrate the possibility of electro-optical manipulation of quantum systems. (condensed matter: electronicstructure, electrical, magnetic, and opticalproperties)

  2. Modeling the manipulator and flipper pose effects on tip over stability of a tracked mobile manipulator

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Dube, C

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Mobile manipulators are used in a number of different applications such as bomb disposal, mining robotics, and search and rescue operations. These mobile manipulators are highly susceptible to tip over due to the motion of the manipulator...

  3. Upper airway stabilization by osteopathic manipulation of the sphenopalatine ganglion versus sham manipulation in OSAS patients: a proof-of-concept, randomized, crossover, double-blind, controlled study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacq, Olivier; Arnulf, Isabelle; Similowski, Thomas; Attali, Valérie

    2017-12-20

    Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) of the sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG) is used empirically for the treatment of rhinitis and snoring and is thought to increase pharyngeal stability. This trial was designed to study the effects of this treatment on pharyngeal stability evaluated by critical closing pressure in obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome. This single-centre, randomized, crossover, double-blind study compared active manipulation and sham manipulation of the SPG. Randomization was computer-generated. Patients each received one active manipulation and one sham manipulation at an interval of 21 days and were evaluated 30 min and 48 h after each session administered by a qualified osteopath. Neither the patients, nor the investigator performing the evaluations were informed about the order of the two techniques (double-blind). The primary endpoint was the percentage of responding patients presenting increased pharyngeal stability defined by a variation of critical closing pressure (Pcrit) of at least -4 cmH 2 O at 30 min. Secondary endpoints were the variation of Pcrit in absolute values, sleepiness and snoring. Others endpoints were lacrimation (Schirmer's test), induced pain, sensations experienced during OMT. Ten patients were included and nine (57 [50; 58] years, comprising 7 men, with an apnoea-hypopnoea index of 31.0 [25.5; 33.2]/h; (values are median [quartiles])) were analysed. Seven patients were analysed for the primary endpoint and nine patients were analysed for secondary endpoints. Five patients responded after active manipulation versus no patients after sham manipulation (p = 0.0209). Active manipulation induced more intense pain (p = 0.0089), increased lacrimation (ns) and more tactile, nociceptive and gustatory sensations (13 versus 1) compared to sham manipulation. No significant difference was observed for the other endpoints. Osteopathic manipulative treatment of the SPG may improve pharyngeal stability in obstructive sleep

  4. Estimating thumb–index finger precision grip and manipulation potential in extant and fossil primates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feix, Thomas; Kivell, Tracy L.; Pouydebat, Emmanuelle; Dollar, Aaron M.

    2015-01-01

    Primates, and particularly humans, are characterized by superior manual dexterity compared with other mammals. However, drawing the biomechanical link between hand morphology/behaviour and functional capabilities in non-human primates and fossil taxa has been challenging. We present a kinematic model of thumb–index precision grip and manipulative movement based on bony hand morphology in a broad sample of extant primates and fossil hominins. The model reveals that both joint mobility and digit proportions (scaled to hand size) are critical for determining precision grip and manipulation potential, but that having either a long thumb or great joint mobility alone does not necessarily yield high precision manipulation. The results suggest even the oldest available fossil hominins may have shared comparable precision grip manipulation with modern humans. In particular, the predicted human-like precision manipulation of Australopithecus afarensis, approximately one million years before the first stone tools, supports controversial archaeological evidence of tool-use in this taxon. PMID:25878134

  5. Microfabricated tools for manipulation and analysis of magnetic microcarriers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tondra, Mark; Popple, Anthony; Jander, Albrecht; Millen, Rachel L.; Pekas, Nikola; Porter, Marc D.

    2005-01-01

    Tools for manipulating and detecting magnetic microcarriers are being developed with microscale features. Microfabricated giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensors and wires are used for detection, and for creating high local field gradients. Microfluidic structures are added to control flow, and positioning of samples and microcarriers. These tools are designed for work in analytical chemistry and biology

  6. Development and performance tests of the bridge-transported servo manipulator system for remote maintenance jobs in a hot cell

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jin, Jae Hyun; Park, Byung Suk; Ko, Byung Seung; Yoon, Ji Sup; Jung, Ki Jung

    2005-01-01

    In this paper, a prototype of the Bridge-Transported Servo Manipulator (BTSM) system introduced, which has been developed to do operation and maintenance jobs remotely in a hot cell. The system consists of a telescopic transporter, a slave arm, a master arm, and a control system. Several tests such as a positional tracking, a weight handling, reliability, and operability have been performed and test results are presented. Based on the test results, an upgraded system which will be used during demonstrations of the advanced spent fuel conditioning process (ACP) has been designed.

  7. Fluidics platform and method for sample preparation and analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benner, W. Henry; Dzenitis, John M.; Bennet, William J.; Baker, Brian R.

    2014-08-19

    Herein provided are fluidics platform and method for sample preparation and analysis. The fluidics platform is capable of analyzing DNA from blood samples using amplification assays such as polymerase-chain-reaction assays and loop-mediated-isothermal-amplification assays. The fluidics platform can also be used for other types of assays and analyzes. In some embodiments, a sample in a sealed tube can be inserted directly. The following isolation, detection, and analyzes can be performed without a user's intervention. The disclosed platform may also comprises a sample preparation system with a magnetic actuator, a heater, and an air-drying mechanism, and fluid manipulation processes for extraction, washing, elution, assay assembly, assay detection, and cleaning after reactions and between samples.

  8. Nature-inspired microfluidic manipulation using magnetic actuators

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Khaderi, S. N.; Ioan, D.; den Toonder, J.M.J.; Onck, P. R.; LaVan, D.; Spearing, M.; Vengallatore, S.; DaSilva, M.

    2008-01-01

    Magnetically actuated micro-actuators are proposed to propel and manipulate fluid in micro-channels. As the fluid flows at low Reynolds number in such systems, the actuator should move in an asymmetric manner. The proposed actuators are polymer films with embedded magnetic particles, which are

  9. Multimodal Electrothermal Silicon Microgrippers for Nanotube Manipulation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nordström Andersen, Karin; Petersen, Dirch Hjorth; Carlson, Kenneth

    2009-01-01

    Microgrippers that are able to manipulate nanoobjects reproducibly are key components in 3-D nanomanipulation systems. We present here a monolithic electrothermal microgripper prepared by silicon microfabrication, and demonstrate pick-and-place of an as-grown carbon nanotube from a 2-D array onto...

  10. The simulated early learning of cervical spine manipulation technique utilising mannequins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chapman, Peter D; Stomski, Norman J; Losco, Barrett; Walker, Bruce F

    2015-01-01

    Trivial pain or minor soreness commonly follows neck manipulation and has been estimated at one in three treatments. In addition, rare catastrophic events can occur. Some of these incidents have been ascribed to poor technique where the neck is rotated too far. The aims of this study were to design an instrument to measure competency of neck manipulation in beginning students when using a simulation mannequin, and then examine the suitability of using a simulation mannequin to teach the early psychomotor skills for neck chiropractic manipulative therapy. We developed an initial set of questionnaire items and then used an expert panel to assess an instrument for neck manipulation competency among chiropractic students. The study sample comprised all 41 fourth year 2014 chiropractic students at Murdoch University. Students were randomly allocated into either a usual learning or mannequin group. All participants crossed over to undertake the alternative learning method after four weeks. A chi-square test was used to examine differences between groups in the proportion of students achieving an overall pass mark at baseline, four weeks, and eight weeks. This study was conducted between January and March 2014. We successfully developed an instrument of measurement to assess neck manipulation competency in chiropractic students. We then randomised 41 participants to first undertake either "usual learning" (n = 19) or "mannequin learning" (n = 22) for early neck manipulation training. There were no significant differences between groups in the overall pass rate at baseline (χ(2) = 0.10, p = 0.75), four weeks (χ(2) = 0.40, p = 0.53), and eight weeks (χ(2) = 0.07, p = 0.79). This study demonstrates that the use of a mannequin does not affect the manipulation competency grades of early learning students at short term follow up. Our findings have potentially important safety implications as the results indicate that students could initially

  11. Development of telerobotic manipulators for reactor dismantling work

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shinohara, Yoshikuni; Usui, Hozumi; Fujii, Yoshio

    1991-01-01

    This paper describes the amphibious electrical manipulators JARM-10, JART-25, JART-100 and JARM-25 which were developed in the program of reactor decommissioning technology development carried out by the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. They are multi-functional telerobotic light-duty (10 and 25 daN) and heavy-duty (100 daN) Manipulators which can be used in hostile environments in reactor dismantling work such as high radiation, underwater work and electrical noise. Each manipulator can be operated in either a bilateral master-slave, a teach-and-playback or a programmed control mode. By combining these modes appropriately, it is possible to perform complex tasks of remote handling. The usefulness of the telerobotic systems for dismantling nuclear reactors has been demonstrated by successful application of the JARM-25 for remote underwater dismantlement of highly radioactive reactor internals of complex form of an experimental nuclear power reactor. (author)

  12. In Praise of Manipulation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dowding, Keith; Van Hees, Martin

    Many theorists believe that the manipulation of voting procedures is a serious problem. Accordingly, much of social choice theory examines the conditions under which strategy-proofness can be ensured, and what kind of procedures do a better job of preventing manipulation. This article argues that

  13. Image manipulation as research misconduct.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parrish, Debra; Noonan, Bridget

    2009-06-01

    A growing number of research misconduct cases handled by the Office of Research Integrity involve image manipulations. Manipulations may include simple image enhancements, misrepresenting an image as something different from what it is, and altering specific features of an image. Through a study of specific cases, the misconduct findings associated with image manipulation, detection methods and those likely to identify such manipulations, are discussed. This article explores sanctions imposed against guilty researchers and the factors that resulted in no misconduct finding although relevant images clearly were flawed. Although new detection tools are available for universities and journals to detect questionable images, this article explores why these tools have not been embraced.

  14. The Manipulative Discourse of Gandalf

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Farid Mohammadi

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this essay is to investigate discursive, cognitive and social aspects of manipulation in regard to the dialogues of the literary fictional character of Gandalf in the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings. Accordingly, the researcher has taken a multidisciplinary approach to an account of discursive manipulation, and focuses on the cognitive dimensions of manipulation. As a result, the researcher demonstrates meticulously how manipulation involves intensifying the power, moral superiority and the credibility of the speaker(s, while abusing the others (recipients, along with an emotional and attractive way of expression, and supplemented by reasonable facts and documents in regard to a specific issue.

  15. HERMIES-3: A step toward autonomous mobility, manipulation, and perception

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weisbin, C. R.; Burks, B. L.; Einstein, J. R.; Feezell, R. R.; Manges, W. W.; Thompson, D. H.

    1989-01-01

    HERMIES-III is an autonomous robot comprised of a seven degree-of-freedom (DOF) manipulator designed for human scale tasks, a laser range finder, a sonar array, an omni-directional wheel-driven chassis, multiple cameras, and a dual computer system containing a 16-node hypercube expandable to 128 nodes. The current experimental program involves performance of human-scale tasks (e.g., valve manipulation, use of tools), integration of a dexterous manipulator and platform motion in geometrically complex environments, and effective use of multiple cooperating robots (HERMIES-IIB and HERMIES-III). The environment in which the robots operate has been designed to include multiple valves, pipes, meters, obstacles on the floor, valves occluded from view, and multiple paths of differing navigation complexity. The ongoing research program supports the development of autonomous capability for HERMIES-IIB and III to perform complex navigation and manipulation under time constraints, while dealing with imprecise sensory information.

  16. Whole-ecosystem experimental manipulations of tropical forests

    OpenAIRE

    Fayle, Tom M; Turner, Edgar Clive; Basset, Yves; Ewers, Robert M; Reynolds, Glen; Novotny, Vojtech

    2015-01-01

    Tropical forests are highly diverse systems involving extraordinary numbers of interactions between species, with each species responding in a different way to the abiotic environment. Understanding how these systems function and predicting how they respond to anthropogenic global change is extremely challenging. We argue for the necessity of ‘whole-ecosystem’ experimental manipulations, in which the entire ecosystem is targeted, either to reveal the functioning of the...

  17. A review of magnetic resonance imaging compatible manipulators in surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elhawary, H; Zivanovic, A; Davies, B; Lampérth, M

    2006-04-01

    Developments in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), coupled with parallel progress in the field of computer-assisted surgery, mean that an ideal environment has been created for the development of MRI-compatible robotic systems and manipulators, capable of enhancing many types of surgical procedure. However, MRI does impose severe restrictions on mechatronic devices to be used in or around the scanners. In this article a review of the developments in the field of MRI-compatible surgical manipulators over the last decade is presented. The manipulators developed make use of different methods of actuation, but they can be reduced to four main groups: actuation transmitted through hydraulics, pneumatic actuators, ultrasonic motors based on the piezoceramic principle and remote manual actuation. Progress has been made concerning material selection, position sensing, and different actuation techniques, and design strategies have been implemented to overcome the multiple restrictions imposed by the MRI environment. Most systems lack the clinical validation needed to continue on to commercial products.

  18. Spin tunneling and manipulation in nanostructures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sherman, E Ya; Ban, Yue; Gulyaev, L V; Khomitsky, D V

    2012-09-01

    The results for joint effects of tunneling and spin-orbit coupling on spin dynamics in nanostructures are presented for systems with discrete and continuous spectra. We demonstrate that tunneling plays the crucial role in the spin dynamics and the abilities of spin manipulation by external electric field. This result can be important for design of nanostructures-based spintronics devices.

  19. Hydraulic manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sinha, A.K.; Srikrishnamurty, G.

    1990-01-01

    Successful operation of nuclear plant is largely dependent on safe handling of radio-active material. In order to reduce this handling problem and minimise the exposure of radiation, various handling equipment and manipulators have been developed according to the requirements. Manufacture of nuclear fuel, which is the most important part of the nuclear industry, involves handling of uranium ingots weighing approximately 250 kg. This paper describes a specially designed hydraulic manipulator for handling of the ingots in a limited space. It was designed to grab and handle the ingots in any position. This has following drive motions: (1)gripping and releasing, (2)lifting and lowering (z-motion), (3)rotation about the horizontal axis (azimuth drive), (4)rotation about the job axis, and (5)rotation about the vertical axis. For horizontal motion (X and Y axis motion) this equipment is mounted on a motorised trolley, so that it can move inside the workshop. For all drives except the rotation about the job axis, hydraulic cylinders have been used with a battery operated power pack. Trolley drive is also given power from same battery. This paper describes the design aspects of this manipulator. (author). 4 figs

  20. Genetic manipulation of Methanosarcina spp.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Petra Regine Adelheid Kohler

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available The discovery of the third domain of life, the Archaea, is one of the most exciting findings of the last century. These remarkable prokaryotes are well known for their adaptations to extreme environments; however, Archaea have also conquered moderate environments. Many of the archaeal biochemical processes, such as methane production, are unique in nature and therefore of great scientific interest. Although formerly restricted to biochemical and physiological studies, sophisticated systems for genetic manipulation have been developed during the last two decades for methanogenic archaea, halophilic archaea and thermophilic, sulfur-metabolizing archaea. The availability of these tools has allowed for more complete studies of archaeal physiology and metabolism and most importantly provides the basis for the investigation of gene expression, regulation and function. In this review we provide an overview of methods for genetic manipulation of Methanosarcina spp., a group of methanogenic archaea that are key players in the global carbon cycle and which can be found in a variety of anaerobic environments.

  1. Visualization of virtual slave manipulator using the master input device

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, S. H.; Song, T. K.; Lee, J. Y.; Yoon, J. S.

    2003-01-01

    To handle the high level radioactive materials such a spent fuel, the Master-Slave Manipulators (MSM) are widely used as a remote handling device in nuclear facilities such as the hot cell with sealed and shielded space. In this paper, the Digital Mockup which simulates the remote operation of the Advanced Conditioning Process(ACP) is developed. Also, the workspace and the motion of the slave manipulator, as well as, the remote operation task should be analyzed. The process equipment of ACP and Maintenance/Handling Device are drawn in 3D CAD models using IGRIP. Modeling device of manipulator is assigned with various mobiles attributes such as a relative position, kinematics constraints, and a range of mobility. The 3D graphic simulator using the external input device of space ball displays the movement of manipulator. To connect the external input device to the graphic simulator, the interface program of external input device with 6 DOF is deigned using the Low Level Tele-operation Interface (LLTI). The experimental result shows that the developed simulation system gives much-improved human interface characteristics and shows satisfactory response characteristics in terms of synchronization speed. This should be useful for the development of work's education system in the virtual environment

  2. Two-Stage Variable Sample-Rate Conversion System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tkacenko, Andre

    2009-01-01

    A two-stage variable sample-rate conversion (SRC) system has been pro posed as part of a digital signal-processing system in a digital com munication radio receiver that utilizes a variety of data rates. The proposed system would be used as an interface between (1) an analog- todigital converter used in the front end of the receiver to sample an intermediatefrequency signal at a fixed input rate and (2) digita lly implemented tracking loops in subsequent stages that operate at v arious sample rates that are generally lower than the input sample r ate. This Two-Stage System would be capable of converting from an input sample rate to a desired lower output sample rate that could be var iable and not necessarily a rational fraction of the input rate.

  3. Development of a modular integrated control architecture for flexible manipulators. Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burks, B.L.; Battiston, G.

    1994-01-01

    In April 1994, ORNL and SPAR completed the joint development of a manipulator controls architecture for flexible structure controls under a CRADA between the two organizations. The CRADA project entailed design and development of a new architecture based upon the Modular Integrated Control Architecture (MICA) previously developed by ORNL. The new architecture, dubbed MICA-II, uses an object-oriented coding philosophy to provide a highly modular and expandable architecture for robotic manipulator control. This architecture can be readily ported to control of many different manipulator systems. The controller also provides a user friendly graphical operator interface and display of many forms of data including system diagnostics. The capabilities of MICA-II were demonstrated during oscillation damping experiments using the Flexible Beam Experimental Test Bed at Hanford

  4. Experimental and Numerical Study on the Semi-Closed Loop Control of a Planar Parallel Robot Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yong-Lin Kuo

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper implements the model predictive control to fulfill the position control of a 3-DOF 3-RRR planar parallel manipulator. The research work covers experimental and numerical studies. First, an experimental hardware-in-the-loop system to control the manipulator is constructed. The manipulator is driven by three DC motors, and each motor has an encoder to measure the rotating angles of the motors. The entire system is designed as a semiclosed-loop control system. The controller receives the encoder signals as inputs to produce signals driving the motors. Secondly, the motor parameters are obtained by system identification, and the controllers are designed based on these parameters. Finally, the numerical simulations are performed by incorporating the manipulator kinematics and the motor dynamics; the results are compared with those from the experiments. Both results show that they are in good agreement at steady state. There are two main contributions in this paper. One is the application of the model predictive control to the planar parallel manipulator, and the other one is to overcome the effects of the uncertainties of the DC motors and the performance of the position control due to the dynamic behavior of the manipulator.

