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Soft Robot
Soft robotics is a subfield of robotics that concerns the design, control, and fabrication of robots composed of compliant materials, instead of rigid links. In contrast to rigid-bodied robots built from metals, ceramics and hard plastics, the compliance of soft robots can improve their safety when working in close contact with humans. Types and designs The goal of soft robotics is the design and construction of robots with physically flexible-bodies and electronics. Sometimes softness is limited to part of the machine. For example, rigid-bodied robotic arms can employ soft end effectors to gently grab and manipulate delicate or irregularly shaped objects. Most rigid-bodied mobile robots also strategically employ soft components, such as foot pads to absorb shock or springy joints to store/release elastic energy. However, the field of soft robotics generally leans toward machines that are predominately or entirely soft. Robots with entirely soft bodies have tremendous potenti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soft Robotics 1
Soft may refer to: * Softness, or hardness, a property of physical materials Arts and entertainment * ''Soft!'', a 1988 novel by Rupert Thomson * Soft (band), an American music group * ''Soft'' (album), by Dan Bodan, 2014 * Softs (album), by Soft Machine, 1976 * "Soft", a song by Kings of Leon on the 2004 album ''Aha Shake Heartbreak'' * "Soft"/"Rock", a 2001 single by Lemon Jelly Other uses * Sorgenti di Firenze Trekking (SOFT), a system of walking trails in Italy * Soft matter, a subfield of condensed matter * Magnetically soft, material with low coercivity * Soft skills, a person's people, social, and other skills * Soft commodities, or softs *A flaccid penis Tumescence is the quality or state of being tumescent or swollen. Tumescence usually refers to the normal engorgement with blood (vascular congestion) of the erectile tissues, marking sexual excitation, and possible readiness for sexual activity. ..., the opposite of "hard" See also * * * Softener (disambiguation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electrostatic Force
Coulomb's inverse-square law, or simply Coulomb's law, is an experimental law of physics that quantifies the amount of force between two stationary, electrically charged particles. The electric force between charged bodies at rest is conventionally called ''electrostatic force'' or Coulomb force. Although the law was known earlier, it was first published in 1785 by French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, hence the name. Coulomb's law was essential to the development of the theory of electromagnetism, maybe even its starting point, as it made it possible to discuss the quantity of electric charge in a meaningful way. The law states that the magnitude of the electrostatic force of attraction or repulsion between two point charges is directly proportional to the product of the magnitudes of charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Coulomb studied the repulsive force between bodies having electrical charges of the same sign: Coulomb also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shape-memory Alloy
In metallurgy, a shape-memory alloy (SMA) is an alloy that can be deformed when cold but returns to its pre-deformed ("remembered") shape when heated. It may also be called memory metal, memory alloy, smart metal, smart alloy, or muscle wire. Parts made of shape-memory alloys can be lightweight, solid-state alternatives to conventional actuators such as hydraulic, pneumatic, and motor-based systems. They can also be used to make hermetic joints in metal tubing. Overview The two most prevalent shape-memory alloys are copper-aluminium-nickel and nickel-titanium (NiTi), but SMAs can also be created by alloying zinc, copper, gold and iron. Although iron-based and copper-based SMAs, such as Fe-Mn-Si, Cu-Zn-Al and Cu-Al-Ni, are commercially available and cheaper than NiTi, NiTi-based SMAs are preferable for most applications due to their stability and practicability as well as their superior thermo-mechanic performance. SMAs can exist in two different phases, with three different ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poly(ethylene Oxide)
Polyethylene glycol (PEG; ) is a polyether compound derived from petroleum with many applications, from industrial manufacturing to medicine. PEG is also known as polyethylene oxide (PEO) or polyoxyethylene (POE), depending on its molecular weight. The structure of PEG is commonly expressed as H−(O−CH2−CH2)n−OH. Uses Medical uses * Pharmaceutical-grade PEG is used as an excipient in many pharmaceutical products, in oral, topical, and parenteral dosage forms. * PEG is the basis of a number of laxatives (as ''MiraLax''). Whole bowel irrigation with polyethylene glycol and added electrolytes is used for bowel preparation before surgery or colonoscopy. * PEG is used in medicines for treating disimpaction and maintenance therapy for children with constipation. * When attached to various protein medications or drug carriers, polyethylene glycol of suitable length slows down their clearance from the blood. * The possibility that PEG could be used to fuse axons is being ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyethylene Terephthalate
Polyethylene terephthalate (or poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P), is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in fibres for clothing, containers for liquids and foods, and thermoforming for manufacturing, and in combination with glass fibre for engineering resins. In 2016, annual production of PET was 56 million tons. The biggest application is in fibres (in excess of 60%), with bottle production accounting for about 30% of global demand. In the context of textile applications, PET is referred to by its common name, polyester, whereas the acronym ''PET'' is generally used in relation to packaging. Polyester makes up about 18% of world polymer production and is the fourth-most-produced polymer after polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). PET consists of repeating (C10H8O4) units. PET is commonly recycled, and has the digit 1 (♳) as its resin identification code (RIC). T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyurethane
Polyurethane (; often abbreviated PUR and PU) refers to a class of polymers composed of organic chemistry, organic units joined by carbamate (urethane) links. In contrast to other common polymers such as polyethylene and polystyrene, polyurethane is produced from a wide range of starting materials. This chemical variety produces polyurethanes with different chemical structures leading to many List of polyurethane applications, different applications. These include rigid and flexible foams, varnishes and coatings, adhesives, Potting (electronics), electrical potting compounds, and fibers such as spandex and Polyurethane laminate, PUL. Foams are the largest application accounting for 67% of all polyurethane produced in 2016. A polyurethane is typically produced by reacting an isocyanate with a polyol. Since a polyurethane contains two types of monomers, which polymerize one after the other, they are classed as Copolymer#Alternating copolymers, alternating copolymers. Both the isocy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polystyrene
Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic polymer made from monomers of the aromatic hydrocarbon styrene. Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. General-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and brittle. It is an inexpensive resin per unit weight. It is a poor barrier to oxygen and water vapour and has a relatively low melting point. Polystyrene is one of the most widely used plastics, the scale of its production being several million tonnes per year. Polystyrene can be naturally transparent, but can be colored with colorants. Uses include protective packaging (such as packing peanuts and in the jewel cases used for storage of optical discs such as CDs and occasionally DVDs), containers, lids, bottles, trays, tumblers, disposable cutlery, in the making of models, and as an alternative material for phonograph records. As a thermoplastic polymer, polystyrene is in a solid (glassy) state at room temperature but flows if heated above about 100 °C, its glass transition temperature. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shrinky Dinks
Shrink art, Shrinky Dinks, or Shrinkles is a toy and activity kit consisting of sheets of polystyrene which can be cut with standard household scissors. When heated, the cut shapes become about nine times thicker while their horizontal and vertical dimensions reduce to about one-third the original size, resulting in hard, flat forms which retain their initial color and shape. They reached the height of their popularity in the 1980s and are still available from retailers. They can be used for a variety of things like charms and pins. Most sets are pre-printed with outline images of popular children's characters or other subjects, which are then colored in before baking. History Shrinky Dinks were invented in 1973 by Betty Morris and Kate Bloomberg, two housewives in Brookfield, Wisconsin, as a Cub Scout project with their sons. The first kits were sold at a local shopping mall and became very popular. Shrinky Dinks were soon licensed to be manufactured by the major toy compani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glass Transition
The glass–liquid transition, or glass transition, is the gradual and reversible transition in amorphous materials (or in amorphous regions within semicrystalline materials) from a hard and relatively brittle "glassy" state into a viscous or rubbery state as the temperature is increased. ISO 11357-2: Plastics – Differential scanning calorimetry – Part 2: Determination of glass transition temperature (1999). An amorphous solid that exhibits a glass transition is called a glass. The reverse transition, achieved by supercooling a viscous liquid into the glass state, is called vitrification. The glass-transition temperature ''T''g of a material characterizes the range of temperatures over which this glass transition occurs (as an experimental definition, typically marked as 100 s of relaxation time). It is always lower than the melting temperature, ''T''m, of the crystalline state of the material, if one exists. Hard plastics like polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) are u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crosslinked Polymer
In chemistry and biology a cross-link is a bond or a short sequence of bonds that links one polymer chain to another. These links may take the form of covalent bonds or ionic bonds and the polymers can be either synthetic polymers or natural polymers (such as proteins). In polymer chemistry "cross-linking" usually refers to the use of cross-links to promote a change in the polymers' physical properties. When "crosslinking" is used in the biological field, it refers to the use of a probe to link proteins together to check for protein–protein interactions, as well as other creative cross-linking methodologies. Although the term is used to refer to the "linking of polymer chains" for both sciences, the extent of crosslinking and specificities of the crosslinking agents vary greatly. As with all science, there are overlaps, and the following delineations are a starting point to understanding the subtleties. Polymer chemistry Crosslinking is the general term for the process of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shape-memory Polymer
Shape-memory polymers (SMPs) are polymeric smart materials that have the ability to return from a deformed state (temporary shape) to their original (permanent) shape when induced by an external stimulus (trigger), such as temperature change. Properties of shape-memory polymers SMPs can retain two or sometimes three shapes, and the transition between those is often induced by temperature change. In addition to temperature change, the shape change of SMPs can also be triggered by an electric or magnetic field, light or solution. Like polymers in general, SMPs cover a wide range of properties from stable to Synthetic biodegradable polymer, biodegradable, from soft to hard, and from elastic to rigid, depending on the structural units that constitute the SMP. SMPs include thermoplastic and thermoset (covalently cross-linked) polymeric materials. SMPs are known to be able to store up to three different shapes in memory. SMPs have demonstrated recoverable strains of above 800%. Two im ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weibull Distribution
In probability theory and statistics, the Weibull distribution is a continuous probability distribution. It is named after Swedish mathematician Waloddi Weibull, who described it in detail in 1951, although it was first identified by Maurice René Fréchet and first applied by to describe a particle size distribution. Definition Standard parameterization The probability density function of a Weibull random variable is : f(x;\lambda,k) = \begin \frac\left(\frac\right)^e^, & x\geq0 ,\\ 0, & x 0 is the ''shape parameter'' and λ > 0 is the ''scale parameter'' of the distribution. Its complementary cumulative distribution function is a stretched exponential function. The Weibull distribution is related to a number of other probability distributions; in particular, it interpolates between the exponential distribution (''k'' = 1) and the Rayleigh distribution (''k'' = 2 and \lambda = \sqrt\sigma ). If the quantity ''X'' is a "time-to-failure", the Weibull distribution gives a d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
