Due to the influence of mass law, traditional lightweight sandwich structures have struggled to surpass solid structures in sound insulation performance. To this end, we propose an acoustic metamaterial structure with a sandwich configuration based on the re-entrant negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR) structure and systematically investigate its sound transmission loss (STL) performance under incident plane wave conditions. We used the acoustic impedance tube method to experimentally study the sound insulation performance of the re-entrant NPR sandwich structure under free boundary conditions, and then established an acoustic analysis simulation model based on COMSOL Multiphysics software, which verified that the results obtained by the experiment and the numerical simulation were in good agreement. The results show that the sandwich structure exhibits excellent sound transmission loss performance in the studied frequency range (250–4000 Hz), and the overall sound insulation performance exceeds the curve of the mass theorem, basically achieving more than 20 dB when the sandwich thickness is 2 cm. Finally, we conduct parametric studies to establish a correlation between the geometric design of NPR sandwich structures and their sound transmission loss performance. The research shows that the changes of the length of the ribs, the distance from the ribs to the center of the unit, and the length of the upper wall and the lower wall have a significant impact on the sound insulation performance of the re-entrant NPR sandwich structure, while the change of the wall thickness basically will not affect the sound insulation performance of the sandwich structure. This research can provide practical ideas for the engineering application of noise suppression designs of lightweight structures.

Enhancing underwater images presents a challenging problem owing to the influence of ocean currents, the refraction, absorption and scattering of light by suspended particles, and the weak illumination intensity. Recently, different methods have relied on the underwater image formation model and deep learning techniques to restore underwater images. However, they tend to degrade the underwater images, interfere with background clutter and miss the boundary details of blue regions. An improved image fusion and enhancement algorithm based on a prior dark channel is proposed in this paper based on graph theory. Image edge feature sharpening, and dark detail enhancement by homomorphism filtering in CIELab colour space are realized. In the RGB colour space, the multi-scale retinal with colour restoration (MSRCR) algorithm is used to improve colour deviation and enhance colour saturation. The contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE) algorithm defogs and enhances image contrast. Finally, according to the dark channel images of the three processing results, the final enhanced image is obtained by the linear fusion of multiple images and channels. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed method on various data sets.

The increased demand for robotic manipulator has driven the development of industrial manufacturing. In particular, the trajectory tracking and contact constant force control of the robotic manipulator for the working environment under contact condition has become popular because of its high precision and quality operation. However, the two factors are opposite, that is to say, to maintain constant force control, it is necessary to make limited adjustment to the trajectory. It is difficult for the traditional PID controller because of the complexity parameters and nonlinear characteristics. In order to overcome this issue, a PID controller based on fuzzy neural network algorithm is developed in this paper for tracking the trajectory and contact constant force simultaneously. Firstly, the kinetic and potential energy is calculated, and the Lagrange function is constructed for a two-link robotic manipulator. Furthermore, a precise dynamic model is built for analyzing. Secondly, fuzzy neural network algorithm is proposed, and two kinds of turning parameters are derived for trajectory tracking and contact constant force control. Finally, numerical simulation results are reported to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

To improve the global stiffness and conveniently build a model of a compliant mechanism with spatial multiple degrees of freedom (DOF), the topology optimization method, combined with the isomorphic mapping matrix, is proposed in this paper for structure synthesis of a 6-DOF spatial compliant mechanism. By using the differential approximation method, the Jacobian matrix of the Stewart prototype platform is calculated as the isomorphic mapping matrix, and its eigenvalues and eigenvectors are considered. Combining the isomorphic mapping matrix with the solid isotropic material with the penalization topology optimization method, the topological model of the 6-DOF spatial compliant mechanism is constructed, and a topological structure of the 6-DOF spatial compliant mechanism is derived which has the same differential kinematic characteristics as the Gough–Stewart prototype platform. Piezoelectric actuators are mounted inside the topological structure during the three-dimensional printing manufacturing process, and its driver directions are in accordance with the driver configuration directions of the Gough–Stewart prototype platform. The effectiveness of the proposed method for topological structure synthesis of the 6-DOF spatial compliant mechanism is demonstrated through several numerical examples and experimental studies.

To achieve accurate contour tracking of robotic manipulators with system uncertainties, external disturbance and actuator faults, a cross-coupling contour adaptive nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (CCCANTSMC) is proposed. A nonsingular terminal sliding mode manifold is developed which eliminates the singularity completely. In order to avoid the demand of the prior knowledge of system uncertainties, external disturbance and actuator faults in practical applications, an adaptive tuning approach is proposed. The stability of the proposed control strategy is demonstrated by the finite-time stability theory. Then, the developed controller combines adaptive nonlinear terminal sliding mode control (ANTSMC) of joint trajectory tracking and proportion–differentiation control of end-effector contour tracking by introducing the coupling factor between multiple axes based on Jacobian. Moreover, a unified framework of cross-coupling contour compensation and reference position pre-compensation is built. Finally, numerical simulation and experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.