86 research outputs found
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 automationâs 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 automationâs 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
Electronic transport in EuB
EuB is a magnetic semiconductor in which defects introduce charge
carriers into the conduction band with the Fermi energy varying with
temperature and magnetic field. We present experimental and theoretical work on
the electronic magnetotransport in single-crystalline EuB. Magnetization,
magnetoresistance and Hall effect data were recorded at temperatures between 2
and 300 K and in magnetic fields up to 5.5 T. The negative magnetoresistance is
well reproduced by a model in which the spin disorder scattering is reduced by
the applied magnetic field. The Hall effect can be separated into an ordinary
and an anomalous part. At 20 K the latter accounts for half of the observed
Hall voltage, and its importance decreases rapidly with increasing temperature.
As for Gd and its compounds, where the rare-earth ion adopts the same Hund's
rule ground state as Eu in EuB, the standard antisymmetric
scattering mechanisms underestimate the of this contribution by several
orders of magnitude, while reproducing its almost perfectly. Well below
the bulk ferromagnetic ordering at = 12.5 K, a two-band model
successfully describes the magnetotransport. Our description is consistent with
published de Haas van Alphen, optical reflectivity, angular-resolved
photoemission, and soft X-ray emission as well as absorption data, but requires
a new interpretation for the gap feature deduced from the latter two
experiments.Comment: 35 pages, 12 figures, submitted to PR
What is the Oxygen Isotope Composition of Venus? The Scientific Case for Sample Return from Earthâs âSisterâ Planet
Venus is Earthâs closest planetary neighbour and both bodies are of similar size and mass. As a consequence, Venus is often described as Earthâs sister planet. But the two worlds have followed very different evolutionary paths, with Earth having benign surface conditions, whereas Venus has a surface temperature of 464 °C and a surface pressure of 92 bar. These inhospitable surface conditions may partially explain why there has been such a dearth of space missions to Venus in recent years.The oxygen isotope composition of Venus is currently unknown. However, this single measurement (Î17O) would have first order implications for our understanding of how large terrestrial planets are built. Recent isotopic studies indicate that the Solar System is bimodal in composition, divided into a carbonaceous chondrite (CC) group and a non-carbonaceous (NC) group. The CC group probably originated in the outer Solar System and the NC group in the inner Solar System. Venus comprises 41% by mass of the inner Solar System compared to 50% for Earth and only 5% for Mars. Models for building large terrestrial planets, such as Earth and Venus, would be significantly improved by a determination of the Î17O composition of a returned sample from Venus. This measurement would help constrain the extent of early inner Solar System isotopic homogenisation and help to identify whether the feeding zones of the terrestrial planets were narrow or wide.Determining the Î17O composition of Venus would also have significant implications for our understanding of how the Moon formed. Recent lunar formation models invoke a high energy impact between the proto-Earth and an inner Solar System-derived impactor body, Theia. The close isotopic similarity between the Earth and Moon is explained by these models as being a consequence of high-temperature, post-impact mixing. However, if Earth and Venus proved to be isotopic clones with respect to Î17O, this would favour the classic, lower energy, giant impact scenario.We review the surface geology of Venus with the aim of identifying potential terrains that could be targeted by a robotic sample return mission. While the potentially ancient tessera terrains would be of great scientific interest, the need to minimise the influence of venusian weathering favours the sampling of young basaltic plains. In terms of a nominal sample mass, 10 g would be sufficient to undertake a full range of geochemical, isotopic and dating studies. However, it is important that additional material is collected as a legacy sample. As a consequence, a returned sample mass of at least 100 g should be recovered.Two scenarios for robotic sample return missions from Venus are presented, based on previous mission proposals. The most cost effective approach involves a âGrab and Goâ strategy, either using a lander and separate orbiter, or possibly just a stand-alone lander. Sample return could also be achieved as part of a more ambitious, extended mission to study the venusian atmosphere. In both scenarios it is critical to obtain a surface atmospheric sample to define the extent of atmosphere-lithosphere oxygen isotopic disequilibrium. Surface sampling would be carried out by multiple techniques (drill, scoop, âvacuum-cleanerâ device) to ensure success. Surface operations would take no longer than one hour.Analysis of returned samples would provide a firm basis for assessing similarities and differences between the evolution of Venus, Earth, Mars and smaller bodies such as Vesta. The Solar System provides an important case study in how two almost identical bodies, Earth and Venus, could have had such a divergent evolution. Finally, Venus, with its runaway greenhouse atmosphere, may provide data relevant to the understanding of similar less extreme processes on Earth. Venus is Earthâs planetary twin and deserves to be better studied and understood. In a wider context, analysis of returned samples from Venus would provide data relevant to the study of exoplanetary systems