  5. Manipulation of magnetic particles in microfluidic volumes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gao, Y.; Reenen, van A.; Hulsen, M.A.; Jong, de A.M.; Prins, M.W.J.; Toonder, den J.M.J.

    2013-01-01

    This paper reports various ways of field-based manipulation of magnetic colloidal particles to enhance biochemical reactions in lab-on-chip systems [1]. For one (I), we show the possibility to assemble the suspended magnetic micro-particles as tunable re-formable micro-stirrers capable of performing

  6. Stable five axes cryogenic photoemission manipulator without a differentially pumped rotary feedthrough

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Bum Joon; Kim, Hyeong-Do; Cho, Deok-Yong; Kim, Myongjin; Oh, S.-J.; Kim, Changyoung

    2005-01-01

    We report on the design and construction of an ultrahigh vacuum compatible cryogenic manipulator for angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Unlike designs that have been used so far, our design allows five motions (three translational and two angular) without a differentially pumped rotary feedthrough. The design greatly reduces the sample motion upon rotation, which is crucial in automatic data acquisition over a large area in the momentum space. The constructed manipulator shows smooth motions in vacuum and the lowest temperature it could reach is about 8 K at the sample position. Angular reproducibilities are found to be about 0.02 deg. for both of the angular motions. The wobbling motion from the rotation around the vertical rotation axis is found to be virtually nonexistent (less than 0.1 mm)

  7. CLIMAN - a mobile manipulator concept

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Noltingk, B.E.; Owen, C.K.V.

    With increasing age the integrity of more remote parts of reactors, such as the core restraints, is questioned so there is a need for a means of access to these places to carry out inspection, minor repairs and alterations. Conventional standpipe manipulators are about 20 m long so that extending them further presents difficulties of load capacity, rigidity, dexterity and control which must increase steeply with range. The proposal outlined here is for a mobile manipulator which can climb at the end of a cable (CLImbing MANipulator - CLIMAN) into a reactor and reach well beyond the range of a fixed base machine. In addition to virtually unlimited range such a mobile manipulator has twice as many degrees of freedom as a fixed base machine. Its body or base can be manoeuvred with six degrees of freedom so as to obtain the maximum coverage and obstacle avoidance for its manipulator. It is proposed that it should be manually controlled. (author)

  8. RaPToRS Sample Delivery System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Henchen, Robert; Shibata, Kye; Krieger, Michael; Pogozelski, Edward; Padalino, Stephen; Glebov, Vladimir; Sangster, Craig

    2010-11-01

    At various labs (NIF, LLE, NRL), activated material samples are used to measure reaction properties. The Rapid Pneumatic Transport of Radioactive Samples (RaPToRS) system quickly and safely moves these radioactive samples through a closed PVC tube via airflow. The carrier travels from the reaction chamber to the control and analysis station, pneumatically braking at the outlet. A reversible multiplexer routes samples from various locations near the shot chamber to the analysis station. Also, the multiplexer allows users to remotely load unactivated samples without manually approaching the reaction chamber. All elements of the system (pneumatic drivers, flow control valves, optical position sensors, multiplexers, Geiger counters, and release gates at the analysis station) can be controlled manually or automatically using a custom LabVIEW interface. A prototype is currently operating at NRL in Washington DC. Prospective facilities for Raptors systems include LLE and NIF.

  9. Attitude dynamics and control of a spacecraft like a robotic manipulator when implementing on-orbit servicing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Da Fonseca, Ijar M.; Goes, Luiz C. S.; Seito, Narumi; da Silva Duarte, Mayara K.; de Oliveira, Élcio Jeronimo

    2017-08-01

    In space the manipulators working space is characterized by the microgravity environment. In this environment the spacecraft floats and its rotational/translational motion may be excited by any internal and external disturbances. The complete system, i.e., the spacecraft and the associated robotic manipulator, floats and is sensitive to any reaction force and torque related to the manipulator's operation. In this sense the effort done by the robot may result in torque about the system center of mass and also in forces changing its translational motion. This paper analyzes the impact of the robot manipulator dynamics on the attitude motion and the associated control effort to keep the attitude stable during the manipulator's operation. The dynamics analysis is performed in the close proximity phase of rendezvous docking/berthing operation. In such scenario the linear system equations for the translation and attitude relative motions are appropriate. The computer simulations are implemented for the relative translational and rotational motion. The equations of motion have been simulated through computer by using the MatLab software. The LQR and the PID control laws are used for linear and nonlinear control, respectively, aiming to keep the attitude stable while the robot is in and out of service. The gravity-gradient and the residual magnetic torque are considered as external disturbances. The control efforts are analyzed for the manipulator in and out of service. The control laws allow the system stabilization and good performance when the manipulator is in service.

  10. A six degrees of freedom mems manipulator

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Jong, B.R.

    2006-01-01

    This thesis reports about a six degrees of freedom (DOF) precision manipulator in MEMS, concerning concept generation for the manipulator followed by design and fabrication (of parts) of the proposed manipulation concept in MEMS. Researching the abilities of 6 DOF precision manipulation in MEMS is

  11. Three-dimensional mid-air acoustic manipulation by ultrasonic phased arrays.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yoichi Ochiai

    Full Text Available The essence of levitation technology is the countervailing of gravity. It is known that an ultrasound standing wave is capable of suspending small particles at its sound pressure nodes. The acoustic axis of the ultrasound beam in conventional studies was parallel to the gravitational force, and the levitated objects were manipulated along the fixed axis (i.e. one-dimensionally by controlling the phases or frequencies of bolted Langevin-type transducers. In the present study, we considered extended acoustic manipulation whereby millimetre-sized particles were levitated and moved three-dimensionally by localised ultrasonic standing waves, which were generated by ultrasonic phased arrays. Our manipulation system has two original features. One is the direction of the ultrasound beam, which is arbitrary because the force acting toward its centre is also utilised. The other is the manipulation principle by which a localised standing wave is generated at an arbitrary position and moved three-dimensionally by opposed and ultrasonic phased arrays. We experimentally confirmed that expanded-polystyrene particles of 0.6 mm, 1 mm, and 2 mm in diameter could be manipulated by our proposed method.

  12. A control method for manipulators with redundancy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Furusho, Junji; Usui, Hiroyuki

    1989-01-01

    Redundant manipulators have more ability than nonredundant ones in many aspects such as avoiding obstacles, avoiding singular states, etc. In this paper, a control algorithm for redundant manipulators working under the circumstance in the presence of obstacles is presented. First, the measure of manipulability for robot manipulators under obstacle circumstances is defined. Then, the control algorithm for the obstacle avoidance is derived by using this measure of manipulability. The obstacle avoidance and the maintenance of good posture are simultaneously achieved by this algorithm. Lastly, an experiment and simulation results using an eight degree of freedom manipulator are shown. (author)

  13. Control of cooperative manipulators in holding deformable objects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alkathiri, A. A.; Azlan, N. Z.

    2017-11-01

    This paper presents the implementation of a control system to control cooperative manipulators to hold deformable objects. The aim is to hold the deformable object without having information on the shape and stiffness of the deformable object beforehand. The prototype of a pair of manipulators has been designed and built to test the controller. A force sensor and a rotary encoder are used to give feedback to the controller, which controls the DC motor actuators accordingly. A position proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller technique has been applied for one of the manipulators and a PID force control technique is applied to the other. Simulations and experimental tests have been conducted on models and the controller has been implemented on the real plant. Both simulation and test results prove that the implemented control technique has successfully provided the desired position and force to hold the deformable object with maximum experimental errors of 0.34mm and 50mN respectively.

  14. Mob/oriT, a mobilizable site-specific recombination system for unmarked genetic manipulation in Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus cereus.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Pengxia; Zhu, Yiguang; Zhang, Yuyang; Zhang, Chunyi; Xu, Jianyi; Deng, Yun; Peng, Donghai; Ruan, Lifang; Sun, Ming

    2016-06-10

    Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus cereus are two important species in B. cereus group. The intensive study of these strains at the molecular level and construction of genetically modified bacteria requires the development of efficient genetic tools. To insert genes into or delete genes from bacterial chromosomes, marker-less manipulation methods were employed. We present a novel genetic manipulation method for B. thuringiensis and B. cereus strains that does not leave selection markers. Our approach takes advantage of the relaxase Mob02281 encoded by plasmid pBMB0228 from Bacillus thuringiensis. In addition to its mobilization function, this Mob protein can mediate recombination between oriT sites. The Mob02281 mobilization module was associated with a spectinomycin-resistance gene to form a Mob-Spc cassette, which was flanked by the core 24-bp oriT sequences from pBMB0228. A strain in which the wild-type chromosome was replaced with the modified copy containing the Mob-Spc cassette at the target locus was obtained via homologous recombination. Thus, the spectinomycin-resistance gene can be used to screen for Mob-Spc cassette integration mutants. Recombination between the two oriT sequences mediated by Mob02281, encoded by the Mob-Spc cassette, resulted in the excision of the Mob-Spc cassette, producing the desired chromosomal alteration without introducing unwanted selection markers. We used this system to generate an in-frame deletion of a target gene in B. thuringiensis as well as a gene located in an operon of B. cereus. Moreover, we demonstrated that this system can be used to introduce a single gene or an expression cassette of interest in B. thuringiensis. The Mob/oriT recombination system provides an efficient method for unmarked genetic manipulation and for constructing genetically modified bacteria of B. thuringiensis and B. cereus. Our method extends the available genetic tools for B. thuringiensis and B. cereus strains.

  15. Dynamic Control of Kinematically Redundant Robotic Manipulators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erling Lunde

    1987-07-01

    Full Text Available Several methods for task space control of kinematically redundant manipulators have been proposed in the literature. Most of these methods are based on a kinematic analysis of the manipulator. In this paper we propose a control algorithm in which we are especially concerned with the manipulator dynamics. The algorithm is particularly well suited for the class of redundant manipulators consisting of a relatively small manipulator mounted on a larger positioning part.

  16. Detecting the manipulation of digital clinical records in dental practice

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Díaz-Flores-García, V.; Labajo-González, E.; Santiago-Sáez, A.; Perea-Pérez, B.

    2017-01-01

    Introduction: Radiography provides many advantages in the diagnosis and management of dental conditions. However, dental X-ray images may be subject to manipulation with malicious intent using easily accessible computer software. Methods: In this study, we sought to evaluate a dentist's ability to identify a manipulated dental X-ray images, when compared with the original, using a variant of the methodology described by Visser and Kruger. Sixty-six dentists were invited to participate and evaluate 20 intraoral dental X-ray images, 10 originals and 10 modified, manipulated using Adobe Photoshop to simulate fillings, root canal treatments, etc. Results: Participating dentists were correct in identifying the manipulated image in 56% of cases, 6% higher than by chance and 10% more than in the study by Visser and Kruger. Conclusion: Malicious changes to dental X-ray images may go unnoticed even by experienced dentists. Professionals must be aware of the legal consequences of such changes. A system of detection/validation should be created for radiographic images. - Highlights: • Fraudulent manipulation of dental X-ray images creates a problem of legal security. • Dentists were able to identify manipulated images on 56% of all occasions. • 6% more than the probability of a person with no dental training. • 10% more than in the study by Visser and Kruger.

  17. Heavy water standards. Qualitative analyses, sample treating, stocking and manipulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pavelescu, M.; Steflea, D.; Mihancea, I.; Varlam, M.; Irimescu, R.

    1995-01-01

    This paper presents methods and procedures for measuring heavy water concentration, and also sampling, stocking and handling of samples to be analysed. The main concentration analysis methods are: mass spectrometry, for concentrations less then 1%, densitometry, for concentrations within the range 1% - 99% and infrared spectrometry for concentrations above 99%. Procedures of sampling, processing and purification appropriate to these measuring methods were established. 1 Tab

  18. On sampling and modeling complex systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marsili, Matteo; Mastromatteo, Iacopo; Roudi, Yasser

    2013-01-01

    The study of complex systems is limited by the fact that only a few variables are accessible for modeling and sampling, which are not necessarily the most relevant ones to explain the system behavior. In addition, empirical data typically undersample the space of possible states. We study a generic framework where a complex system is seen as a system of many interacting degrees of freedom, which are known only in part, that optimize a given function. We show that the underlying distribution with respect to the known variables has the Boltzmann form, with a temperature that depends on the number of unknown variables. In particular, when the influence of the unknown degrees of freedom on the known variables is not too irregular, the temperature decreases as the number of variables increases. This suggests that models can be predictable only when the number of relevant variables is less than a critical threshold. Concerning sampling, we argue that the information that a sample contains on the behavior of the system is quantified by the entropy of the frequency with which different states occur. This allows us to characterize the properties of maximally informative samples: within a simple approximation, the most informative frequency size distributions have power law behavior and Zipf’s law emerges at the crossover between the under sampled regime and the regime where the sample contains enough statistics to make inferences on the behavior of the system. These ideas are illustrated in some applications, showing that they can be used to identify relevant variables or to select the most informative representations of data, e.g. in data clustering. (paper)

  19. Manipulating Liquids With Acoustic Radiation Pressure Phased Arrays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oeftering, Richard C.

    1999-01-01

    High-intensity ultrasound waves can produce the effects of "Acoustic Radiation Pressure" (ARP) and "acoustic streaming." These effects can be used to propel liquid flows and to apply forces that can be used to move or manipulate floating objects or liquid surfaces. NASA's interest in ARP includes the remote-control agitation of liquids and the manipulation of bubbles and drops in liquid experiments and propellant systems. A high level of flexibility is attained by using a high-power acoustic phased array to generate, steer, and focus a beam of acoustic waves. This is called an Acoustic Radiation Pressure Phased Array, or ARPPA. In this approach, many acoustic transducer elements emit wavelets that converge into a single beam of sound waves. Electronically coordinating the timing, or "phase shift," of the acoustic waves makes it possible to form a beam with a predefined direction and focus. Therefore, a user can direct the ARP force at almost any desired point within a liquid volume. ARPPA lets experimenters manipulate objects anywhere in a test volume. This flexibility allow it to be used for multiple purposes, such as to agitate liquids, deploy and manipulate drops or bubbles, and even suppress sloshing in spacecraft propellant tanks.

  20. An Integrated Framework for Human-Robot Collaborative Manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheng, Weihua; Thobbi, Anand; Gu, Ye

    2015-10-01

    This paper presents an integrated learning framework that enables humanoid robots to perform human-robot collaborative manipulation tasks. Specifically, a table-lifting task performed jointly by a human and a humanoid robot is chosen for validation purpose. The proposed framework is split into two phases: 1) phase I-learning to grasp the table and 2) phase II-learning to perform the manipulation task. An imitation learning approach is proposed for phase I. In phase II, the behavior of the robot is controlled by a combination of two types of controllers: 1) reactive and 2) proactive. The reactive controller lets the robot take a reactive control action to make the table horizontal. The proactive controller lets the robot take proactive actions based on human motion prediction. A measure of confidence of the prediction is also generated by the motion predictor. This confidence measure determines the leader/follower behavior of the robot. Hence, the robot can autonomously switch between the behaviors during the task. Finally, the performance of the human-robot team carrying out the collaborative manipulation task is experimentally evaluated on a platform consisting of a Nao humanoid robot and a Vicon motion capture system. Results show that the proposed framework can enable the robot to carry out the collaborative manipulation task successfully.

  1. In-Bore Prostate Transperineal Interventions with an MRI-guided Parallel Manipulator: System Development and Preliminary Evaluation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eslami, Sohrab; Shang, Weijian; Li, Gang; Patel, Nirav; Fischer, Gregory S.; Tokuda, Junichi; Hata, Nobuhiko; Tempany, Clare M.; Iordachita, Iulian

    2015-01-01

    Background The robot-assisted minimally-invasive surgery is well recognized as a feasible solution for diagnosis and treatment of the prostate cancer in human. Methods In this paper the kinematics of a parallel 4 Degrees-of-Freedom (DOF) surgical manipulator designed for minimally invasive in-bore prostate percutaneous interventions through the patient's perineum. The proposed manipulator takes advantage of 4 sliders actuated by MRI-compatible piezoelectric motors and incremental rotary encoders. Errors, mostly originating from the design and manufacturing process, need to be identified and reduced before the robot is deployed in the clinical trials. Results The manipulator has undergone several experiments to evaluate the repeatability and accuracy of the needle placement which is an essential concern in percutaneous prostate interventions. Conclusion The acquired results endorse the sustainability, precision (about 1 mm in air (in x or y direction) at the needle's reference point) and reliability of the manipulator. PMID:26111458

  2. Intelligent Hierarchical Modal Control of a Novel Manipulator with Slewing and Deployable Links

    Science.gov (United States)

    Modi, V. J.; Zhang, J.; de Silva, C. W.

    1. Introduction The Space Shuttle based Canada arm has vividly demonstrated its application in launching of satellites as well as retrieval of disabled spacecraft for repair. There have been proposals for free flying robotic systems with appropriate instrumentation to monitor health of spacecraft, identify problems and even perform corrective measures. Most of these applications involve multilink manipulators with revolute joints for which there is a vast body of literature [1]. On the other hand, manipulators with revolute as well as prismatic joints, permitting slewing as well as deployment/retrieval of links, have received relatively little attention [2]. Such variable geometry, snake-like manipulators have distinct advantages of reduced coupling effects leading to simpler equations of motion and inverse kinematics, less number of singularity conditions, and ease of obstacle avoidance [3]. 2. Hierarchical Structure The control system developed for the deployable manipulator has a three-level structure. This hierarchical structure takes the advantages of a crisp controller; specially, a modal controller, with those of a soft, knowledge-based, supervisory control . The overall structure can be separated and developed as three main layers. The first layer is the lowest layer of the control system. It deals with information coming from sensors attached to the plant ( manipulator). This type of information is characterized by a large amount of individual data points of high resolution, produced and collected at high frequency. The crisp controller that is used is a state feedback regulator with its feedback gain matrix determined using the eigenstructure assignment approach. The data processing for monitoring and evaluation of the system performance occurs in this intermediate or second layer. Here high-resolution, crisp data from sensors are filtered to afford representation of the current state of the manipulator. This servo-expert layer acts as an interface

  3. Learning Area and Perimeter with Virtual Manipulatives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bouck, Emily; Flanagan, Sara; Bouck, Mary

    2015-01-01

    Manipulatives are considered a best practice for educating students with disabilities, but little research exists which examines virtual manipulatives as tool for supporting students in mathematics. This project investigated the use of a virtual manipulative through the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives--polynominoes (i.e., tiles)--as a…

  4. Advanced Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control for Robot Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ji-Hwan Hwang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, advanced interval type-2 fuzzy sliding mode control (AIT2FSMC for robot manipulator is proposed. The proposed AIT2FSMC is a combination of interval type-2 fuzzy system and sliding mode control. For resembling a feedback linearization (FL control law, interval type-2 fuzzy system is designed. For compensating the approximation error between the FL control law and interval type-2 fuzzy system, sliding mode controller is designed, respectively. The tuning algorithms are derived in the sense of Lyapunov stability theorem. Two-link rigid robot manipulator with nonlinearity is used to test and the simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed method that can control unknown system well.

