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1 – 10 of 19
Article
Publication date: 6 March 2024

Xiaohui Li, Dongfang Fan, Yi Deng, Yu Lei and Owen Omalley

This study aims to offer a comprehensive exploration of the potential and challenges associated with sensor fusion-based virtual reality (VR) applications in the context of…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to offer a comprehensive exploration of the potential and challenges associated with sensor fusion-based virtual reality (VR) applications in the context of enhanced physical training. The main objective is to identify key advancements in sensor fusion technology, evaluate its application in VR systems and understand its impact on physical training.

Design/methodology/approach

The research initiates by providing context to the physical training environment in today’s technology-driven world, followed by an in-depth overview of VR. This overview includes a concise discussion on the advancements in sensor fusion technology and its application in VR systems for physical training. A systematic review of literature then follows, examining VR’s application in various facets of physical training: from exercise, skill development and technique enhancement to injury prevention, rehabilitation and psychological preparation.

Findings

Sensor fusion-based VR presents tangible advantages in the sphere of physical training, offering immersive experiences that could redefine traditional training methodologies. While the advantages are evident in domains such as exercise optimization, skill acquisition and mental preparation, challenges persist. The current research suggests there is a need for further studies to address these limitations to fully harness VR’s potential in physical training.

Originality/value

The integration of sensor fusion technology with VR in the domain of physical training remains a rapidly evolving field. Highlighting the advancements and challenges, this review makes a significant contribution by addressing gaps in knowledge and offering directions for future research.

Details

Robotic Intelligence and Automation, vol. 44 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2754-6969

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 March 2024

Boyang Hu, Ling Weng, Kaile Liu, Yang Liu, Zhuolin Li and Yuxin Chen

Gesture recognition plays an important role in many fields such as human–computer interaction, medical rehabilitation, virtual and augmented reality. Gesture recognition using…

Abstract

Purpose

Gesture recognition plays an important role in many fields such as human–computer interaction, medical rehabilitation, virtual and augmented reality. Gesture recognition using wearable devices is a common and effective recognition method. This study aims to combine the inverse magnetostrictive effect and tunneling magnetoresistance effect and proposes a novel wearable sensing glove applied in the field of gesture recognition.

Design/methodology/approach

A magnetostrictive sensing glove with function of gesture recognition is proposed based on Fe-Ni alloy, tunneling magnetoresistive elements, Agilus30 base and square permanent magnets. The sensing glove consists of five sensing units to measure the bending angle of each finger joint. The optimal structure of the sensing units is determined through experimentation and simulation. The output voltage model of the sensing units is established, and the output characteristics of the sensing units are tested by the experimental platform. Fifteen gestures are selected for recognition, and the corresponding output voltages are collected to construct the data set and the data is processed using Back Propagation Neural Network.

Findings

The sensing units can detect the change in the bending angle of finger joints from 0 to 105 degrees and a maximum error of 4.69% between the experimental and theoretical values. The average recognition accuracy of Back Propagation Neural Network is 97.53% for 15 gestures.

Research limitations/implications

The sensing glove can only recognize static gestures at present, and further research is still needed to recognize dynamic gestures.

Practical implications

A new approach to gesture recognition using wearable devices.

Social implications

This study has a broad application prospect in the field of human–computer interaction.

Originality/value

The sensing glove can collect voltage signals under different gestures to realize the recognition of different gestures with good repeatability, which has a broad application prospect in the field of human–computer interaction.

Details

Sensor Review, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0260-2288

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 March 2024

Serkan Ağseren and Süleyman Şimşek

This study aims to prevent occupational accidents occurring in the manufacturing industry by means of touch sensors. When the occupational accidents occurring in the manufacturing…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to prevent occupational accidents occurring in the manufacturing industry by means of touch sensors. When the occupational accidents occurring in the manufacturing industry around the world are examined, it is seen that approximately 88% of occupational accidents occur from “dangerous movement” and 10% from “dangerous situation.” Although some studies related to safety culture studies, safety studies in design and collective or personal protective measures have been started, they have not been brought to an adequate level. It is observed that studies on dangerous movements continue even in many developed countries. In this study, first of all, a literature study was conducted. Occupational accidents experienced in the manufacturing sector in Turkey have been examined. In line with these investigations, a prototype circuit protection system has been developed that can prevent accidents caused by dangerous movement. With the circuit, its applicability and effectiveness were measured by conducting experiments on different manufacturing machines. The prototype circuit applied in this paper was made based on the logic of protective measures made on sawstop machines used in different sectors. In the experimental study conducted, it was observed that in 30 experiments conducted with a prototype on ten separate manufacturing machines, it stopped the machines 26 times at minimum and 29 times at maximum. On average, when looking at the system efficiency values, it was seen that the system was 81.6% effective, and it was observed that positive results could be obtained when converted into a real product.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, their contribution to the prevention of work accidents caused by presses and rotary accents from machines used in the manufacturing industry by means of touch sensors used in Industry 4.0 was examined.

