1,150 research outputs found
A Biologically Inspired Approach for Robot Depth Estimation
Aimed at building autonomous service robots, reasoning, perception, and action should be properly integrated. In this paper, the depth cue has been analysed as an early stage given its importance for robotic tasks. So, from neuroscience findings, a hierarchical four-level dorsal architecture has been designed and implemented. Mainly, from a stereo image pair, a set of complex Gabor filters is applied for estimating an egocentric quantitative disparity map. This map leads to a quantitative depth scene representation that provides the raw input for a qualitative approach. So, the reasoning method infers the data required to make the right decision at any time. As it will be shown, the experimental results highlight the robust performance of the biologically inspired approach presented in this paper.This paper describes research done at UJI Robotic Intelligence Laboratory. Support for this laboratory was provided in part by Ministerio de EconomĂa y Competitividad (DPI2015-69041-R) and by Universitat Jaume I
Connectionist models and figurative speech
This paper contains an introduction to connectionist models. Then we focus on the question of how novel figurative usages of descriptive adjectives may be interpreted in a structured connectionist model of conceptual combination. The suggestion is that inferences drawn from an adjective\u27s use in familiar contexts form the basis for all possible interpretations of the adjective in a novel context. The more plausible of the possibilities, it is speculated, are reinforced by some form of one-shot learning, rendering the interpretative process obsolete after only one (memorable) encounter with a novel figure of speech
RoboCup@Home: Analysis and results of evolving competitions for domestic and service robots
Scientific competitions are becoming more common in many research areas of artificial intelligence and robotics, since they provide a shared testbed for comparing different solutions and enable the exchange of research results. Moreover, they are interesting for general audiences and industries. Currently, many major research areas in artificial intelligence and robotics are organizing multiple-year competitions that are typically associated with scientific conferences. One important aspect of such competitions is that they are organized for many years. This introduces a temporal evolution that is interesting to analyze. However, the problem of evaluating a competition over many years remains unaddressed. We believe that this issue is critical to properly fuel changes over the years and measure the results of these decisions. Therefore, this article focuses on the analysis and the results of evolving competitions.
In this article, we present the RoboCup@Home competition, which is the largest worldwide competition for domestic service robots, and evaluate its progress over the past seven years. We show how the definition of a proper scoring system allows for desired functionalities to be related to tasks and how the resulting analysis fuels subsequent changes to achieve general and robust solutions implemented by the teams. Our results show not only the steadily increasing complexity of the tasks that RoboCup@Home robots can solve but also the increased performance for all of the functionalities addressed in the competition. We believe that the methodology used in RoboCup@Home for evaluating competition advances and for stimulating changes can be applied and extended to other robotic competitions as well as to multi-year research projects involving Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
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A Comparative Study of the Introduction of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Mathematics Courses in Ningbo, China
Recently, in an attempt to promote globalization and internationalization, the Chinese government has introduced AP (Advanced Placement) and IB (International Baccalaureate) programs in Chinese high school. Although it is one of the biggest countries to introduce international programs to its secondary education in an effort to prepare more students to go overseas to pursue their higher education, China does not have much research focusing on introduced foreign academic programs. The purpose of this study is to fill in some gaps in the research while providing a better understanding of the depth behind the phenomenon of introducing the AP program and the IB diploma program in China and that introductionâs impact on the existing general Chinese high school program in mathematics. Multiple sources of data were collected and used to make various kinds of analysis such as contextual analysis, cross-curricula comparisons and statistical analysis. The findings illustrated the differences and similarities between the AP program and the IB program in their respective schools in Ningbo, China. It further examined the differences and similarities between the AP program/ IB program and the intended Chinese high school program in mathematics education. It also explored mathematics instructorsâ perceptions of the imported AP and IB programs in China.
