Novel Integrated System Architecture for an Autonomous Jumping Micro-Robot

As the capability and complexity of robotic platforms continue to evolve from the macro to micro-scale, innovation of such systems is driven by the notion that a robot must be able to sense, think, and act [1]. The traditional architecture of a robotic platform consists of a structural layer upon which, actuators, controls, power, and communication modules are integrated for optimal system performance. The structural layer, for many micro-scale platforms, has commonly been implemented using a silicon die, thus leading to robotic platforms referred to as "walking chips" [2]. In this thesis, the first-ever jumping microrobotic platform is demonstrated using a hybrid integration approach to assemble on-board sensing and power directly onto a polymer chassis. The microrobot detects a change in light intensity and ignites 0.21mg of integrated nanoporous energetic silicon, resulting in 246µJ of kinetic energy and a vertical jump height of 8cm

Maine Forester: 1942

Page 4, The Staff Page 5, Editor\u27s PageOn the Campus Page 8, Faculty Page 9, Forestry Club Page 10, Xi Sigma Pi Page 11, Seniors Page 14, Juniors Page 16, Sophomores Page 18, Freshmen Page 20, Summer Camp Page 22, Winter Camp Page 26, Maine DayPage 27, Departmental AffairsIn the Field Page 30, Extension Farm Forestry in Maine -- A. D. Nutting Page 32, Forest Cooperatives in the Northeast -- Joseph B. Pike, Jr.Page 33, The European Spruce Sawfly -- Charles O. DirksWith the Alumni Page 35https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/foresteryearbooks/1010/thumbnail.jp

Formulating a Strategy for Securing High-Speed Rail in the United States, Research Report 12-03

This report presents an analysis of information relating to attacks, attempted attacks, and plots against high-speed rail (HSR) systems. It draws upon empirical data from MTI’s Database of Terrorist and Serious Criminal Attacks Against Public Surface Transportation and from reviews of selected HSR systems, including onsite observations. The report also examines the history of safety accidents and other HSR incidents that resulted in fatalities, injuries, or extensive asset damage to examine the inherent vulnerabilities (and strengths) of HSR systems and how these might affect the consequences of terrorist attacks. The study is divided into three parts: (1) an examination of security principles and measures; (2) an empirical examination of 33 attacks against HSR targets and a comparison of attacks against HSR targets with those against non-HSR targets; and (3) an examination of 73 safety incidents on 12 HRS systems. The purpose of this study is to develop an overall strategy for HSR security and to identify measures that could be applied to HSR systems currently under development in the United States. It is hoped that the report will provide useful guidance to both governmental authorities and transportation operators of current and future HSR systems

非線形弾性要素による内部力補償に基づく無段階変位–力変換機構の創生 ― 微小操作力で強大な磁気力・把持力・制動力・張力を制御可能とするロボット要素 ―

Tohoku University博士（情報科学）thesi

Another man's dick : a satire

The billboard that nearly caused John Woods to swerve off the coastal road stood much higher than existing legislation permitted. He knew this because he had recently taken a position as a community reporter on a local rag, and he was starting to get a hang of municipal legalese, whether he liked it or not. A hundred yards on he contemplated its mysterious message, identically phrased in the reverse view, and set against the same blue background that had Woods thinking, for a subliminal moment, that the Billboard was part of the ocean beyond, the white letters nothing more than gently ruffled caps of water. The Wait is Almost Over. He looked around at the green mountainside and the gently waving forest of kelp, which flanked the ocean road. Not an impatient scene, exactly. Not a single soul waiting for a god-damned thing. He read the slogan again, and as its meaning dawned (an understanding that it must mean some development was imminent: that almost over portended the very worst for a perfectly beautiful section of mountainside, untouched for all time) he became aware of an increasing tightness in his chest, as if he were taking on pressurised air. He felt the desire to shout something back at the slogan, something equally presumptuous, equally menacing. He picked up a rock, a nice blade of Cape sandstone, and hurled it. (The missile struck with a clang, and dropped to the ground.) Next he tried to pull the billboard over, but since it was not a supple birch, the thing would not begin to lean, no matter how high he climbed. When Inspector Claude Grey rounded the corner on a routine patrol he intercepted Woods at that point of his destructive endeavours where he had attached a tow-line to the structure's left leg, and was proceeding to push the engine of his car through higher and higher revolutions as white sand spurted out from beneath his balding tyres. On the charge sheet the following information was recorded: Name: Jonathan Woods Occupation: Community Reporter, Environmental Affairs. Offence: Destruction of property Mason Construction PTY (Ltd), to whom the billboard belonged, went ahead with the prosecution. It was not to be the last charge laid against the reporter (then a young man) by that company. The story that follows is, in a sense, an account of this long and bitter feud

Using Bayesian networks to represent parameterised risk models for the UK railways

