Performance benefits of telerobotics and teleoperation - enhancements for an arm-based tank waste retrieval system

This report evaluates telerobotic and teleoperational arm-based retrieval systems that require advanced robotic controls. These systems will be deployed in waste retrieval activities in Hanford`s Single Shell Tanks (SSTs). The report assumes that arm-based, retrieval systems will combine a teleoperational arm and control system enhanced by a number of advanced and telerobotic controls. The report describes many possible enhancements, spanning the full range of the control spectrum with the potential for technical maturation. The enhancements considered present a variety of choices and factors including: the enhancements to be included in the actual control system, safety, detailed task analyses, human factors, cost-benefit ratios, and availability and maturity of technology. Because the actual system will be designed by an offsite vendor, the procurement specifications must have the flexibility to allow bidders to propose a broad range of ideas, yet build in enough restrictions to filter out infeasible and undesirable approaches. At the same time they must allow selection of a technically promising proposal. Based on a preliminary analysis of the waste retrieval task, and considering factors such as operator limitations and the current state of robotics technology, the authors recommend a set of enhancements that will (1) allow the system to complete its waste retrieval mission, and (2) enable future upgrades in response to changing mission needs and technological advances

A Multiwavelength Photometric Census of AGN and Star Formation Activity in the Brightest Cluster Galaxies of X-ray Selected Clusters

Despite their reputation as being ‘red and dead’, the unique environment inhabited by brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) can often lead to a self-regulated feedback cycle between radiatively cooling intracluster gas and star formation and active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity in the BCG. However the prevalence of ‘active’ BCGs, and details of the feedback involved, are still uncertain. We have performed an optical, UV and mid-IR photometric analysis of the BCGs in 981 clusters at 0.03 < z < 0.5, selected from the ROSAT All Sky Survey. Using Pan-STARRS PS1 3π, GALEX and WISE survey data we look for BCGs with photometric colours which deviate from that of the bulk population of passive BCGs – indicative of AGN and/or star formation activity within the BCG. We find that whilst the majority of BCGs are consistent with being passive, at least 14 per cent of our BCGs show a significant colour offset from passivity in at least one colour index. And, where available, supplementary spectroscopy reveals the majority of these particular BCGs show strong optical emission lines. On comparing BCG ‘activity’ with the X-ray luminosity of the host cluster, we find that BCGs showing a colour offset are preferentially found in the more X-ray luminous clusters, indicative of the connection between BCG ‘activity’ and the intracluster medium

A Large Catalog of Accurate Distances to Molecular Clouds from PS1 Photometry

Distance measurements to molecular clouds are important but are often made separately for each cloud of interest, employing very different data and techniques. We present a large, homogeneous catalog of distances to molecular clouds, most of which are of unprecedented accuracy. We determine distances using optical photometry of stars along lines of sight toward these clouds, obtained from PanSTARRS-1. We simultaneously infer the reddenings and distances to these stars, tracking the full probability distribution function using a technique presented in Green et al. We fit these star-by-star measurements using a simple dust screen model to find the distance to each cloud. We thus estimate the distances to almost all of the clouds in the Magnani et al. catalog, as well as many other well-studied clouds, including Orion, Perseus, Taurus, Cepheus, Polaris, California, and Monoceros R2, avoiding only the inner Galaxy. Typical statistical uncertainties in the distances are 5%, though the systematic uncertainty stemming from the quality of our stellar models is about 10%. The resulting catalog is the largest catalog of accurate, directly measured distances to molecular clouds. Our distance estimates are generally consistent with available distance estimates from the literature, though in some cases the literature estimates are off by a factor of more than two

Detection of a supervoid aligned with the cold spot of the cosmic microwave background

We use the WISE-2MASS infrared galaxy catalogue matched with Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) galaxies to search for a supervoid in the direction of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) cold spot (CS). Our imaging catalogue has median redshift z ≃ 0.14, and we obtain photometric redshifts from PS1 optical colours to create a tomographic map of the galaxy distribution. The radial profile centred on the CS shows a large low-density region, extending over tens of degrees. Motivated by previous CMB results, we test for underdensities within two angular radii, 5°, and 15°. The counts in photometric redshift bins show significantly low densities at high detection significance, ≳5σ and ≳6σ, respectively, for the two fiducial radii. The line-of-sight position of the deepest region of the void is z ≃ 0.15–0.25. Our data, combined with an earlier measurement by Granett, Szapudi & Neyrinck, are consistent with a large Rvoid = (220 ± 50) h−1 Mpc supervoid with δm ≃ −0.14 ± 0.04 centred at z = 0.22 ± 0.03. Such a supervoid, constituting at least a ≃3.3σ fluctuation in a Gaussian distribution of the Λ cold dark matter model, is a plausible cause for the CS

