Applied Mechanics Commons^™

Space-Angle Discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element Method For Radiative Transfer Equation, Hang Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

Radiative transfer theory describes the interaction of radiation with scattering and absorbing media. It has applications in neutron transport, atmospheric physics, heat transfer, molecular imaging, and others. In steady state, the radiative transfer equation is an integro-differential equation of five independent variables, which are 3 dimensions in space and 2 dimensions in the angular direction. This high dimensionality and the presence of the integral term present serious challenges when solving the equation numerically. Over the past 50 years, several techniques for solving the radiative transfer equation (RTE) have been introduced. These include, but are certainly not limited to, Monte Carlo …

Model Based Force Estimation And Stiffness Control For Continuum Robots, Vincent A. Aloi

Doctoral Dissertations

Continuum Robots are bio-inspired structures that mimic the motion of snakes, elephant trunks, octopus tentacles, etc. With good design, these robots can be naturally compliant and miniaturizable, which makes Continuum Robots ideal for traversing narrow complex environments. Their flexible design, however, prevents us from using traditional methods for controlling and estimating loading on rigid link robots.

In the first thrust of this research, we provided a novel stiffness control law that alters the behavior of an end effector during contact. This controller is applicable to any continuum robot where a method for sensing or estimating tip forces and pose exists. …