Data-driven robotic manipulation of cloth-like deformable objects : the present, challenges and future prospects

Manipulating cloth-like deformable objects (CDOs) is a long-standing problem in the robotics community. CDOs are flexible (non-rigid) objects that do not show a detectable level of compression strength while two points on the article are pushed towards each other and include objects such as ropes (1D), fabrics (2D) and bags (3D). In general, CDOs’ many degrees of freedom (DoF) introduce severe self-occlusion and complex state–action dynamics as significant obstacles to perception and manipulation systems. These challenges exacerbate existing issues of modern robotic control methods such as imitation learning (IL) and reinforcement learning (RL). This review focuses on the application details of data-driven control methods on four major task families in this domain: cloth shaping, knot tying/untying, dressing and bag manipulation. Furthermore, we identify specific inductive biases in these four domains that present challenges for more general IL and RL algorithms.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Visual Perception of Garments for their Robotic Manipulation

Tématem předložené práce je strojové vnímání textilií založené na obrazové informaci a využité pro jejich robotickou manipulaci. Práce studuje několik reprezentativních textilií v běžných kognitivně-manipulačních úlohách, jako je například třídění neznámých oděvů podle typu nebo jejich skládání. Některé z těchto činností by v budoucnu mohly být vykonávány domácími robotickými pomocníky. Strojová manipulace s textiliemi je poptávaná také v průmyslu. Hlavní výzvou řešeného problému je měkkost a s tím související vysoká deformovatelnost textilií, které se tak mohou nacházet v bezpočtu vizuálně velmi odlišných stavů.The presented work addresses the visual perception of garments applied for their robotic manipulation. Various types of garments are considered in the typical perception and manipulation tasks, including their classification, folding or unfolding. Our work is motivated by the possibility of having humanoid household robots performing these tasks for us in the future, as well as by the industrial applications. The main challenge is the high deformability of garments, which can be posed in infinitely many configurations with a significantly varying appearance

The Epistle of St. Theresa: The Relationship of a Pastor and a Congregation Navigating Change

The purpose of this doctoral project is to develop a framework of how St. John’s Presbyterian Church in San Francisco moves from a mono-cultural community to an intercultural and intergenerational community by examining the adaptive changes of leadership and ministry already navigated in an ever-changing culture. The first section explores how personal and congregational identity interacts within the pastoral and ministry context. A pastor’s identity and leadership style influences the capacity a church has to adapt to the changing needs of congregation and community—causing the community to reflect on its shared identity. Therefore, the second part examines the process of change as managing pain and loss as that relates to pastoral and congregational identity. Koreans call this han and the untangling of pain, han-pu-ri. The first change is how identity is understood. Identity holds many intersections of race, culture, class, gender, and theology. These identities intersect in diverse faith communities—making it both challenging and beneficial as it navigates through adaptive changes. Churches also carry the gravity of pain and loss. Without untangling it, it can be difficult for churches to make necessary adaptive changes. Finally, using the concept of third place/space, a framework of how St. John’s church moves from a mono-cultural to an intercultural and intergenerational community is developed. Ray Oldenburg defines third places as informal gathering areas where strangers and neighbors intersect. The term third space used in Asian American feminist theology refers to the in-between place where identity is tested, erased, and recreated. In order for a congregation to exist as a third place where people intersect their needs and passions as well as embrace its changing identity from a mono-cultural to an intercultural community, a pastor must also have self-understanding and embrace where one stands in the in-between space of congregational and pastoral identity

THE DREAM OF A ZERO WASTE SOCIETY: EXPLORING THE PRACTICES AND BEHAVIOURS OF WASTE GENERATION IN GREATER MEXICO CITY

This research aims to re-conceptualise consumption and waste generation through a broader set of theoretical questions and analytical methodologies to establish a more holistic theoretical framework for comprehending the global South's "waste crisis." This thesis is primarily based on the following question: "why do we dispose of things?". By focusing on practices and behaviours of consumption and disposal by citizens of GMC, this thesis seeks to unpack the networks, symbols, skills, and meanings of these practices. This moves the conceptualisation of waste generation away from being conceived as an irremediable consequence of population growth or as primary responsibility on the consumers' shoulders. Therefore, this thesis proposes that consumers are embedded in a "throwaway environment" that pushes them toward unsustainable practices. However, this does not mean that the consumers have a "throwaway culture"; consumers might be "carriers" of practices, but they are still active participants. By unravelling the multiple layers of framing that aggregate into the consumption and disposal of citizens in GMC, we shall see how GMC society's historical, social, and political framework serves as dispositions that guide an individual to act. This study focuses on modifying the narrative of considering consumers as careless, lazy, or consumption-driven. It also sheds light on how ignoring these behaviours and practices will only bring temporary and reactionary solutions when dealing with waste. This dissertation also offers an analytical framework that explores how consumers' elements interrelate and are synergetic. By re-conceptualising consumption and waste generation, I propose not focusing on the insidious moral narrative of whether consumption and disposal are acceptable and to what degree. Instead, we should concentrate on a policy strategy that will help reduce the flow of materials. As a result, we might be able to curve a waste crisis by accepting shared responsibility (mostly borne by governments and businesses

Proceedings of the Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference (SPARC) 2011

These proceedings bring together a selection of papers from the 2011 Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference(SPARC). It includes papers from PhD students in the arts and social sciences, business, computing, science and engineering, education, environment, built environment and health sciences. Contributions from Salford researchers are published here alongside papers from students at the Universities of Anglia Ruskin, Birmingham City, Chester,De Montfort, Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores and Manchester

