I read this book the same weekend that the Packers took on the Rams, and the experience of the latter event, obviously, colored my judgment. Although I abhor anything that smacks of being a handbook (like, \"How to Earn a Merit Badge in Neurosurgery\") because too many volumes in biomedical science already evince a boyscout-like approach, I must confess that parts of this volume are fast, scholarly, and significant, with certain reservations. I like parts of this well-illustrated book because Dr. Sj6strand, without so stating, develops certain subjects on technique in relation to the acquisition of judgment and sophistication. And this is important! So, given that the author (like all of us) is somewhat deficient in some areas, and biased in others, the book is still valuable if the uninitiated reader swallows it in a general fashion, realizing full well that what will be required from the reader is a modulation to fit his vision, propreception, adaptation and response, and the kind of problem he is undertaking. A major deficiency of this book is revealed by comparison of its use of physics and of chemistry to provide understanding and background for the application of high resolution electron microscopy to problems in biology. Since the volume is keyed to high resolution electron microscopy, which is a sophisticated form of structural analysis, but really morphology in a modern guise, the physical and mechanical background of The instrument and its ancillary tools are simply and well presented. The potential use of chemical or cytochemical information as it relates to biological fine structure , however, is quite deficient. I wonder when even sophisticated morphol-ogists will consider fixation a reaction and not a technique; only then will the fundamentals become self-evident and predictable and this sine qua flon will become less mystical. Staining reactions (the most inadequate chapter) ought to be something more than a technique to selectively enhance contrast of morphological elements; it ought to give the structural addresses of some of the chemical residents of cell components. Is it pertinent that auto-radiography gets singled out for more complete coverage than other significant aspects of cytochemistry by a high resolution microscopist, when it has a built-in minimal error of 1,000 A in standard practice? I don't mean to blind-side (in strict football terminology) Dr. Sj6strand's efforts for what is \"routinely used in our laboratory\"; what is done is usually well done. It's just that …

Methods in Enzymology.

In the last decade, we have witnessed a drastic change in the form factor of audio and vision technologies, from heavy and grounded machines to lightweight devices that naturally fit our bodies. However, only recently, haptic systems have started to be designed with wearability in mind. The wearability of haptic systems enables novel forms of communication, cooperation, and integration between humans and machines. Wearable haptic interfaces are capable of communicating with the human wearers during their interaction with the environment they share, in a natural and yet private way. This paper presents a taxonomy and review of wearable haptic systems for the fingertip and the hand, focusing on those systems directly addressing wearability challenges. The paper also discusses the main technological and design challenges for the development of wearable haptic interfaces, and it reports on the future perspectives of the field. Finally, the paper includes two tables summarizing the characteristics and features of the most representative wearable haptic systems for the fingertip and the hand.

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Wearable Haptic Systems for the Fingertip and the Hand: Taxonomy, Review, and Perspectives

https://jcp.bmj.com/content/jclinpath/30/7/686.1.full.pdf

Fundamentals of Clinical Chemistry

In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of hand exoskeleton technologies for rehabilitation and assistive engineering, from basic hand biomechanics to actuator technologies. Because of rapid advances in mechanical designs and control algorithms for electro-mechanical systems, exoskeleton devices have been developed significantly, but are still limited to use in larger body areas such as upper and lower limbs. However, because of their requirements for smaller size and rich tactile sensing capabilities, hand exoskeletons still face many challenges in many technical areas, including hand biomechanics, neurophysiology, rehabilitation, actuators and sensors, physical human-robot interactions and ergonomics. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art of active hand exoskeletons for applications in the areas of rehabilitation and assistive robotics. The main requirements of these hand exoskeleton devices are also identified and the mechanical designs of existing devices are classified. The challenges facing an active hand exoskeleton robot are also discussed.

Current hand exoskeleton technologies for rehabilitation and assistive engineering

A pandemic is not a new event encountered in the history of humanity because mankind has faced various pandemics in history The common point of pandemics is their serious negative effects on the global economy Considering the food supply chain, one of the most important sectors of the economy, it has been seen that COVID-19 has an impact on the whole process from the field to the consumer In the light of recent challenges in food supply chain, there is now considerable concern about food production, processing, distribution, and demand COVID-19 resulted in the movement restrictions of workers, changes in demand of consumers, closure of food production facilities, restricted food trade policies, and financial pressures in food supply chain Therefore, governments should facilitate the movement of workers and agri-food products In addition, small farmers or vulnerable people should be supported financially Facilities should change the working conditions and maintain the health and safety of employees by altering safety measures Food protectionist policies should be avoided to prevent an increase in food prices In conclusion, each country must realize the severity of the situation and sometimes should tighten or loosen the measures according to the spread of the pandemic The supply chain also should be flexible enough to respond to the challenges in the food supply chain The purpose of this review is to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the agriculture and food sector and to summarize the recommendations required to reduce and control the effect of the pandemic