Findings

With Industry 4.0, different automation systems began to be switched in many areas and sectors. Studies have started on different sensors used also in Industry 4.0 in occupational health and safety studies, but it is seen that they have not been applied at an adequate level. It should be designed in such a way as to prevent errors or stop these errors in the studies performed. Today, sensors are produced at much lower costs than before. In addition, the constantly developing technology provides great convenience for these applications.

Research limitations/implications

This study was applied for press and cylinder machines from manufacturing machines. This study has been tried for machines producing a maximum pressure of 300 tons.

Originality/value

A prototype was designed. Trials were done on some machines by prototype. There could be improve and find different solutions for safety problems in the industry with this perspective.

Details

Sensor Review, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0260-2288

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 October 2023

WenFeng Qin, Yunsheng Xue, Hao Peng, Gang Li, Wang Chen, Xin Zhao, Jie Pang and Bin Zhou

The purpose of this study is to design a wearable medical device as a human care platform and to introduce the design details, key technologies and practical implementation…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to design a wearable medical device as a human care platform and to introduce the design details, key technologies and practical implementation methods of the system.

Design/methodology/approach

A multi-channel data acquisition scheme based on PCI-E (rapid interconnection of peripheral components) was proposed. The flexible biosensor is integrated with the flexible data acquisition card with monitoring capability, and the embedded (device that can operate independently) chip STM32F103VET6 is used to realize the simultaneous processing of multi-channel human health parameters. The human health parameters were transferred to the upper computer LabVIEW by intelligent clothing through USB or wireless Bluetooth to complete the transmission and processing of clinical data, which facilitates the analysis of medical data.

Findings

The smart clothing provides a mobile medical cloud platform for wearable medical through cloud computing, which can continuously monitor the body's wrist movement, body temperature and perspiration for 24 h. The result shows that each channel is completely accurate to the top computer display, which can meet the expected requirements, and the wearable instant care system can be applied to healthcare.

Originality/value

The smart clothing in this study is based on the monitoring and diagnosis of textiles, and the electronic communication devices can cooperate and interact to form a wearable textile system that provides medical monitoring and prevention services to individuals in the fastest and most accurate way. Each channel of the system is precisely matched to the display screen of the host computer and meets the expected requirements. As a real-time human health protection platform technology, continuous monitoring of human vital signs can complete the application of human motion detection, medical health monitoring and human–computer interaction. Ultimately, such an intelligent garment will become an integral part of our everyday clothing.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. 36 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 September 2022

Neeraj Yadav, Neda Sadeghi and Julian Kang

Tactile communication that relies on the human sense of touch replicated using vibration motors is increasingly being explored for seamless communication on construction jobsite…

Abstract

Purpose

Tactile communication that relies on the human sense of touch replicated using vibration motors is increasingly being explored for seamless communication on construction jobsite. However, the technological efficacy cannot secure the users’ acceptability of the tactile communication devices. This study aims to assess the factors affecting the wearability of such a portable tactile device based on the responses from practicing professionals.

Design/methodology/approach

The investigation adapted a three-step phenomenological interviewing approach to seek feedback from construction personnel in Texas, the USA, regarding the viability of wearable tactile communication. The interviewees expressed various opinions about the on-body placement upon exposure to a portable tactile feedback prototype developed for this study, which was used to derive inferences regarding the factors affecting its on-field acceptability.

Findings

All the participants of the round-table study (11 out of 11) considered tactile feedback as a viable mode of communication on construction jobsite. Seven professionals supported the integration of a tactile device with the hard hat, whereas the rest preferred tactile eyeglasses. Weatherability, rechargeability, traceability, safety and social receptivity were identified as the major factors affecting the on-body placement of the wearable tactile communication device.

