Haiying Wen, Ming Cong and Guifei Wang
– This paper aims to verify the workspace and movement performance of a redundantly actuated humanoid chewing robot.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to verify the workspace and movement performance of a redundantly actuated humanoid chewing robot.
Design/methodology/approach
A redundantly actuated humanoid chewing robot with 6-PUS linkages and two higher kinematic pairs (HKPs) is introduced. The design of HKPs is specified by mimicking the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) structure obtained through a computed tomography scan of the mastication system. The border movement, mouth-opening trajectory and velocity of subjects’ lower incisor point are measured by using the mandibular kinesiograph. Based on the kinematics, the envelope of the workspace is analyzed. The workspace and mouth-opening movement experiments are carried out. The border movement of the lower incisor point is measured. The mouth-opening trajectory is planned and tested on the chewing robot.
Findings
Comparing with measurement results of border movement and mouth-opening movement of human, it is shown that the humanoid chewing robot can meet the workspace requirements and is able to perform mouth-opening movement like human-beings.
Practical implications
The chewing robot is designed to reproduce human jaw movements and application in test of dental components and materials or evaluation of food textural properties.
Originality/value
The chewing robot is inspired by the mastication system which itself is mechanically redundant because of the TMJ and more muscles than required. The novel spatial redundantly actuated chewing robot is the first of this kind with two HKPs to mimic the human TMJ and is a higher fidelity mechanism.
Details
Keywords
Guifei Wang, Ming Cong, Weiliang Xu, Haiying Wen and Jing Du
This paper aims to describe how a novel biomimetic chewing robot was designed, including its motion, force, control and mechanical designs, and shows some initial experiments…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe how a novel biomimetic chewing robot was designed, including its motion, force, control and mechanical designs, and shows some initial experiments about motion tracking.
Design/methodology/approach
According to the biomechanics, the authors modeled the muscles of mastication in six linkages and the temporomandibular joint in higher kinematic pairs of point contact. As a result, the chewing robot was represented in a redundantly actuated parallel mechanism. With reference to literature data on the biological system, the authors specified the motion and force requirements for the robot via inverse kinematics and force analysis. A prototype of the robot was built, which has a position control system and is driven by six linear actuators. Experiments were conducted to show the capability of the robot in reproducing the human chewing motion.
Findings
A chewing robot was successfully modeled and developed, which is able to simulate the motion of human mastication in a biologically faithful way.
Practical implications
The chewing robot as a scientific instrument can be used to test dental materials and evaluate food textural properties of chewing.
Originality/value
Two higher kinematic pairs of point contact are proposed to simulate the two temporomandibular joints. The mechanism of the novel chewing robot is the first of this kind, which has two higher kinematic pairs of point contact and is a redundantly actuated spatial parallel mechanism.
Details
Keywords
Ming Cong, Dong Liu, Yu Du, Haiying Wen and Yinghua Wu
The purpose of this paper is to build a seven‐degrees of freedom (DOF) parallel‐serial robot system which has the advantage of mechanical novelty and simplicity compared with the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to build a seven‐degrees of freedom (DOF) parallel‐serial robot system which has the advantage of mechanical novelty and simplicity compared with the existing platforms, and to share the experience of converting a popular motion base to an industrial robot for use in full‐mission tank training processes of three armored arms.
Design/methodology/approach
By studying the concept of the robot system, a novel parallel‐serial robot with seven DOF driven by electrical servo motors is built. And the transmission modules and Hooke joints are explored and designed in detail. Then the inverse kinematics based on coupling compensation and time‐jerk synthetic optimization methods for trajectory planning of the simulator are presented and further discussed in order to satisfy the requirements of high stability and perfect performance. In advance, the feasibility and applicability of this triune parallel‐serial robot system are verified.
Findings
A prototyped test shows that the performance of the system is of a satisfaction with real‐time tracking any trajectories given by the visual system smoothly. Finally, the characteristics of the robot system are realized and verified by experiments and an industrial application.
Practical implications
The triune full‐mission tank training simulator developed in this paper has been used in the military industry and it has a great potential application.
Originality/value
This successful usage of the novel and simple parallel robot system in the military industry expands the range of its applications in real‐life task more operators training. And the proposal methods of inverse kinematics based on coupling compensation and trajectory planning enhanced the theoretical research of the parallel robot.
Details
Keywords
Wanbin Pan, Xinyue Chen, Wei Liu, Lixian Qiao, Haiying Kuang and Wen Feng Lu
This study aims to improve the stiffness of as-printed handles by finding appropriate printing orientations.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to improve the stiffness of as-printed handles by finding appropriate printing orientations.
Design/methodology/approach
First, a series of benchmark handles is designed using Taguchi method. Then, for each uniformly sampled printing orientation, every benchmark handle is sliced and undergoes stiffness evaluation (i.e. displacement and mean stress) by using finite element analysis (FEA). This generates a substantial batch of handle-orientation-stiffness samples. With the data, an effective stiffness-prediction network is developed based on the artificial neural network. Finally, using the developed network, the particle swarm optimization is adapted to determine the optimized printing orientation for each input handle, aiming to improve its stiffness.