  5. Polymer micro-grippers with an integrated force sensor for biological manipulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mackay, R E; Le, H R; Clark, S; Williams, J A

    2013-01-01

    The development of a novel micro-system integrating SU-8 polymer micro-grippers with a tensile force sensor for handling and characterizing the mechanical properties of delicate biological materials, such as fibrils, is presented. The micro-grippers are actuated by the electro-thermal effect and have gripping forces comparable to the common ‘hot-and-cold-arm’ grippers. A robust finite element model was developed to investigate system performance and validated experimentally. A new micro-mechanical calibration method using a piezoelectric manipulator with a micro-force measurement system was successfully applied to test the structure. Both FEA simulation and micro-mechanical testing results indicated that the system could fulfil the requirements for micro-object manipulation within a biological environment. (paper)

  6. A Consistent System for Coding Laboratory Samples

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sih, John C.

    1996-07-01

    A formal laboratory coding system is presented to keep track of laboratory samples. Preliminary useful information regarding the sample (origin and history) is gained without consulting a research notebook. Since this system uses and retains the same research notebook page number for each new experiment (reaction), finding and distinguishing products (samples) of the same or different reactions becomes an easy task. Using this system multiple products generated from a single reaction can be identified and classified in a uniform fashion. Samples can be stored and filed according to stage and degree of purification, e.g. crude reaction mixtures, recrystallized samples, chromatographed or distilled products.

  7. Two-Link Flexible Manipulator Control Using Sliding Mode Control Based Linear Matrix Inequality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zulfatman; Marzuki, Mohammad; Alif Mardiyah, Nur

    2017-04-01

    Two-link flexible manipulator is a manipulator robot which at least one of its arms is made of lightweight material and not rigid. Flexible robot manipulator has some advantages over the rigid robot manipulator, such as lighter, requires less power and costs, and to result greater payload. However, suitable control algorithm to maintain the two-link flexible robot manipulator in accurate positioning is very challenging. In this study, sliding mode control (SMC) was employed as robust control algorithm due to its insensitivity on the system parameter variations and the presence of disturbances when the system states are sliding on a sliding surface. SMC algorithm was combined with linear matrix inequality (LMI), which aims to reduce the effects of chattering coming from the oscillation of the state during sliding on the sliding surface. Stability of the control algorithm is guaranteed by Lyapunov function candidate. Based on simulation works, SMC based LMI resulted in better performance improvements despite the disturbances with significant chattering reduction. This was evident from the decline of the sum of squared tracking error (SSTE) and the sum of squared of control input (SSCI) indexes respectively 25.4% and 19.4%.

  8. Development of intelligent control system for X-ray streak camera in diagnostic instrument manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pei, Chengquan; Wu, Shengli; Tian, Jinshou; Liu, Zhen; Fang, Yuman; Gao, Guilong; Liang, Lingliang; Wen, Wenlong

    2015-01-01

    An intelligent control system for an X ray streak camera in a diagnostic instrument manipulator (DIM) is proposed and implemented, which can control time delay, electric focusing, image gain adjustment, switch of sweep voltage, acquiring environment parameters etc. The system consists of 16 A/D converters and 16 D/A converters, a 32-channel general purpose input/output (GPIO) and two sensors. An isolated DC/DC converter with multi-outputs and a single mode fiber were adopted to reduce the interference generated by the common ground among the A/D, D/A and I/O. The software was designed using graphical programming language and can remotely access the corresponding instrument from a website. The entire intelligent control system can acquire the desirable data at a speed of 30 Mb/s and store it for later analysis. The intelligent system was implemented on a streak camera in a DIM and it shows a temporal resolution of 11.25 ps, spatial distortion of less than 10% and dynamic range of 279:1. The intelligent control system has been successfully used in a streak camera to verify the synchronization of multi-channel laser on the Inertial Confinement Fusion Facility

  9. Development of intelligent control system for X-ray streak camera in diagnostic instrument manipulator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pei, Chengquan [Key Laboratory for Physical Electronics and Devices of the Ministry of Education, Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi' an 710049 (China); Wu, Shengli, E-mail: slwu@mail.xjtu.edu.cn [Key Laboratory for Physical Electronics and Devices of the Ministry of Education, Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi' an 710049 (China); Tian, Jinshou [Xi' an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi' an 710119 (China); Liu, Zhen [Key Laboratory for Physical Electronics and Devices of the Ministry of Education, Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi' an 710049 (China); Fang, Yuman [Key Laboratory for Physical Electronics and Devices of the Ministry of Education, Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi' an 710049 (China); University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039 (China); Gao, Guilong; Liang, Lingliang [Key Laboratory for Physical Electronics and Devices of the Ministry of Education, Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi' an 710049 (China); Xi' an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi' an 710119 (China); University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039 (China); Wen, Wenlong [Key Laboratory for Physical Electronics and Devices of the Ministry of Education, Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi' an 710049 (China)

    2015-11-01

    An intelligent control system for an X ray streak camera in a diagnostic instrument manipulator (DIM) is proposed and implemented, which can control time delay, electric focusing, image gain adjustment, switch of sweep voltage, acquiring environment parameters etc. The system consists of 16 A/D converters and 16 D/A converters, a 32-channel general purpose input/output (GPIO) and two sensors. An isolated DC/DC converter with multi-outputs and a single mode fiber were adopted to reduce the interference generated by the common ground among the A/D, D/A and I/O. The software was designed using graphical programming language and can remotely access the corresponding instrument from a website. The entire intelligent control system can acquire the desirable data at a speed of 30 Mb/s and store it for later analysis. The intelligent system was implemented on a streak camera in a DIM and it shows a temporal resolution of 11.25 ps, spatial distortion of less than 10% and dynamic range of 279:1. The intelligent control system has been successfully used in a streak camera to verify the synchronization of multi-channel laser on the Inertial Confinement Fusion Facility.

  10. Stiffness analysis of spring mechanism for semi automatic gripper motion of tendon driven remote manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yu, Seung Nam; Lee, Jong Kwang

    2012-01-01

    Remote handling manipulators are widely used for performing hazardous tasks, and it is essential to ensure the reliable performance of such systems. Toward this end, tendon driven mechanisms are adopted in such systems to reduce the weight of the distal parts of the manipulator while maintaining the handling performance. In this study, several approaches for the design of a gripper system for a tendon driven remote handling system are introduced. Basically, this gripper has an underactuated spring mechanism that is combined with a slave manipulator triggered by a master operator. Based on the requirements under the specified tendon driven mechanism, the connecting position of the spring system on the gripper mechanism and kinematic influence coefficient (KIC) analysis are performed. As a result, a suitable combination of components for the proper design of the target system is presented and verified

  11. HIFSuite: Tools for HDL Code Conversion and Manipulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bombieri Nicola

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract HIFSuite ia a set of tools and application programming interfaces (APIs that provide support for modeling and verification of HW/SW systems. The core of HIFSuite is the HDL Intermediate Format (HIF language upon which a set of front-end and back-end tools have been developed to allow the conversion of HDL code into HIF code and vice versa. HIFSuite allows designers to manipulate and integrate heterogeneous components implemented by using different hardware description languages (HDLs. Moreover, HIFSuite includes tools, which rely on HIF APIs, for manipulating HIF descriptions in order to support code abstraction/refinement and postrefinement verification.

  12. High precision redundant robotic manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Young, K.K.D.

    1998-01-01

    A high precision redundant robotic manipulator for overcoming contents imposed by obstacles or imposed by a highly congested work space is disclosed. One embodiment of the manipulator has four degrees of freedom and another embodiment has seven degrees of freedom. Each of the embodiments utilize a first selective compliant assembly robot arm (SCARA) configuration to provide high stiffness in the vertical plane, a second SCARA configuration to provide high stiffness in the horizontal plane. The seven degree of freedom embodiment also utilizes kinematic redundancy to provide the capability of avoiding obstacles that lie between the base of the manipulator and the end effector or link of the manipulator. These additional three degrees of freedom are added at the wrist link of the manipulator to provide pitch, yaw and roll. The seven degrees of freedom embodiment uses one revolute point per degree of freedom. For each of the revolute joints, a harmonic gear coupled to an electric motor is introduced, and together with properly designed based servo controllers provide an end point repeatability of less than 10 microns. 3 figs

  13. Use of robotic systems for radiochemical sample changing and for analytical sample preparation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Delmastro, J.R.; Hartenstein, S.D.; Wade, M.A.

    1989-01-01

    Two uses of the Perkin-Elmer (PE) robotic system will be presented. In the first, a PE robot functions as an automatic sample changer for up to five low energy photon spectrometry (LEPS) detectors operated with a Nuclear Data ND 6700 system. The entire system, including the robot, is controlled by an IBM PC-AT using software written in compiled BASIC. Problems associated with the development of the system and modifications to the robot will be presented. In the second, an evaluation study was performed to assess the abilities of the PE robotic system for performing complex analytical sample preparation procedures. For this study, a robotic system based upon the PE robot and auxiliary devices was constructed and programmed to perform the preparation of final product samples (UO 3 ) for accountability and impurity specification analyses. These procedures require sample dissolution, dilution, and liquid-liquid extraction steps. The results of an in-depth evaluation of all system components will be presented

  14. Bioprinting Living Biofilms through Optogenetic Manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Yajia; Xia, Aiguo; Yang, Guang; Jin, Fan

    2018-04-18

    In this paper, we present a new strategy for microprinting dense bacterial communities with a prescribed organization on a substrate. Unlike conventional bioprinting techniques that require bioinks, through optogenetic manipulation, we directly manipulated the behaviors of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to allow these living bacteria to autonomically form patterned biofilms following prescribed illumination. The results showed that through optogenetic manipulation, patterned bacterial communities with high spatial resolution (approximately 10 μm) could be constructed in 6 h. Thus, optogenetic manipulation greatly increases the range of available bioprinting techniques.

  15. Decommissioning of hot cells using a hydraulically powered servo manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Asquith, J.D.; Loughborough, D.

    1993-01-01

    This paper describes the preparations and initial trials involved in remotely dismantling the containment boxes within two concrete shielded hot cells at Harwell Laboratory using a hydraulically powered servo manipulator, ARTISAN. The manipulator deploys a variety of tools for cutting operations. The modular design has enabled it to be specifically configured for this application by adjusting the link lengths using spacers between the joints. In addition to the remote handling requirements, a new posting and ventilation system for the facility is outlined. Trials with ARTISAN in an in-active mock-up have now been successfully completed, and the manipulator is installed in the active facility. The considerations and approach adopted in this project are typical of many situations where remote techniques are required for decommissioning activities. (author)

  16. Direct adaptive control of manipulators in Cartesian space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seraji, H.

    1987-01-01

    A new adaptive-control scheme for direct control of manipulator end effector to achieve trajectory tracking in Cartesian space is developed in this article. The control structure is obtained from linear multivariable theory and is composed of simple feedforward and feedback controllers and an auxiliary input. The direct adaptation laws are derived from model reference adaptive control theory and are not based on parameter estimation of the robot model. The utilization of adaptive feedforward control and the inclusion of auxiliary input are novel features of the present scheme and result in improved dynamic performance over existing adaptive control schemes. The adaptive controller does not require the complex mathematical model of the robot dynamics or any knowledge of the robot parameters or the payload, and is computationally fast for on-line implementation with high sampling rates. The control scheme is applied to a two-link manipulator for illustration.

  17. Estimating thumb-index finger precision grip and manipulation potential in extant and fossil primates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feix, Thomas; Kivell, Tracy L; Pouydebat, Emmanuelle; Dollar, Aaron M

    2015-05-06

    Primates, and particularly humans, are characterized by superior manual dexterity compared with other mammals. However, drawing the biomechanical link between hand morphology/behaviour and functional capabilities in non-human primates and fossil taxa has been challenging. We present a kinematic model of thumb-index precision grip and manipulative movement based on bony hand morphology in a broad sample of extant primates and fossil hominins. The model reveals that both joint mobility and digit proportions (scaled to hand size) are critical for determining precision grip and manipulation potential, but that having either a long thumb or great joint mobility alone does not necessarily yield high precision manipulation. The results suggest even the oldest available fossil hominins may have shared comparable precision grip manipulation with modern humans. In particular, the predicted human-like precision manipulation of Australopithecus afarensis, approximately one million years before the first stone tools, supports controversial archaeological evidence of tool-use in this taxon. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

  18. Nanoscale electron manipulation in metals with intense THz electric fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takeda, Jun; Yoshioka, Katsumasa; Minami, Yasuo; Katayama, Ikufumi

    2018-03-01

    Improved control over the electromagnetic properties of metals on a nanoscale is crucial for the development of next-generation nanoelectronics and plasmonic devices. Harnessing the terahertz (THz)-electric-field-induced nonlinearity for the motion of electrons is a promising method of manipulating the local electromagnetic properties of metals, while avoiding undesirable thermal effects and electronic transitions. In this review, we demonstrate the manipulation of electron delocalization in ultrathin gold (Au) films with nanostructures, by intense THz electric-field transients. On increasing the electric-field strength of the THz pulses, the transmittance in the THz-frequency region abruptly decreases around the percolation threshold. The observed THz-electric-field-induced nonlinearity is analysed, based on the Drude-Smith model. The results suggest that ultrafast electron delocalization occurs by electron tunnelling across the narrow insulating bridge between the Au nanostructures, without material breakdown. In order to quantitatively discuss the tunnelling process, we perform scanning tunnelling microscopy with carrier-envelope phase (CEP)-controlled single-cycle THz electric fields. By applying CEP-controlled THz electric fields to the 1 nm nanogap between a metal nanotip and graphite sample, many electrons could be coherently driven through the quantum tunnelling process, either from the nanotip to the sample or vice versa. The presented concept, namely, electron tunnelling mediated by CEP-controlled single-cycle THz electric fields, can facilitate the development of nanoscale electron manipulation, applicable to next-generation ultrafast nanoelectronics and plasmonic devices.

  19. Master-slave-manipulator 'EMSM I'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koehler, G.W.; Salaske, M.

    1976-01-01

    A master-slave manipulator with electric force transmission and reflection was developed for the first time in the German Federal Republic. The apparatus belongs to the class of 200 N carrying capacity. It is intended mainly for nuclear purposes and especially for use in large hot cells and also for medium and heavy manipulator vehicles. The most innovations compared with previously known foreign electric master-slave manipulators are two additional possibilities of movement and the electric dead weight compensation. (orig.) [de

  20. Master-slave-manipulator EMSM I

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koehler, G.W.; Salaske, M.

    1976-01-01

    A master-slave manipulator with electric force transmission and reflection was developed for the first time in the German Federal Republic. The aparatus belongs to the class of 200 N carrying capacity. It is intended mainly for nuclear purposes and especially for use in large hot cells and also for medium and heavy manipulator vehicles. The most obvious innovations compared with previously known foreign electric master-slave manipulators are two additional possibilities of movement and the electric dead weightcompensation. (orig.) [de

  1. Air sampling system for airborne surveys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jupiter, C.; Tipton, W.J.

    1975-01-01

    An air sampling system has been designed for installation on the Beechcraft King Air A-100 aircraft as a part of the Aerial Radiological Measuring System (ARMS). It is intended for both particle and whole gas sampling. The sampling probe is designed for isokinetic sampling and is mounted on a removable modified escape hatch cover, behind the co-pilot's seat, and extends about two feet forward of the hatch cover in the air stream lines. Directly behind the sampling probe inside the modified hatch cover is an expansion chamber, space for a 5-inch diameter filter paper cassette, and an optional four-stage cascade impactor for particle size distribution measurements. A pair of motors and blower pumps provide the necessary 0.5 atmosphere pressure across the type MSA 1106 B glass fiber filter paper to allow a flow rate of 50 cfm. The MSA 1106 B filter paper is designed to trap sub-micrometer particles with a high efficiency; it was chosen to enable a quantitative measurement of airborne radon daughters, one of the principal sources of background signals when radiological surveys are being performed. A venturi section and pressure gauges allow air flow rate measurements so that airborne contaminant concentrations may be quantified. A whole gas sampler capable of sampling a cubic meter of air is mounted inside the aircraft cabin. A nuclear counting system on board the aircraft provides capability for α, β and γ counting of filter paper samples. Design data are presented and types of survey missions which may be served by this system are described

  2. Repair of a heavy tele-manipulator in contaminated cell

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roussel, E.

    1963-01-01

    The E.R.T.N. company has designed a new manipulator with a disconnection system for the separation of the column from the translation carriages, with a locking/unlocking system controlled from the cell roof and with the possibility to remove the column through the roof without any heavy decontamination procedure

  3. Using Manipulatives to Teach Elementary Mathematics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boggan, Matthew; Harper, Sallie; Whitmire, Anna

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to explain the importance and benefits of math manipulatives. For decades, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has encouraged school districts nationwide to use manipulatives in mathematical instruction. The value of manipulatives has been recognized for many years, but some teachers are reluctant to use…

  4. Digital Microfluidics Sample Analyzer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pollack, Michael G.; Srinivasan, Vijay; Eckhardt, Allen; Paik, Philip Y.; Sudarsan, Arjun; Shenderov, Alex; Hua, Zhishan; Pamula, Vamsee K.

