Pervasive Displays Research: What's Next?

Reports on the 7th ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays that took place from June 6-8 in Munich, Germany

Field Measurements of Terrestrial and Martian Dust Devils

Surface-based measurements of terrestrial and martian dust devils/convective vortices provided from mobile and stationary platforms are discussed. Imaging of terrestrial dust devils has quantified their rotational and vertical wind speeds, translation speeds, dimensions, dust load, and frequency of occurrence. Imaging of martian dust devils has provided translation speeds and constraints on dimensions, but only limited constraints on vertical motion within a vortex. The longer mission durations on Mars afforded by long operating robotic landers and rovers have provided statistical quantification of vortex occurrence (time-of-sol, and recently seasonal) that has until recently not been a primary outcome of more temporally limited terrestrial dust devil measurement campaigns. Terrestrial measurement campaigns have included a more extensive range of measured vortex parameters (pressure, wind, morphology, etc.) than have martian opportunities, with electric field and direct measure of dust abundance not yet obtained on Mars. No martian robotic mission has yet provided contemporaneous high frequency wind and pressure measurements. Comparison of measured terrestrial and martian dust devil characteristics suggests that martian dust devils are larger and possess faster maximum rotational wind speeds, that the absolute magnitude of the pressure deficit within a terrestrial dust devil is an order of magnitude greater than a martian dust devil, and that the time-of-day variation in vortex frequency is similar. Recent terrestrial investigations have demonstrated the presence of diagnostic dust devil signals within seismic and infrasound measurements; an upcoming Mars robotic mission will obtain similar measurement types

PIRATE: A Remotely-Operable Telescope Facility for Research and Education

We introduce PIRATE, a new remotely-operable telescope facility for use in research and education, constructed from 'off-the-shelf' hardware, operated by The Open University. We focus on the PIRATE Mark 1 operational phase where PIRATE was equipped with a widely- used 0.35m Schmidt-Cassegrain system (now replaced with a 0.425m corrected Dall Kirkham astrograph). Situated at the Observatori Astronomic de Mallorca, PIRATE is currently used to follow up potential transiting extrasolar planet candidates produced by the SuperWASP North experiment, as well as to hunt for novae in M31 and other nearby galaxies. It is operated by a mixture of commercially available software and proprietary software developed at the Open University. We discuss problems associated with performing precision time series photometry when using a German Equatorial Mount, investigating the overall performance of such 'off-the-shelf' solutions in both research and teaching applications. We conclude that PIRATE is a cost-effective research facility, and also provides exciting prospects for undergraduate astronomy. PIRATE has broken new ground in offering practical astronomy education to distance-learning students in their own homes.Comment: Accepted for publication in PASP. 14 pages, 11 figure

Attachment accuracy of a novel prototype robotic rotary and investigation of two management strategies for incomplete milked quarters

Throughout 2009 and 2010, FutureDairy (Camden, NSW, Australia) was involved in testing a novel prototype robotic rotary (RR). The commercial version RR is expected to be capable of carrying out 90 milkings per hour. To achieve the high throughput the rotary rotates the cow to the cup attachment robot and then around the platform in a stop–start fashion. The robot does not remain with the cow during the entire milking process. When not all teat cups are attached during a milking session there is an opportunity for cows to be sent back to the waiting yard for a second milking attempt. The study presented here was designed to test whether or not the extension of the interval to a second milking attempt improved milking success of incompletely milked cows. It was expected that with an increased milking interval between the two subsequent milkings the changes to the udder conformation could positively affect the attachment success at the second attempt. The 1 h milking interval treatment (1 h) simulated cows being drafted directly back to the pre-milking waiting yard, whilst the 3 h milking interval treatment (3 h) was designed to simulate cows being drafted back after accessing post-milking supplementary feed on a feedpad. The results presented in this manuscript showed no significant difference between the frequencies of successful attachment in the second attempt between the 1 h and 3 h treatments indicating that a reasonable level of flexibility exists with management of incompletely milked cows and dairy layout designs. Milk production level affected the probability of success at second attempt, which was about 7.5 times higher in cows with an average milk production level greater than 19.3 kg than those with less than 10.8 kg. When looking at the total proportion of cows successfully milked after two attempts, it was found that successful milking was more likely in multiparous cows compared to primiparous cows. Highlights • We studied management options for incompletely milked cows on a robotic rotary. • Firstly cows returned to waiting yard with approx. 1 h interval between attempts. • Secondly cows returned to waiting yard via feed pad – approx. 3 h between attempts. • No difference found between 1 and 3 h intervals on attachment success. • Level of flexibility exists with management of incompletely milked cows. Keywords: Success-rate; Pasture based; Automatic milking system; Robotic rotary; DairyDairy Australia, DeLaval, Department of Primary Industries NSW and The University of Sydney

Operational efficiency of incorporating a novel robotic rotary into a pasture-based dairy farming system

