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Non linear deformation of spring based continuum manipulators cause difficulty in predicting the position of the tip. When we put different tools on the tip for various purposes, the difficulty further increases. Model less control of the manipulator has shown great success in tip positioning of these types of manipulators. One of the major drawbacks of model less control is the requirement of a large data set and time. Hence, this paper studies the effect of the implementation of MAML(Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning) for fast adaptation of different offset conditions. The effects have been studied in the simulation environment and on the real prototype. The continuum arm used for the experimentation is a tendon based non constant curvature spring based manipulator. An average error of 0.03m has been achieved on the prototype. MAML was successful in bringing down the relative tip positioning error of the manipulator from 7.02% to 1.55% in the simulation environment. It also showed success in bringing down the relative tip positioning error from 11.06% to 4.09% on real prototype. We also studied the effectiveness of the same in trajectory following.

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to see the efficacy of two different doses of oral clonidine as a premedication in pediatric patients. MATERIAL AND METHOD: In a prospective randomized study of 60 cases of 4-12 year old children receiving oral clonidine either 3µg/kg (group C 3) or 4µg/kg (group C 4) as a premedication 90 minutes prior to surgeries. Preoperatively, the level of sedation, response to parental separation, mask acceptance, intravenous cannulation and response to intubation as well as hemodynamic were noted. Postoperative recovery was assessed using Alderate recovery room score. RESULTS: Clonidine 4µg/kg group had higher sedation score compared to clonidine 3µg/kg. At 90 minutes, almost 90% children in C 4 group were asleep but arousable on calling and in C 3 group 33% were asleep, 60% were drowsy and rest 7% children were calm. Parental separation and mask acceptance scores were also higher with clonidine 4µg/kg group. The response to intubation was better attenuated in clonidine 4µg/kg group. There was no respiratory depression or oxygen desaturation at any point of time in our study perioperatively and no delay in postoperative recovery as well as no significant difference in the incidence of post operative nausea and vomiting in both the groups. CONCLUSION: Oral clonidine 4 µg/kg provided better sedation than clonidine 3µg/kg without prolonging the postoperative recovery.