Originality/value

This paper presents a roadmap to gain construction industry opinion on the factors that can affect the on-body placement of a wearable tactile communication device. The five aforementioned factors impacting tactile communication acceptability were used to evaluate 10 potential on-body placements. The findings have implications for research and development of wearable tactile devices and the subsequent acceptability of such a device on the jobsite.

Article
Publication date: 25 March 2024

Xiaoxia Zhang, Jin Zhang, Peiyan Du and Guohe Wang

In this paper, the brain potential changes caused by touching fabrics for handle evaluation were recorded by event related potential (ERP) method, compared with subjective…

Abstract

Purpose

In this paper, the brain potential changes caused by touching fabrics for handle evaluation were recorded by event related potential (ERP) method, compared with subjective evaluation scores and physical index of KES, explore the cognitive mechanism of the transformation of tactile sensation into neural impulses triggered by subtle mechanical stimuli such as material, texture, density and morphology in fabrics. By combining subjective evaluation of fabric tactile sensation, objective physical properties of fabrics and objective neurobiological signals, explore the neurophysiological mechanism of tactile cognition and the signal characteristics and time process of tactile information processing.

Design/methodology/approach

The ERP technology was first proposed by a British psychologist named Grey Walter. It is an imaging technique of noninvasive brain cognition, whose potential changes are related to the human physical and mental activities. ERP is different from electroencephalography (EEG) and evoked potentials (EP) on the fact that it cannot only record stimulated physical information which is transmitted to brain, but also response to the psychological activities which related to attention, identification, comparison, memory, judgment and cognition as well as to human’s neural physiological changes which are caused by cognitive process of the feeling by stimulation.

Findings

According to potential changes in the cerebral cortex evoked by touching four types of silk fabrics, human brain received the physical stimulation in the early stage (50 ms) of fabrics handle evaluation, and the P50 component amplitude showed negative correlation with fabric smoothness sensations. Around 200 ms after tactile stimulus onset, the amplitude of P200 component show positive correlation with the softness sensation of silk fabrics. The relationship between the amplitude of P300 and the sense of smoothness and softness need further evidence to proof.

Originality/value

In this paper, the brain potential changes caused by touching fabrics for handle evaluation were recorded by event related potential (ERP) method, compared with subjective evaluation scores and physical index of KES, the results shown that the maximum amplitude of P50 component evoked by fabric touching is related to the fabrics’ smoothness and roughness emotion, which means in the early stage processing of tactile sensation, the rougher fabrics could arouse more attention. In addition, the amplitude of P200 component shows positive correlation with the softness sensation of silk fabrics.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 December 2023

Guodong Sa, Haodong Bai, Zhenyu Liu, Xiaojian Liu and Jianrong Tan

The assembly simulation in tolerance analysis is one of the most important steps for the tolerance design of mechanical products. However, most assembly simulation methods are…

89

Abstract

Purpose

The assembly simulation in tolerance analysis is one of the most important steps for the tolerance design of mechanical products. However, most assembly simulation methods are based on the rigid body assumption, and those assembly simulation methods considering deformation have a poor efficiency. This paper aims to propose a novel efficient and precise tolerance analysis method based on stable contact to improve the efficiency and reliability of assembly deformation simulation.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed method comprehensively considers the initial rigid assembly state, the assembly deformation and the stability examination of assembly simulation to improve the reliability of tolerance analysis results. The assembly deformation of mating surfaces was first calculated based on the boundary element method with optimal initial assembly state, then the stability of assembly simulation results was assessed by the density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise algorithm to improve the reliability of tolerance analysis. Finally, combining the small displacement torsor theory, the tolerance scheme was statistically analyzed based on sufficient samples.

Findings

A case study of a guide rail model demonstrated the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Research limitations/implications

The present study only considered the form error when generating the skin model shape, and the waviness and the roughness of the matching surface were not considered.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the proposed method is original in the assembly simulation considering stable contact, which can effectively ensure the reliability of the assembly simulation while taking into account the computational efficiency.