Time dependent viscoelastic rheological response of pure, modified and synthetic bituminous binders
Bitumen is a viscoelastic material that exhibits both elastic and viscous components of response and displays both a temperature and time dependent relationship between applied stresses and resultant strains. In addition, as bitumen is responsible for the viscoelastic behaviour of all bituminous materials, it plays a dominant role in defining many of the aspects of asphalt road performance, such as strength and stiffness, permanent deformation and cracking. Although conventional bituminous materials perform satisfactorily in most highway pavement applications, there are situations that require the modification of the binder to enhance the properties of existing asphalt material. The best known form of modification is by means of polymer modification, traditionally used to improve the temperature and time susceptibility of bitumen. Tyre rubber modification is another form using recycled crumb tyre rubber to alter the properties of conventional bitumen. In addition, alternative binders (synthetic polymeric binders as well as renewable, environmental-friendly bio-binders) have entered the bitumen market over the last few years due to concerns over the continued availability of bitumen from current crudes and refinery processes. This paper provides a detailed rheological assessment, under both temperature and time regimes, of a range of conventional, modified and alternative binders in terms of the materials dynamic (oscillatory) viscoelastic response. The rheological results show the improved viscoelastic properties of polymer- and rubber-modified binders in terms of increased complex shear modulus and elastic response, particularly at high temperatures and low frequencies. The synthetic binders were found to demonstrate complex rheological behaviour relative to that seen for conventional bituminous binders
Hölder continuity of weak solutions of p-Laplacian PDEs with VMO coefficients
We consider solutions uâW 1,p (Ω;R N ) of the p-Laplacian PDE ââ
(a(x)|Du| pâ2 Du)=0,for xâΩâR n , where Ω is open and bounded. More generally, we consider solutions of the elliptic system ââ
a(x)g âČ (a(x)|Du|)[Formula presented]=0,xâΩas well as minimizers of the functional ⫠Ω g(a(x)|Du|)dx.In each case, the coefficient map a:ΩâR is only assumed to be of class VMO(Ω)â©L â (Ω), which means that it may be discontinuous. Without assuming that xâŠa(x) has any weak differentiability, we show that uâC loc 0,α (Ω) for each 0<α<1. The preceding results are, in fact, a corollary of a much more general result, which applies to the functional ⫠Ω f(x,u,Du)dx in case f is only asymptotically convex. © 2019 Elsevier Lt
A Modular Approach for Remote Operation of Humanoid Robots in Search and Rescue Scenarios
In the present work we have designed and implemented a modular, robust and user-friendly Pilot Interface
meant to control humanoid robots in rescue scenarios during dangerous missions. We follow the common
approach where the robot is semi-autonomous and it is remotely controlled by a human operator. In our
implementation, YARP is used both as a communication channel for low-level hardware components and as an
interconnecting framework between control modules. The interface features the capability to receive the status
of these modules continuously and request actions when required. In addition, ROS is used to retrieve data
from different types of sensors and to display relevant information of the robot status such as joint positions,
velocities and torques, force/torque measurements and inertial data. Furthermore the operator is immersed into
a 3D reconstruction of the environment and is enabled to manipulate 3D virtual objects. The Pilot Interface
allows the operator to control the robot at three different levels. The high-level control deals with human-like
actions which involve the whole robotâs actuation and perception. For instance, we successfully teleoperated
IITâs COmpliant huMANoid (COMAN) platform to execute complex navigation tasks through the composition
of elementary walking commands (e.g.[walk_forward, 1m]). The mid-level control generates tasks in cartesian
space, based on the position and orientation of objects of interest (i.e. valve, door handle) w.r.t. a reference
frame on the robot. The low level control operates in joint space and is meant as a last resort tool to perform fine
adjustments (e.g. release a trapped limb). Finally, our Pilot Interface is adaptable to different tasks, strategies
and pilotâs needs, thanks to a modular architecture of the system which enables to add/remove single front-end
components (e.g. GUI widgets) as well as back-end control modules on the fly
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