Situational reasoning for road driving in an urban environment

Robot navigation in urban environments requires situational reasoning. Given the complexity of the environment and the behavior specified by traffic rules, it is necessary to recognize the current situation to impose the correct traffic rules. In an attempt to manage the complexity of the situational reasoning subsystem, this paper describes a finite state machine model to govern the situational reasoning process. The logic state machine and its interaction with the planning system are discussed. The approach was implemented on Alice, Team Caltech’s entry into the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. Results from the qualifying rounds are discussed. The approach is validated and the shortcomings of the implementation are identified

A New World Monetary System: Keynes' view revisited

This essay critically examines the view of Keynes on the reform of the international monetary system. We then apply modern monetary and banking theory, where money is redefined as a pure numerical vehicle in contrast to money being defined as a net asset, to appraise those elements that are required for a functioning and efficient international monetary system. It is suggested that Keynes’ view are still very much relevant today if the world is to move from the present non-system of international monetary arrangements to a system where currencies would no longer be perceived as net assets and countries would no longer be grouped as key and non-key currency countries.Monetary System; Bank Money; Absolute Exchange Rate

Domestic Debt Dynamics and Fiscal Sustainability in Nigeria: An Empirical Evidence

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between domestic debt dynamics and fiscal deficits over the period 1970-2006. We pretest the variables for stationarity by carrying out unit root tests. However, a variable may appear to exhibit non-stationary behavior when in actual fact it is stationary. Testing for unit root in the presence of structural break sometimes results in a stationary process. Thus a test for unit root utilizing ADF statistic may be insufficient to justify classifying a variable as stationary or non-stationary. Testing for unit root in the presence of structural break may give a clearer indication. This is what we have done in this study. As a result of these tests we find that all the variables of our model are integrated of order zero, that I(0). This led to the estimation of a multiple regression model. The results of our estimation show that all the variables significantly affect the debt dynamics while the inflation rate bears no significant relationship with the debt dynamics. The empirical results indicate that deterioration of primary fiscal balance account for the worsening of the debt dynamics as domestic debt outstanding continue to grow even in the face of modest economic growth. We recommend that government should take all necessary steps to implement the Fiscal Responsibility Act and intensify its efforts in utilizing the capital market whenever it is in need of funds.Fiscal Deficits; Debt sustainability, Structural Break

Road infrastructure concession practice in Europe

In a road infrastructure concession, a public authority grants specific rights to a private, or semi-public company to construct, overhaul, maintain, and operate infrastructure for a given period. By contract, the public authority charges that company with making the investments needed to create the service at its own cost, and to operate it at its own risk. The price paid to the company comes from the service's users, the public authority, or both. In 1999, out of roughly 51,000 kilometers of European motorways, about 17,000 kilometers (33 percent) were concessioned - 16,400 kilometers by toll, and 670 kilometers by shadow toll (design, build, finance, and operate arrangements). Of these, 73 percent are managed by the public sector, and 27 percent by private companies. State-owned companies have been important in European motorway concessions. Systems vary among countries, for example, in how they share risks between the concession authority, and the concession company. As the motorway network has grown denser, attributing commercial risk has become more difficult. Increasingly, public authorities must play a greater regulatory role. Already, bad experiences have made the private sector reluctant to bear the commercial risk. Ant the commercial risk is sometimes too great to be carried by the concession company alone. Commercial risk should be controlled by mechanisms incorporated in the contract, but control of the commercial risk must not eliminate incentives. In addition to safeguarding the community's interests, the public concession authority, must increase citizen awareness about concession decisions, to ensure their social acceptability. Formulas for determining toll charges, differ through Europe. So do criteria for selecting concession companies. In 1999, the main criteria used were these: 1) the amount of public subsidy required; 2) the credibility of the financial arrangements; 3) the project's technical quality; 4) the operating strategy, and price policy; and, 5) the reputation of the concession company (whether it has a construction company among its shareholders, for example). The increasingly frequent use of private funding, must be taken into account when defining the training required by personnel responsible for monitoring the concessions.Information Technology,Roads&Highways,Economic Adjustment and Lending,Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Roads&Highways,Toll Roads,Economic Adjustment and Lending,Airports and Air Services,Public Sector Economics&Finance

