Dr. Larry Howell was invited to present a keynote address at the 2013 Smart Structures/NDE Conference in San Diego California during March 10-14th.
There he presented compliant mechanisms as an ideal opportunity for integrated sensors and actuators. The function of compliant mechanisms may be enhanced by embedding sensors and actuators, resulting in monolithic devices capable of complex tasks. Compliant mechanisms appear to be especially promising in devices like medical implants that need to mimic the biological systems they replace, which are, in themselves, compliant.
This was the SPIE 20th Annual International Symposium on Smart Structures and Materials a+ Nondestructive Evaluation and Heath Monitoring. Organized in 10 parallel conferences, this symposium offers the opportunity for networking among a variety of disciplines in academia, industry and government from all over the world.