For elderly and physically disabled people, support systems that assist their active daily life are as important as appropriate rehabilitation. We have designed a rotational meshing actuator for a life support system based on a mobile robot. The present paper explains the basic concept of the actuator and its design details. The actuator comprises a motor-controlled active mechanism mated with ...

Piezoelectric bimorph actuation has been successfully used in numerous types of microdevices, most notably micropumps. However, even for the simple case of circular geometry, analytical treatments are severely limited. This study utilized the finite-element method to optimize the deflection of a circular bimorph consisting of a single piezoelectric actuator, bonding material and elastic plate o...

The latency time, which is the residual vibration of afine actuator and track eccentricity, has been the aim for direct pull-in in optical disk system. Modified velocity profiles of the coarse actuator and control inputs of the fine actuator have been proposed for the minimum residual vibration. Generally, there exists eccentricity due to mismatch of the disk center and the axis of a spindle mo...

We consider initial and boundary value problems modelling the vibrations of a plate with piezoelectric actuator. The simplest model leads to the Bernoulli-Euler plate equation with right hand side given by a distribution concentrated in an interior curve multiplied by a real valued time function representing the voltage applied to the actuator. We prove that, generically with respect to the cur...

Flexible operation across a wide range of operating conditions is required to maximise the contribution tidal turbine arrays future energy mix. This study establishes basin efficiency small array horizontal axis turbines between 0.45 and 0.79, with dependency on point flow direction. largely due variation thrust as power varies by less than 15% for all points. Analysis thrust, wakes was conduct...

Knowledge of the turbulence in wakes wind turbines is important to improve operation and lifetime downstream exposed these wakes. As investigation a rotating turbine can be challenging, both experimentally numerically, static actuator discs substitute turbines. To investigate similarity how turbulent inflow alters result, an experimental tunnel study presented that compares hot-wire measurement...

An endeavor was conducted to explore the design and development of a two-axis linear reluctance actuator for use as a part of a nano-positioner with the application of serving as a small scale kinematic coupling assembly station. This nano-positioner is designed to be able to accurately and repeatable provide precise motion control of small objects with a resolution on the nanometer scale. This...

Series elastic actuators have a spring intentionally placed at the actuator output. Measuring the spring strain gives an accurate measurement for closed-loop actuator force control. The low spring stiffness allows for high control gain while maintaining actuator stability. This gives series elastic actuators many desirable properties including high bandwidth at moderate force amplitudes, low ou...

Wind-tunnel experimentswere conducted on a 47-deg sweep, scaled 1303unmanned air vehiclemodel to assess the performance of an innovative windward-surface plasma actuator design for flight control at low angles of attack. Control was implemented by altering the flow past an aft separation ramp on the windward side using a single dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator. The influence of ramp...

This paper reports on the development of a comprehensive nonlinear mathematical model of a novel inherently compliant fluidic actuator with Rotary Elastic Chambers (REC–actuator). The actuator is intended for robotic devices working in direct physical contact with humans and can be operated by both, liquid as well as gaseous working fluid. In the hydraulic realization the REC-actuator is contro...