The suckers on the octopus arm play a pivotal role in the execution of tasks in unstructured environments by providing a means to grip objects as well as perceive the environment through (chemo-)tactile receptors in the suckers. This work presents an octopus-inspired suction cup with high-resolution tactile sensing capabilities using a camera that captures the displacement of markers that are integrated in the suction cup. The orientation of the suction cup with respect to an object surface could be predicted with an average error of 1.97° for latitude and 9.41° for longitude. In a closed-loop control experiment, the orientation of the suction cup with respect to the object surface is estimated by an initial touch and the suction cup is consequently reoriented to approach the object surface in a perpendicular manner. The passive compliance of the suction cup is sufficient to compensate for the prediction error and a seal could be created on all of the objects. In combination with the automated design and manufacturing process, this is a major step toward the deployment of sensory innervated suction cups for motion planning and control of soft continuum robot arms.

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The emergence of the field of soft robotics has led to an interest in suction cups as auxiliary structures on soft continuum arms to support the execution of manipulation tasks. This application poses demanding requirements on suction cups with respect to sensorization, adhesion under non-ideal contact conditions, and integration into fully soft systems. The octopus can serve as an important source of inspiration for addressing these challenges. This review aims to accelerate research in octopus-inspired suction cups by providing a detailed analysis of the octopus sucker, determining meaningful performance metrics for suction cups on the basis of this analysis, and evaluating the state-of-the-art in suction cups according to these performance metrics. In total, 47 records describing suction cups are found, classified according to the deployed actuation method, and evaluated on performance metrics reflecting the level of sensorization, adhesion, and integration. Despite significant advances in recent years, the octopus sucker outperforms all suction cups on all performance metrics. The realization of high resolution tactile sensing in suction cups and the integration of such sensorized suction cups in soft continuum structures are identified as two major hurdles toward the realization of octopus-inspired manipulation strategies in soft continuum robot arms.

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3D printed electronics introduces new opportunities in product design. On the other side, it also brings challenges regarding many aspects in the design and manufacturing process of prototypes/products. In this paper, based on our preliminary investigations, we summarize the opportunities of using 3D printed electronics in product design as: 1) it offers designers more freedom in their designs; 2) it promotes miniaturization of design; 3) it accelerates the design and manufacturing process; 4) it is able to improve the efficiency of producing customized/personalized mechatronic/electronic products and 5) it improves the sustainability in the product design and manufacturing process. Motivated by those opportunities, we conducted four case studies regarding four key aspects of 3D printed electronics: the conductive materials, geometric modelling, multiphysics simulation and manufacturing tools. Based on the findings in those case studies, we identified the challenges in 3D printed electronics and highlight the future works which may provide a better support to the needs of product designers.@en

Enhancing engagement of patients during stroke rehabilitation exercises are in the focus of current research. Various methods and computer supported tools have been developed for this purpose, which try to avoid mundane exercising that is prone to become a routine or even boring for the patients and leads to ineffective training. This paper introduces an engagement enhancing cyber-physical stroke rehabilitation system (CP-SRS) aiming at enhancing the patient's engagement during rehabilitation training exercises. This paper focuses on introducing the implementation and validation of the engagement monitoring subsystem (EMS) in the CP-SRS. The EMS is expected to evaluate the patient's actual engagement levels in motor, perceptive, cognitive and emotional aspects. Experiments in these four aspects were conducted separately, in order to characterize the range and accuracy of the engagement indicators by influencing the subjects into different engaged states. During the experiments, different setups were created to mimic the situations in which the subject was engaged or not engaged. The subjects involved in the experiments were healthy subjects. Results showed that the measurement in motor, perceptive, cognitive, and emotional aspects can represent the corresponding engagement level. More experiments will be conducted in the future to validate the efficiency of the CP-SRS in enhancing the engagement with stroke patients.

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We present a method of automatic alignment of two partially matching 3D shapes. The algorithm selects large fat tetrahedrons (LFT) composed of 4 vertices in one shape and exhaustively searches in the other shape for sets of 4 vertices being compatible with the tetrahedron. By selecting such salient tetrahedrons that are relatively wide and fat, although also being not too unlikely to be contained in the overlap region, the cost of search can be reduced. The method is relatively insensitive to noise and not depending on the existence of local shape features nor on feature correspondences. When implemented on a GPU in Cuda, two point sets of 40,000 each can be aligned within seconds. The method is intended to support interactive 3D scan registration applications.@en

Efficient computer support of product innovation processes has become an important issue of industrial competitiveness in the last forty years. As a consequence, there has been a growing demand for new computer-based tools and system. Various hardware, software and knowledge technologies have been used over the years as the basis of design support systems. With the appearance of network technologies, the conventional standalone workstation paradigm has been replaced by the paradigm of web-interconnected collaborative environments. Currently, the emerging and rapidly proliferating mobile and ubiquitous computing technologies create a technological push again. These technologies force us to reconsider not only the digital information processing devices and their interconnection, but also the way of obtaining, processing and communicating product design information. Many researches and laboratories are engaged with the development of novel concepts, architectures, tools and methods for next-generation design support environments. They will integrate many resources of the current collaborative design environments with pervasive computing functionality and large-scale mobility in a volatile manner. Part of the design support tools will have fixed location, but will be remotely accessible through wireless networks. Other part of the tools will be moving with the designers as portable, embedded, wearable and transferable devices, and will feature ad hoc connectivity. These not only offer new ways for aggregation, processing and presentation of design information, but also enable alternative ways of completing design activities. Our current research concentrates on three interrelated main issues: (i) studying workflow scenarios for future design support environment, (ii) investigation and integration of multiple technologies into an ad hoc interconnected heterogeneous infrastructure, and (iii) exploring efficient methods for utilizing new affordances in supporting product innovation. In this paper we report on the results of our recent technology study that analyzed the current results and trends of ubiquitous technology development, and tried to form a vision about the possible manifestation of future ubiquitous design support environments. Essentially, they have been conceptualized as ad hoc and volatile networks of fixed and mobile information collection, processing and communication units. This network functions as a complex service provider system, with special attention to the on-demand information management in the fuzzy front end of design projects.@en