Forging Wargamers

How do we establish or improve wargaming education, including sponsors, participants, and future designers? The question stems from the uncomfortable truth that the wargaming discipline has no foundational pipeline, no established pathway from novice to master. Consequently, the wargaming community stands at a dangerous precipice at the convergence of a stagnant labor force and a patchwork system of passing institutional war-gaming knowledge. Unsurprisingly, this can lead to ill-informed sponsors, poorly scoped wargames, an unreliable standard of wargaming expertise, and worst of all, risks the decline of wargaming as an educational and analytical tool. This fundamental challenge is a recurring theme throughout this volume and each author offers their own perspective and series of recommendations

Learning-based robotic manipulation for dynamic object handling : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Mechatronic Engineering at the School of Food and Advanced Technology, Massey University, Turitea Campus, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Figures are re-used in this thesis with permission of their respective publishers or under a Creative Commons licence.Recent trends have shown that the lifecycles and production volumes of modern products are shortening. Consequently, many manufacturers subject to frequent change prefer flexible and reconfigurable production systems. Such schemes are often achieved by means of manual assembly, as conventional automated systems are perceived as lacking flexibility. Production lines that incorporate human workers are particularly common within consumer electronics and small appliances. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a possible avenue to achieve smart robotic automation in this context. In this research it is argued that a robust, autonomous object handling process plays a crucial role in future manufacturing systems that incorporate robotics—key to further closing the gap between manual and fully automated production. Novel object grasping is a difficult task, confounded by many factors including object geometry, weight distribution, friction coefficients and deformation characteristics. Sensing and actuation accuracy can also significantly impact manipulation quality. Another challenge is understanding the relationship between these factors, a specific grasping strategy, the robotic arm and the employed end-effector. Manipulation has been a central research topic within robotics for many years. Some works focus on design, i.e. specifying a gripper-object interface such that the effects of imprecise gripper placement and other confounding control-related factors are mitigated. Many universal robotic gripper designs have been considered, including 3-fingered gripper designs, anthropomorphic grippers, granular jamming end-effectors and underactuated mechanisms. While such approaches have maintained some interest, contemporary works predominantly utilise machine learning in conjunction with imaging technologies and generic force-closure end-effectors. Neural networks that utilise supervised and unsupervised learning schemes with an RGB or RGB-D input make up the bulk of publications within this field. Though many solutions have been studied, automatically generating a robust grasp configuration for objects not known a priori, remains an open-ended problem. An element of this issue relates to a lack of objective performance metrics to quantify the effectiveness of a solution—which has traditionally driven the direction of community focus by highlighting gaps in the state-of-the-art. This research employs monocular vision and deep learning to generate—and select from—a set of hypothesis grasps. A significant portion of this research relates to the process by which a final grasp is selected. Grasp synthesis is achieved by sampling the workspace using convolutional neural networks trained to recognise prospective grasp areas. Each potential pose is evaluated by the proposed method in conjunction with other input modalities—such as load-cells and an alternate perspective. To overcome human bias and build upon traditional metrics, scores are established to objectively quantify the quality of an executed grasp trial. Learning frameworks that aim to maximise for these scores are employed in the selection process to improve performance. The proposed methodology and associated metrics are empirically evaluated. A physical prototype system was constructed, employing a Dobot Magician robotic manipulator, vision enclosure, imaging system, conveyor, sensing unit and control system. Over 4,000 trials were conducted utilising 100 objects. Experimentation showed that robotic manipulation quality could be improved by 10.3% when selecting to optimise for the proposed metrics—quantified by a metric related to translational error. Trials further demonstrated a grasp success rate of 99.3% for known objects and 98.9% for objects for which a priori information is unavailable. For unknown objects, this equated to an improvement of approximately 10% relative to other similar methodologies in literature. A 5.3% reduction in grasp rate was observed when removing the metrics as selection criteria for the prototype system. The system operated at approximately 1 Hz when contemporary hardware was employed. Experimentation demonstrated that selecting a grasp pose based on the proposed metrics improved grasp rates by up to 4.6% for known objects and 2.5% for unknown objects—compared to selecting for grasp rate alone. This project was sponsored by the Richard and Mary Earle Technology Trust, the Ken and Elizabeth Powell Bursary and the Massey University Foundation. Without the financial support provided by these entities, it would not have been possible to construct the physical robotic system used for testing and experimentation. This research adds to the field of robotic manipulation, contributing to topics on grasp-induced error analysis, post-grasp error minimisation, grasp synthesis framework design and general grasp synthesis. Three journal publications and one IEEE Xplore paper have been published as a result of this research

