11,643 research outputs found
Detecting animals in African Savanna with UAVs and the crowds
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offer new opportunities for wildlife
monitoring, with several advantages over traditional field-based methods. They
have readily been used to count birds, marine mammals and large herbivores in
different environments, tasks which are routinely performed through manual
counting in large collections of images. In this paper, we propose a
semi-automatic system able to detect large mammals in semi-arid Savanna. It
relies on an animal-detection system based on machine learning, trained with
crowd-sourced annotations provided by volunteers who manually interpreted
sub-decimeter resolution color images. The system achieves a high recall rate
and a human operator can then eliminate false detections with limited effort.
Our system provides good perspectives for the development of data-driven
management practices in wildlife conservation. It shows that the detection of
large mammals in semi-arid Savanna can be approached by processing data
provided by standard RGB cameras mounted on affordable fixed wings UAVs
Proceedings of the 4th field robot event 2006, Stuttgart/Hohenheim, Germany, 23-24th June 2006
Zeer uitgebreid verslag van het 4e Fieldrobotevent, dat gehouden werd op 23 en 24 juni 2006 in Stuttgart/Hohenhei
Intelligent Computational Transportation
Transportation is commonplace around our world. Numerous researchers dedicate great efforts to vast transportation research topics. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate and address a couple of transportation problems with respect to geographic discretization, pavement surface automatic examination, and traffic ow simulation, using advanced computational technologies. Many applications require a discretized 2D geographic map such that local information can be accessed efficiently. For example, map matching, which aligns a sequence of observed positions to a real-world road network, needs to find all the nearby road segments to the individual positions. To this end, the map is discretized by cells and each cell retains a list of road segments coincident with this cell. An efficient method is proposed to form such lists for the cells without costly overlapping tests. Furthermore, the method can be easily extended to 3D scenarios for fast triangle mesh voxelization. Pavement surface distress conditions are critical inputs for quantifying roadway infrastructure serviceability. Existing computer-aided automatic examination techniques are mainly based on 2D image analysis or 3D georeferenced data set. The disadvantage of information losses or extremely high costs impedes their effectiveness iv and applicability. In this study, a cost-effective Kinect-based approach is proposed for 3D pavement surface reconstruction and cracking recognition. Various cracking measurements such as alligator cracking, traverse cracking, longitudinal cracking, etc., are identified and recognized for their severity examinations based on associated geometrical features. Smart transportation is one of the core components in modern urbanization processes. Under this context, the Connected Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) system presents a promising solution towards the enhanced traffic safety and mobility through state-of-the-art wireless communications and autonomous driving techniques. Due to the different nature between the CAVs and the conventional Human- Driven-Vehicles (HDVs), it is believed that CAV-enabled transportation systems will revolutionize the existing understanding of network-wide traffic operations and re-establish traffic ow theory. This study presents a new continuum dynamics model for the future CAV-enabled traffic system, realized by encapsulating mutually-coupled vehicle interactions using virtual internal and external forces. A Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH)-based numerical simulation and an interactive traffic visualization framework are also developed
Deep Structured Models for Large Scale Object Co-detection and Segmentation
Structured decisions are often required for a large variety of
image and scene understanding tasks in computer vision, with few
of them being object detection, localization, semantic
segmentation and many more. Structured prediction deals with
learning inherent structure by incorporating contextual
information from several images and multiple tasks. However, it
is very challenging when dealing with large scale image datasets
where performance is limited by high computational costs and
expressive power of the underlying representation learning
techniques. In this thesis,
we present efficient and effective deep structured models for
context-aware object detection, co-localization and
instance-level semantic segmentation.
First, we introduce a principled formulation for object
co-detection using a fully-connected conditional random field
(CRF). We build an explicit graph whose vertices represent object
candidates (instead of pixel values) and edges encode the object
similarity via simple, yet effective pairwise potentials. More
specifically, we design a weighted mixture of Gaussian kernels
for class-specific object similarity, and formulate kernel
weights estimation as a least-squares regression problem. Its
solution can therefore be obtained in closed-form. Furthermore,
in contrast with traditional co-detection approaches, it has been
shown that inference in such fully-connected CRFs can be
performed efficiently using an approximate mean-field method with
high-dimensional Gaussian filtering. This lets us effectively
leverage information in multiple images.
