Actuators  

Alessia Capace, Carlo Cosentino, Francesco Amato and Alessio Merola

These days, biomimetic and compliant actuators have been made available to the main applications of rehabilitation and assistive robotics. In this context, the interaction control of soft robots, mechatronic surgical instruments and robotic prostheses can... see more

Virginie Kluyskens, Joachim Van Verdeghem and Bruno Dehez

The centering guidance forces in self-bearing permanent magnet motors are magnetically integrated with the torque generation windings, and can take place in a single multifunction winding. This radial guidance is usually actively controlled as a function ... see more

Ali Sadeghi, Alessio Mondini and Barbara Mazzolai

We present the design, manufacturing, and characterization of a soft textile-based clutch (TBC) that uses vacuum stimulation to switch between locking and unlocking its linear displacement. The vacuum locks the relative sliding motion between two elaborat... see more

Mauro Giorcelli and Mattia Bartoli

In recent decades, micro and nanoscale technologies have become cutting-edge frontiers in material science and device developments. This worldwide trend has induced further improvements in actuator production with enhanced performance. A main role has bee... see more

Valerio Apicella, Carmine Stefano Clemente, Daniele Davino, Damiano Leone and Ciro Visone

Magnetostrictive actuators play an important role in the perception of usefulness of smart materials and devices. Their applications are potentially wider than that of piezoelectric actuators because of the higher energy density and intrinsic robustness. ... see more

David P. Allen, Edgar Bolívar, Sophie Farmer, Walter Voit and Robert D. Gregg

Legged and gait-assistance robots can walk more efficiently if their actuators are compliant. The adjustable compliance of variable-stiffness actuators (VSAs) can enhance this benefit. However, this functionality requires additional mechanical components ... see more

Manuel Braz César, João Paulo Coelho and José Gonçalves

A buildings resilience to seismic activity can be increased by providing ways for the structure to dynamically counteract the effect of the Earth’s crust movements. This ability is fundamental in certain regions of the globe, where earthquakes are more fr... see more

Ignazio Dimino, Federico Gallorini, Massimiliano Palmieri and Giulio Pispola

As a key enabler for future aviation technology, the use of servo electromechanical actuation offers new opportunities to transition innovative structural concepts, such as biomimicry morphing structures, from basic research to new commercial aircraft app... see more

Dominik Wimmer, Markus Hutterer, Matthias Hofer and Manfred Schrödl

The focus of this study lies on the investigation of the space vector modulation of a self-sensing three-phase radial active magnetic bearing. The determination of the rotor position information is performed by a current slope-based inductance measurement... see more

Shota Furukawa, Shuichi Wakimoto, Takefumi Kanda and Hiroki Hagihara

An octopus arm with a flexible structure and no rigid skeleton shows a high degree of freedom and flexibility. These excellent features are suitable for working in an environment having fragile and unknown-shaped objects. Therefore, a soft robot arm resem... see more

Valentin Gies and Thierry Soriano

This article focuses on indirect coil guns used for launching non-magnetic objects. A mechatronic model, coupling electrical, mechanical, and electromagnetic models, is proposed. This model is applied to the optimization of a kicking system used on limite... see more

Alberto Boschetto, Luana Bottini, Girolamo Costanza and Maria Elisa Tata

Solar sails are propellantless systems where the propulsive force is given by the momentum exchange of reflecting photons. Thanks to the use of shape memory alloys for the self-actuation of the system, complexity of the structure itself has decreased and ... see more

Daniel Franz, Maximilian Schneider, Michael Richter and Stephan Rinderknecht

This article discusses the critical thermal behavior of a magnetically levitated spindle for fatigue testing of cylinders made of fiber reinforced plastic. These cylinders represent the outer-rotor of a kinetic energy storage. The system operates under va... see more

Mehrdad Bagherinia and Stefano Mariani

Resonance features of slender mechanical parts of Lorentz force MEMS magnetometers are affected by the (weakly) coupled thermo-electro-magneto-mechanical multi-physics governing their dynamics. We recently showed that reduced-order models for such parts c... see more

Francisco Beltran-Carbajal, Antonio Valderrabano-Gonzalez, Antonio Favela-Contreras, Jose Luis Hernandez-Avila, Irvin Lopez-Garcia and Ruben Tapia-Olvera

An active vibration control approach from an online estimation perspective of unavailable feedback signals for a quarter-vehicle suspension system is introduced. The application of a new signal differentiation technique for the online estimation of distur... see more

Livija Cveticanin, Zvonko Rakaric, Miodrag Zukovic and Dragan Cveticanin

In this paper, the influence of the time variable preloading force on the vibration of an archetypal oscillator is investigated. The oscillator is modeled as a slider-string system which is mathematically described with a second order nonlinear differenti... see more

Josef Passenbrunner, Gerald Jungmayr and Wolfgang Amrhein

Passively magnetically stabilized degrees of freedom yield the benefit of reduced complexity and therefore costs. However, the application of passive magnetic bearings (PMBs) also features some drawbacks. The poor damping capability leads to exaggerated d... see more

Shuhei Kawamura, Mizuki Sudani, Mingcong Deng, Yuichi Noge and Shuichi Wakimoto

Recently, soft actuators have been getting increased attention within various fields. The actuators are composed of flexible materials and driven by pneumatic pressure. A thin pneumatic rubber actuator generating 3 degrees of freedom motion, called 3-DOF ... see more

Masahiro Osa, Toru Masuzawa, Ryoga Orihara and Eisuke Tatsumi

Research interests of compact magnetically levitated motors have been strongly increased in development of durable and biocompatible mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices for pediatric heart disease patients. In this study, an ultra-compact axial g... see more

Yaxiaer Yalikun, Kaoru Uesugi, Minamida Hiroki, Yigang Shen, Yo Tanaka, Yoshitake Akiyama and Keisuke Morishima

Bio-actuators that use insect muscular tissue have attracted attention from researchers worldwide because of their small size, self-motive property, self-repairer ability, robustness, and the need for less environment management than mammalian cells. To d... see more