IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics

This paper discusses a new dynamic sensing system capable of detecting the contact point between a flexible beam and an object. The proposed sensing system, named dynamic antenna, is simply composed of an insensitive flexible beam, a torque sensor, a joint position sensor, an actuator, and a payload at the tip end of the beam. The contact point can be detected through estimation of the oscillation... View full abstract»

A laser interferometric measurement sensor is used for angle measurements of rotating ultralight structures in order to avoid the mechanical interaction between the system and the sensor. The laser interferometer detects a linear displacement which is a distorted image of the angle displacement. The distortion depends strongly on the amplitude and the laser misalignment angle. In this paper, a mea... View full abstract»

In contrast with relatively simple cross-sectional shapes, it is difficult to discern misalignments in relative position and angular orientation between mating parts with complicated cross-sectional shapes. This motivates the development of a new sensing method for detecting misalignments. However, in the area of assembly, such a method has not been fully developed; for the most part, only local s... View full abstract»

Various external and internal leverage devices have been developed to amplify strain; however, these devices are commonly inefficient due to transmission losses and can be difficult to pack into constrained application volumes. A Recurve actuator architecture has been designed which amplifies direct material strains and allows for construction of highly compact, high-energy-density actuator arrays... View full abstract»

A comparative study of sliding-mode control and fuzzy neural network (FNN) control on the motor-toggle servomechanism is presented. The toggle mechanism is driven by a permanent-magnet synchronous servomotor. The rod and crank of the toggle mechanism are assumed to be rigid. First, Hamilton's principle and Lagrange multiplier method are applied to formulate the equation of motion. Then, based on t... View full abstract»