Search

A nanocomposite microneedle (ZCQ/MN) patch containing copper/zinc dual-doped mesoporous silica nanoparticles loaded with quercetin (ZCQ) was developed as a combination therapy for androgenic alopecia (AGA). The degradable microneedle gradually dissolves after penetration into the skin and releases the ZCQ nanoparticles. ZCQ nanoparticles release quercetin (Qu), copper (Cu

The Flexible, fast and lightweight leg mechanism is the key to improve legged robot’s mobility, efficiency and adaptability on complex terrain. Inspired by the motion mechanism of legged animals, we report a concentrated-driven omnidirectional legged locomotion bionic leg – OmniLeg. All the motor actuators are centrally installed in the hip plate of the proposed leg to reduce the rotational inertia. Meanwhile, the special 3-Dimensional dual-parallelogram-linkages transmission mechanism enables it to have the ability of omnidirectional legged locomotion in 3-Dimensional space and makes the posture of leg’s endpoint does not change with the motion of the leg mechanism which simplifying the motion control. In this paper, firstly the theoretical model, including mobility, kinematics model, inverse kinematics model, dimension parameters and workspace model, have been derived, analyzed and verified with the design and control of the real prototype. Next, to demonstrate the ability of omnidirectional legged locomotion intuitively, we manufacture a single-legged omnidirectional mobile robot and design a quadruped robot, and the simulation and experiment result illustrate that the design and analytical mode of OmniLeg is feasible and correct, which could be widely applied in the field of legged robot.

The humanoid robotic arm has a broad prospect in the field of human-machine cooperation, but the large inertia of the current joint robotic arm slows down its response speed and running speed. In this study, a centrally driven humanoid robotic arm is introduced, which has the characteristics of small inertia, good rapidity, and high load. Screw Theory is used to establish the kinematic model and analyze that the robotic arm has no singular configuration in the working range. The geometric method and Monte Carlo method are used to analyze and verify its workspace, which is the basis for the subsequent dynamic analysis and control of the robotic arm.

Limited load capacity is the bottleneck for the practical application of mobile multi-joint legged robots. And improving the efficiency of the drive system is a key factor in improving the load capacity. To improve the efficiency of mobile robots, in this paper, a new kind of actuator that imitates the driving mechanism of human muscles is innovatively designed and validated through experiments. The proposed actuator consists of a single power source and multiple plunger pistons, and imitates the configuration of a human muscle, to improve the efficiency and load capacities. The design proposed here represents a new class of driving methods. The actuator selects the most appropriate combination of the effective areas of plunger pistons like the human muscles, to ensure that the maximal output force aligns with the load force. To validate that the new actuator can improve the efficiency of hydraulic systems of mobile robots, a robotic arm incorporating a prototype of the new actuator was designed. The proposed system was validated through a series of experiments. The experiments show that the bionic actuator can adjust the flow rate of the system input by adjusting the number and size of the motion units involved in the work, and with the change in load force, it changes the output force by recruiting different motion units, which indicates good controllability. The results reported herein reveal that the application of bionics to the design of robotic actuator can significantly improve the efficiency and overall performance of the robots, and this biomimetic approach can be applied to a variety of robots.

Stable, quiet, and efficient propulsion methods are essential for underwater robots to complete their tasks in a complex marine environment. However, with a single propulsion method, such as propeller propulsion and bionic propulsion, it is difficult to achieve high efficiency and high mobility at the same time. Based on the advantages of the high-efficiency propulsion of a bionic undulating fin and the stable control of the propeller, an underwater robot based on the hybrid propulsion of a quadrotor and undulating fin is proposed in this paper. This paper first introduces the mechanical implementation of the underwater robot. Then, based on kinematic modeling and theoretical derivation, the underwater motion and attitude of the robot are analyzed and the 6-DOF dynamic equation of the robot is established. Finally, the underwater motion performance of the robot is verified through field experiments. The experimental results show that the robot can realize the heave motion, surge motion, and in-situ steering motion independently and can hover stably. When the undulating frequency is 6 Hz, the maximum propulsion speed of the robot can reach up to 1.2 m/s (1.5 BL/s).