In this work, the novel design of a sliding mode TriboElectric Nano Generator (TENG)—which can utilize vibration amplitude of a few hundred microns to generate useful electric power—is proposed for the first time. Innovative design features include motion modification to amplify relative displacement of the TENG electrodes and use of biological material-based micron-sized powder at one of the electrodes to increase power output. The sliding mode TENG is designed and fabricated with use of polyurethane foam charged with the biological material micropowder and PolyTetraFluoroEthylene (PTFE) strips as the electrodes. Experimentations on the prototype within frequency range of 0.5–6 Hz ensured peak power density of 0.262 mW/m², corresponding to the TENG electrode size. Further numerical simulation is performed with the theoretical model to investigate the influence of various design parameters on the electric power generated by the TENG. Lastly, application of the proposed TENG is demonstrated in a wearable device as an in-shoe sensor. Conceptual arrangement of the proposed in-shoe sensor is presented, and numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate that the real size application can deliver peak power density of 0.747 mW/m² and TENG; the voltage will accurately represent foot vertical force for various foot force patterns.

In this paper a novel design of energy harvester has been proposed, which converts harmonic or random vibrations energy into useful electric power. The energy harvester comprises of mechanical motion rectifier, motion regulator, strain energy storage element and a rotary electric generator. The mechanical motion rectifier comprises of a spatial mechanism with unidirectional bearings and spherical joint that converts the linear oscillating force into unidirectional torque pulses. Further, motion regulating mechanism directs the energy flow to the strain energy storage element and drives the electric generator. The arrangement ensures that flow of vibration energy is regulated such that it is stored in the spring up to a threshold limit and thereafter dissipated to the electric generator. Rigid body simulations in Adams and Matlab have been used in design and analysis of the energy harvester with investigations for the effect of significant design parameters. Experimentation on a prototype has been performed to validate the numerical model which delivered 4.13 W of peak power and average power of 0.12–0.52 W within frequency range of 1–15 Hz. Simulation results on a real size device with higher torsion spring stiffness indicates that the harvester can operate with 69.8% efficiency and deliver 0.32–2.45 W of average power for frequency of 0.5–4 Hz.

In this literature, recent development in control and performance enhancement of SCARA(Selective Compliance Articulated Robotic Arm) robotic arm is reviewed. SCARA robotic arm is very popular in the manufacturing industry for its positioning accuracy and repeatability. The SCARA robot has higher flexibility in the horizontal plane and great robustness for vertical motion. This makes the SCARA robot a perfect device for pick and place applications. In the paper, the Kinematic analysis based on DH formulation of the RPR (Revolute-Prismatic-Revolute) configuration-based SCARA robotic arm is presented. In recent years the main focus of the research was to achieve the accurate positioning of the end effector by using different control systems and process algorithms.

Miniaturized inductive sensors have measurement range of few millimeters and are used for accuracy within few micrometers. It is very crucial to maintain the accuracy of these sensors by magnetic shielding since their accuracy is influenced by presence of external magnetic field. In this paper study of magnetic shielding of a MEMS minimalized Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT) has been presented, where pure iron has been used as the shieling material. The finite element analysis has been performed to investigate influence of external magnetic field of a permanent magnet on output voltage of the sensor. It has been demonstrated that incorporation of 300 $\mu$m thick pure iron shield spaced at distance of 5.0 mm from the sensor, ensures significant attenuation of error introduced due to presence of external magnetic field near the sensor.

Accuracy of Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT) is influenced due to presence of an external magnetic field. In this paper an experimental study is presented which uses a pure iron foil for magnetic shielding of the sensor. The pure iron used in the present study is manufactured with a novel method of electrodeposition, cold rolling and intermediate annealing in a controlled environment. The magnetic properties of the pure iron manufactured with the new method are characterized by Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) to determine initial magnetization and hysteresis curve. The pure iron material exhibits properties, which make it a suitable candidate material for magnetic shielding. Further, the pure iron foils are used for electromagnetic shielding of LVDT to ensure that incorporation of the shielding ensures reduction in the sensor error from 7.7% to 2.3% and minimizes the effect of an external magnetic field on the sensor performance.

Many research teams have developed various innovations in the field of assistive robotic exoskeletons for human lower limbs. Especially in the recent years, because of the expeditious technological development, much work has been done and published in the scientific communities. However, in the publications, for different reasons and constraints, the information available is in bits and pieces. Most papers only could manage to speak of the individual aspects like the mechanical design or state machine or interface or another control scenario, etc. This is why an attempt of bringing scientific aspects together is done in this work. This is achieved by considering the most popular and various kinds of exoskeletons. Therefore, in this chapter an overview on the aspects of mechanical design and electrical control, and simultaneously their algorithms were discussed. Coming to analytical simulations like forward and inverse kinematics, dynamic simulation of the moments of the multibody system, etc., were performed in ADAMS and OpenSim simulation platforms. Better solutions were proposed and awaiting challenges were discussed for each aspect of the robotic exoskeleton.