Paddle

About: Paddle is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5649 publications have been published within this topic receiving 28389 citations.

Task Performance is Prioritized Over Energy Reduction

Abstract: The objective of this study was to characterize the temporal relationship between hand stiffness and task performance during adaptation to a brief contact task that required precision at the time of contact. The experiment required subjects to control the vertical position of a paddle on a computer display by grasping a robot's instrumented handle, with the goal of intercepting a virtual ball within 1 mm from the paddle center. A force transient was applied to the hand immediately after the ball-paddle impact to estimate the intrinsic hand impedance. There were two main results: 1) more trials were required for a brief contact task to find a low-energy strategy when compared with tasks that received feedback through the entire movement trajectory and 2) when the whole course of adaptation is long for brief contact tasks, viscoelastic forces were increased to achieve the task goal before the energy reduction initiated. Also, as the accuracy requirement was increased by changing the gain between handle and paddle motion through visual amplification, peak stiffness increased and occurred later, indicating that higher energy strategies are used for longer when the task's accuracy requirements were increased. These results indicated that task performance may be prioritized over energy reduction for a brief contact task.

Door lock assembly with free floating paddle

Abstract: A door lock assembly is provided for use on multiple types of door latches. The assembly includes a housing, a paddle pivotally mounted on the housing, and a pivot plate pivotally mounted on the housing and operatively connected to the door latch. An actuator is mounted on the housing and is operatively connected to the paddle. A pin is slideably received within a slot in the pivot plate and moved between first and second positions in response to locking and unlocking of a locked cylinder. The actuator engages the pin in the first position so as to actuate the pivot plate and thereby open the door latch when the paddle is pulled. The actuator disengages the pin in the second position so that the paddle free floats when pulled and precludes the pivot plate from opening the door latch when the locked cylinder is locked or the power actuator is actuated.

Universal kayak/canoe paddle

Abstract: There is provided a kit for forming an adjustable paddle which, in kayak embodiment, includes a first paddle end and a second paddle end each having a blade an a shaft, an intermediate connecting shaft telescopically engaging the shafts of the paddle ends, with the intermediate connecting shaft having indicating means for indicating the center of gravity and distance indicating means, along with means for fixedly securing the shaft and second shaft through the intermediate connecting shaft The arrangement ensures that a properly balanced paddle is obtained An optional handle may be provided for converting the kayak paddle to one or more canoe paddles