Analysis and Performance Evaluation of a Modular Finger-Mounted Haptic Device for High-Density Feedback

The utilization of high-resolution haptic feedback devices in a virtual reality(VR)environment can increase the precision of controlling remotely operated vehicles and reduce training costs for subsea construction operations.This paper introduces a novel flexible-driven wearable pin-array device.The spatial separation of the control box and actuator allows the device to attain natural and seamless interactive movements while delivering high-density haptic feedback in VR.The pin array consists of 25 haptic pin modules that run on a linear servo motor via a flexible shaft for force transmission.The analysis and calculation of the flexible transmission resistance effect using the haptic pin module's shaft length and bending radius were conducted.A series of experiments was performed to gather comprehensive data on the pin module's output,transmission resistance and error,and response delay to optimize its structural design and transmission strategy.The device's effectiveness in rendering shape and coarse texture was evaluated via two user studies.The results affirm that the introduced device enables users to precisely discern seven shapes and four distinct coarse surfaces.

Microstructure and properties of 35 kg large aluminum alloy flywheel housing components formed by squeeze casting with local pressure compensation

The squeeze casting method with local pressure compensation was proposed to form a flywheel housing component with a weight of 35 kg.The numerical simulation,microstructure observation and phase characterization were performed,and the influence of local pressure compensation on feeding of thick-wall position,microstructure and mechanical properties of the formed components were discussed.Results show that the molten metal keeps a good fluidity and the filling is complete during the filling process.Although the solidification at thick-wall positions of the mounting ports is slow,the local pressure compensation effectively realizes the local forced feeding,significantly eliminating the shrinkage cavity defects.In the microstructure of AlSi9Mg alloy,α-Al primarily consists of fragmented dendrites and rosette grains,while eutectic Si predominantly comprises needles and short rods.The impact of local pressure compensation on strength is relatively minimal,yet its influence on elongation is considerable.Following local pressure compensation,the average elongation at the compensated areas is 9.18%,which represents a 44.90%higher than that before compensation.The average tensile strength is 209.1 MPa,and the average yield strength is 100.6 MPa.The local pressure compensation can significantly reduce or even eliminate the internal defects in the 35 kg large-weight components formed by squeeze casting.

Research status and challenges in the manufacturing of IR conformal optics

The infrared conformal window is one of the most critical components in aircraft.Conformal windows with high performance bring low aberrations,high aerodynamic performance,reliability in extreme working environments,and added value for aircraft.Through the past decades,remarkable advances have been achieved in manufacturing technologies for conformal windows,where the machining accuracy approaches the nanometer level,and the surface form becomes more complex.These advances are critical to aircraft development,and these manufacturing technologies also have significant reference values for other directions of the ultra-precision machining field.In this review,the infrared materials suitable for manufacturing conformal windows are introduced and compared with insights into their performances.The remarkable advances and concrete work accomplished by researchers are reviewed.The challenges in manufacturing conformal windows that should be faced in the future are discussed.

A Hybrid Approach for Predicting the Remaining Useful Life of Bearings Based on the RReliefF Algorithm and Extreme Learning Machine

Accurately predicting the remaining useful life(RUL)of bearings in mining rotating equipment is vital for mining enterprises.This research aims to distinguish the features associated with the RUL of bearings and propose a prediction model based on these selected features.This study proposes a hybrid predictive model to assess the RUL of rolling element bearings.The proposed model begins with the pre-processing of bearing vibration signals to reconstruct sixty time-domain features.The hybrid model selects relevant features from the sixty time-domain features of the vibration signal by adopting the RReliefF feature selection algorithm.Subsequently,the extreme learning machine(ELM)approach is applied to develop a predictive model of RUL based on the optimal features.The model is trained by optimizing its parameters via the grid search approach.The training datasets are adjusted to make them most suitable for the regression model using the cross-validation method.The proposed hybrid model is analyzed and validated using the vibration data taken from the public XJTU-SY rolling element-bearing database.The comparison is constructed with other traditional models.The experimental test results demonstrated that the proposed approach can predict the RUL of bearings with a reliable degree of accuracy.

