Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 125 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-44).

Thesis ( Ph.D. ) -- University of Texas at Arlington, 2008.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 42 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 25-26).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2003. / Title from title page screen (viewed Sept. 24, 2003). Thesis advisor: William R. Hamel. Document formatted into pages (viii, 84 p. : ill. (some col.). Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-47).

Thesis (M.S. in Information Technology Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Monique P. Fargues, Russell Gottfried. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-74). Also available online.

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

There has been a significant push in robotics research toward robot autonomy. However, full autonomy is currently impractical for all but the most clearly defined tasks in the most structured environments. However, as tasks become less defined and environments become cluttered and less controlled, there is still a benefit to implementing semi-autonomous behaviors where aspects of the tasks are completed autonomously thus reducing the burden on the human operator. A key component of a robot control system that supports this functionality is a robust world model to act as a repository of environmental information. The research community has provided many world-modeling solutions to support autonomous vehicle navigation. As such, they focus primarily on preventing collisions with the environment. Modeling schemes designed for collision prevention are of limited use to robotic manipulators that must have contact interaction with the environment as a matter of course. This thesis presents a world-modeling scheme that abstracts the model of the environment into a graph structure. This abstraction separates the concepts of entities in the environment from their relationships to the environment. The result is an intuitive world model that supports not only collision detection, but also motion planning and grasping. The graph-based world model presented can be searched by semantic type and tag values, allowing any number of agents to simultaneously use and update the model without causing failures elsewhere in the system. These capabilities are demonstrated on two different automated hot-cell glovebox systems, and one mobile manipulation system for use in remote contamination testing. / text

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Redundancy and variation are characteristics of humans. Many muscles contribute to producing a movement at a joint, allowing different strategies for task performance. Further, the shoulders and back are involved in many tasks, including manual materials handling, but flexibility as to their relative roles in performing a task exists. In nursing, where manual patient handling (MPH) occurs daily, a risk of injury exists resulting from interactions with patients that may require awkward postures or sudden shifts in hand forces. Although some recommended MPH techniques have been advocated, many focus on lowering the risk of low back injury, without considering the effect of these techniques on other body regions. This study aimed to identify differences in shoulder and back physical exposures between performing self-selected and recommended patient handling techniques designed to reduce low back exposures. Twenty female participants performed three repetitions of five manual patient handling tasks using a self selected technique, followed by three repetitions of the same tasks using techniques learned in an interposed training session. Peak, mean and cumulative muscle activity, peak resultant moment, and ratings of perceived exertion were compared for each of the tasks before and after training, as well as identifying meaningful changes between the joints in mean population strength using a static strength prediction program. Significant decreases occurred at both the left and right shoulders and the low back for most measures, generally supporting the recommended techniques. Important exceptions existed, however, for the Sit-to-Chair tasks and Turn Toward tasks, where increases in several individual shoulder muscle activities, along with peak resultant moment, existed. Future recommendations for patient handling techniques should take into account potential negative exposures at the shoulders that may result from a back-centric injury avoidance paradigm.

In modern mobile wireless communication, Base Stations (BS) are the most important equipment to build up the mobile network. One of the key elements in BS is the RF filter, which plays a key role to secure the coverage and reliability of the BS. Especially, at Transmitter (Tx) side, the filter must have a high capability to handle the power sent from Power Amplifier (PA) to antenna in any circumstances to ensure the coverage demand. Otherwise, the breakdown will be encountered, setting the power flow in the BS system in an abnormal manner that, finally can lead to the shut down of BS or destroy the system permanently. In this project, three methods using two simulation tools to predict the power handling capability of the RF/microwave resonator which is the elementary component in the BS’s filter are proposed. Power handling tests of selected configurations corresponding to the simulations are implemented as well. In the next stage, the results from the prediction and measurement are compared. Finally, the conclusions of correlation between the prediction and measurement of microwave resonator power handling will be derived.