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From: dominic@domrob.demon.co.uk (Dominic Robinson)
Subject: Robotics PhD/MPhil Opportunity
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Date: Tue, 28 Mar 1995 23:03:23 GMT
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ROBOTICS PhD/MPhil Opportunity

There is an immediate vacancy for a second PhD/MPhil research student to work in the University of Plymouth School of Electronic, Communication and Electrical Engineering on the Plymouth Hand Project. The aim of the project is to produce an improved prosthetic hand (more information below).

Salary - 5130 p.a. Additions for laboratory supervision could increase to about 6500 pa

Candidate : A minimum of an upper second class honours degree in electrical/ electronic/ systems/ mechanical engineering. To some extent the work can be matched to the skills/ interest of the successful candidate.

For further details and an application form contact dominic@domrob.demon.com

THE PLYMOUTH HAND

The idea underpinning this work originated in Belgrade and was first published in a 1975 paper titled Multifunctional Terminal Device with Adaptive Grasping Force, more commonly known as the Belgrade Hand. The mechanical Belgrade Hand had a slippage transducer built into the thumb. When a grasped object began to fall or slip the relative movement between object and thumb was detected and the applied force increased until the relative movement was reduced to zero. A marked advantage over similar dev


A recent Plymouth project has examined the problems of the Belgrade hand. A working model has been built and tested in order to prove the viability of the new, improved design. This model has eliminated the major problems identified in the original design. Laboratory tests show the prototype Plymouth Hand capable of lifting two cylinders of identical size, one solid mild steel the other a hollow rolled sheet of A4 paper. Both were raised, the paper without distortion. Having proved the principle, fundi


The proposed programme consists of four main stages :

1. Derivation  of a practical specification for two systems using the slippage detection adaptive grasping force technique, i.e. a robot grimmer and prosthetic hand.

2. Kinematically model a range of proposed designs using virtual reality software.

3. Validate appropriate kinematic models.

4. Design build and test an improved version of the existing device to meet the specification of a robot grimmer, in particular :
a. Software environments will be investigated, e.g assembly code, C, etc and an appropriate one chosen and developed. New techniques such as rule based control (fuzzy logic) and neural networks will be investigated.
b. Design and development of the power electronics and drive system.
c. Specify and test the appropriate microcontroller.

5. Design an appropriate slippage detection transducer and force control system for an existing NHS prosthetic hand. Build and test this system incorporating appropriate software and other design features successfully implemented in part 2.