Opto-mechanical-thermal integration analysis of Doppler asymmetric spatial heterodyne interferometer

In order to improve the detection accuracy of Doppler asymmetric spatial heterodyne(DASH)interferometer in harsh temperatures,an opto-mechanical-thermal integration analysis is carried out.Firstly,the correlation between the interference phase and temperature is established according to the working principle and the phase algorithm of the interferometer.Secondly,the optical mechanical thermal analysis model and thermal deformation data acquisition model are designed.The deformation data of the interference module and the imaging optical system at different temperatures are given by temperature load simulation analysis,and the phase error caused by thermal deformation is obtained by fitting.Finally,based on the wind speed error caused by thermal deformation of each component,a reasonable temperature control scheme is proposed.The results show that the interference module occupies the main cause,the temperature must be controlled within(20±0.05)℃,and the temperature control should be carried out for the temperature sensitive parts,and the wind speed error caused by the part is 3.8 m/s.The thermal drift between the magnification of the imaging optical system and the thermal drift of the relative position between the imaging optical system and the detector should occupy the secondary cause,which should be controlled within(20±2)℃,and the wind speed error caused by the part is 3.05 m/s.In summary,the wind measurement error caused by interference module,imaging optical system,and the relative position between the imaging optical system and the detector can be controlled within 6.85 m/s.The analysis and temperature control schemes presented in this paper can provide theoretical basis for DASH interferometer engineering applications.

Dynamic Modeling and Experimental Verification of an RPR Type Compliant Paralle Mechanism with Low Orders

Efficiency of calculating a dynamic response is an important point of the compliant mechanism for posture adjustment.Dynamic modeling with low orders of a 2R1T compliant parallel mechanism is studied in the paper.The mechanism with two out-of-plane rotational and one lifting degrees of freedom(DoFs)plays an important role in posture adjustment.Based on elastic beam theory,the stiffness matrix and mass matrix of the beam element are established where the moment of inertia is considered.To improve solving efficiency,a dynamic model with low orders of the mechanism is established based on a modified modal synthesis method.Firstly,each branch of the RPR type mechanism is divided into a substructure.Subsequently,a set of hypothetical modes of each substructure is obtained based on the C-B method.Finally,dynamic equation of the whole mechanism is established by the substructure assembly.A dynamic experiment is conducted to verify the dynamic characteristics of the compliant mechanism.

Accelerating the design of catalysts for CO_(2)electroreduction to HCOOH:A data-driven DFT-ML screening of dual atom catalysts

Dual-atom catalysts(DACs)have emerged as potential catalysts for effective electroreduction of CO_(2)due to their high atom utilization efficiency and multiple active sites.However,the screening of DACs remains a challenge due to the large number of possible combinations,making exhaustive experimental or computational screening a daunting task.In this study,a density functional theory(DFT)-based machine learning(ML)-accelerated(DFT-ML)hybrid approach was developed to test a set of 406 dual transition metal catalysts on N-doped graphene(NG)for the electroreduction of CO_(2)to HCOOH.The results showed that the ML algorithms can successfully capture the relationship between the descriptors of the DACs(inputs)and the limiting potential for HCOOH generation(output).Of the four ML algorithms studied in this work,the feedforward neural network model achieved the highest prediction accuracy(the highest correlation coefficient(R^(2))of 0.960 and the lowest root mean square error(RMSE)of 0.319 eV on the test set)and the predicted results were verified by DFT calculations with an average absolute error of 0.14 eV.The DFT-ML approach identified Co-Co-NG and Ir-Fe-NG as the most active and stable electrocatalysts for the electrochemical reduction of CO_(2)to HCOOH.The DFT-ML hybrid approach exhibits exceptional prediction accuracy while enabling a significant reduction in screening time by an impressive 64%compared to conventional DFT-only calculations.These results demonstrate the immense potential of using ML methods to accelerate the screening and rational design of efficient catalysts for various energy and environmental applications.

Adaptive Robust Control with Leakage-Type Control Law for Trajectory Tracking of Exoskeleton Robots

This paper investigates the trajectory following problem of exoskeleton robots with numerous constraints. However, as a typical nonlinear system with variability and parameter uncertainty, it is difficult to accurately achieve the trajectory tracking control for exoskeletons. In this paper, we present a robust control of trajectory tracking control based on servo constraints. Firstly, we consider the uncertainties (e.g., modelling errors, initial condition deviations, structural vibrations, and other unknown external disturbances) in the exoskeleton system, which are time-varying and bounded. Secondly, we establish the dynamic model and formulate a close-loop connection between the dynamic model and the real world. Then, the trajectory tracking issue is regarded as a servo constraint problem, and an adaptive robust control with leakage-type adaptive law is proposed with the guaranteed Lyapunov stability. Finally, we conduct numerical simulations to verify the performance of the proposed controller.

