The development of teleoperated devices is a growing area of study since it can improve cost effectiveness, safety, and healthcare accessibility. However, due to the large distances involved in using teleoperated devices, these systems suffer from communication degradation, such as latency or signal loss. Understanding degradation is important to develop and improve the effectiveness of future systems. The objective of this research is to identify how a teleoperated system’s behavior is affected by latency and to investigate possible methods to mitigate its effects. In this research, the end-effector position error of a 4-degree-of-freedom (4-DOF) teleultrasound robot was measured and correlated with measured time delay. The tests were conducted on a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) to monitor noticeable changes in position error with different network configurations. In this study, it was verified that the communication channel between master and slave stations was a significant source of delay. In addition, position error had a strong positive correlation with delay time. The WLAN configuration achieved an average of 300 ms of delay and a maximum displacement error of 7.8 mm. The VLAN configuration showed a noticeable improvement with a 40% decrease in average delay time and a 70% decrease in maximum displacement error. The contribution of this work includes quantifying the effects of delay on end-effector position error and the relative performance between different network configurations.

The aim of this paper is to investigate technological advancements made to a robotic tele-ultrasound system for musculoskeletal imaging, the MSK-TIM (Musculoskeletal Telerobotic Imaging Machine). The hardware was enhanced with a force feedback sensor and a new controller was introduced. Software improvements were developed which allowed the operator to access ultrasound functions such as focus, depth, gain, zoom, color, and power Doppler controls. The device was equipped with Wi-Fi network capability which allowed the master and slave stations to be positioned in different locations. A trial assessing the system to scan the wrist was conducted with twelve participants, for a total of twenty-four arms. Both the participants and radiologist reported their experience. The images obtained were determined to be of satisfactory quality for diagnosis. The system improvements resulted in a better user and patient experience for the radiologist and participants. Latency with the VPN configuration was similar to the WLAN in our experiments. This research explores several technologies in medical telerobotics and provides insight into how they should be used in future. This study provides evidence to support larger-scale trials of the MSK-TIM for musculoskeletal imaging.

This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the sensitivity of different switched-capacitor amplifier circuits to Single Event Transients (SETs). SETs are temporary variations in circuit output voltage or current caused by the interaction of heavy ions or high-energy protons with sensitive device nodes. The study focuses on three types of amplifier circuits commonly used in Multiplying Digital-to-Analog Converter (MDAC) stages of state-of-the-art pipelined ADCs: operational amplifier (Op-Amp) MDACs, comparator-based switched-capacitor (CBSC) MDACs, and ring amplifier (RAMP) based MDACs. By employing a TCAD-calibrated double exponential transient current pulse model, we simulate the SET responses resulting from heavy ion strike experiments on sensitive nodes of each MDAC type. Our analysis and simulations reveal the amplitude and recovery time of the output results for each MDAC type when subjected to SETs. Notably, we propose a novel radiation hardening solution: the parallel-auxiliary ring amplifier (PA-RAMP) structure, which demonstrates significantly better tolerance to SETs compared to other designs. This research not only contributes to the understanding of SET effects on analog switched-capacitor amplifier circuits but also introduces a cost-effective approach to mitigate these effects. As technology nodes scale down and circuits become more susceptible to SETs, the PA-RAMP structure offers a promising solution for radiation-hardened applications, enabling the use of scaling-friendly RAMPs with enhanced tolerance to SETs.

This manuscript focuses on studying the radiation response of the Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) AD524CDZ operational amplifier. Total Ionizing Dose (TID) effects were tested using low-dose ⁶⁰Co irradiation. Single-Event Effect (SEE) sensitivity was studied on this operational amplifier using a 105 MeV proton beam. Additionally, further study of the SEE response was carried out using a Two-photon absorption laser to scan some sensitive sectors of the die. For this laser experiment, different gain setups and laser energies were employed to determine how the Single Event Transient (SET) response of the device was affected based on the test configuration. The results from the TID experiments revealed that the studied device remained functional after 100 krads (Si). Proton experiments revealed the studied device exhibited a high SET response with a maximum DC offset SET of about 1.5 V. Laser experiments demonstrated that there was a clear SET reduction when using 10× and 1000× gain setups.

Introducción: Se diseñó y fabricó una máquina prototipo de lanzamiento de pelotas de tenis de campo mediante el uso de ruedas giratorias y movimiento vertical controlado para un sistema de entrenamiento programado. Objetivos: Fabricar una máquina lanzadora de pelotas de tenis de campo, realizando pruebas de funcionalidad, verificando tipos de lanzamiento y velocidad de la pelota para asegurar su correcto funcionamiento. Metodología: El cumplimiento de los objetivos se sustentó en: método de revisión bibliográfica; método dialéctico, para tener un manejo de la información y método histórico, debido a que se utilizó fuentes anteriores que ayudaron a encontrar las principales características de este tipo de máquinas existentes en el mercado internacional. Resultados: Se obtuvo una máquina provista de ruedas que, al girar con una velocidad de 2750 rpm, consiguen transmitirle suficiente energía cinética a la pelota de tenis logrando el disparo con tres efectos de lanzamiento: Slice, Top Spin y Flat Spin, similar a un jugador promedio. Se alcanzó una velocidad lineal promedio de expulsión de la pelota de 59,38 km/h. Conclusiones: En las pruebas de funcionalidad mostraron una precisión de la máquina lanzadora de pelotas de tenis de un 93% con respecto al posicionamiento, además las pelotas cayeron en un diámetro máximo de 20 cm con relación a la posición final deseada.