Powder-actuated (also referred to as low velocity or powder-driven) fasteners are commonly used to attach cold-formed steel framing members, usually a track, to a concrete or structural steel support. Although commonly used, their behavior is less well understood than other fasteners such as screws, bolts and welds. The AISI Cold-Formed Steel Design Manual does not explicitly address powder act...

We present a mathematical model for the dynamics of an electrostatically actuated micro-cantilever. For the common case of cantilevers excited by a periodic voltage, we show that the underlying linearized dynamics are those of a periodic system described by a Mathieu equation. We present experimental results that confirm the validity of the model, and in particular, illustrate that parametric r...

In this paper we consider under-actuated, drift-free, invariant systems on matrix Lie groups and show how motion control results for nilpotent systems can be extended to invariant systems on non-nilpotent Lie groups by applying the method of nilpotentization. An algorithm for computing nilpotent approximations for invariant systems on Lie groups is presented. These approximations are used to co...

We consider the problem of trajectory planning and control for an XYnR̄ planar robot with the first two joints (rotational or prismatic) actuated and n rotational passive joints, moving both in the presence and the absence of gravity. Under the assumption that each passive link is attached at the center of percussion of the previous passive link, dynamics of the system can be expressed through t...

Tensegrity structures are spatial reticulated structures composed of cables and struts. Tensegrity systems are good candidates for adaptive and deployable structures and thus have applications in various engineering fields. A “hollow-rope” tensegrity system composed of tensegrity-ring modules has been demonstrated by the authors to be a viable system for a pedestrian bridge. This paper focuses ...