Sharif Digital Repository

Washing a dead person’s body and dressing the corpse prior to burial is an act of love and necessity in many religions. Since the deceased loses all bodily functions at time of death, cleaning the body to eliminate odors is generally a hard and unpleasant task for many to perform. It has also been reported that tens of thousands of microbes are present on every square centimeter of a human corpse which is always a health risk to the persons performing the task. Among Islamic nations, preparation of the corpse is usually carried out in washing rooms (Ghassalkhaneh) of cemeteries in large cities. This preparation consists of two important operations namely as washing of the corpse (Ghosl)... 

Flapping wing vehicles produce aerodynamic forces through the flapping motion of their wings. A sample flapping wing mechanism is studied in this project, which propulsion system consists of a battery, a DC motor, a gearbox, a flapping mechanism and a flexible membrane wing. The purpose of this study is simulation of the whole propulsion system through identification and simulation of each sub-system. In the current research, after an introduction to the flapping wing vehicles, literature of the flapping vehicles is reviewed. By studying relevant articles, lack of a comprehensive simulation of all sub-systems is observed. So the goal of this research is obtaining an appropriate tool for... 

Nowadays, World is witnessing an epidemic increase in Robotic Concepts and its usage in diverse fields such as Explore and Rescue Missions, Conservation and Guarding of Environments and various Millenarian Applications. While, different Goals like increasing the precision and speed of missions performance, and decreasing the costs have been always the major priorities in design and building robots. One of the best methodologies to achieve aforementioned goals is to replace a highly capable robot with a group of simple and restricted robots. This suggestion is inspired by the nature and lots of its animals, like birds, fishes and insects. These creatures use socializing in order to forage and... 

Flapping is one of the most usual solutions to produce aerodynamic lift and propulsive force in natural flights, in low Reynolds number. A sample flapping wing mechanism in which propulsion system consists of a battery, two very small DC electrical motors, two gearboxes, a flapping mechanism and flexible beams as wings is studied in this project.Different methods have been proposed to derive the governing equations of motion and simulate the flapping wing system. The main disadvantage of the previous proposed works is the lack of a comprehensive dynamical analysis of the complete system including its components.Therefore, the main objective of the present research is to propose an efficient... 

In recent decades, the usage of robots in industrial applications increased dramatically. One group of robots are manipulators which they are used in production lines for moving parts, cutting, welding, …. In these applications, different control methods are used to control the end effector of manipulators precisely. From one aspect, control methods are divided to two parts: A) The methods that do not need to equation of motion of robot, such as proportional-integral-derivative method. B) The methods that are designed based on equation of motion of robot. To use these methods, first the equation of motion of manipulator should be calculated according to its structure. These equations are... 

Nowadays, regarding the rapid growth of technology, needs for manufacturing different productions has been increased. In this situation, it is very important to train and supervise technicians in machine shops. This supervision can play a key role in semi-automated factories and assembling lines. As we know, most of the machine shops and factories have been designed to be appropriate for human; therefore, using a humanoid robot with similar dimensions to an adult and with the ability to supervise, teach and interact with people, seems to be very useful. Such robot can interact and teach different things to people while moving around factories. Also it can supervise and warn any problem in an... 

In the beginning of the 90’s a new type of robot was introduced by Fukuda. The brachiation is a type of mobile robot that moves from branch to branch like a long-armed ape. Here, as a new innovation, optimal control is used to obtain the optimal trajectories for two different problems. The first problem is “Brachiation between fixed branches with different distance and height” and the second is “Brachiating and catching the moving target branch”. Theoretical results show that the control effort in the proposed method is reduced by 25% in comparison with the “Target Dynamics” method which was proposed in prior articles for this robot. The obtained optimal trajectory also minimizes the... 

Swarm robotics is a new approach to the coordination of large numbers of relatively simple robots. The approach takes its inspiration from the system level functioning of social insects which demonstrate three desired characteristics for multi-robot systems: robustness, flexibility and scalability. This research describes development of an autonomous miniature mobile robot for swarm robotics research and education. Several common platforms were studied and this prototype was designed. Wireless communication was selected to transmit robot’s messages. The design of this testbed aims for enhancing the sensing capability of the robotic agents, overcoming the constraints led by lack of... 

Metallic clusters are among the best candidates that may be utilized as building blocks for constructing nanostructures. Despite their great potential, a variety of questions arises about their suitability as building blocks at the nanoscale level. One of the key factors in the assembly of nanoclusters is the precise positioning that is required by a manipulation system. The response of clusters, which are subjected to this process, is of great importance. Currently, the size of clusters used as building blocks is shrinking down to a few nanometers. In such cases, the particle nature of matter plays an important role in manipulator/cluster/substrate interactions. Having a deeper insight into... 

In the recent years, there has been great interest in exploring methods for assembly and manipulation at the micro/nanoscale to build miniaturized systems, devices, structures, and machines. This thesis aims at two-dimensional manipulation of nanoparticle using Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) probe. The nanoprobe is used to push the spherical micro/nanoparticle. Continuum based modeling and simulation of the manipulation task is presented. The proposed nanomanipulation model consists of all effective phenomena in nanoscale. Nanoscale interaction forces, elastic deformation in contact areas, and friction forces in tip/nanoparticle/substrate system are considered. The utilized friction models... 

