This paper proposes a new tactile display to present shear deformation to the skin of human finger. For presenting the shear deformation of the finger, we fabricated a three-dimensional moving stage driven by the hydraulic actuators. For presenting different deformation under the condition of the same normal pressure, we used an air suction pad that can suck air. Using this air pad and the hydr...

The hydraulic activities of two arenicolid polychaetes, Abarenicola pacifica and Arenicola marina, result in strikingly similar pressure waveforms. The principal hydraulic activities are defecation, burrowing and feeding/ burrow maintenance. Both the duration and magnitudes of the pressures are very similar. The behavioral periodicities of the two species are also quite similar, although burrow...

In most beetles, the hind wings are thin and fragile; when at rest, they are held over the back of the beetle. When the hind wing unfolds, it provides the necessary aerodynamic forces for flight. In this paper, we investigate the hydraulic mechanism of the unfolding process of the hind wings in Dorcus titanus platymelus (Oder: Coleoptera). The wing unfolding process of Dorcus titanus platymelus...

Current methods for determining the influence of xylem cavitation on hydraulic conductance are limited to unbranched stem or root segments with hydraulic conductances above c. 2 mmol s~ MPa . Lower conductances and/or highly branched systems are encountered in seedlings, arid-land shrubs, herbs, and distal portions of shoot and root systems of trees. In order to quantify the hydraulic impact of...

Fluid flow in the vadose zone is governed by Richards equation; it is parameterized by hydraulic conductivity, which is a nonlinear function of pressure head. Investigations in the vadose zone typically require characterizing distributed hydraulic properties. Saturation or pressure head data may include direct measurements made from boreholes. Increasingly, proxy measurements from hydrogeophysi...

In this work we experimentally demonstrate (a) that the holding strength of universal jamming grippers increases as a function of the jamming pressure to greater than three atmospheres, and (b) that jamming grippers can be operated in the deep sea in ambient pressures exceeding one hundred atmospheres, where such high jamming pressures can be readily achieved. Laboratory experiments in a pressu...

Single-vein leaves have the simplest hydraulic design possible, yet even this linear water delivery system can be modulated to improve physiological performance. We determined the optimal distribution of transport capacity that minimizes pressure drop per given investment in xylem permeability along the needle for a given length without a change in total water delivery, or maximizes needle leng...

This paper reports on an investigation of the possible influence of modelling errors on the relationship between the entropy and hydraulic reliability of water distribution systems. The errors are due to minor differences between the design optimisation and subsequent simulation models, which lead to small discrepancies between the capacity of the network and the required supply. Pressure-depen...