Stiffness Device Research Articles

Seismic control of adaptive variable stiffness intelligent structures using fuzzy control strategy combined with LSTM

A novel semi-active control algorithm for adaptive variable stiffness intelligent structures that combines the fuzzy control strategy with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) is proposed in this study, with the aim of mitigating structural responses under earthquake excitations. The combined Fuzzy-LSTM strategy utilizes an LSTM neural network to predict the displacement and velocity responses of the structure at the next moment, and uses the predicted results as input for fuzzy control to obtain active control forces. Due to the difference between the displacement-velocity response and the fuzzy control domain, the genetic algorithm is used to optimize scaling factors of displacement and velocity responses and the control force, which is implemented by exploiting stiffness variability and structural inter-shift. The Fuzzy-LSTM strategy can compensate for the time delay effect on active control caused by stiffness variations, algorithmic computations and sensor measurements, and therefore achieves a better control effect through prediction. The semi-active independently variable stiffness (SAIVS) device is used to implement the presented control algorithm, which is a diamond device consisting of four linear springs and an electromagnetic actuator. The SAIVS device can achieve a continuous and smooth stiffness variation and meet the application requirements of the developed algorithm. Therefore, active control forces can be obtained through structural stiffness variations and interlayer displacements under seismic excitation, to achieve an approximate active control effect through a semi-active method. A 10-story building is presented as a case study for numerical simulations. Results show that the Fuzzy-LSTM strategy can significantly improve the control effect compared to the conventional fuzzy control strategy, and therefore achieve a better seismic response mitigation performance.

Generalized Damped Outrigger Systems for Suppressing Multimode Vibrations of Tall Buildings

Damped outrigger is a viable means for reducing dynamic responses of tall buildings. This study focuses on generalized damped outrigger (GDO) systems. A GDO is composed of a damper for energy dissipation, a negative stiffness device and an inerter for damping enhancement. The GDO system incorporates GDOs at different floors of the tall building optimized to varied structural modes. Frequency equation of a tall building simplified as a cantilever beam with multiple GDOs is first derived by complex modal analysis. A finite different model of such a system is used for verification. Parametric analyses are then performed to compare damping effects of different GDO systems. It is found that a negative stiffness damped outrigger (NSDO) or inerter damped outrigger (IDO) needs to be optimized for maximizing damping of a specific mode. GDOs, respectively, tuned to different modes can largely improve the multimode damping effects. The optimal parameters of the GDOs are slightly different from those in the case when they are installed separately. With both negative stiffness and nonzero inertance, a GDO still needs to be tuned to a specific mode because multimode damping is sensitive to the damper coefficient. The combination of an NSDO optimized to the first mode and an IDO tuned to a higher mode seems the best solution. The IDO additionally improves the first mode damping provided by the NSDO and the two-mode damping is not sensitive to the damper coefficient of the NSDO. The findings are confirmed through seismic response analyses of a tall building with different GDO systems.

The optimal design of negative stiffness inerter passive dampers for structures

The combination of negative stiffness devices and inerters to traditional base isolators (TBI) and tuned mass dampers (TMD) does not exist in any state-of-the-art. Therefore, to pursue the research using the above-mentioned research scope, the negative stiffness inerter passive dampers such as negative stiffness inerter-based base isolators (NSIBI), negative stiffness base isolators (NSBI), negative stiffness inerter-based tuned mass dampers (NSITMD), and negative stiffness tuned mass dampers (NSTMD) are introduced in this paper. H2 and H∞ optimization methods are applied to derive the exact closed-form expressions for the optimal design parameters of these novel passive vibration dampers. Newton’s second law applies to derive the governing equations of motion of the controlled structures. The transfer function formation and Newmark-beta method are applied to determine the dynamic responses of the controlled structures analytically and numerically. Hence, H2 optimized NSIBI and NSBI have 45.98% and 46.71% more dynamic response reduction capacities than optimum TBI. In addition, H∞ optimized NSIBI and NSBI have 58.36% and 57.32% more dynamic response reduction capacities than optimum TBI. Furthermore, the optimum NSITMD and NSTMD have 0.42%, 10.84%, and 4.5%, 13.48% more dynamic response reduction capacities than traditional TMD. All the derivations are mathematically accurate.