Development of practical postprocessor for 5-axis machine tool with non-orthogonal rotary axes

In order to develop a practical postprocessor for 5-axis machine tool,the general equations of numerically controlled(NC) data for 5-axis configurations with non-orthogonal rotary axes were exactly expressed by the inverse kinematics,and a windows-based postprocessor written with Visual Basic was developed according to the proposed algorithm.The developed postprocessor is a general system suitable for all kinds of 5-axis machines with orthogonal and non-orthogonal rotary axes.Through implementation of the developed postprocessor and verification by a cutting simulation and machining experiment,the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is confirmed.Compatibility is improved by allowing exchange of data formats such as rotational total center position(RTCP) controlled NC data,vector post NC data,and program object file(POF) cutter location(CL) data,and convenience is increased by adding the function of work-piece origin offset.Consequently,a practical post-processor for 5-axis machining is developed.

Metal Flowing of Involute Spline Cold Roll-beating Forming

The present research on involute spline cold roll-beating forming is mainly about the principles and motion relations of cold roll-beating,the theory of roller design,and the stress and strain field analysis of cold roll-beating,etc.However,the research on law of metal flow in the forming process of involute spline cold roll-beating is rare.According to the principle of involute spline cold roll-beating,the contact model between the rollers and the spline shaft blank in the process of cold roll-beating forming is established,and the theoretical analysis of metal flow in the cold roll-beating deforming region is proceeded.A finite element model of the spline cold roll-beating process is established,the formation mechanism of the involute spline tooth profile in cold roll-beating forming process is studied,and the node flow tracks of the deformation area are analyzed.The experimental research on the metal flow of cold roll-beating spline is conducted,and the metallographic structure variation,grain characteristics and metal flow line of the different tooth profile area are analyzed.The experimental results show that the particle flow directions of the deformable bodies in cold roll-beating deformation area are determined by the minimum moving resistance.There are five types of metal flow rules of the deforming region in the process of cold roll-beating forming.The characteristics of involute spline cold roll-beating forming are given,and the forming mechanism of involute spline cold roll-beating is revealed.This paper researches the law of metal flow in the forming process of involute spline cold roll-beating,which provides theoretical supports for solving the tooth profile forming quality problem.

Influence of Magnetic Reluctances of Magnetic Elements on Servo Valve Torque Motors

The current research of electro-hydraulic servo valves mainly focuses on the vibration, pressure oscillating and source of noise. Unfortunately, literatures relating to the study of the influence of the magnetic reluctances of the magnetic elements are rarely available. This paper aims to analyze the influence of the magnetic reluctances of the magnetic elements on torque motor. Considering these magnetic reluctances ignored in previous literatures, a new mathematical model of servo valve torque motor is developed and proposed based on the fundamental laws of electromagnetism. By using this new mathematical model and the previous models, electromagnetic torque constant and magnetic spring stiffness are evaluated for a given set of torque motor parameters. A computer simulation by using AMESim software is also performed for the same set of torque motor parameters to verify the proposed model. The theoretical results of electromagnetic torque constant and magnetic spring stiffness evaluated by the proposed model render closer agreement with the simulation results than those evaluated by the previous models. In addition, an experimental measurement of the magnetic flux densities in the air-gaps is carried out by using SFL218 servo valve torque motor. Compared with the theoretical results of the magnetic flux densities in the air-gaps evaluated by the previous models, the theoretical results evaluated by the proposed model also show better agreement with the experimental data. The proposed model shows the influence of the magnetic reluctances of the magnetic elements on the servo valve torque motor, and offers modified and analytical expressions to electromagnetic torque constant and magnetic spring stiffness. These modified and analytical expressions could provide guidance more accurately for a linear control design approach and sensitivity analysis on electro-hydraulic servo valves than the previous expressions.

Pinion Tooth Surface Generation Strategy of Spiral Bevel Gears

Aviation spiral bevel gears are often generated by spiral generated modified（SGM） roll method.In this style,pinion tooth surface modified generation strategy has an important influence on the meshing and contact performances.For the optimal contact pattern and transmission error function,local synthesis is applied to obtain the machine-tool settings of pinion.For digitized machine,four tooth surface generation styles of pinion are proposed.For every style,tooth contact analysis（TCA） is applied to obtain contact pattern and transmission error function.For the difference between TCA transmission error function and design objective curve,the degree of symmetry and agreement are defined and the corresponding sub-objective functions are established.Linear weighted combination method is applied to get an equivalent objective function to evaluate the shape of transmission error function.The computer programs for the process above are developed to analyze the meshing performances of the four pinion tooth surface generation styles for a pair of aviation spiral bevel gears with 38/43 teeth numbers.The four analytical results are compared with each other and show that the incomplete modified roll is optimal for this gear pair.This study is an expansion to generation strategy of spiral bevel gears,and offers new alternatives to computer numerical control（CNC） manufacture of spiral bevel gears.