Findings
Compared with the common slicing software, the printing orientations proposed in this study, based on FEA, result in varying degrees of improvement in stiffness for four handles. Specifically, the displacement and mean stress are reduced by 16.86% and 18.14% on average. The experiments show that the approach has the potential to effectively improve the stiffness of a handle.
Originality/value
Although the anisotropic property in mechanics is unavoidable and difficult to formally describe in 3D printing, the proposed approach can effectively characterize the relationship between the stiffness and the printing orientation for each handle. And, it also can determine an optimized printing orientation for each handle to enhance its stiffness after printing.
Details
Keywords
Haiying Pan, Meihong Chen and Wen-Lung Shiau
The public health emergency of COVID-19 (Corona-virus disease) pandemic has greatly impacted tourism industry, especially in the rural tourism. This paper aims to study how rural…
Abstract
Purpose
The public health emergency of COVID-19 (Corona-virus disease) pandemic has greatly impacted tourism industry, especially in the rural tourism. This paper aims to study how rural tourism practitioners can get out of the mire of the pandemic. By analyzing the behaviors of various stakeholders and the logic of the impact of the pandemic, the behaviors of participants and future development were sorted out. The key elements that promote the recovery of rural tourism were discovered.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the framework of institute analysis and development (IAD), this research selected six rural tourist communities in China as subjects for the studies. Based on the seven basic principles of hermeneutics and the inductive research method, following the analysis method of “first-order coding, second-order coding, aggregated dimensions,” the texts obtained through in-depth interview and work reports were analyzed and concepts were extracted.
Findings
The paper extracted 44 first-order concepts and 14 second-order concepts, and obtained 7 aggregation dimensions, including policy formulation and implementation, improvement of integrated marketing capabilities, improvement of tourism product quality, restrictions on rural tourism development, protection and optimization of environmental resources, industrial integration strategies and improvement of managerial and coordinating capabilities. During the pandemic, the government, enterprises and associations, as the service providers of rural tourism, can optimize the environmental resources and industrial resources of rural tourism by formulating policies, refining products and strengthening marketing in the action arena, to promote the industrial integration of rural tourism and provide better products and services for tourists.
Originality/value
This paper uses the IAD framework to study how rural tourism communities can successfully recover from the impact of the pandemic. It is found that the rapid recovery of rural tourism is the result of collective action. The core of establishing the collective action mechanism of rural tourism is consensus mechanism, co-construction mechanism and sharing mechanism. By studying the path and possibility of collective action of rural tourism communities, this paper explores the approach of multi-center governance of rural tourism communities to promote the imminent recovery of rural tourism.
研究目的
新冠疫情(COVID-19)对旅游业,尤其是乡村旅游产生了极大影响。本文旨在探究乡村旅游从业者如何摆脱疫情危机。研究通过分析疫情带来的影响及各利益相关者的反应,梳理旅游从业者的行为,探究乡村旅游未来的发展。研究指出了促进乡村旅游复苏的关键因素。
研究设计/方法/途径
基于制度分析与发展(IAD)理论框架,本文选取中国境内6个乡村旅游目的地作为研究对象。采用解释学七大基本原则和归纳式研究方法,通过对深度访谈和政府工作报告获得的文本进行分析,提取出“一阶编码、二阶编码、聚合维度”。
研究结果
研究提取44个一阶编码和14个二阶编码,最终得到7个聚合维度,包括政策制定与实施、整合营销能力提升、旅游产品质量提升、乡村旅游发展制约因素、保护和优化环境资源、实施产业整合战略和提高管理协调能力。疫情期间,政府、企业和协会作为乡村旅游的服务提供者,可以通过制定政策、改善产品、加强营销,优化乡村旅游的环境资源和产业资源,推动乡村旅游产业融合,为游客提供更好的产品和服务。
研究原创性/价值
本文利用IAD框架研究乡村旅游在疫情中的复苏。研究发现,乡村旅游的快速复苏是集体行动的结果。建立乡村旅游集体行动机制的核心是共识机制、共建机制和共享机制。本文通过研究乡村旅游社区集体行动的路径和可能性,探索乡村旅游多中心治理的途径,促进乡村旅游复苏。
Details
Keywords
Shiva Sadat Mostafavi and Alexis Mavrommatis
This paper aims to offer an integrated framework for branded apps (BAs) that highlights research gaps and points to areas for future research.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to offer an integrated framework for branded apps (BAs) that highlights research gaps and points to areas for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a systematic literature review approach, the authors analyzed more than 100 articles published between 2009 and the present. This research used databases such as SCOPUS, Web of Science, EBSCO and Elsevier’s Science Direct, with a particular focus on articles listed in the 2021 ABS index. The reviewed papers were coded and organized into four categories in terms of themes and concepts: antecedents, mechanisms, outcomes and moderators.
