32,688 research outputs found
Introduction to the Special Issue on Aerial Manipulation
The papers in this special section focus on aerial manipulation which is intended as grasping, positioning, assembling and disassembling of mechanical parts, measurement instruments and any other kind of objects, performed by a flying robot equipped with arms and grippers. Aerial manipulators can be helpful in those industrial and service applications that are considered very dangerous for a human operator. For instance, think of tasks like the inspection of a bridge, the inspection and the fixing-up of high-voltage electric lines, the repairing of rotor blades and so on. These tasks are both very unsafe and expensive because they require the performance of professional climbers and/or specialists in the field. A drone with manipulation capabilities can instead assist the human operator in these jobs or, at least, in the most hazardous and critical situations. As a matter of fact, such devices can indeed operate in dangerous tasks like reaching the bottom of the deck of a bridge or the highest places of a plant or a building; they can avoid dangerous work at height; aerial platforms can increase the total number of inspections of a plant, monitoring the wear of the components. Without doubts, aerial manipulation will improve the quality of the job of many workers
Digital Image Access & Retrieval
The 33th Annual Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in March of 1996, addressed the theme of "Digital Image Access & Retrieval." The papers from this conference cover a wide range of topics concerning digital imaging technology for visual resource collections. Papers covered three general areas: (1) systems, planning, and implementation; (2) automatic and semi-automatic indexing; and (3) preservation with the bulk of the conference focusing on indexing and retrieval.published or submitted for publicatio
Design of Ad Hoc Wireless Mesh Networks Formed by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with Advanced Mechanical Automation
Ad hoc wireless mesh networks formed by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
equipped with wireless transceivers (access points (APs)) are increasingly
being touted as being able to provide a flexible "on-the-fly" communications
infrastructure that can collect and transmit sensor data from sensors in
remote, wilderness, or disaster-hit areas. Recent advances in the mechanical
automation of UAVs have resulted in separable APs and replaceable batteries
that can be carried by UAVs and placed at arbitrary locations in the field.
These advanced mechanized UAV mesh networks pose interesting questions in terms
of the design of the network architecture and the optimal UAV scheduling
algorithms. This paper studies a range of network architectures that depend on
the mechanized automation (AP separation and battery replacement) capabilities
of UAVs and proposes heuristic UAV scheduling algorithms for each network
architecture, which are benchmarked against optimal designs.Comment: 12 page
Voliro: An Omnidirectional Hexacopter With Tiltable Rotors
Extending the maneuverability of unmanned areal vehicles promises to yield a
considerable increase in the areas in which these systems can be used. Some
such applications are the performance of more complicated inspection tasks and
the generation of complex uninterrupted movements of an attached camera. In
this paper we address this challenge by presenting Voliro, a novel aerial
platform that combines the advantages of existing multi-rotor systems with the
agility of omnidirectionally controllable platforms. We propose the use of a
hexacopter with tiltable rotors allowing the system to decouple the control of
position and orientation. The contributions of this work involve the mechanical
design as well as a controller with the corresponding allocation scheme. This
work also discusses the design challenges involved when turning the concept of
a hexacopter with tiltable rotors into an actual prototype. The agility of the
system is demonstrated and evaluated in real- world experiments.Comment: Submitted to Robotics and Automation Magazin
The multisensory body revealed through its cast shadows
One key issue when conceiving the body as a multisensory object is how the cognitive
system integrates visible instances of the self and other bodies with one\u2019s own
somatosensory processing, to achieve self-recognition and body ownership. Recent
research has strongly suggested that shadows cast by our own body have a special
status for cognitive processing, directing attention to the body in a fast and highly specific
manner. The aim of the present article is to review the most recent scientific contributions
addressing how body shadows affect both sensory/perceptual and attentional processes.
The review examines three main points: (1) body shadows as a special window to
investigate the construction of multisensory body perception; (2) experimental paradigms
and related findings; (3) open questions and future trajectories. The reviewed literature
suggests that shadows cast by one\u2019s own body promote binding between personal
and extrapersonal space and elicit automatic orienting of attention toward the bodypart
casting the shadow. Future research should address whether the effects exerted
by body shadows are similar to those observed when observers are exposed to other
visual instances of their body. The results will further clarify the processes underlying the
merging of vision and somatosensation when creating body representations
Applied Remote Sensing Program (ARSP)
There are no author-identified significant results in this report
Airborne LiDAR for DEM generation: some critical issues
Airborne LiDAR is one of the most effective and reliable means of terrain data collection. Using LiDAR data for DEM generation is becoming a standard practice in spatial related areas. However, the effective processing of the raw LiDAR data and the generation of an efficient and high-quality DEM remain big challenges. This paper reviews the recent advances of airborne LiDAR systems and the use of
LiDAR data for DEM generation, with special focus on LiDAR data filters, interpolation methods, DEM resolution, and LiDAR data reduction. Separating LiDAR points into ground and non-ground is the most critical and difficult step for
DEM generation from LiDAR data. Commonly used and most recently developed LiDAR filtering methods are presented. Interpolation methods and choices of suitable interpolator and DEM resolution for LiDAR DEM generation are discussed in detail. In order to reduce the data redundancy and increase the efficiency in terms of storage
and manipulation, LiDAR data reduction is required in the process of DEM generation. Feature specific elements such as breaklines contribute significantly to DEM quality. Therefore, data reduction should be conducted in such a way that critical elements are kept while less important elements are removed. Given the highdensity
characteristic of LiDAR data, breaklines can be directly extracted from LiDAR data. Extraction of breaklines and integration of the breaklines into DEM generation are presented
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