Experimental research on straw movement patterns in cross-slope strip tillage based on MBD-DEM coupling

Experimental research on vertical straw cleaning and soil tillage device based on Soil-Straw composite model

Design, development and field evaluation of row-cleaners for strip tillage in conservation farming

Nowadays, intelligent minesweeper robots have important roles in discovering, cleaning and defusing buried mines. Because of special conditions of mine detection operation, these robots should follow a very accurate and specified motion pattern. In this paper, prevalent methods of motion adjustment for minesweeper robots in an operational environment of mine field is studied experimentally and advantages and disadvantages of these methods are overviewed. Eventually, an experimental method, which eliminates problems of previous methods and has a high accuracy in motion adjustment is presented.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common degenerative disease of the nervous system, whose incidence increases with age. Despite increasing progress in the treatment of PD, resulting from development of diagnostic methods and experimental research into the understanding of the essence of this disease, an increase in the severity of disability is still observed with the passing time. Physiotherapy is one of the non-pharmacological methods, which through its complexity, phases and regularity is aimed at preventing early physical disability as well as permanent disability. Maintaining independence as long as possible, functional self-reliance and social usefulness are the main targets. Facing a real risk of PD incidence, the aim of the work was to present rehabilitation strategy in reducing the severity of motor symptoms like; tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia and impaired postural reflexes. Therapeutic activities are aimed at working out a strategy to cope with trembling while in rigidity, emphasis is not laid on eliminating rigidity but on reducing the negative impact of increased muscle tension and slowing down of mobility. The goal of rehabilitation is to assure optimal use of stored patterns for automatic movements and acquired ones, using control signals in disorders of postural reflexes on the implementation of rehabilitation when there are still no severe difficulties in performing daily activities. The conclusion that may be drawn is that physical therapy tailored to the severity of individual symptoms of motion, allows for improving the functionality and quality of life of people with PD.

The primate hand has long intrigued researchers of different disciplines. The extensive and elegant work of Napier included careful observations about the anatomy and function of the primate hand. While such observations and inferences substantially advanced our understanding of the primate hand, a more complete insight into the function of a complex organ such as the hand requires experimental investigation to illuminate patterns of joint movement, muscle activity, and loads. In the last decades, researchers have collected a wealth of information about hand morphology and function by setting up and conducting laboratory-based experiments. In this chapter, we give a comprehensive overview of the experimental work on the nonhuman primate hand that has been done since Napier’s publications in the 1950s. We discuss the different methods that are being used to study hand function: behavioral studies, kinematics, kinetics, dynamic palmar pressure, electromyography, medical imaging and computer modeling. Ultimately, studies focusing on hand form and function, especially those that include a diversity of extant species and integrate different types of data, will lead to a better understanding of the evolution of the human hand.

When we try to improve the welfare of fish in aquaculture, public and private aquaria, and experimental research we need to take into account how fish live in their natural environments. There is enormous diversity in the world of fishes. Each species has adapted to specific habitats and co-existing species, with their anatomical, physiological, and behavioural traits in concert enabling them to survive, grow and reproduce. Fish species have different life histories with regard to longevity, rate of growth, age of reproduction, and number of reproductions and offspring. The great diversity of ways in which fish eat and avoid being eaten results in a wide range of patterns of activity and movement, while reproductive behaviour shows remarkable variation, ranging from mass spawning to long-term pair bonds. Fish may live as solitary individuals, in shoals, or huge schools. They use a set of sensors to obtain an integrated view of their environment, and communicate using various sensory channels. To behave in an adaptive way, they require the mechanisms to do what they need to do to survive and prosper. Physiological adaption to environmental variations is crucial, but rapid changes in the environment caused by human activities can impair welfare and even cause selective mortality, leading to genetic changes throughout entire populations. Fish may be classified into proactive and reactive species with different basic “personalities”, and only species with the appropriate personality are suitable for farming.