    2010-01-01

    Three innovations address the needs of the medical world with regard to microfluidic manipulation and testing of physiological samples in ways that can benefit point-of-care needs for patients such as premature infants, for which drawing of blood for continuous tests can be life-threatening in their own right, and for expedited results. A chip with sample injection elements, reservoirs (and waste), droplet formation structures, fluidic pathways, mixing areas, and optical detection sites, was fabricated to test the various components of the microfluidic platform, both individually and in integrated fashion. The droplet control system permits a user to control droplet microactuator system functions, such as droplet operations and detector operations. Also, the programming system allows a user to develop software routines for controlling droplet microactuator system functions, such as droplet operations and detector operations. A chip is incorporated into the system with a controller, a detector, input and output devices, and software. A novel filler fluid formulation is used for the transport of droplets with high protein concentrations. Novel assemblies for detection of photons from an on-chip droplet are present, as well as novel systems for conducting various assays, such as immunoassays and PCR (polymerase chain reaction). The lab-on-a-chip (a.k.a., lab-on-a-printed-circuit board) processes physiological samples and comprises a system for automated, multi-analyte measurements using sub-microliter samples of human serum. The invention also relates to a diagnostic chip and system including the chip that performs many of the routine operations of a central labbased chemistry analyzer, integrating, for example, colorimetric assays (e.g., for proteins), chemiluminescence/fluorescence assays (e.g., for enzymes, electrolytes, and gases), and/or conductometric assays (e.g., for hematocrit on plasma and whole blood) on a single chip platform.

  5. Multidiscipline simulation of elastic manipulators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. Rølvåg

    1992-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper contributes to multidiscipline simulation of elastic robot manipulators in FEDEM. All developments presented in this paper are based on the formulations in FEDEM, a simulation system developed by the authors which combines finite element, mechanism and control analysis. In order to establish this general simulation system as an efficient multidiscipline robot design tool a robot control system including a high level robot programming language, interpolation algorithms, path generation algorithms, forward and inverse kinematics, control systems, gear and transmission models are implemented. These new features provide a high level of integration between traditionally separate design disciplines from the very beginning of the design and optimization process. Several simulations have shown that high fidelity mathematical models can be derived and used as a basis for dynamic analysis and controller design in FEDEM.

  6. Research on Longitudinal Vibration Characteristic of the Six-Cable-Driven Parallel Manipulator in FAST

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhihua Liu

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The first adjustable feed support system in FAST is a six-cable-driven parallel manipulator. Due to flexibility of the cables, the cable-driven parallel manipulator bears a concern of possible vibration caused by wind disturbance or internal force from the fine drive system. The purpose of this paper is to analyze vibration characteristic of the six-cable-driven parallel manipulator in FAST. The tension equilibrium equation of the six-cable-driven parallel manipulator is set up regarding the cables as catenaries. Then, vibration equation is established considering the longitudinal vibration of the cables. On this basis, the natural frequencies are depicted in figures since both analytical and numerical solutions are ineffective. Influence of the sags of the cables on the natural frequencies is discussed. It is shown that the sags of the cables will decrease the natural frequencies of the six-cable-driven parallel manipulator. Simplification to acquire the natural frequencies is proposed in this paper. The results justify effectiveness of the simplification to calculate the first-order natural frequencies. Distribution of the first-order natural frequencies in the required workspace is provided based on the simplification method. Finally, parameters optimization is implemented in terms of natural frequencies for building the six-cable-driven parallel manipulator in FAST.

  7. Design, Dynamics, and Workspace of a Hybrid-Driven-Based Cable Parallel Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bin Zi

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The design, dynamics, and workspace of a hybrid-driven-based cable parallel manipulator (HDCPM are presented. The HDCPM is able to perform high efficiency, heavy load, and high-performance motion due to the advantages of both the cable parallel manipulator and the hybrid-driven planar five-bar mechanism. The design is performed according to theories of mechanism structure synthesis for cable parallel manipulators. The dynamic formulation of the HDCPM is established on the basis of Newton-Euler method. The workspace of the manipulator is analyzed additionally. As an example, a completely restrained HDCPM with 3 degrees of freedom is studied in simulation in order to verify the validity of the proposed design, workspace, and dynamic analysis. The simulation results, compared with the theoretical analysis, and the case study previously performed show that the manipulator design is reasonable and the mathematical models are correct, which provides the theoretical basis for future physical prototype and control system design.

  8. Manipulating the optical properties of dual implanted Au and Zn nanoparticles in sapphire

    Science.gov (United States)

    Epie, E. N.; Scott, D.; Chu, W. K.

    2017-11-01

    We have synthesized and manipulated the optical properties of metallic nanoparticles (NPs) by using a combination of low-energy high-fluence dual implantation and thermal annealing. We demonstrated that by implanting Zn before Au, the resulting absorption peak is enormously blue-shifted by 120 nm with respect to that of Au-only implanted samples. This magnitude of optical shift is not characteristic of unalloyed Au and to the best of our knowledge cannot be attributed to NP size change alone. On the other hand, the absorption peak for samples implanted with Au followed by Zn is blue-shifted about 20 nm. Additionally, by carefully annealing all implanted samples, both NP size distribution and corresponding optical properties can be further modified in a controlled manner. We attribute these behaviours to nanoalloy formation. This work provides a direct method for synthesizing and manipulating both the plasmonic and structural properties of metallic alloy NP in various transparent dielectrics for diverse applications.

  9. Light Manipulation in Metallic Nanowire Networks with Functional Connectivity

    KAUST Repository

    Galinski, Henning; Fratalocchi, Andrea; Dö beli, Max; Capasso, Federico

    2016-01-01

    Guided by ideas from complex systems, a new class of network metamaterials is introduced for light manipulation, which are based on the functional connectivity among heterogeneous subwavelength components arranged in complex networks. The model

  10. Balancing of linkages and robot manipulators advanced methods with illustrative examples

    CERN Document Server

    Arakelian, Vigen

    2015-01-01

    In this book advanced balancing methods for planar and spatial linkages, hand operated and automatic robot manipulators are presented. It is organized into three main parts and eight chapters. The main parts are the introduction to balancing, the balancing of linkages and the balancing of robot manipulators. The review of state-of-the-art literature including more than 500 references discloses particularities of shaking force/moment balancing and gravity compensation methods. Then new methods for balancing of linkages are considered. Methods provided in the second part of the book deal with the partial and complete shaking force/moment balancing of various linkages. A new field for balancing methods applications is the design of mechanical systems for fast manipulation. Special attention is given to the shaking force/moment balancing of robot manipulators. Gravity balancing methods are also discussed. The suggested balancing methods are illustrated by numerous examples.

  11. Manipulation of Samples at Extreme Temperatures for Fast in-situ Synchrotron Measurements

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Weber, Richard [Materials Development, Inc., Arlington Heights, IL (United States)

    2016-04-22

    An aerodynamic sample levitation system with laser beam heating was integrated with the APS beamlines 6 ID-D, 11 ID-C and 20 BM-B. The new capability enables in-situ measurements of structure and XANES at extreme temperatures (300-3500 °C) and in conditions that completely avoid contact with container surfaces. In addition to maintaining a high degree of sample purity, the use of aerodynamic levitation enables deep supercooling and greatly enhanced glass formation from a wide variety of melts and liquids. Development and integration of controlled extreme sample environments and new measurement techniques is an important aspect of beamline operations and user support. Processing and solidifying liquids is a critical value-adding step in manufacturing semiconductors, optical materials, metals and in the operation of many energy conversion devices. Understanding structural evolution is of fundamental importance in condensed materials, geology, and biology. The new capability provides unique possibilities for materials research and helps to develop and maintain a competitive materials manufacturing and energy utilization industry. Test samples were used to demonstrate key features of the capability including experiments on hot crystalline materials, liquids at temperatures from about 500 to 3500 °C. The use of controlled atmospheres using redox gas mixtures enabled in-situ changes in the oxidation states of cations in melts. Significant innovations in this work were: (i) Use of redox gas mixtures to adjust the oxidation state of cations in-situ (ii) Operation with a fully enclosed system suitable for work with nuclear fuel materials (iii) Making high quality high energy in-situ x-ray diffraction measurements (iv) Making high quality in-situ XANES measurements (v) Publishing high impact results (vi) Developing independent funding for the research on nuclear materials This SBIR project work led to a commercial instrument product for the niche market of processing and

  12. Manipulation of heat-diffusion channel in laser thermal lithography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Jingsong; Wang, Yang; Wu, Yiqun

    2014-12-29

    Laser thermal lithography is a good alternative method for forming small pattern feature size by taking advantage of the structural-change threshold effect of thermal lithography materials. In this work, the heat-diffusion channels of laser thermal lithography are first analyzed, and then we propose to manipulate the heat-diffusion channels by inserting thermal conduction layers in between channels. Heat-flow direction can be changed from the in-plane to the out-of-plane of the thermal lithography layer, which causes the size of the structural-change threshold region to become much smaller than the focused laser spot itself; thus, nanoscale marks can be obtained. Samples designated as "glass substrate/thermal conduction layer/thermal lithography layer (100 nm)/thermal conduction layer" are designed and prepared. Chalcogenide phase-change materials are used as thermal lithography layer, and Si is used as thermal conduction layer to manipulate heat-diffusion channels. Laser thermal lithography experiments are conducted on a home-made high-speed rotation direct laser writing setup with 488 nm laser wavelength and 0.90 numerical aperture of converging lens. The writing marks with 50-60 nm size are successfully obtained. The mark size is only about 1/13 of the focused laser spot, which is far smaller than that of the light diffraction limit spot of the direct laser writing setup. This work is useful for nanoscale fabrication and lithography by exploiting the far-field focusing light system.

  13. Method and system for manipulating a digital representation of a three-dimensional object

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    2010-01-01

    A method of manipulating a three-dimensional virtual building block model by means of two-dimensional cursor movements, the virtual building block model including a plurality of virtual building blocks each including a number of connection elements for connecting the virtual building block...... with another virtual building block according to a set of connection rules, the method comprising positioning by means of cursor movements in a computer display area representing a two-dimensional projection of said model, a two-dimensional projection of a first virtual building block to be connected...... to the structure, resulting in a two-dimensional position; determining, from the two-dimensional position, a number of three-dimensional candidate positions of the first virtual building block in the three-dimensional coordinate system; selecting one of said candidate positions based on the connection rules...

  14. Nano-manipulation of single DNA molecules

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hu Jun; Shanghai Jiaotong Univ., Shanghai; Lv Junhong; Wang Guohua; Wang Ying; Li Minqian; Zhang Yi; Li Bin; Li Haikuo; An Hongjie

    2004-01-01

    Nano-manipulation of single atoms and molecules is a critical technique in nanoscience and nanotechnology. This review paper will focus on the recent development of the manipulation of single DNA molecules based on atomic force microscopy (AFM). Precise manipulation has been realized including varied manipulating modes such as 'cutting', 'pushing', 'folding', 'kneading', 'picking up', 'dipping', etc. The cutting accuracy is dominated by the size of the AFM tip, which is usually 10 nm or less. Single DNA fragments can be cut and picked up and then amplified by single molecule PCR. Thus positioning isolation and sequencing can be performed. (authors)

  15. Algorithm for Solution of Direct Kinematic Problem of Multi-sectional Manipulator with Parallel Structure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. L. Lapikov

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The article is aimed at creating techniques to study multi-sectional manipulators with parallel structure. To solve this task the analysis in the field concerned was carried out to reveal both advantages and drawbacks of such executive mechanisms and main problems to be encountered in the course of research. The work shows that it is inefficient to create complete mathematical models of multisectional manipulators, which in the context of solving a direct kinematic problem are to derive a functional dependence of location and orientation of the end effector on all the generalized coordinates of the mechanism. The structure of multisectional manipulators was considered, where the sections are platform manipulators of parallel kinematics with six degrees of freedom. The paper offers an algorithm to define location and orientation of the end effector of the manipulator by means of iterative solution of analytical equation of the moving platform plane for each section. The equation for the unknown plane is derived using three points, which are attachment points of the moving platform joints. To define the values of joint coordinates a system of nine non-linear equations is completed. It is necessary to mention that for completion of the equation system are used the equations with the same type of non-linearity. The physical sense of all nine equations of the system is Euclidean distance between the points of the manipulator. The result of algorithm execution is a matrix of homogenous transformation for each section. The correlations describing transformations between adjoining sections of the manipulator are given. An example of the mechanism consisting of three sections is examined. The comparison of theoretical calculations with results obtained on a 3D-prototype is made. The next step of the work is to conduct research activities both in the field of dynamics of platform parallel kinematics manipulators with six degrees of freedom and in the

  16. Task based synthesis of serial manipulators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sarosh Patel

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Computing the optimal geometric structure of manipulators is one of the most intricate problems in contemporary robot kinematics. Robotic manipulators are designed and built to perform certain predetermined tasks. There is a very close relationship between the structure of the manipulator and its kinematic performance. It is therefore important to incorporate such task requirements during the design and synthesis of the robotic manipulators. Such task requirements and performance constraints can be specified in terms of the required end-effector positions, orientations and velocities along the task trajectory. In this work, we present a comprehensive method to develop the optimal geometric structure (DH parameters of a non-redundant six degree of freedom serial manipulator from task descriptions. In this work we define, develop and test a methodology to design optimal manipulator configurations based on task descriptions. This methodology is devised to investigate all possible manipulator configurations that can satisfy the task performance requirements under imposed joint constraints. Out of all the possible structures, the structures that can reach all the task points with the required orientations are selected. Next, these candidate structures are tested to see whether they can attain end-effector velocities in arbitrary directions within the user defined joint constraints, so that they can deliver the best kinematic performance. Additionally least power consuming configurations are also identified.

  17. Tipping the balance by manipulating posttranslational modifications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Broberg, Christopher A.; Orth, Kim

    2010-01-01

    Summary Bacteria use a variety of mechanisms during infection to ensure their survival including the delivery of virulence factors via a type III secretion system into the infected cell. The factors exhibit diverse activities that in many cases mimic eukaryotic mechanisms used by the host to defend against infection. Herein we describe a class of effectors that use posttranslational modifications, some reversible and others irreversible, to manipulate host signaling systems to subvert the host response. PMID:20071215

  18. Advantage of redundancy in the controllability of remote handling manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muhammad, Ali; Mattila, Jouni; Vilenius, Matti; Siuko, Mikko; Semeraro, Luigi

    2011-01-01

    To carry out a variety of remote handling operations inside the ITER divertor a Water Hydraulic MANipulator (WHMAN) and its control system have been designed and developed at Tampere University of Technology. The manipulator is installed on top of Cassette Multifunctional Mover (CMM) to assist during the cassette removal and installation operations. While CMM is designed to carry heavy components such as cassettes through the service ducts relying on positioning accuracy and repeatability, WHMAN is designed to execute a mix of remote handling operations using position trajectories and master-slave telemanipulation. WHMAN is composed of eight joints: six rotational and two translational. Since a manipulator requires only six joints to acquire the desired position and orientation in operational-space, the two additional joints of WHMAN provide the redundant degrees of mobility. This paper presents how this redundancy of WHMAN can be an advantage to optimize the execution of remote handling tasks. The paper also discusses an effective way to practically exploit the redundancy. The results show that the additional degrees of freedom can be utilized to improve the dynamic behavior of the manipulator.

  19. Detecting the manipulation of digital clinical records in dental practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Díaz-Flores-García, V; Labajo-González, E; Santiago-Sáez, A; Perea-Pérez, B

    2017-11-01

    Radiography provides many advantages in the diagnosis and management of dental conditions. However, dental X-ray images may be subject to manipulation with malicious intent using easily accessible computer software. In this study, we sought to evaluate a dentist's ability to identify a manipulated dental X-ray images, when compared with the original, using a variant of the methodology described by Visser and Kruger. Sixty-six dentists were invited to participate and evaluate 20 intraoral dental X-ray images, 10 originals and 10 modified, manipulated using Adobe Photoshop to simulate fillings, root canal treatments, etc. Participating dentists were correct in identifying the manipulated image in 56% of cases, 6% higher than by chance and 10% more than in the study by Visser and Kruger. Malicious changes to dental X-ray images may go unnoticed even by experienced dentists. Professionals must be aware of the legal consequences of such changes. A system of detection/validation should be created for radiographic images. Copyright © 2017 The College of Radiographers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Manipulation of entanglement and its realisation using trapped ions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jonathan, Daniel

    2001-01-01

    Entanglement is a fundamental physical resource at the heart of quantum information theory. This Thesis contributes to its study by approaching it from two separate directions: the laws governing its manipulation, and its creation within a concrete physical setting. I begin by studying the manipulation of entangled pure states of two quantum systems when (i) only a single copy of each system is available and (ii) only a restricted class of physical operations are allowed to be performed on them. One physically reasonable class, denoted LQCC, is the set of all possible quantum operations realised on each system by local agents, who are allowed to communicate with each other only by classical means. Given these conditions, I find a minimal set of entropic-like state functions that completely determine which manipulations can be realised. Applications to useful protocols such as entanglement concentration are discussed. Further elaboration allows also the determination of the most faithful approximation to a given target state that can be attained under LQCC, and the most faithful teleportation protocol achievable when only partial entanglement is available. The study of a more general class of transformations demonstrates that entanglement can also be a re-usable resource. Specifically, I show that the mere presence of further entanglement allows the realisation of transformations which are impossible under LQCC alone. The extra entanglement is not consumed in any way, acting as a 'catalyst'. Applications of this counter-intuitive effect are discussed. In the second part of the Thesis, I turn to the concrete creation and manipulation of entanglement within the system of laser-cooled, trapped ions. After a brief survey of known schemes, I propose a new method for realising two-qubit quantum logic gates within this system. The scheme is based on the AC Stark shift (lightshift) induced by laser light resonant with the ionic transition frequency. At specific laser

  1. Critical element study on autonomous position control of articulated-arm type manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oka, Kiyoshi; Kakudate, Satoshi; Nakahira, Masataka

    1994-10-01

    An articulated-arm type manipulator can be operated effectively in a restricted space due to its flexibility and it can be attractive for a wide range of in-vessel maintenance such as viewing, inspection and limiter handling in fusion experimental reactors. In case of the in-vessel maintenance using a flexible manipulator, it is quite essential to develop an autonomous control method for compensating a deflection of manipulator so as to minimize the maintenance time with high precision. For this purpose, a new position control method using a combination of neural network predictor with a rigid inverse kinematics is being developed. The key features of this method are to simplify a kinematics modeling of flexible manipulator, to enable quick position compensation in stead of ordinary large matrix compensation, and to be applicable to a wide variety of manipulator characteristics. A sub-scaled model of flexible manipulator with 4 joints has been fabricated for a benchmark experiments of the autonomous position control. Comparing analytical simulation with experiments using the flexible manipulator, it has been demonstrated that the new position control method gives significant improvement in control performance with high precision in order of a figure. In addition, further optimization can be possible by adding other non-linear predictors such as radial basis function and fuzzy modeling. This paper describes the details of a sub-scaled flexible manipulator and a neural network position control system as well as results of analytical simulation and benchmark experiments. (author)

  2. Lateral manipulation of small clusters on the Cu and Ag(1 1 1) surfaces with the single-atom and trimer-apex tips: Reliability study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xie Yiqun; Liu Fen; Huang Lei

    2010-01-01

    We study the reliability of the lateral manipulation of small Cu clusters (dimer and trimer) on the flat Cu(1 1 1) surface with both the single-atom and trimer-apex tips and that for the Ag/Ag(1 1 1) system, and compare the results between the two systems as well as with the single-atom manipulation on these surfaces. Manipulations are simulated using molecular statics method with semi-empirical potentials. The dependence of the manipulation reliability on the tip height and tip orientation are investigated. Overall, the manipulation reliability increases with decreasing tip height although it depends obviously on the tip orientation. For the Cu/Cu(1 1 1) system, the manipulation of the dimmer and trimer can be successful with both tips. The manipulation reliability can be improved by the trimer-apex tip, and the tip-height range for the successful manipulation is also broader, as compared to the single-atom apex tip. Differently from the single-atom manipulation, the tip orientation has a noticeable influence on the manipulation reliability even for the single-atom tip due to the stronger tip-cluster and surface-adatom interactions in cluster manipulation. For the Ag/Ag(1 1 1) system, successful manipulations only be achieved with the trimer-apex tip, and the manipulation reliability is worse than that of the Cu/Cu(1 1 1) system, indicating the difference in mechanic properties between the two surfaces at the atomic level.