The thesis presents an original investigation into the feasibility and operational efficiency of a novel prototype robotic rotary (RR) incorporated into a low-input, pasture-based Australian dairy farming system. A world’s first high throughput automatic milking system was installed, co-developed and tested at the Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute site (Camden, NSW, Australia). Being the first farm internationally to tackle voluntary distributed cow traffic (cf. batch milking) the challenges and learnings were specific to the system utilisation and the stage of technological development of the Camden installation. The thesis focuses on the challenges associated with application of the technology, of which learnings will have an immense level of importance for the first commercial installations on farm and further development of the system. These challenges were; (1) investigating a coping mechanism (with and without extra feed) to ensure and maintain high quality milk collection and storage for periods of underutilisation of the systems’ capacity (with voluntary cow traffic) in the absence of an automatic plant cleaning function, (2) understanding the impact of premilking teat preparation on the incidence of unsuccessful milkings, to ensure that farmers make an informed decision prior to commencement of the RR (as purchase of the teat preparation module will be optional), and (3) potential implications of management strategies for incompletely milked cows on dairy layouts. During periods of underutilisation the operator can deactivate a proportion of bails to better match the demand and availability of milk harvesting bails. Thus, investigations were conducted to understand the impact of bail activation sequence, availability of feed and cow queue size on voluntary cow traffic and robotic throughput efficiency. It was found that overall the availability of a feed reward as cows entered the RR had a larger effect on cow traffic than bail activation sequence, although the number of cows present (voluntarily) at the yard also played a role. Furthermore, having a greater number of consecutive bails activated resulted in more robot operations being conducted simultaneously resulting in an increased harvesting efficiency. Premilking teat preparation is also known to impact on milk harvesting efficiency, and as this component of the technology will be optional an investigation was conducted to assess the effects of not using a premilking teat preparation device on attachment accuracy and milk removal characteristics. The teat cup attachment was more successful and faster when cows were subjected to the teat cleaning treatment. Cows milked after being exposed to teat cleaning treatment, with a short milking interval (< 8 h), had a higher peak milk flow, however no difference was observed in the average milk flow rate of individual cows. Whilst there was an impact on attachment success by the use of the premilking treatment, the overall level of success was still lower than desirable. With this in mind a study of different management practices of incompletely milked cows was conducted. The system showed no difference in attachment success between milking incomplete cows after a one- or three-hour interval. This suggested that there is a level of flexibility available in designing the dairy layout and that no significant advantage or disadvantage (with regard to subsequent success level) exists in drafting incomplete cows directly back to the pre-milking yard compared to offering them an opportunity to spend time on a feedpad prior to the second attempt. The results presented in this thesis will be invaluable in furthering industry understanding of management practices with the new milk harvesting technology, the RR. The contribution of these scientific investigations will be extremely important to the success of the development of the system, which is progressing closer to commercialisation

Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) art in care of ageing society: focus on dementia

open access articleBackground: Art enhances both physical and mental health wellbeing. The health benefits include reduction in blood pressure, heart rate, pain perception and briefer inpatient stays, as well as improvement of communication skills and self-esteem. In addition to these, people living with dementia benefit from reduction of their noncognitive, behavioural changes, enhancement of their cognitive capacities and being socially active. Methods: The current study represents a narrative general literature review on available studies and knowledge about contribution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in creative arts. Results: We review AI visual arts technologies, and their potential for use among people with dementia and care, drawing on similar experiences to date from traditional art in dementia care. Conclusion: The virtual reality, installations and the psychedelic properties of the AI created art provide a new venue for more detailed research about its therapeutic use in dementia

Assistive technology design and development for acceptable robotics companions for ageing years

© 2013 Farshid Amirabdollahian et al., licensee Versita Sp. z o. o. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license, which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author.A new stream of research and development responds to changes in life expectancy across the world. It includes technologies which enhance well-being of individuals, specifically for older people. The ACCOMPANY project focuses on home companion technologies and issues surrounding technology development for assistive purposes. The project responds to some overlooked aspects of technology design, divided into multiple areas such as empathic and social human-robot interaction, robot learning and memory visualisation, and monitoring persons’ activities at home. To bring these aspects together, a dedicated task is identified to ensure technological integration of these multiple approaches on an existing robotic platform, Care-O-Bot®3 in the context of a smart-home environment utilising a multitude of sensor arrays. Formative and summative evaluation cycles are then used to assess the emerging prototype towards identifying acceptable behaviours and roles for the robot, for example role as a butler or a trainer, while also comparing user requirements to achieved progress. In a novel approach, the project considers ethical concerns and by highlighting principles such as autonomy, independence, enablement, safety and privacy, it embarks on providing a discussion medium where user views on these principles and the existing tension between some of these principles, for example tension between privacy and autonomy over safety, can be captured and considered in design cycles and throughout project developmentsPeer reviewe

How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program

Mobile Robotics

The book is a collection of ten scholarly articles and reports of experiences and perceptions concerning pedagogical practices with mobile robotics.“This work is funded by CIEd – Research Centre on Education, project UID/CED/01661/2019, Institute of Education, University of Minho, through national funds of FCT/MCTES-PT.