Hydraulic device provides accurate displacements to microinches

Hydraulic drive device translates microinch deviation measurements into precise corrective displacements. The unit is driven by a servomotor activated by the output of an attitude sensing device

What does it mean to be a “materially attuned” practitioner?

This paper reports on research in progress that explores the potential role the materiality of things plays as a tool for the critical understanding of the human relationship with man-­‐made objects. The paper argues that many designers habitually engage with production and consumption of meanings more through the materiality of things than words and symbols. It proposes a hypothesis that materiality is a key to understanding the context, knowledge and information the man-­made objects may “embody”. Through the case study of an exhibition, the paper examines the ways in which this embodiment may be facilitated. Referring to Heidegger’s notion of "thingness", it further explores the origin of the mediating, and the “engaging capacity” of objects. The paper draws on the more established analysis of the origin and the experience of the work of art, in its examination of the role that materiality plays in the production and consumption of meaning and in facilitating the experience through objects. While exploring the potential advantage of an anthropological approach to design, the paper suggests that an attunement to materiality and an active reflection on their observations enable the designers to have better insights into the workings of the human-­object relationship

Hydraulic drive mechanism Patent

Hydraulic drive mechanism for leveling isolation platform

A neural network for controlling the configuration of frame structure with elastic members

A neural network for controlling the configuration of frame structure with elastic members is proposed. In the present network, the structure is modeled not by using the relative angles of the members but by using the distances between the joint locations alone. The relationship between the environment and the joints is also defined by their mutual distances. The analog neural network attains the reaching motion of the manipulator as a minimization problem of the energy constructed by the distances between the joints, the target, and the obstacles. The network can generate not only the final but also the transient configurations and the trajectory. This framework with flexibility and parallelism is very suitable for controlling the Space Telerobotic systems with many degrees of freedom

Time Lag in Sgr A* Intra-Day Variability between the light curves at 90 and 102 GHz

We performed the observation of the flux densities of Sgr A* at 90 and 102 GHz on 6 April 2005 using the Nobeyama Millimeter Array in order to detect the time lag between these frequencies. We constructed light curves covering a few hour with 1 min bin, and the Intra-Day Variability, which had a rising phase and intensity peak, of Sgr A* is clearly seen at both frequencies. We calculated the z-transformed discrete correlation function between the light curves of Sgr A* at 90 and 102 GHz. The derived time lag of the flares at these frequencies was approximately zero, contrary to our expectations based on the previously reported time lag at lower frequencies. If the radio flares of Sgr A* are explained by the expanding plasma model, the light curve at 90 GHz would be delayed with respect to the one at 102 GHz. However, we could not find such a delay with statistical significance in our data.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures. Proceedings of IAU Symposium 290, "Feeding Compact Objects: Accretion on All Scales", C. M. Zhang, T. Belloni, M. Mendez & S. N. Zhang (eds.

Coherence Effects of Caroli-de Gennes-Matricon Modes in Nodal Topological Superconductors

Coherence effects by the impurity scattering of Caroli--de Gennes--Matricon (CdGM) modes in a vortex for nodal topological superconductors have been studied. The coherence effects reflect a topological number defined on a particular momentum space avoiding the superconducting gap nodes. First, we analytically derived the eigenvalue and eigenfunction of the CdGM modes, including the zero-energy modes, in a nodal topological superconducting state without impurities, where we focused on a possible superconducting state of UPt$_3$ as an example. Then, we studied impurity effects on the CdGM modes by introducing the impurity self-energy, which are dominated by the coherence factor depending on the eigenfunction of the CdGM modes. For the zero-energy CdGM modes, the coherence factor vanishes in a certain momentum range, which is guaranteed by topological invariance characterized by the one-dimensional winding number.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures + 5 pages (supplementary material), published versio

Nodal gap detection through polar angle-resolved density of states measurements in uniaxial superconductors

We propose a spectroscopic method to identify the nodal gap structure in unconventional superconductors. This method best suits for locating the horizontal line node and for pinpointing the isolated point nodes by measuring polar angle ($\theta$) resolved zero energy density of states $N(\theta)$. This is measured by specific heat or thermal conductivity at low temperatures under a magnetic field. We examine a variety of uniaxially symmetric nodal structure, including point and/or line nodes with linear and quadratic dispersions, by solving Eilenberger equation in vortex states. It is found that (A) the maxima of $N(\theta)$ continuously shift from the anti-nodal to the nodal direction ($\theta_{\rm n}$) as a field increases accompanying the oscillation pattern reversal at low and high fields. Furthermore, (B) local minima emerge next to $\theta_{\rm n}$ on both sides except for the case of linear point node. These features are robust and detectable experimentally. Experimental results of $N(\theta)$ performed on several superconductors, UPd$_2$Al$_3$, URu$_2$Si$_2$, Cu$_x$Bi$_2$Se$_3$, and UPt$_3$, are examined and commented in light of the present theory.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, full paper versio