Performance of rocking frames with friction tension-only devices

The implementation of a new friction tension-only “GripNGrab” device attached to a rocking steel frame is described. The device, when subject to significant tension dissipates energy via sliding in the frictional component. When the device is loaded in the compression direction, almost no compressive force is carried, but displacement occurs in the ratchetting component. This absence of any significant compressive force within the dissipative system means that the rocking frame will always recentre after uplift from earthquake shaking. A 9 m tall 4.75m wide 3-storey steel concentrically braced rocking frame is designed for low-damage seismic performance. Restoring forces are provided by (i) gravity, (ii) friction “GripNGrab” (GNG) tension-only dissipation devices at the base, and (iii) beam-slab effects. The initial fundamental period of the structure was 0.16s. The initial structure used a 10mm GNG ratchet pitch, and had a GNG strength to not slide under serviceability level shaking. Elastic, pushover, cyclic pushover, as well as time history analyses, with different shaking intensities are conducted using OpenSEES software. The scope of work is limited to a single building and a single ground motion. Parameters varied included the presence of beam-slab effects, and the GNG device stiffness, strength and tooth pitch. It is shown that the full behaviour of the frame could be understood considering cyclic pushover analysis. The peak uplift displacement was conservatively estimated from the peak roof displacement using rigid body mechanics and the tension-only device provided no resistance to full frame recentring. For the frames considered, cumulative uplift displacements, necessary to determine the inelastic displacement capacity of the tension only device, were up to 28 times the peak uplift displacement, not necessarily occurring at the maximum shaking intensity. Maximum frame base shear force demands were up to 1.43 times that from pushover analysis. When the beam-slab, connecting the rocking frame to the rest of the structure, increased the lateral force resistance, the base shear increased significantly, reduced peak roof displacements, and increased the effective number of peak uplift displacement cycles (NPUDc). For large shaking intensities, yielding of the beam-slab occurred resulting in permanent peak roof and uplift displacements. The GNG device strength, stiffness and tooth pitch variations for the cases studied did not significantly affect the response. Initial stiffness, and secant stiffness, based methods to predict the response of rocking frames were non-conservative for these short-period structures with small energy dissipation, and a simple improvement to match the behaviour was developed for the case studied based on the R-T-m relationship for a range of shaking intensity.

On the Influence of Unexpected Earthquake Severity and Dampers Placement on Isolated Structures Subjected to Pounding Using the Modified Endurance Time Method

The aim of this study is to investigate the performance of isolated structures by considering the possibility of impact under severe earthquakes. In the design of isolated structures, the required displacement capacity is determined based on the considered earthquake hazard level. However, there is a possibility of an impact caused by moat walls or adjacent structures under severe earthquakes. Dampers are used in this study to improve the performance of structural and nonstructural components. In this regard, three isolated structures (6, 9, and 12 stories) equipped with Triple Friction Pendulum Isolator (TFPI) are designed under earthquake hazard levels of BSE-1 with return periods of 475 years. Based on the different positions of these three structures relative to each other, four scenarios are defined to investigate the effect of impact. Modified endurance time (MET) method, as a cost-efficient nonlinear time history analysis method, is employed for structural evaluation under variable earthquake hazard levels. The placement of dampers is also taken into account in evaluating the effect of dampers. Therefore, the structures have been retrofitted once by adding damping and stiffness devices (ADAS) on the stories and once by adding fluid viscous dampers (FVD) at the isolated level. Results indicate that structures might collapse under earthquake hazard levels of BSE-2 with return periods of 2475 years. This matter is influenced by the adjacency of two isolated structures next to each other, and the severity of this fact depends on the height of the structures and the displacement capacity of the isolators so that the tall, isolated structures have decreased the performance of the adjacent shorter isolated structure. Moreover, the placement of dampers has a significant influence on the performance of structural and nonstructural components, depending on the reason for the impact.