  3. Systems and methods for self-synchronized digital sampling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samson, Jr., John R. (Inventor)

    2008-01-01

    Systems and methods for self-synchronized data sampling are provided. In one embodiment, a system for capturing synchronous data samples is provided. The system includes an analog to digital converter adapted to capture signals from one or more sensors and convert the signals into a stream of digital data samples at a sampling frequency determined by a sampling control signal; and a synchronizer coupled to the analog to digital converter and adapted to receive a rotational frequency signal from a rotating machine, wherein the synchronizer is further adapted to generate the sampling control signal, and wherein the sampling control signal is based on the rotational frequency signal.

  4. Micro Sampling System for Highly Radioactive Specimen by Laser Ablation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Han, Sun Ho; Ha, Yeong Keong; Han, Ki Chul; Park, Yang Soon; Jee, Kwang Yong; Kim, Won Ho [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2005-03-15

    Shielded laser ablation system composed of laser system, image analyser, XYZ translator with motion controller, ablation chamber, manipulator and various optics was designed. Nd:YAG laser which can be tunable from 1064 nm to 266 nm was selected as light source. CCD camera(< x 200) was chosen to analyze a crater less than 50 un in diameter. XYZ translator was composed of three linear stage which can travel 50 w with a minimum movement of 1 {mu}m and motion controller. Before the performance test, each part of system was optically aligned. To perform the ablation test, the specimen was ablated by 50 {mu}m interval and observed by image analyser The shape of crater was almost round, indicating laser beam has homogeneous energy distribution. The resolution and magnification of image system were compatible with the design.

  5. Augmented reality user interface for mobile ground robots with manipulator arms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vozar, Steven; Tilbury, Dawn M.

    2011-01-01

    Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology in which real-world visual data is combined with an overlay of computer graphics, enhancing the original feed. AR is an attractive tool for teleoperated UGV UIs as it can improve communication between robots and users via an intuitive spatial and visual dialogue, thereby increasing operator situational awareness. The successful operation of UGVs often relies upon both chassis navigation and manipulator arm control, and since existing literature usually focuses on one task or the other, there is a gap in mobile robot UIs that take advantage of AR for both applications. This work describes the development and analysis of an AR UI system for a UGV with an attached manipulator arm. The system supplements a video feed shown to an operator with information about geometric relationships within the robot task space to improve the operator's situational awareness. Previous studies on AR systems and preliminary analyses indicate that such an implementation of AR for a mobile robot with a manipulator arm is anticipated to improve operator performance. A full user-study can determine if this hypothesis is supported by performing an analysis of variance on common test metrics associated with UGV teleoperation.

  6. Influence of different manipulation methods on surface roughness of auto polymerized acrylic resin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luciana Borges Retamoso

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the surface roughness of acrylic resin according to the manipulation method.Methods: Sixty specimens were randomly divided into four groups (n=15 according to the manipulation method: G1 - addition with pressure, G2 - addition without pressure, G3 - mass with pressure and G4 - mass without pressure. After resin polymerization, all specimens were submitted to finishing with abrasive paper and mechanical polishing. Topographical surface analysis surfaces was performed twice on each sample using the rugosimeter. Results: The results were statistically analyzed and means were: G1 - 0,130μm; G2 - 0,120μm, G3 - 0,218μm e G4 - 0,192μm. ANOVA for one criterion and the Tukey test showed significant difference between G1 and G3, G2 and G3, G2 and G4. Conclusion: The manipulation method seems to affect the physical characteristics of auto polymerized acrylic resin. The addition manipulation method decreased the surface roughness.

  7. Bio-inspired multistructured conical copper wires for highly efficient liquid manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Qianbin; Meng, Qingan; Chen, Ming; Liu, Huan; Jiang, Lei

    2014-09-23

    Animal hairs are typical structured conical fibers ubiquitous in natural system that enable the manipulation of low viscosity liquid in a well-controlled manner, which serves as the fundamental structure in Chinese brush for ink delivery in a controllable manner. Here, drawing inspiration from these structure, we developed a dynamic electrochemical method that enables fabricating the anisotropic multiscale structured conical copper wire (SCCW) with controllable conicity and surface morphology. The as-prepared SCCW exhibits a unique ability for manipulating liquid with significantly high efficiency, and over 428 times greater than its own volume of liquid could be therefore operated. We propose that the boundary condition of the dynamic liquid balance behavior on conical fibers, namely, steady holding of liquid droplet at the tip region of the SCCW, makes it an excellent fibrous medium to manipulate liquid. Moreover, we demonstrate that the titling angle of the SCCW can also affect its efficiency of liquid manipulation by virtue of its mechanical rigidity, which is hardly realized by flexible natural hairs. We envision that the bio-inspired SCCW could give inspiration in designing materials and devices to manipulate liquid in a more controllable way and with high efficiency.

  8. Automatic remote sampling and delivery system incorporating decontamination and disposal of sample bottles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Savarkar, V.K.; Mishra, A.K.; Bajpai, D.D.; Nair, M.K.T.

    1990-01-01

    The present generation of reprocessing plants have sampling and delivery systems that have to be operated manually with its associated problems. The complete automation and remotisation of sampling system has hence been considered to reduce manual intervention and personnel exposure. As a part of this scheme an attempt to automate and remotise various steps in sampling system has been made. This paper discusses in detail the development work carried out in this area as well as the tests conducted to incorporate the same in the existing plants. (author). 3 figs

  9. Water sample-collection and distribution system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brooks, R. R.

    1978-01-01

    Collection and distribution system samples water from six designated stations, filtered if desired, and delivers it to various analytical sensors. System may be controlled by Water Monitoring Data Acquisition System or operated manually.

  10. Improved sample manipulation at the STRESS-SPEC neutron diffractometer using an industrial 6-axis robot for texture and strain analyses

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Randau, C. [Institute for Materials Science and Engineering, Clausthal University of Technology, D-38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld (Germany); Brokmeier, H.G., E-mail: heinz-guenter.brokmeier@tu-clausthal.de [Institute for Materials Science and Engineering, Clausthal University of Technology, D-38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld (Germany); Institute of Materials Research, Helmholtz-Centre Geesthacht, D-21502 Geesthacht (Germany); Gan, W.M. [Institute of Materials Research, Helmholtz-Centre Geesthacht, D-21502 Geesthacht (Germany); Hofmann, M.; Voeller, M. [Forschungsneutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II), TU München, D-85747 Garching (Germany); Tekouo, W. [Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management, TU München, D-85747 Garching (Germany); Al-hamdany, N. [Institute for Materials Science and Engineering, Clausthal University of Technology, D-38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld (Germany); Seidl, G. [Forschungsneutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II), TU München, D-85747 Garching (Germany); Schreyer, A. [Institute of Materials Research, Helmholtz-Centre Geesthacht, D-21502 Geesthacht (Germany)

    2015-09-11

    The materials science neutron diffractometer STRESS-SPEC located at FRM II is a dedicated instrument for strain and pole figure measurements. Both methods make complementary demands on sample handling. On one hand pole figure measurements need a high degree of freedom to orient small samples and on the other hand in strain investigations it is often necessary to handle large and heavy components. Therefore a robot based sample positioning system was developed, which has the capability to provide both possibilities. Based on this new robot system further developments like a full automated sample changer system for texture measurements were accomplished. Moreover this system opens the door for combined strain and texture analysis at STRESS-SPEC.

  11. Improved sample manipulation at the STRESS-SPEC neutron diffractometer using an industrial 6-axis robot for texture and strain analyses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Randau, C.; Brokmeier, H.G.; Gan, W.M.; Hofmann, M.; Voeller, M.; Tekouo, W.; Al-hamdany, N.; Seidl, G.; Schreyer, A.

    2015-01-01

    The materials science neutron diffractometer STRESS-SPEC located at FRM II is a dedicated instrument for strain and pole figure measurements. Both methods make complementary demands on sample handling. On one hand pole figure measurements need a high degree of freedom to orient small samples and on the other hand in strain investigations it is often necessary to handle large and heavy components. Therefore a robot based sample positioning system was developed, which has the capability to provide both possibilities. Based on this new robot system further developments like a full automated sample changer system for texture measurements were accomplished. Moreover this system opens the door for combined strain and texture analysis at STRESS-SPEC

  12. Research on Control Method Based on Real-Time Operational Reliability Evaluation for Space Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yifan Wang

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available A control method based on real-time operational reliability evaluation for space manipulator is presented for improving the success rate of a manipulator during the execution of a task. In this paper, a method for quantitative analysis of operational reliability is given when manipulator is executing a specified task; then a control model which could control the quantitative operational reliability is built. First, the control process is described by using a state space equation. Second, process parameters are estimated in real time using Bayesian method. Third, the expression of the system's real-time operational reliability is deduced based on the state space equation and process parameters which are estimated using Bayesian method. Finally, a control variable regulation strategy which considers the cost of control is given based on the Theory of Statistical Process Control. It is shown via simulations that this method effectively improves the operational reliability of space manipulator control system.

  13. A redundant, 6-DOF parallel manipulator structure with improved workspace and dexterity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stoughton, R.S.; Salerno, R.; Canfield, S.; Reinholtz, C.

    1994-08-01

    This paper presents a novel manipulator structure which combines two known parallel manipulator structures--a Stewart Platform (SP), and a double octahedral Variable Geometry Truss (VGT). The combined VGT + SP structure is redundant, using nine actuators to realize six-DOF motion. Combining the two structures allows the translational and orientational workspaces of the two individual structures to sum together to a much larger workspace than is generally achievable with parallel manipulator structures. In addition, the VGT portion of the structure allows the configuration of the Stewart Platform to be changed ''on the fly'' from one with a large workspace to one with high dexterity. A useful application of this structure is at the distal end of a truss-based manipulator, where it can serve as a dexterous wrist while preserving an internal passageway for cabling and/or conveyance systems

  14. Method and system for formation and withdrawal of a sample from a surface to be analyzed

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Berkel, Gary J.; Kertesz, Vilmos

    2017-10-03

    A method and system for formation and withdrawal of a sample from a surface to be analyzed utilizes a collection instrument having a port through which a liquid solution is conducted onto the surface to be analyzed. The port is positioned adjacent the surface to be analyzed, and the liquid solution is conducted onto the surface through the port so that the liquid solution conducted onto the surface interacts with material comprising the surface. An amount of material is thereafter withdrawn from the surface. Pressure control can be utilized to manipulate the solution balance at the surface to thereby control the withdrawal of the amount of material from the surface. Furthermore, such pressure control can be coordinated with the movement of the surface relative to the port of the collection instrument within the X-Y plane.

  15. Manipulating Strings in Python

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    William J. Turkel

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available This lesson is a brief introduction to string manipulation techniques in Python. Knowing how to manipulate strings plays a crucial role in most text processing tasks. If you’d like to experiment with the following lessons, you can write and execute short programs as we’ve been doing, or you can open up a Python shell / Terminal to try them out on the command line.

  16. Eye-in-Hand Manipulation for Remote Handling: Experimental Setup

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niu, Longchuan; Suominen, Olli; Aref, Mohammad M.; Mattila, Jouni; Ruiz, Emilio; Esque, Salvador

    2018-03-01

    A prototype for eye-in-hand manipulation in the context of remote handling in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)1 is presented in this paper. The setup consists of an industrial robot manipulator with a modified open control architecture and equipped with a pair of stereoscopic cameras, a force/torque sensor, and pneumatic tools. It is controlled through a haptic device in a mock-up environment. The industrial robot controller has been replaced by a single industrial PC running Xenomai that has a real-time connection to both the robot controller and another Linux PC running as the controller for the haptic device. The new remote handling control environment enables further development of advanced control schemes for autonomous and semi-autonomous manipulation tasks. This setup benefits from a stereovision system for accurate tracking of the target objects with irregular shapes. The overall environmental setup successfully demonstrates the required robustness and precision that remote handling tasks need.

  17. Cell Type-Specific Manipulation with GFP-Dependent Cre Recombinase

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Jonathan C Y; Rudolph, Stephanie; Dhande, Onkar S; Abraira, Victoria E; Choi, Seungwon; Lapan, Sylvain; Drew, Iain R; Drokhlyansky, Eugene; Huberman, Andrew D; Regehr, Wade G; Cepko, Constance L

    2016-01-01

    Summary There are many transgenic GFP reporter lines that allow visualization of specific populations of cells. Using such lines for functional studies requires a method that transforms GFP into a molecule that enables genetic manipulation. Here we report the creation of a method that exploits GFP for gene manipulation, Cre Recombinase Dependent on GFP (CRE-DOG), a split component system that uses GFP and its derivatives to directly induce Cre/loxP recombination. Using plasmid electroporation and AAV viral vectors, we delivered CRE-DOG to multiple GFP mouse lines, leading to effective recombination selectively in GFP-labeled cells. Further, CRE-DOG enabled optogenetic control of these neurons. Beyond providing a new set of tools for manipulation of gene expression selectively in GFP+ cells, we demonstrate that GFP can be used to reconstitute the activity of a protein not known to have a modular structure, suggesting that this strategy might be applicable to a wide range of proteins. PMID:26258682

  18. Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA): Assessment of the remote manipulator system FMEA/CIL

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tangorra, F.; Grasmeder, R. F.; Montgomery, A. D.

    1988-01-01

    The results of the Independent Orbiter Assessment (IOA) of the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Critical Items List (CIL) are presented. The IOA effort first completed an analysis of the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) hardware, generating draft failure modes and potential critical items. To preserve independence, this analysis was accomplished without reliance upon the results contained within the NASA FMEA/CIL documentation. The IOA results were than compared to the NASA FMEA/CIL baseline with proposed Post 51-L updates included. A resolution of each discrepancy from the comparison is provided through additional analysis as required. The results of that comparison for the Orbiter RMS hardware are documented. The IOA product for the RMS analysis consisted of 604 failure mode worksheets that resulted in 458 potential critical items being identified. Comparison was made to the NASA baseline which consisted of 45 FMEAs and 321 CIL items. This comparison produced agreement on all but 154 FMEAs which caused differences in 137 CIL items.

  19. The JPL telerobotic Manipulator Control and Mechanization (MCM) subsystem

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hayati, Samad; Lee, Thomas S.; Tso, Kam; Backes, Paul; Kan, Edwin; Lloyd, J.

    1989-01-01

    The Manipulator Control and Mechanization (MCM) subsystem of the telerobot system provides the real-time control of the robot manipulators in autonomous and teleoperated modes and real time input/output for a variety of sensors and actuators. Substantial hardware and software are included in this subsystem which interfaces in the hierarchy of the telerobot system with the other subsystems. The other subsystems are: run time control, task planning and reasoning, sensing and perception, and operator control subsystem. The architecture of the MCM subsystem, its capabilities, and details of various hardware and software elements are described. Important improvements in the MCM subsystem over the first version are: dual arm coordinated trajectory generation and control, addition of integrated teleoperation, shared control capability, replacement of the ultimate controllers with motor controllers, and substantial increase in real time processing capability.

  20. Vibration control of an artificial muscle manipulator with a magnetorheological fluid brake

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tomori, H.; Midorikawa, Y.; Nakamura, T.

    2013-02-01

    Recently, proposed applications of robots require them to contact human safely. Therefore, we focus on pneumatic rubber artificial muscle. This actuator is flexible, light, and has high-power density. However, because the artificial muscle is flexible, it vibrates when there is a high load. Therefore, we paid attention to the magnetorheological (MR) fluid. We propose a control method of the MR brake considering energy of the manipulator system. By this control method, MR brake dissipates energy leading to vibration of the manipulator. In this paper, we calculated the energy and controlled the MR brake. And, we deliberated the proposal method by simulation using the dynamic model of the manipulator, and experiment.

  1. Kinematic Analysis of Mobile Manipulator for Measurement and Maintenance in Dangerous Environment

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    CUI Genqun; LI Chunshu; ZHANG Minglu

    2006-01-01

    This paper studies the kinematic modeling of a mobile manipulator that consists of 5-DOF manipulator and an autonomous wheeled mobile platform. Then an artificial neural network to realize the coordination motion between manipulator and mobile platform is developed. On the basis of the task specifications, the algorithm determines the appropriate control variables to respond to the well tracking trajectory. The control strategy employed for either subsystem is achieved by using a robust supervised controller. A learning paradigm is used to produce the required reference variables for an overall cooperative behavior of the system. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of this approach.

