Anomaly Detection in Autonomous Driving: A Survey

Nowadays, there are outstanding strides towards a future with autonomous vehicles on our roads. While the perception of autonomous vehicles performs well under closed-set conditions, they still struggle to handle the unexpected. This survey provides an extensive overview of anomaly detection techniques based on camera, lidar, radar, multimodal and abstract object level data. We provide a systematization including detection approach, corner case level, ability for an online application, and further attributes. We outline the state-of-the-art and point out current research gaps.Comment: Daniel Bogdoll and Maximilian Nitsche contributed equally. Accepted for publication at CVPR 2022 WAD worksho

Quantum theory and the mind brain relation

In reductionist biology, mental states are brain states and the brain obeys the laws of a physical world existing independently of and prior to minds. This account is invalidated if the physical laws themselves involve essential reference to mental states.. The quantum theory has usually been presented in a form making such reference. .To remove the need for this, the first step is to accept that quantum theory applies only to fields and to entities embedded in fields. Ehrenfest's theorem then shows how systems obeying Newtonian mechanics, including objects of everyday life, appear as persistent patterns showing none of the indeterminacy associated with features of the underlying field. The theorems of Gleason, Kocken and Specker demand that the quantum theory should leave a degree of indeterminacy in the pattern of the fields it describes. Any interaction of a quantum system with its environment therefore requires a definite selection of a unique pattern of behaviour within the range of indeterminacy. Such interaction is continuous, and there is no role for a mental state in this selection. It would be consistent with the formalism of quantum theory if a localised interaction in a system caused an instantaneous removal of indeterminacy over an arbitrarily large volume, in apparent conflict with the special theory of relativity. This conflict is not removed by any appeal to the effects of mental states.. However, a consistent interpretation of quantum systems as fields throws doubt on the claim that the event correlations in the experiments of Aspect and his colllaborators are evidence of causal propagation at speeds greater than that of light

Recognising high-level agent behaviour through observations in data scarce domains

This thesis presents a novel method for performing multi-agent behaviour recognition without requiring large training corpora. The reduced need for data means that robust probabilistic recognition can be performed within domains where annotated datasets are traditionally unavailable (e.g. surveillance, defence). Human behaviours are composed from sequences of underlying activities that can be used as salient features. We do not assume that the exact temporal ordering of such features is necessary, so can represent behaviours using an unordered “bag-of-features”. A weak temporal ordering is imposed during inference to match behaviours to observations and replaces the learnt model parameters used by competing methods. Our three-tier architecture comprises low-level video tracking, event analysis and high-level inference. High-level inference is performed using a new, cascading extension of the Rao-Blackwellised Particle Filter. Behaviours are recognised at multiple levels of abstraction and can contain a mixture of solo and multiagent behaviour. We validate our framework using the PETS 2006 video surveillance dataset and our own video sequences, in addition to a large corpus of simulated data. We achieve a mean recognition precision of 96.4% on the simulated data and 89.3% on the combined video data. Our “bag-of-features” framework is able to detect when behaviours terminate and accurately explains agent behaviour despite significant quantities of low-level classification errors in the input, and can even detect agents who change their behaviour

Analysis of the space debris problem: tracking, control and removal

The amount of space debris currently orbiting the Earth poses a risk to all spacecraft, and is a particular concern for vehicles with humans on board suchas the International Space Station, space shuttles and other manned spacecraft. ESA estimates that there are currently more than 26000 objects in space, of which only 2800 have any function. However, despite technological evolutions and scientific advances, there is still no definitive method to solve the space debris problem by capturing end-of-life satellites still in orbit around the Earth. The activities that have been carried out so far and will be analysed in this project are divided into monitoring, mitigation and disposal. The intention of this work is to expose the importance of knowing and analysing our space past and then to move on to the understanding of why it is so important to eradicate space debris by studying some possible theoretical solutions proposed during the last decades that focus on reduction and eliminatio

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)

A bibliography of reports concerning the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is presented. Cosmic evolution, space communication, and technological advances are discussed along with search strategies and search systems

Recent Progress in Image Deblurring

This paper comprehensively reviews the recent development of image deblurring, including non-blind/blind, spatially invariant/variant deblurring techniques. Indeed, these techniques share the same objective of inferring a latent sharp image from one or several corresponding blurry images, while the blind deblurring techniques are also required to derive an accurate blur kernel. Considering the critical role of image restoration in modern imaging systems to provide high-quality images under complex environments such as motion, undesirable lighting conditions, and imperfect system components, image deblurring has attracted growing attention in recent years. From the viewpoint of how to handle the ill-posedness which is a crucial issue in deblurring tasks, existing methods can be grouped into five categories: Bayesian inference framework, variational methods, sparse representation-based methods, homography-based modeling, and region-based methods. In spite of achieving a certain level of development, image deblurring, especially the blind case, is limited in its success by complex application conditions which make the blur kernel hard to obtain and be spatially variant. We provide a holistic understanding and deep insight into image deblurring in this review. An analysis of the empirical evidence for representative methods, practical issues, as well as a discussion of promising future directions are also presented.Comment: 53 pages, 17 figure

Space Debris Mitigation CONOPS Development

Space debris remains an unsolved hazard for space operators and astronomers alike. Passive debris mitigation techniques have been enumerated and codified by the UNCOPUOS and IADC and several proposals for actively mitigating space debris have been presented. However, the space debris problem requires reframing. On the way to developing a viable CONOPS, a multi-disciplinary construct for building solution sets to tackle the space debris problem must be created. It must be shaped by building blocks of active and passive debris mitigation techniques, debris characterization and law. Central considerations must be taken. First, targeting of space debris for removal must be prioritized to unite effort and to make significant reductions in the space debris threat. Next, a leading agent must be identified and empowered to act as an executor for a space debris mitigation program, passive or active. Also needed is enactment of enforcement measures to ensure space faring nations comply with binding regulations. Lastly, active space debris mitigation programs must be urged along by the international community with contributions from all nations. Aside from monetary contributions, aid can be rendered via intellectual space and manpower. We must seek the right questions to effectively solve the space debris problem