Electromagnetic launchers become spread in many applications. This type of launcher is used to accelerate a slug made of ferromagnetic material. Many researchers compete to enhance the performance of this type. The launcher consists of simple components such as a capacitor bank, electronic switches, launcher coil, and charging circuit. In this paper, the authors have physically built the launcher system and reinforced the launcher performance by changing the winding method and making the trigger coil in a conical shape to reduce the deceleration effect of the last half of the trigger, this modification has proven its superiority over the straight coil.

Temperature control is vital in micro-heaters used in medical devices such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The primary goal is to achieve tight control and a high rate of heating for a portable, low-cost medical device. Even though the fact that several designs for micro-heaters have been proposed, uniform temperature distribution and the high-speed heating rate remain challenging for micro-heaters. This high speed is achieved by the reduction of the thermal mass. The most common methods for reducing thermal mass or heating time in a device are to establish a highly desired structural design and to select a better heating mechanism with a robust controller. Increasing the thermal mass improves temperature distribution on the heater surface but slows heat transfer. On the other hand, removing the thermal mass makes the controller struggle to provide a high-temperature uniformity distribution on the micro-heater surface. In this study, we provide a design of a cost-effective, high-speed, thin-film micro-heater based on the Joule heating technique. The CoventorWare software tool is used to simulate the temperature distribution of the micro-heater. The heater provides a well-distributed temperature on the heated surface. When a DC voltage of 24 V was applied for 250 s, a maximum temperature of 272 °C was obtained. Besides, the heater’s average heating rate is 15 °C/s. The heater is then fabricated with the micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology on a silicon substrate. The transfer function of the heating system is computed. Two controllers are designed to control the temperature of the micro-heater and improve its response. The classical proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller produces rise time (T r ) of 21.9 s, settling time (T s ) of 73.3 s, and a maximum overshoot (M p ) of 4.8 %. Then by applying a fractional-order proportional-integral-derivative (FOPID) controller, a great enhancement in the system performance is observed, the controller is faster than the normal PID controller, the rise time (T r ) reaches 16.4 s and the settling time (T s ) reaches 23.6 s. It also reduces the maximum overshoot (M p ) to 0.32 %.

The incorporation of micro-heaters in medical analysis devices significantly aided in the miniaturization of such devices and shortened the processing time. Despite the fact that various micro-heater designs have been proposed, a high-speed heating rate for micro-heaters remain a challenge. The reduction of thermal mass allows for this high-speed to be accomplished. Furthermore, backside etching of the substrate is critical in increasing the rate of temperature change in thin-film micro heaters. This will speed up the thermal cycle, paving the way for high-speed, portable, and cost-effective medical devices like the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The size of the backside opening, on the other hand, should be carefully chosen to ensure the heater's rigidity. The larger the backside opening, the faster the thermal change and the lower the stiffness of the chip. An accurate simulation investigation was performed in this study using the CoventorWare software tool to obtain the optimal back side design for the designed micro heater in which the temperature change process is accelerated while the chip's strength is maintained. This study allows us to achieve a high-strength, high-speed micro-heater with superior efficiency. The heater's dimensions are designed to warm up a chip of size 30x40 mm in accordance with Peltier's chip size. For the provided heater dimensions, a series of squares with side lengths of 2.5 mm per square and a distance of 1 mm between each square was found to be the best design for the backside etching. It raises the heating rate to 22 °C/s and allows the heater to withstand pressure up to 1.8 MPa.

This paper deals with the design process and the dynamic control simulation of a new type of 4-DOFs parallel mechanism that can be used as an endoscopic surgical manipulator. The proposed mechanism, 2-PUU_2-PUS, is designed based on the parallel virtual chain concept and screw theory. Based on the structure analysis of the 4-DOF parallel mechanism, the inverse position equation is studied using the inverse analysis theory of kinematics. The design and the stress analysis of the mechanism are investigated using SolidWorks software. The virtual prototype of the parallel mechanism is constructed, and the dynamic simulation is performed using ADAMS™ software. The system model utilizing PID and PI controllers has been built using MATLAB software. A more realistic simulation in accordance with a given bending angle and point to point control is implemented by the use of both ADAMS/MATLAB softwares. The simulation results showed that this control method has solved the coordinate control for the 4-DOF parallel manipulator so that each output is feedback to the four driving rods. From the results, the tracking performance is achieved. Other control techniques, such as intelligent ones, are recommended to improve the tracking performance and reduce the numerical truncation error.

This paper presents the design of two controllers namely, Direct Fuzzy Logic controller and Fuzzy Model Reference Learning Control applied to a new aerial manipulation system called "Quad rotor-Manipulator System". This system consists of 2-link manipulator connected to the bottom of a quad rotor. The dynamic model of this system is derived taking into account the effect of adding a payload to the manipulator. The performance of the proposed controllers are compared with that of the previously developed controller based on Feedback Linearization technique. All controllers are tested regarding their ability to stabilize the system and track desired trajectories under the effects of picking and placing a payload as well as changing the system operating region. Finally, the system equations of motion and the control laws are simulated using MATLAB/SIMULINK. The simulation results indicate the outstanding performance of the Fuzzy Model Reference Learning Control.

This paper describes the development of a dexterous endoscopic parallel manipulator for laparoscopic surgery using rigid mechanism. Endoscopic parallel manipulator is developed based on the concept of virtual chain and screw theory. The inverse and forward kinematics solutions are derived analytically and numerically respectively. Also the singularity analysis is investigated. The known problem of limited bending angles was solved in the proposed manipulator as it can reach ± 90° in any direction. The proposed manipulator consists of four legs; two legs are 2-PUU (each leg consists of one active prismatic joint and two passive hook joints); the other two legs are 2-PUS (each leg consists of one active prismatic join, one passive hook joint and one passive spherical joint). The virtual prototype of the parallel mechanism was constructed in ADAMS. The kinematics simulation of the virtual prototype was realized. Four linear motors are used to drive the mechanism. The intuitive simulations with the combination of MATLAB/Simulink and ADAMS show that the control performance of kinematics analysis is satisfactory.