PhDThe techniques currently used to model risk and manage the safety of the UK railway network are not aligned to the mechanism by which catastrophic accidents occur in this industry. In this thesis, a new risk modelling method is proposed to resolve this problem. Catastrophic accidents can occur as the result of multiple failures occurring to all of the various defences put in place to prevent them. The UK railway industry is prone to this mechanism of accident occurrence, as many different technical, operational and organizational defences are used to prevent accidents. The railway network exists over a wide geographic area, with similar accidents possible at many different locations. The risk from these accidents is extremely variable and depends on the underlying conditions at each particular location, such as the state of assets or the speed of trains. When unfavourable conditions coincide the probability of multiple failures of planned defences increases and a 'risk hotspot' arises. Ideal requirements for modelling risk are proposed, taking account of the need to manage multiple defences of conceptually different type and the existence of risk hotspots. The requirements are not met by current risk modelling techniques although some of the requirements have been addressed experimentally, and in other industries and countries. It is proposed to meet these requirements using Bayesian Networks to supplement and extend fault and event tree analysis, the traditional techniques used for risk modelling in the UK railway industry. Application of the method is demonstrated using a case study: the building of a model of derailment risk on the UK railway network. The proposed method provides a means of better integrating industry wide analysis and risk modelling with the safety management tasks and safety related decisions that are undertaken by safety managers in the industry

At the edge : the north Prince Albert region of the Saskatchewan forest fringe to 1940

Canadians have developed a vocabulary of regionalism, a cultural shorthand that divides Canada into easily-described spaces: the Arctic, the Prairies, the Maritimes, and Central Canada, for example. But these artificial divisions obscure the history of edge places whose identity is drawn from more than one region. The region north of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, is a place on the edge of the boreal forest whose self-representations, local history, and memorials draw heavily on a non-prairie identity. There, the past is associated with the forest in contrast to most Canadians' understanding of Saskatchewan as flat, treeless prairie. This dissertation presents the history of the north Prince Albert region within a framework that challenges common Saskatchewan and Canadian stereotypes. Through deep-time place history, layers of historical occupation in the study region can be compared and contrasted to show both change and continuity. Historical interpretations have consistently separated the history of Saskatchewan’s boreal north and prairie south, as if the two have no history of interchange and connection. Using edge theory, this dissertation argues that historical human occupation in the western interior found success in the combination of prairie and boreal lifeways. First Nations groups from both boreal forest and open plain used the forest edge as a refuge, and to enhance resilience through access to resources from the other ecosystem. Newcomer use of the prairie landscape rebranded the boreal north as a place of natural resources to serve the burgeoning prairie market. The prairies could not be settled if there was not also a nearby and extensive source for what the prairies lacked: timber and fuel. Extensive timber harvesting led to deforestation and the rise of agriculture built on the rhetoric of mixed farming, not King Wheat. The mixed farming movement – tied to landscape – underscored the massive internal migrations from the open prairies to the parkland and forest edge. Soldier settlement, long viewed as a failure, experienced success in the north Prince Albert region and gave a model for future extensive government-supported land settlement schemes. South-to-north migration during the 1920s was based on a combination of push and pull factors: drought in the Palliser Triangle; and a strengthening northern economy built on cordwood, commercial fishing, freighting, prospecting and fur harvesting, as well as mixed farming. The economy at the forest edge supported occupational pluralism, drawing subsistence from both farm and forest, reflecting the First Nations model. As tourism grew to prominence, the Saskatchewan dual identity of prairie/forest led to the re-creation of the north Prince Albert region as a new vacationland, the ‘Playground of the Prairies.’ The northern forest edge drew thousands of migrants during the Great Depression. Historical analysis has consistently interpreted this movement as frantic, a reactionary idea without precedent. Through a deep-time analysis, the Depression migrations are viewed through a new lens. The forest edge was a historic place of both economic and cultural refuge and resilience predicated on the Saskatchewan contrast of north and south

Free-flyer path planning in the proximity to large space structures

The development of the modem space stations into large, highly complex orbital structures such as the International Space Station (ISS), has brought about a requirement for free-flying vehicles to perform various inspection and maintenance task on the exterior of the station. Concentrating on the ISS-Inspector vehicle, this thesis investigates the trajectory and mission planning required for a small free-flying vehicle operating in close proximity to the ISS. Two complimentary methods are presented to permit safe manoeuvring around the ISS. Ellipse of Safety trajectories enforce long-term passive safety requirements in the presence of differential air drag during the fly-around phases of the mission, used to transfer between the docking port and observation points. Short-range, close proximity manoeuvring is permitted through the use of Potential Field Guidance methods, enhanced through Velocity Selection strategies to provide passively safe trajectories where possible. Finally, a mission planning tool is presented to permit the integrated planning of ISS-Inspector missions, with automated scheduling and trajectory selection, designed to optimise the use of available manoeuvring methods to maximise overall mission safety. This facilitates the rapid planning and prototyping of Inspector missions from within a single tool, which is available both to operators on the ground and the crew onboard the ISS

The Cane toad times

The Cane Toad Times was a satirical magazine, published in Brisbane. It was published over two periods. In the first period in the 1970s, 7 issues were produced. In the second period between 1983 and 1990, 15 issues were produced. In 1986 the company ToadShow evolved from the Cane Toad Times