The main scope of this research is to develop an anthropometric lower extremity exoskeleal system in a virtual environment for augmentation purposes. The main challenge in the process of doing this research is to employ the biomechanical analysis of the human locomotion to provide the necessary background information for the design of devices that closely mimic the dynamics of the operator's motion. In this case, the appropriate degrees-of-freedom and associated range of motions for each joint should be determined. In addition, the kind of necessary actuators and measurement systems should be selected based on the muscle torque consumption analysis provided by a musculoskeletal model,... 

Motion dynamics of cat species has always been attractive to be studied. Flexibility in motion due to specific skeleton and complex muscle-skeleton mechanism, control concepts, special way of running, high speed direction change while moving, ability of twisting the body during free fall, and landing on four limbs were widely investigated in literature and the results have been used in different branches such as control, robotics and aerospace.In this project, kinematic and dynamic equations of cat species falling maneuver are derived using quaternions for a simple two-link robot, a three-link robot with tail, and a more complete eight-link model with the addition of legs which is designed... 

Haptic Interfaces have been used as cooperative systems to reproduce and simulate human actions. The Haptic Interface (HI) can be used as a tool capable of interacting dynamically with the operator using haptic technology. By controlling the haptic interface and constraining it to move through the desired trajectory which is required for most of the training systems such as Hand Writing Learning System, Minimally Invasive Surgical Simulation, virtual welding training and gaming applications the users can easily interact with virtual environment through the sense of touch. Haptic device application in virtual handwriting training was investigated in this thesis. Two different modes of... 

Surgical simulators present a safe, practical, and ethical method for surgical training. In order to enhance realism and provide the user with an immersive training experience, simulators should have the capability to provide haptic feedback to the user. Accurate modeling of the interaction between surgical instruments and organs has been recognized as a key requirement in the development surgical simulators. Researchers have attempted to model tool-tissue interactions in a wide variety of ways, which can be broadly classified as (1) continuum mechanics-based,(2) discrete elements-based methods.
This thesis presents an improved model of static Long Elements Method (LEM), a new method... 

Knew is the biggest and most complicated joint in the body.Morever knew creat mobility must bear the weight of body and have a stability during static and dynamic activities.Knew is exposed different forces that force to around ligaments and soft fibers.After knew injuries, administration of aid is the important part of rehabilitation program.Rehabilitation robots with ability of accuracy and repetitive practices are good method for reducing time and energy of physiotherapist.At this thesis a 3 DOF Cartesian robot is designed and constructed for rehabilitation of knew that can do every practices for rehabilitation.Steps of designing and constructing of robot are based on movments of knew... 

In recent decades, micro-electromechanical systems – MEMS – havefound extensive applications in applied science and engineering. One of the most popular MEMS actuatorsis micro Scratch Drive Actuator (SDA), which can be used in various applications, for instance: precision positioning, micro-chip displacement and rotating micromotors. Their outstanding capabilities such as: high controllability, precise step displacement, vast transportation domain and large force relative to their small size, have made them popular among researchers. Recently, a new generation of SDA is introduced, known as Bounce-back Scratch Drive Actuator or BSDA, which is fundamentally different in motion generation from... 

This study investigated the effect of Robot Assisted Language Learning (RALL) on the vocabulary learning and retention as well as anxiety and attitude of Iranian English as Foreign Language (EFL) junior high school students in Tehran-Iran. After taking a vocabulary pretest, 46 beginner level female students at the age of 12, studying in their first year of junior-high participated in two groups of RALL (30 students) and non-RALL (16 students) in this study. The textbook used was the English book (Prospect-1) devised by the Iranian Ministry of Education for 7th graders, and the vocabulary taught and tested (pretest and posttest) were taken from this book. Moreover, the treatment given by a... 

The main aim of this thesis is to develop a mathematical model for vibration analysis of cracked rotors. This model should be a simple and precise model for prediction of the cracked rotor vibration behavior and suitable for vibration control. In order to create such model, the pure bending of a cracked beam is analyzed at first. This analysis is performed for two different orientations of the crack with respect to the beam and the bending vector. In this section a continuous bending model with continuous model for crack is developed which can predict the full deformation of the cracked beam in bending and can estimate the stress distribution in the beam with good approximation. Comparison... 

In the resent years, social robots has been emerged to improve the interactions between humans and robots. These intractions are intended more in human environment. So the reasonable performance of such robots is achieved if robots’ motion; become similar to humans. Hence, despite the complexities of manufacturing and controlling the bipedal and humanoid robots, the researches on this class of robots are still in continuing more and more. In 2013, the humanoid robot, R-50, made by Robokind Company, was purchased by the Mechanical Engineering Department of Sharif University of Technology. This robot was named Mina and to be used in the researches on the treatment of autism patients. Although... 

This thesis covers the design and realization steps of the upper-body of RASA, a social humanoid robot to be used as a Persian sign language (PSL) teaching assistant. In the design and fabrication processes, three main requirments is defined. First requirement is the robot's ability to perform PSL. The second one is for the robot to posess the characteristics required for a social robot interacting with targeted groups of people. And the third one is for the robot to be realized with minimum required cost. Further design guidelines are generated based on these three requirements. Analysing the structure of Persian sign language, the kinematic layout of the upper-body of the robot, regarding...