Negative stiffness-enhanced seismic damping technology for an over-track complex with concrete-encased steel columns

The resilient transit-oriented model stimulates the necessity of seismic performance enhancement or retrofitting of over-track complexes with concrete-encased steel slender supporting columns. This study proposes a novel low-damping-ratio-based vibration control approach and easy-to-use design for over-track complexes by flexibly installing the negative stiffness amplification system (NSAS) at the multistory of the over-track building and lower podium. Moreover, a multilocation-oriented design strategy and fitted formulae are developed for the NSAS-damped complex with enhanced energy-dissipation efficiency and an adjustable structural modal shape. By utilizing the negative stiffness device, dashpot, and tuning spring, the NSAS is theoretically constructed, and a simplified model of the NSAS-damped over-track complex is established. Stochastic response analysis and parametric investigation are performed to quantify the benefit of the NSAS-damped story over the conventional control method. Then, easy-to-use design formulae are provided in the initial design and parameter modification stages to realize the simultaneous control of the upper and lower structures. Based on a typical over-track complex with concrete-encased steel slender supporting columns, design cases are analyzed for the NSAS and conventional viscous dampers to verify the applicability of the proposed NSAS and design. The results indicate that the target-story located NSASs contribute a higher-efficiency approach to realize the significant performance improvement or retrofit of the over-track complexes without perturbing the daily function. Particularly, NSASs tailored for distinct stories in the over-track complex effectively satisfy the modification demand for structural modal shape and enhanced energy dissipation efficiency, which cannot be realized by conventional viscous dampers or the existing design of NSASs in normal buildings. In addition, the NSAS-damped story demonstrates a released stiffness abruptness and robust seismic performances against various earthquakes.

Practical negative stiffness device with viscoelastic damper in parallel or series configuration for cable damping improvement

Negative stiffness mechanism has been found able to improve damping performance of dampers on a stay cable which otherwise is limited by the damper installation distance from a cable end. This study provides a practical negative stiffness device (NSD) with adjustable negative stiffness and experiments are performed to validate the negative stiffness effect. The NSD is then combined with a viscoelastic damper in parallel or series for cable damping improvement. Explicit design formulas are derived for optimal design with a target enhancement effect in damping considering the damper described respectively using the Kelvin model and the linear hysteretic damping model. The formulas are verified by analytical and numerical solutions. Parametric analyses show damping enhancement effects of the NSD and it is found more efficient when combined with a damper in series because both deformation amplitudes of the damper and the NSD are further increased in this configuration. Subsequently, case studies are carried out based on two cables of the Sutong Bridge respectively with a shear-type viscous damper and a high damping rubber damper. The results show that the designed NSD can fulfill practical requirements. Particularly, a 100% increase in damping can be achieved by the presented NSD when combined with the damper installed on a cable of 546.9 m long.

Seismic response control of an open-ground story RC frame building using the negative stiffness device

Seismic response control of an open-ground story RC frame building using the negative stiffness device

Frequency independent damped outrigger systems for multi‐mode seismic control of super tall buildings with frequency independent negative stiffness enhancement

