65,844 research outputs found
Using Monte Carlo Search With Data Aggregation to Improve Robot Soccer Policies
RoboCup soccer competitions are considered among the most challenging
multi-robot adversarial environments, due to their high dynamism and the
partial observability of the environment. In this paper we introduce a method
based on a combination of Monte Carlo search and data aggregation (MCSDA) to
adapt discrete-action soccer policies for a defender robot to the strategy of
the opponent team. By exploiting a simple representation of the domain, a
supervised learning algorithm is trained over an initial collection of data
consisting of several simulations of human expert policies. Monte Carlo policy
rollouts are then generated and aggregated to previous data to improve the
learned policy over multiple epochs and games. The proposed approach has been
extensively tested both on a soccer-dedicated simulator and on real robots.
Using this method, our learning robot soccer team achieves an improvement in
ball interceptions, as well as a reduction in the number of opponents' goals.
Together with a better performance, an overall more efficient positioning of
the whole team within the field is achieved
Experimental study of contact transition control incorporating joint acceleration feedback
Joint acceleration and velocity feedbacks are incorporated into a classical internal force control of a robot in contact with the environment. This is intended to achieve a robust contact transition and force tracking performance for varying unknown environments, without any need of adjusting the controller parameters, A unified control structure is proposed for free motion, contact transition, and constrained motion in view of the consumption of the initial kinetic energy generated by a nonzero impact velocity. The influence of the velocity and acceleration feedbacks, which are introduced especially for suppressing the transition oscillation, on the postcontact tracking performance is discussed. Extensive experiments are conducted on the third joint of a three-link direct-drive robot to verify the proposed scheme for environments of various stiffnesses, including elastic (sponge), less elastic (cardboard), and hard (steel plate) surfaces. Results are compared with those obtained by the transition control scheme without the acceleration feedback. The ability of the proposed control scheme in resisting the force disturbance during the postcontact period is also experimentally investigated
Coordination motifs and large-scale structural organization in atomic clusters
The structure of nanoclusters is complex to describe due to their
noncrystallinity, even though bonding and packing constraints limit the local
atomic arrangements to only a few types. A computational scheme is presented to
extract coordination motifs from sample atomic configurations. The method is
based on a clustering analysis of multipole moments for atoms in the first
coodination shell. Its power to capture large-scale structural properties is
demonstrated by scanning through the ground state of the Lennard-Jones and
C clusters collected at the Cambridge Cluster Database.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
Unusual persistence of superconductivity against high magnetic fields in the strongly-correlated iron-chalcogenide film FeTe:O
We report an unusual persistence of superconductivity against high magnetic
fields in the iron chalcogenide film FeTe:O below ~ 2.5 K. Instead of
saturating like a mean-field behavior with a single order parameter, the
measured low-temperature upper critical field increases progressively,
suggesting a large supply of superconducting states accessible via magnetic
field or low-energy thermal fluctuations. We demonstrate that superconducting
states of finite momenta can be realized within the conventional theory,
despite its questionable applicability. Our findings reveal a fundamental
characteristic of superconductivity and electronic structure in the
strongly-correlated iron-based superconductors.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Induced Magnetic Ordering by Proton Irradiation in Graphite
We provide evidence that proton irradiation of energy 2.25 MeV on
highly-oriented pyrolytic graphite samples triggers ferro- or ferrimagnetism.
Measurements performed with a superconducting quantum interferometer device
(SQUID) and magnetic force microscopy (MFM) reveal that the magnetic ordering
is stable at room temperature.Comment: 3 Figure
Oscillatory Spin Polarization and Magneto-Optic Kerr Effect in Fe3O4 Thin Films on GaAs(001)
The spin dependent properties of epitaxial Fe3O4 thin films on GaAs(001) are
studied by the ferromagnetic proximity polarization (FPP) effect and
magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE). Both FPP and MOKE show oscillations with
respect to Fe3O4 film thickness, and the oscillations are large enough to
induce repeated sign reversals. We attribute the oscillatory behavior to
spin-polarized quantum well states forming in the Fe3O4 film. Quantum
confinement of the t2g states near the Fermi level provides an explanation for
the similar thickness dependences of the FPP and MOKE oscillations.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Suppression of dephasing by qubit motion in superconducting circuits
We suggest and demonstrate a protocol which suppresses dephasing due to the
low-frequency noise by qubit motion, i.e., transfer of the logical qubit of
information in a system of physical qubits. The protocol requires
only the nearest-neighbor coupling and is applicable to different qubit
structures. We further analyze its effectiveness against noises with arbitrary
correlations. Our analysis, together with experiments using up to three
superconducting qubits, shows that for the realistic uncorrelated noises, qubit
motion increases the dephasing time of the logical qubit as . In
general, the protocol provides a diagnostic tool to measure the noise
correlations.Comment: 5 pages with 3 embedded figures, plus supplementary informatio
Detection of an exoplanet around the evolved K giant HD 66141
Aims. We have been carrying out a precise radial velocity (RV) survey for K
giants to search for and study the origin of the lowamplitude and long-periodic
RV variations.
Methods. We present high-resolution RV measurements of the K2 giant HD 66141
from December 2003 to January 2011 using the fiber-fed Bohyunsan Observatory
Echelle Spectrograph (BOES) at Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory (BOAO).
Results. We find that the RV measurements for HD 66141 exhibit a periodic
variation of 480.5 +/- 0.5 days with a semi-amplitude of 146.2 +/- 2.7 m/s. The
Hipparcos photometry and bisector velocity span (BVS) do not show any obvious
correlations with RV variations. We find indeed 706.4 +/- 35.0 day variations
in equivalent width (EW) measurements of H_alpha line and 703.0 +/- 39.4 day
variations in a space-born measurements 1.25{\mu} flux of HD 66141 measured
during COBE/DIRBE experiment. We reveal that a mean value of long-period
variations is about 705 +/- 53 days and the origin is a rotation period of the
star and variability that is caused by surface inhomogeneities. For the 480 day
periods of RV variations an orbital motion is the most likely explanation.
Assuming a stellar mass of 1.1 +/- 0.1 M_Sun? for HD 66141, we obtain a minimum
mass for the planetary companion of 6.0 +/- 0.3 M_Jup with an orbital
semi-major axis of 1.2 +/- 0.1 AU and an eccentricity of 0.07 +/- 0.03.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publisation in Astronomy
& Astrophysic
Magnetic Vortex Core Dynamics in a Ferromagnetic Dot
We report direct imaging by means of x-ray photoemission electron microscopy
of the dynamics of magnetic vortices confined in micron-size circular Permalloy
dots that are 30 nm thick. The vortex core positions oscillate on a 10-ns
timescale in a self-induced magnetostatic potential well after the in-plane
magnetic field is turned off. The measured oscillation frequencies as a
function of the aspect ratio (thickness/radius) of the dots are in agreement
with theoretical calculations presented for the same geometry.Comment: 18 pages including 4 figure
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