The Role of Human-Automation Consensus in Multiple Unmanned Vehicle Scheduling

Objective: This study examined the impact of increasing automation replanning rates on operator performance and workload when supervising a decentralized network of heterogeneous unmanned vehicles. Background: Futuristic unmanned vehicles systems will invert the operator-to-vehicle ratio so that one operator can control multiple dissimilar vehicles connected through a decentralized network. Significant human-automation collaboration will be needed because of automation brittleness, but such collaboration could cause high workload. Method: Three increasing levels of replanning were tested on an existing multiple unmanned vehicle simulation environment that leverages decentralized algorithms for vehicle routing and task allocation in conjunction with human supervision. Results: Rapid replanning can cause high operator workload, ultimately resulting in poorer overall system performance. Poor performance was associated with a lack of operator consensus for when to accept the automation’s suggested prompts for new plan consideration as well as negative attitudes toward unmanned aerial vehicles in general. Participants with video game experience tended to collaborate more with the automation, which resulted in better performance. Conclusion: In decentralized unmanned vehicle networks, operators who ignore the automation’s requests for new plan consideration and impose rapid replans both increase their own workload and reduce the ability of the vehicle network to operate at its maximum capacity. Application: These findings have implications for personnel selection and training for futuristic systems involving human collaboration with decentralized algorithms embedded in networks of autonomous systems.Aurora Flight Sciences Corp.United States. Office of Naval Researc

Is the Sun Embedded in a Typical Interstellar Cloud?

The physical properties and kinematics of the partially ionized interstellar material near the Sun are typical of warm diffuse clouds in the solar vicinity. The interstellar magnetic field at the heliosphere and the kinematics of nearby clouds are naturally explained in terms of the S1 superbubble shell. The interstellar radiation field at the Sun appears to be harder than the field ionizing ambient diffuse gas, which may be a consequence of the low opacity of the tiny cloud surrounding the heliosphere. The spatial context of the Local Bubble is consistent with our location in the Orion spur.Comment: "From the Outer Heliosphere to the Local Bubble", held at International Space Sciences Institute, October 200

Kinetic modeling of H-mode pedestal with effects from anomalous transport and MHD stability

Scaling of the H-mode pedestal in tokamak plasmas with type I ELMs and dependence of the pedestal properties and the resulting divertor head load width with the plasma elongation and plasma current are investigated using the kinetic neoclassical XGC0 code for DIII-D and Alcator C-Mod tokamaks. The simulations in this study use realistic diverted geometry and are self-consistent with the inclusion of kinetic neoclassical physics, theory-based anomalous transport models with the E×B flow shearing effects, as well as an MHD ELM triggering criterion. Scalings for the pedestal width and height are developed as a function of the scanned plasma parameters. The nonlinear interplay between anomalous and neoclassical effects motivates the development of a self-consistent simulation model that includes neoclassical and anomalous effects simultaneously. It is demonstrated that the divertor heat load width depend on the plasma currents. In the development of this dependence, effects of neutral collisions and anomalous transport are taken into account. Changes in the neoclassical divertor heat load fluxes associated with the introduction of the neutral collision and anomalous transport effects are described.За допомогою кінетичного неокласичного коду XGC0 для розрядів в токамаках DIII-D і Alcator C-Mod досліджено скейлінг п’єдесталу в плазмі, що перебуває в режимі поліпшеного утримання, з прикордонними локалізованими модами (ПЛМ) першого типу, властивості п’єдесталу і потоку тепла на дивертор в залежності від витягнутості плазми та струму плазми. У розрахунках використовуються: реалістична геометрія дивертора, кінетична модель для неокласичних ефектів, модель аномального транспорту, яка враховує ефекти шира (ExB)-потоків, і умови збудження ПЛМ-нестійкостей. У результаті розрахунків отримані скейлінгі для ширини і висоти п’єдесталу як функції параметрів плазми. Нелінійна взаємодія неокласичних ефектів і ефектів, пов'язаних з аномальним транспортом, є мотивацією для розробки самоузгодженої чисельної моделі, яка одночасно включає ефекти аномального і неокласичного транспорту. Показано, що потоки тепла на дивертор залежать від плазмових струмів. Також представлено результати дослідження залежності напівширини профілів тепла на дивертор від ефектів, пов'язаних з аномальним транспортом і зіткненнями з нейтральними частинками.С помощью кинетического неоклассического кода XGC0 для разрядов в токамаках DIII-D и Alcator C-Mod исследованы скэйлинг пьедестала в плазме, находящейся в режиме улучшенного удержания, с приграничными локализованными модами (ПЛМ) первого типа, и зависимость свойств пьедестала и потока тепла на дивертор от вытянутости плазмы и тока плазмы. В расчетах используются: реалистичная геометрия дивертора, кинетическая модель для неоклассических эффектов, модель аномального транспорта, которая учитывает эффекты шира (ExB)-потоков, и условия возбуждения ПЛМ-неустойчивостей. В результате расчетов получены скэйлинги для ширины и высоты пьедестала как функции параметров плазмы. Нелинейное взаимодействие неоклассических эффектов и эффектов, связанных с аномальным транспортом, является мотивацией разработки самосогласованной численной модели, которая одновременно включает эффекты аномального и неоклассического транспорта. Показано, что потоки тепла на дивертор зависят от плазменных токов. Также представлены результаты исследования зависимости полуширины профилей тепла на дивертор от эффектов, связанных с аномальным транспортом и столкновениями с нейтральными частицами

