For my students:
There is a PDF in the "shared" folder on our Blackboard content collection group starting with "DETC..." I think of this paper as "linkages for babies." It's all about how to model paper pop-ups as mechanisms. It's a very visually understandable way to dip your toes into the great swimming pool of linkage kinematics. Students, have a read, and post your comments and questions. In particular, I would like your suggestions on how, as the authors imply, this material might be applied to devices for minimally invasive surgery.
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6 comments:
I know it's a little out of our league, but the first thing that came to mind was the folding of protein beta-sheets (and the modeling thereof).
Yes, I have seen papers on the kinematics of molecule folding with this same kind of analogy-based approach. I think there even might have been some in this same conference.
FYI: It doesn't look like any of the comments show up on RSS readers. Just the original posts.
My initial thoughts were to model the folding-up and deploying of heat shields for satellites, as the shields are large in surface area, and are very thin. They use the heat shields to block out the powerful heat and light from the sun and other stars to take certain images that require there be no heat disturbing the lens/imager, etc.
Some of this material could be applied to the folding (for storage) mechanism for the operating table.
This paper gives me an idea for the design of the robot arm in our current project. Maybe the foldable links of the robot arm allows for effective space utilization because when it is not in use its links fold back in-plane to its home position, therefore occupying minimal space when stored. In addition, an extension rod might be employed to provide the greater space needed for longer end-effectors.
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