This paper summarizes the results of design of new mechanical variable valve actuation (hereafter VVA) systems, developed for high performance motorcycle engines, at University of Napoli Federico II, Department of Industrial Engineering–Section Mechanics and Energy (hereafter DiME). In addition to a first simple (and limited) system used just as a model for the previous analysis, the work has e...

The purpose of this research was to improve body powered, voluntary closing (VC) prosthetic prehension. A prototype prehensor with variable mechanical advantage was fabricated and tested. The device operates at low mechanical advantage during sizing of an object to reduce cable excursion requirements. It shifts to high mechanical advantage during gripping to allow high prehensile forces to be g...

This work investigates the control and stability of nonlinear mechanics described by a system of variable-order (VO) differential equations. The VO behavior results from damping with order varying continuously on the bounded domain. A model-predictive method is presented for the development of a timevarying nominal control signal generating a desirable nominal state trajectory in the finite tem...