Rungun Nathan | Pennsylvania State University (original) (raw)
Papers by Rungun Nathan
1999 Bioengineering Conference, Dec 1, 1999
Technology and Disability, 1996
For people with muscular dystrophy or spinal muscular atrophy - conditions characterized by degen... more For people with muscular dystrophy or spinal muscular atrophy - conditions characterized by degenerating muscle strength - the option of using a mechanical aid exists. This would allow free arm movement. This paper presents a consumer-based design approach to construction of such an assistive manipulation device and describes the consumer-driven stages in the orthosis design project within the Applied Science and Engineering Laboratories (ASEL). Results are presented from two consumer meetings held during the initial stages of the design. A design principle has been establish.:d and an initial set of prototypes evaluated. These will be used to modify subsequent design iterations.
He worked as a post-doc at University of Pennsylvania in Haptics and Virtual Reality. His researc... more He worked as a post-doc at University of Pennsylvania in Haptics and Virtual Reality. His research interests are in the areas of unmanned vehicles particularly flapping flight and frisbees, mechatronics, robotics, MEMS, virtual reality, and haptics, and teaching with technology. He has ongoing research in flapping flight, Frisbee flight dynamics, lift in porous material and brain traumatic injury He is an active member of APS (DFD), ASEE and ASME and reviewer for several ASME, IEEE and ASEE, FIE conferences and journals.
2007 Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
This paper details a new laboratory project in a senior-level Mechanical Engineering Vibrations c... more This paper details a new laboratory project in a senior-level Mechanical Engineering Vibrations course. Students are to determine the first four natural frequencies of a 6061 Aluminum free-free beam in a laboratory using three methods. First, they use the idealized theoretical continuous beam model. Second, they use Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Finally, they determine the frequencies experimentally. Using student survey data, it is shown that the project bolstered the following skills: (1) use of measurement equipment to acquire and transmit real-world data, (2) performing a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and creating the Power Spectral Density (PSD) plot of empirical data, (3) creating and modifying FEA code in MATLAB to find natural frequencies and test for convergence of results and (4) connecting the distinct topics of the course together.
European Journal of Mechanics - B/Fluids
Journal of Fluids Engineering
In this paper, we report an experimental approach to examine a fast-developing flow in a thin flu... more In this paper, we report an experimental approach to examine a fast-developing flow in a thin fluid gap. The phenomenon is widely observed in industrial applications, e.g., squeeze dampers, and in biological systems, e.g., joints lubrication. However, experimental investigations that capture the transient nature of the flow during the process are lacking. An experimental setup, consisting of a piston equipped with a laser displacement sensor and a pressure transducer, was developed. The loading surface was released from rest, creating a fast compaction on the fluid. The motion of the piston and the resulting changes of fluid pressure were recorded and compared to four representative theoretical models. The results show that the maximum pressure increases with gap height and/or the applied loading. A higher fluid viscosity leads to a lower maximum pressure but significantly extends the fluid pressure relaxation time. It is clearly demonstrated that the pressure response is governed b...
2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, 2000
This project introduces a pedagogical technique designed to help improve student attentiveness an... more This project introduces a pedagogical technique designed to help improve student attentiveness and energy in a lecture class. This idea was motivated by early morning classes in which students are tired and have difficulty paying attention and remaining focused. This work offers a relatively simple but effective approach which takes only about 5 minutes of class time once per week. The basic idea is to start off the class period with interesting a fun material that is somewhat related to the course material. This helps to capture students' attention, wakes them up a bit, and gets their interest and energy flowing early in the period. Following this activity, the remaining class period can be treated as normal, but can "ride the wave" of student interest. Results from an anonymous student survey indicate that on average students strongly agree that they enjoy this activity and have more energy afterwards, and agree that it is beneficial to their overall learning in the course. Anonymous student comments from the survey as well as the student evaluations for the course also support the effectiveness of this concept.
2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, 2000
This project introduces a method of teaching undergraduate students MATLAB programming within a t... more This project introduces a method of teaching undergraduate students MATLAB programming within a typical engineering lecture course, dynamics. This particular course was chosen because its content offers natural connections between engineering and programming concepts. The MATLAB programming instruction and assignments were approached through the context of the dynamics course material. This allowed students to make connections between their typical dynamics course content and the more abstract programming concepts which can sometimes be difficult for them to understand. This idea was indicated to be effective through anonymous student comments from student evaluations.