Effect of spinning deformation on microstructure evolution and mechanical property of TA15 titanium alloy

Hot spinning of tubular workpiece of TA15 alloy was conducted on a CNC spinning machine, and the microstructure evolution during hot spinning and annealing was observed and mechanical properties of spun tubes were tested. The results show that with the increase of spinning pass, the fiber microstructure comes into being gradually in axial direction and the circumferential microstructure also stretches obviously along circumferential direction. At the same time, the tensile strength increases and elongation decreases not only in axial direction but also in circumferential direction. When the reduction ratio of wall thickness rises close to or over 40%, tensile strength increases and elongation decreases more rapidly, which means that tubular workpiece of titanium alloy can be strengthened bi-directionally by power spinning. The ductility of spun workpiece of TA15 alloy could be improved by annealing at the temperature no higher than recrystallization temperature with slight decrease of tensile strength.

3D printing of tissue engineering scaffolds:a focus on vascular regeneration

Tissue engineering is an emerging means for resolving the problems of tissue repair and organ replacement in regenerative medicine.Insufficient supply of nutrients and oxygen to cells in large-scale tissues has led to the demand to prepare blood vessels.Scaffold-based tissue engineering approaches are effective methods to form new blood vessel tissues.The demand for blood vessels prompts systematic research on fabrication strategies of vascular scaffolds for tissue engineering.Recent advances in 3D printing have facilitated fabrication of vascular scaffolds,contributing to broad prospects for tissue vascularization.This review presents state of the art on modeling methods,print materials and preparation processes for fabrication of vascular scaffolds,and discusses the advantages and application fields of each method.Specially,significance and importance of scaffold-based tissue engineering for vascular regeneration are emphasized.Print materials and preparation processes are discussed in detail.And a focus is placed on preparation processes based on 3D printing technologies and traditional manufacturing technologies including casting,electrospinning,and Lego-like construction.And related studies are exemplified.Transformation of vascular scaffolds to clinical application is discussed.Also,four trends of 3D printing of tissue engineering vascular scaffolds are presented,including machine learning,near-infrared photopolymerization,4D printing,and combination of self-assembly and 3D printing-based methods.

Dynamic Stability Analysis of Cages in High-Speed Oil-Lubricated Angular Contact Ball Bearings

To investigate the cage stability of high-speed oil-lubricated angular contact ball bearings, a dynamic model of cages is developed on the basis of Gupta’s and Meeks’ work. The model can simulate the cage motion under oil lubrication with all six degrees of freedom. Particularly, the model introduces oil-film damping and hysteresis damping, and deals with the collision contact as imperfect elastic contact. In addition, the effects of inner ring rotational speed, the ratio of pocket clearance to guiding clearance and applied load on the cage stability are investigated by simulating the cage motion with the model. The results can provide a theoretical basis for the design of ball bearing parameters.

Effect analysis of friction and damping on anti-backlash gear based on dynamics model with time-varying mesh stiffness

A nonlinear model of anti-backlash gear with time-varying friction and mesh stiffness was proposed for the further study on dynamic characteristics of anti-backlash gear. In order to improve the model precision, applied force analysis was completed in detail, and single or double tooth meshing states of two gear pairs at any timing were determined according to the meshing characteristic of anti-backlash gear. The influences of friction and variations of damping ratio on dynamic transmission error were analyzed finally by numerical calculation and the results show that anti-backlash gear can increase the composite mesh stiffness comparing with the mesh stiffness of the normal gear pair. At the pitch points where the frictions change their signs, additional impulsive effects are observed. The width of impulsive in the same value of center frequency is wider than that without friction, and the amplitude is lower. When gear pairs mesh in and out, damping can reduce the vibration and impact.