Findings
The study identified four types of antecedents (app benefits, personal traits, brand benefits and others) that influence outcomes via cognitive, affective and a mix of both mechanisms, which is termed multipaths. The authors classified outcomes into five areas (financial gains; app benefits; brand benefits; customer benefits; and others). Moderators were grouped into four types (customer individuality; app features; brand characteristics; and others). The authors concluded by recommending promising directions for future research. Specifically, the authors suggested an inverted U-shaped relationship between escapism and customer responses to BAs.
Originality/value
This paper focused exclusively on BAs, differentiating them from other mobile apps. The authors integrated nearly 100+ studies conducted over two decades. This integrated model serves as a guiding tool for understanding the past, present and future of BAs.
Details
Keywords
Wiyata Wiyata, Nur Adilah Md Zain, Muhammad Aliff Asyraff, Faiz Izwan Anuar and Mohd Hafiz Hanafiah
This study aims to empirical tests an integrated framework of third-party travel apps usage antecedents (system quality, information quality, service quality and user engagement…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to empirical tests an integrated framework of third-party travel apps usage antecedents (system quality, information quality, service quality and user engagement) and its consequences (satisfaction, apps love and behavioral intentions).
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative research design was used, purposively interviewing 551 users of predetermined third-party travel apps. The data was analyzed using partial least squares-structural equation modeling.
Findings
The study found that system quality did not significantly impact user engagement, suggesting that users may prioritize content and service over technical features. Both information quality and service quality were positively linked to user engagement, confirming that users are more engaged when app content is relevant and service is adequate. Additionally, higher user engagement led to greater app satisfaction and love, positively influencing users’ behavioral intentions, such as continued use and recommendations.
Practical implications
The results highlight the importance of content and service quality over system features in driving user engagement with smartphone apps. This suggests developers should focus on delivering high-quality information and excellent service to foster user satisfaction and emotional attachment to the app.
Originality/value
The study suggests a shift in focus from technical features to content relevance and service effectiveness, highlighting that users may prioritize these aspects over technical aspects when engaging with an app. This could challenge conventional assumptions about the importance of system quality in user engagement.
研究目的
本研究实证测试了一个综合框架, 分析第三方旅行应用使用的前因(系统质量、信息质量、服务质量和用户参与)及其后果(满意度、应用依赖和行为意图)。
研究方法
采用定量研究设计, 有目的地访谈了551位预定的第三方旅行应用用户。数据通过偏最小二乘结构方程模型(PLS-SEM)进行分析。
研究发现
研究发现, 系统质量对用户参与没有显著影响, 表明用户可能更关注内容和服务而非技术特性。信息质量和服务质量均与用户参与呈正相关, 证实用户在应用内容相关性高且服务得当时更具参与度。此外, 更高的用户参与度提升了应用满意度和依赖性, 进而正向影响用户的行为意图, 如持续使用和推荐。
实践意义
结果强调了内容和服务质量在推动智能手机应用用户参与中的重要性, 相较于系统特性, 开发者应关注提供高质量信息和优质服务, 以提升用户满意度和对应用的情感依赖。
研究创新
本研究表明, 用户在应用使用中可能更关注内容的相关性和服务的有效性, 而非技术特性, 这挑战了系统质量对用户参与重要性的传统假设。
Details
Keywords
Vetta Sanders Thompson, Anjanette Wells and Jacquelyn Coats
This chapter provides an overview of the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in health, including disease, health behaviors, and access to health. The literature on the social…
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in health, including disease, health behaviors, and access to health. The literature on the social determinants of health is reviewed. The chapter then provides a review of the health status of the homeless, poor, and near-poor. The incidence and mortality rates for leading diseases and health behaviors are reviewed, in addition to issues of environmental exposures, access to care, and health literacy. SES is one of the strongest predictors of health status (Kahng, 2010; Kawachi & Kennedy, 1997; Link & Phelan, 1996). SES is important to health regardless of a person's social status and in general, the more advantaged individuals are, the better their health, and the more disadvantaged individuals are, the greater their chances of increased morbidity and mortality (Adler et al., 1994; Adler & Coriell, 1997, Kidder, Wolitski, Campsmith, & Nakamura, 2007; Zlotnick and Zerger, 2009).
The chapter provides an overview of strategies and policies to address the health needs of the poor and vulnerable in our society, including workplace wellness strategies and school-based health clinics. The authors suggest ways to extend these innovative practices. This chapter emphasizes an approach to addressing the health of the poor and near-poor that acknowledges the significant role that access to social and economic resources plays in the acquisition and maintenance of health. Recommendations for health interventions are focused on strengthening the utilization of community institutions to deliver needed services.
Along with the “reform and open door” policy launched in the late 1970s, China has experienced an annual average GDP growth rate of 9.8% between 1978 and 2002 (Hu, 2003, October 19…
Abstract
Along with the “reform and open door” policy launched in the late 1970s, China has experienced an annual average GDP growth rate of 9.8% between 1978 and 2002 (Hu, 2003, October 19). China's economy system has also gone through a fundamental transition from a central planning system to a socialist free market economy. To cope with the booming economy and radical social changes, the higher education system of China has been undergoing a process of expansion with marketization (World Bank, 1997).