ISER

Measurements of the net forces acting on a structure can provide information necessary to determine the location of contacts through which the external forces act, under appropriate assumptions. One practical application of this idea resulted in the contact-resolving force-sensing ngertips developed by Salisbury and Brock. These ngertip sensors employ a 6-axis force sensor under a ngertip shell to measure the net applied force. It has been demonstrated that this type of sensor supplies enough information to determine the location and force components of contacts which transmit pure forces. Bicchi recently extended this analysis to permit the same sensor to also measure a moment exerted about the contact normal.

A smooth-primitive constrained-optimization-based path-tracking algorithm for mobile robots that compensates for rough terrain, predictable vehicle dynamics, and vehicle mobility constraints has been developed, implemented, and tested on the DARPA LAGR platform. Traditional methods for the geometric path following control problem involve trying to meet position constraints at fixed or velocity dependent look-ahead distances using arcs. We have reformulated the problem as an optimal control problem, using a trajectory generator that can meet arbitrary boundary state constraints. The goal state along the target path is determined dynamically by minimizing a utility function based on corrective trajectory feasibility and cross-track error. A set of field tests compared the proposed method to an implementation of the pure pursuit algorithm and showed that the smooth corrective trajectory constrained optimization approach exhibited higher performance than pure pursuit by achieving rough four times lower average cross-track error and two times lower heading error.

l. I a' Le rôle des blancs dans la constitution de I'acte de lecture ;l en poésie moderne par Laurence Bougault Les uns, dirait-on, ne songent jamais à la réponse silencieuse de leur lecteur. IIs écrivent pour des êtres béants. Paul Valéry On définit souvent la poésie moderne Par son caractère nhermétique». Certains poéticiens, comme J. Cohen, vont même jusqu'à postuler que uToute poésià est obscure pour autant qu'elle est poétique' (Cohen, 1979,p' 182)' bn voudrait donc ièi tenter d'examiner ce qui caractérise, du point de vue du Iecteur, cette obscurité, cet hermétisme, et envisager les motivations qui poussent le lecteur à consommer des livres se revendiquant eux-mêmes io--" illisibles. Que recherche un tel lecteur et que trouve-t-il? Nous limiterons notre approche du problème en appliquant certains aspects des seuls travaux de W. Iser à Ia poésie de Mallarmé, Rimbaud et Char, en tant qu'ils emblématisent, chacun de manière apParemment très différente, la poésie hermétique, prétendument et effectivement accessible à .un lectorat restreint.

This book summarizes four years of research on social inclusion and income distribu tion across the European Union carried out in the framework of the European Observatory on the Social Situation and Demography, which has been established by the Directorate–General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Oppor tunities of the European Commission. It gives an overview of the comparative information that is available for the EU Member States on income distribution, poverty and its causes, access to benefi ts and social services and material deprivation. It also offers a good insight into the potential of European surveys and notably the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), the main survey used for the analysis presented in this publication. Read more: http://www.tarki.hu/adatbank-h/kutjel/pdf/b251.pdf

The DARPA PerceptOR program has implemented a rigorous evaluative test program which fosters the development of field relevant outdoor mobile robots. Autonomous ground vehicles were deployed on diverse test courses throughout the USA and quantitatively evaluated on such factors as autonomy level, waypoint acquisition, failure rate, speed, and communications bandwidth. Our efforts over the three year program have produced new approaches in planning, perception, localization, and control which have been driven by the quest for reliable operation in challenging environments. This paper focuses on some of the most unique aspects of the systems developed by the CMU PerceptOR team, the lessons learned during the effort, and the most immediate challenges that remain to be addressed.

Reconfigurable modular robots use different gaits and configurations to perform various tasks. A rolling gait is the fastest currently implemented gait available to a modular robot for traversal of level ground. In this work, we analyze and implement a sensor-based feedback controller to achieve dynamic rolling for a 10 module loop robot. The controller exploits the dynamics of the system to build up momentum in each step by specifying a desired global shape for the robot at touchdown. Energy is input into the system both by raising the height of the center of mass of the robot and moving the position of center of mass with respect to the ground to maximize the moment arm due to gravity. Using simulation and experimental results, we show how the desired shape can be varied to achieve higher terminal velocities. Through simulation, we also show rounder shapes have lower specific resistance and are thus more efficient.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have communication deficits and difficulties with social interaction. A lack of social behavior can hamper therapeutic interventions and can diminish the ability to learn social skills. Robots have been shown to provoke proactive social behavior in children with ASD. We are developing robot systems capable of acting as catalysts for social behavior in the context of ASD therapy. We present an experiment design for evaluating the effects of a socially assistive robot in a therapeutic setting and results of a pilot experiment with children with ASD interacting with such a robot.