Next, we extend our class-specific co-detection framework to
multiple object categories. We model object candidates with rich,
high-dimensional features learned using a deep convolutional
neural network. In particular, our max-margin and directloss
structural boosting algorithms enable us to learn the most
suitable features that best encode pairwise similarity
relationships within our CRF framework. Furthermore, it
guarantees that the time and space complexity is O(n t) where n
is the total number of candidate boxes in the pool and t the
number of mean-field iterations.
Moreover, our experiments evidence the importance of learning
rich similarity measures to account for the contextual relations
across object classes and instances. However, all these methods
are based on precomputed object candidates (or proposals), thus
localization performance is limited by the quality of
bounding-boxes.
To address this, we present an efficient object proposal
co-generation technique that leverages the collective power of
multiple images. In particular, we design a deep neural network
layer that takes unary and pairwise features as input, builds a
fully-connected CRF and produces mean-field marginals as output.
It also lets us backpropagate the gradient through entire network
by unrolling the iterations of CRF inference. Furthermore, this
layer simplifies the end-to-end learning, thus effectively
benefiting from multiple candidates to co-generate high-quality
object proposals.
Finally, we develop a multi-task strategy to jointly learn object
detection, localization and instance-level semantic segmentation
in a single network. In particular, we introduce a novel
representation based on the distance transform of the object
masks. To this end, we design a new residual-deconvolution
architecture that infers such a representation and decodes it
into the final binary object mask. We show that the predicted
masks can go beyond the scope of the bounding boxes and that the
multiple tasks can benefit from each other.
In summary, in this thesis, we exploit the joint power of
multiple images as well as multiple tasks to improve
generalization performance of structured learning. Our novel deep
structured models, similarity learning techniques and
residual-deconvolution architecture can be used to make accurate
and reliable inference for key vision tasks. Furthermore, our
quantitative and qualitative experiments on large scale
challenging image datasets demonstrate the superiority of the
proposed approaches over the state-of-the-art methods
Path planning algorithms for autonomous navigation of a non-holonomic robot in unstructured environments
openPath planning is a crucial aspect of autonomous robot navigation, enabling robots to efficiently and safely navigate through complex environments. This thesis focuses on autonomous navigation for robots in dynamic and uncertain environments. In particular, the project aims to analyze the localization and path planning problems. A fundamental review of the existing literature on path planning algorithms has been carried on. Various factors affecting path planning, such as sensor data fusion, map representation, and motion constraints, are also analyzed. Thanks to the collaboration with E80 Group S.p.A., the project has been developed using ROS (Robot Operating System) on a Clearpath Dingo-O, an indoor mobile robot. To address the challenges posed by unstructured and dynamic environments, ROS follows a combined approach of using a global planner and a local planner. The global planner generates a high-level path, considering the overall environment, while the local planner handles real-time adjustments to avoid moving obstacles and optimize the trajectory. This thesis describes the role of the global planner in a ROS-framework. Performance benchmarking of traditional algorithms like Dijkstra and A*, as well as other techniques, is fundamental in order to understand the limits of these methods. In the end, the Hybrid A* algorithm is introduced as a promising approach for addressing the issues of unstructured environments for autonomous navigation of a non-holonomic robot. The core concepts and implementation details of the algorithm are discussed, emphasizing its ability to efficiently explore continuous state spaces and generate drivable paths.The effectiveness of the proposed path planning algorithms is evaluated through extensive simulations and real-world experiments using the mobile platform. Performance metrics such as path length, execution time, and collision avoidance are analyzed to assess the efficiency and reliability of the algorithms.Path planning is a crucial aspect of autonomous robot navigation, enabling robots to efficiently and safely navigate through complex environments. This thesis focuses on autonomous navigation for robots in dynamic and uncertain environments. In particular, the project aims to analyze the localization and path planning problems. A fundamental review of the existing literature on path planning algorithms has been carried on. Various factors affecting path planning, such as sensor data fusion, map representation, and motion constraints, are also analyzed. Thanks to the collaboration with E80 Group S.p.A., the project has been developed using ROS (Robot Operating System) on a Clearpath Dingo-O, an indoor mobile robot. To address the challenges posed by unstructured and dynamic environments, ROS follows a combined approach of using a global planner and a local planner. The global planner generates a high-level path, considering the overall environment, while the local planner handles real-time adjustments to avoid moving obstacles and optimize the trajectory. This thesis describes the role of the global planner in a ROS-framework. Performance benchmarking of traditional algorithms like Dijkstra and A*, as well as other techniques, is fundamental in order to understand the limits of these methods. In the end, the Hybrid A* algorithm is introduced as a promising approach for addressing the issues of unstructured environments for autonomous navigation of a non-holonomic robot. The core concepts and implementation details of the algorithm are discussed, emphasizing its ability to efficiently explore continuous state spaces and generate drivable paths.The effectiveness of the proposed path planning algorithms is evaluated through extensive simulations and real-world experiments using the mobile platform. Performance metrics such as path length, execution time, and collision avoidance are analyzed to assess the efficiency and reliability of the algorithms