  2. Active Fault Diagnosis in Sampled-data Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Niemann, Hans Henrik; Poulsen, Niels Kjølstad

    2015-01-01

    The focus in this paper is on active fault diagnosis (AFD) in closed-loop sampleddata systems. Applying the same AFD architecture as for continuous-time systems does not directly result in the same set of closed-loop matrix transfer functions. For continuous-time systems, the LFT (linear fractional...... transformation) structure in the connection between the parametric faults and the matrix transfer function (also known as the fault signature matrix) applied for AFD is not directly preserved for sampled-data system. As a consequence of this, the AFD methods cannot directly be applied for sampled-data systems....... Two methods are considered in this paper to handle the fault signature matrix for sampled-data systems such that standard AFD methods can be applied. The first method is based on a discretization of the system such that the LFT structure is preserved resulting in the same LFT structure in the fault...

  3. Professional responsibility in relation to cervical spine manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Refshauge, Kathryn M; Parry, Sharon; Shirley, Debra; Larsen, Dale; Rivett, Darren A; Boland, Rob

    2002-01-01

    Manipulation of the cervical spine is one of the few potentially life-threatening procedures performed by physiotherapists. Is it worth the risk? A comparison of risks versus benefits indicates that at present, the risks of cervical manipulation outweigh the benefits: manipulation has yet to be shown to be more effective for neck pain and headache than other interventions such as mobilisation, whereas the risks, although infrequent, are serious. This analysis is of particular concern because the conditions for which manipulation is indicated are benign and usually self-limiting. Because physiotherapists have legal and ethical obligations to the community to avoid foreseeable harm and provide optimum care, it may be prudent to determine who in our profession should perform cervical manipulation. That is, the profession could restrict the practice of cervical spine manipulation. Although all registered physiotherapists in Australia are entitled to perform cervical manipulation, few choose to use this intervention. Therefore, it might be feasible to encourage those practitioners who wish to use cervical manipulation to undertake formal education programs. Such a requirement could be embodied in a code of practice that discourages those without formal training from performing cervical manipulation. By taking such measures, we could ensure that our profession exercises wisdom in its monitoring and use of cervical manipulation.

  4. Manipulating colloids with charges and electric fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leunissen, M. E.

    2007-02-01

    This thesis presents the results of experimental investigations on a variety of colloidal suspensions. Colloidal particles are at least a hundred times larger than atoms or molecules, but suspended in a liquid they display the same phase behavior, including fluid and crystalline phases. Due to their relatively large size, colloids are much easier to investigate and manipulate, though. This makes them excellent condensed matter model systems. With this in mind, we studied micrometer-sized perspex (‘PMMA’) spheres, labeled with a fluorescent dye for high-resolution confocal microscopy imaging, and suspended in a low-polar mixture of the organic solvents cyclohexyl bromide and cis-decalin. This system offered us the flexibility to change the interactions between the particles from ‘hard-sphere-like’ to long-ranged repulsive (between like-charged particles), long-ranged attractive (between oppositely charged particles) and dipolar (in an electric field). We investigated the phase behavior of our suspensions as a function of the particle concentration, the ionic strength of the solvent and the particles’ charges. In this way, we obtained new insight in the freezing and melting behavior of like-charged and oppositely charged colloids. Interestingly, we found that the latter can readily form large crystals, thus defying the common belief that plus-minus interactions inevitably lead to aggregation. Moreover, we demonstrated that these systems can serve as a reliable model system for classical ionic matter (‘salts’), and that opposite-charge interactions can greatly facilitate the self-assembly of new structures with special properties for applications. On a slightly different note, we also studied electrostatic effects in mixtures of the cyclohexyl bromide solvent and water, both with and without colloidal particles present. This provided new insight in the stabilization mechanisms of oil-water emulsions and gave us control over the self-assembly of various

  5. An Analysis of Manipulation Strategies in Stock Markets

    OpenAIRE

    Rasim Ozcan

    2012-01-01

    Manipulative transactions, which affect both the supply and demand side of the markets, have been studied by academic circles and it was concluded that manipulation exerts negative impact on markets. A market with manipulation is considered as less trustworthy and credible compared to a market without manipulation, which in turn, affects demand. Manipulations affecting both the supply and demand should be closely monitored by stock market investors as well as legislative, executive, and regul...

  6. The Anatomy of Virtual Manipulative Apps: Using Grounded Theory to Conceptualize and Evaluate Educational Apps that Contain Virtual Manipulatives

    OpenAIRE

    Boyer-Thurgood, Jennifer M.

    2017-01-01

    This exploratory qualitative study used grounded theory to investigate the anatomy of educational apps that contain virtual manipulatives. For this study 100 virtual manipulatives within educational apps designed for the iPad were observed by the researcher in order to expand the explanations of and build theory about virtual manipulatives within apps. Affordance theory was used to frame all six phases of the study in which the researcher identified virtual manipulatives situated within educa...

  7. A variable geometry truss manipulator for positioning large payloads

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stoughton, R.S.; Tucker, J.C.; Horner, C.G.

    1995-02-01

    A major thrust within the Department of Energy's (DOE) Decontamination and Dismantling (D ampersand D) Robotics program is the development of a Selective Equipment Removal System (SERS). SERS will consist of a mobile vehicle, a Dual-Arm Work Module (DAWM), and a deployment manipulator capable of extending the DAWM up to 6.096m (20) from the vehicle. The DAWM, built by RedZone Robotics, includes two Schilling Titan II manipulators, a unique five degree-of-freedom (DOF) module for positioning/orienting the two Schilling arms, and a massive steel backplane to maintain structural rigidity. Together with its payload, the DAWM weighs about 975 kg (2150 pounds). In order to accurately position the DAWM, the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) together with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Langley Research Center (NASA LARC) are developing a deployment manipulator, which includes two double-octahedral Variable Geometry Truss (VGT) modules connected with a static truss section. The entire SERS system (Figure 1) will include the mobile vehicle, a 2-DOF base actuation system (waist rotate and pitch) with an output link approximately 2.134m (7) in length, the VGT system and the DAWM. The VGT system (Figure 2) consists of a 1.067m (42) diameter (∼1.346m (53) long) base VGT, which mounts to the end of the output link of the base actuation system, a 1.524m (60) long static truss section which tapers from 1.067m (42) diameter at its base to 0.8128m (32) diameter at the end, and a 0.8128m (32) diameter (∼1.0922m (43) long) tip VGT to which the DAWM is mounted. The stiffness of the VGT system is such that with the base VGT mounted to a rigid base and the VGT system oriented horizontally (worst case), the static deflection of the DAWM together with full payload will be less than 0.0254m

  8. Geometrically unrestricted, topologically constrained control of liquid crystal defects using simultaneous holonomic magnetic and holographic optical manipulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Varney, Michael C. M.; Jenness, Nathan J.; Smalyukh, Ivan I.

    2014-02-01

    Despite the recent progress in physical control and manipulation of various condensed matter, atomic, and particle systems, including individual atoms and photons, our ability to control topological defects remains limited. Recently, controlled generation, spatial translation, and stretching of topological point and line defects have been achieved using laser tweezers and liquid crystals as model defect-hosting systems. However, many modes of manipulation remain hindered by limitations inherent to optical trapping. To overcome some of these limitations, we integrate holographic optical tweezers with a magnetic manipulation system, which enables fully holonomic manipulation of defects by means of optically and magnetically controllable colloids used as "handles" to transfer forces and torques to various liquid crystal defects. These colloidal handles are magnetically rotated around determined axes and are optically translated along three-dimensional pathways while mechanically attached to defects, which, combined with inducing spatially localized nematic-isotropic phase transitions, allow for geometrically unrestricted control of defects, including previously unrealized modes of noncontact manipulation, such as the twisting of disclination clusters. These manipulation capabilities may allow for probing topological constraints and the nature of defects in unprecedented ways, providing the foundation for a tabletop laboratory to expand our understanding of the role defects play in fields ranging from subatomic particle physics to early-universe cosmology.

  9. Layout of the manipulator-arm (boom) for the TFTR fusion reactor (Princeton, USA) under UHV-conditions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Klaubert, J.

    1987-01-01

    This presentation shows the main criteria for the layout of the manipulator - arm and the antechamber - vessel of the TFTR - FUSION - REACTOR at Princeton University, PLASMA PHYSICS LABORATORY (USA). The main problem during layout of a manipulator system like the TFTR - Boom has been the limitation of the vertical deflections due to deadweight of the construction. The design problem is rather a deformation problem and a problem of stability than a stress problem. The way of optimizing the ratio between stiffness and deadweight is the most important part during the complete design - process. Additional earthquake requirements need further investigations for a satisfying layout (horizontal forces, weak-axis of moment of inertia). The details of the construction (welding, connections etc.) have to be designed in respect to UHV - requirements --> no holes and no fillet welds (outgasing - rate.) are allowed. All weldings have to be designed as bevel-welds. This manipulator system is designed for working in a plane system (two degrees of freedom). A manipulator system with the same operating capabilities in a three degree of freedom system needs larger cross sections for the different beam-elements than those of the discussed TFTR - BOOM

  10. Self-Efficacy Manipulation Influences Physical Activity Enjoyment in Chinese Adolescents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Liang; Cheng, Shoubin; Lu, Jiaying; Zhu, Lele; Chen, Ling

    2016-02-01

    In this study, we examined the effect of the manipulation of exercise self-efficacy on the enjoyment of physical activity in a sample of 44 Chinese adolescents (age = 14.27 ± .87 y), including 22 boys and 22 girls. The participants were randomized into a low-efficacy or high-efficacy condition, and their self-efficacy beliefs for engaging in moderate-intensity physical activity were manipulated by providing false feedback after a submaximal exercise test. The participants' self-efficacy was measured and compared before and after the exercise test and the participants' enjoyment of physical activity was assessed after the exercise test. It was found that exercise self-efficacy was successfully manipulated in the expected direction in both conditions, which significantly influenced the participants' enjoyment of physical activity. After the exercise test, the participants in the low-efficacy condition reported lower enjoyment scores relative to the high-efficacy participants. These results suggest that self-efficacy may have an important influence on the enjoyment of physical activity among Chinese adolescents. We recommend that physical activity promotion programs should be tailored to enhance adolescents' self-efficacy beliefs and enjoyment of the experience of physical activity.

  11. A random-access microarray for programmable droplet storage, retrieval and manipulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tseng, Yi-Ming; Wang, Jhih-Jhe; Su, Yu-Chuan

    2012-01-01

    This article presents an integrated microfluidic system that is capable of programmably metering, entrapping, coalescing, addressably storing, retrieving and manipulating emulsion droplets. A multilayer, flexible PDMS chip with specially designed fluidic channels dynamically reconfigured by pneumatically actuated diaphragms is utilized to integrate a variety of droplet manipulation schemes. Once droplets are formed, their motions are coordinated by a 2D multiplexing scheme, which exploits the bidirectional movement of diaphragms to implement a random-access microarray. In the prototype demonstration, a PDMS molding and bonding process is used to fabricate the proposed microfluidic system. Emulsion droplets with desired volumes and compositions are produced, addressably stored, manipulated and retrieved from a 4 × 4 array, which employs just 4 (= 2 × log 2 4) control inputs for the operation. It has been demonstrated that (1) the integration of droplet manipulation and 2D multiplexing schemes can be achieved readily using bidirectional diaphragm valves, (2) multiplexing of an N × N array could be realized utilizing only 2 × log 2 N control inputs and (3) a multifunctional, random-access microarray can be accomplished employing a multilayer PDMS chip. As such, the demonstrated random-access microarray could potentially serve as a platform for continuous tracking and multistep processing of emulsion droplets, which is desired for various biological and chemical applications. (paper)

  12. Self-repairing control for damaged robotic manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eisler, G.R.; Robinett, R.D.; Dohrmann, C.R.; Driessen, B.J.

    1997-03-01

    Algorithms have been developed allowing operation of robotic systems under damaged conditions. Specific areas addressed were optimal sensor location, adaptive nonlinear control, fault-tolerant robot design, and dynamic path-planning. A seven-degree-of-freedom, hydraulic manipulator, with fault-tolerant joint design was also constructed and tested. This report completes this project which was funded under the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program

  13. Importance sampling of rare events in chaotic systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Leitão, Jorge C.; Parente Lopes, João M.Viana; Altmann, Eduardo G.

    2017-01-01

    space of chaotic systems. As examples of our general framework we compute the distribution of finite-time Lyapunov exponents (in different chaotic maps) and the distribution of escape times (in transient-chaos problems). Our methods sample exponentially rare states in polynomial number of samples (in......Finding and sampling rare trajectories in dynamical systems is a difficult computational task underlying numerous problems and applications. In this paper we show how to construct Metropolis-Hastings Monte-Carlo methods that can efficiently sample rare trajectories in the (extremely rough) phase...... both low- and high-dimensional systems). An open-source software that implements our algorithms and reproduces our results can be found in reference [J. Leitao, A library to sample chaotic systems, 2017, https://github.com/jorgecarleitao/chaospp]....

  14. Sample mounting and transfer for coupling an ultrahigh vacuum variable temperature beetle scanning tunneling microscope with conventional surface probes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nafisi, Kourosh; Ranau, Werner; Hemminger, John C.

    2001-01-01

    We present a new ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) chamber for surface analysis and microscopy at controlled, variable temperatures. The new instrument allows surface analysis with Auger electron spectroscopy, low energy electron diffraction, quadrupole mass spectrometer, argon ion sputtering gun, and a variable temperature scanning tunneling microscope (VT-STM). In this system, we introduce a novel procedure for transferring a sample off a conventional UHV manipulator and onto a scanning tunneling microscope in the conventional ''beetle'' geometry, without disconnecting the heating or thermocouple wires. The microscope, a modified version of the Besocke beetle microscope, is mounted on a 2.75 in. outer diameter UHV flange and is directly attached to the base of the chamber. The sample is attached to a tripod sample holder that is held by the main manipulator. Under UHV conditions the tripod sample holder can be removed from the main manipulator and placed onto the STM. The VT-STM has the capability of acquiring images between the temperature range of 180--500 K. The performance of the chamber is demonstrated here by producing an ordered array of island vacancy defects on a Pt(111) surface and obtaining STM images of these defects

  15. Managerial Incentives and Stock Price Manipulation

    OpenAIRE

    Peng, Lin; Röell, Ailsa A

    2009-01-01

    This paper presents a rational expectations model of optimal executive compensation in a setting where managers are in a position to manipulate short-term stock prices, and managers' propensity to manipulate is uncertain. Stock-based incentives elicit not only productive effort, but also costly information manipulation. We analyze the tradeoffs involved in conditioning pay on long- versus short-term performance and characterize a second-best optimal compensation scheme. The paper shows manipu...

  16. Light Manipulation in Inhomogeneous Liquid Flow and Its Application in Biochemical Sensing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunfeng Zuo

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Light manipulation has always been the fundamental subject in the field of optics since centuries ago. Traditional optical devices are usually designed using glasses and other materials, such as semiconductors and metals. Optofluidics is the combination of microfluidics and optics, which brings a host of new advantages to conventional solid systems. The capabilities of light manipulation and biochemical sensing are inherent alongside the emergence of optofluidics. This new research area promotes advancements in optics, biology, and chemistry. The development of fast, accurate, low-cost, and small-sized biochemical micro-sensors is an urgent demand for real-time monitoring. However, the fluid flow in the on-chip sensor is usually non-uniformed, which is a new and emerging challenge for the accuracy of optical detection. It is significant to reveal the principle of light propagation in an inhomogeneous liquid flow and the interaction between biochemical samples and light in flowing liquids. In this review, we summarize the current state of optofluidic lab-on-a-chip techniques from the perspective of light modulation by the unique dynamic properties of fluid in heterogeneous media, such as diffusion, heat transfer, and centrifugation etc. Furthermore, this review introduces several novel photonic phenomena in an inhomogeneous liquid flow and demonstrates their application in biochemical sensing.

  17. Fluid sample collection and distribution system. [qualitative analysis of aqueous samples from several points

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brooks, R. L. (Inventor)

    1979-01-01

    A multipoint fluid sample collection and distribution system is provided wherein the sample inputs are made through one or more of a number of sampling valves to a progressive cavity pump which is not susceptible to damage by large unfiltered particles. The pump output is through a filter unit that can provide a filtered multipoint sample. An unfiltered multipoint sample is also provided. An effluent sample can be taken and applied to a second progressive cavity pump for pumping to a filter unit that can provide one or more filtered effluent samples. The second pump can also provide an unfiltered effluent sample. Means are provided to periodically back flush each filter unit without shutting off the whole system.

  18. Performance test of SAUNA xenon mobile sampling system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hu Dan; Yang Bin; Yang Weigeng; Jia Huaimao; Wang Shilian; Li Qi; Zhao Yungang; Fan Yuanqing; Chen Zhanying; Chang Yinzhong; Liu Shujiang; Zhang Xinjun; Wang Jun

    2011-01-01

    In this article, the structure and basic functions of SAUNA noble gas xenon mobile sampling system are introduced. The sampling capability of this system is about 2.2 mL per day, as a result from a 684-h operation. The system can be transported to designated locations conveniently to collect xenon sample for routine or emergency environment monitoring. (authors)

  19. Kinematic sensitivity of robot manipulators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vuskovic, Marko I.

    1989-01-01

    Kinematic sensitivity vectors and matrices for open-loop, n degrees-of-freedom manipulators are derived. First-order sensitivity vectors are defined as partial derivatives of the manipulator's position and orientation with respect to its geometrical parameters. The four-parameter kinematic model is considered, as well as the five-parameter model in case of nominally parallel joint axes. Sensitivity vectors are expressed in terms of coordinate axes of manipulator frames. Second-order sensitivity vectors, the partial derivatives of first-order sensitivity vectors, are also considered. It is shown that second-order sensitivity vectors can be expressed as vector products of the first-order sensitivity vectors.

  20. A links manipulator simulation program interim report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Noble, R.A.

    1987-04-01

    A computer program to simulate the performance of the Heysham II rail-following manipulator has been developed. The program is being used to develop and test the rail-following control algorithms which will be used to control movements of the manipulator when it is operating below the gas baffle dome. The simulation includes the dynamic responses of the manipulator joint drives, excluding friction, backlash and compliance. It also includes full details of the manipulator's geometry. A method is given whereby the actual manipulator dynamics can be written into the program once these have been established by measurement. The program is written in FORTRAN and runs on a Perkin-Elmer 3220 mini-computer. The simulation program responds to velocity demands on the individual joints. These will normally come from the control program, in which they will be manually controlled by a joystick. A sigma 5664 colour graphics generator is programmed to display the current position of the manipulator. (UK)

  1. Human upper limb manipulator mass center motion and mass moments of inertia variation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nikolova Gergana

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Motion control is complicated for people having traumas or neurological diseases. An underlying assumption in our work is that the motion of healthy people is optimal with respect to positioning accuracy, movement response, and energy expenditure. In this paper, a new approach for determination of the human upper limb mass-inertial characteristics is presented by using the 3D geometrical mathematical modeling analysis approach. Two examples will be given to illustrate the main features and advantages of the proposed design concepts. The objective of the work presented in this paper is a determination of the mass properties of a two joints human upper limb manipulator. Results are aimed to have application in an exoskeleton design, the design of manipulation system and external manipulation system, serving people with some motion difficulties, as well as in sport and rehabilitation.

