Optimal design of broadband, low-directivity graded index acoustic lenses for underwater communication.

Manipulating underwater pressure waves is crucial for marine exploration, as electromagnetic signals are strongly absorbed in water. However, the multi-path phenomenon complicates the accurate capture of acoustic waves by receivers. Although graded index lenses, based on metamaterials with smoothly varying properties, successfully focus pressure waves, they tend to have high directivity, which hinders practical application.

Optimal Control of Short-Time Attractors in Active Nematics.

Objective Eulerian coherent structures (OECSs) and instantaneous Lyapunov exponents (iLEs) govern short-term material transport in fluid flows as Lagrangian coherent structures and the finite-time Lyapunov exponent do over longer times. Attracting OECSs and iLEs reveal short-time attractors and are computable from the Eulerian rate-of-strain tensor. Here, we devise for the first time an optimal control strategy to create short-time attractors in compressible, viscosity-dominated active nematic flows.

Brain-computer interface for robot control with eye artifacts for assistive applications.

Human-robot interaction is a rapidly developing field and robots have been taking more active roles in our daily lives. Patient care is one of the fields in which robots are becoming more present, especially for people with disabilities. People with neurodegenerative disorders might not consciously or voluntarily produce movements other than those involving the eyes or eyelids.

Technology Acceptance Model for Exoskeletons for Rehabilitation of the Upper Limbs from Therapists' Perspectives.

Over the last few years, exoskeletons have been demonstrated to be useful tools for supporting the execution of neuromotor rehabilitation sessions. However, they are still not very present in hospitals. Therapists tend to be wary of this type of technology, thus reducing its acceptability and, therefore, its everyday use in clinical practice.

A force-based human machine interface to drive a motorized upper limb exoskeleton. a pilot study.

Muscular dystrophy is a strongly invalidating disease that causes the progressive loss of motor skills. The use of assistive devices, especially those in support of the upper limb, can increase the ability to perform daily-life activities and foster a partial recovery of the lost motor functionalities. However, for the use of these devices to be truly effective and accepted by patients, their activation must coincide with the user's intention to move.