The DARPA PerceptOR program has implemented a rigorous evaluative test program which fosters the development of field relevant outdoor mobile robots. Autonomous ground vehicles were deployed on diverse test courses throughout the USA and quantitatively evaluated on such factors as autonomy level, waypoint acquisition, failure rate, speed, and communications bandwidth. Our efforts over the three year program have produced new approaches in planning, perception, localization, and control which have been driven by the quest for reliable operation in challenging environments. This paper focuses on some of the most unique aspects of the systems developed by the CMU PerceptOR team, the lessons learned during the effort, and the most immediate challenges that remain to be addressed.

The analysis presented in this report was carried out by a team led by Terry Ward and coordinated by Loredana Sementini. The team includes Mayya Hristova and Fadila Sanoussi (Applica, Brussels), Orsolya Lelkes and Eszter Zólyomi (European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and

Several haptic shape display methods rely on the surface normal to compute a force response. Instead, it is possible to use the change of height of an interaction point to compute a force response when a subject explores the surface of an object. The notion of surface normal is no longer needed, and the difficulties associated with it are eliminated. An experiment is designed to illustrate some differences between this approach and previous ones. Open questions are mentioned.

Abstract. In this paper, we propose an autonomous precision landing method for an unmanned helicopter based on an on-board visual navigation system consisting of a single pan-tilting camera, off-the-shelf computer hardware and inertial sensors. Compared to existing methods, the system doesn’t depend on additional sensors (in particular not on GPS), offers a wide envelope of starting points for the autonomous approach, and is robust to different weather conditions. Helicopter position and attitude is estimated from images of a specially designed landing pad. We provide results from both simulations and flight tests, showing the performance of the vision system and the overall quality of the landing. 1

We consider the problem of online planning for a mobile robot among obstacles, where it is impractical to test all possible future paths. One approach is for the runtime task to test some subset of the possible paths and select a path that does not collide with obstacles while advancing the robot toward its goal. Performance depends on the choice of path set. In this paper we assume the path set is fixed and chosen offline. By randomly sampling the space of path sets we discover effective path sets-comparable or superior to the best previously suggested approaches. In addition, testing large numbers of randomly generated path sets yields some insights on the relation of robot performance to the choice of path set.

Decentralised estimation of heterogeneous sensors is performed on an outdoor network. Attributes such as position, appearance, and identity represented by non-Gaussian distributions are used in in the fusion process. It is shown here that real-time decentralised data fusion of non-Gaussian estimates can be used to build rich environmental maps. Human operators are also used as additional sensors in the network to complement robotic information.

The DARPA PerceptOR program implements a rigorous evaluative test program which fosters the development of field relevant outdoor mobile robots. Autonomous ground vehicles are deployed on diverse test courses throughout the USA and quantitatively evaluated on such factors as autonomy level, waypoint acquisition, failure rate, speed, and communications bandwidth. Our efforts over the three year program have produced new approaches in planning, perception, localization, and control which have been driven by the quest for reliable operation in challenging environments. This paper focuses on some of the most unique aspects of the systems developed by the CMU PerceptOR team and the most immediate challenges that remain to be addressed.

Visual control of robot motion may benefit from enhanced camera field of view. With traditional cameras the available fields of view are only enough to view a region around the observed object (for eye-in-hand systems) or around the end-effector (for independent-eye systems). Central catadioptric systems have larger fields of view thus allowing the entire robot AND the surrounding objects to be imaged with a unique camera. Therefore, the whole robot’s articulated mechanism can be observed and its joints can be tracked and controlled simultaneously. This results in a new visual robot control concept where tracking and control are embedded together. Key to the understanding of both servoing and tracking is the central catadioptric Jacobian matrix linking the robot’s joint velocities to image observations. In spite of a more complex projection matrix associated with catadioptric sensors, we study the catadioptric Jacobian matrix and we show that it does not introduce any additional singularity with respect to the traditional pinhole camera model. Experiments showing a rigid body being tracked with a catadioptric camera are described.

The DARPA PerceptOR program has implemented a rigorous evaluative test program which fosters the development of field relevant outdoor mobile robots. Autonomous ground vehicles were deployed on diverse test courses throughout the USA and quantitatively evaluated on such factors as autonomy level, waypoint acquisition, failure rate, speed, and communications bandwidth. Our efforts over the three year program have produced new approaches in planning, perception, localization, and control which have been driven by the quest for reliable operation in challenging environments. This paper focuses on some of the most unique aspects of the systems developed by the CMU PerceptOR team, the lessons learned during the effort, and the most immediate challenges that remain to be addressed.

