Marionettes are string-operated puppets. It is an ancient and universal form of performing art which still evolves slowly today. From the engineering perspective, the marionette is a wire(or string-) driven multi-limbed under-actuated mechanism under gravity influence that exhibits rich kinematic and dynamic behaviours. This article introduces the evolution and the engineering aspect of traditi...

With the development of bionic engineering, research into bionic robots has become a popular topic. In this field, the design of robotic mechanisms to realize the locomotion of insects forms a significant research branch. The current paper presents a caterpillar robotic mechanism that is composed of our newly-developed self-assembly modular robots (Sambot). A trapezoidal wave locomotion gait is...

control of robotic systems is an interesting subject due to their wide spectrum applications in medicine, aerospace and other industries. this paper proposes a novel continuous control mechanism for tracking problem of a 5-dof upper-limb exoskeleton robot. the proposed method is a combination of a recently developed robust integral of the sign of the error (rise) feedback and neural network (nn...

Binary robotic devices with large degrees of freedom have been proposed by a number of researchers. However, experimental implementations of these concepts have been built with conventional components. These physical systems are heavy, complex and far from being practical devices. In this paper, a lightweight, compliant mechanism driven by optimized magnet-coil actuators is proposed and develop...

In this paper we present an active video module that consists of a miniature video sensor, a wireless video transmitter and a pan-tilt mechanism driven by micromotors. The video module is part of a miniature mobile robot that is projected to areas of the environment to be surveyed. A single-chip CMOS video sensor and miniature brushless D.C. gearmotors are used to comply with restrictions impos...

In this paper we described the hardware architecture of an inexpensive, heterogeneous, mobile robot swarm, designed and developed at RISC lab, University of Bridgeport. Each UB robot swarm is equipped with sensors, actuators, control and communication units, power supply, and interconnection mechanism. This article also describes the essential features and design of a dynamic power distribution...

A new planar robotic exoskeleton for upper-limb motor assessment has been developed. It provides independent control of a user’s shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints in the horizontal plane. The lightweight backdriveable robot is based on a novel cable-driven curved track and carriage system that enables the entire mechanism to be located underneath the user’s arm. It has been designed to extend t...

Postoperative alopecia is an uncommon complication and its outcome is aesthetically drastic. Although its mechanism has not been clearly elucidated, a proposed risk factor is steep Trendelenburg positioning (30-40 degrees) that is frequently used during robotic gynecologic surgeries. We report a case of postoperative alopecia in 53-year-old female patient who had undergone robotic-assisted lapa...

Distributed heterogeneous robotic systems are often organized in componentbased software architectures. The strong added value of these systems comes from their potential ability to dynamically self-configure the interactions of their components, in order to adapt to new tasks and unforeseen situations. However, no satisfactory solutions exist to the problem of automatic self-configuration. We ...

Miniaturized surgical devices are promising for the future development of minimally invasive and endoluminal surgery. However, the dexterity and therapeutic functions of these devices are limited. In this paper, a recon gurable modular robotic system is proposed to perform screening and interventions in the gastrointestinal tract. In the proposed system, millimeter-sized robotic modules are ing...