Complete measurement of three-body photodisintegration of 3He for photon energies between 0.35 and 1.55 GeV

The three-body photodisintegration of 3He has been measured with the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab, using tagged photons of energies between 0.35 GeV and 1.55 GeV. The large acceptance of the spectrometer allowed us for the first time to cover a wide momentum and angular range for the two outgoing protons. Three kinematic regions dominated by either two- or three-body contributions have been distinguished and analyzed. The measured cross sections have been compared with results of a theoretical model, which, in certain kinematic ranges, have been found to be in reasonable agreement with the data.Comment: 22 pages, 25 eps figures, 2 tables, submitted to PRC. Modifications: removed 2 figures, improvements on others, a few minor modifications to the tex

A Kinematically Complete Measurement of the Proton Structure Function F2 in the Resonance Region and Evaluation of Its Moments

We measured the inclusive electron-proton cross section in the nucleon resonance region (W < 2.5 GeV) at momentum transfers Q**2 below 4.5 (GeV/c)**2 with the CLAS detector. The large acceptance of CLAS allowed for the first time the measurement of the cross section in a large, contiguous two-dimensional range of Q**2 and x, making it possible to perform an integration of the data at fixed Q**2 over the whole significant x-interval. From these data we extracted the structure function F2 and, by including other world data, we studied the Q**2 evolution of its moments, Mn(Q**2), in order to estimate higher twist contributions. The small statistical and systematic uncertainties of the CLAS data allow a precise extraction of the higher twists and demand significant improvements in theoretical predictions for a meaningful comparison with new experimental results.Comment: revtex4 18 pp., 12 figure

Evidence of Color Coherence Effects in W+jets Events from ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV

We report the results of a study of color coherence effects in ppbar collisions based on data collected by the D0 detector during the 1994-1995 run of the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, at a center of mass energy sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV. Initial-to-final state color interference effects are studied by examining particle distribution patterns in events with a W boson and at least one jet. The data are compared to Monte Carlo simulations with different color coherence implementations and to an analytic modified-leading-logarithm perturbative calculation based on the local parton-hadron duality hypothesis.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of the top pair production cross section in 8 TeV proton-proton collisions using kinematic information in the lepton plus jets final state with ATLAS

A measurement is presented of the $t\bar{t}$ inclusive production cross-section in $pp$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV using data collected by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement was performed in the lepton+jets final state using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$. The cross-section was obtained using a likelihood discriminant fit and $b$-jet identification was used to improve the signal-to-background ratio. The inclusive $t\bar{t}$ production cross-section was measured to be $260\pm 1{\textrm{(stat.)}} ^{+22}_{-23} {\textrm{(syst.)}}\pm 8{\textrm{(lumi.)}}\pm 4{\mathrm{(beam)}}$ pb assuming a top-quark mass of 172.5 GeV, in good agreement with the theoretical prediction of $253^{+13}_{-15}$ pb. The $t\bar{t}\to (e,\mu)+{\mathrm{jets}}$ production cross-section in the fiducial region determined by the detector acceptance is also reported.Comment: Published version, 19 pages plus author list (35 pages total), 3 figures, 2 tables, all figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/TOPQ-2013-06

Coherent π0 photoproduction on the deuteron up to 4 GeV

The differential cross section for 2H(γ,d)π0 has been measured at deuteron center-of-mass angles of 90° and 136°. This work reports the first data for this reaction above a photon energy of 1 GeV, and permits a test of the apparent constituent counting rule and reduced nuclear amplitude behavior as observed in elastic ed scattering. Measurements were performed up to a photon energy of 4.0 GeV, and are in good agreement with previous lower energy measurements. Overall, the data are inconsistent with both constituent-counting rule and reduced nuclear amplitude predictions

Separation of the Longitudinal and Transverse Cross Sections in the p(e, e′K+)Λ and p(e, e′K+)Σ0 Reactions

We report measurements of cross sections for the reaction p(e,e′K+)Y, for both the Λ and Σ0 hyperon states, at an invariant mass of W =1.84 GeV and four-momentum transfers 0.5 < Q2 < 2 (GeV/c)2. Data were taken for three values of virtual photon polarization ε, allowing the decom- position of the cross sections into longitudinal and transverse components. The Λ data is a revised analysis of prior work, whereas the Σ0 results have not been previously reported