Approximate Reasoning for Safety and Survivability of Planetary Rovers

© 2003 Elsevier Science B.V.DOI: 10.1016/S0165-0114(02)00228-2Operational safety and health monitoring are critical matters for autonomous planetary rovers operating on remote and challenging terrain. This paper describes rover safety issues and presents an approximate reasoning approach to maintaining vehicle safety in a navigational context. The proposed rover safety module is composed of two distinct behaviors: safe attitude (pitch and roll) management and safe traction management. Fuzzy logic implementations of these behaviors on outdoor terrain is presented. Sensing of vehicle safety coupled with visual neural network-based perception of terrain quality are used to infer safe speeds during rover traversal. In addition, approximate reasoning for self-regulation of internal operating conditions is briefly discussed. The core theoretical foundations of the applied soft computing techniques is presented and supported by descriptions of field tests and laboratory experimental results. For autonomous rovers, the approach provides intrinsic safety cognizance and a capacity for reactive mitigation of navigation risks

A graph-theory-based C-space path planner for mobile robotic manipulators in close-proximity environments

In this thesis a novel guidance method for a 3-degree-of-freedom robotic manipulator arm in 3 dimensions for Improvised Explosive Device (IED) disposal has been developed. The work carried out in this thesis combines existing methods to develop a technique that delivers advantages taken from several other guidance techniques. These features are necessary for the IED disposal application. The work carried out in this thesis includes kinematic and dynamic modelling of robotic manipulators, T-space to C-space conversion, and path generation using Graph Theory to produce a guidance technique which can plan a safe path through a complex unknown environment. The method improves upon advantages given by other techniques in that it produces a suitable path in 3-dimensions in close-proximity environments in real time with no a priori knowledge of the environment, a necessary precursor to the application of this technique to IED disposal missions. To solve the problem of path planning, the thesis derives the kinematics and dynamics of a robotic arm in order to convert the Euclidean coordinates of measured environment data into C-space. Each dimension in C-space is one control input of the arm. The Euclidean start and end locations of the manipulator end effector are translated into C-space. A three-dimensional path is generated between them using Dijkstra’s Algorithm. The technique allows for a single path to be generated to guide the entire arm through the environment, rather than multiple paths to guide each component through the environment. The robotic arm parameters are modelled as a quasi-linear parameter varying system. As such it requires gain scheduling control, thus allowing compensation of the non-linearities in the system. A Genetic Algorithm is applied to tune a set of PID controllers for the dynamic model of the manipulator arm so that the generated path can then be followed using a conventional path-following algorithm. The technique proposed in this thesis is validated using numerical simulations in order to determine its advantages and limitations

Safety and Reliability - Safe Societies in a Changing World

The contributions cover a wide range of methodologies and application areas for safety and reliability that contribute to safe societies in a changing world. These methodologies and applications include: - foundations of risk and reliability assessment and management - mathematical methods in reliability and safety - risk assessment - risk management - system reliability - uncertainty analysis - digitalization and big data - prognostics and system health management - occupational safety - accident and incident modeling - maintenance modeling and applications - simulation for safety and reliability analysis - dynamic risk and barrier management - organizational factors and safety culture - human factors and human reliability - resilience engineering - structural reliability - natural hazards - security - economic analysis in risk managemen

Proceedings of the European Conference on Agricultural Engineering AgEng2021

This proceedings book results from the AgEng2021 Agricultural Engineering Conference under auspices of the European Society of Agricultural Engineers, held in an online format based on the University of Évora, Portugal, from 4 to 8 July 2021. This book contains the full papers of a selection of abstracts that were the base for the oral presentations and posters presented at the conference. Presentations were distributed in eleven thematic areas: Artificial Intelligence, data processing and management; Automation, robotics and sensor technology; Circular Economy; Education and Rural development; Energy and bioenergy; Integrated and sustainable Farming systems; New application technologies and mechanisation; Post-harvest technologies; Smart farming / Precision agriculture; Soil, land and water engineering; Sustainable production in Farm buildings

Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud

Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithms’ performance on Amazon’s Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp

The European Pilgrimage Routes for promoting sustainable and quality tourism in rural areas

The International Conference the European Pilgrimage Routes for promoting sustainable and quality tourism in rural areas took place December 4 to 6, 2014 in Firenze (Italy) and was organized by the Department of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Systems – University of Florence in collaboration with the Tuscany Region, the Department for Life Quality Studies and Department of Agricultural Sciences – University of Bologna, the Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering and the European Association of the Francigena Way. The Conference involving 150 experts from 18 countries and was divided into five areas of discussion: conservation and evolution of the landscape along the routes; life quality and social impact; tourism and local development; sustainability in the rural areas; tools and methods for building a tourist attraction

Dipterocarps protected by Jering local wisdom in Jering Menduyung Nature Recreational Park, Bangka Island, Indonesia

Apart of the oil palm plantation expansion, the Jering Menduyung Nature Recreational Park has relatively diverse plants. The 3,538 ha park is located at the north west of Bangka Island, Indonesia. The minimum species-area curve was 0.82 ha which is just below Dalil conservation forest that is 1.2 ha, but it is much higher than measurements of several secondary forests in the Island that are 0.2 ha. The plot is inhabited by more than 50 plant species. Of 22 tree species, there are 40 individual poles with the average diameter of 15.3 cm, and 64 individual trees with the average diameter of 48.9 cm. The density of Dipterocarpus grandiflorus (Blanco) Blanco or kruing, is 20.7 individual/ha with the diameter ranges of 12.1 – 212.7 cm or with the average diameter of 69.0 cm. The relatively intact park is supported by the local wisdom of Jering tribe, one of indigenous tribes in the island. People has regulated in cutting trees especially in the cape. The conservation agency designates the park as one of the kruing propagules sources in the province. The growing oil palm plantation and the less adoption of local wisdom among the youth is a challenge to forest conservation in the province where tin mining activities have been the economic driver for decades. More socialization from the conservation agency and the involvement of university students in raising environmental awareness is important to be done