Search results for "Biomedical engineering"
showing 10 items of 2020 documents
An Input Observer-Based Stiffness Estimation Approach for Flexible Robot Joints
2020
This letter addresses the stiffness estimation problem for flexible robot joints, driven by variable stiffness actuators in antagonistic setups. Due to the difficulties of achieving consistent production of these actuators and the time-varying nature of their internal flexible elements, which are subject to plastic deformation over time, it is currently a challenge to precisely determine the total flexibility torque applied to a robot's joint and the corresponding joint stiffness. Herein, by considering the flexibility torque acting on each motor as an unknown signal and building upon Unknown Input Observer theory, a solution for electrically-driven actuators is proposed, which consists of …
Ultrasonic phased array inspection of a Wire + Arc Additive Manufactured (WAAM) sample with intentionally embedded defects
2019
In this study, Wire + Arc Additive Manufacture (WAAM) was employed to manufacture a steel specimen with intentionally embedded defects which were subsequently used for calibration of an ultrasonic phased array system and defect sizing. An ABB robot was combined with the Cold Metal Transfer (CMT) Gas Metal Arc (GMA) process to deposit 20 layers of mild steel. Tungsten-carbide balls (ø1-3 mm) were intentionally embedded inside the additive structure after the 4th, 8th, 12th and 18th layers to serve as ultrasonic reflectors, simulating defects within the WAAM sample. An ultrasonic phased array system, consisting of a 5 MHz 64 Element phased array transducer, was used to inspect the WAAM sample…
Stable layer-building strategy to enhance cold-spray-based additive manufacturing
2020
Abstract Cold spray (CS) has recently become one of the popular additive manufacturing (AM) processes for its advantages: high-forming efficiency, low temperature, and no phase changing of materials. These advantages may make CS able to form large volume objects and possibly directly iterate with material-removing processes to become a hybrid AM process. Current research proposes using a bulk-based volume-forming strategy (e.g. a tessellation-based method) for volume building. Although it can form 3D volumes, the control of the process is difficult and it has limitations in forming complex 3D near-net-shapes with acceptable accuracy. This also conflicts with the basic principle of AM, where…
Assessing the accuracy of industrial robots through metrology for the enhancement of automated non-destructive testing
2016
This work presents the study of the accuracy of an industrial robot KR5 arc HW, used to perform quality inspections of components with complex shapes. Metrology techniques such as laser tracking and large volume photogrammetry were deployed to quantify both pose and dynamic path accuracies of the robot in accordance with ISO 9283:1998. The overall positioning pose inaccuracy of the robot is found to be almost 1 mm and path inaccuracy at 100% of the robot rated velocity is 4.5 mm. The maximum pose orientation inaccuracy is found to be 14 degrees and the maximum path orientation inaccuracy is 5 degrees. Despite of the significant maximum inaccuracies, uncertainty of a robotic scanning applica…
New results on stability analysis and stabilization of time-delay continuous Markovian jump systems with partially known rates matrix
2015
Summary In this note, the problems of stability analysis and controller synthesis of Markovian jump systems with time-varying delay and partially known transition rates are investigated via an input–output approach. First, the system under consideration is transformed into an interconnected system, and new results on stochastic scaled small-gain condition for stochastic interconnected systems are established, which are crucial for the problems considered in this paper. Based on the system transformation and the stochastic scaled small-gain theorem, stochastic stability of the original system is examined via the stochastic version of the bounded realness of the transformed forward system. Th…
Performance Estimation using the Fitness-Fatigue Model with Kalman Filter Feedback
2016
Abstract Tracking and predicting the performance of athletes is of great interest, not only in training science but also, increasingly, for serious hobbyists. The increasing availability and use of smart watches and fitness trackers means that abundant data is becoming available, and the interest to optimally use this data for performance tracking and training optimization is great. One competitive model in this domain is the 3-time-constant fitness-fatigue model by Busso based on the model by Banister and colleagues. In the following, we will show that this model can be written equivalently as a linear, time-variant state-space model. With this understanding, it becomes clear that all meth…
Formation-based modelling and simulation of success in soccer
2018
Abstract The players’ positions of tactical groups in soccer can be mapped to formation-patterns by means of artificial neural networks (Kohonen, 1995). This way, the hundreds of positional situations of one half of a match can be reduced to about 20 to 30 types of formations (Grunz, Perl & Memmert, 2012; Perl, 2015), the coincidences of which can be used for describing and simulating tactical processes of the teams (Memmert, Lemmink & Sampaio, 2017): Developing and changing formations in the interaction with the opponent activities can be understood as a tactical game in the success context of ball control, space control and finally generating dangerous situations. As such it can b…
Estimation of Location and Activation Time of Purkinje Myocardial Junctions from Sparse and Noisy Endocardial Electrical Samples
2017
The activation of the myocardial muscle is triggered by Purkinje-myocardial junctions (PMJs), which are the terminal sites of the specialised cardiac conduction system (CCS). Obtaining the location of the PMJs and other sources of endocardial ectopic activity would be desirable for building computer models of cardiac electrophysiology and planning ablation interventions. We present a method to estimate the location and activation times of endocardial electrical sources in a 3D model of the ventricles. The algorithm requires a set of discrete electrical samples on the endocardium, which can include errors in location and activation time. The estimated sources are properly placed with a locat…
Automatic Location of Sources of Electrical Activation from Electroanatomical Maps
2016
Electro-anatomical mapping is a widely used technique used by electrophysiologists to understand patient's activation pattern. The system measures activation time at different locations but does not provide information on underlying electrical pathways or triggering points, such as Purkinje-myocardial junctions or ectopic foci. We present a method to estimate the locations of Purkinje-myocardial junctions from a discrete set of endocardial samples. Using less than 1000 endocardial samples it can recover locations and activation times of the most influencing Purkinje myocardial junctions from Purkinje trees of up to 500 junctions. A simulation study revealed that using the estimated Purkinje…
Including the Past: Performance Modeling Using a Preload Concept by Means of the Fitness-Fatigue Model
2019
Abstract In mathematical modeling by means of performance models, the Fitness-Fatigue Model (FF-Model) is a common approach in sport and exercise science to study the training performance relationship. The FF-Model uses an initial basic level of performance and two antagonistic terms (for fitness and fatigue). By model calibration, parameters are adapted to the subject’s individual physical response to training load. Although the simulation of the recorded training data in most cases shows useful results when the model is calibrated and all parameters are adjusted, this method has two major difficulties. First, a fitted value as basic performance will usually be too high. Second, without mo…