A simple and novel helical drive in-pipe robot

Robotica ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 920-932 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonghua Chen ◽  
Qingyou Liu ◽  
Tao Ren

SUMMARYPipeline grids of various size and material are pervasive in today's modern society. The frequent inspection and maintenance of such pipeline grids have presented a tremendous challenge. It is advocated that only advanced robot design embedded with intelligent electronics and control algorithms could perform the job. Given the ever increasing demands for intelligent in-pipe robots, various in-pipe drive mechanisms have been reported. One of the simplest is helical wheel drives that have only one degree of freedom. All previously reported in-pipe helical drives are based on independent passive wheels that are tilted an angle. One of the major problems of current helical wheel drives is their unstable traction force. In this paper, instead of allowing the wheels to rotate independently, they are synchronized by adding a timing belt. This small change will result in significant improvement which will be highlighted in this paper. In the proposed driving method, tracking force is analyzed together with a comprehensive set of traction force measurement experiments. Both analysis and experiments have shown that the proposed mechanism has great potential for in-pipe robot drive design.

Author(s):  
Fei HU ◽  
Kun ZHOU ◽  
Hongshi ZHOU

Governments all over the world are paying great attention to economic innovation and the development of design in modern society. They are spending more and more recourses on making rules for Industrial Design Policy and measuring its implementation. As a method to make macroeconomic regulation and control by the government, the effectiveness and importance of design policy has already been widely admitted. In a macro-background of the three turns of Chinese design policy, taking the design policy of Guangdong province as an example, this article will analyze how local/regional government should respond to the national design policy. Based on the investigation and analysis of the winners of the "Guangdong Governor Cup Industrial Design Competition", this paper discusses how industrial design competition as a part of the design policy to support the development of industrial design. After making a comparison with the design policy of the Yangtze River Delta area, this article tries to enhance and perfect the current policy path.


2021 ◽  
pp. 095001702110087
Author(s):  
Linda Tallberg ◽  
Peter J Jordan

Working with animals is a daily occurrence for millions of people who often complete tasks which are tainted, in spite of the work being seen as essential in modern society. Animal shelter-work is such an occupation. This article contributes to a deeper understanding of the caring–killing paradox (a dissonance that workers face when killing animals they are also caring for), through an insider ethnographic study. We find that care-based animal dirty work consists of unique ambiguities and tensions related to powerlessness, deception and secrecy in the work based on a ‘processing-plant’ framework which informs how workers deal with unwanted animals. We find competing ideologies of care and control to be foundational in this work.


Author(s):  
Jing Liu ◽  
Khairul Manami Kamarudin ◽  
Yuqi Liu ◽  
Jinzhi Zou

Background: An infectious disease can affect human beings at an alarming speed in modern society, where Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to a worldwide pandemic, posing grave threats to public security and the social economies. However, as one of the closest attachments of urban dwellers, urban furniture hardly contributes to pandemic prevention and control. Methods: Given this critical challenge, this article aims to propose a feasible solution to coping with pandemic situations through urban furniture design, using an integrated method of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Analytic Network Process (ANP). Eight communities in China are selected as the research sites, since people working and living in these places have successful experience preventing and containing pandemics. Results: Three user requirements (URs), namely, usability and easy access, sanitation, and health and emotional pleasure, are determined. Meanwhile, seven design requirements (DRs) are identified, including contact reduction, effective disinfection, good appearance, social and cultural symbols, ergonomics, smart system and technology and sustainability. The overall priorities of URs and DRs and their inner dependencies are subsequently determined through the ANP-QFD method, comprising the House of Quality (HQQ). According to the theoretical results, we propose five design strategies for pandemic prevention and control. Conclusion: It is demonstrated that the incorporated method of ANP-QFD has applicability and effectiveness in the conceptual product design process. This article can also provide a new perspective for pandemic prevention and control in densely populated communities in terms of product design and development.


