Uncertainty-aware Panoptic Segmentation

Reliable scene understanding is indispensable for modern autonomous systems. Current learning-based methods typically try to maximize their performance based on segmentation metrics that only consider the quality of the segmentation. However, for the safe operation of a system in the real world it is crucial to consider the uncertainty in the prediction as well. In this work, we introduce the novel task of uncertainty-aware panoptic segmentation, which aims to predict per-pixel semantic and instance segmentations, together with per-pixel uncertainty estimates. We define two novel metrics to facilitate its quantitative analysis, the uncertainty-aware Panoptic Quality (uPQ) and the panoptic Expected Calibration Error (pECE). We further propose the novel top-down Evidential Panoptic Segmentation Network (EvPSNet) to solve this task. Our architecture employs a simple yet effective panoptic fusion module that leverages the predicted uncertainties. Furthermore, we provide several strong baselines combining state-of-the-art panoptic segmentation networks with sampling-free uncertainty estimation techniques. Extensive evaluations show that our EvPSNet achieves the new state-of-the-art for the standard Panoptic Quality (PQ), as well as for our uncertainty-aware panoptic metrics. We make the code available at: \url{https://github.com/kshitij3112/EvPSNet

A Maximum Likelihood Approach to Extract Polylines from 2-D Laser Range Scans

Man-made environments such as households, offices, or factory floors are typically composed of linear structures. Accordingly, polylines are a natural way to accurately represent their geometry. In this paper, we propose a novel probabilistic method to extract polylines from raw 2-D laser range scans. The key idea of our approach is to determine a set of polylines that maximizes the likelihood of a given scan. In extensive experiments carried out on publicly available real-world datasets and on simulated laser scans, we demonstrate that our method substantially outperforms existing state-of-the-art approaches in terms of accuracy, while showing comparable computational requirements. Our implementation is available under https://github.com/acschaefer/ple.Comment: 9 page

Long-Term Urban Vehicle Localization Using Pole Landmarks Extracted from 3-D Lidar Scans

Due to their ubiquity and long-term stability, pole-like objects are well suited to serve as landmarks for vehicle localization in urban environments. In this work, we present a complete mapping and long-term localization system based on pole landmarks extracted from 3-D lidar data. Our approach features a novel pole detector, a mapping module, and an online localization module, each of which are described in detail, and for which we provide an open-source implementation at www.github.com/acschaefer/polex. In extensive experiments, we demonstrate that our method improves on the state of the art with respect to long-term reliability and accuracy: First, we prove reliability by tasking the system with localizing a mobile robot over the course of 15~months in an urban area based on an initial map, confronting it with constantly varying routes, differing weather conditions, seasonal changes, and construction sites. Second, we show that the proposed approach clearly outperforms a recently published method in terms of accuracy.Comment: 9 page

A Smart Robotic System for Industrial Plant Supervision

In today's chemical plants, human field operators perform frequent integrity checks to guarantee high safety standards, and thus are possibly the first to encounter dangerous operating conditions. To alleviate their task, we present a system consisting of an autonomously navigating robot integrated with various sensors and intelligent data processing. It is able to detect methane leaks and estimate its flow rate, detect more general gas anomalies, recognize oil films, localize sound sources and detect failure cases, map the environment in 3D, and navigate autonomously, employing recognition and avoidance of dynamic obstacles. We evaluate our system at a wastewater facility in full working conditions. Our results demonstrate that the system is able to robustly navigate the plant and provide useful information about critical operating conditions.Comment: Final submission for IEEE Sensors 202

Revisiting the Immune Trypanolysis Test to Optimise Epidemiological Surveillance and Control of Sleeping Sickness in West Africa

Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) due to Trypanosoma brucei (T.b.) gambiense is usually diagnosed using two sequential steps: first the card agglutination test for trypanosomiasis (CATT) used for serological screening, followed by parasitological methods to confirm the disease. Currently, CATT will continue to be used as a test for mass screening because of its simplicity and high sensitivity; however, its performance as a tool of surveillance in areas where prevalence is low is poor because of its limited specificity. Hence in the context of HAT elimination, there is a crucial need for a better marker of contact with T.b. gambiense in humans. We evaluated here an existing highly specific serological tool, the trypanolysis test (TL). We evaluated TL in active, latent and historical HAT foci in Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso. We found that TL was a marker for exposure to T.b. gambiense. We propose that TL should be used as a surveillance tool to monitor HAT elimination

Селянський рух в Харківській губернії (1917–1921 рр.)

Дисертацію присвячено комплексному дослідженню розвитку селянського руху в Харківській губернії в період Української революції 1917–1921 рр. Доведено, що невирішені проблеми у сфері аграрних відносин спричинили селянський рух і розгортання збройного конфлікту на Харківщині у 1917–1921 рр. Порівняно ступінь активної участі у революційних подіях у даному регіоні різних соціальних груп населення. Обґрунтовано тезу, що у період Української революції 1917–1921 рр. представники лівих політичних партій вживали поняття "куркуль" для визначення власників індивідуальних селянських господарств, які бажали зберегти приватну власність на землю й активно захищали свої економічні, політичні та національні права. З'ясовано, що невирішеність національного питання була одним з важливих чинників посилення селянського руху у Харківській губернії. Досліджено взаємозв'язок селянського повстанського руху сусідніх регіонів з селянським рухом у Харківській губернії та встановлено, що найбільш впливовими та популярними серед сільського населення регіону було махновське і "уенерівське" повстанство. Розглянуто процес радикалізації селянського руху у 1917–1921 рр., висвітлено пасивні й активні, нелегальні та легальні форми боротьби селянства за свої економічні, політичні та національні інтереси. Узагальнено наслідки селянського руху

Prevalence of Human African Trypanosomiasis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) is a major public health problem in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Active and passive surveillance for HAT is conducted but may underestimate the true prevalence of the disease. We used ELISA to screen 7,769 leftover dried blood spots from a nationally representative population-based survey, the 2007 Demographic and Health Survey. 26 samples were positive by ELISA. Three of these were also positive by trypanolysis and/or PCR. From these data, we estimate that there were 18,592 people with HAT (95% confidence interval, 4,883–32,302) in the DRC in 2007, slightly more than twice as many as were reported

Diagnostic Accuracy of Molecular Amplification Tests for Human African Trypanosomiasis—Systematic Review

A range of molecular amplification techniques has been developed for the diagnosis of HAT, with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) at the forefront. As laboratory strengthening in endemic areas increases, it is expected that the applicability of molecular tests will increase. However, careful evaluation of these tests against the current reference standard, microscopy, must precede implementation. Therefore, we have investigated the published diagnostic accuracy of molecular amplification tests for HAT compared to microscopy for both initial diagnosis as well as for disease staging