Apollo 17: At Taurus Littrow

A summation, with color illustrations, is presented on the Apollo 17 mission. The height, weight, and thrust specifications are given on the launch vehicle. Presentations are given on: the night launch; earth to moon ascent; separation and descent; EVA, the sixth lunar surface expedition; ascent from Taurus-Littrow; the America to Challenger rendezvous; return, reentry, and recovery; the scientific results of the mission; background information on the astronauts; and the future projects

Development and implementation of the verification process for the shuttle avionics system

The background of the shuttle avionics system design and the unique drivers associated with the redundant digital multiplexed data processing system are examined. With flight software pervading to the lowest elements of the flight critical subsystems, it was necessary to identify a unique and orderly approach of verifying the system as flight ready for STS-1. The approach and implementation plan is discussed, and both technical problems and management issues are dealt with

Parent Involvement: Behind-The-Wheel Guide Sample Lessons and Driving Procedures

Yearly, thousands of novice, young drivers are licensed and embark upon a driving career within the state of Washington. Many of these young drivers end up as statistics in collisions and collision related fatalities. This project report reviews the importance of parent involvement in education and supports the involvement by developing a parent and student handbook for home driving practice. This behind the wheel handbook applies the element that is missing in most young driver\u27s training programs, experience through additional practice time behind the wheel. The current minimum standards for classroom and behind the wheel instruction in the state of Washington are thirty hours classroom and four hours driving. The benefits of a parent involvement driving program would be the increase of driving exposure and the needed experience for a lifetime of safe driving

Where, when, and how well people park: a phone survey and field measurements

AVM and Low Speed Maneuvers: Human Factors Issues ProjectTwo evaluations were completed to characterize where, how often, and how accurately people normally park. A telephone survey of 30 drivers examined where people park most frequently and the problems drivers have parking. The focus was on executing maneuvers, not the availability of parking. Depending on how the question was asked, approximately 74 to 84 percent of the parking events involved perpendicular parking. Of the 8 parking-related crashes reported by subjects, 6 involved backing, usually with a vehicle traveling down an aisle or backing up from a parking stall. A field survey examined the parking accuracy of 102 vehicles in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a college town. For parallel parking, drivers parked about 4 in from the curb in spaces averaging 24 feet long. For angle parking, distances to the front of the space were bimodal, with some drivers parking about 10 inches from the end of the space and others overlapping by 10 in on average. Overall, drivers parked slightly to the right of center (by 1 inch for parallel parking and 4 inches for perpendicular parking) for 8.5 feet wide spaces. Yaw angles were almost always less than 1 degree for perpendicular and angle parking, but as much as 3 degrees for parallel parking, which is a more difficult task. The data from this experiment provide both a basis for establishing the conditions for parking experiments and baseline data on how well people park without assistance.Nissan Research Centerhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87990/1/102765.pd

Understanding customers' holistic perception of switches in automotive human–machine interfaces

For successful new product development, it is necessary to understand the customers' holistic experience of the product beyond traditional task completion, and acceptance measures. This paper describes research in which ninety-eight UK owners of luxury saloons assessed the feel of push-switches in five luxury saloon cars both in context (in-car) and out of context (on a bench). A combination of hedonic data (i.e. a measure of ‘liking’), qualitative data and semantic differential data was collected. It was found that customers are clearly able to differentiate between switches based on the degree of liking for the samples' perceived haptic qualities, and that the assessment environment had a statistically significant effect, but that it was not universal. A factor analysis has shown that perceived characteristics of switch haptics can be explained by three independent factors defined as ‘Image’, ‘Build Quality’, and ‘Clickiness’. Preliminary steps have also been taken towards identifying whether existing theoretical frameworks for user experience may be applicable to automotive human–machine interfaces