Safe and Autonomous Navigation for a Car-Like Robot Among Pedestrian

voir basilic : http://emotion.inrialpes.fr/bibemotion/2003/PHKBBL03/ address: Madrid (ES)The recent development of a new kind of public transportation system relies on a particular double-steering kinematic structure enhancing maneuverability in cluttered environments such as downtown areas. We call bi-steerable car a vehicle showing this kind of kinematics. Endowed with autonomy capacities, the bi-steerable car ought to combine suitably and safely a set of abilities: simultaneous localization and environment modeling, motion planning and motion execution amidst dynamic obstacles. In this paper we address the integration of these four essential autonomy abilities into a single application. Specifically, we aim at reactive execution of planned motion. We address the fusion of controls issued from the control law and the obstacle avoidance module using probabilistic techniques

An Autonomous Car-Like Robot Navigating Safely Among Pedestrians

voir basilic : http://emotion.inrialpes.fr/bibemotion/2004/PHKBBL04/ address: New Orleans, LA (US)The recent development of a new kind of public transporlation system relies on a particular douhlesteering kinematic structure enhancing maneuverability in clulteml environments such as downtown areas. We call bi-steerable car a vehicle showing this kind of kinematics. Endowed with autonomy Capacities, the hi-steerahle car ought to combine suitably and safely a se1 of abilities: simultaneous localisation and environment modelling, motion planning and motion execution amidst moderately dynamic obstacles. In this paper we address the integration of these four essential autonomy abilities into a single application. Specifically, we aim at reactive execution of planned motion. We address the fusion of controls issued from the control law and the obstacle avoidance module using prohahilistic techniques

Meninas.comp: computación para niñas en escuelas primarias de Brasil

The Computing field has a gender diversity gap, with female participation much lower when compared to men. In this context, several activities have been developed to include more women in the field of Computing, and the Meninas.comp project has been working to introduce Computing to girls in elementary schools in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. This article has two objectives: i) to present the activities of the Meninas.comp project for girls in elementary schools; ii) to present a mapping of the literature on computational activities with a focus on girls in elementary schools in Brazil. The systematic literature mapping found publications reporting a large variety of activities, such as unplugged computing, game development, card games, programming classes, competitions, lectures, and workshops. From the Meninas.comp project, this article highlights a smart garden developed by female elementary school students.El campo de la informática tiene una brecha de diversidad de género, con una participación femenina mucho menor en comparación con los hombres. Al respecto, se han desarrollado varias actividades para incluir a más mujeres en el campo de la Computación. El proyecto Meninas.comp ha trabajado en Informática para niñas de escuelas primarias en Brasilia, capital de Brasil. En este contexto, este artículo tiene dos objetivos: i) presentar las actividades del proyecto Meninas.comp en escuelas primarias de niñas; ii) presentar un mapeo de la literatura sobre actividades computacionales con enfoque en niñas de escuelas primarias en Brasil. El mapeo sistemático de literatura encontró publicaciones que informan una gran variedad de actividades, como computación desconectada, desarrollo de juegos, juegos de cartas, clases de programación, concursos, conferencias y talleres. Del proyecto Meninas. comp, este artículo destaca un jardín inteligente desarrollado por alumnas de primaria

Guidelines for Genome-Scale Analysis of Biological Rhythms

Genome biology approaches have made enormous contributions to our understanding of biological rhythms, particularly in identifying outputs of the clock, including RNAs, proteins, and metabolites, whose abundance oscillates throughout the day. These methods hold significant promise for future discovery, particularly when combined with computational modeling. However, genome-scale experiments are costly and laborious, yielding “big data” that are conceptually and statistically difficult to analyze. There is no obvious consensus regarding design or analysis. Here we discuss the relevant technical considerations to generate reproducible, statistically sound, and broadly useful genome-scale data. Rather than suggest a set of rigid rules, we aim to codify principles by which investigators, reviewers, and readers of the primary literature can evaluate the suitability of different experimental designs for measuring different aspects of biological rhythms. We introduce CircaInSilico, a web-based application for generating synthetic genome biology data to benchmark statistical methods for studying biological rhythms. Finally, we discuss several unmet analytical needs, including applications to clinical medicine, and suggest productive avenues to address them

