Thesis (M. Ing.)--University of Stellenbosch, 1997. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1966. / Mimeographed.

A novel toroidal pneumatic motor (rotary actuator or rotary engine) has been developed and tested. The motor is designed with a ring torus (or revolved circular cross-section) working chamber, which is formed by two rotors and sections of a casing (or stator). The rotors are designed with an equal number of pistons, an arrangement of one-way bearings (to transfer torque from the rotors to a common drive shaft), and an impact mechanism to operably control the positioning of the rotors relative to ports located within the stationary casing. This design is aimed at improving the power density (power per unit mass), efficiency and torque output at low shaft speeds, when compared to conventional vane motors. Dynamometer test results are presented, showing the torque output of the motor with compressed air supply pressures of 10 to 80 psi at 10 psi increments.

Control of the contact force between a robot manipulator and a workpiece is critical for successful execution of tasks where the robot’s end effector must perform a contact operation along the contour of a workpiece. Representative tasks include polishing, grinding and deburring. Considerable research has been conducted on force control with electric robots. By contrast, little research has been conducted on force control with pneumatic robots. The later has the potential to be considerably cheaper. However, the compressible nature of air as the working fluid and relatively high friction means pneumatic robots are more difficult to control. The subject of this thesis is the design and testing of a controller that regulates the normal contact force and tangential velocity of the end effector of a pneumatic gantry robot while tracking the contour of a planar workpiece. Both experimental and simulation results are presented. A PI Force Velocity (FV) controller for contour tracking was designed and tested experimentally. Three different workpiece edge geometries were studied: straight, inclined and curved. The tracking performance with the PI FV controller was comparable to the performance reported by other researchers with a similar controller implemented with an electric robot. This result confirms the potential of pneumatically actuated robots in force control applications. A system model was developed and validated in order to investigate the parameters that affect performance. A good match between experiment and simulation was achieved when the friction of the z-axis cylinder was modeled with a Displacement Dependent Friction Model (DDFM) instead of a Velocity Dependent Friction Model (VDFM). Subsequently, a DDFM based friction compensator was designed and tested. However, it was found that performance could not be improved even with perfect friction compensation, due to the effects of system lag. Two Neural Network (NN) compensators were designed to compensate for both the lag and friction in the system. Simulation results for straight and curved edges were used to examine the effectiveness of the NN compensators. The performance of the PI FV controller was found to improve significantly when a NN compensator was added. This result confirms the value of NN’s in control compensation for tracking applications with pneumatic actuation. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2008-09-16 12:29:44.679

No description available.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MTech (Information Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2007 / The increasingly sedentary lifestyle of the past 30 years has contributed to declining health. Consequently, exercise is vital for good health maintenance. The global Health and Fitness Industry repeatedly indicates the need for optimally managed exercise with accurate information feedback. Compared to other industries, the fitness industry is lagging behind in incorporating Information Technology into its operations. On the other hand, the most current exercise equipment impose fixed-trajectory exercise on users with the dominance of static equipment designs. These exercise equipment are normally deadweight-based equipment. In deadweight-based exercise equipment, the weights generally can be changed only when the equipment is inactive. Therefore, a more novel exercise environment is required for current exercisers in the fitness industry. This thesis explores to develop a computer-controlled pneumatic dynamic resistance exercise equipment with onboard data management. This new technology optimises exercise effectiveness for users. Exercisers will have advanced diagnostic capacity, and will capture user data which can be manipulated into meaningful information for use by Health and Fitness Industry stakeholders. This thesis will explore all the key concepts about computer-controlled equipment. The key concepts to be investigated will include FX (force-displacement) control technology, pneumatic system control, fail-safe mechanics, and Graphical User Interface design. The primary aim of the project is to replicate and enhance the functionality, performance, and sensation of deadweight-based equipment. A further aim of the project is to investigate the feasibility of designing a compact retrofit-able pneumatic unit to replace the deadweights of existing standard exercise equipment. The computer control will be implemented on a "National Instruments PXI" computer featuring Data Acquisition and Control (DAQAC) capacity, and the software will be implemented using "LabVIEW 7.0', which is a graphic object-oriented computer language developed to facilitate hardware I software communications.

Orientador: Waldemir Silva de Lima / Dissertação (mestrado profissional) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecanica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-04T00:57:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Barroso_PauloSergioFeitosa_M.pdf: 1109545 bytes, checksum: 7e86b3bff9ff15c009479ea98fe6d9cc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2004 / Resumo: Este trabalho apresenta uma avaliação preliminar de um dispositivo automático para extração da amêndoa do coco babaçu por impacto. Nessa avaliação foram realizados testes para determinar a constante elástica do coco babaçu, bem como a força média de impacto capaz de quebrá-lo. A pneumática foi escolhida como tecnologia operativa do dispositivo por poder caracterizar-se como um sistema binário. A metodologia utilizada nas etapas de construção do circuito pneumático foi baseada na elaboração de um diagrama de função seqüencial, o GRAFCET / Abstract: This work presents a preliminary evaluation of an automatic device for extration of the almond of the coconut babaçu for impact. In this evaluation tests had been carried through to determine the elastic constant of the coconut babaçu, as well as the average force of impact capable to break it. The pneumatic was chosen as operative technology of the device for being able to characterize itself as a binary system. The methodology used in the stages of construction of the pneumatic circuit was based on the elaboration of a diagram of sequential function, the GRAFCET / Mestrado / Instrumentação e Controle Industrial / Mestre Profissional em Engenharia Mecanica

No description available.