Structured poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) chambers were designed and fabricated to enhance the signaling of human Embryonic Stem Cell (hESC) - derived neuronal networks on Microelectrode Array (MEA) platforms. The structured PDMS chambers enable cell seeding on restricted areas and thus, reduce the amount of needed coating materials and cells. In addition, the neuronal cells formed spontaneously active networks faster in the structured PDMS chambers than that in control chambers. In the PDMS chambers, the neuronal networks were more active and able to develop their signaling into organized signal trains faster than control cultures. The PDMS chamber design enables much more repeatable analysis and rapid growth of functional neuronal network in vitro. Moreover, due to its easy and cheap fabrication process, new configurations can be easily fabricated based on investigator requirements.

A superhydrophobic manganese oxide/polystyrene (MnO2/PS) nanocomposite coating was fabricated by a facile spraying process. The mixture solution of MnO2/PS was poured into a spray gun, and then sprayed onto the copper substrate using 0.2 MPa nitrogen gas to construct superhydrophobic coating. The wettability of the composite coating was measured by sessile drop method. When the weight ratio of MnO2 to PS is 0.5:1, the maximum of contact angle (CA) (140?) is obtained at drying temperature of 180 ?C. As the content of MnO2 increases, the maximum of CA (155?) is achieved at 100 ?C. Surface morphologies and chemical composition were analyzed to understand the effect of the content of MnO2 nanorods and the drying temperature on CA. The results show that the wettability of the coating can be controlled by the content of MnO2 nanorods and the drying temperature. Using the proposed method, the thickness of the coating can be controlled by the spraying times. If damaged, the coating can be repaired just by spraying the mixture solution again.

During slow level flight of a pigeon, a caudal muscle involved in tail movement, the levator caudae pars vertebralis, is activated at a particular phase with the pectoralis wing muscle. Inspired by mechanisms for the control of stability in flying animals, especially the role of the tail in avian flight, we investigated how periodic tail motion linked to motion of the wings affects the longitudinal stability of ornithopter flight. This was achieved by using an integrative ornithopter flight simulator that included aeroelastic behaviour of the flexible wings and tail. Trim flight trajectories of the simulated ornithopter model were calculated by time integration of the nonlinear equations of a flexible multi-body dynamics coupled with a semi-empirical flapping-wing and tail aerodynamic models. The unique trim flight characteristics of ornithopter, Limit-Cycle Oscillation, were found under the sets of wingbeat frequency and tail elevation angle, and the appropriate phase angle of tail motion was determined by parameter studies minimizing the amplitude of the oscillations. The numerical simulation results show that tail actuation synchronized with wing motion suppresses the oscillation of body pitch angle over a wide range of wingbeat frequencies.

A CPG control mechanism is proposed for hopping motion control of biped robot in unpredictable environment. Based on analysis of robot motion and biological observation of animal’s control mechanism, the motion control task is divided into two simple parts: motion sequence control and output force control. Inspired by a two-level CPG model, a two-level CPG control mechanism is constructed to coordinate the drivers of robot joint, while various feedback information are introduced into the control mechanism. Interneurons within the control mechanism are modeled to generate motion rhythm and pattern promptly for motion sequence control; motoneurons are modeled to control output forces of joint drivers in real time according to feedbacks. The control system can perceive changes caused by unknown perturbations and environment changes according to feedback information, and adapt to unpredictable environment by adjusting outputs of neurons. The control mechanism is applied to a biped hopping robot in unpredictable environment on simulation platform, and stable adaptive motions are obtained.

For controlling dexterous prosthetic hand with a high number of active Degrees of Freedom (DOF), it is necessary to reliably extract control volitions of finger motions from the human body. In this study, a large variety of finger motions are discriminated based on the diversities of the pressure distribution produced by the mechanical actions of muscles on the forearm. The pressure distribution patterns corresponding to the motions were measured by sensor array which is composed of 32 Force Sensitive Resistor (FSR) sensors. In order to map the pressure patterns with different finger motions, a multiclass classifier was designed based on the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm. The multi-subject experiments show that it is possible to identify as many as seventeen different finger motions, including individual finger motions and multi-finger grasping motions, with the accuracy above 99% in the in-session validation. Further, the cross-session validation demonstrates that the performance of the proposed method is robust for use if the FSR array is not reset. The results suggest that the proposed method has great application prospects for the control of multi-DOF dexterous hand prosthesis.

