Fast visual part inspection for bin picking

In this paper we present a novel 3D sensing approach for industrial bin-picking applications that is low-cost, fast and precise. The system uses a simple laser-line emitter. While a robot arm moves the object through the laser light, a synchronized camera captures the laser line image on the object. A full point cloud as well as an edge point cloud suitable for subsequent pose estimation is generated by the developed system. The aim of this work is to deliver an accurate point cloud based on which an object pose can be generated to support a manufacturing robot to deliver an object with high precision. The experimental evaluation of our system shows robust and accurate scanning results

branding af nationer, regioner og byer

De seneste årtier har brand management og branding strategier fået større og større prioritet for organisationer i deres bestræbelser på at positionere sig på markedet. Det gælder først og fremmest kommercielt drevne organisationer, men i stadig større grad er også politisk styrede organisationer blevet opmærksomme på vigtigheden af at have et stærkt brand. De seneste år har branding imidlertid bevæget sig ind i andre politiske felter, nemlig branding af steder, som byen, regionen og nationen – ja, selv en supranational størrelser som EU bliver brandet. Byer, regioner og nationer indretter sig i stigende grad efter markedets krav om på den ene side konkret organisering af for eksempel arbejdskraft og økonomi, og på den anden side fortællinger om oplevelser, værdier og erfaringer som knytter sig til disse steder. Derfor er disse territoriale enheder begyndt at formulere sig selv som attraktive brands, der profilerer stedernes særlige kvaliteter. Nærværende paper forsøger at analysere profileringen af steder som en praksis der balancerer mellem bordering og branding som to parallelle logikker. Det er hypotesen, at forholdet mellem disse logikker kan aflæses i den måde, som forskellige brands fremstiller steder med både sentimentalitet og ironi. Anvendelsen af dette perspektiv indbærer, at der tænkes en direkte sammenhæng mellem de former for organisering, som præger nationer, byer og regioner, og den måde som disse steder symboliseres gennem brands. Paperet falder i to sektioner: én om vilkårene for branding som symbolsk praksis under det globale, og én om den reelle organisering, som de bestemte symbolske former er udtryk for

Comparing Methods of Calculating Expected Annual Damage in Urban Pluvial Flood Risk Assessments

Estimating the expected annual damage (EAD) due to flooding in an urban area is of great interest for urban water managers and other stakeholders. It is a strong indicator for a given area showing how vulnerable it is to flood risk and how much can be gained by implementing e.g., climate change adaptation measures. This study identifies and compares three different methods for estimating the EAD based on unit costs of flooding of urban assets. One of these methods was used in previous studies and calculates the EAD based on a few extreme events by assuming a log-linear relationship between cost of an event and the corresponding return period. This method is compared to methods that are either more complicated or require more calculations. The choice of method by which the EAD is calculated appears to be of minor importance. At all three case study areas it seems more important that there is a shift in the damage costs as a function of the return period. The shift occurs approximately at the 10 year return period and can perhaps be related to the design criteria for sewer systems. Further, it was tested if the EAD estimation could be simplified by assuming a single unit cost per flooded area. The results indicate that within each catchment this may be a feasible approach. However the unit costs varies substantially between different case study areas. Hence it is not feasible to develop unit costs that can be used to calculate EAD, most likely because the urban landscape is too heterogeneous

Tachyonic preheating using 2PI-1/N dynamics and the classical approximation

We study the process of tachyonic preheating using approximative quantum equations of motion derived from the 2PI effective action. The O(N) scalar (Higgs) field is assumed to experience a fast quench which is represented by an instantaneous flip of the sign of the mass parameter. The equations of motion are solved numerically on the lattice, and the Hartree and 1/N-NLO approximations are compared to the classical approximation. Classical dynamics is expected to be valid, since the occupation numbers can rise to large values during tachyonic preheating. We find that the classical approximation performs excellently at short and intermediate times, even for couplings in the larger region currently allowed for the SM Higgs. This is reassuring, since all previous numerical studies of tachyonic preheating and baryogenesis during tachyonic preheating have used classical dynamics. We also compare different initializations for the classical simulations.Comment: 32 pages, 21 figures. Published version: Some details added, section added, references added, conclusions unchange