  2. System for Earth Sample Registration SESAR: Services for IGSN Registration and Sample Metadata Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, S.; Lehnert, K. A.; Coleman, R. J.

    2011-12-01

    SESAR, the System for Earth Sample Registration, is an online registry for physical samples collected for Earth and environmental studies. SESAR generates and administers the International Geo Sample Number IGSN, a unique identifier for samples that is dramatically advancing interoperability amongst information systems for sample-based data. SESAR was developed to provide the complete range of registry services, including definition of IGSN syntax and metadata profiles, registration and validation of name spaces requested by users, tools for users to submit and manage sample metadata, validation of submitted metadata, generation and validation of the unique identifiers, archiving of sample metadata, and public or private access to the sample metadata catalog. With the development of SESAR v3, we placed particular emphasis on creating enhanced tools that make metadata submission easier and more efficient for users, and that provide superior functionality for users to manage metadata of their samples in their private workspace MySESAR. For example, SESAR v3 includes a module where users can generate custom spreadsheet templates to enter metadata for their samples, then upload these templates online for sample registration. Once the content of the template is uploaded, it is displayed online in an editable grid format. Validation rules are executed in real-time on the grid data to ensure data integrity. Other new features of SESAR v3 include the capability to transfer ownership of samples to other SESAR users, the ability to upload and store images and other files in a sample metadata profile, and the tracking of changes to sample metadata profiles. In the next version of SESAR (v3.5), we will further improve the discovery, sharing, registration of samples. For example, we are developing a more comprehensive suite of web services that will allow discovery and registration access to SESAR from external systems. Both batch and individual registrations will be possible

  3. Light Manipulation in Metallic Nanowire Networks with Functional Connectivity

    KAUST Repository

    Galinski, Henning

    2016-12-27

    Guided by ideas from complex systems, a new class of network metamaterials is introduced for light manipulation, which are based on the functional connectivity among heterogeneous subwavelength components arranged in complex networks. The model system is a nanonetwork formed by dealloying a metallic thin film. The connectivity of the network is deterministically controlled, enabling the formation of tunable absorbing states.

  4. Bilateral control of master-slave manipulators for ideal kinesthetic coupling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yokokohji, Yasuyoshi; Yoshikawa, Tsuneo

    1991-01-01

    The way to control master-slave manipulators affects considerably to the maneuverability of the master-slave systems. The ideal state of master-slave systems can be regarded that the operator can operate the system as if he were directly manipulating the object which is actually existing at the remote site. In other saying, the system must be coupled with the operator to give the ideal kinesthetic sense so that he can perceive the object. So far, several researches discussed about the ideal states of master-slave systems in their own descriptions. However, there is few exact discussion about how close the ideal state can be achieved actually or what kind of control scheme should be designed in order to achieve it. In this paper, we propose a control scheme which can achieve the ideal kinesthetic coupling with the operator and realize three ideal responses which were previously defined by the authors. Secondly, we show the stability of the system controlled by the proposed scheme by using the concept of passivity. We then discuss about the system stability when the sensor signals are pass through the filters. Lastly, the validity of the proposed scheme is confirmed by simulations. (author)

  5. Bilateral control of master-slave manipulators for ideal kinesthetic coupling

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yokokohji, Yasuyoshi; Yoshikawa, Tsuneo (Kyoto Univ. (Japan). Faculty of Engineering)

    1991-01-01

    The way to control master-slave manipulators affects considerably to the maneuverability of the master-slave systems. The ideal state of master-slave systems can be regarded that the operator can operate the system as if he were directly manipulating the object which is actually existing at the remote site. In other saying, the system must be coupled with the operator to give the ideal kinesthetic sense so that he can perceive the object. So far, several researches discussed about the ideal states of master-slave systems in their own descriptions. However, there is few exact discussion about how close the ideal state can be achieved actually or what kind of control scheme should be designed in order to achieve it. In this paper, we propose a control scheme which can achieve the ideal kinesthetic coupling with the operator and realize three ideal responses which were previously defined by the authors. Secondly, we show the stability of the system controlled by the proposed scheme by using the concept of passivity. We then discuss about the system stability when the sensor signals are pass through the filters. Lastly, the validity of the proposed scheme is confirmed by simulations. (author).

  6. Real-time multiple image manipulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arenson, J.S.; Shalev, S.; Legris, J.; Goertzen, Y.

    1984-01-01

    There are many situations in which it is desired to manipulate two or more images under real-time operator control. The authors have investigated a number of such cases in order to determine their value and applicability in clinical medicine and laboratory research. Several examples are presented in detail. The DICOM-8 video image computer system was used due to its capability of storing two 512 x 512 x 8 bit images and operating on them, and/or an incoming video frame, with any of a number of real time operations including addition, subtraction, inversion, averaging, logical AND, NAND, OR, NOR, NOT, XOR and XNOR, as well as combinations of these. Some applications involve manipulations of or among the stored images. In others, a stored image is used as a mask or template for positioning or adjusting a second image to be grabbed via a video camera. The accuracy of radiotherapy treatment is verified by comparing port films with the original radiographic planning film, which is previously digitized and stored. Moving the port film on the light box while viewing the real-time subtraction image allows for adjustments of zoom, translation and rotation, together with contrast and edge enhancement

  7. Manipulators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Andre, Y.; Routelous, F.; Spina, G.; Perpina, J.; Suquet, J.; Rossi, M.; Zanca, M.; Billiet, A.; Madec, L.; Lemoine, T.; Gaboriaud, G.; Aubert, B.; Rosenwald, J.C.; Neuenschwander, S.; Brisse, H.; Rehel, J.L.; Rebibo, G.; Bensimon, J.L.; Kulski, A.; Serhal, M.; Nguyen, K.V.; Lescure, R.; Cymbalista, M.

    2005-01-01

    Three articles have for purpose the radiation doses optimization in medical imaging. The first one concerns the radiation protection of manipulators working at a PET scan post, the second one concerns more particularly the optimization of doses delivered in pediatric computerized tomography, the third one is devoted to a comparison between radiation dose and image quality through scanners of adult temporal bone. (N.C.)

  8. Rock Gripper for Sampling, Mobility, Anchoring, and Manipulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parness, Aaron

    2013-01-01

    A new gripper mechanism can be used as an end effector for a long arm that reaches out from a nearby spacecraft for a touch-and-go type of mission. The gripper would stabilize the arm and allow samples to be collected and in situ science to be done from a fixed platform. In the long term, this style of gripper could even be used as handholds for astronauts trying to move about on/near small asteroids. The prototype developed has demonstrated a 120 N gripping force, and improvements continue to be made.

  9. Consensus of heterogeneous multi-agent systems based on sampled data with a small sampling delay

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Na; Wu Zhi-Hai; Peng Li

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, consensus problems of heterogeneous multi-agent systems based on sampled data with a small sampling delay are considered. First, a consensus protocol based on sampled data with a small sampling delay for heterogeneous multi-agent systems is proposed. Then, the algebra graph theory, the matrix method, the stability theory of linear systems, and some other techniques are employed to derive the necessary and sufficient conditions guaranteeing heterogeneous multi-agent systems to asymptotically achieve the stationary consensus. Finally, simulations are performed to demonstrate the correctness of the theoretical results. (interdisciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology)

  10. Why do spinal manipulation techniques take the form they do? Towards a general model of spinal manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, David W

    2010-06-01

    For centuries, techniques used to manipulate joints in the spine have been passed down from one generation of manipulators to the next. Today, spinal manipulation is in the curious position that positive clinical effects have now been demonstrated, yet the theoretical base underpinning every aspect of its use is still underdeveloped. An important question is posed in this masterclass: why do spinal manipulation techniques take the form they do? From the available literature, two factors appear to provide an answer: 1. Action of a force upon vertebrae. Any 'direct' spinal manipulation technique requires that the patient be orientated in such a way that force is applied perpendicular to the overlying skin surface so as to act upon the vertebrae beneath. If the vertebral motion produced by 'directly' applied force is insufficient to produce the desired effect (e.g. cavitation), then force must be applied 'indirectly', often through remote body segments such as the head, thorax, abdomen, pelvis, and extremities. 2. Spinal segment morphology. A new hypothesis is presented. Spinal manipulation techniques exploit the morphology of vertebrae by inducing rotation at a spinal segment, about an axis that is always parallel to the articular surfaces of the constituent zygapophysial joints. In doing so, the articular surfaces of one zygapophysial joint appose to the point of contact, resulting in migration of the axis of rotation towards these contacting surfaces, and in turn this facilitates gapping of the other (target) zygapophysial joint. Other variations in the form of spinal manipulation techniques are likely to depend upon the personal style and individual choices of the practitioner.

  11. Design of a smart haptic system for repulsive force control under irregular manipulation environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Sang-Rock; Choi, Seung-Hyun; Choi, Seung-Bok; Cho, Myeong-Woo

    2014-01-01

    This paper describes how to make an operator feel the desired repulsive force in a haptic system. When an operator manipulates a haptic system, the repulsive force of the operator varies significantly, depending on many factors such as position, velocity and force. In order to reflect the desired repulsive force to the operator, it is commonly known that a haptic system must compensate for irregularly changing forces. The irregularity of the forces, however, has discouraged many researchers from establishing a clear principle on how to make the operator feel the desired repulsive force. To resolve this problem, we introduce a smart haptic framework that can reflect the desired repulsive force to the operator, regardless of the operator’s movement. A dummy governing equation technique is introduced and used to calculate the proper actuating force in real time. The actuating force is generated by a PID controller. To verify the proposed method, a mathematical proof is offered to show that the repulsive force converges to the desired repulsive force. Additionally, to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method, simulational and experimental tests are implemented. (paper)

  12. Better with Byzantine: Manipulation-Optimal Mechanisms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Othman, Abraham; Sandholm, Tuomas

    A mechanism is manipulable if it is in some agents’ best interest to misrepresent their private information. The revelation principle establishes that, roughly, anything that can be accomplished by a manipulable mechanism can also be accomplished with a truthful mechanism. Yet agents often fail to play their optimal manipulations due to computational limitations or various flavors of incompetence and cognitive biases. Thus, manipulable mechanisms in particular should anticipate byzantine play. We study manipulation-optimal mechanisms: mechanisms that are undominated by truthful mechanisms when agents act fully rationally, and do better than any truthful mechanism if any agent fails to act rationally in any way. This enables the mechanism designer to do better than the revelation principle would suggest, and obviates the need to predict byzantine agents’ irrational behavior. We prove a host of possibility and impossibility results for the concept which have the impression of broadly limiting possibility. These results are largely in line with the revelation principle, although the considerations are more subtle and the impossibility not universal.

  13. The TFTR maintenance manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kungl, D.; Loesser, D.; Heitzenroeder, P.; Cerdan, G.

    1989-01-01

    TFTR plans to begin D-T experiments in mid 1990. The D-T experimental program will produce approximately one hundred shots, with a neutron generation rate of 10 19 neutrons per shot. This will result in high levels of activation in TFTR, especially in the vacuum vessel. The primary purpose of the Maintenance Manipulator is to provide a means of remotely performing certain defined maintenance and inspection tasks inside the vacuum torus so as to minimize personnel exposure to radiation. The manipulator consists of a six-link folding boom connected to a fixed boom on a movable carriage. The entire manipulator is housed in a vacuum antechamber connected to the vacuum torus, through a port formerly used for a vacuum pumping duct. The configuration extends 180 0 in either direction to provide complete coverage of the torus. The four 3500 l/s turbopumps which were formerly used in the pumping duct will be mounted on the antechamber. The manipulator will utilize two end effectors. The first, called a General Inspection Arm (GIA) provides a movable platform to an inspection camera and an in-vacuum leak detector. The second is a bilateral, force-reflecting pair of slave arms which utilize specially developed tools to perform several maintenance functions. All components except the slave arms are capable of operating in TFTR's vacuum environment and during 150 0 C bakeout of the torus. (orig.)

  14. MANIPULATING CONSUMERS THROUGH ADVERTISING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicoleta -Andreea Neacşu

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Marketing communication has evolved steadily in the direction of increasing complexity and increasing volume of funds needed to run their own actions. More than ever, consumers are exposed to an overwhelming variety of sources and communication tehniques, the information received being numerous, diverse and polyvalent. The desire to make more efficient the marketing communication activity urges the broadcasters to encode messages, to use effective means of propagation in order to obtain a high degree of control on receptors and to influence the consumption attitudes. Between the means used for this purpose, manipulation tehniques are well known. This paper highlights the main conclusions drawn as a result of a quantitative marketing research on the adult population from Braşov in order to identify the attitudes and opinions of consumers from Braşov regarding the manipulation techniques used by commercial practices and advertising.The results of the research have shown that 82% of the respondents buy products in promotional offers, and 18% choose not to buy these products and 61% of the respondents consider that they have not been manipulated not even once, while only 39% believe that they have been manipulated at least once through advertising or commercial practices. Advertisements on TV have a strong influence on consumers, 81% of the respondents considering that at least once they have bought a product because of a TV commercial.

  15. Electrokinetic Phenomena in Chemically Manipulated Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nery Azevedo, Rodrigo

    Suspended particles are integral part of many systems and engineering technologies. They can be found in the form of colloidal suspensions, emulsions, polymer precursor solutions, and in biological materials such as blood. The miniaturization of new technologies and the advent of microfludics has made the manipulation of suspended particles in the microscale particularly important for a variety of fields. The ability to easily impart complex chemical environments to suspensions in microfluidic devices enables us to characterize these systems, modify their properties and drive their motion. Nonetheless, precise manipulation of the chemistry surrounding suspended particles has been particularly difficult up until recently. This thesis dissertation shows how microfluidic devices integrated with hydrogel membranes can be used to control the chemical environment of suspended particles for a variety of studies and practical applications. First, I demonstrate how particles move diffusiophoretically under ionic surfactant gradients. Diffusiophoresis, the motion of particles under concentration gradients, has been known for several decades but it has rarely been studied experimentally outside the context of simple electrolytes. Here, we show that diffusiophoresis in ionic surfactants below the CMC can be understood in terms of the classic theory for electrolytes. Above the CMC, however, the drive for diffsuiophoresis is significantly diminished due to a large drop in the change in chemical potential with added solute. Next, I show that gradients of dipolar molecules such a zwitterions can drive diffusiophoresis. I derive the diffusiophoretic migration of particles under gradients of dipolar molecules. This theory is backed up by experiments which reveal that, in such systems, particle velocities are directly proportional to the imposed gradient but do not scale with the inverse of the local concentration, as occurs under electrolyte gradients. Furthermore, I show that the

  16. ACS sampling system: design, implementation, and performance evaluation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Di Marcantonio, Paolo; Cirami, Roberto; Chiozzi, Gianluca

    2004-09-01

    By means of ACS (ALMA Common Software) framework we designed and implemented a sampling system which allows sampling of every Characteristic Component Property with a specific, user-defined, sustained frequency limited only by the hardware. Collected data are sent to various clients (one or more Java plotting widgets, a dedicated GUI or a COTS application) using the ACS/CORBA Notification Channel. The data transport is optimized: samples are cached locally and sent in packets with a lower and user-defined frequency to keep network load under control. Simultaneous sampling of the Properties of different Components is also possible. Together with the design and implementation issues we present the performance of the sampling system evaluated on two different platforms: on a VME based system using VxWorks RTOS (currently adopted by ALMA) and on a PC/104+ embedded platform using Red Hat 9 Linux operating system. The PC/104+ solution offers, as an alternative, a low cost PC compatible hardware environment with free and open operating system.

  17. xdamp Version 3: An IDL reg-sign-based data and image manipulation program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ballard, W.P.

    1998-05-01

    The original DAMP (DAta Manipulation Program) was written by Mark Hedemann of Sandia National Laboratories and used the CA-DISSPLA trademark (available from Computer Associates International, Inc., Garden City, NY) graphics package as its engine. It was used to plot, modify, and otherwise manipulate the one-dimensional data waveforms (data vs. time) from a wide variety of accelerators. With the waning of CA-DISSPLA and the increasing popularity of Unix reg-sign-based workstations, a replacement was needed. This package uses the IDL reg-sign software, available from Research Systems Incorporated in Boulder, Colorado, as the engine, and creates a set of widgets to manipulate the data in a manner similar to the original DAMP and earlier versions of xdamp. IDL is currently supported on a wide variety of Unix platforms such as IBM reg-sign workstations, Hewlett Packard workstations, SUN reg-sign workstations, Microsoft reg-sign Windows trademark computers, Macintosh reg-sign computers and Digital Equipment Corporation VMS reg-sign and Alpha reg-sign systems. Thus, xdamp is portable across many platforms. The author has verified operation, albeit with some minor IDL bugs, on personal computers using Windows 95 and Windows NT; IBM Unix platforms; and DEC alpha and VMS systems; HP 9000/700 series workstations; and Macintosh computers, both regular and PowerPC trademark versions. Version 3 adds the capability to manipulate images to the original xdamp capabilities

  18. Effect of the manipulation of exercise order in the tri-set training system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alex Silva Ribeiro

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of the manipulation of two different exercise orders using the tn-set system on the motor performance in exercises for the chest. Ten male (25.6 ± 5.7 years, 77.0 ± 5.8 kg, 172.9 ± 5.0 cm, 25.7 ± 1.4 kg/m2 with experience in resistance training underwent two experimental sessions, in which the subjects performed two sequences of exercises for the chest: SEQA (bench press, incline bench press, and peck deck and SEQB (peck deck, incline bench press, and bench press. The load used allowed 8 to 12 repetitions (80% of 1RM in each exercise. A higher number of repetitions (29 ± 2 reps vs. 26 ± 3 reps, P < 0.001 and a greater total overload (resistance used x repetitions performed = 1,942 ± 172 kg vs. 1,728 ± 234 kg, P < 0.001 were observed in SEQB. The results suggest that in the tn-set system the higher number of repetitions and a greater training volume occur when the single-joint exercise is included before multiple-joint exercises.