We address the problem of semantic mapping using mobile robots. We focus on the problem of mapping activity as a precursor to automatically classifying, modeling and ultimately understanding the usage of space in a typical urban outdoor environment. We propose and compare two methods for activity mapping -one based on hidden Markov models and the other based on support vector machines. Both approaches estimate high level properties of space based on low level sensor data using supervised learning to associate features to desired classification patterns.

Abstract. Leggedrobotsdisplayacharacteristicallyperiodicmotion.Measuringandtracking this motion has traditionally been performed using general inertial measurement techniques. While widely applied in robotics, this approach is limited in dynamic legged locomotion due to the ...

In addition to researchers in AI and robotics, RoboCup attracts ordinary people, especially kids, high school and university students. Over 3000 people from 35 nations around the world have participated in RoboCup since the great success of the First Robot World Cup Soccer Games and Conferences, RoboCup-97 [1] held in conjunction with the Fifteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-97). Every year, the number of participating teams is increasing about 50%, that is, 35 teams in RoboCup-97, 64 teams in ...

We are deeply saddened that our coauthor Robert H. McGuckin passed away in March 2006. His contribution to the economics profession will live on through his extensive published work. 1. Policy discussions must also consider the productivity and composition of these efforts, which are likely to differ across countries (and industries) as well as the magnitudes of the that substantial differences exist between manufacturing output PPPs and GDP PPPs, even for economies at similar levels of development (van Ark 1993; van Ark and Timmer 2001). Therefore PPP adjustments-taking account of differences in the structure of relative prices of R&D inputs and output across economies and industries-may be worth the considerable effort required for their measurement. 3 A search of the literature finds relatively little empirical work on R&D price indexes, particularly across countries. In fact, the latest R&D PPP estimates we could find were done in the early 1990s for the year 1985. Typically, the issue is either ignored because detailed price data are not available or a GDP PPP is used in cost comparisons. For comparisons of R&D intensity, nominal values are usually employed. To compare R&D expenditure over time, a GDP deflator is most commonly used. The lack of good measures in the area of R&D price indexes has not gone unrecognized. Zvi Griliches lamented the lack of good information on the "price" of R&D in his remarks twenty years ago, on the occasion of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Conference on R&D, Patents, and Productivity (Griliches 1984). Griliches further emphasized the importance of having reliable information on R&D and its price to compare expenditures and intensities in his presidential address to the American Economic Association (Griliches 1994). This paper brings together a wide range of statistical data to develop relative R&D prices for nineteen manufacturing industries in six Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries-France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States-with the United States as the base country. This exercise is undertaken for two benchmark years, 1997 and 1987, chosen because these are years with information from the U.S. Economic Census, benchmark international PPP studies on industry output, and comprehensive R&D surveys from each of the countries. Industrial census data and collections of international prices are used to compare prices of intermediate goods. Data from national R&D surveys of business enterprises are used to develop R&D-specific prices and quantities. Interpretation of the data was also guided by information collected in over thirty-five interviews of R&D executives at international affiliates of multinational companies in four of the most R&D-intensive industries: pharmaceuticals, computers, telecommunications equipment, and motor vehicles. The interviews were invaluable in understanding issues of comparability in different countries' data, due to differences in reporting practices, tax regulations, and interpreta-International Comparisons of R&D Expenditure 293 International Comparisons of R&D Expenditure 295 8. The Conference Board (1976) and Mansfield (1988) directly queried firms about the relative cost of selected R&D inputs, but this approach is difficult to generalize to multiple industries and countries. 9. In table 10.1, we convert these to cost levels relative to the United States to facilitate comparability. This is appropriate as all PPPs are aggregated from individual cost category PPPs using U.K. weights, in effect creating a Laspeyres-type index. Although the Laspeyres index has its weaknesses, it is transitive.

Mobile manipulators currently deployed for explosive ordinance disposal are typically controlled via crude forms of teleoperation.Manipulator joints are actuated individually in joint space, making precise motions in state space difficult. Scene understanding is limited, as monocular cameras provide little (if any) depth information. Furthermore, the operator must manually coordinate the manipulator articulation with the positioning of the mobile base. These limitations place greater demands on the operator, decrease task efficiency and can increase exposure in dangerous environments. In this paper, we demonstrate several enabling technologies for interacting with and operating mobile manipulators, including a “click-and-grab” interface for coordinated motion and manipulation. This includes coordinated joint movement for end-effector position control, a flash LADAR to provide depth information, and automatic trajectory generation to autonomously position the mobile base and manipula...

