When materials are to be treated with microwaves for different purposes such as drying, online moisture measurements, disinfestation, and remote sensing, thorough knowledge of the material dielectric properties becomes extremely important. Unlike for other materials, measurement of vegetation dielectric properties is very complicated due to the nature of the materials themselves. Hence, vegetation dielectric models that require fewer accurately and easily measurable physical quantities are of great importance. Therefore, dielectric models that only require the measurement of moisture content (MC) have been investigated for alfalfa, a plant material that has high commercial value in national and international markets. The models were developed by measuring the dielectric properties by using an open-ended coaxial probe at frequencies ranging from over 300 MHz to 18 GHz at 22 degC and at an MC ranging from 12% to 73% in wet basis

By characterizing the dynamic forces on a tactile sensor, it is possible to extract a tactile image during a grasping or a releasing operation. By modifying this procedure, two processing techniques suitable for the real-time extraction of a tactile image are obtained. The case study validates these procedures using experimental data obtained during grasping and releasing operations carried out on a test object. The implementation steps are discussed, and the applicability of the technique for real-time task status interpretation is analyzed.>

The development of a tactile sensing system for an industrial robot gripper using a commercial force transducer is described. The hardware and software aspects of the system design are outlines and pertinent design details of the proposed finger are given. Performance evaluation tests were conducted on the prototype system fabricated in the laboratory. These tests results are analyzed to show how the proposed system can be used as a versatile tactile sensor to perform a variety of gripping tasks.>