Accurately measuring blood flow is critical to the fundamental understanding of cardiovascular disease and clinical decision making. Although researchers have made great strides in computational and experimental blood flow modeling, reliable data is still difficult to generate in large quantities.
Mechanical engineer and inventor Zach Lerner, assistant professor in Northern Arizona University's Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been awarded $2.1 million by the National Institutes of Health's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.
New, high-performance artificial muscle technology enables more human-like motion
In the field of robotics, researchers are continually looking for the fastest, strongest, most efficient and lowest-cost ways to actuate, or enable, robots to make the movements needed to carry out their intended functions.
The quest for new and better actuation technologies and soft robotics is often based on principles of biomimetics, in which machine components are designed to mimic the movement of human muscles and ideally, to outperform them. Despite the performance of actuators like electric motors and hydraulic pistons, their rigid form limits how they can be deployed. As robots transition to more biological forms and as people ask for more biomimetic prostheses, actuators need to evolve.
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