The purpose of the work was to develop a method for determining unmanned aerial vehicles’ (UAVs) coordinates, trajectory and parameters of their spatial movements by means of kinematic projection. The paper analyses the use of technologies for determining coordinates and spatial movements of aircraft trajectories. The principle of the kinematic scheme of fixing moving objects by means of orthogonal and kinematic design has been developed. The principle scheme of determining UAV coordinates by kinematic projection was studied. The theoretical mathematical dependencies of the determination and calculations of the coordinates of spatial movements of unmanned aerial vehicles have been practically verified. The main object of research in this work was the theory of kinematic design as a means of graphically displaying the patterns of spatial movements of objects. The subject of the study was the specific features of searching and recording the trajectories of spatial movements of unmanned aerial vehicles in order to determine the coordinates of their instantaneous location in space. In the process of conducting theoretical and experimental research, methods and techniques of physical and mathematical modelling of fast-moving processes and mathematical statistics of analysis and classification of their results were used. The basis of the experimental study was the theory of mapping coordinates and trajectories of spatial movements of moving objects by means of graphic geometry when combining classical orthogonal design with dynamic features of kinematic design. For an objective assessment of the results of the theoretical and experimental study of the dynamics of objects moving in space, the classical theory of research planning with a mathematical apparatus for processing their results was used. Graphical models of UAV coordinate fixation were made with the use of computer technology and the AutoCAD graphic editor software.

In order to clarify the mechanism of tiller–soil interaction in the process of strip rotary tillage, this paper conducted a simulation and experimental research on four blade configurations composed of three rotary blades (bent C, straight and hoe) at three rotation speeds (280, 380 and 510 rpm). The study found that the soil throwing characteristics of the blades are the key factors affecting the quality of tillage. The increase in the rotation speed not only improved the soil breaking effect, but also enhanced the phenomenon of soil throwing and then led to a reduction in the soil backfill. In the BC configuration (combination of four bent C blades), the bent C blades showed the best soil throwing characteristics and created the best soil fragmentation. However, due to the obvious side throwing of the soil, the backfill effect of soil fragmentation was the worst. The backfill rate was only 8% when the rotation speed was 510 rpm and could not allow reaching the required seed–soil contact during sowing. The hoe blades in the HC configuration (combination of four hoe blades) could collect part of the soil fragments and throw them towards the direction of the machine during the cultivation process, which led to a good soil breaking effect and a low soil side throwing rate. When the rotation speed was 510 rpm, 36% of the soil was backfilled into the seedbed. In the SC configuration (combination of four straight blades), the straight blades could well control the scattering of the side-thrown soil fragments. At a super-high rotation speed (510 rpm), the side throwing rate was only 70%, and the backfill rate was as high as 60%. However, the soil fragments created by the blades were too large (average soil block diameter > 40 mm) and could not form a loose and finely broken seedbed environment. The MC configuration (combination of two straight blades and two hoe blades) benefited from the combination of straight blades and hoe blades, offering outstanding advantages for backfill and soil fragmentation. Therefore, under the condition of a centralized configuration of field surface straw, it is recommended to use the MC configuration of the wheat rotary strip–till planter for cohesive paddy soil.

The medial deltoid muscle is a small – and often neglected – muscle in comparison to other muscular systems in the immediately surrounding area of the upper body. If there is low or improper focus on the medial deltoid, there is a high risk of muscle imbalances and dysfunctions. Limited equipment exists today for proper training of the medial deltoid muscle; meaning there exists an opportunity to develop equipment which can safely and intuitively activate the medial deltoid muscle. To ensure maximization of the medial deltoid without increasing the activation of the surrounding muscles, the activation measurements of the anterior deltoid, posterior deltoid, and upper trapezius were also verified throughout the experiments with the seven exercises tested. This paper presents the pitfalls of current solutions, research of various studies and experiments, and confirms the activation levels and risks associated with various movement patterns.