Limitations of this study include the absence of some test scores, the relatively small sample size and the circumscribed selection of interviewees. This study provides a guide to help Chinese students and their parents decide on a learning program based on individual preferences. Also, the results of this study indicate that a considerable gap exists between secondary education and higher education in Chinese mathematics, and also points to possible limitations for individualized learning. The findings imply the need to consider curricular reform and suggest that local teachers and non-local teachers who teach in the imported programs consider reinforcing their teaching by learning from each other. Policymakers need to make adjustments to consider local conditions when introducing international programs so as to offer the most suitable program possible to native students
Linguistic probability theory
In recent years probabilistic knowledge-based systems such as Bayesian networks and influence diagrams have come to the fore as a means of representing and reasoning about complex real-world situations. Although some of the
probabilities used in these models may be obtained statistically, where this is
impossible or simply inconvenient, modellers rely on expert knowledge. Experts, however, typically find it difficult to specify exact probabilities and conventional representations cannot reflect any uncertainty they may have. In
this way, the use of conventional point probabilities can damage the accuracy,
robustness and interpretability of acquired models. With these concerns in
mind, psychometric researchers have demonstrated that fuzzy numbers are
good candidates for representing the inherent vagueness of probability estimates, and the fuzzy community has responded with two distinct theories of
fuzzy probabilities.This thesis, however, identifies formal and presentational problems with these
theories which render them unable to represent even very simple scenarios.
This analysis leads to the development of a novel and intuitively appealing
alternative - a
theory of linguistic probabilities patterned after the standard Kolmogorov axioms of probability theory. Since fuzzy numbers lack algebraic
inverses, the resulting theory is weaker than, but generalises its classical counterpart. Nevertheless, it is demonstrated that analogues for classical probabilistic concepts such as conditional probability and random variables can be
constructed. In the classical theory, representation theorems mean that most of
the time the distinction between mass/density distributions and probability
measures can be ignored. Similar results are proven for linguistic probabiliities.From these results it is shown that directed acyclic graphs annotated with linguistic probabilities (under certain identified conditions) represent systems of
linguistic random variables. It is then demonstrated these linguistic Bayesian
networks can utilise adapted best-of-breed Bayesian network algorithms (junction tree based inference and Bayes' ball irrelevancy calculation). These algorithms are implemented in ARBOR, an interactive design, editing and querying
tool for linguistic Bayesian networks.To explore the applications of these techniques, a realistic example drawn from
the domain of forensic statistics is developed. In this domain the knowledge
engineering problems cited above are especially pronounced and expert estimates are commonplace. Moreover, robust conclusions are of unusually critical importance. An analysis of the resulting linguistic Bayesian network for
assessing evidential support in glass-transfer scenarios highlights the potential
utility of the approach
AN INVESTIGATION INTO AN EXPERT SYSTEM FOR TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORK DESIGN
Many telephone companies, especially in Eastern-Europe and the 'third world', are
developing new telephone networks. In such situations the network design engineer needs
computer based tools that not only supplement his own knowledge but also help him to cope
with situations where not all the information necessary for the design is available. Often
traditional network design tools are somewhat removed from the practical world for which
they were developed. They often ignore the significant uncertain and statistical nature of the
input data. They use data taken from a fixed point in time to solve a time variable problem,
and the cost formulae tend to be on an average per line or port rather than the specific case.
Indeed, data is often not available or just plainly unreliable. The engineer has to rely on
rules of thumb honed over many years of experience in designing networks and be able to
cope with missing data.
The complexity of telecommunication networks and the rarity of specialists in this area often
makes the network design process very difficult for a company. It is therefore an important
area for the application of expert systems. Designs resulting from the use of expert systems
will have a measure of uncertainty in their solution and adequate account must be made of
the risk involved in implementing its design recommendations.
The thesis reviews the status of expert systems as used for telecommunication network
design. It further shows that such an expert system needs to reduce a large network problem
into its component parts, use different modules to solve them and then combine these results
to create a total solution. It shows how the various sub-division problems are integrated to
solve the general network design problem. This thesis further presents details of such an
expert system and the databases necessary for network design: three new algorithms are
invented for traffic analysis, node locations and network design and these produce results
that have close correlation with designs taken from BT Consultancy archives.
It was initially supposed that an efficient combination of existing techniques for dealing with uncertainty
within expert systems would suffice for the basis of the new system. It soon
became apparent, however, that to allow for the differing attributes of facts, rules and data
and the varying degrees of importance or rank within each area, a new and radically different
method would be needed.
Having investigated the existing uncertainty problem it is believed that a new more rational
method has been found. The work has involved the invention of the 'Uncertainty Window'
technique and its testing on various aspects of network design, including demand forecast,
network dimensioning, node and link system sizing, etc. using a selection of networks that
have been designed by BT Consultancy staff. From the results of the analysis, modifications
to the technique have been incorporated with the aim of optimising the heuristics and
procedures, so that the structure gives an accurate solution as early as possible.