  19. Dielectrophoretic manipulation of human chromosomes in microfluidic channels: extracting chromosome dielectric properties

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Clausen, Casper Hyttel; Dimaki, Maria; Buckley, Sonia

    2011-01-01

    An investigation of the dielectric properties of polyamine buffer prepared human chromosomes is presented in this paper. Chromosomes prepared in this buffer are only a few micrometers in size and shaped roughly like spherical discs. Dielectrophoresis was therefore chosen as the method...... of manipulation combined with a custom designed microfluidic system containing the required electrodes for dielectrophoresis experiments. Our results show that although this system is presently not able to distinguish between the different chromosomes, it can provide average data for the dielectric properties...... of human chromosomes in polyamine buffer. These can then be used to optimize system designs for further characterization and even sorting. The experimental data from the dielectrophoretic manipulation were combined with theoretical calculations to extract a range of values for the permittivity...

  20. The Integration of the Image Sensor with a 3-DOF Pneumatic Parallel Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hao-Ting Lin

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The study aims to integrate the image sensor for a three-axial pneumatic parallel manipulator which can pick and place objects automatically by the feature information of the image processed through the SURF algorithm. The SURF algorithm is adopted for defining and matching the features of a target object and an object database. In order to accurately mark the center of target and strengthen the feature matching results, the random sample and consensus method (RANSAC is utilized. The ASUS Xtion Pro Live depth camera which can directly estimate the 3-D location of the target point is used in this study. A set of coordinate estimation calibrations is developed for enhancing the accuracy of target location estimation. This study also presents hand gesture recognition exploiting skin detection and noise elimination to determine the active finger count for input signals of the parallel manipulator. The end-effector of the parallel manipulator can be manipulated to the desired poses according to the measured finger count. Finally, the proposed methods are successfully to achieve the feature recognition and pick and place of the target object.

  1. Workflow automation based on OSI job transfer and manipulation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Sinderen, Marten J.; Joosten, Stef M.M.; Guareis de farias, Cléver

    1999-01-01

    This paper shows that Workflow Management Systems (WFMS) and a data communication standard called Job Transfer and Manipulation (JTM) are built on the same concepts, even though different words are used. The paper analyses the correspondence of workflow concepts and JTM concepts. Besides, the

  2. On stiffening cables of a long reach manipulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, S.L.; Santiago, P.

    1996-01-01

    A long reach manipulator will be used for waste remediation in large underground storage tanks. The manipulator's slenderness makes it flexible and difficult to control. A low-cost and effective method to enhance the manipulator's stiffness is proposed in this research by using suspension cables. These cables can also be used to accurately measure the position of the manipulator's wrist

  3. Approximate Dynamic Programming in Tracking Control of a Robotic Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcin Szuster

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available This article focuses on the implementation of an approximate dynamic programming algorithm in the discrete tracking control system of the three-degrees of freedom Scorbot-ER 4pc robotic manipulator. The controlled system is included in an articulated robots group which uses rotary joints to access their work space. The main part of the control system is a dual heuristic dynamic programming algorithm that consists of two structures designed in the form of neural networks: an actor and a critic. The actor generates the suboptimal control law while the critic approximates the difference of the value function from Bellman's equation with respect to the state. The residual elements of the control system are the PD controller, the supervisory term and an additional control signal. The structure of the supervisory term derives from the stability analysis performed using the Lyapunov stability theorem. The control system works online, the neural networks' weights-adaptation procedure is performed in every iteration step, and the neural networks' preliminary learning process is not required. The performance of the control system was verified by a series of computer simulations and experiments performed using the Scorbot-ER 4pc robotic manipulator.

  4. Experimental evaluation of the concept of supevisory manipulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brooks, T. L.; Sheridan, T. B.

    1982-01-01

    A computer-controlled teleoperator system which is based on task-referenced sensor-aided control has been developed to study supervisory manipulation. This system, called SUPERMAN, is capable of performing complicated tasks in real-time by utilizing the operator for high-level functions related to the unpredictable portions of a task, while the subordinate machine performs the more well-defined subtasks under human supervison. To determine whether supervisory control schemes such as these offer any advantage over manual control under real-time conditions, a number of experiments involving both simple and complicated tasks were performed. Six representative tasks were chosen for the study: (1) obtaining a tool from a rack, (2) returning the tool to the rack, (3) removing a nut, (4) placing samples in a storage bin, (5) opening and closing a valve, and (6) digging with a shovel. The experiments were performed under simulated conditions using four forms of manual control (i.e., switch rate, joystick rate, master-slave position control, and master-slave with force feedback), as well as supervisory control. Through these experiments the effectiveness and quality of control were evaluated on the basis of the time required to complete each portion of the task and the type and number of errors which occurred.

  5. Comparative analysis of hydraulic crane-manipulating installations transport and technological machines and industrial robots hydraulic manipulators

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lagerev I.A.

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The article presents results of comparative analysis of hydraulic crane-manipulator installations of mobile transport and technological machines and hydraulic manipulators of industrial robots. The comparative analysis is based on consid-eration of a wide range of types and sizes indicated technical devices of both domestic and foreign production: 1580 structures of cranes and more than 450 structures of industrial robots. It was performed in the following areas: func-tional purpose and basic technical characteristics; a design; the loading conditions of the model and failures in operation process; approaches to the design, calculation methods and mathematical modeling. The conclusions about the degree of similarity and the degree of difference hydraulic crane-manipulator installations of transport and technological ma-chines and hydraulic industrial robot manipulators from the standpoint of their design and modeling occurring in them during operation of dynamic and structural processes.

  6. Self-Structured Organizing Single-Input CMAC Control for Robot Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ThanhQuyen Ngo

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper represents a self-structured organizing single-input control system based on differentiable cerebellar model articulation controller (CMAC for an n-link robot manipulator to achieve the high-precision position tracking. In the proposed scheme, the single-input CMAC controller is solely used to control the plant, so the input space dimension of CMAC can be simplified and no conventional controller is needed. The structure of single-input CMAC will also be self-organized; that is, the layers of single-input CMAC will grow or prune systematically and their receptive functions can be automatically adjusted. The online tuning laws of single-input CMAC parameters are derived in gradient-descent learning method and the discrete-type Lyapunov function is applied to determine the learning rates of proposed control system so that the stability of the system can be guaranteed. The simulation results of robot manipulator are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control methodology.

  7. Advanced photonic methodologies for the 'in vitro' manipulation of cellular systems

    OpenAIRE

    McDougall, Craig

    2011-01-01

    This thesis investigates the application of a variety of optical techniques for the manipulation of single cells and their local micro-environment. The methodologies developed provide enhanced control over a single cell under study affording exquisite spatial and temporal control over biological processes of interest. The work presented within the thesis can be split into three distinct categories. The first of these provides an investigation in light activated “caged” molecula...

  8. Atomic and molecular manipulation

    CERN Document Server

    Mayne, Andrew J

    2011-01-01

    Work with individual atoms and molecules aims to demonstrate that miniaturized electronic, optical, magnetic, and mechanical devices can operate ultimately even at the level of a single atom or molecule. As such, atomic and molecular manipulation has played an emblematic role in the development of the field of nanoscience. New methods based on the use of the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) have been developed to characterize and manipulate all the degrees of freedom of individual atoms and molecules with an unprecedented precision. In the meantime, new concepts have emerged to design molecules and substrates having specific optical, mechanical and electronic functions, thus opening the way to the fabrication of real nano-machines. Manipulation of individual atoms and molecules has also opened up completely new areas of research and knowledge, raising fundamental questions of "Optics at the atomic scale", "Mechanics at the atomic scale", Electronics at the atomic scale", "Quantum physics at the atomic sca...

  9. Research on Visual Servo Grasping of Household Objects for Nonholonomic Mobile Manipulator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huangsheng Xie

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper focuses on the problem of visual servo grasping of household objects for nonholonomic mobile manipulator. Firstly, a new kind of artificial object mark based on QR (Quick Response Code is designed, which can be affixed to the surface of household objects. Secondly, after summarizing the vision-based autonomous mobile manipulation system as a generalized manipulator, the generalized manipulator’s kinematic model is established, the analytical inverse kinematic solutions of the generalized manipulator are acquired, and a novel active vision based camera calibration method is proposed to determine the hand-eye relationship. Finally, a visual servo switching control law is designed to control the service robot to finish object grasping operation. Experimental results show that QR Code-based artificial object mark can overcome the difficulties brought by household objects’ variety and operation complexity, and the proposed visual servo scheme makes it possible for service robot to grasp and deliver objects efficiently.

  10. Massively Parallel Single-Molecule Manipulation Using Centrifugal Force

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Wesley; Halvorsen, Ken

    2011-03-01

    Precise manipulation of single molecules has led to remarkable insights in physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. However, two issues that have impeded the widespread adoption of these techniques are equipment cost and the laborious nature of making measurements one molecule at a time. To meet these challenges, we have developed an approach that enables massively parallel single- molecule force measurements using centrifugal force. This approach is realized in the centrifuge force microscope, an instrument in which objects in an orbiting sample are subjected to a calibration-free, macroscopically uniform force- field while their micro-to-nanoscopic motions are observed. We demonstrate high- throughput single-molecule force spectroscopy with this technique by performing thousands of rupture experiments in parallel, characterizing force-dependent unbinding kinetics of an antibody-antigen pair in minutes rather than days. Currently, we are taking steps to integrate high-resolution detection, fluorescence, temperature control and a greater dynamic range in force. With significant benefits in efficiency, cost, simplicity, and versatility, single-molecule centrifugation has the potential to expand single-molecule experimentation to a wider range of researchers and experimental systems.

  11. Micro and Nano Techniques for the Handling of Biological Samples

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Micro and Nano Techniques for the Handling of Biological Samples reviews the different techniques available to manipulate and integrate biological materials in a controlled manner, either by sliding them along a surface (2-D manipulation), or by gripping and moving them to a new position (3-D...

  12. High-resolution small field-of-view magnetic resonance image acquisition system using a small planar coil and a pneumatic manipulator in an open MRI scanner.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miki, Kohei; Masamune, Ken

    2015-10-01

    Low-field open magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is frequently used for performing image-guided neurosurgical procedures. Intraoperative magnetic resonance (MR) images are useful for tracking brain shifts and verifying residual tumors. However, it is difficult to precisely determine the boundary of the brain tumors and normal brain tissues because the MR image resolution is low, especially when using a low-field open MRI scanner. To overcome this problem, a high-resolution MR image acquisition system was developed and tested. An MR-compatible manipulator with pneumatic actuators containing an MR signal receiver with a small radiofrequency (RF) coil was developed. The manipulator had five degrees of freedom for position and orientation control of the RF coil. An 8-mm planar RF coil with resistance and inductance of 2.04 [Formula: see text] and 1.00 [Formula: see text] was attached to the MR signal receiver at the distal end of the probe. MR images of phantom test devices were acquired using the MR signal receiver and normal head coil for signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) testing. The SNR of MR images acquired using the MR signal receiver was 8.0 times greater than that of MR images acquired using the normal head coil. The RF coil was moved by the manipulator, and local MR images of a phantom with a 2-mm grid were acquired using the MR signal receiver. A wide field-of-view MR image was generated from a montage of local MR images. A small field-of-view RF system with a pneumatic manipulator was integrated in a low-field MRI scanner to allow acquisition of both wide field-of-view and high-resolution MR images. This system is promising for image-guided neurosurgery as it may allow brain tumors to be observed more clearly and removed precisely.

  13. Data manipulation with R

    CERN Document Server

    Abedin, Jaynal

    2014-01-01

    This book is a step-by step, example-oriented tutorial that will show both intermediate and advanced users how data manipulation is facilitated smoothly using R.This book is aimed at intermediate to advanced level users of R who want to perform data manipulation with R, and those who want to clean and aggregate data effectively. Readers are expected to have at least an introductory knowledge of R and some basic administration work in R, such as installing packages and calling them when required.

  14. Consistent Performance Differences between Children and Adults Despite Manipulation of Cue-Target Variables

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jessie-Raye Bauer

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Two behavioral experiments assessed the plasticity and short-term improvement of task switching in 215 children and adults. Specifically, we studied manipulations of cued attention to different features of a target stimulus as a way to assess the development of cognitive flexibility. Each experiment had multiple levels of difficulty via manipulation of number of cued features (2–4 and number of response options (2 or 4. Working memory demand was manipulated across the two experiments. Impact of memory demand and task level manipulations on task accuracy and response times were measured. There were three overall goals: First, these task manipulations (number of cued features, response choices, and working memory load were tested to assess the stability of group differences in performance between children ages 6–16 years and adults 18–27 years, with the goal of reducing age group differences. Second, age-related transitions to adult-level performance were examined within subgroups of the child sample. Third, short-term improvement from the beginning to the end of the study session was measured to probe whether children can improve with task experience. Attempts to use task manipulations to reduce age differences in cued task switching performance were unsuccessful: children performed consistently worse and were more susceptible to task manipulations than adults. However, across both studies, adult-like performance was observed around mid-adolescence, by ages 13-16 years. Certain task manipulations, especially increasing number of response options when working memory demand was low, produced differences from adults even in the oldest children. Interestingly, there was similar performance improvement with practice for both child and adult groups. The higher memory demand version of the task (Experiment 2 prompted greater short-term improvement in accuracy and response times than the lower memory demand version (Experiment 1. These results

  15. Specification and resolution of complex manipulation tasks. Application to remote robots tele-programming; Specification et resolution de taches de manipulation complexes. Application a la teleprogrammation de robots distants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Piccin, O

    1995-11-15

    The work presented in this thesis comes within the scope of remote manipulation with restricted communication properties between the operator and the remote site. This context renders traditional tele-operation infeasible. To enhance the autonomy of the remote manipulator, it is necessary to reason on a model of the robot and its workspace. However, discrepancies between the real world and its representation require calibration capabilities to identify both position and size of objects interacting with the robot. Moreover, the non-repetitiveness and complexity of the tasks demand that the specification system remains easy to re-program and capable of treating a wide range of problems. The proposed constraint-based approach permits the specification of complex manipulation tasks in which tasks' objectives are expressed in terms of mobilities and contact relationships to achieve or maintain between parts. The resulting constraint relationships are then treated by a numerical solver based on a Newton-Raphson scheme. An enhanced robustness has been achieved through a dynamic management of equations' conditioning. This enables the system to choose automatically for the most appropriate resolution scenario. The first main class of applications is complex motion generation for any kind of robotic mechanisms possibly including redundancy. Constraints setting can also be exploited to realize local obstacle avoidance. The proposed approach makes it possible to deal with calibration tasks within the same framework. This constitutes an essential feature in the context of remote manipulation where models are un-precisely known. Lastly, a weld line inspection experiment performed on a real manipulator allows us to put forward a strategy for robotic task performance at a remote location. (author)

  16. Specification and resolution of complex manipulation tasks. Application to remote robots tele-programming; Specification et resolution de taches de manipulation complexes. Application a la teleprogrammation de robots distants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Piccin, O

    1995-11-15

    The work presented in this thesis comes within the scope of remote manipulation with restricted communication properties between the operator and the remote site. This context renders traditional tele-operation infeasible. To enhance the autonomy of the remote manipulator, it is necessary to reason on a model of the robot and its workspace. However, discrepancies between the real world and its representation require calibration capabilities to identify both position and size of objects interacting with the robot. Moreover, the non-repetitiveness and complexity of the tasks demand that the specification system remains easy to re-program and capable of treating a wide range of problems. The proposed constraint-based approach permits the specification of complex manipulation tasks in which tasks' objectives are expressed in terms of mobilities and contact relationships to achieve or maintain between parts. The resulting constraint relationships are then treated by a numerical solver based on a Newton-Raphson scheme. An enhanced robustness has been achieved through a dynamic management of equations' conditioning. This enables the system to choose automatically for the most appropriate resolution scenario. The first main class of applications is complex motion generation for any kind of robotic mechanisms possibly including redundancy. Constraints setting can also be exploited to realize local obstacle avoidance. The proposed approach makes it possible to deal with calibration tasks within the same framework. This constitutes an essential feature in the context of remote manipulation where models are un-precisely known. Lastly, a weld line inspection experiment performed on a real manipulator allows us to put forward a strategy for robotic task performance at a remote location. (author)

  17. Stock Market Manipulation on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dionigi Gerace

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available This study is the first to empirically examine stock market manipulation on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The dataset contains 40 cases of market manipulation from 1996 to 2009 that were successfully prosecuted by the Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission. Manipulation is found to negatively impact market efficiency measures such as the bid-ask spread and volatility. Markets appear incapable of efficiently responding to the presence of manipulators and are characterised by information asymmetry. Manipulators were successfully able to raise prices and exit the market. This finding contradicts views that trade-based manipulation is entirely unprofitable and self-deterring. The victimisation of information-seeking investors and the market as a whole provides a strong rationale for all jurisdictions, including Australia, to have effective laws that prohibit manipulation and for robust enforcement of those laws to further deter market manipulation.

  18. Master--slave manipulators and remote maintenance at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jenness, R.G.; Wicker, C.D.

    1975-01-01

    The volume of master-slave manipulator maintenance at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has necessitated the establishment of a repair facility and the organization of a specially trained group of craftsmen. Emphasis on cell containment requires the use of manipulator boots and the development of precise procedures for accomplishing the maintenance of 283 installed units. To provide the most economical type of preventive maintenance, a very satisfactory computer-programmed maintenance system has been established at the Laboratory. (auth)

  19. Remote manipulator experience in target train maintenance at Fermilab

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Butala, S.W.

    1984-01-01

    When Fermilab was designed in the late 1960's and early 1970's, it was anticipated that Neutrino target train servicing could be costly in terms of personnel radiation exposure. This was based in part on the expectation that target intensities of at least 1E13 protons/pulse would be required to produce several neutrino interactions in a large bubble chamber detector. This was indeed later proven to be the case and historically the Neutrino beamline has been targeted with about one half of the protons available from the Main Ring. It was believed that much of the occupational radiation dose from the Neutrino Area could be spared by utilization of a remote manipulator system, which was eventually installed. It is the purpose of this report to examine the use of the Fermilab remote manipulator system and evaluate its cost effectiveness and success as an ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) tool. 16 references, 11 figures

  20. Particle Manipulation Methods in Droplet Microfluidics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tenje, Maria; Fornell, Anna; Ohlin, Mathias; Nilsson, Johan

    2018-02-06

    This Feature describes the different particle manipulation techniques available in the droplet microfluidics toolbox to handle particles encapsulated inside droplets and to manipulate whole droplets. We address the advantages and disadvantages of the different techniques to guide new users.