Broadening national security and protecting crowded places - Performing the United Kingdom’s War on Terror, 2007-2010

This thesis critically interrogates the spatial politics of two ‘fronts’ of the UK’s on-going war on terror between 2007-2010: first, broadening national security, the extension of national security into non-traditional social and economic domains; and second, security in ‘crowded places’, counter-terror regimes in the UK’s public spaces. It responds to the neglect within security studies of the spatial politics of this conflict by considering the spatial performativities enabling these two contemporaneous iterations of national security. The first part applies critical geopolitics and biopolitics frameworks to a case study of the new National Security Strategy of the United Kingdom. It argues that UK national security reiterates the ‘interconnecting’ performativities of neoliberal norms as a ‘broadening’ understanding of national security which licenses a ‘broadening’ register of coercive policy responses. The second part carries out an exploratory case study of one such coercive policy response: security at the ‘crowded place’ of the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead. It identifies crowded places security as reliant on practices of emptying out and ‘zero-ing’ space, pre-emptive 'zero tolerance' risk imaginaries, and extensive surveillance – both electronic and ‘natural’. In other words, counter-terrorism is becoming increasingly important in shaping daily life in the UK through a diverse range of spatial control practices. The thesis uses an innovative methodological and conceptual strategy combining Foucauldian discourse analysis of security policies, participant observation of situated security practices, with theoretical frameworks from political geography, international relations and visual culture. It also develops Judith Butler’s theory of performativity as a conceptual tool to critique the materialisation of contemporary spaces of security and counter-terrorism, from the meta-imaginative geographies of national security to the micro-spaces of counter-terrorism in UK public space. In sum, this thesis points towards new avenues for understanding the on-going encroachment of the war on terror into everyday spaces in the U

Securing the Everyday City: The Emerging Geographies of Counter-Terrorism

This thesis investigates the presence of counter-terrorist security within the everyday life of cities. It emerges from, and contributes to, ongoing debates concerning the place of security in contemporary urbanism, and discussions regarding the increased saturation of urban spaces with a diverse range of security interventions. Drawing on this work, this thesis argues that in order to better understand the urban geographies of security, instead of exclusively conceiving security as only imposed on urban spaces, we must ask how processes of securing cities are ʻlivedʼ. In doing so this study responds to the lack of attention to the complex relations between processes of security and lived everyday urban life. This thesis explores the neglected everyday life of security through a case study of an emerging form of counter-terrorist security apparatus within cities in the UK, examining the broadening of the National Security Strategy of the United Kingdom and the continuing development of CONTEST, the United Kingdomʼs counter-terrorist strategy. Taking London as a named example, the study concentrates on the security interventions of two research sites, the Southbank and Bankside area of the South Bank, and the Victoria Line of the London Underground, to examine how security addresses the everyday life of the city and how such practices are experienced as part of lived everyday urban life. In sum, this thesis focuses, first, on the processes through which the everyday city is secured and, second, it draws attention to and describes how those processes of securing are encountered and enacted, as they become part of the everyday life of cities

Brain-computer interfaces: barriers and opportunities to widespread clinical adoption