Author(s):  
Tianfa Xie ◽  
Jamar Hawkins ◽  
Yubing Sun

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 583-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Are S. Ingulfsvann ◽  
Ove Jakobsen ◽  
Øystein Nystad

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss how and to what extent creative dialogue processes can have an impact on regional political planning processes in Norway. Politicians at Nordland County invited representatives from six different regions in Nordland to participate in café dialogues. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical material is collected from café-dialogues in Northern Norway in which representatives from civil society, business organizations, local government, and NGOs participated. The data processing is based on triangulation of hermeneutic interpretation, frequencies, and factor analysis. Findings – The findings indicate that most people want a “greener” future; this can be described as sustainable societies based on ecological production, distribution, consumption, and redistribution. People take on a more radical position in their ideas about the future than most politicians. The factor analysis grouped the participants into the following categories; “Ecological economics”, “Small is beautiful”, “Entrepreneurs”, and “Growth and control”. A large number of the participants are categorized either as “Circulation economics” or “Small is beautiful”. Practical implications – To solve the challenges of modern society politicians can instigate more radical solutions than they are in the habit of doing. The participants in the café dialogues describe fundamental changes in order to attain viable local societies per 2030. Originality/value – In this paper the authors demonstrate that cultural creatives in the USA give a relevant context for interpreting attitudes to change in small societies in Northern Norway.


2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 1239-1249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Munehiro FURUTACHI ◽  
Shunsuke INABA ◽  
Yuji ISHINO ◽  
Masaya TAKASAKI ◽  
Takeshi MIZUNO

1999 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 273-304
Author(s):  
Jane Williams-Hogan

In this paper, the author examines the issue of charisma and prophecy in secularized societies. In traditional society the charismatic personality or the prophet brought a universalizing and rationalizing message which simultaneously expanded and penetrated the sphere of external order in the world, giving people the ability to manipulate and control the natural world. The disenchanted world is the end product of this process, when no more mysterious forces come into play, and when one can in principle master all things through rational calculation. The gift of rationality almost randomly bestowed in the ancient world becomes, for Weber, the rightful inheritance of the modern individual. Clarity brought by charisma in a dark and foreboding world loses its brilliance and its ability to beckon when the world is filled with light. In investigating charisma in only traditional societies, Weber saw charisma as one dimensional, solely as the force of rationality. So envisioned, charisma dissipates in the very act of realizing itself through the transformation of the world. Given Weber's analysis, therefore, one would not expect to find genuinely new religions emerging within our transformed and rational modern society. In the examination of the founding something that is best identified by the sociological term charisma, though obviously in modern guise, is clearly evident. This points to the possibility that charisma is not static but has the dynamic capacity to be responsive to the structural characteristics of the society in which it operates.


Author(s):  
Qingyou Liu ◽  
Yonghua Chen ◽  
Tao Ren ◽  
Ying Wei

Modern society is fueled by very comprehensive grids of gas and liquid supply pipelines. The frequent inspection and maintenance of such pipeline grids is not a trivial task. It has been demonstrated that such task is best performed by using in-pipe robots. In this paper, a novel inchworm robot design and its optimized motion planning are presented. The proposed design uses a helical drive for both gripping and locomotion of the robot. The extension and retraction between inchworm segments are facilitated by conic springs as they can store strain energy. The proposed inchworm robot can also be made very compact without sacrificing stroke length as conic springs can be easily designed with telescopic feature. To generate inchworm motion, a sinusoidal velocity pattern is planned for each segment. The frequency of the velocity pattern is optimized using a genetic algorithm (GA). The optimization result from the GA method has been validated using a traditional gradient based method.


2014 ◽  
Vol 619 ◽  
pp. 283-287
Author(s):  
Jieh Shian Young ◽  
Yu Bang Lin ◽  
Kuan Jie Chen ◽  
Po Ting Chen

This paper proposes an approach by logarithm to evaluating the electrical vehicle traction force control directly instead of the slip ratio measurements. Utilizing the built character database of the driven motor, or so-called current-RPM-torque database, a gain-scheduled approach by logarithm transformation is developed to provide the appropriate traction force while one traction wheel of the vehicle is traveling into different road surface. An illustrated simulation with a scenario close to real situation is also given to show the feasibility to evaluate and control the traction force through the database of the motor.


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