The purpose of this study was to develop a wavelet-based method to predict muscle forces from surface electromyography (EMG) signals in vivo. The weightlifting motor task was implemented as the case study. EMG signals of biceps brachii, triceps brachii and deltoid muscles were recorded when the subject carried out a standard weightlifting motor task. The wavelet-based algorithm was used to process raw EMG signals and extract features which could be input to the Hill-type muscle force models to predict muscle forces. At the same time, the musculoskeletal model of subject’s weightlifting motor task was built and simulated using the Computed Muscle Control (CMC) method via a motion capture experiment. The results of CMC were compared with the muscle force predictions by the proposed method. The correlation coefficient between two results was 0.99 (p<0.01). However, the proposed method was easier and more efficiency than the CMC method. It has potential to be used clinically to predict muscle forces in vivo.

In this work, a friction and wear simulator was used to reproduce the Anterior-Posterior (AP) sliding and the Flex-ion-Extension (FE) rotation generated in the knee joint during human gait cycle. We chose to simplify the contact geometry between the Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) femoral component and tibial insert. A 304L stainless steel cylinder which replaces the femoral component was loaded onto a flat High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) block which replaces the tibial insert. The tribological behavior of the considered contact was analyzed by tracking the number of cycles, the friction coefficient, the roughness of the wear track on HDPE, the HDPE weight loss and the damage mechanisms. The friction coefficient shows a gradual increase with the number of cycles for both AP and FE kinematics. The evolution of friction coefficient with the number of cycles is not affected by the value of the imposed normal load in the case of AP sliding. For the FE rotation, decreased friction coefficient is obtained when the imposed normal load increases. For both considered AP and FE kinematics, the roughness of the wear track on the HDPE is not affected by the imposed normal load. It shows a progressive decrease when the number of cycles increases. The wear of HDPE obeys the Archard law and the wear coefficient increases with the normal force. For a given value of normal load, the obtained wear coefficient for the AP sliding is larger than that obtained for FE rotation. A predominant adhesive wear mechanism was identified for both AP and FE kinematics. Under the same normal load, damage development in terms of plastic deformation, micro-cracking and debonding is more pronounced for the AP sliding if compared with the FE rotation. For a given kinematics, the damage severity increases with the normal load. This finding is in good agreement with the predicted values of the wear coefficient according to the Archard law.

Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) can be used as an electrically activated actuator, which has been widely used in artificial muscles, bionic robotic actuators, and dynamic sensors since it has the advantages of large deformation, light weight, flexibility, and low driving voltage, etc. To further improve the mechanical properties of IPMC, this paper reports a new method for preparing organic-inorganic hybrid Nafion/SiO2 membranes. Beginning from cast Nafion membranes, IPMCs with various tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) contents were fabricated by electroless plating. The elastic moduli of cast Nafion membranes were measured with nano indenters, the water contents were calculated, and the cross sections of Nafion membranes were observed by scanning electron microscopy. The blocking force, the displacement, and the electric current of IPMCs were then measured on a test apparatus. The results show that the blocking force increases as the TEOS content gradually increases, and that both the displacement and the electric current initially decrease, then increase. When the TEOS content is 1.5%, the IPMC shows the best improved mechanical properties. Finally, the IPMC with the best improved performance was used to successfully actuate the artificial eye and tested.

The leaf of lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) exhibits exceptional ability to maintain the opening status even under adverse weather conditions, but the mechanism behind this phenomenon is less investigated. In this paper, lotus leaves were investigated using environmental scanning electron microscopy in order to illustrate this mechanism. The macro-observations show that the pri-mary veins are oriented symmetrically from leaf center and then develop into fractal distribution, with net-shaped arrangement of the side veins. Further micro-observations show that all the veins are composed of honeycomb micro-tubes viewed from cross section, the inner of micro-tubes are patterned with extended closed-hexagons from vertical section. Different positions of leaf possess diverse mechanical properties by size variation of diameter and inner hexagons of veins, which is theoretically analyzed by building a regular honeycomb model. Specifically, the central area of lotus tends to be stiffer while its margin be softer. These special distribution and composition of the veins mainly account for the distinct behavior of lotus.