Brain-computer Interface (BCI) is an emerging neurotechnology with potential applications involving primarily neurological disorders. There is a rising interest in the use of BCI to address current unmet clinical needs from patients. Despite their therapeutic potential, BCI use is still mostly limited to research stages and its translation into mainstream clinical applications and widespread adoption is lagging. This study revises the current potential clinical applications of BCIs in humans, attempts to understand barriers and opportunities to wider clinical adoption and draws health policy and management implications of BCIs use in medical practice. The methodology followed a two-step approach which included a systematic review of potential clinical applications of BCIs and a qualitative study, using focus group method, to understand and integrate professionals’ experiences, perceptions, thoughts and feelings on the wide clinical adoption of BCIs. Focus groups included professionals from the medical, engineering and management field. BCI clinical applications with more clinical evidence include neurorehabilitation with non-invasive devices and the control of assistive devices with invasive BCIs. Nowadays, several barriers to wider clinical adoption of BCIs, including technological, seem addressable. However, systemic barriers from the health systems to innovation and technological interventions need a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to enhance their adoption. Professionals from medicine, engineering and management, working in collaboration in healthcare contexts, are some of the stakeholders important to change the current vision of healthcare towards innovation.As interfaces cérebro-computador (BCI) são uma Neurotecnologia emergente com potencial para serem aplicadas no âmbito clínico, nomeadamente em condições de foro neurológico. Existe um interesse crescente no uso desta tecnologia para ir de encontro às necessidades clínicas de doentes com poucas soluções de tratamento e apoio médico. Apesar das potencialidades das BCI para serem usadas em contexto clínico em humanos, as suas aplicações têm-se limitado a contextos específicos de pesquisa e sem transição para a área da saúde com consequente adoção enquanto ferramenta terapêutica. Com este trabalho pretende-se rever as aplicações clínicas atuais destes dispositivos em humanos, perceber quais as barreiras e oportunidades para a sua adoção em contextos clínicos e retirar ilações do uso de BCI para políticas de saúde e gestão de inovação na prática médica. A metodologia foi dividida em duas fases, que incluíram uma revisão sistemática das potenciais aplicações clínicas de BCI e um estudo qualitativo, usando focus groups, para melhor perceber e integrar as experiências, perceções, ideias e sentimentos de profissionais em relação à adoção de BCI na prática clínica comum. Os focus groups incluíram profissionais das áreas médica, de engenharia e de gestão. As aplicações clínicas com maior nível de evidência para a clínica incluem a neuroreabilitação com BCI não-invasivos e o controlo de dispositivos de assistência com BCI invasivos. Atualmente, diversas barreiras à implementação de BCI em contexto clínico, incluindo o desenvolvimento tecnológico, parecem ser possíveis de ultrapassar num prazo razoável. Contudo, barreiras sistemáticas à inovação e intervenções tecnológicas no âmbito dos sistemas de saúde, apresentam-se como um problema mais complexo e necessitarão de uma abordagem mais globalizada e multidisciplinar para tornar possível a adoção de BCI na prática clínica. Para atingir este objetivo e ultrapassar estas barreiras, profissionais das áreas de medicina, engenharia e gestão devem colaborar e trabalhar em conjunto em contextos de saúde, contribuindo para uma mudança de cultura e tornando os sistemas de saúde mais abertos à inovação

Cerebellar Motor Learning Deficits: Structural mapping, neuromodulation and training-related interventions

Movement allows us to interact with our direct environment, manipulate objects and communicate with each other. Moreover, we can adjust our movements to fit a remarkable range of situations and circumstances. The ability to adjust movements in response to changes in the environment and task demands is referred to as motor learning. The cerebellum is a key neural structure for motor learning. As such, disease of the cerebellum, in addition to the clinical symptom of ataxia, results in various motor learning deficits. There is a consensus that supportive therapy (e.g. physiotherapy, occupational therapy or speech therapy) can reduce ataxia symptoms of cerebellar patients, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying the improvements, and how patients can benefit most. Additionally, motor learning deficits are associated with reduced efficacy of supportive therapy. With the work described in this thesis, we sought to unravel the structural components of cerebellar disease and the relationship between cerebellar integrity and motor learning. Furthermore, we investigated whether motor learning deficits in cerebellar patients could be ameliorated with neuromodulation or training-related interventions, under experimental conditions, hoping to support the development of interventions relevant for application in a clinical setting

Survivors Representing Survivors: Shared Experience and Identity in Direct Service Lawyering

First, the survey gauges the effects that personal experiences of gender-based violence may have on the delivery of quality direct legal representation for survivors of gender-based violence. Instead of tracking trial outcomes or other tangible legal “wins,” these questions assess metrics of quality through empathy, professional distance, client-centered practice, and other commonly regarded ideals within the practice of direct service lawyering for under-served communities. The survey also gauges the lasting effect that this work may have on the attorneys themselves, in both their approach to lawyering and their perception of gender-based violence on an individual, local, and systemic scale