The essence of the process is one of associating the uncertainty windows with their relevant
rules, data and facts, which results in providing the network designer with an insight into the
uncertainties that have helped produce the overall system design: it indicates which sources
of uncertainty and which assumptions are were critical for further investigation to improve
upon the confidence of the overall design. The windowing technique works by virtue of its
ability to retain the composition of the uncertainty and its associated values, assumption, etc.
and allows for better solutions to be attained.BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS PL
Unsolicited Narratives: The Experiences of Afro-Caribbean Women as Mathematics Learners and as Mathematics Educators in U.S. Institutions of Higher Education
Afro-Caribbean immigrant women are part of the brilliant makeup of Black excellence in the United States. Nevertheless, the experiences of Afro-Caribbean women as mathematics learners and as mathematics educators in U.S. institutions of higher education have yet to gain interest among researchers. These experiences are too often absent in the literature or are more times than not buried within categories such as women, foreign-born, or âOtherâ (Alfred & Swaminathan, 2004; Lather, 1991). When the experiences of Afro-Caribbean women are the focus of research, that inquiry rarely extends into the discipline of mathematics (Beck, 2010; King Miller, 2013) and is nearly nonexistent in examining the experiences of mathematics educators.
The aim of this qualitative study, therefore, was to examine the social and contextual experiences of Afro-Caribbean women as mathematics learners and as mathematics educators in U.S. institutions of higher education. The narrative research project (e.g., Polkinghorne, 1988) employed figured worlds (e.g. Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998) and intersectionality (e.g. Collins & Bilge, 2016) as theoretical frameworks. Data collection included dialogical interviews (Kvale, 2007) and documentary data (Patton, 2002); data analysis included dialogic and categorical approaches (Charmaz, 2014; Goodall, 2000). A heuristic (Moustaskas, 1990) approach to the study included the researcher positioning herself as a guide representing the outcomes of the analysis.
The analysis of the data showed that when Afro-Caribbean women enter the figured world of mathematics as learners, an actualization of their social positioning, based on practices witnessed, creates spaces for authoring their self-in-person now as mathematics educators. As the now actualized mathematics educator, Afro-Caribbean women become advocates in mentoring people who look and sound like them and use key moments to educate others about their Caribbean figured worlds. Afro-Caribbean women shared moments of how being Black, women, and immigrant in mathematics figured worlds brought both challenging and dismaying experiences as well as praiseworthy experiences. Nonetheless, as demonstrated by the participantsâ narratives, having a strong sense of self, knowledge, and purpose is useful in making oppressive moments teaching and learning opportunities rather than sources of distress in their mathematics and academic figured worlds
The experience of money and the domestic moral economy of a group of young adults in Khayelitsha and their transition to adulthood
This thesis is a qualitative study of patterns of earning, sharing and spending among a cohort of young South African men and women, aged 25 to 35, in Khayelitsha, a mainly poor, Black African residential area of Cape Town. As less skilled âyouth,' they are rarely able to sustain regular employment and therefore remain intermittently dependent on household income and resident in or near their parents' homes; they may have children but are not married. This thesis interprets how their low wage irregular employment and spending patterns affect relationships of mutuality and the dynamics of redistribution in their households. The thesis then considers how these phenomena change with their transition to âadulthood,' which occurred in the context of the COVID19 pandemic. The young adults experience a state of âlocked in' material and existential depletion while balancing their aspirations, reflected in urgent and often conspicuous consumption, with their obligations in a context of chronic economic stress. As older adults, they progress from an economically dependent status to a mainly precarious adult status in their household where the matrix of domestic obligations and entitlements overwhelm youthful, aspirational spending. The thesis advances our understanding of the lived experience of money of âtownship youth' â as young adults â and then, as they progress into adulthood, of adult decision-making, in their domestic domain. The thesis unpacks and explains this experience in relation to the notion of a âdomestic moral economy' produced at the nexus of economic and social cultural factors. Here responses of young adults to labour market conditions and consumerism impact on and are in turn impacted by social relations in the household. These responses introduced and embedded in both domestic relations and their social lives among peers and friends, demonstrate the inseparability of external capitalist relation of production from historically instituted social relations in the wider South African moral economy
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