Studies of human locomotion have found that male and female walkers differ in terms of lateral body sway, with males tending to swing their shoulders from side to side more than their hips, and females tending to swing their hips more than their shoulders. Experiments reported here demonstrate that naive viewers can identify the gender of the figure in a biological motion display very reliably when the display contains gender-specific lateral body sway. Sensitivity to gender is high even for displays containing only a fraction of a step cycle. This dynamic cue dominates structural cues based on torso shape ('centre-of-moment') when the cues are set in opposition. It is mediated by gender-specific differences in the velocity of shoulder and hip dots, not by positional differences in shoulder and hip dots during the step cycle.

The paper covers the development and analysis of a model of the true viscous lubricant movement in the working gap of a radial sliding bearing with a non-standard support profile having a fluoroplastic composite polymer coating with a groove on the shaft surface. The authors obtained new models based on the classical equation in the approximation for the “thin layer” and the continuity equation describing the laminar pattern of movement of a lubricant with the viscous rheological properties. The results of the numerical analysis of the developed models allowed obtaining a quantitative assessment of the efficiency of the bearing bush support profile and the polymer-coated shaft with an axial groove. To complete the set of studies and verify theoretical insights, the authors carried out the experimental research. The novelty of the work lies in the development of an engineering calculation technique that allows determining the magnitude of the main tribotechnical parameters of a radial sliding bearing (hydrodynamic pressure, load capacity, and friction ratio) and expanding the area of practical application of the developed engineering calculations. The design of the radial bearing with a fluoroplastic antifriction composite polymer coating, a 3 mm wide groove, and a special support profile ensured the stable shaft ascent on the hydrodynamic wedge, which experimentally confirmed the correctness of the results of theoretical studies of sliding bearings with a diameter of 40 mm at a sliding speed of 0.3–3 m/s and a load of 13–65 MPa.

Geological disasters occur frequently in China, and large-scale debris flow events have caused serious threats to people's lives and property.Debris flow has the characteristics of high density and high velocity, especially the presence of large block in debris flow, which makes debris flow a great threat to engineering structures.In order to investigate the movement patterns of flat-shaped block in debris flow, a small-scale flume experiment with precise control was carried out.In the experiment, the flow characteristics of debris flow were measured by distributed sensors, and block model simulated by metal block.At the same time, the triaxial acceleration and angular velocity changes of debris flow block were measured by an embedded inertial measurement unit (IMU).The experimental results show that the movement patterns of block in debris flow is mainly represented by sliding and rotating on the flow plane, and the movement pattern is closely related to the solid volume concentration of debris flow and the density of block.The higher the solid volume concentration and the higher the density of the block, the smaller the peak value and amplitude of the acceleration and acceleration of the block, and the block's movement pattern tends to slide.

Marine debris is a global problem that has not been resolved. This has encouraged the emergence of marine debris cleaning technologies, one of which is a conveyor ship. However, how effective conveyors are in collecting waste has not been studied. In this paper, experimental research on conveyors as marine debris collectors is investigated. The capability of catamarans with or without solid wing conveyors to collect marine debris is explored. Three kinds of marine debris collection models are used: no-wing conveyor, a 12.5-cm-long wing conveyor, and an 18.75-cm-long wing conveyor. Artificial marine debris (AMD) is spread on the water surface in a static tank. Then, a marine debris collector model is pulled using threads tied to the ship's body. This is done several times starting from a low speed and progressing to a high speed. After the experiment, the effectiveness of marine debris collection from these three models is analysed. In addition, the cause of marine debris not being caught by the model is investigated. This work proposes a new approach to evaluate the effectiveness of conveyer wings in marine debris collection. Based on AMD movement pattern analysis, it is suggested to operate the device at a low speed because the collected AMD ratio is high and the lost AMD ratio is small.

It is suggested that in a force telepresence teleoperation system based on virtual reality technology, two kinds of dynamic information transmission patterns of human operator, namely force pattern information transmission and movement pattern information transmission, are realized in the process where the human operator experiences, transmissions and executes the information. Dynamic model of the human operator is established, and the model is divided into three stages, namely fusion, neural muscle and execution. The methods of ascertaining the model parameters are given, and the experiment research is done. Important foundation is provided by the discussion in the paper for the analysis, design and control of the system.

Experimental and numerical simulation research on the transport process of bubble clusters in aeration system