Pan-STARRS Pixel Analysis: Source Detection and Characterization

Over 3 billion astronomical sources have been detected in the more than 22 million orthogonal transfer CCD images obtained as part of the Pan-STARRS1 3π survey. Over 85 billion instances of those sources have been automatically detected and characterized by the Pan-STARRS Image Processing Pipeline photometry software, psphot. This fast, automatic, and reliable software was developed for the Pan-STARRS project but is easily adaptable to images from other telescopes. We describe the analysis of the astronomical sources by psphot in general as well as for the specific case of the third processing version used for the first two public releases of the Pan-STARRS 3π Survey data

Cepheids in M31: The PAndromeda Cepheid Sample

We present the largest Cepheid sample in M31 based on the complete Pan-STARRS1 survey of Andromeda (PAndromeda) in the r P1, i P1, and g P1 bands. We find 2686 Cepheids with 1662 fundamental-mode Cepheids, 307 first-overtone Cepheids, 278 type II Cepheids, and 439 Cepheids with undetermined Cepheid type. Using the method developed by Kodric et al., we identify Cepheids by using a three-dimensional parameter space of Fourier parameters of the Cepheid light curves combined with a color cut and other selection criteria. This is an unbiased approach to identify Cepheids and results in a homogeneous Cepheid sample. The period–luminosity relations obtained for our sample have smaller dispersions than in our previous work. We find a broken slope that we previously observed with HST data in Kodric et al., albeit with a lower significance

Mapping the Monoceros Ring in 3D with Pan-STARRS1

Using the Pan-STARRS1 survey, we derive limiting magnitude, spatial completeness, and density maps that we use to probe the three-dimensional structure and estimate the stellar mass of the so-called Monoceros Ring. The Monoceros Ring is an enormous and complex stellar sub-structure in the outer Milky Way disk. It is most visible across the large Galactic Anticenter region, $120^\circ \lt l\lt 240^\circ$, $-30^\circ \lt b\lt +40^\circ$. We estimate its stellar mass density profile along every line of sight in 2° × 2° pixels over the entire 30,000 deg2 Pan-STARRS1 survey using the previously developed match software. By parsing this distribution into a radially smooth component and the Monoceros Ring, we obtain its mass and distance from the Sun along each relevant line of sight. The Monoceros Ring is significantly closer to us in the south (6 kpc) than in the north (9 kpc). We also create 2D cross-sections parallel to the Galactic plane that show 135° of the Monoceros Ring in the south and 170° of the Monoceros Ring in the north. We show that the northern and southern structures are also roughly concentric circles, suggesting that they may be waves rippling from a common origin. Excluding the Galactic plane $\sim \pm 4^\circ$, we observe an excess mass of $4\times {10}^{6}{M}_{\odot }$ across $120^\circ \lt l\lt 240^\circ$. If we interpolate across the Galactic plane, we estimate that this region contains $8\times {10}^{6}{M}_{\odot }$. If we assume (somewhat boldly) that the Monoceros Ring is a set of two Galactocentric rings, its total mass is $6\times {10}^{7}{M}_{\odot }$. Finally, if we assume that it is a set of two circles centered at a point 4 kpc from the Galactic center in the anti-central direction, as our data suggests, we estimate its mass to be $4\times {10}^{7}{M}_{\odot }$

A Map of Dust Reddening to 4.5 kpc from Pan-STARRS1

We present a map of the dust reddening to 4.5 kpc derived from Pan-STARRS1 stellar photometry. The map covers almost the entire sky north of declination –30° at a resolution of 7'-14', and is based on the estimated distances and reddenings to more than 500 million stars. The technique is designed to map dust in the Galactic plane, where many other techniques are stymied by the presence of multiple dust clouds at different distances along each line of sight. This reddening-based dust map agrees closely with the Schlegel et al. (SFD) far-infrared emission-based dust map away from the Galactic plane, and the most prominent differences between the two maps stem from known limitations of SFD in the plane. We also compare the map with Planck, finding likewise good agreement in general at high latitudes. The use of optical data from Pan-STARRS1 yields reddening uncertainty as low as 25 mmag E(B – V)