More than shelter : Community, identity, and spatial politics in San Francisco public housing, 1938--2000

During the second half of the twentieth century, scholars and journalists documented the failures of the public housing program in the United States with a range of studies focusing on the Midwest and East. Problems such as displacement, criminal activity, high vacancy rates, racial segregation, and the isolation of tenants informed critiques of federally-subsidized housing for low-income families. These aspects contributed to the national image of the projects as high-rise ghettos, populated primarily by African Americans, and located in run-down areas. Public housing with its position at the crossroads of national, state, and local politics and policies as well as tenants\u27 varied experiences, however, defy simple categorization as an unmitigated failure.;This study expands the history of public housing to the West and in doing so complicates the image of where public housing is located, what it looks like, and who lives there. Examining public housing in San Francisco, a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, politically liberal city, reveals the important role regional, local and spatial politics play in project design, location, and population. The three projects examined here, Ping Yuen in Chinatown, North Beach Place in North Beach, and Valencia Gardens in the Mission District, are located in thriving urban areas near public transportation, shops, and hospitals. Nevertheless, tenants over the years experienced a range of difficulties including mismanagement and racial segregation by the San Francisco Housing Authority, rising crime rates, in-fighting, and at Valencia Gardens and North Beach, the scorn of district neighbors. Despite these challenges, many tenants came together to form communities. Coming across racial and ethnic lines, tenants relied on formal and informal networks to make their rental apartments into homes. Demonstrating part of the hidden history of public housing, tenants at Ping Yuen, North Beach Place, and Valencia Gardens became politicized by living in the projects and challenged the state to improve their living environments. These case studies highlight public housing\u27s contribution to the affordable housing stock and tenants\u27 roles in making the projects livable spaces

Care in limbo: an urban ethnography of homelesnessness and care work in Athens

This dissertation explores the intersection of care, homelessness and urban space in a context of austerity and a profound lack of resources. Based on an eight-month urban multi-sited ethnography in Athens (July 2017- February 2018), this research draws upon data collected through observation, visual methods and interviews with frontline staff, outreach workers and homeless people. Conducted at a time of multiple crises for the Greek capital, this ethnography offers a grounded analysis of urban marginality, vulnerability and care. It focuses on the urban landscape of care for homeless people. In exploring this landscape, this research unravels the different social, spatial and institutional relations that shape the interconnection of homelessness and care. It considers both macro-level and contextual factors affecting the socio-spatial formation of this landscape in the city and micro-level manifestations of care through relationships and spaces of care. Paying attention to both homeless people and care workers, I position care relationships at the epicentre of a landscape unfolding on an interpersonal, organisational, local and national level. In this regard, this dissertation provides both a panoramic view of the city and a close-up analysis of an array of spaces: from exterior, public spaces to interior, mundane spaces where care meets homelessness and other forms of vulnerability. These include the city’s Municipal Centre for the Homeless (the Municipality), its hostels and a night shelter, a drop-in centre and various public locations including a central Park. The dissertation demonstrates that the landscape of care was a space of shared vulnerability and fragilities, not just for the homeless people seeking care, but also across the organisations and workers committed to care. Revealing different dimensions of being deprived of a home, I reconceptualise homelessness as a condition of ontological insecurity. I argue that homelessness was perpetuated by the complex landscape of care as it played a role in pushing homeless people from conditions of marginality to extreme psychological and material marginality. Bringing together theories of care, care ethics and geographical perspectives on care, I analyse various encounters between homeless people and their care workers, which were shaped by an array of obstacles, adverse conditions and insufficient resources – financial, human, material, emotional and spatial. Ultimately, I show that the efforts of care workers to provide more tailored care, and of homeless people to receive it were undermined to such an extent that care workers and homeless people drifted apart, leaving care in limbo

From Dismal Swamp to Smiling Farms

Driving through the Holland Marsh one is struck immediately by the black richness of its soil. This is some of the most profitable farmland in Canada. But the small agricultural preserve just north of Toronto is a canary in a coal mine. From Dismal Swamp to Smiling Farms recounts the transformation, use, and protection of the Holland Marsh, exploring how human ideas about nature shape agriculture, while agriculture in turn shapes ideas about nature. Drawing on interviews, media accounts, and archival data, Michael Classens concludes that celebrations of the Marsh as the quintessential example of peri-urban food sustainability and farmland protection have been too hasty. Instead, he demonstrates how capitalism and liberalism have fashioned and ultimately imperilled agriculture in the area. This fascinating case study reveals the contradictions and deficiencies of contemporary farmland preservation paradigms, highlighting the challenges of forging a more socially just and ecologically rational food system

URBAN CORPORIS X - UNEXPECTED

Starting from the emergency provoked by the Sars-Cov2 that affected the whole world, the book brings the contributions of researchers and artists from all over the world discussing the theme of the \u201cunexpected\u201d, its implication, and inter-action with everyday life. The book presents a series of essays divided into three parts: Living unexpectedly, Missing interactions, and Different sociality. These three categories bring together authors who have had a reading of the unexpected emergency that occurred, pointing out different perspectives upon dynamics and relation caused by this situation, underlining how the isolation period has affected both the domestic and the urban sphere. Moreover, through drawings, photomontages and photographs, several authors gave a visual interpretation of the changed lives, spaces, and routines. All these contributions don\u2019t want to answer to the enormous problems brought by the pandemic. Rather they synthesize an interpretation of the shifting condition that occurred, showing both the great reactive capacity and the fragility of the no longer present reality