Crawling, climbing, perching, and flying by FiBa soft robots.

This paper introduces an approach to fabricating lightweight, untethered soft robots capable of diverse biomimetic locomotion. Untethering soft robotics from electrical or pneumatic power remains one of the prominent challenges within the field. The development of functional untethered soft robotic systems hinges heavily on mitigating their weight; however, the conventional weight of pneumatic network actuators (pneu-nets) in soft robots has hindered untethered operations.

Evaluation of factors associated with bleeding following haemodialysis catheter-related procedures and the risk with anti-platelet agents.

Background: Bleeding is a potential complication following haemodialysis catheter-related procedures. Besides uraemia, bleeding risk is perceived to be even higher in patients receiving antiplatelets. This study aims to evaluate the risk factors for bleeding following dialysis catheter-related procedures.

Nature-inspired in-flight foldable rotorcraft.

The paper presents a novel rotary wing platform, that is capable of folding and expanding its wings during flight. Our source of inspiration came from birds' ability to fold their wings to navigate through small spaces and dive. The design of the rotorcraft is based on the monocopter platform, which is inspired by the flight of Samara seeds.

Design and control of the first foldable single-actuator rotary wing micro aerial vehicle.

The monocopter is a type of micro aerial vehicle largely inspired from the flight of botanical samaras (). A large section of its fuselage forms the single wing where all its useful aerodynamic forces are generated, making it achieve a highly efficient mode of flight. However, compared to a multi-rotor of similar weight, monocopters can be large and cumbersome for transport, mainly due to their large and rigid wing structure.

A device for surveillance of vascular access sites for bleeding: results from a clinical evaluation trial.

Post-procedural wound haemorrhage is a potentially life-threatening complication. For haemodialysis patients, bleeding is often encountered after vascular access procedures and fatal episodes have been reported. Visual monitoring for bleeding is manpower intensive and bleeding episodes may still be missed between inspections.

Passive magnetic-based localization for precise untethered medical instrument tracking.

Background And Objective: Motion tracking and navigation systems are paramount for both safety and efficacy in a variety of surgical insertions, interventions and procedures. Among the state-of-art tracking technology, passive magnetic tracking using permanent magnets or passive magnetic sources for localization is an effective technology to provide untethered medical instrument tracking without cumbersome wires needed for signal or power transmission. Motivated by practical needs in two medical insertion procedures: Nasogastric intubation and Ventriculostomy, we propose a unified method based on passive magnetic-field localization, for enhanced efficacy and safety.

A Compact Magnetic Field-Based Obstacle Detection and Avoidance System for Miniature Spherical Robots.

Due to their efficient locomotion and natural tolerance to hazardous environments, spherical robots have wide applications in security surveillance, exploration of unknown territory and emergency response. Numerous studies have been conducted on the driving mechanism, motion planning and trajectory tracking methods of spherical robots, yet very limited studies have been conducted regarding the obstacle avoidance capability of spherical robots. Most of the existing spherical robots rely on the "hit and run" technique, which has been argued to be a reasonable strategy because spherical robots have an inherent ability to recover from collisions.

High Accuracy Passive Magnetic Field-Based Localization for Feedback Control Using Principal Component Analysis.

In this paper, a novel magnetic field-based sensing system employing statistically optimized concurrent multiple sensor outputs for precise field-position association and localization is presented. This method capitalizes on the independence between simultaneous spatial field measurements at multiple locations to induce unique correspondences between field and position. This single-source-multi-sensor configuration is able to achieve accurate and precise localization and tracking of translational motion without contact over large travel distances for feedback control.

Design optimization of the sensor spatial arrangement in a direct magnetic field-based localization system for medical applications.

Motivated by the need for developing a neuronavigation system to improve efficacy of intracranial surgical procedures, a localization system using passive magnetic fields for real-time monitoring of the insertion process of an external ventricular drain (EVD) catheter is conceived and developed. This system operates on the principle of measuring the static magnetic field of a magnetic marker using an array of magnetic sensors. An artificial neural network (ANN) is directly used for solving the inverse problem of magnetic dipole localization for improved efficiency and precision.

Effects of reconstructed magnetic field from sparse noisy boundary measurements on localization of active neural source.

Localization of active neural source (ANS) from measurements on head surface is vital in magnetoencephalography. As neuron-generated magnetic fields are extremely weak, significant uncertainties caused by stochastic measurement interference complicate its localization. This paper presents a novel computational method based on reconstructed magnetic field from sparse noisy measurements for enhanced ANS localization by suppressing effects of unrelated noise.

A Non-invasive Real-time Localization System for Enhanced Efficacy in Nasogastric Intubation.

Nasogastric (NG) intubation is one of the most commonly performed clinical procedures. Real-time localization and tracking of the NG tube passage at the larynx region into the esophagus is crucial for safety, but is lacking in current practice. In this paper, we present the design, analysis and evaluation of a non-invasive real-time localization system using passive magnetic tracking techniques to improve efficacy of the clinical NG intubation process.