7,714 research outputs found
Finding antipodal point grasps on irregularly shaped objects
Two-finger antipodal point grasping of arbitrarily shaped smooth 2-D and 3-D objects is considered. An object function is introduced that maps a finger contact space to the object surface. Conditions are developed to identify the feasible grasping region, F, in the finger contact space. A âgrasping energy functionâ, E , is introduced which is proportional to the distance between two grasping points. The antipodal points correspond to critical points of E in F. Optimization and/or continuation techniques are used to find these critical points. In particular, global optimization techniques are applied to find the âmaximalâ or âminimalâ grasp. Further, modeling techniques are introduced for representing 2-D and 3-D objects using B-spline curves and spherical product surfaces
Principled Design and Implementation of Steerable Detectors
We provide a complete pipeline for the detection of patterns of interest in
an image. In our approach, the patterns are assumed to be adequately modeled by
a known template, and are located at unknown position and orientation. We
propose a continuous-domain additive image model, where the analyzed image is
the sum of the template and an isotropic background signal with self-similar
isotropic power-spectrum. The method is able to learn an optimal steerable
filter fulfilling the SNR criterion based on one single template and background
pair, that therefore strongly responds to the template, while optimally
decoupling from the background model. The proposed filter then allows for a
fast detection process, with the unknown orientation estimation through the use
of steerability properties. In practice, the implementation requires to
discretize the continuous-domain formulation on polar grids, which is performed
using radial B-splines. We demonstrate the practical usefulness of our method
on a variety of template approximation and pattern detection experiments
Einstein equations in the null quasi-spherical gauge III: numerical algorithms
We describe numerical techniques used in the construction of our 4th order
evolution for the full Einstein equations, and assess the accuracy of
representative solutions. The code is based on a null gauge with a
quasi-spherical radial coordinate, and simulates the interaction of a single
black hole with gravitational radiation. Techniques used include spherical
harmonic representations, convolution spline interpolation and filtering, and
an RK4 "method of lines" evolution. For sample initial data of "intermediate"
size (gravitational field with 19% of the black hole mass), the code is
accurate to 1 part in 10^5, until null time z=55 when the coordinate condition
breaks down.Comment: Latex, 38 pages, 29 figures (360Kb compressed
Hybrid Evolutionary Shape Manipulation for Efficient Hull Form Design Optimisation
âEco-friendly shippingâ and fuel efficiency are gaining much attention in the maritime industry due to increasingly stringent environmental regulations and volatile fuel prices. The shape of hull affects the overall performance in efficiency and stability of ships. Despite the advantages of simulation-based design, the application of a formal optimisation process in actual ship design work is limited. A hybrid approach which integrates a morphing technique into a multi-objective genetic algorithm to automate and optimise the hull form design is developed. It is envisioned that the proposed hybrid approach will improve the hydrodynamic performance as well as overall efficiency of the design process
Fast space-variant elliptical filtering using box splines
The efficient realization of linear space-variant (non-convolution) filters
is a challenging computational problem in image processing. In this paper, we
demonstrate that it is possible to filter an image with a Gaussian-like
elliptic window of varying size, elongation and orientation using a fixed
number of computations per pixel. The associated algorithm, which is based on a
family of smooth compactly supported piecewise polynomials, the
radially-uniform box splines, is realized using pre-integration and local
finite-differences. The radially-uniform box splines are constructed through
the repeated convolution of a fixed number of box distributions, which have
been suitably scaled and distributed radially in an uniform fashion. The
attractive features of these box splines are their asymptotic behavior, their
simple covariance structure, and their quasi-separability. They converge to
Gaussians with the increase of their order, and are used to approximate
anisotropic Gaussians of varying covariance simply by controlling the scales of
the constituent box distributions. Based on the second feature, we develop a
technique for continuously controlling the size, elongation and orientation of
these Gaussian-like functions. Finally, the quasi-separable structure, along
with a certain scaling property of box distributions, is used to efficiently
realize the associated space-variant elliptical filtering, which requires O(1)
computations per pixel irrespective of the shape and size of the filter.Comment: 12 figures; IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 19, 201
Calibration of the TWIST high-precision drift chambers
A method for the precise measurement of drift times for the high-precision
drift chambers used in the TWIST detector is described. It is based on the
iterative correction of the space-time relationships by the time residuals of
the track fit, resulting in a measurement of the effective drift times. The
corrected drift time maps are parametrised individually for each chamber using
spline functions. Biases introduced by the reconstruction itself are taken into
account as well, making it necessary to apply the procedure to both data and
simulation. The described calibration is shown to improve the reconstruction
performance and to extend significantly the physics reach of the experiment.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
- âŠ