Search results

Reviews the benefits and potential application of tactile sensors for use with robots.

Includes the most recent advances in both the design/manufacturing of various tactile sensors and their applications in different industries. Although these types of sensors have been adopted in a considerable number of areas, the applications such as, medical, agricultural/livestock and food, grippers/manipulators design, prosthetic, and environmental studies have gained more popularity and are presented in this paper.

Robots can perform very useful and repetitive tasks in controlled environments. However, when the robots are required to handle the unstructured and changing environments, there is a need for more elaborate means to improve their performance. In this scenario, tactile sensors can play a major role. In the unstructured environments, the robots must be able to grasp objects (or tissues, in the case of medical robots) and move objects from one location to another.

In this work, the emphasis was on the most interesting and fast developing areas of the tactile sensors applications, including, medical, agriculture and food, grippers and manipulators design, prosthetic, and environmental studies.

This paper describes the design, fabrication, testing, and mathematical modeling of a supported membrane type polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) tactile sensor. Using the designed membrane type sensor (MTS), it is shown that the entire surface of the PVDF film can be employed as a means of detecting the force magnitude and its application point. This is accomplished by utilizing only three sensing elements. Unlike the array type tactile sensors, in which the regions between the neighboring sensing elements are not active, all the surface points of the sensor are practically active in this MTS. A geometric mapping process is introduced, thereby, the loci of the isocharge contours for the three sensing elements are determined by applying force on various points of the sensor surface. In order to form a criterion for the comparison between the experimental findings and the theoretical analysis data, and also to determine the magnitude of the stresses generated in the membrane, finite element modeling is used. The correlation between the theoretical predictions and experimental findings is proven to be reasonable. Potentially, the designed MTS can be incorporated into various medical probes for tactile imaging.

This paper describes design, theoretical, and experimental analysis of a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) tactile sensor, which could be integrated with an endoscopic grasper. The sensor exhibited high force sensitivity and linearity. Finite element analysis was employed to study the structural analysis of the tactile sensor with various load application and the results of this modelling are presented as the shear stress distribution and deformation contours. A comparison was made between the theoretical modeling and the experimental results.

To measure the force applied to the tissue, the traditional endoscopic graspers might be equipped with a kind of tactile force sensor.

This paper presents the design, analysis, microfabrication and testing of a piezoelectric and capacitive endoscopic tactile sensor with four teeth. This tactile sensor, which is tooth‐like for safe grasping, comprises a Polyvinylidene Fluoride, PVDF film for high sensitivity and is silicon‐based for micromachinability. Being a hybrid sensor, employing both capacitive and piezoelectric techniques, it is possible to measure both the static and dynamic loads. Another feature, to be considered in its design, is the ability to detect pulse. The proposed sensor can be integrated with the tip of any current commercial endoscopic grasper without changing its original design. It is shown that using an array of sensor units, the position of the applied load can still be determined.

The static response of the sensor is obtained by applying a static force on the tooth and measuring the change in capacitance between the bottom electrode of the PVDF film and the electrode deposited on the surface of the etched cavity. The dynamic response of the device is determined by applying a sinusoidal force on the tooth of the sensor and measuring the output voltage from the PVDF film. The experimental results are compared with both analytical and finite element results. The sensor exhibits high sensitivity and linearity.

Capaciyive and piezoelectic are used to obtain both dynamic,pulse, and static loads. The sensor micromachined so, it can be used in various endoscopic applications.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new tactile array sensor into the medical field to enhance current robotic minimally invasive surgery (RMIS) procedures that are still limited in scope and versatility. In this paper, a novel idea is proposed in which a tactile sensor array can measure rate of displacement in addition to force and displacement of any viscoelastic material during the course of a single touch. To verify this new array sensor, several experiments were conducted on a diversity of tissues from which it was concluded that this newly developed sensory offers definite and significant enhancements.

The proposed array sensor is capable of extracting force, displacement and displacement rate in the course of a single touch on tissues. Several experiments have been conducted on different tissues and the array sensor to verify the concept and to verify the output of the sensor.

It is shown that this new generation of sensors are required to distinguish the difference in hardness degrees of materials with viscoelastic behavior.

