To progress the development of deployable, lightweight infrastructure for relief and recovery efforts in the aftermath of natural and man-made disasters, this article develops a proof of concept for a smart mast that leverages the versatility of pantograph systems and advances in sensor, actuator, and informatics technologies. More specifically the article addresses key design criteria of trans...

Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) is the technology of the very small, and merges at the nano-scale into "Nanoelectromechanical" Systems (NEMS) and Nanotechnology. MEMS are also referred to as micro machines, or Micro Systems Technology (MST). MEMS are separate and distinct from the hypothetical vision of Molecular nanotechnology or Molecular Electronics. MEMS generally range in size from a...

Piezoelectric actuation is widely used for the active vibration control of smart structural systems, and corresponding research has largely focused on linear electromechanical devices. This paper investigates the design and analysis of a novel piezoelectric actuator that uses a piezoelectric cantilever beam with a loading spring to produce displacement outputs. This device has a special nonline...

This study is aimed to explore efficiency problems of using PZT patches in active vibration control of beams. The PZT patches are surface-bonded as actuators and strain gages are used as sensors. Distributed moment forcing mode is adopted to derive the control authority of actuators. Uniform beam model is applied when the mass and stiffness of PZT patches are ignored. Stepped beam model is then...

Soft robots and devices exploit highly deformable materials that are capable of changes in shape to allow conformable physical contact for controlled manipulation. While soft resilient mechanical impact, they susceptible damage, such as tears punctures. The development self-healing actuators continues attract increasing interest, particular, with respect integrating polymers create bioinspired ...

This paper deals with the characterization and the modeling of the temperature effect on the piezoelectric tube actuator. Besides the sensitivity to the variation of the temperature, this actuator is characterized by the hysteresis and the creep non-linearities, the badly-damped vibration and the cross-couplings between its three axis. First, the characterization results of the sensitivity of t...

Intelligent braking system has a lot of potential applications especially in developed countries where research on smart vehicle and intelligent highway are receiving ample attention. The system when integrated with other subsystems like automatic traction control system, intelligent throttle system, and auto cruise system, etc will result in smart vehicle maneuver. The driver at the end of the...

This paper presents a new method of self-sensing both of the displacement and the external applied force at the tip of piezoelectric cantilevers. Integrated electric current across piezoelectric actuators is compensated against material nonlinearities (creep, hysteresis) to provide reliable information. We propose to compensate the hysteresis by using the Prandtl-Ishlinskii static approach whil...

A two-port silicon carbide single-clamped beam (cantilever) microelectromechanical system (MEMS) resonant device actuated piezoelectrically and sensed piezoelectrically has been designed, fabricated and tested. Lead zirconium titanate (PZT) has been used as active material to implement the piezoelectric actuator and sensor. Piezoelectric electrodes have been placed on the top of the single 3C-S...