Human-Inspired Control of a Whip: Preparatory Movements Improve Hitting a Target.

Manipulating flexible and underactuated objects, such as a whip, remains a significant challenge in robotics. Remarkably, humans can skillfully manipulate such objects to achieve tasks, ranging from hitting distant targets to extinguishing a cigarette's in someone's mouth with the tip of a whip. This study explored this problem by constructing and modeling a 25-degree-of-freedom whip.

Flow inside a bone scaffold: Visualization using 3D phase contrast MRI and comparison with numerical simulations.

We report on results of experimental flow measurements inside a bone scaffold model, subjected to a uniform incoming flow (applied perfusion). Understanding the flow behavior inside a tissue engineered scaffold is essential for mechanistic studies of mechanobiology, particularly flow-sensitive bone cells. Nearly all existing studies that quantify interstitial flow inside engineered bone scaffolds have been based on numerical results, in part due to the difficulties associated with quantitative measurements and visualization of flow inside large, opaque bone or bone mimics.