AbstractDamped outrigger system is effective for improving energy dissipation for tall buildings. However, conventional damped outrigger (CDO) system with viscous damping has two limitations: (i) its maximum damping ratio cannot be improved when outrigger/column stiffness is inadequate; (ii) different modes achieve their maximum damping ratios at different outrigger damping values, and thus the dampers cannot be optimized to simultaneously reduce vibrations of multiple modes of concern to their minimum. In this paper, a purely frequency‐independent negative stiffness damped outrigger (FI‐NSDO) system is proposed by combining frequency‐independent damper (FID) and negative stiffness device (NSD). The damped outrigger with FID can achieve the maximum damping ratio for all modes as compared to frequency‐dependent damper like viscous damper. As the NSD has the features of assisting and enhancing motion and frequency‐independence, the utilization of NSD will considerably improve the maximum damping ratios when outrigger/column stiffness is inadequate and maintain the frequency‐independent feature of the whole system. Therefore, the FI‐NSDO has the capability of simultaneously increasing the damping ratios of all target modes to their maximum values. Analysis in frequency domain and time domain, demonstrate that the proposed FI‐NSDO performs better in controlling the multi‐mode vibration of seismic responses.

Parameters optimization of three-element dynamic vibration absorber with inerter and grounded stiffness

Improving the control performance of dynamic vibration absorbers has recently been effective by introducing a grounded negative stiffness device. However, the negative stiffness structure is unstable and difficult to achieve in engineering practice , and its major drawback is that it amplif ies the vibration response of the primary system at low frequency region. Meanwhile, some mechanical devices can be combined to make the DVA work even better with a grounded positive stiffness. For this purpose, this paper combines for the first time the control effect of the inerter device and grounded positive stiffness into a three-element DVA model in order to better improve vibration reduction of an undamped primary system under excitation. First, the dynamic equation of motion of the system is written according to Newton ’s second law. Then, the steady-state displacement response of the primary system under harmonic excitation is calculated. In order to minimize the resonant response of the primary system around its natural frequency, the extended fixed point theory is applied. Thus, the optimized parameters such as the tuning frequency ratio, the stiffness ratio , and the approximate damping ratio are determined as a function of mass ratio and inerter – mass ratio. From the results analysis, it was found that the inerter – mass ratio has a better working range to guarantee the stability of the coupled system. Then , study on the effect of inerter – mass ratio on the primary system response is carried out. It can be seen that increasing the inerter – mass ratio in the optimal working range can reduce the response of the primary system beyond its uncontrolled static response. However, it is necessary to avoid the situation where the inerter – mass ratio is very large because it can lead to unrealistic optimal parameters. Finally, comparison with other DVA models is show n under harmonic and random excitation of the primary system. It is found that the proposed DVA model in this paper has high control performance and can be used in many engineering practice s .

Research and Application of Negative Stiffness Device in The Field of Earthquake Prevention and Disaster Reduction

The negative stiffness device can reduce the equivalent stiffness of the structure, and has a good control effect on the peak shear force and acceleration response. The combination with the structural vibration theory makes the negative stiffness device fully play its role, and at the same time improves the seismic capacity of the structure, forming a negative stiffness vibration control device. Through reading and sorting out the research achievements of domestic and foreign scholars, the research progress of negative stiffness devices in the field of earthquake prevention and disaster reduction is discussed from the aspects of theoretical development, effect, device application and development trend, and the future development is prospected.

A variable stiffness manipulator with multifunctional channels for endoscopic submucosal dissection.

Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) has become the main treatment for early esophageal and gastric cancers, but the insufficient stiffness and large diameter of current devices increase the difficulty in operation. To address the above problems, this study proposes a variable stiffness manipulator with multifunctional channels for ESD. The proposed manipulator has a diameter of just 10mm and highly integrates a CCD camera, two optical fibers, two channels for instruments, and one channel for water and gas. Additionally, a compact wire-driven variable stiffness mechanism is also integrated. The drive system of the manipulator is designed, and the kinematics and workspace are analyzed. The variable stiffness and practical application performance of the robotic system are tested. The motion tests verify that the manipulator has sufficient workspace and motion accuracy. The variable stiffness tests show that the manipulator achieves 3.55 times of stiffness variation instantly. Further insertion tests and operation test demonstrates that the robotic system is safe and can satisfy the needs in motion, stiffness, channels, image, illumination, and injection. The manipulator proposed in this study highly integrates six functional channels and a variable stiffness mechanism in a 10mm diameter. After kinematic analysis and testing, the performance and application prospect of the manipulator are verified. The proposed manipulator can promote the stability and accuracy of ESD operation.