We consider the problem of online planning for a mobile robot among obstacles, where it is impractical to test all possible future paths. One approach is for the runtime task to test some subset of the possible paths and select a path that does not collide with obstacles while advancing the robot toward its goal. Performance depends on the choice of path set. In this paper we assume the path set is fixed and chosen offline. By randomly sampling the space of path sets we discover effective path sets-comparable or superior to the best previously suggested approaches. In addition, testing large numbers of randomly generated path sets yields some insights on the relation of robot performance to the choice of path set.

A new model is developed for prediction and analysis of sensor information recorded during robotic performance of tasks by telemanipulation. The model uses the Hidden Markov Model (Stochastic functions of Markov Nets) to describe the task structure, the operator or intelligent controller's goal structure, and the sensor signals such as forces and torques arising from interaction with the environment. The Markov process portion encodes the task sequence / sub-goal structure, and the observation densities associated with each sub-goal state encode the expected sensor signals associated with carrying out that sub-goal. Methodology is described for construction of the model parameters based on engineering knowledge of the task. The Viterbi algorithm is used for model based analysis of force signals measured during experimental teleoperation and achieves excellent segmentation of the data into sub-goal phases. The Hidden Markov Model achieves a structured, knowledge based model with explicit uncertainties and mature optimal identification algorithms.

As robot applications in humane nvironments increase, we see many interesting application in medicine. Thesei nclude robotic technologies used in robot-doctor interfaces for minimally invasive surgery and novel roboticdevices that can navigatei nsideh umanbodies.This chapter presents 3 interestingarticles representing the various facets of medical robotics.Papers in other chapters, however,alsodescribemedicalapplications of robotics.

This paper addresses the problem of transporting objects by multiple mobile robots using the concept of object closure. In contrast to other manipulation techniques that are typically derived from form or force closure constraints, object closure requires the less stringent condition that the object be trapped or caged by the robots. We present experimental results that show car-like robots controlled using visual feedback, transporting an object in an obstacle free environment toward a prescribed goal.

This paper presents a supervised learning algorithm for image feature matching. The algorithm is based on Conditional Random Fields which provides a mechanism for globally reason about the associations. The novelty of this work is twofold: (i) the use of Delaunay triangulation as the graph structure for a probabilistic network to reason about image feature association; (ii) the combination of local and joint features to enforce consistency in a theoretically sound statistical learning procedure. Experimental results show that our approach outperforms RANSAC in our challenging datasets consisting of indoor and outdoor images, with significant occlusion, blurring, rotational and translational transformations.

We address the problem of semantic mapping using mobile robots. We focus on the problem of mapping activity as a precursor to automatically classifying, modeling and ultimately understanding the usage of space in a typical urban outdoor environment. We propose and compare two methods for activity mapping -one based on hidden Markov models and the other based on support vector machines. Both approaches estimate high level properties of space based on low level sensor data using supervised learning to associate features to desired classification patterns.

The octopus arm presents peculiar features, like the capability of bending in all directions, producing fast elongations, and varying its stiffness. Such features are very attractive from a robotics point of view. In the octopus, these unique motor capabilities are given by the peculiar muscular structure of the octopus arm, named muscular hydrostat, that creates a sort of antagonistic mechanism between different muscle fibres and reduce the contraction requirements for the single muscle. By taking inspiration from this, we propose the design of a robot arm completely soft and compliant, composed of silicone muscles that can contract and that are arranged according to the anatomy of the octopus arm. The contractile units are built with EAP (Electro-Active Polymer) technologies, with a particular geometry that increases the contraction range and force. Contraction tests on prototypes of the contracting units show a very good similarity with a theoretical model and support the possibility of building the whole robotic octopus-like arm.

This paper addresses the problem of transporting objects by multiple mobile robots using the concept of object closure. In contrast to other manipulation techniques that are typically derived from form or force closure constraints, object closure requires the less stringent condition that the object be trapped or caged by the robots. We present experimental results that show car-like robots controlled using visual feedback, transporting an object in an obstacle free environment toward a prescribed goal.

The initial results of a research aimed at investigating to what extent high resolution encoders, which are getting available for common industrial motion control and robotics applications, can be exploited to compensate for non linear friction terms are presented in this paper. The 22 bits resolution sensor used allowed a neat analysis of the dynamic behavior of friction forces in the presliding regime, and especially of hysteresis loops. A recently proposed friction model has been validated. However, the influence of the cogging torque on the motor has been found to play a key role.