IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics

Active control of phase-sensitive interferometric metrology systems is necessary for low noise, high resolution, high bandwidth, and parallel operation. Conventional active control methods have several drawbacks like low SNR, high complexity, and low bandwidth. With the development of micromachined scanning grating interferometers ( muSGIs), high-bandwidth parallel active control of an array of in... View full abstract»

This paper is concerned with the development of the <i>trident snake robot</i> , a new example of nonholonomic mobile robot proposed by the authors. The robot has three-pointed shape composed of a center block and three branches, each of which has a passive nonslide wheel. It is modeled as a nonnilpotent driftless system with two generators; its control is a challenging problem, not on... View full abstract»

Operators' intelligent and skillful decisions are necessary for the teleoperation of a mobile robot when there are many scattered obstacles. Among the sensors used for environment recognition, the camera is the most popular and powerful. However, there are several limitations in the camera-based teleoperation of a mobile robot. For example, shadowed and curved areas cannot be viewed using a narrow... View full abstract»

We have developed three different versions of a multifunction haptic device that can display touch, pressure, vibration, shear force, and temperature to the skin of an upper extremity amputee, especially the one who has undergone targeted nerve reinnervation (TR) surgery. In TR patients, sensation from the reinnervated skin is projected to the missing hand. This paper addresses the design of the m... View full abstract»

The demands on bearingless drive configurations concerning performance as well as costs are high. The proposed bearingless brushless DC motor consists of five concentrated coils in a symmetrical arrangement, which generate radial forces and motor torque simultaneously in interaction with a permanent-magnet-excited disk-shaped rotor. Additionally, tilting deflection and the axial position of the ro... View full abstract»

This paper describes the mechatronics design, prototype testing, and control of a steerable nips component for paper path mechanisms in high-speed color printers and photocopiers. When placed upstream from the image transfer station along the paper path, this device precisely controls the longitudinal, lateral, and skew directions of papers sheets, as they arrive to the image transfer station. The... View full abstract»

Eddy currents induced within nonlaminated electromagnetic actuators by time-varying magnetic fields have a strong effect on the dynamics and control of electromagnetic suspension systems. This paper examines the modeling of these suspension systems and resolves two important problems: 1) the effect of time-varying flotor position on electromagnetic force production and 2) the proper manner in whic... View full abstract»

A novel smart sensing unit is developed in this paper for vibration measurement and machinery condition monitoring. The microprocessor-based smart sensor can collect 2-D vibrations and conduct signal analysis. When mounted in proximity of a bearing housing (a general case), it can conduct online fault detection in shafts and bearings. A correlation spectrum method is proposed as a digital encoder ... View full abstract»

A realistic prediction of the in-orbit transient performance of a nanosatellite space radiator requires a ground-based equivalent space radiator with a small size, simple configuration, and fast response. For this purpose, we present in this paper the design concept, operating principle, and analysis algorithm of a novel equivalent physical simulator (EPS) consisting of a thermoelectric cooler (TE... View full abstract»

In this paper, an electromagnetic actuator having four discrete positions is discussed. The principle, the modeling, and an experimental device of this actuator are presented in this study. This actuator is composed of a mobile permanent magnet, four fixed permanent magnets, which ensure the holding of the discrete positions, and two perpendicular wires to switch independently in two perpendicular... View full abstract»

This paper describes a novel and compact topology for contactless levitation and rotation of a wide annular rotor through the walls of a sealed process chamber. In the proposed setup, a homopolar magnetic bearing biased by permanent magnets is combined with a high-pole-number segment motor. The paper discusses the functional principle of the motor, and gives design and optimization guidelines for ... View full abstract»

Control of a robot manipulator in contact with the environment is usually conducted by a direct feedback control system using a force-torque sensor or an indirect impedance control scheme. Although these methods have been successfully applied to many applications, simultaneous control of force and position cannot be achieved. To cope with such problems, this paper proposes a novel design of a dual... View full abstract»

The integration of computer-controlled electro-mechanical components in ground vehicle cooling systems can improve coolant temperature regulation and servomotor power consumption. Advanced thermal management systems for internal combustion engines can better regulate the combustion process by harmoniously controlling the cooling system's actuators to obtain desired thermal conditions in a power-ef... View full abstract»

This paper presents the development and performance assessment procedures for a new <i>XY</i> parallel micropositioning platform (PMP) aiming at a submicrometer accuracy for microscale manipulation. The uniqueness of the proposed micro-parallel platform lies in that it possesses an uncomplicated structure as well as actuation isolation and output motion decoupling properties, which fac... View full abstract»

In this paper, a novel inverse double nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous input (NARX) fuzzy model is applied to simultaneously model and identify both joints of the prototype two-axis pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM) robot arm's inverse dynamic model. Highly nonlinear features of both joints of the nonlinear manipulator system are identified by the proposed inverse double NARX fuzzy (IDNF) m... View full abstract»

Conducting polymer bending actuators show potential for unique manipulation devices, particularly at the microscale, given low actuation voltages, controllable manufacture, biocompatibility, and ability to operate in either air or liquid environments; however, the impracticalities of implementing feedback in these environments and at these scales can impede positional control of the actuator. This... View full abstract»

We describe a decision method for effective placement of tactile elements for grasp-type recognition. Not only does the placement decided by our method require a small number of tactile elements, it also achieves recognition performance as high as placements consisting of many elements. The placement decided by the method is evaluated through experiments involving the recognition of grasp type fro... View full abstract»