A continuous static gait of a quadruped robot benefited from the twisting trunk performing the increased stride length is introduced. After that, the increased stride length relative to the trunk twisting will be analysed mathematically. Other points impacting the implementation of the increased stride length in the gait are investigated such as the upper limit of the stride length and the kinematic margin. The increased stride length in the gait will lead the increase of locomotion speed.

An automatic, non-contact measuring system for the thread profile of a ball screw was developed. It is capable of measuring most common features of the ball screw thread profile and can measure ball screws of different sizes and lengths. The accuracy of the measuring system was verified by comparing the image from the system with the image from the reference instrument and then, different ball screws were compared and evaluated, which was the main purpose of designing such a measuring system.

In this paper the potentiality of using Pa² joints for designing robots with parallel structure and translational motion is studied. As the equations governing its motion are simpler than those of other structures, the control system of the robot is more efficient and reliable. The structure proposed has high stiffness improving the accuracy of its movements.

It is proposed a novel design method for large stroke XY compliant mechanisms. An important feature of the design lies in it restricts the parasitic rotation by reducing the moment of force instead of increasing the rotational stiffness widely utilized in the literature. It is presented a millimeter stroke XY nanomanipulator with the proposed design based redundant constraint in a case study. The proposed design provides an alternative to reduce the parasitic rotation of XY compliant mechanism.

This article presents a novel continuum robot actuated by two extendable balloons. As inflated, the balloons apply a force on the wall of the tip, pushing the robot forward. The contribution of this study is the introduction of a novel actuation mechanism for soft robots to have extreme elongation (2000 %) in order to be navigated in substantially long and narrow environments.

Analytical and numerical analyses have been performed to study the problem of magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) flow and heat transfer of an upper-convected Maxwell fluid in a parallel plate channel. The Homotopy Analysis Method (HAM), Homotopy Perturbation Method (HPM) and fourth-order Runge-Kutta numerical method (NUM) are used to solve this problem. Also, velocity and temperature fields have been computed and shown graphically for various values of the important physical parameters.

The Beam Constraint Model (BCM) may yield large predicting errors (> 5 %) when the applied axial force goes beyond a certain boundary. We mathematically determine the nondimensional boundary of the axial force by the conditions of the positive definite quadratic form of the strain energy expression and the buckling load expressions. If the axial force is beyond the boundary, the Chained Beam Constraint Model (CBCM) can be used instead.

The spherical flexible joint is used to connect the Tension Leg Platform to the seabed. It can provide low shear stiffness while bearing high compression force. So the research on the stiffness of flexible joint is necessary. The linear rotational stiffness of the flexible joint is formulated and FEM is used to verify the analytical solution. The increase of Poisson's ratio of the rubber layers will enhance the vertical compression stiffness but barely have effect on the rotational stiffness.

The mechanical behaviour of a creased thin strip under opposite-sense bending was investigated，revealing that a simple crease could significantly alter the overall mechanical behaviour of a thin strip. The influence of the geometrical parameters on the mechanical behaviour of the creased strip was studied. The deformation patterns of the thin strips from the finite element simulations were verified by physical models made from thin metal strips.

A systematic method was proposed for the synthesis and creative design of novel structures that can be used to build wheeled mobile robot. The proposed method has led to 236 new design schemes. Mathematical models and a software platform were developed to provide appropriate and intuitive tools for simulating and evaluating performance of the wheeled robots. Physical prototypes of sample wheeled robots were developed and tested, proving and validating the principle and methodology presented.

Due to the time-consuming and inefficient traditional tool selection method based on the human experience, we apply transfer learning to CNC tool selection issue in the field of industrial manufacturing. A unified expression of expert experience and process case is given in a more complex environment and then we improve the algorithm. The results show that the method we proposed can facilitate tool selection.

The traditional concepts on severe accident mitigation weren't seriously challenged until the occurrence of Fukushima accident on 2011, suggesting the structural behavior had not been appropriately assessed. Therefore, the paper tries to address the structure-related issue on determining whether structural safety can be maintained or not with the effect of various water levels and internal pressures created from core meltdown accident. The creep and plastic damages are interacted with each other

This article proposes a novel monolithic compliant spatial parallel XY stage (SPXYS). An important feature of the SPXYS lies in that it can deliver centimeter travel range and sustain large out-of-plane payload while possessing a compact structure, which makes the SPXYS suitable for some special applications such as Ultra-Violet Nanoimprint Lithography and soft-contact lithography.

Hidden-keyhole padlocks are reconfigurable mechanisms and a category of ancient Chinese locks. This work presents a useful procedure to indicate and analyze the topology variabilities of hidden-keyhole padlocks. The variable chains of hidden-keyhole padlocks are presented by using the representation of kinematic pairs, from which all topology variabilities of padlocks in the operation are derived. Four main types of hidden-keyhole padlocks are provided as examples to illustrate the procedure.

This study proposes a worm gear efficiency model considering misalignment in electric power steering systems. Geometrical and tribological analyses were performed and in order for validation of the model, a worm gear was prepared and the efficiency of the worm gear was predicted by the model. As the final procedure of the study, a worm gear efficiency measurement system was set and the efficiency of the worm gear was measured and the results were compared with the predicted result.