This paper presents the clinical motivation, design specifications, kinematics, statics, and actuation compensation for a newly constructed telerobotic system for Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) of the throat. A hybrid dual-arm telesurgical slave, with twenty joint-space Degrees of Freedom (DoF), is used in this telerobotic system to provide the necessary dexterity in deep surgical fields such...

The paper deals with the mechanical behavior of a micro-beam bonded with two piezoelectric layers. The micro-beam is suspended over a fixed substrate and undergoes the both piezoelectric and electrostatic actuation. The piezoelectric layers are poled through the thickness and equipped with surface electrodes. The equation governing the micro-beam deflection under electrostatic pressure is deriv...

A new type of graphene fiber spring (GFS) has been demonstrated to possess a large elongation of up to 480% with a stable elasticity coefficient for 100,000 times of stretch. Remarkably, the GFS performs reversibly stretchable actuation under electrostatic effects, and responds to an applied magnetic field for the development of novel magnetostriction switches and actuators once functionalized ...

This work focuses on the nonlinear control of instabilities in the combustion of a diluted dimethyl ether (DME) / air mixture under low temperature conditions. A nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) is utilized to stabilize the combustion in simulation with the aim to specify minimum actuation dynamic requirements and develop control strategies for an existing experimental chemical reactor.

We report selective and directional actuation of elastomer films utilizing magnetic anisotropy introduced by chains of Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). Under uniform magnetic fields or field gradients, dipolar interactions between the MNPs favor magnetization along the chain direction and cause selective lifting. This mechanism is described using a simple model.

Molecular self-assemblies exhibiting automatic motions have received much attention as potential artificial models of living organisms. We have developed a microfluidic picolitre nozzle-array device to form multilamellar lipid tubes (MLTs) under fluidic shear stress, which transformed into different two patterns (yarn-balls and double-helixes) and also exhibited unique self-actuation behaviors.

In recent years, electroactive polymers (EAP) materials have gained recognition as potential actuators with unique capabilities having the closest performance resemblance to biological muscles. Ion-exchange membrane metallic composites (IPMC) are one of the EAP materials with such a potential. The strong bending that is induced by IPMC offers attractive actuation for the construction of various...

In this paper, a new three-axis electromagnetically actuated micromirror structure has been proposed and fabricated. It is electromagnetically actuated at low voltage using an external magnetic field. The main purpose of this work was to obtain a three-axis actuated micromirror in a mechanically robust structure with large static angular and vertical displacement at low actuation voltage for fi...

The actuation of a single hydrogel nanofibre is measured for the first time by AFM. The actuation stress generated was comparable to that produced by skeletal muscle and the actuation rate was significantly increased by the nanoscale dimensions of the fibre.