Multimodal Sensory Integration for Perception and Action in High Functioning Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Movement disorders are the earliest observed features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present in infancy. Yet we do not understand the neural basis for impaired goal-directed movements in this population. To reach for an object, it is necessary to perceive the state of the arm and the object using multiple sensory modalities (e.g. vision, proprioception), to integrate those sensations into a motor plan, to execute the plan, and to update the plan based on the sensory consequences of action. In this dissertation, I present three studies in which I recorded hand paths of children with ASD and typically developing (TD) controls as they grasped the handle of a robotic device to control a cursor displayed on a video screen. First, participants performed discrete and continuous movements to capture targets. Cursor feedback was perturbed from the hand\u27s actual position to introduce visuo-spatial conflict between sensory and proprioceptive feedback. Relative to controls, children with ASD made greater errors, consistent with deficits of sensorimotor adaptive and strategic compensations. Second, participants performed a two-interval forced-choice discrimination task in which they perceived two movements of the visual cursor and/or the robot handle and then indicated which of the two movements was more curved. Children with ASD were impaired in their ability to discriminate movement kinematics when provided visual and proprioceptive information simultaneously, suggesting deficits of visuo-proprioceptive integration. Finally, participants made goal-directed reaching movements against a load while undergoing simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The load remained constant (predictable) within an initial block of trials and then varied randomly within four additional blocks. Children with ASD exhibited greater movement variability compared to controls during both constant and randomly-varying loads. MRI analysis identified marked differences in the extent and intensity of the neural activities supporting goal-directed reaching in children with ASD compared to TD children in both environmental conditions. Taken together, the three studies revealed deficits of multimodal sensory integration in children with ASD during perception and execution of goal-directed movements and ASD-related motor performance deficits have a telltale neural signature, as revealed by functional MR imaging

An fMRI Study on Supra-Spinal Contributions to Upper and Lower Limb Motor Control

The differences in the neural mechanisms contributing to upper and lower extremity movement have not been fully elucidated, and this might be a factor that leads to the ineffectiveness of rehabilitation techniques for most stroke survivors. It is unclear whether therapies designed for upper extremities should also be used for the lower extremities, and vice versa. In this study, fMRI was used to examine the supraspinal control of UE and LE movement in both neurologically intact individuals and people with post-stroke hemiparesis. We compared the location, volume, and intensity of brain activity associated with upper and lower extremity pedaling and unilateral flexion/extension of the hand and ankle. We hypothesized that if the supraspinal control strategies were the same for upper and lower extremities, then the pattern of brain activity would be the same across upper and lower limb movement. Alternatively, if the strategies were not the same, then brain activation would differ for each task. We found movement related brain activity in three cortical regions (S1, M1, and Brodmann Area 6) among healthy subjects. The location of activity complied with the somatotopic order in the sensorimotor cortex, but upper extremity produced greater activities during both pedaling and flexion/extension movement compared to the lower extremities. These observations suggested that the general brain activation strategies were similar between upper and lower extremities, while the involvement of cortical structures was more substantial for upper than lower limb movements. The four stroke subjects showed activity in the same regions as compared to the healthy group, yet the volume, intensity and symmetry of activation varied across the subjects and motor tasks. These observations suggested that there were multiple strategies for cortical reorganization after stroke and the controlling strategies for the effectors differed

"Others before self" : Tibetan pedagogy and childrearing in a Tibetan children's village in the Indian Himalaya

