A new kind of pneumatic climbing robot is presented to meet the requirements of glass-wall cleaning for high-rise buildings, which is totally actuated by pneumatic cylinders and attached to the glass wall with vacuum suckers. Using the pneumatic actuators the climbing robot can be made lightweight and dexterous. At the same time the movement driven by pneumatic actuators has the characteristic ...

In recent years, Japanese society has been aging, engendering a labor shortage of young workers. Robots are therefore expected to perform tasks such as rehabilitation, nursing elderly people, and day-to-day work support for elderly people. The pneumatic balloon actuator is a rubber artificial muscle developed for use in a robot hand in such environments. This actuator has a long stroke and a hi...

Here we present retrieval of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells by density-gradient medium based centrifugation for subsequent analysis of the leukocytes on an integrated microfluidic "Lab-on-a-Disc" cartridge. Isolation of white blood cells constitutes a critical sample preparation step for many bioassays. Centrifugo-pneumatic siphon valves are particularly suited for blood processing as they ...

This paper describes one method to attain a robust positioning control of pneumatic driving system comprising a pneumatic cylinder and PCM digital control valves. A pneumatic driving system has become one of interests in the industrial fields, however, the control characteristics are inevitably affected by the friction force and parameter changes of plant due to air compressibility. The control...

This paper presents a novel control design, developed to realise fast and accurate position control of a pneumatic actuator using inexpensive on/off solenoid valves. In contrast to conventional control methods, the proposed control method operates chatter free, based on air compression. The control principle was developed by investigating the dynamics of a pneumatic actuator with an identified ...

This paper presents an approach for dead zone compensation in pneumatic position servo systems. The dead zone is an inherent nonlinearity in pneumatic servovalves, where for a range of input control values, the valve gives no output flow. Although pneumatic actuators are very common in industry, they have limitations in servo pneumatic applications that are caused by typical non-linearities of ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the role of pneumatic reduction in the management of intussusception in children in the setting of a sub-Saharan African nation. DESIGN Prospective case series. SETTING Tertiary care teaching hospital in Kumasi, Ghana. SUBJECTS Forty four children, aged 4 months to 13 years, 28 boys and 16 girls, were admitted with a clinical diagnosis of intussusception and confirme...

Sample transportation is one of the major factors contributing to delays in returning high-quality clinical laboratory results to the patient bedside. Furthermore, sample quality can be compromised by exposure to extremes of temperature and physical forces during transportation. Uncontrolled temperature-induced errors are well understood and are often prevented by using environmentally controll...

JC3 © 2013 American College of Physicians Intermittent pneumatic compression reduced deep venous thrombosis after stroke CLOTS (Clots in Legs Or sTockings after Stroke) Trials Collaboration. Effectiveness of intermittent pneumatic compression in reduction of risk of deep vein thrombosis in patients who have had a stroke (CLOTS 3): a multicentre randomised controlled trial. Lancet. 2013 May 31. ...

This paper describes a mathematical model for a novel rotary pneumatic rotary actuator with potential applications in revolute direct robotic mechanisms. The analytical model describes the behaviour of the rotary pneumatic actuator and simulated results using this model are generated. Potential applications of this model are discussed in the context of soft model based controllers used in prost...