Optimization and Seismic Performance of SMA-based Negative Stiffness Isolation Device

The experimental results of SMA-based negative stiffness isolation device show that the SMA cables arranged around the bearing cannot slide freely. To solve this problem, an optimized SMA-based negative stiffness isolation device was proposed. Based on a continuous bridge, the seismic performance of positive stiffness, zero stiffness and negative stiffness devices is compared. The results show that the device has good energy dissipation capacity, re-centering capability and displacement-limiting capacity. Furthermore, the seismic performance of the device with stiffness is better than the device with positive or zero stiffness.

Optimization of the Position and Stiffness of Passive Walking Assistance Devices

Walking is a fundamental movement in daily life; however, many factors affect walking that may reduce the mobility of the people. Walking assistance devices can help with gaining mobility back for people who suffer from walking problems. In the present study, a computational method to determine the location and stiffness of the assistive walking systems was developed. The human walking model was created by using nine rigid bodies and eight revolute joints connecting them in the sagittal plane. The walking assistance system was considered as a tension spring with both ends attached to the human walking model. A coordinate system was defined along the distal–proximal direction of the human body. The position of the walking assistance system was determined by using four design variables, and the optimal position of the assistive walking system to reduce the total positive joint energy was found around the hip joint at a walking speed of 1.3 m/s. Hip joint moment and power were significantly affected by the walking assistance system, and the total positive joint energy was reduced by 8.8%. Because walking speed significantly affects walking kinematics and kinetics, the effect of walking speed on the optimal walking assistance device was investigated. The position of the device was kept the same, and the optimal stiffness and free length of the spring were found at different walking speeds. Two different cases were considered: a speed-specific design in which stiffness characteristics were separately optimized for each speed and a general design in which stiffness characteristics were optimized by considering all walking speeds. It was found that, in both cases, hip joint moment and power significantly reduced, and the speed-specific design produced a slightly larger reduction in total joint energy. The performance of the walking assistance systems in both cases were found to be higher at faster walking speeds.

Energy spectra and performance assessment of isolated structures with a negative stiffness amplification system

Negative-stiffness-incorporated seismic isolation technology has been widely adopted for the effective protection of infrastructures from high-intensity earthquakes. In particular, by incorporating a dashpot and tuning spring, a negative stiffness device can yield a negative stiffness amplification system (NSAS) that can produce an amplified dashpot deformation without sacrificing the isolating effect. To address this observed amplification effect and unknown performances subjected to various types of ground motions, energy spectra are proposed in this study for structures equipped with the NSAS-incorporated isolation system (NSAS-IS) and classified by the field-type of ground motions, based on which the energy-spectrum-based performance evaluation method is developed. The basic concept and mechanical model of the negative-stiffness device, NSAS-IS, and pertinent isolated structure are introduced, based on which the energy response analysis model is established. Within the energy-based framework, the ground motions are classified, whereas the energy spectra are unified for the original structure and the NSAS-IS-equipped isolated structure with a series of typical NSAS-ISs. By addressing the near-, middle-, and far-field ground motions, analytical assessment formulae are provided for the NSAS-IS-equipped structures to quantify the differences in the seismic performances and enhanced energy dissipation levels among the various ground motions. Finally, the proposed energy-based performance assessment tool is applied in design cases for illustration. The findings of this study show that the developed energy spectra are effective in evaluating the energy dissipation enhancement and structural energy dissipation reduction levels of NSASs against various field-type earthquakes. Specifically, the energy dissipation burden of the superstructure under near-field ground motions with significant pulse components is larger than that of the middle- and far-field motions, signifying the necessity of considering the earthquake type for the performance assessment and design of NSAS-IS structures. The proposed analytical performance evaluation formulae can be adopted for a quick performance assessment of NSAS-IS isolated structures subjected to various earthquakes.