Automated driving and autonomous functions on road vehicles
In recent years, road vehicle automation has become an important and popular topic for research
and development in both academic and industrial spheres. New developments received
extensive coverage in the popular press, and it may be said that the topic has captured the
public imagination. Indeed, the topic has generated interest across a wide range of academic,
industry and governmental communities, well beyond vehicle engineering; these include computer
science, transportation, urban planning, legal, social science and psychology. While this
follows a similar surge of interest – and subsequent hiatus – of Automated Highway Systems
in the 1990’s, the current level of interest is substantially greater, and current expectations
are high. It is common to frame the new technologies under the banner of “self-driving cars”
– robotic systems potentially taking over the entire role of the human driver, a capability that
does not fully exist at present. However, this single vision leads one to ignore the existing
range of automated systems that are both feasible and useful. Recent developments are underpinned
by substantial and long-term trends in “computerisation” of the automobile, with
developments in sensors, actuators and control technologies to spur the new developments in
both industry and academia. In this paper we review the evolution of the intelligent vehicle
and the supporting technologies with a focus on the progress and key challenges for vehicle
system dynamics. A number of relevant themes around driving automation are explored in
this article, with special focus on those most relevant to the underlying vehicle system dynamics.
One conclusion is that increased precision is needed in sensing and controlling vehicle
motions, a trend that can mimic that of the aerospace industry, and similarly benefit from
increased use of redundant by-wire actuators
Proceedings of Abstracts Engineering and Computer Science Research Conference 2019
© 2019 The Author(s). This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. For further details please see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Note: Keynote: Fluorescence visualisation to evaluate effectiveness of personal protective equipment for infection control is © 2019 Crown copyright and so is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Under this licence users are permitted to copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information; adapt the Information; exploit the Information commercially and non-commercially for example, by combining it with other Information, or by including it in your own product or application. Where you do any of the above you must acknowledge the source of the Information in your product or application by including or linking to any attribution statement specified by the Information Provider(s) and, where possible, provide a link to this licence: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/This book is the record of abstracts submitted and accepted for presentation at the Inaugural Engineering and Computer Science Research Conference held 17th April 2019 at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK. This conference is a local event aiming at bringing together the research students, staff and eminent external guests to celebrate Engineering and Computer Science Research at the University of Hertfordshire. The ECS Research Conference aims to showcase the broad landscape of research taking place in the School of Engineering and Computer Science. The 2019 conference was articulated around three topical cross-disciplinary themes: Make and Preserve the Future; Connect the People and Cities; and Protect and Care
Power quality and electromagnetic compatibility: special report, session 2
The scope of Session 2 (S2) has been defined as follows by the Session Advisory Group and the Technical Committee: Power Quality (PQ), with the more general concept of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and with some related safety problems in electricity distribution systems.
Special focus is put on voltage continuity (supply reliability, problem of outages) and voltage quality (voltage level, flicker, unbalance, harmonics). This session will also look at electromagnetic compatibility (mains frequency to 150 kHz), electromagnetic interferences and electric and magnetic fields issues. Also addressed in this session are electrical safety and immunity concerns (lightning issues, step, touch and transferred voltages).
The aim of this special report is to present a synthesis of the present concerns in PQ&EMC, based on all selected papers of session 2 and related papers from other sessions, (152 papers in total). The report is divided in the following 4 blocks:
Block 1: Electric and Magnetic Fields, EMC, Earthing systems
Block 2: Harmonics
Block 3: Voltage Variation
Block 4: Power Quality Monitoring
Two Round Tables will be organised:
- Power quality and EMC in the Future Grid (CIGRE/CIRED WG C4.24, RT 13)
- Reliability Benchmarking - why we should do it? What should be done in future? (RT 15
Autonomous Navigation for Unmanned Aerial Systems - Visual Perception and Motion Planning
L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen
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