24,482 research outputs found
Extrinisic Calibration of a Camera-Arm System Through Rotation Identification
Determining extrinsic calibration parameters is a necessity in any robotic
system composed of actuators and cameras. Once a system is outside the lab
environment, parameters must be determined without relying on outside artifacts
such as calibration targets. We propose a method that relies on structured
motion of an observed arm to recover extrinsic calibration parameters. Our
method combines known arm kinematics with observations of conics in the image
plane to calculate maximum-likelihood estimates for calibration extrinsics.
This method is validated in simulation and tested against a real-world model,
yielding results consistent with ruler-based estimates. Our method shows
promise for estimating the pose of a camera relative to an articulated arm's
end effector without requiring tedious measurements or external artifacts.
Index Terms: robotics, hand-eye problem, self-calibration, structure from
motio
Simultaneous Parameter Calibration, Localization, and Mapping
The calibration parameters of a mobile robot play a substantial role in navigation tasks. Often these parameters are subject to variations that depend either on changes in the environment or on the load of the robot. In this paper, we propose an approach to simultaneously estimate a map of the environment, the position of the on-board sensors of the robot, and its kinematic parameters. Our method requires no prior knowledge about the environment and relies only on a rough initial guess of the parameters of the platform. The proposed approach estimates the parameters online and it is able to adapt to non-stationary changes of the configuration. We tested our approach in simulated environments and on a wide range of real-world data using different types of robotic platforms. (C) 2012 Taylor & Francis and The Robotics Society of Japa
Absolute Momentum Calibration of the HARP TPC
In the HARP experiment the large-angle spectrometer is using a cylindrical
TPC as main tracking and particle identification detector. The momentum scale
of reconstructed tracks in the TPC is the most important systematic error for
the majority of kinematic bins used for the HARP measurements of the
double-differential production cross-section of charged pions in proton
interactions on nuclear targets at large angle. The HARP TPC operated with a
number of hardware shortfalls and operational mistakes. Thus it was important
to control and characterize its momentum calibration. While it was not possible
to enter a direct particle beam into the sensitive volume of the TPC to
calibrate the detector, a set of physical processes and detector properties
were exploited to achieve a precise calibration of the apparatus. In the
following we recall the main issues concerning the momentum measurement in the
HARP TPC, and describe the cross-checks made to validate the momentum scale. As
a conclusion, this analysis demonstrates that the measurement of momentum is
correct within the published precision of 3%.Comment: To be published by JINS
Top Quark Mass Measurements at CDF
The mass of the top quark M_top is interesting both as a fundamental
parameter of the standard model and as an important input to precision
electroweak tests. The Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) has a robust program
of top quark mass analyses, including the most precise single measurement,
M_top = 173.4 +/- 2.8 GeV/c^2, using 680 pb^-1 of ppbar collision data. A
combination of current results from CDF gives M_top = 172.0 +/- 2.7 GeV/c^2,
surpassing the stated goal of 3 GeV/c^2 precision using 2 fb^-1 of data.
Finally, a combination with current D0 results gives a world average top quark
mass of 172.5 +/- 2.3 GeV/c^2.Comment: 8 pages, Contribution to Proceedings of the 41st Rencontres de
Moriond: Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories, La Thuile, Italy,
11-18 March 200
Monitoring the Bi-Directional Relativistic Jets of the Radio Galaxy 1946+708
We report on a multi-frequency, multi-epoch campaign of Very Long Baseline
Interferometry observations of the radio galaxy 1946+708 using the VLBA and a
Global VLBI array. From these high-resolution observations we deduce the
kinematic age of the radio source to be 4000 years, comparable with the
ages of other Compact Symmetric Objects (CSOs). Ejections of pairs of jet
components appears to take place on time scales of 10 years and these
components in the jet travel outward at intrinsic velocities between 0.6 and
0.9 c. From the constraint that jet components cannot have intrinsic velocities
faster than light, we derive H_0 > 57 km s^-1 Mpc^-1 from the fastest pair of
components launched from the core. We provide strong evidence for the ejection
of a new pair of components in ~1997. From the trajectories of the jet
components we deduce that the jet is most likely to be helically confined,
rather than purely ballistic in nature.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, accepted to Ap
Dynamic Active Constraints for Surgical Robots using Vector Field Inequalities
Robotic assistance allows surgeons to perform dexterous and tremor-free
procedures, but robotic aid is still underrepresented in procedures with
constrained workspaces, such as deep brain neurosurgery and endonasal surgery.
In these procedures, surgeons have restricted vision to areas near the surgical
tooltips, which increases the risk of unexpected collisions between the shafts
of the instruments and their surroundings. In this work, our
vector-field-inequalities method is extended to provide dynamic
active-constraints to any number of robots and moving objects sharing the same
workspace. The method is evaluated with experiments and simulations in which
robot tools have to avoid collisions autonomously and in real-time, in a
constrained endonasal surgical environment. Simulations show that with our
method the combined trajectory error of two robotic systems is optimal.
Experiments using a real robotic system show that the method can autonomously
prevent collisions between the moving robots themselves and between the robots
and the environment. Moreover, the framework is also successfully verified
under teleoperation with tool-tissue interactions.Comment: Accepted on T-RO 2019, 19 Page
Measurement of the production of charged pions by protons on a tantalum target
A measurement of the double-differential cross-section for the production of
charged pions in proton--tantalum collisions emitted at large angles from the
incoming beam direction is presented. The data were taken in 2002 with the HARP
detector in the T9 beam line of the CERN PS. The pions were produced by proton
beams in a momentum range from 3 \GeVc to 12 \GeVc hitting a tantalum target
with a thickness of 5% of a nuclear interaction length. The angular and
momentum range covered by the experiment (100 \MeVc \le p < 800 \MeVc and
0.35 \rad \le \theta <2.15 \rad) is of particular importance for the design
of a neutrino factory. The produced particles were detected using a
small-radius cylindrical time projection chamber (TPC) placed in a solenoidal
magnet. Track recognition, momentum determination and particle identification
were all performed based on the measurements made with the TPC. An elaborate
system of detectors in the beam line ensured the identification of the incident
particles. Results are shown for the double-differential cross-sections
at four incident
proton beam momenta (3 \GeVc, 5 \GeVc, 8 \GeVc and 12 \GeVc). In addition, the
pion yields within the acceptance of typical neutrino factory designs are shown
as a function of beam momentum. The measurement of these yields within a single
experiment eliminates most systematic errors in the comparison between rates at
different beam momenta and between positive and negative pion production.Comment: 49 pages, 31 figures. Version accepted for publication on Eur. Phys.
J.
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