ABSTRACT- For most fruit types, including apples, bruising is the most common type of postharvest mechanical injury. Bruise susceptibility was investigated in 3 commercial cultivars (‘JazzTM’, ‘Granny Smith’ and ‘Fuji’) and among a range of 4 different fruit sizes (commercial counts of 135, 120, 100, and 88) in each cultivar. Bruising was carried out by dropping a uniform round steel ball (110g...

BACKGROUND The human spine is often exposed to mechanical load in vocational activities especially in combination with lifting, carrying and positioning of heavy objects. This also applies in particular to nursing activities with manual patient handling. In the present study a detailed investigation on the load of the lumbar spine during manual patient handling was performed. METHODS For a to...

To ensure optimal skeletal development, mechanical loading is imperative. The consequences of the removal of, or complete absence of, mechanical loading are illustrated by the clinical condition of cerebral palsy (CP). Clinical and radiological evaluation of children with CP provides an insight into how the growing skeleton develops when mechanical loading is reduced due to non-physiological mu...

High quality mechanical manufacturing of small components and subassemblies having geometric features in the micrometer range requires controlled and coordinated processes. Considering full automation of the production process as essential, not only manufacturing processes have to be optimized but also handling and quality assurance operations take an integral part of the production process. We...

Purpose – This paper introduces a new manipulator structure to configure power-assist devices in order to protect operators from musculoskeletal disorders. The mechanical structure and the control system are presented, along with their main features. Design/methodology/approach – The new structure is designed under the criterion of minimizing the torques required for handling payloads of up to ...

Future nuclear installations would need a higher level of remotisation and automation, to improve their safety and productivity. Plants using Thorium-based fuels introduce additional problems in remote handling, due to the build-up of radioactivity in the U-232 decay chain. In such plants, operators can handle the material only behind thick shields, using reliable and advanced remote handling t...

* Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics † Department of Computer Engineering and Science ‡ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering ABSTRACT This paper describes advances in developing key software, sensing/control, and parts-handling technologies enabling robust operation of an agile manufacturing workcell. In particular, we discuss: a modular software architecture...

large sums of fruits are annually wasted due to mechanical damage and bruise inflicted upon them during harvesting, handling, storage and packaging. the research which has been done to analyze the mentioned processes mostly used practical operational techniques with the results being applicable in certain defined conditions. the aim of this research was to develop computer models for an optimiz...