4,401 research outputs found
Helicopter transmission arrangements with split-torque gear trains
As an alternative to component development, the case for improved drive-train configuration is argued. In particular, the use of torque-splitting gear trains is proposed as a practicable means of improving the effectiveness of helicopter main gearboxes
From Multiview Image Curves to 3D Drawings
Reconstructing 3D scenes from multiple views has made impressive strides in
recent years, chiefly by correlating isolated feature points, intensity
patterns, or curvilinear structures. In the general setting - without
controlled acquisition, abundant texture, curves and surfaces following
specific models or limiting scene complexity - most methods produce unorganized
point clouds, meshes, or voxel representations, with some exceptions producing
unorganized clouds of 3D curve fragments. Ideally, many applications require
structured representations of curves, surfaces and their spatial relationships.
This paper presents a step in this direction by formulating an approach that
combines 2D image curves into a collection of 3D curves, with topological
connectivity between them represented as a 3D graph. This results in a 3D
drawing, which is complementary to surface representations in the same sense as
a 3D scaffold complements a tent taut over it. We evaluate our results against
truth on synthetic and real datasets.Comment: Expanded ECCV 2016 version with tweaked figures and including an
overview of the supplementary material available at
multiview-3d-drawing.sourceforge.ne
Regrasp Planning using 10,000s of Grasps
This paper develops intelligent algorithms for robots to reorient objects.
Given the initial and goal poses of an object, the proposed algorithms plan a
sequence of robot poses and grasp configurations that reorient the object from
its initial pose to the goal. While the topic has been studied extensively in
previous work, this paper makes important improvements in grasp planning by
using over-segmented meshes, in data storage by using relational database, and
in regrasp planning by mixing real-world roadmaps. The improvements enable
robots to do robust regrasp planning using 10,000s of grasps and their
relationships in interactive time. The proposed algorithms are validated using
various objects and robots
Advanced Message Routing for Scalable Distributed Simulations
The Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) Experimentation Directorate (J9)'s recent Joint Urban Operations (JUO)
experiments have demonstrated the viability of Forces Modeling and Simulation in a distributed environment. The
JSAF application suite, combined with the RTI-s communications system, provides the ability to run distributed
simulations with sites located across the United States, from Norfolk, Virginia to Maui, Hawaii. Interest-aware
routers are essential for communications in the large, distributed environments, and the current RTI-s framework
provides such routers connected in a straightforward tree topology. This approach is successful for small to medium
sized simulations, but faces a number of significant limitations for very large simulations over high-latency, wide
area networks. In particular, traffic is forced through a single site, drastically increasing distances messages must
travel to sites not near the top of the tree. Aggregate bandwidth is limited to the bandwidth of the site hosting the
top router, and failures in the upper levels of the router tree can result in widespread communications losses
throughout the system.
To resolve these issues, this work extends the RTI-s software router infrastructure to accommodate more
sophisticated, general router topologies, including both the existing tree framework and a new generalization of the
fully connected mesh topologies used in the SF Express ModSAF simulations of 100K fully interacting vehicles.
The new software router objects incorporate the scalable features of the SF Express design, while optionally using
low-level RTI-s objects to perform actual site-to-site communications. The (substantial) limitations of the original
mesh router formalism have been eliminated, allowing fully dynamic operations. The mesh topology capabilities
allow aggregate bandwidth and site-to-site latencies to match actual network performance. The heavy resource load at
the root node can now be distributed across routers at the participating sites
Solar drum positioner mechanisms
The need for additional power on spinning satellites required development of deployable solar arrays activated, as on a 3-axis vehicle, after separation from a booster or shuttle orbiter. Mechanisms were developed for telescopically extending a secondary 36.3 kg (80 lb.), 2.13 m (84 in.) diameter spinning solar drum for a distance of 2.0 m (80 in.) or more along the spin axis. After extension, the system has the capability of dynamically controlling the drum tilt angle about the spin axis to provide precision in-orbit balancing of the spacecraft. This approach was selected for the SBS, ANIK C, ANIK D, WESTAR B and PALAPA B satellites. It was successfully demonstrated during the in orbit deployment of the aft solar panels of the SBS F-3 and F-1 satellites, subsequent to the November 1980 and September 1981 launches
A Low-Dimensional Representation for Robust Partial Isometric Correspondences Computation
Intrinsic isometric shape matching has become the standard approach for pose
invariant correspondence estimation among deformable shapes. Most existing
approaches assume global consistency, i.e., the metric structure of the whole
manifold must not change significantly. While global isometric matching is well
understood, only a few heuristic solutions are known for partial matching.
Partial matching is particularly important for robustness to topological noise
(incomplete data and contacts), which is a common problem in real-world 3D
scanner data. In this paper, we introduce a new approach to partial, intrinsic
isometric matching. Our method is based on the observation that isometries are
fully determined by purely local information: a map of a single point and its
tangent space fixes an isometry for both global and the partial maps. From this
idea, we develop a new representation for partial isometric maps based on
equivalence classes of correspondences between pairs of points and their
tangent spaces. From this, we derive a local propagation algorithm that find
such mappings efficiently. In contrast to previous heuristics based on RANSAC
or expectation maximization, our method is based on a simple and sound
theoretical model and fully deterministic. We apply our approach to register
partial point clouds and compare it to the state-of-the-art methods, where we
obtain significant improvements over global methods for real-world data and
stronger guarantees than previous heuristic partial matching algorithms.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figure
Automated sequence and motion planning for robotic spatial extrusion of 3D trusses
While robotic spatial extrusion has demonstrated a new and efficient means to
fabricate 3D truss structures in architectural scale, a major challenge remains
in automatically planning extrusion sequence and robotic motion for trusses
with unconstrained topologies. This paper presents the first attempt in the
field to rigorously formulate the extrusion sequence and motion planning (SAMP)
problem, using a CSP encoding. Furthermore, this research proposes a new
hierarchical planning framework to solve the extrusion SAMP problems that
usually have a long planning horizon and 3D configuration complexity. By
decoupling sequence and motion planning, the planning framework is able to
efficiently solve the extrusion sequence, end-effector poses, joint
configurations, and transition trajectories for spatial trusses with
nonstandard topologies. This paper also presents the first detailed computation
data to reveal the runtime bottleneck on solving SAMP problems, which provides
insight and comparing baseline for future algorithmic development. Together
with the algorithmic results, this paper also presents an open-source and
modularized software implementation called Choreo that is machine-agnostic. To
demonstrate the power of this algorithmic framework, three case studies,
including real fabrication and simulation results, are presented.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figure
Flexible couplings: diffusing neuromodulators and adaptive robotics
Recent years have seen the discovery of freely diffusing gaseous neurotransmitters, such as nitric oxide (NO), in biological nervous systems. A type of artificial neural network (ANN) inspired by such gaseous signaling, the GasNet, has previously been shown to be more evolvable than traditional ANNs when used as an artificial nervous system in an evolutionary robotics setting, where evolvability means consistent speed to very good solutions¿here, appropriate sensorimotor behavior-generating systems. We present two new versions of the GasNet, which take further inspiration from the properties of neuronal gaseous signaling. The plexus model is inspired by the extraordinary NO-producing cortical plexus structure of neural fibers and the properties of the diffusing NO signal it generates. The receptor model is inspired by the mediating action of neurotransmitter receptors. Both models are shown to significantly further improve evolvability. We describe a series of analyses suggesting that the reasons for the increase in evolvability are related to the flexible loose coupling of distinct signaling mechanisms, one ¿chemical¿ and one ¿electrical.
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