Upper limb involuntary tremor reduction using cantilever beam TMDs

Tuned mass dampers (TMDs) are proposed as a solution to reduce the involuntary tremor at the upper limb of a patient with postural tremor. The upper limb is modeled as a three-degrees-of-freedom rotating system in the vertical plane, with a flexion-extension motion at the joints. The measured extensor carpi radialis signal of a patient is used to excite the dynamic model. We propose a numerical methodology to optimize the parameters of the TMDs in the frequency domain combined with the response in the time domain. The objective function for the optimization of the dynamic problem is the maximum angular displacement of the wrist joint. The optimal stiffness and damping of the TMDs are obtained by satisfying the minimization of the selected objective function. The considered passive absorber is a cantilever beam–like TMD, whose length, beam cross-sectional diameter, and mass position reflect its stiffness for a chosen additional mass. A parametric study of the TMD is conducted to evaluate the effect of the TMD position along the hand segment, the number of TMDs, and the total mass of TMDs. The sensitivity of the TMD to a decrease of its modal damping ratio is studied to meet the range of stainless steel. TMDs are manufactured using stainless steel beams of the same length (9.1 cm) and cross-sectional diameter (0.79 mm), for which the mass (14.13 g) position is adjusted to match the optimal frequency. Three TMDs holding a mass of 14.13 g each cause 89% reduction in the wrist joint angular displacement.

Development of two-redundant multi-turn absolute encoder based on small modulus reducer

In order to meet the development needs of aerospace servo technology, the angular displacement sensor, which compact structure, high reliability, and be able to adapt to harsh working environments is used for the measurement and feedback of the high speed of the servo motor output shaft. The design of a two-redundant multi-turn absolute encoder based on a single-turn absolute encoder and a precision small modulus reducer, which realizes the high speed measurement of the servo motor shaft at 8000 rpm. Product performance meets the technical indicators of similar products of HEIDENHAIN encoders, can withstand high temperature, long working life, good dynamic performance, small space and light weight. System test and simulation analysis show that the design technical scheme is effective and feasible, can meet the requirements of the servo system.

Design of a high precision converter for multi-sensor information fusion

The converter is a measuring device and is used together with the displacement sensor. In view of the existing sensor transform device is susceptible to error and temperature drift effects acquisition accuracy is not high, we design a high precision transducer, multi-sensor information fusion for vehicle steering gear shaft angular displacement signal measurement, signal transformation and digital transmission. The converter has the characteristics of high precision, miniaturization and low cost. Multi-sensor information fusion high-precision converter adopts front-end signal amplifier circuit, following filter processing circuit and embedded software of microprocessor for online compensation to satisfy the requirements of high-precision transformation. The microcontroller is used as the main control chip to meet the requirements of 8-channel bipolar analog signal acquisition. Two 14-bit, 6-channel A/D chips are used to convert the bipolar analog signal in the range of ±10V, and the RS422 hardware interface circuit performs digital transmission according to the time sequence specified by the central programmer. The experimental results show that the conversion accuracy of the device can reach 0.06%, the digital signal transmission is stable, and it can be widely used in industrial production.

Modeling and Experimental Research of One Kind of New Planar Vortex Actuator Based on Shape Memory Alloy

In order to alleviate the problems of complex structure and low reliability of traditional Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) rotary actuator, a planar vortex actuator (PVA) based on SMA material was proposed to directly output torque and angular displacement. Based on the calculation method of PVA and the constitutive model of the phase transition equation of SMA, the mechanical model is established, and the pre-tightening torque, temperature, output torque, and rotation angle are obtained. The relationship expression between the tests has verified the mechanical model. The results show that the relationship between the excitation temperature and the output torque, the coefficient of determination between the calculated value and the tested value, is 0.938, the minimum error is 0.46%, and the maximum error is 49.8%. In the relationship between angular displacement and torque, the coefficient of determination between the calculated value and the test value is 0.939, the maximum error is 58.5%, and the minimum error is 28.0%. The test results show that the calculated values of mechanical model and experimental data have similar representation form.

Modeling and Dynamics Analysis of a Dual-Mass Flywheel with the Conformal Contact Action of Friction Damping Ring and Pressure Plate

To study the nonlinear dynamic characteristics of the dual-mass flywheel (DMF) under the conformal contact action between the friction damping ring and primary flywheel pressure plate, the contact action model is established and analyzed based on Winkler model. Through analysis and calculation, the contact deformation, contact pressure at different contact positions, and equivalent torsional contact stiffness are obtained. The nonlinear dynamic analysis model of three-degree-of-freedom (3DOF) which takes the conformal contact into account and two-degree-of-freedom (2DOF) without considering conformal contact is established. The approximate analytical solution of the nonlinear frequency characteristics of the system at steady state is derived. By comparing with the results obtained from numerical method, the theoretical analysis process is proved to be valid. And it is found that the overall amplitude and angular displacement transmissibility of the 3DOF model are smaller than the 2DOF model, especially at resonance frequency. The effects of the friction damping ring moment inertia, stiffness of DMF, and axial friction torque on the frequency characteristics of system and angular displacement transmissibility are analyzed. The forced vibration response analysis of the 3DOF model is conducted, through which the torsional angle variations of the primary flywheel, friction damping ring, and secondary flywheel with time are obtained. The results show that the amplitude of the secondary flywheel is much smaller than that of the primary flywheel, indicating that the DMF has prominent damping performance.

Effect of Meander on Bridge Pier Scour

Lots of work regarding the scour around bridge piers in straight channelhave been done in the past by many researchers. Many factors which affectscour around piers such as shape of piers, size, positioning and orientationetc. have been studied in detail by them. However, similar studies inmeandering channels are scanty. Very few researchers have studied theeffect of angular displacement which has considerable effects of scouraround bridge piers.In this paper an attempt has been made to carry out a detailed study ofangular displacement on scour. A constant diameter bridge pier of circularshape has been tested in a meandering channel bend with bend angle as 800 .The test bed was prepared by using uniform sand having d50 as 0.27 mmand run was taken for a discharge of 2.5 l/s.

Electromagnetic Torque Ripple in Multiple Three-Phase Brushless DC Motors for Electric Vehicles

This paper investigated an electromagnetic torque ripple level of BLDC drives with multiple three-phase (TP) permanent magnet (PM) motors for electric vehicles. For this purpose, mathematical models of PM machines of different armature winding sets-single (STP), dual (DTP), triple (TTP), and quadruple (QTP) ones of asymmetrical configuration and optimal angular displacement between winding sets were developed and corresponding computer models in the Matlab/Simulink environment were created. In conducted simulation, the influence of various factors on the electromagnetic torque ripple of the multiple-TP BLDC drives was investigated—degree of modularity, magnetic coupling between armature winding sets, and drive operation in open and closed-loop control systems. Studies have shown an increase of the electromagnetic torque ripple generated by one module in the multiple TP BLDC drives with magnetically coupled winding sets, due to additional current pulsations caused by magnetic interactions between the machine modules. However, the total electromagnetic torque ripples are much lower than in similar drives with magnetically insulated winding sets. Compared with the STP BLDC drive, the multiple TP BLDC drives with the same output parameters showed a reduction of the electromagnetic torque ripple by 27.6% for the DTP, 32.3% for the TTP, and 34.0% for the QTP BLDC drive.