Details

Robotic Intelligence and Automation, vol. 44 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2754-6969

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 January 2024

Chang Chen, Yuandong Liang, Jiten Sun, Chen Lin and Yehao Wen

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a variable distance pneumatic gripper with embedded flexible sensors, which can effectively grasp fragile and flexible objects.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a variable distance pneumatic gripper with embedded flexible sensors, which can effectively grasp fragile and flexible objects.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the motion principle of the three-jaw chuck and the pneumatic “fast pneumatic network” (FPN), a variable distance pneumatic holder embedded with a flexible sensor is designed. A structural design plan and preparation process of a soft driver is proposed, using carbon nanotubes as filler in a polyurethane (PU) sponge. A flexible bending sensor based on carbon nanotube materials was produced. A static model of the soft driver cavity was established, and a bending simulation was performed. Based on the designed variable distance soft pneumatic gripper, a real-time monitoring and control system was developed. Combined with the developed pneumatic control system, gripping experiments on objects of different shapes and easily deformable and fragile objects were conducted.

Findings

In this paper, a variable-distance pneumatic gripper embedded with a flexible sensor was designed, and a control system for real-time monitoring and multi-terminal input was developed. Combined with the developed pneumatic control system, a measure was carried out to measure the relationship between the bending angle, output force and air pressure of the soft driver. Flexible bending sensor performance test. The gripper diameter and gripping weight were tested, and the maximum gripping diameter was determined to be 182 mm, the maximum gripping weight was approximately 900 g and the average measurement error of the bending sensor was 5.91%. Objects of different shapes and easily deformable and fragile objects were tested.

Originality/value

Based on the motion principle of the three-jaw chuck and the pneumatic FPN, a variable distance pneumatic gripper with embedded flexible sensors is proposed by using the method of layered and step-by-step preparation. The authors studied the gripper structure design, simulation analysis, prototype preparation, control system construction and experimental testing. The results show that the designed flexible pneumatic gripper with variable distance can grasp common objects.

Details

Industrial Robot: the international journal of robotics research and application, vol. 51 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 March 2024

Yu Huang, Xiaofen Ji, Lina Zhai and Francisca Margarita Ocran

Breast cancer has become the largest cancer in the world today. Health problems for women with breast cancer need to be addressed urgently. This study aims to select the best…

Abstract

Purpose

Breast cancer has become the largest cancer in the world today. Health problems for women with breast cancer need to be addressed urgently. This study aims to select the best method for preparing temperature-sensitive sports underwear, and to verify the feasibility of using K-type thermocouple threads in underwear fabrics.

Design/methodology/approach

In the experiments, two samples were designed for temperature-sensitive performance tests and the effects produced by different outer layer structures were investigated. In the second step, K-type thermocouple wires were integrated into sports underwear. The comfort and feasibility of the temperature-sensitive underwear were investigated.

Findings

It was finally verified to obtain the best comfort and temperature-sensing performance of K-type thermocouple filaments integrated into sports underwear with plain stitching.

Originality/value

The underwear has a certain prospect for the application of smart apparel based on breast cancer health monitoring, which is of some significance for monitoring smart apparel.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 March 2024

Rong Jiang, Bin He, Zhipeng Wang, Xu Cheng, Hongrui Sang and Yanmin Zhou

Compared with traditional methods relying on manual teaching or system modeling, data-driven learning methods, such as deep reinforcement learning and imitation learning, show…

Abstract

Purpose

Compared with traditional methods relying on manual teaching or system modeling, data-driven learning methods, such as deep reinforcement learning and imitation learning, show more promising potential to cope with the challenges brought by increasingly complex tasks and environments, which have become the hot research topic in the field of robot skill learning. However, the contradiction between the difficulty of collecting robot–environment interaction data and the low data efficiency causes all these methods to face a serious data dilemma, which has become one of the key issues restricting their development. Therefore, this paper aims to comprehensively sort out and analyze the cause and solutions for the data dilemma in robot skill learning.

Design/methodology/approach

First, this review analyzes the causes of the data dilemma based on the classification and comparison of data-driven methods for robot skill learning; Then, the existing methods used to solve the data dilemma are introduced in detail. Finally, this review discusses the remaining open challenges and promising research topics for solving the data dilemma in the future.

Findings

This review shows that simulation–reality combination, state representation learning and knowledge sharing are crucial for overcoming the data dilemma of robot skill learning.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no surveys that systematically and comprehensively sort out and analyze the data dilemma in robot skill learning in the existing literature. It is hoped that this review can be helpful to better address the data dilemma in robot skill learning in the future.

Details

Robotic Intelligence and Automation, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2754-6969

Keywords

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