84,644 research outputs found
Minimizing current effects on autonomous surface craft operations in Singapore harbor
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-102).The nation of Singapore is seeking new ways to adapt to its rapid growth. With the help of researchers and staff at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), numerous data collection and analysis efforts are underway. One such effort involves the harbor where operations and oceanographic data collection missions are being completed using various sensors and autonomous systems. Utilizing Autonomous Surface Crafts (ASCs) to collect data is one such method and provides a level of robustness unachievable by humans. To improve these operations we seek to address the issue of efficiency in an environment containing surface waves, strong winds, and multiple current shears. In this thesis we present two new heading control algorithms for ASCs under the influence of currents. The first, Cross-Track Error Minimization, ensures that the vehicle follows a straight-line trajectory between two waypoints under the effects of surface waves and currents. The second controller, Time-Optimal, uses Zermelo's problem and function minimization to find the time-optimal trajectory between two waypoints using a known current field. We further define near-time-optimal paths covering a set of waypoints by defining an asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) where the graph nodes are the waypoints and the edges are the corresponding travel times between the waypoints. Tour construction and local search heuristics are then utilized to build near time-optimal paths. These new paths show a potential time savings of 89% leading to overall mission efficiency.by Lynn M. Sarcione.S.M
Fracturing ranked surfaces
Discretized landscapes can be mapped onto ranked surfaces, where every
element (site or bond) has a unique rank associated with its corresponding
relative height. By sequentially allocating these elements according to their
ranks and systematically preventing the occupation of bridges, namely elements
that, if occupied, would provide global connectivity, we disclose that bridges
hide a new tricritical point at an occupation fraction , where
is the percolation threshold of random percolation. For any value of in the
interval , our results show that the set of bridges has a
fractal dimension in two dimensions. In the limit , a self-similar fracture is revealed as a singly connected line
that divides the system in two domains. We then unveil how several seemingly
unrelated physical models tumble into the same universality class and also
present results for higher dimensions
Network Sparsification for Steiner Problems on Planar and Bounded-Genus Graphs
We propose polynomial-time algorithms that sparsify planar and bounded-genus
graphs while preserving optimal or near-optimal solutions to Steiner problems.
Our main contribution is a polynomial-time algorithm that, given an unweighted
graph embedded on a surface of genus and a designated face bounded
by a simple cycle of length , uncovers a set of size
polynomial in and that contains an optimal Steiner tree for any set of
terminals that is a subset of the vertices of .
We apply this general theorem to prove that: * given an unweighted graph
embedded on a surface of genus and a terminal set , one
can in polynomial time find a set that contains an optimal
Steiner tree for and that has size polynomial in and ; * an
analogous result holds for an optimal Steiner forest for a set of terminal
pairs; * given an unweighted planar graph and a terminal set , one can in polynomial time find a set that contains
an optimal (edge) multiway cut separating and that has size polynomial
in .
In the language of parameterized complexity, these results imply the first
polynomial kernels for Steiner Tree and Steiner Forest on planar and
bounded-genus graphs (parameterized by the size of the tree and forest,
respectively) and for (Edge) Multiway Cut on planar graphs (parameterized by
the size of the cutset). Additionally, we obtain a weighted variant of our main
contribution
A Certified-Complete Bimanual Manipulation Planner
Planning motions for two robot arms to move an object collaboratively is a
difficult problem, mainly because of the closed-chain constraint, which arises
whenever two robot hands simultaneously grasp a single rigid object. In this
paper, we propose a manipulation planning algorithm to bring an object from an
initial stable placement (position and orientation of the object on the support
surface) towards a goal stable placement. The key specificity of our algorithm
is that it is certified-complete: for a given object and a given environment,
we provide a certificate that the algorithm will find a solution to any
bimanual manipulation query in that environment whenever one exists. Moreover,
the certificate is constructive: at run-time, it can be used to quickly find a
solution to a given query. The algorithm is tested in software and hardware on
a number of large pieces of furniture.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl
IMDB network revisited: unveiling fractal and modular properties from a typical small-world network
We study a subset of the movie collaboration network, imdb.com, where only
adult movies are included. We show that there are many benefits in using such a
network, which can serve as a prototype for studying social interactions. We
find that the strength of links, i.e., how many times two actors have
collaborated with each other, is an important factor that can significantly
influence the network topology. We see that when we link all actors in the same
movie with each other, the network becomes small-world, lacking a proper
modular structure. On the other hand, by imposing a threshold on the minimum
number of links two actors should have to be in our studied subset, the network
topology becomes naturally fractal. This occurs due to a large number of
meaningless links, namely, links connecting actors that did not actually
interact. We focus our analysis on the fractal and modular properties of this
resulting network, and show that the renormalization group analysis can
characterize the self-similar structure of these networks.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in PLOS ON
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