Self-Motivation

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Having the positive attitude and the initiative to work well without round-the-clock supervision is a vital soft skill for any employee. Not only does it demonstrate reliability and commitment, but it shows that you can fit efficiently into an organisational structure without the need for constant oversight.

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Leadership

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This is a soft skill you can show even if you’re not directly managing others. Leadership can be thought of as a collection of various other soft skills, such as a general positive attitude and outlook, the ability to communicate effectively, and an aptitude for both self-motivating and motivating others.

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Responsibility

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Self-awareness is a seldom talked about but highly valued soft skill; knowing when to accept responsibility for any mistakes you have made demonstrates a healthy level of humility, and a willingness to learn and progress.

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Teamwork

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Like leadership, good teamwork involves a combination of other soft skills. Working in a team towards a common goal requires the intuition and interpersonal acumen to know when to be a leader, and when to be a listener. Good team players are perceptive, as well as receptive to the needs and responsibilities of others.

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Problem solving

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This skill does not just require analytical, creative and critical skills, but a particular mindset: those who can approach a problem with a cool and level head will often reach a solution more efficiently than those who cannot. This is a soft skill which can often rely on strong teamwork too. Problems need not always be solved alone. The ability to know who can help you reach a solution, and how they can do it, can be a great advantage.

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Decisiveness

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Knowing the distinction between decisiveness and recklessness implies a soft skill in itself. Decisiveness combines a number of different abilities: the ability to put things into perspective, to weigh up the options, to assess all relevant information and, crucially, to anticipate the consequences, good and bad.

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Ability to Work Under Pressure and Time Management

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Many jobs come with demanding deadlines and occasionally high stakes. Recruiters prize candidates who show a decisive attitude, an unfaltering ability to think clearly, and a capacity to compartmentalise and set stress aside. Time management is closely related to the ability to work under pressure, as well as within tight deadlines. Employees who manage their time well are able to efficiently prioritise tasks and organise their diaries, while adopting an attitude which allows them to take on new tasks and deadlines.

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Flexibility

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Naturally, people can be wary of leaving the comfort zone formed by their repertoire of hard skills. Flexibility is an important soft skill, inasmuch as it demonstrates an ability and willingness to acquire new hard skills, and an open-mindedness to new tasks and new challenges. Employers often seek candidates who can show a willing and upbeat attitude, since many jobs come with the possibility of secondments.

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Negotiation and Conflict Resolution

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This is another of those soft skills which employers look for in potential leaders. To be an adept negotiator is to know how to be persuasive and exert influence, while sensitively seeking a solution which will benefit all parties. Similarly, conflict resolution depends on strong interpersonal skills and the ability to establish a rapport with colleagues and clients alike.

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ACTIVE SUIT

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POLITECNICO DI TORINO
Department of Control and Computer Engineering
Master of Science in Mechatronic Engineering

Electro-pneumatic control prototype of an active suit for upper arm

Mentors: Prof. RAPARELLI Terenziano, Prof. EULA Gabriella, Prof. IVANOV Alexandre, Prof. CHIABERGE Marcello

INTRODUCTION

This thesis exemplifies the development of artificial pneumatic muscles suitable to be incorporated into an active dress to develop a prototype of the t-shirt for the movement of the arms with the idea that the use of fabrics instead of rigid exoskeletons. At the same time, it can also solve the issues related to mobility and ergonomics. Traditional pneumatic actuators which are well known are widely used for high power-weight ratio, low cost, ease of installation and robustness; Provide great efficiency, especially in those automated applications requiring a series of repetitive movements or robotic applications in confined environments, such as industrial ones. There are other areas, however, where pneumatic drive devices are operating in unrestricted environments where traditional actuators are not widely used. In certain situations, for safety reasons, movements must be carried out by avoiding that moving parts pose a danger to users. This is the case, for example, in the medical sector of active aids for motor rehabilitation and orthopedic devices, where the patient directly interfaces with devices that have an autonomous movement capacity. In these cases, the actuator must be intrinsically safe; Therefore, it does not have to be a rigid moving system, but it must have adequate compliance. In the above cases, a solution is the use of non-traditional pneumatic actuators designed for specific applications, such as artificial pneumatic muscles, for which several research groups have been engaged in several years of development. Pneumatic Artificial Muscles (PAM) are flexible linear actuators that are made to imitate the human muscle, and are powered by pneumatic energy, increase in volume and contract when doing work. Fluid muscle actuators can operate in hostile environments, with strong temperature gradients, vibrations, dust, and electromagnetic disturbances. They are also able to operate smoothly in the presence of fittings with significant misalignments without introducing tough stresses due to hyperstatic configurations. They are cheap, lightweight, capable of exercising at a great strength in relation to their weight; They are fitted with static seals and therefore, unlike those in creep seals, which are free from frictional leakage and fluid leakage; They are able to operate with different fluids, such as water, air and oil, without special needs. Over the years, various types of pneumatic muscles have been used by researchers to realize countless anthropomorphic and orthotic robots for rehabilitation. The principle of the functioning of pneumatic muscles is illustrated and an overview of the state of the art of such actuators and of the main orthoses for the handling of the upper limb is illustrated. The orthoses present in the literature are rather bulky devices that use mainly metal exoskelets as a base. For this reason, the main activity of the thesis was the development of lightweight and reliable artificial pneumatic muscles with high power / weight ratios and able to provide contractions close to 30% of their resting length in order to guarantee such performance to make them fit to be applied in an active dress for the rehabilitation of the arms. Muscle prototypes made at the Politecnico di Torino (prototypes DIMEAS) are presented: the muscles of the fabric and the muscles of the net. The performance of the two different types of muscle is also compared, and the study of the muscles in the net, which are the most performing and absolutely suitable for the purpose, are thoroughly studied. An arm prototype is shown active for arm movements that can perform the arm protrusion, bending-extension, and forearm-supination. The muscles used to perform the movements provided by DIMEAS are small size prototypes (13 mm diameter) of different lengths, to obtain the contraction needed to produce the different movements. Two proposals for electropneumatic circuits are also presented with relevant control schemes for carrying out two possible therapies for a patient undergoing rehabilitation.

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