Journal of Field Ornithology, 2011
Heart rate is a useful physiological index for studies of stress, locomotion, and activity patter... more Heart rate is a useful physiological index for studies of stress, locomotion, and activity patterns. Measuring heart rates of birds without the need to handle individuals is desirable when trapping is problematic or may cause unwanted disturbance. Heart-rate recorders housed in dummy eggs offer an effective solution, but the usefulness of previously described devices is limited by their size, complex construction, and reliance on analog media. We constructed egg-based, heart-rate monitors through simple modifications of inexpensive, commercially available MP3 players and Bluetooth headsets. We compared the merits of each device during tests in the laboratory, an aviary, and the field in 2008. Field testing was undertaken at Presqu'ile Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, where we recorded heart rates of Common Terns (Sterna hirundo), Caspian Terns (Hydroprogne caspia), and Ring-billed Gulls (Larus delawarensis). Birds incubated dummy eggs normally, with no differences in behavior (all P > 0.05) when incubating either wired (MP3 players) or wireless (Bluetooth) devices. MP3 devices were more reliable in the field. Bluetooth devices often lost pairing with laptop computers (33% of files analyzed contained no signal), produced files with more obscuring noise, and only two could be deployed simultaneously with a single computer; there was no limit on how many MP3 devices could be deployed simultaneously. Common Terns, the smallest of our three focal species, had significantly higher (P < 0.001) mean heart rates (268.6 ± 9.3 beats per min [bpm]) than either Ring-billed Gulls (198.0 ± 7.1 bpm) or Caspian Terns (204.2 ± 8.0 bpm). Heart rates of all three species were consistent with those reported or predicted from previous studies. The MP3 devices we describe provide investigators with a simple, inexpensive, and minimally invasive way to digitally record heart rates of birds of almost any size.
IEEE Transactions on Rehabilitation Engineering, 2000
Spatiotemporal arm and body movements of able-bodied subjects performing nine everyday tasks were... more Spatiotemporal arm and body movements of able-bodied subjects performing nine everyday tasks were recorded for the purpose of guiding the development of an upper-limb orthosis. To provide a user the opportunity to carry out these tasks with natural movements, the orthosis should allow replication of the measured trajectories. We outline the orthosis architecture, which supports the user's upper arm and forearm, and analyze the movement data to obtain orthosis design specifications. Trajectories were obtained using six-degree-of-freedom magnetic position sensors affixed to the wrist, elbow, shoulder, trunk and head. Elbow trajectory data were decomposed into ranges along the principle Cartesian axes to provide a generally useful envelope measure. The smallest Cartesian parallelepiped that contained the elbow trajectories for most tasks was approximately 30 cm front/back, 15 cm side/side, and 17 cm up/down. A rough lower bound estimate obtained by asking subjects to repeat the tasks while minimizing elbow movement substantially reduced movement in the up/down and side/side dimensions. Elbow angles were generally in the range 50 -150 , and the angle of the forearm with respect to vertical was 10 -110 . Raw trajectory data may be downloaded from www://asel.udel.edu/robotics/orthosis/range.html.
1999 Bioengineering Conference, Dec 1, 1999
Technology and Disability, 1996
For people with muscular dystrophy or spinal muscular atrophy - conditions characterized by degen... more For people with muscular dystrophy or spinal muscular atrophy - conditions characterized by degenerating muscle strength - the option of using a mechanical aid exists. This would allow free arm movement. This paper presents a consumer-based design approach to construction of such an assistive manipulation device and describes the consumer-driven stages in the orthosis design project within the Applied Science and Engineering Laboratories (ASEL). Results are presented from two consumer meetings held during the initial stages of the design. A design principle has been establish.:d and an initial set of prototypes evaluated. These will be used to modify subsequent design iterations.
He worked as a post-doc at University of Pennsylvania in Haptics and Virtual Reality. His researc... more He worked as a post-doc at University of Pennsylvania in Haptics and Virtual Reality. His research interests are in the areas of unmanned vehicles particularly flapping flight and frisbees, mechatronics, robotics, MEMS, virtual reality, and haptics, and teaching with technology. He has ongoing research in flapping flight, Frisbee flight dynamics, lift in porous material and brain traumatic injury He is an active member of APS (DFD), ASEE and ASME and reviewer for several ASME, IEEE and ASEE, FIE conferences and journals.
2007 Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
This paper details a new laboratory project in a senior-level Mechanical Engineering Vibrations c... more This paper details a new laboratory project in a senior-level Mechanical Engineering Vibrations course. Students are to determine the first four natural frequencies of a 6061 Aluminum free-free beam in a laboratory using three methods. First, they use the idealized theoretical continuous beam model. Second, they use Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Finally, they determine the frequencies experimentally. Using student survey data, it is shown that the project bolstered the following skills: (1) use of measurement equipment to acquire and transmit real-world data, (2) performing a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and creating the Power Spectral Density (PSD) plot of empirical data, (3) creating and modifying FEA code in MATLAB to find natural frequencies and test for convergence of results and (4) connecting the distinct topics of the course together.