Seismic control of a smart structure with semiactive tuned mass damper and adaptive stiffness property

AbstractTo reduce structural responses under earthquake excitations effectively and improve their resilience, a smart structure with a semiactive tuned mass damper (STMD) on the top story and a semiactive adjustable stiffness device (SASD) on the first story which contributes to the structural adaptive stiffness property is developed in this study. The SASD consists of a diamond spring device composed of four linear springs and an electromagnetic actuator, which can change the angle of the diamond device and therefore retune the stiffness. Two typical STMDs developed previously are reviewed first, which are diamond device‐based STMD with variable stiffness and damping and pendulum‐type STMD with variable frequency and eddy current damping, respectively. Numerical results show that the proposed STMD has a better control performance than passive‐tuned mass damper and STMD with variable stiffness or damping acting independently. To enhance the seismic protection of the structure with an STMD on the top story further, based on the principle of base isolation, a diamond device‐based SASD is applied to the first story. The linear quadratic Gaussian‐based variable stiffness algorithm for SASD is proposed. A 10‐story building is presented as a case study. The variable stiffness range of SASD is discussed in detail, while it is found that a ±50% variable stiffness range achieves the best earthquake mitigation. Control effects of different numbers of SASD implemented along the height of the building are compared as well. Numerical results show that with the increase in the number of SASDs, the earthquake mitigation effect is better; however, the magnitude of the increase is decreasing. The smart structure with the combined SASD and STMD has an excellent seismic protection performance and is better than with SASD or STMD acting independently. Meanwhile, it is found that the proposed combination has a similar control effect to four SASDs installed from the first story to the fourth story, respectively, while it can reduce the number of additional electromechanical systems and the influence on the use function of the building.

The optimal configuration of negative stiffness inerter-based base isolators in multi-storey buildings

The negative stiffness inerter-based base isolators (NSIBI) are introduced in this paper. The negative stiffness device and inerters are installed inside the core of the conventional base isolators (CBI) to enhance their dynamic response reduction capacity. The novel isolators have been installed at the multi-storey building’s base to mitigate their dynamic responses during vibration. H2 optimization method applies to derive the exact closed-form expression for negative stiffness inerter-based base isolators’ optimal design parameters, such as frequency and viscous damping ratio for multi-storey buildings. Applying these H2 optimized design parameters, the optimum NSIBI for dynamic response mitigation of multi-storey buildings have been achieved. The dynamic responses of the NSIBI-controlled multi-storey buildings are compared with the dynamic responses of multi-storey buildings isolated by optimum CBI to determine the exact superior dynamic response reduction capacity of optimum NSIBI. The dynamic responses of isolated structures in the frequency domain are evaluated by forming the transfer function. Therefore, for five-storey buildings, the dynamic response reduction capacity of NSIBI is significantly 51.93% and 81.24% superior to the dynamic response reduction capacity of CBI subjected to harmonic and random-white excitations. In contrast, for ten-storey buildings, the optimum NSIBI has 77.73% and 94.02% more dynamic response reduction capacity than the optimum CBI subjected to harmonic and random-white excitations. In addition, using the Newmark beta method, a numerical study further conducts to verify the accuracy of the H2 optimized design parameters by obtaining the time history results for isolated structures subjected to near-field pulse-type earthquake base excitations. Accordingly, the optimum NSIBI have 57.591% and 55.398% more displacement and acceleration capacity than the optimum CBI for five-storey buildings. Besides, for ten-storey buildings, the displacement and acceleration capacities of optimum NSIBI are significantly around 56.42%and 55.80%, superior to the optimum CBI. Thus, the vibration reduction capacity of optimum CBI is significantly decreasing while the storey level of the multi-storey buildings increases, whereas NSIBI is still efficient in reducing the dynamic responses effectively. The paper’s outcomes are mathematically accurate and applicable to practical implementation.