Flow control can effectively reduce the aerodynamic noise radiated from a circular cylinder. As one of the flow control methods, a bionic method, inspired by the serrations at the leading edge of owls’ wing, was proposed in this paper. The effects of bionic serrated structures arranged on the upper and lower sides of a cylinder on the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performance of the cylinder were numerically investigated. At a free stream speed of 24.5 m•s−1, corresponding to Reynolds number of 1.58×104, the simulation results indicate that the bionic serrated structures can decrease the frequency of the vortex shedding and control the fluctuating aerodynamic force acting on the cylinder, thus reduce the aerodynamic noise. A qualitative view of the vorticity in the wake of the cylinder suggest that the serrated structures reduce aerodynamic sound by suppressing the unsteady motion of vortices.

The studies of bionics reveal that some aquatic animals and winged insects have developed an unsmoothed surface pos-sessing good characteristics of drag reduction. In this paper, four types of bionic surfaces, placoid-shaped, V-shaped, rib-let-shaped, and ridge-shaped grooved surfaces, are employed as the microchannel surfaces for the purpose of reducing pressure loss. Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM), a new numerical approach on mescoscopic level, is used to conduct the numerical investigations. The results show that the micro-grooved surfaces possess the drag reduction performance. The existence of the vortices formed within the grooves not only decrease the shear force between fluid and wall but also minimize the contact area between fluid and walls, which can lead to a reduction of pressure loss. The drag reduction coefficient (?) for these four types of micro-structures could be generalized as follows: ?ridge-shaped > ?V-shaped > ?placoid-shaped > ?riblet-shaped. Besides, the geometrical optimizations for the ridge-shaped grooves, which have the highest drag reduction performance, are performed as well. The results suggest that, for the purpose of drag reduction, the ridge-shaped grooves with smaller width to height ratio are recom-mended for the lower Reynolds number flow, while the ridge-shaped grooves with larger width to height ratio are be more suitable for the larger Reynolds number flow.

Quantitative understanding of mechanical actuation of intricate Pneumatic Artificial Muscle (PAM) actuators is technically required in control system design for effective real-time implementation. This paper presents mathematical modeling of the PAM driven by hydrogen-gas pressure due to absorption and desorption of metal hydride. Empirical models of both mechanical actuation of industrial PAM and chemical reaction of the metal hydride-LaNi5 are derived systematically where their interac-tions comply with the continuity principle and energy balance in describing actual dynamic behaviors of the PAM actuator (PAM and hydriding/dehydriding-reaction bed). Simulation studies of mechanical actuation under various loads are conducted so as to present dynamic responses of the PAM actuators. From the promising results, it is intriguing that the heat input for the PAM actuator can be supplied to, or pumped from the reaction bed, in such a way that absorption and desorption of hydrogen gas take place, respectively, in controlling the pressure of hydrogen gas within the PAM actuator. Accordingly, this manipulation results in desired mechanical actuation of the PAM actuator in practical uses.

A mathematical model is constructed to examine the characteristics of three layered blood flow through the oscillatory cylindrical tube (stenosed arteries). The proposed model basically consists three layers of blood (viscous fluids with different viscosities) named as core layer (red blood cells), intermediate layer (platelets/white blood cells) and peripheral layer (plasma). The analysis was restricted to propagation of small-amplitude harmonic waves, generated due to blood flow whose wave length is larger compared to the radius of the arterial segment. The impacts of viscosity of fluid in peripheral layer and intermediate layer on the interfaces, average flow rate, mechanical efficiency, trapping and reflux are discussed with the help of numerical and computational results. This model is the generalized form of the preceding models. On the basis of present discussion, it is found that the size of intermediate and peripheral layers reduces in expanded region and enhances in contracted region with the increasing viscosity of fluid in peripheral layer, whereas, opposite effect is observed for viscosity of fluid in intermediate layer. Final conclusion is that the average flow rate and mechanical efficiency increase with the increasing viscosity of fluid in both layers, however, the effects of the viscosity of fluid in both layers on trapping and reflux are opposite to each other.