European Journal of Mechanics - B/Fluids
Journal of Fluids Engineering
In this paper, we report an experimental approach to examine a fast-developing flow in a thin flu... more In this paper, we report an experimental approach to examine a fast-developing flow in a thin fluid gap. The phenomenon is widely observed in industrial applications, e.g., squeeze dampers, and in biological systems, e.g., joints lubrication. However, experimental investigations that capture the transient nature of the flow during the process are lacking. An experimental setup, consisting of a piston equipped with a laser displacement sensor and a pressure transducer, was developed. The loading surface was released from rest, creating a fast compaction on the fluid. The motion of the piston and the resulting changes of fluid pressure were recorded and compared to four representative theoretical models. The results show that the maximum pressure increases with gap height and/or the applied loading. A higher fluid viscosity leads to a lower maximum pressure but significantly extends the fluid pressure relaxation time. It is clearly demonstrated that the pressure response is governed b...
2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, 2000
This project introduces a pedagogical technique designed to help improve student attentiveness an... more This project introduces a pedagogical technique designed to help improve student attentiveness and energy in a lecture class. This idea was motivated by early morning classes in which students are tired and have difficulty paying attention and remaining focused. This work offers a relatively simple but effective approach which takes only about 5 minutes of class time once per week. The basic idea is to start off the class period with interesting a fun material that is somewhat related to the course material. This helps to capture students' attention, wakes them up a bit, and gets their interest and energy flowing early in the period. Following this activity, the remaining class period can be treated as normal, but can "ride the wave" of student interest. Results from an anonymous student survey indicate that on average students strongly agree that they enjoy this activity and have more energy afterwards, and agree that it is beneficial to their overall learning in the course. Anonymous student comments from the survey as well as the student evaluations for the course also support the effectiveness of this concept.
2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, 2000
This project introduces a method of teaching undergraduate students MATLAB programming within a t... more This project introduces a method of teaching undergraduate students MATLAB programming within a typical engineering lecture course, dynamics. This particular course was chosen because its content offers natural connections between engineering and programming concepts. The MATLAB programming instruction and assignments were approached through the context of the dynamics course material. This allowed students to make connections between their typical dynamics course content and the more abstract programming concepts which can sometimes be difficult for them to understand. This idea was indicated to be effective through anonymous student comments from student evaluations.
Journal of Field Ornithology, 2011
Heart rate is a useful physiological index for studies of stress, locomotion, and activity patter... more Heart rate is a useful physiological index for studies of stress, locomotion, and activity patterns. Measuring heart rates of birds without the need to handle individuals is desirable when trapping is problematic or may cause unwanted disturbance. Heart-rate recorders housed in dummy eggs offer an effective solution, but the usefulness of previously described devices is limited by their size, complex construction, and reliance on analog media. We constructed egg-based, heart-rate monitors through simple modifications of inexpensive, commercially available MP3 players and Bluetooth headsets. We compared the merits of each device during tests in the laboratory, an aviary, and the field in 2008. Field testing was undertaken at Presqu'ile Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, where we recorded heart rates of Common Terns (Sterna hirundo), Caspian Terns (Hydroprogne caspia), and Ring-billed Gulls (Larus delawarensis). Birds incubated dummy eggs normally, with no differences in behavior (all P > 0.05) when incubating either wired (MP3 players) or wireless (Bluetooth) devices. MP3 devices were more reliable in the field. Bluetooth devices often lost pairing with laptop computers (33% of files analyzed contained no signal), produced files with more obscuring noise, and only two could be deployed simultaneously with a single computer; there was no limit on how many MP3 devices could be deployed simultaneously. Common Terns, the smallest of our three focal species, had significantly higher (P < 0.001) mean heart rates (268.6 ± 9.3 beats per min [bpm]) than either Ring-billed Gulls (198.0 ± 7.1 bpm) or Caspian Terns (204.2 ± 8.0 bpm). Heart rates of all three species were consistent with those reported or predicted from previous studies. The MP3 devices we describe provide investigators with a simple, inexpensive, and minimally invasive way to digitally record heart rates of birds of almost any size.
IEEE Transactions on Rehabilitation Engineering, 2000
Spatiotemporal arm and body movements of able-bodied subjects performing nine everyday tasks were... more Spatiotemporal arm and body movements of able-bodied subjects performing nine everyday tasks were recorded for the purpose of guiding the development of an upper-limb orthosis. To provide a user the opportunity to carry out these tasks with natural movements, the orthosis should allow replication of the measured trajectories. We outline the orthosis architecture, which supports the user's upper arm and forearm, and analyze the movement data to obtain orthosis design specifications. Trajectories were obtained using six-degree-of-freedom magnetic position sensors affixed to the wrist, elbow, shoulder, trunk and head. Elbow trajectory data were decomposed into ranges along the principle Cartesian axes to provide a generally useful envelope measure. The smallest Cartesian parallelepiped that contained the elbow trajectories for most tasks was approximately 30 cm front/back, 15 cm side/side, and 17 cm up/down. A rough lower bound estimate obtained by asking subjects to repeat the tasks while minimizing elbow movement substantially reduced movement in the up/down and side/side dimensions. Elbow angles were generally in the range 50 -150 , and the angle of the forearm with respect to vertical was 10 -110 . Raw trajectory data may be downloaded from www://asel.udel.edu/robotics/orthosis/range.html.