This anthropological study examines ontogeny of ideas about self and others and approaches human capacity for intersubjectivity as emergent in the course of life, by looking at how it is shaped through mediation of the world by others and by processes at the group level. The empirical focus is the ecology of concepts used by Tibetan children and adults in their daily life in a Tibetan residential school in India, where people’s conduct and children’s upbringing and schooling are informed by the Tibetan and Buddhist models and theories of self, mind, learning, causation and history. The aim of this study is to identify - through a close ethnographic description and analysis - the core aspects of learning as conceptualized and lived experience within contemporary Tibetan Buddhist education system, derived from one of the oldest wisdom traditions in the world and crystallizing within a modern nation-state Asia. Tibetan Children’s Villages (TCV) was one of the first Tibetan school networks aiming to provide formal lay education for children that sprang up in exile following the fourteenth Dalai Lama’s flight to India in 1959. Chapter 1 outlines the theoretical and methodological aspects of the study and sets forth the research agenda that shaped the study design and kinds of engagement that were possible with the study participants and the field. A short description of the geographical and climate conditions in the field site is complemented by a snapshot of the social topography of the direct neighbourhood of the school, where fieldwork was conducted over 11 months (February – December) in 2013 and 3 months (June – September) in 2014. A brief review of debates and sources from different bodies of anthropological literature bearing on the ethnographic material has been added to clarify the orientation of the analysis and the research findings. Chapter 2 explores the phenomenon of Tibetan lay education in exile and the concept of education that developed as a result of a shift from monastic centres of learning towards contemporary Tibetan lay schools in India. Through an ethnographic exploration of the theoretical model of learning and pedagogical devices such as Tibetan debate, the chapter shows the mind as the locus of schooling practices. It also demonstrates how, through daily ritual practices and debate, this becomes a lived experience in a contemporary Tibetan school in the Indian Himalaya. The chapter discusses ethnographic categories of mind, mind stream and mental karmic imprints, based on interviews focusing on the Tibetan policy document detailing education strategy and goals. These are shown to be informed by Tibetan Buddhist theory of learning and an understanding of the inner subjective experience as the source of knowing. To contextualize the understanding of mind in a contemporary Tibetan school in India, the chapter provides an ethnographic description and analysis of the Tibetan dialectical debate (riglam) classes in TCV. Riglam is an ancient debating tradition developed in India and preserved and further developed in Tibet and Tibetan monasteries and now also in schools in exile. Chapter 3 is an exploration of the ethnographic category of ‘history’ in the school. ‘History’ is shown to emerge out of the continuum of time – the un-tensed present. Drawing on the notion of the mind imprints, patterning and habituation, and the imagery of the seed, coming ‘alive’ and bearing fruit in the right circumstances, the chapter describes how the making of ‘history’ is inscribed in the bodies of TCV inhabitants through daily bodily practices - bodily discipline, or conduct (chöpa). Chapter 4 focuses on TCV as a place and on the embeddedness of TCV within other places. Through the discussion of the use of space and space-enabled operations, such as e.g. spatio-temporally co-located sport games, the chapter outlines conceptualisation of a TCV-place as expressed through the idioms of ‘floating’ and ‘going out of bounds’. This also leads to a discussion of transgressions involving the use of electronic devices, tattoos and hairstyles, leaving school, and the discourse and practices around the concept of ‘pure Tibetans’. The ethnographic material highlighting an ontogenesis of space opens the way to discuss the embodied practice of interdependence among TCV inhabitants, the practice that challenges the usefulness of analytical categories of ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ for an anthropological analysis of the experience of growing up and living in TCV. Chapters 5 and 6 look closely at the idea of others being essential in the ontogenesis of beings. Chapter 5 is based on examples of teasing and games that involve directing attention of infants and children to other people, and bringing other people’s ‘gaze’ (seeing you) to bear on the decisions made for self. In this way it draws an outline of a particular kind of pedagogic effort directed at infants and toddlers, and traces this pedagogy in other, later stages of the schooling experience in TCV. Chapter 6 focuses specifically on grammatical constructions that seemed to be salient in the interactions between TCV inhabitants (adults and children). These included: 1) addresseebound verb use, and, specifically, I-for-you inversion in questions; 2) the use of honorific forms for others (multiplicity and gradation of terms) and its proscription for self-referential statements; 3) evidentiality markers denoting direct or indirect experience and the salience of personal connection to the subject/object/action. Such ethnographic exploration of the perspective inversion in everyday language use and everyday interactions leads to the review of some tacit assumptions about the ‘subject’ in subjectivity and intersubjectivity used as heuristic devices. The chapter also explores the utility, feasibility and implications of including the dialogical dimension of being in the anthropological inquiry. The conclusion of the thesis focuses on the question of intersubjectivity not as given, but as ‘teased out’ and formed through practices involving both the constitution of self and the simultaneous and inevitable constitution of others. It also posits the necessity of ethnographic exploration of different practices that might be involved in bringing forth intersubjectivity, and questions about the resulting ‘intersubjectivities’. Discussion of different aspects of the experience of living and growing up in a TCV campus developed in the previous chapters, i.e. the theory of learning and understanding of “mind”, inner subjective experience and karmic imprints; discipline and temporal frameworks predicated on the ideas of karmic causation; dependent arising; training of awareness, attention and ethical judgement and the ideas of self, leads to a particular reading of the TCV slogan “Others Before Self”. The analysis, which starts with an exploration of the ideology of education expressed through a policy document building upon particular Buddhist premises, is thus brought full circle, with lived Buddhist experience animating the ubiquitous TCV formula for a human being