Active Impedance Control of Bioinspired Motion Robotic Manipulators: An Overview.

There are two main categories of force control schemes: hybrid position-force control and impedance control. However, the former does not take into account the dynamic interaction between the robot's end effector and the environment. In contrast, impedance control includes regulation and stabilization of robot motion by creating a mathematical relationship between the interaction forces and the reference trajectories. It involves an energetic pair of a flow and an effort, instead of controlling a single position or a force. A mass-spring-damper impedance filter is generally used for safe interaction purposes. Tuning the parameters of the impedance filter is important and, if an unsuitable strategy is used, this can lead to unstable contact. Humans, however, have exceptionally effective control systems with advanced biological actuators. An individual can manipulate muscle stiffness to comply with the interaction forces. Accordingly, the parameters of the impedance filter should be time varying rather than value constant in order to match human behavior during interaction tasks. Therefore, this paper presents an overview of impedance control strategies including standard and extended control schemes. Standard controllers cover impedance and admittance architectures. Extended control schemes include admittance control with force tracking, variable impedance control, and impedance control of flexible joints. The categories of impedance control and their features and limitations are well introduced. Attention is paid to variable impedance control while considering the possible control schemes, the performance, stability, and the integration of constant compliant elements with the host robot.

Vaccines and photodynamic therapies for oral microbial-related diseases.

The mouth is a favorable habitat for a great variety of bacteria. Microbial composition of dental plaque is the usual cause of various oral diseases in humans, including dental caries, periodontal disease and halitosis. In general, oral antibacterial agents such as antibiotics are commonly used to treat oral bacterial infection. Traditional periodontal surgery is painful and time-consuming. In addition, bacterial resistance and toxicity of antibiotics have become a global pandemic and unavoidable. Recently, vaccines for dental caries and periodontal disease have been developed and applied. Moreover, the use of photodynamic therapy has become an alternative to antibiotic drugs. The purpose of this article is to highlight the advantages of vaccine therapy and photodynamic therapy for oral microbial-related diseases compared to treatments with antimicrobial agents and traditional periodontal surgery.