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Impact of COVID-19 on the food supply chain

A novel exoskeleton robotic system for hand rehabilitation - Conceptualization to prototyping

Technological advancements in various domains have broadened the application horizon of robotics to an incredible extent. Highlighting a very recent application area, this paper presents a comprehensive review of robotics application in food industry. Robots essentially have the potential to transform the processes in food processing and handling, palletizing and packing and food serving. Therefore, recent years witnessed tremendously increased trend of robots deployment in food sector. Consequently, the aspects related with robot kinematics, dynamics, hygiene, economic efficiency, human-robot interaction, safety and protection and operation and maintenance are of critical importance and are discussed in the present review. A comparison of actual robots being used in the industry is also presented. The review reveals that the food serving sector is the new potential area in which ample research opportunities exist by integrating advancements from various technology domains. It is anticipated that wider dissemination of research developments in ‘robo-food’ will stimulate more collaborations among the research community and contribute to further developments.

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Prospects of robotics in food industry

The behavior of physical systems in many situations may better be expressed with an analytical model. Robot modeling and analysis essentially involve its kinematics. For robotic manipulators having high Degrees Of Freedom (DOF) with multiple degrees in one or more joints, an analytical solution to the inverse kinematics is probably the most important topic in robot modeling. This paper develops the kinematic models a 6 DOF robotic arm and analyzes its workspace. The proposed model makes it possible to control the manipulator to achieve any reachable position and orientation in an unstructured environment. The forward kinematic model is predicated on Denavit Hartenberg (DH) parametric scheme of robot arm position placement. Given the desired position and orientation of the robot end-effector, the realized inverse kinematics model provides the required corresponding joint angles. The forward kinematic model has been validated using Robotics Toolbox for MATLAB while the inverse kinematic model has been implemented on a real robotic arm. Experimental results demonstrate that using the developed model, the end-effector of robotic arm can point to the desired coordinates within precision of ±0.5cm. The approach presented in this work can also be applicable to solve the kinematics problem of other similar kinds of robot manipulators. 1

Modeling and Analysis of a 6 DOF Robotic Arm Manipulator

This research presents an autonomous robotic framework for academic, vocational and training purpose. The platform is centred on a 6 Degree Of Freedom (DOF) serial robotic arm. The kinematic and dynamic models of the robot have been derived to facilitate controller design. An on-board camera to scan the arm workspace permits autonomous applications development. The sensory system consists of position feedback from each joint of the robot and a force sensor mounted at the arm gripper. External devices can be interfaced with the platform through digital and analog I/O ports of the robot controller. To enhance the learning outcome for beginners, higher level commands have been provided. Advanced users can tailor the platform by exploiting the open-source custom-developed hardware and software architectures. The efficacy of the proposed platform has been demonstrated by implementing two experiments; autonomous sorting of objects and controller design. The proposed platform finds its potential to teach technical courses (like Robotics, Control, Electronics, Image-processing and Computer vision) and to implement and validate advanced algorithms for object manipulation and grasping, trajectory generation, path planning, etc. It can also be employed in an industrial environment to test various strategies prior to their execution on actual manipulators.

An open-source multi-DOF articulated robotic educational platform for autonomous object manipulation

Abstract Last five decades witnessed remarkable developments in linear control systems and thus problems in this subject has been largely resolved. The scope of the present paper is beyond linear solutions. Modern technology demands sophisticated control laws to meet stringent design specifications thus highlighting the increasingly conspicuous position of nonlinear control systems, which is the topic of this paper. Historical role of analytical concepts in analysis and design of nonlinear control systems is briefly outlined. Recent advancements in these systems from applications perspective are examined with critical comments on associated challenges. It is anticipated that wider dissemination of this comprehensive review will stimulate more collaborations among the research community and contribute to further developments.

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Jamshed Iqbal

Papers

A novel exoskeleton robotic system for hand rehabilitation - Conceptualization to prototyping

Prospects of robotics in food industry

Modeling and Analysis of a 6 DOF Robotic Arm Manipulator

An open-source multi-DOF articulated robotic educational platform for autonomous object manipulation

Nonlinear control systems - A brief overview of historical and recent advances