Thumbnail-sized inertial measurement systems based on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology have been perceived as a breakthrough in the field of inertial navigation. However, even as micromechanical accelerometers have seen widespread commercialization, vibratory micromechanical gyroscopes have not enjoyed similar success. Previous approaches to high-performance micromechanical gy...

Bonding techniques are increasingly used in many industrial fields. Modeling the under-load damaging behavior of hard structural adhesives is still an open challenge. This work proposes a new interface analytical model with evolutive micro-cracking damage. The obtained within rigorous theoretical framework combining asymptotic theory and micromechanical homogenization. Main features are: (i) ad...

This paper presents an analysis of the major mechanical component (the thorax) of the micromechanical flying insect (MFI), a centimeter sized aerial vehicle currently in development at UC Berkeley. We present a description of the kinematics of the mechanism which converts piezoelectric actuation into complex 3D wing motion. A complete non-linear modeling of the system based on the Lagrangian en...

Machining tools are used in many areas of production. To a considerable extent, the performance characteristics of the tools determine the quality and cost of obtained products. The main materials used for producing machining tools are steel, cemented carbides, ceramics and superhard materials. A promising way to improve the performance characteristics of these materials is to design new nanoco...

The first force map has been generated for a 2 DOF wing designed for the MFI project. For the wing beating at a resonance frequency of 139 Hz, the average 3-D forces were found as a function of sinusoidal voltage amplitude and actuator phase difference. An image sequence of the wing trajectory allowed comparison to simulated forces using a quasi-steady state aerodynamic approximation. Finally, ...