Planar Compliance Realization with Two 3-Joint Serial Manipulators Connected in Parallel

In this paper, the realization of any specified planar compliance with two 3R serial elastic mechanisms is addressed. Using the concepts of dual elastic mechanisms, it is shown that the realization of a compliant behavior with 2 serial mechanisms connected in parallel is equivalent to its realization with a 6-spring fully parallel mechanism. Since the spring axes of a 6-spring parallel mechanism indicate the geometry of a dual 3R serial mechanism, a new synthesis procedure for the realization of a stiffness matrix with a 6-spring parallel mechanism is first developed. Then, this result is extended to a geometric construction-based synthesis procedure for two 3-joint serial mechanisms.

Psychological peculiarities of sport activity motivation in judo athletes

The article analyzes the specific features of motivation of sport activity as a certain type of labor activity and studies the peculiarities of psychological factors that influence the type of motivation, the level of its manifestation and the duration of its preservation. The basic features of the judoist athlete's personality motivation, in particular the motivation for success and fear of failure, communicative and organizational inclinations, locus of control, internalizing, directivity, indicators of terminal and instrumental values are considered. Experimental work allowed to reveal connection of various forms of behavior and personality parameters with externality-internality. Conformal and compliant behavior is more peculiar to judoists with an externalistic locus. Internals, in contrast to externals, are less likely to submit to pressure from others, to resist when they feel manipulated, and they react more strongly than externals to the loss of personal freedom. Athletes from internalizing loci of control perform better at the independent level than they do under supervision or videotaping. The opposite is true for externals. Internals and externals differ in the way they interpret various social situations, particularly in the way they receive information and in their causal explanation mechanisms. Internals are more active in seeking information and are usually more aware of the situation than externals. Internals attribute more responsibility to the individuals involved in the same situation. Internals are more likely to avoid situational explanations of behavior than externals. According to the results of the study, the motives that determine attitudes toward actual circumstances are of the greatest interest. Almost all athletes are dissatisfied with the level of material provision, solution of domestic issues. Among the measures to increase the level of sports motivation the majority names the proper use of means of material and moral encouragement, improving the organization of work, the possibility of discussion and independent decision-making on their use.

Trust in scientists in times of pandemic: Panel evidence from 12 countries

This article analyzes the specific and critical role of trust in scientists on both the support for and compliance with nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. We exploit large-scale, longitudinal, and representative surveys for 12 countries over the period from March to December 2020, and we complement the analysis with experimental data. We find that trust in scientists is the key driving force behind individual support for and compliance with NPIs and for favorable attitudes toward vaccination. The effect of trust in government is more ambiguous and tends to diminish support for and compliance with NPIs in countries where the recommendations from scientists and the government were not aligned. Trust in others also has seemingly paradoxical effects: in countries where social trust is high, the support for NPIs is low due to higher expectations that others will voluntary social distance. Our individual-level longitudinal data also allows us to evaluate the effects of within-person changes in trust over the pandemic: we show that trust levels and, in particular, trust in scientists have changed dramatically for individuals and within countries, with important subsequent effects on compliant behavior and support for NPIs. Such findings point out the challenging but critical need to maintain trust in scientists during a lasting pandemic that strains citizens and governments.

Model Based Design of a Low Cost and Compliant Low Profile Prosthetic Foot

This paper describes the design of a simple and low cost compliant low profile prosthetic foot based on a cantilevered beam of uniform strength. The prosthetic foot is developed such that the maximum stress experienced by the beam is distributed approximately evenly across the length of the beam. Due to this stress distribution, the prosthetic foot exhibits compliant behavior not achievable through standard design approaches (e.g. designs based on simple cantilevered beams). Additionally, due to its simplicity and use of flat structural members, the foot can be manufactured at low cost. An analytical model of the compliant behavior of the beam is developed that facilitates rapid design changes to vary foot size and stiffness. A characteristic prototype was designed and constructed to be used in both a benchtop quasistatic loading test as well as a dynamic walking test for validation. The model predicted the rotational stiffness of the prototype with 5% error. Furthermore, the prototype foot was tested alongside two commercially available prosthetic feet (a low profile foot and an energy storage and release foot) in level walking experiments with a single study participant. The prototype foot displayed the lowest stiffness of the three feet (6.0, 7.1, and 10.4 Nm/deg for the prototype foot, the commercial low profile foot, and the energy storage and release foot, respectively). This foot design approach and accompanying model may allow for compliant feet to be developed for individuals with long residual limbs.

Reforming solitary confinement: the development, implementation, and processes of a restrictive housing step down reentry program in Oregon

