Trending Papers in engineering

Abstract The blockchain is considered to be the potential driver of the digital economy. The Blockchain technology outweighs the challenges associated with the traditional transaction business governed and regulated by the third trusted party. There is a growth in the interest among the researchers, the industry, and the academia to study and leverage the potential of Blockchain. Blockchain provides a decentralized and distributed public ledger for all the participating parties. Though it seems that blockchain is a viable choice and solution for all the centralized governed and regulated transactions (in digital online space), it has potential challenges that need to be resolved; opportunities to be explored, and applications to be studied. This paper utilizes a systematic literature review to study several research endeavors made in the domain of blockchain. To further research on blockchain adoption, the paper theoretically constructs an integrated framework of the blockchain innovation adoption process in an organization considering organizational and user acceptance perspectives. This would facilitate its widespread adoption, thereby achieving sustained leadership solutions. The paper offers 23 propositions to information systems (IS)/information management (IM) scholars with respect to innovation characteristics, organizational characteristics, environmental characteristics, and user acceptance characteristics. Further, the paper explores several areas of future research and directions that can provide deep insights for overcoming challenges and for the adoption of blockchain technology.

A new humanoid robot-WABIAN-2- that can be used as a human motion simulator is proposed in this paper. Its trunk is designed in order to permit rotation, and forward, backward, and sideway movement. Further, its arms are designed to support its complete weight when pushing a walk-assist machine. Moreover, it can lean on a walk-assist machine by forearm control using trunk motion. Basic walking experiments with WABIAN-2 are conducted with and without a walk-assist machine, thereby confirming its effectiveness

An analysis was performed of controlled slipping of an object within a robot hand. The possible ways an object can move within a grasp were enumerated. The set of permissible motions was found as a function of the constraint state, that is, the number, location, and types of contact on an object. The constraint state was found as a function of a number of controllable variables, such as grasping force and externally applied forces.< >

Presents an overview of research in dexterous manipulation. We first define robotic dexterous manipulation in comparison to traditional robotics and human manipulation. Next, kinematics, contact types and forces are used to formulate the dexterous manipulation problem. Dexterous motion planning is described, which includes grasp planning and quality measures. We look at mid- and low-level control frameworks, and then compare manipulation versus exploration. Finally, we list accomplishments in the different areas of dexterous manipulation research, and highlight important areas for future work.

Here we present the design of a passive-dynamics based, fully autonomous, 3-D, bipedal walking robot that uses simple control, consumes little energy, and has human-like morphology and gait. Design aspects covered here include the freely rotating hip joint with angle bisecting mechanism; freely rotating knee joints with latches; direct actuation of the ankles with a spring, release mechanism, and reset motor; wide feet that are shaped to aid lateral stability; and the simple control algorithm. The biomechanics context of this robot is discussed in more detail in [1], and movies of the robot walking are available at Science Online and http://www.tam.cornell.edu/~ruina/powerwalk.html. This robot adds evidence to the idea that passive-dynamic approaches might help design walking robots that are simpler, more efficient and easier to control.

The author discusses important class of dynamic obstacles, that is, obstacles that appear and disappear in the environment. This formulation allows modeling of a number of time-varying situations that can arise in application domains. For example, a motion can be planned in an environment where an agent rearranges the environment by picking up an object and placing it back at another location in the same environment. An algorithm is presented to generate a motion in such a dynamic domain. The algorithm runs in O(n/sup 3/ log n) time, where n is the total number of vertices in the environment.< >

The full-depth, remotely-operated survey system "KAIKO", developed by the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center, comprises a launcher suspended from the Yokosuka support ship by a primary cable, and a vehicle launched from the launcher and connected by a secondary cable. This equipment is designed for deep-sea studies at depths of approximately 11,000 meters. Real-time high speed data transmission at a maximum 840 Mbps, the fastest used for any remotely operated vehicle (ROV), was needed to transmit the five-channel video signal captured by the six underwater cameras mounted on the vehicle, together with the large volume of measurement data obtained by the latest underwater surveying equipment. Because bi-directional communication is required to support the simultaneous transmission of the launcher's on-board equipment control data and the measurement data, the overall transmission rate of the entire system is 1.2 Gbps. In the design weight and electrical power consumption were kept to a minimum. An optical power monitor, which splits the optical signal immediately before the receptor and constantly monitors the optical signal power level, is also provided to ensure problems with the optical fiber and other optical transmission components contained within the cables are detected early, thus improving the overall reliability of the system. This report describes the high-speed underwater data transmission equipment developed for the KAIKO system.