Abstract:The excellent compliance and large range of motion of soft actuators controlled by fluid pressure has lead to strong interest in applying devices of this type for biomimetic and human-robot interaction applications. However, in contrast to soft actuators fabricated from stretchable silicone materials, conventional technologies for position sensing are typically rigid or bulky and are not ideal for integration into soft robotic devices. Therefore, in order to facilitate the use of soft pneumatic actuators in applications where position sensing or closed loop control is required, a soft pneumatic bending actuator with an integrated carbon nanotube position sensor has been developed. The integrated carbon nanotube position sensor presented in this work is flexible and well suited to measuring the large displacements frequently encountered in soft robotics. The sensor is produced by a simple soft lithography process during the fabrication of the soft pneumatic actuator, with a greater than 30% resistance change between the relaxed state and the maximum displacement position. It is anticipated that integrated resistive position sensors using a similar design will be useful in a wide range of soft robotic systems.
The Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance 2000 emphasises the monitoring role of the Board of Directors, especially that of independent directors. It has not however taken into account the cultural values in Malaysia which do not encourage differences of opinion or criticisms and has failed to provide sufficient safeguards for directors to exercise their role effectively. As a result, it is relatively easy for dominant Chairmen or CEOs especially in government-linked companies or CEO dominated companies to control the Board or senior management with very little opposition. This paper will discuss several incidences of financial mismanagement in companies caused by dominant directors with very little opposition from the rest of the board. It will highlight that the law has to take cultural values more seriously in order to equip the Board and especially independent directors with the ability to challenge dominant Board members.
APPENDICES (2) 1994 recording of airgun signals on a 4.2-km-long seismic streamer towed by the R.V. Ewing along the offshore parts of Lines 1, 2, and 3 (Brocher and others, 1995) (3) 1994 recording of airgun signals on ocean-bottom seismographs along the offshore parts of Lines 1 and 2 (ten Brink and others, 1996) (4) 1994 onshore recording of the airgun signals along Lines 1, 2, and 3 (Okaya and others, 1996a) (5) 1994 onshore recording of earthquakes along Lines 1, 2, and 3 (8-day period) (Okaya and others, 1996b). (6) 1994 recording of borehole explosions along Line 1 (Murphy and others, 1996) (7) 1997 recording of local and distant earthquakes along Line 1 in the Los Angeles basin (9-month period) (Kohler and others, 2000) (8) 1998-1999 recording of local and distant earthquakes along Line 2 (6.5-month period) (Kohler and Kerr, in preparation) A variety of seismic instrumentation was used in these imaging surveys and was obtained from collaborators from around the world, including the Geological Survey of Canada (
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