A Standardized, Incremental Protocol to Increase Human Tolerance to the Cross-Coupled Illusion

Humans can adapt to the "Coriolis" cross-coupled illusion with repeated exposure, improving the tolerability of faster spin rates and enabling short-radius, intermittent centrifugation for artificial gravity implementation. This investigation assesses the criticality of personalization in acclimation to the cross-coupled illusion. We used the median stimulus sequence of our previous effective and tolerable personalized, threshold-based protocol to develop a standardized (non-personalized) approach. During each of 10, 25-minute sessions, the spin rate was incremented independent of whether each subject reported experiencing the cross-coupled illusion. In comparison to the previous personalized protocol, the standardized protocol resulted in significantly reduced acclimation to the cross-coupled illusion (17.7 RPM threshold for the personalized protocol versus 11.8 RPM threshold for the standardized) and generally increased motion sickness reports (average reporting of 1.08/20 (personalized) versus 1.98/20 (standardized)), on average. However, the lack of individualization also leads to significantly less variance in subjects' acclimation. These findings are critical for future missions that may require several astronauts to be acclimated concurrently, due to resource and time constraints. Assessing feasibility of fast spin rate, short-radius centrifugation is crucial for the future of artificial gravity implementation during spaceflight.</p

Tolerable Acclimation to the Cross-Coupled Illusion through a 10-day, Incremental, Personalized Protocol

Artificial gravity (AG) has the potential to provide a comprehensive countermeasure mitigating deleterious effects of microgravity. However, the cross-coupled "Coriolis" illusion has prevented using a more feasible and less costly short-radius centrifuge, as compared to large, slowly spinning systems.OBJECTIVEWe assessed tolerability of a personalized, incremental protocol to acclimate humans to the cross-coupled illusion, enabling faster spin rates.METHODSTen subjects were exposed to the illusion by performing roll head tilts while seated upright and spun about an Earth-vertical axis. The spin rate was incremented when head tilts did not subjectively elicit the illusion. Subjects completed one 25-minute session on each of 10 days.RESULTSThe spin rate at which subjects felt no cross-coupled illusion increased in all subjects from an average of 1.8 rotations per minute (RPM) (SD: &plusmn;0.9) at the beginning of the protocol to 17.7 RPM (SD: &plusmn;9.1) at the end. For off-axis centrifugation producing 1G at the rider's feet, this corresponds to a reduction in the required centrifuge diameter from 552.2 to 5.7 meters. Subjects reported no more than slight motion sickness.CONCLUSIONSAcclimation to the cross-coupled illusion, such as that accomplished here, is critical for feasibility of short-radius centrifugation for AG implementation.</p

Legged Robots

International audienc

Manipulation planning under changing external forces

This paper presents a planner that enables robots to manipulate objects under changing external forces. Particularly, we focus on the scenario where a human applies a sequence of forceful operations, e.g. cutting and drilling, on an object that is held by a robot. The planner produces an efficient manipulation plan by choosing stable grasps on the object, by intelligently deciding when the robot should change its grasp on the object as the external forces change, and by choosing subsequent grasps such that they minimize the number of regrasps required in the long-term. Furthermore, as it switches from one grasp to the other, the planner solves the bimanual regrasping in the air by using an alternating sequence of bimanual and unimanual grasps. We also present a conic formulation to address force uncertainties inherent in human-applied external forces, using which the planner can robustly assess the stability of a grasp configuration without sacrificing planning efficiency. We provide a planner implementation on a dual-arm robot and present a variety of simulated and real human-robot experiments to show the performance of our planner

Legged Robots

International audienc

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: An Update for the Forensic Nurse

Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is the sexual abuse of children through buying, selling, or trading their sexual services. This may involve engaging a child under the age of 18 years in prostitution, pornography, stripping, exotic dancing, escort services, or other sexual services. CSEC is a problem of epidemic proportions throughout the world including the United States; however, the actual number of CSEC victims in the United States is unknown. Studies indicate that most child victims are seen by a healthcare provider while being trafficked and that many victims receive care at a pediatric hospital within 1 year of their identification as a victim. CSEC is a significant pediatric healthcare problem. It is vital that forensic nurses possess a thorough understanding of the problem and be poised to better identify, intervene, and prevent CSEC. In this article, we focus on risk factors commonly experienced by victims, recruitment strategies used by traffickers, indicators to identify child victims, and intervention and educational strategies of relevance to forensic nurses