A new solution to the problem of range identification in perspective vision systems

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Motion estimation of planar curves and their alignment using visual servoing

Motion estimation and vision based control have been steadily improving research areas recently. Visual motion estimation is the determination of underlying motion parameters by using image data. Visual servoing on the other hand refers to the closed loop control of robotic systems using vision. Solving these problems with objects that have simple geometric features, such as points and lines is rather easy. However, these problems may imply certain challenges when we deal with curved objects that lack such simple features. This thesis proposes novel vision based estimation and control techniques that use object boundary information. Object boundaries are represented by planar algebraic curves. Decomposition of algebraic curves are used to extract features for motion estimation and visual servoing. Motion estimation algorithm uses the parameters of line factors resulting from the decomposition of the curve whereas visual servoing method employs the intersections of lines. Motion estimation algorithm is verified with several simulations and experiments. Visual servoing algorithm developed for the arbitrary alignment of a planar object is tested both with simulations on a 6 DOF Puma 560 robot and experiments on a 2 DOF SCARA robot. Results are quite promising

Intuitive Teleoperation of an Intelligent Robotic System Using Low-Cost 6-DOF Motion Capture

There is currently a wide variety of six degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) motion capture technologies available. However, these systems tend to be very expensive and thus cost prohibitive. A software system was developed to provide 6-DOF motion capture using the Nintendo Wii remote’s (wiimote) sensors, an infrared beacon, and a novel hierarchical linear-quaternion Kalman filter. The software is made freely available, and the hardware costs less than one hundred dollars. Using this motion capture software, a robotic control system was developed to teleoperate a 6-DOF robotic manipulator via the operator’s natural hand movements. The teleoperation system requires calibration of the wiimote’s infrared cameras to obtain an estimate of the wiimote’s 6-DOF pose. However, since the raw images from the wiimote’s infrared camera are not available, a novel camera-calibration method was developed to obtain the camera’s intrinsic parameters, which are used to obtain a low-accuracy estimate of the 6-DOF pose. By fusing the low-accuracy estimate of 6-DOF pose with accelerometer and gyroscope measurements, an accurate estimation of 6-DOF pose is obtained for teleoperation. Preliminary testing suggests that the motion capture system has an accuracy of less than a millimetre in position and less than one degree in attitude. Furthermore, whole-system tests demonstrate that the teleoperation system is capable of controlling the end effector of a robotic manipulator to match the pose of the wiimote. Since this system can provide 6-DOF motion capture at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, it has wide applicability in the field of robotics and as a 6-DOF human input device to control 3D virtual computer environments

The 1982 NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program

A NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Research Program was conducted to further the professional knowledge of qualified engineering and science faculty members, to stimulate an exchange of ideas between participants and NASA, to enrich and refresh the research and teaching activities of participants' institutions, and to contribute to the research objectives of the NASA Centers

The Vespers Psalms of Baldassare Galuppi

Although Baldassare Galuppi was arguably the best known and most successful Italian composer of the eighteenth century, his name, his history, and his works have been relinquished to the periphery of the historiographical narrative. While Galuppi\u27s masses, operas, and solo motets have been examined, his vespers psalms have been neglected by previous musicologists; most of the existing studies have been superficial, with little consideration of important questions such as formal approach, stylistic development, compositional idiosyncrasies, questions of authenticity, or what those factors might collectively tell the twenty-first-century musicologist about music in settecento Venice. The bulk of this work consists of an examination and analysis of the vespers psalm settings for voices and orchestra that survive in Galuppi’s autograph manuscripts. By correcting long-perpetuated falsehoods and omissions of biographical detail, it accurately places the composer within the framework of the Venetian settecento. It then investigates his role as the public face of Italian music, and of comic opera in particular. Consideration of the composer’s reception history, of the flourishing of printed music criticism, and of nationalistic undercurrents among factions of the opera world answers important questions about Galuppi’s posthumous legacy. Framing Galuppi’s autograph vespers psalms against those of his Venetian predecessors and contemporaries, Antonio Lotti, Antonio Vivaldi, Benedetto Marcello, Giuseppe Saratelli, Antonino Biffi, Nicola Porpora, and Ferdinando Bertoni, appropriately situates them within the context of eighteenth-century Venetian sacred music and provides a point of departure for the analysis of the structural qualities of his works. Traditional Roman numeral analysis reveals tonal features unique to Galuppi, particularly in relationship to his formal structure, which, in turn, provides a basis for gauging the degree to which Galuppi\u27s harmonic language was atypical for Venetian sacred music. The survey of vocal styles, examination of the characteristics of the instrumental writing, analysis of the use of the psalm texts, study of the relationship of text to Galuppi’s music, identification of formal idiosyncrasies, and investigation of other salient compositional attributes yield a deeper understanding of his sacred music and provide a musical fingerprint that serves as a useful basis from which to extrapolate further information from the surviving corpus of autograph manuscripts, as well as for assessing those works for which no autograph survives. This study then identifies and articulates key characteristics of Galuppi\u27s compositional style that shed light on the authenticity issues that plague other doubtful Galuppi attributions. Finally, this study summarizes each of the individual autograph works in order to supplement and correct the definitive catalog of Galuppi’s sacred music, Ines Burde’s Thematisch-Systematisches Verzeichnis der venezianischen Kirchenmusik von Baldassare Galuppi, including observations of characteristics of each of the works studied, speculation on their provenance, and extrapolation of details of the circumstances of their creation

The Telecommunications and Data Acquisition Report

This quarterly publication provides archival reports on developments in programs managed by JPL's Telecommunications and Mission Operations Directorate (TMOD), which now includes the former Telecommunications and Data Acquisition (TDA) Office. In space communications, radio navigation, radio science, and ground-based radio and radar astronomy, it reports on activities of the Deep Space Network (DS) in planning, supporting research and technology, implementation, and operations. Also included are standards activity at JPL for space data and information systems and reimbursable DSN work performed for other space agencies through NASA. The preceding work is all performed for NASA's Office of Space Communications (OSC)

Proceedings of the Fifth NASA/NSF/DOD Workshop on Aerospace Computational Control

The Fifth Annual Workshop on Aerospace Computational Control was one in a series of workshops sponsored by NASA, NSF, and the DOD. The purpose of these workshops is to address computational issues in the analysis, design, and testing of flexible multibody control systems for aerospace applications. The intention in holding these workshops is to bring together users, researchers, and developers of computational tools in aerospace systems (spacecraft, space robotics, aerospace transportation vehicles, etc.) for the purpose of exchanging ideas on the state of the art in computational tools and techniques