Background Over the past decade there have been numerous and impassioned calls to reform the practice of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. This article examines the development, implementation, and processes of a restrictive housing reentry program in the Oregon Department of Corrections. It draws on data from official documents, site observations, and interviews with 12 prison officials and 38 prisoners. The Step Up Program (SUP) seeks to improve the living conditions in restrictive housing over business-as-usual, alleviate physiological and psychological harms of solitary confinement, and use rehabilitative programming to increase success upon returning to the general prison population or community. Results The impetus to change the culture and structure of restrictive housing was primarily the result of internal administrative reform. Prisoners assigned at random to housing assignments offered accounts of their daily activities suggesting that the SUP provides more time out-of-cell and greater access to other services and activities. Program participants preferred the living conditions in the SUP because they had more opportunities for social interaction and incentives for compliant behavior. However, views on the value of programming among respondents were mixed. Conclusions The launch of the SUP occurred in early 2020, which was soon followed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the program was never fully implemented as intended. As Oregon returns to more normal operations, it is possible that the SUP will be able to include even more out-of-cell time, greater socialization opportunities, and increased access to programming and other beneficial activities. As we await the opportunity to conduct prospective psychological and behavioral analyses, this study provides tentative support for the use of step down reentry programs in restrictive housing units. Trial registration Open Science Framework, Preparing adults in custody for successful reentry: An experimental study of a restrictive housing exit program in Oregon. Registered 4 October 2019, https://osf.io/t6qpx/

Robotic Assembly for Irregular Shaped Peg-in-Hole with Partial Constraints

The tight tolerance peg-in-hole process brings great challenges for robotic assembly. Force control-based methods have been proposed to generate complex compliant behavior to deal with the shape and clearance variances. However, existing solutions are based on the assumption that the peg and hole parts are fixed during the assembly process and can absorb the contact force completely. For this purpose, customized fixtures have to be designed and utilized, which greatly affect the system’s deployment cost, time, and flexibility. Considering the fact that in an assembly, the parts are naturally related to each other, this paper studies the irregular-shaped peg-in-hole assembly problem with partial constraints. Firstly, geometric and force model are developed for the natural constraints between the parts; by analyzing the behavior of the partial constraint, a control policy is proposed to compensate the position errors and drive the parts to a stable equilibrium point; For the irregular-shaped parts, a multiple-stage searching method is developed to efficiently search for the real hole location; Finally, a switching force/position hybrid controller is designed to coordinate the alignment, searching and insertion processes. The method is implemented in a real platform. The experiment results verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Tax Comprehension and Ethics Education Integration in Improving Tax Compliance Among Accounting Students

Tax education, especially at college level, has so far focused on academic aspects and tends to ignore ethical aspects. So far, ethics education has shown its role in increasing individual moral sensitivity. Given the importance of ethics education, an integration of ethics is needed in tax education, so that it is expected to help in shaping tax-compliant behavior among students. Based on these issues, this study aims to examine the combined effect of tax ethics education and tax comprehension on tax compliance. This research was conducted on 81 undergraduate accounting students with an experimental method. Based on the analysis using ANOVA, this study found that the integration of ethics in tax education can improve tax compliance, especially for students who have low tax comprehension. The results of this study indicate the importance of ethics integration in tax education, especially at the university level. Therefore, the results of this study are expected to be a consideration for universities to integrate ethical aspects of tax education, thus helping in the process of forming student moral awareness as taxpayers in the future.

Expertise

Professionals are in good standing in the principal-agent literature. With a sense of professional responsibility, an honor code or an oath, they bring extra effort to challenging and difficult to monitor tasks. Often they repay our trust. But there are also substantial challenges in delegating to those with difficult to replace knowledge and specialized training. These challenges are discussed in this chapter in a variety of individual and organizational contexts and in particular in analyzing the use that religious institutions and governments make of those with specialized training. Notwithstanding their rigidly hierarchical organizational structures, complete with rules of conduct and quite fearsome methods of control, the Catholic Church and the military have difficulty keeping agents on task. The chapter shows how these agents exploit their positions. Observing the theoretically unexpected passivity of principals when confronted with non-compliant behavior in these organizations, this chapter modifies the accepted account with the argument that group loyalties, asset specificity, and what the author refers to as the “agent confidence factor” put up the cost of punishment for the principal and protect noncompliant agents from the normal consequences of their actions.

A Configurable Architecture for Two Degree-of-Freedom Variable Stiffness Actuators to Match the Compliant Behavior of Human Joints

Living beings modulate the impedance of their joints to interact proficiently, robustly, and safely with the environment. These observations inspired the design of soft articulated robots with the development of Variable Impedance and Variable Stiffness Actuators. However, designing them remains a challenging task due to their mechanical complexity, encumbrance, and weight, but also due to the different specifications that the wide range of applications requires. For instance, as prostheses or parts of humanoid systems, there is currently a need for multi-degree-of-freedom joints that have abilities similar to those of human articulations. Toward this goal, we propose a new compact and configurable design for a two-degree-of-freedom variable stiffness joint that can match the passive behavior of a human wrist and ankle. Using only three motors, this joint can control its equilibrium orientation around two perpendicular axes and its overall stiffness as a one-dimensional parameter, like the co-contraction of human muscles. The kinematic architecture builds upon a state-of-the-art rigid parallel mechanism with the addition of nonlinear elastic elements to allow the control of the stiffness. The mechanical parameters of the proposed system can be optimized to match desired passive compliant behaviors and to fit various applications (e.g., prosthetic wrists or ankles, artificial wrists, etc.). After describing the joint structure, we detail the kinetostatic analysis to derive the compliant behavior as a function of the design parameters and to prove the variable stiffness ability of the system. Besides, we provide sets of design parameters to match the passive compliance of either a human wrist or ankle. Moreover, to show the versatility of the proposed joint architecture and as guidelines for the future designer, we describe the influence of the main design parameters on the system stiffness characteristic and show the potential of the design for more complex applications.