Guidelines for Genome-Scale Analysis of Biological Rhythms

Genome biology approaches have made enormous contributions to our understanding of biological rhythms, particularly in identifying outputs of the clock, including RNAs, proteins, and metabolites, whose abundance oscillates throughout the day. These methods hold significant promise for future discovery, particularly when combined with computational modeling. However, genome-scale experiments are costly and laborious, yielding ‘big data’ that is conceptually and statistically difficult to analyze. There is no obvious consensus regarding design or analysis. Here we discuss the relevant technical considerations to generate reproducible, statistically sound, and broadly useful genome scale data. Rather than suggest a set of rigid rules, we aim to codify principles by which investigators, reviewers, and readers of the primary literature can evaluate the suitability of different experimental designs for measuring different aspects of biological rhythms. We introduce CircaInSilico, a web-based application for generating synthetic genome biology data to benchmark statistical methods for studying biological rhythms. Finally, we discuss several unmet analytical needs, including applications to clinical medicine, and suggest productive avenues to address them

Approche Bayésienne pour la Sélection de l'Action et la Focalisation de l'Attention. Application à la Programmation de Robots Autonomes.

Autonomous sensory-motor systems, situated in dynamic environments, must continuously answer the ultimate question: how to control motor commands knowing sensory inputs? Solving this question is a very complex problem, because a huge flow of information must be treated under several restrictions: real-time constraints, bounded memory space, and limited processing power. One additional and major challenge is to deal with incomplete and imprecise information, usually occurring in dynamic environments. In this thesis, we address the problem of controlling autonomous sensory-motor systems and propose a succession of cumulative hypotheses and simplifications. They are defined within a precise and strict mathematical framework, called Bayesian programming, an extension of Bayesian networks. This succession consists of five stages: Utilisation of internal states; First-order Markov assumption, stationarity and Bayesian filters; Exploiting partial independence; Addition of behaviour selection mechanism; and addition of Attention focusing. The validity of these hypotheses can be discussed and challenged. However, the corresponding inferences and resulting decisions are derived mathematically. Each description of a stage is followed by its analysis according to memory requirement, processing complexity, and difficulty of modelling. Further discussions regarding robot programming and cognitive modelling points of view are also presented. Finally, we describe an implementation on a mobile robot. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework is adequate for practical purposes.Les systèmes sensorimoteurs autonomes, placés dans des environnements dynamiques, doivent répondre continuellement à la question ultime: comment contrôler les commandes motrices à partir des entrées sensorielles? Répondre à cette question est un problème très complexe, principalement à cause de l'énorme quantité d'informations qui doit être traitée, tout en respectant plusieurs restrictions: contraintes de temps réel, espace mémoire restreint, et capacité de traitement des données limitée. Un autre défi majeur consiste à traiter l'information incomplète et imprécise, habituellement présente dans des environnements dynamiques. Cette thèse s'intéresse au problème posé par la commande des systèmes sensorimoteurs autonomes et propose un enchaînement d'hypothèses et de simplifications. Ces hypothèses et simplifications sont définies dans un cadre mathématique précis et strict appelé programmation bayésienne, une extension des réseaux bayésiens. L'enchaînement se présente en cinq paliers: utilisation d'états internes; les hypothèses de Markov de premier ordre, de stationnarité et les filtres bayésiens; exploitation de l'indépendance partielle entre les variables d'état; addition d'un mécanisme de choix de comportement;la focalisation de l'attention guidée par l'intention de comportement. La description de chaque étape est suivie de son analyse selon les exigences de mémoire, de complexité de calcul, et de difficulté de modélisation. Nous présentons également des discussions approfondies concernant d'une part la programmation des robots et d'autre part les systèmes cognitifs. Enfin, nous décrivons l'application de ce cadre de programmation à un robot mobile

Hierarchy of behaviors

voir basilic : http://emotion.inrialpes.fr/bibemotion/2005/MAK05/ address: Hong KongLiving beings are often observed switching strategies in response to a changing environment. However, autonomous robotics mostly implements a single behaviour well suited to a particular task such as navigation, localization and so on. Actually, one burning issue of autonomous robotics is to manage a complex task starting from a set of simple behaviours. In other words, the robot has to choose the optimal behaviour given the sensori-motor context in order to build a global and coherent process. This is usually done by a strict specification from the programmer. In this article, we put forward a framework called behaviours hierarchy that handle elementary ability to respond to a given task. We show that this framework leads to the continuous application of an adequate behaviour depending on the environment. Finally, we propose a general method to implement this framework using Bayesian programming