In this paper, a new generation of tactile sensors is proposed that is capable of measuring indentation time in addition to force and displacement. This idea is completely unique and has not been submitted to any conference or journal.

The paper aims to discuss the design, fabrication, communication, testing, and simulation of a new tactile probe called Elastirob used to measure the modulus of elasticity of biological soft tissues and soft materials.

Both finite element modeling and experimental approaches were used in this analysis. Elastirob, with the ability to apply different rates of strain on testing specimens, is accompanied by a tactile display called TacPlay. This display is a custom‐designed user‐friendly interface and is able to evaluate the elasticity in each part of the stress‐strain curve.

A new device is being constructed that can measure the modulus of elasticity of a sensed object. The results of Elastirob applied on two specimens are reported and compared by the results of experiments obtained by an industrial testing machine. Acceptable validations of Elastirob were achieved from the comparisons.

The designed system can be miniaturized to be used in minimally invasive surgeries in the future.

Elastirob determines the elasticity by drawing the stress‐strain curve and then calculating its slope. The combination of the force sensing resistor, microcontroller and stepper motor provides Elastirob with the ability to apply different rates of strain on testing specimens.

It can be employed in both in vivo and in vitro tests for measuring stiffness of touch objects. For the first time, a device has been designed and tested which is a few orders of magnitude smaller than its industrial counterparts and has considerably lower weight.

Accumulating evidence highlights the importance of microbiota-directed intervention in neuropsychiatric disorders. This study aims to investigate the effects of probiotic supplements as an adjunct therapy in combination with Ritalin in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Children with ADHD, aged 6–12 years, who had an intelligent quotient of ≥70 were enrolled in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to either the group that received probiotics or the group that received the placebo in addition to the weight-adjusted dose of Ritalin. Parents were asked to complete the revised Conners Parent Rating Scale–short version (CPRS–RS), and the psychiatrist completed the seven-point Clinical Global Impression–Severity (CGI–S) scale. Two study groups were compared in three time points, including T1 (before intervention), T2 (at the end of fourth week) and T3 (at the end of the eighth week).

A total of 38 participants completed the study. After eight weeks of intervention, the probiotic group had a significant improvement regarding CPRS–RS scores in T2 (9.4 unit, p = 0.014) and T3 (18.6 unit, p < 0.001), compared to placebo. In addition, children in the probiotic group had 0.7 unit lower CGI in T3 (p = 0.018) than the placebo group. A significant reduction of CGI scores was observed in each interval (T2 vs T1, T3 vs T2 and T3 vs T1; p < 0.05). This significant change in CGI score between intervals was also detected in the placebo group in T2 vs T1 (p = 0.002) and T3 vs T1 (p < 0.001). Mean CPRS scores of the groups were different in T2 and T3 (p = 0.011 and p < 0.001, respectively) and mean CGI scores of the two study groups were different in T3 (p = 0.018).

Eight weeks of supplementation with probiotics had a favorable effect on symptoms and severity of ADHD. Therefore, probiotics as an adjuvant treatment might have a promising efficacy regarding the management of ADHD.

Respect for human rights is one of the most important criteria for the delivery of medical care in hospitals. Ethical predictability is useful to identify human rights concerns in health-care organizations. The hospital environment and the flow of its processes make the topic of predictability much more sensitive and, at the same time, more difficult than other organizations. The purpose of this paper is to determine and compare the ethical predictive factors in selected hospitals in Mazandaran province.

This cross-sectional survey using multilevel sampling (four hospitals, 938 patients, 186 staff) was conducted in the first half of 2017. The measurement instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of seven areas of service recipients’ rights, patient safety, patient satisfaction, human resources, governance, organizational and financial commitments. The analysis of the collected data was performed through SPSS V. 22 and one-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey’s tests.

Ethical predictability was higher in social security hospitals compared to private and public hospitals, and patient safety and patient rights showed higher magnitudes compared to other dimensions. Financial domain, patient satisfaction, governance and organizational commitment formed the middle priorities in ethical predictability, and human resources had the least average in ethical predictability in the selected hospitals in the province.

Identifying the factors which influence ethical predictability, in addition to promoting service recipients’ rights and patient satisfaction, is of great help to the managers and health service authorities, so that they can have a better understanding of these factors and, consequently, make appropriate micro and macro-decisions to provide better services.