The ease and success of a surgical procedure is significantly dictated by the pre-operative planning, type and placement of an incision and surgical approach along with positioning of the patient. The ultimate goal of incision and approach is adequate exposure of ‘area of interest’ along with optimal healing, cosmesis and functional outcome. Some of the general principles which should be follow...

Preliminary notes Ultrasonic linear motors (ULMs) are widely used in many industrial applications and a full characterization of their behaviour is often needed. This paper presents a detailed analytical-experimental study of ULMs. First, the general structure and operation principle of ULMs are introduced. The actuator mechanics is then described using a simple piezoelectric model. Since, in p...

This article considers the output transition problem, to change the output position, from an initial value to a final value, for dual-stage positioning systems. The main contribution of the article is to show that the use of preand post-actuation input (applied outside the transition interval without changing the output) can reduce the transition time beyond the standard bangbang-type inputs fr...

component of the reflection has been considered (2, This paper propose a hierarchical design method of camera and light-source positioning for model based vision. In this method, first, the geodesic dome is constructed for given objects t o place their initial candidate positions of camera and light-source. Then, they are selected out step by step using criterions of viewing angle, specular ref...

This note illustrates a simple theoretical model in which rival brands compete in positioning strategies and prices. The model provides an interpretation of brand positioning in a familiar spatial model. The ability of firms to observe promotional choices of their rivals affords them higher price margins through differentiation. Finally a reaction function analysis suggests that when a rival po...

Tiny ultrasonic linear actuators (TULAs) are used in many industrial applications and a full characterization of their dynamic behavior is needed. This paper presents a detailed theoretical-experimental study of TULAs. The general structure and operation principle of TULAs are introduced. The actuator dynamics is then described using a simple piezoelectric model. In practice, TULAs are most oft...

This paper describes an effort towards creating a software/hardware platform for fairly testing driver algorithms designed to pilot 4-wheeled car like vehicles. Various approaches to a positioning system and control system are described in the paper, along with the optimal solutions to both: interfacing with a standard model car radio transmitter for the control system and a rotating laserbased...

Atomic force microscopes provide unprecedented access to surfaces at the nanometer level both for imaging and for local surface modifications. Precise positioning, accurate control of interaction forces and speed are critical issues when operating these instruments. This paper summarizes how modern model-based control strategies lead to higher permissible imaging speeds, improved control over t...

In this contribution, optimal ionosphere-free combinations for a modernized triple-frequency global positioning system ~GPS! are derived. It is shown that these ionosphere-free combinations are directly related to the model based on carrier phase observations only, in which the ionospheric delays are estimated. For this model and thus for the ionosphere-free combinations, integer ambiguity esti...

It is well known that non-line-of-sight (NLOS) and multipath propagation biases time of arrival (TOA) and Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) estimates thus reducing accuracy of positioning algorithms. In order to achieve timing error reduction, a high-resolution first arriving path detector from propagation channel estimates is derived based on the minimum variance (MV) estimates and normalized ...