Stochastic Optimization and Sensitivity Analysis of the Combined Negative Stiffness Damped Outrigger and Conventional Damped Outrigger Systems Subjected to Nonstationary Seismic Excitation

In recent years, various kinds of damped outrigger systems, particularly with the negative stiffness devices, have been shown to effectively suppress excessive vibration induced by earthquake and wind. To gain insight into such systems, this paper proposes a stochastic optimization method to investigate optimal configurations of combined negative stiffness damped outriggers (NSDOs) and conventional damped outriggers (CDOs) subjected to nonstationary stochastic seismic excitation. The simplified analysis model of various combinations of damped outriggers is developed, and the state-space representation of outrigger systems is then formulated. The nonstationary seismic excitation is modeled as a uniformly modulated stationary Gaussian process with a time-modulating function following Clough–Penzien spectrum, and combining equations of motions of outrigger systems and seismic excitation gives rise to the augmented state-space representation of structure-damper-excitation and subsequently the differential Lyapunov equation. The optimal designs of damped outriggers are defined via the solution of the differential Lyapunov equation. The multiobjective optimization with Pareto optimal fronts is adopted to deal with conflicting objectives between harmful interstory drift and floor absolute acceleration. The sensitivity of negative stiffness devices on optimal objectives is also investigated. The optimal designs are further examined under real typical and near-fault earthquake records. The results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method and provide insight into the systems subjected to nonstationary seismic excitation. While the purely NSDO systems could have better performance with adequate negative stiffness devices, the proposed combined NSDO and CDO systems prove to be more effective with limited negative stiffness devices and thus provide more design flexibilities tailored to different application situations.

Liquid metal enabled conformal electronics.

The application of three-dimensional common electronics that can be directly pasted on arbitrary surfaces in the fields of human health monitoring, intelligent robots and wearable electronic devices has aroused people's interest, especially in achieving stable adhesion of electronic devices on biological dynamic three-dimensional interfaces and high-quality signal acquisition. In recent years, liquid metal (LM) materials have been widely used in the manufacture of flexible sensors and wearable electronic devices because of their excellent tensile properties and electrical conductivity at room temperature. In addition, LM has good biocompatibility and can be used in a variety of biomedical applications. Here, the recent development of LM flexible electronic printing methods for the fabrication of three-dimensional conformal electronic devices on the surface of human tissue is discussed. These printing methods attach LM to the deformable substrate in the form of bulk or micro-nano particles, so that electronic devices can adapt to the deformation of human tissue and other three-dimensional surfaces, and maintain stable electrical properties. Representative examples of applications such as self-healing devices, degradable devices, flexible hybrid electronic devices, variable stiffness devices and multi-layer large area circuits are reviewed. The current challenges and prospects for further development are also discussed.

Effects of Physical Hardness on the Perception of Rendered Stiffness in an Encountered-Type Haptic Display.

Rendering stable hard surfaces is an important problem in haptics; current haptic devices cannot render hard objects and free space together. In our previous work, we addressed these limitations using an encountered-type haptic display system, which showed significant improvements compared to traditional rendering methods. In our approach, we attach a plate with the desired hardness to the kinesthetic device's end-effector, which the user interacts with using an untethered stylus. This method allows us to directly change the hardness of the end-effector based on the rendered object. In this paper, we evaluate how changing the hardness of the end-effector can mask the device's stiffness and affect the user's perception of the interaction. Our human subject experiment results indicate that when the end-effector is made of a hard material, it is difficult for users to perceive the stiffness change rendered by the device. On the other hand, this stiffness change is easily distinguished when the end-effector is made of a soft material. These results show promise for our combined hardness-stiffness display in avoiding the limitations of haptic devices when rendering hard surfaces.