DEVELOPMENT AND MOTION ANALYSIS OF MINIATURE WHEEL-TRACK-LEGGED MOBILE ROBOT

A miniature wheel-track-legged mobile robot to carry out military and civilian missions in both indoor and outdoor environments is presented. Firstly, the mechanical design is discussed, which consists of four wheeled and four independently controlled tracked arms, embedded control system and teleoperation. Then the locomotion modes of the mobile robot and motion analysis are analyzed. The mobile robot can move using wheeled, tracked and legged modes, and it has the characteristics of posture-recovering, high mobility, small size and light weight. Finally, the effectiveness of the deve-loped mobile robot is confirmed by experiments such as posture recovering when tipped over, climb-ing stairs and traversing the high step.

Development of a Drilling and Coring Test-bed for Lunar Subsurface Exploration and Preliminary Experiments

Drill sampling has been widely employed as an effective way to acquire deep samples in extraterrestrial exploration. A novel sampling method, namely, flexible-tube coring, was adopted for the Chang＇e mission to acquire drilling cores without damaging stratification information. Since the extraterrestrial environment is uncertain and different from the terrestrial environment, automated drill sampling missions are at risk of failure. The principles of drilling and coring for the lunar subsurface should be fully tested and verified on earth before launch. This paper proposes a test-bed for conducting the aforementioned experiments on earth. The test-bed comprises a rotary-percussive drilling mechanism, penetrating mechanism, drilling medium container, and signal acquisition and control system. For granular soil, coring experiments indicate that the sampling method has a high coring rate greater than 80%. For hard rock, drilling experiments indicate that the percussive frequency greatly affects the drilling efficiency. A multi-layered simulant composed of granular soil and hard rock is built to test the adaptability of drilling and coring. To tackle complex drilling media, an intelligent drilling strategy based on online recognition is proposed to improve the adaptability of the sampling drill. The primary features of this research are the proposal of a scheme for drilling and coring a test-bed for validation on earth and the execution of drilling experiments in complex media.

Mechanical properties and friction-wear characteristics of VN/Ag multilayer coatings with heterogeneous and transition interfaces

The heterogeneous multilayer interface of VN/Ag coatings and transition multilayer interface of VN/Ag coatings were prepared on Inconel 781 and Si(100),and the microstructures,mechanical and tribological properties were investigated from 25 to 700℃.The results showed that the surface roughness and average grain size of VN/Ag coatings with transition multilayer interface are obviously larger than those of VN/Ag coatings with heterogeneous multilayer interface.The coatings with transition multilayer interface have higher adhesion force and hardness than the coatings with heterogeneous multilayer interface,and both coatings can effectively restrict the initiation and propagation of microcracks.Both coatings have excellent self-adaptive lubricating properties with a decrease of friction coefficient as the temperature increases,but their wear rates reveal a drastic increase.The phase composition of the worn area of both coatings was investigated,which indicates that a smooth Ag,Magnéli phase(V2O5)and bimetallic oxides(Ag3VO4 and AgVO3)can be responsible to the excellent lubricity of both coatings.To sum up,the coatings with transition multilayer interface have excellent adaptive lubricating properties and can properly control the diffusion rate and release rate of the lubricating phase,indicating that they have great potential in solving the problem of friction and wear of mechanical parts.

Solution Domain Boundary Analysis Method and Its Application in Parameter Spaces of Nonlinear Gear System

Mastering the influence laws of parameters on the solution structure of nonlinear systems is the basis of carrying out vibration isolation and control.Many researches on solution structure and bifurcation phenomenon in parameter spaces are carried out broadly in many fields,and the research on nonlinear gear systems has attracted the attention of many scholars.But there is little study on the solution domain boundary of nonlinear gear systems.For a periodic non-autonomous nonlinear dynamic system with several control parameters,a solution domain boundary analysis method of nonlinear systems in parameter spaces is proposed,which combines the cell mapping method based on Poincaré point mapping in phase spaces with the domain decomposition technique of parameter spaces.The cell mapping is known as a global analysis method to analyze the global behavior of a nonlinear dynamic system with finite dimensions,and the basic idea of domain decomposition techniques is to divide and rule.The method is applied to analyze the solution domain boundaries in parameter spaces of a nonlinear gear system.The distribution of different period domains,chaos domain and the domain boundaries between different period domains and chaotic domain are obtained in control parameter spaces constituted by meshing damping ratio with excitation frequency,fluctuation coefficient of meshing stiffness and average exciting force respectively by calculation.The calculation results show that as the meshing damping increases,the responses of the system change towards a single motion,while the variations of the excitation frequency,meshing stiffness and exciting force make the solution domain presenting diversity.The proposed research contribution provides evidence for vibration control and parameter design of the gear system,and confirms the validity of the solution domain boundary analysis method.