Design and development of ReCOPTER: An open source ros-based multi-rotor platform for research

Selection of multi-rotor aircraft systems for robotics research is a trade-off between competing objectives. While Commercial Off The Shelf systems are fast to set up and provide a ready-made platform, they often lack complete documentation and have limited extensibility for allowing researchers to modify them for scientific work. Conversely, developing an aircraft from the ground up is labour intensive and time consuming, and requires substantial experience to ensure a satisfactory result. This paper ranks common robotic multi-rotor air- craft used in research against several criteria for openness, extensibility and performance. We propose a standard platform using open components and an open-source design, specifically geared to the needs of the research community

Efficient neighbourhood-based information gain approach for exploration of complex 3D environments

This paper presents an approach for exploring a complex 3D environment with a sensor mounted on the end effector of a robot manipulator. In contrast to many current approaches which plan as far ahead as possible using as much environment information as is available, our approach considers only a small set of poses (vector of joint angles) neighbouring the robot's current pose in configuration space. Our approach is compared to an existing exploration strategy for a similar robot. Our results demonstrate a significant decrease in the number of information gain estimation calculations that need to be performed, while still gathering an equivalent or increased amount of information about the environment. © 2013 IEEE

Plasmonic backscattering enhanced inverted photovoltaics

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98669/1/ApplPhysLett_99_113306.pd

How Are Egyptian Agricultural Students Preparing for a Career?

Egypt has made substantial progress in access to education. However a high unemployment rate among university graduates and employers being unable to find a skilled workforce are of great concern. A pragmatic approach for education that enables student to participate in career preparation activities in and outside the classrooms and prepare them for a job following their graduation is of paramount importance. Soliciting opinions from undergraduate students and professors in five agricultural universities and employers from major agricultural industries in Egypt this study aimed to identify student participation in career preparation activities, ascertain major sources for career advice and information about their prospective careers and preparation for those careers. The findings revealed that students had limited opportunities to practice in their career skill-building through their coursework activities. For a majority of the students, professors and university graduates were the primary sources for career advice. Students seldom visited career services offices and did not quite utilize their services, but frequently browsed websites of potential employers. Career advising services appeared to be below the students’ expectations across the universities. Strategies and policies are needed to strengthen career advisory services at universities to improve graduates’ chances of obtaining meaningful employment in their fields of study

Predicting annual stem diameter increment of selected tree species in Sinharaja rain forest by considering tree and stand level effects

Information on the diameter increment of tree species is important for developing a sustainable forest harvesting plan and for reforestation. Fitting a forest growth model for diameter increment can be utilized to get the information. The objective of this study was to develop a predictive model for the annual diameter increment of a multispecies stand in the Sinharaja Rain Forest in Sri Lanka. To fulfill this objective, four linear mixedeffect models were fitted to predict the annual diameter at breast height (dbh) increment of trees by using dbh, the natural logarithm of dbh, and species as a random effect. The model that contained random coefficients for the intercept term, dbh and log (dbh) were selected as the best-fitted model based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) value and the likelihood ratio test. Then, the bestfitted model was expanded by adding other subsequent variables that describe the effects of competition from surrounding trees, and a size structure component, which is the maximum dbh. The final model comprised of this information dbh, log(dbh), stocking density, maximum dbh, and competition from trees smaller than the subject tree. Using the best-fitted final model, the annual dbh increment of the 10 selected abundant species was calculated. It was noted that all the selected species have growth rates that increase rapidly at the initial stage, and then reach its unique maximum growth rate. These increment patterns reflected that different species followed different annual dbh increment patterns. Therefore, this final model can be consolidated into an effective empirical model to project the future growth of a tropical rainforest

Climbing Robot for Steel Bridge Inspection: Design Challenges

Inspection of bridges often requires high risk operations such as working at heights, in confined spaces, in hazardous environments; or sites inaccessible by humans. There is significant motivation for robotic solutions which can carry out these inspection tasks. When inspection robots are deployed in real world inspection scenarios, it is inevitable that unforeseen challenges will be encountered. Since 2011, the New South Wales Roads & Maritime Services and the Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems at the University of Technology, Sydney, have been working together to develop an innovative climbing robot to inspect high risk locations on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Many engineering challenges have been faced throughout the development of several prototype climbing robots, and through field trials in the archways of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This paper will highlight some of the key challenges faced in designing a climbing robot for inspection, and then present an inchworm inspired robot which addresses many of these challenges