Design improvement by a simulative investigation of the locomotion of a snake‐like soft robot

Abstract Over the years, failures induced by an electrostatic discharge (ESD) have become a major concern for semiconductor manufacturers and electronic equipment makers. The ESD events that cause destructive failures have been studied extensively [1, 2]. However, not all ESD events cause permanent damage. Some events lead to recoverable failures that disrupt system functionality only temporarily (e.g. reboot, lockup, and loss of data). These recoverable failures are not as well understood as the ones causing permanent damage and tend to be ignored in the ESD literature [3, 4]. This paper analyzes and characterizes how these recoverable failures affect computer systems. An experimental methodology is developed to characterize the sensitivity of motherboards to ESD by simulating the systemlevel ESD events induced by computer users. The manuscript presents a case study where this methodology was used to evaluate the robustness of desktop computers to ESD. The method helped isolate several weak nets contributing to the failures and identified a design improvement. The result was that the robustness of the systems improved by a factor of 2.

Download Full-text

An Update on Improved Flange Design Methods

Volume 3: Design and Analysis ◽

10.1115/pvp2007-26643 ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Warren Brown

Keyword(s):

Design Method ◽

Design Methods ◽

Project Development ◽

Design Improvement ◽

Panel Session ◽

Improved Methods ◽

Made In

This paper details further progress made in the PVRC project “Development of Improved Flange Design Method for the ASME VIII, Div.2 Rewrite Project” presented during the panel session on flange design at the 2006 PVP conference in Vancouver. The major areas of flange design improvement indicated by that project are examined and the suggested solutions for implementing the improved methods into the Code are discussed. Further analysis on aspects such as gasket creep and the use of leakage-based design has been conducted. Shortcomings in the proposed ASME flange design method (ASME BFJ) and current CEN flange design methods (EN-1591) are highlighted and methods for resolution of these issues are suggested.

Download Full-text

Advanced soft robot modeling in ChainQueen

Robotica ◽

10.1017/s0263574721000722 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-31

Author(s):

Andrew Spielberg ◽

Tao Du ◽

Yuanming Hu ◽

Daniela Rus ◽

Wojciech Matusik

Keyword(s):

Application Programming Interface ◽

Material Point ◽

Soft Robotics ◽

Soft Robot ◽

Inference Control ◽

Simulation And Optimization ◽

Efficient Simulation ◽

Application Programming ◽

Robot Modeling ◽

Programming Interface

Abstract We present extensions to ChainQueen, an open source, fully differentiable material point method simulator for soft robotics. Previous work established ChainQueen as a powerful tool for inference, control, and co-design for soft robotics. We detail enhancements to ChainQueen, allowing for more efficient simulation and optimization and expressive co-optimization over material properties and geometric parameters. We package our simulator extensions in an easy-to-use, modular application programming interface (API) with predefined observation models, controllers, actuators, optimizers, and geometric processing tools, making it simple to prototype complex experiments in 50 lines or fewer. We demonstrate the power of our simulator extensions in over nine simulated experiments.

Download Full-text