Incremental Learning for Robot Perception through HRI

Scene understanding and object recognition is a difficult to achieve yet crucial skill for robots. Recently, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), have shown success in this task. However, there is still a gap between their performance on image datasets and real-world robotics scenarios. We present a novel paradigm for incrementally improving a robot's visual perception through active human interaction. In this paradigm, the user introduces novel objects to the robot by means of pointing and voice commands. Given this information, the robot visually explores the object and adds images from it to re-train the perception module. Our base perception module is based on recent development in object detection and recognition using deep learning. Our method leverages state of the art CNNs from off-line batch learning, human guidance, robot exploration and incremental on-line learning

The Canadian Cooperation Policy in the Assistance of the Anti personnel Landmines Victims in Colombia

The landmines are a subject of world-wide concern since the 1990’s when the in¬ternational community undertook a campaign for their ban. The prohibition came with the Ottawa Convention, signed by two-thirds of the UN Members. However today, more than ten years after that declaration, many States, including Colom¬bia, face the threat of landmines. As international cooperation is one of the instru¬ments contained in the Convention, this article reviews the cooperation policies implemented by Canada as one of the nations committed in the search for a solu¬tion to Colombian landmine problem

Real-Time Salient Closed Boundary Tracking via Line Segments Perceptual Grouping

This paper presents a novel real-time method for tracking salient closed boundaries from video image sequences. This method operates on a set of straight line segments that are produced by line detection. The tracking scheme is coherently integrated into a perceptual grouping framework in which the visual tracking problem is tackled by identifying a subset of these line segments and connecting them sequentially to form a closed boundary with the largest saliency and a certain similarity to the previous one. Specifically, we define a new tracking criterion which combines a grouping cost and an area similarity constraint. The proposed criterion makes the resulting boundary tracking more robust to local minima. To achieve real-time tracking performance, we use Delaunay Triangulation to build a graph model with the detected line segments and then reduce the tracking problem to finding the optimal cycle in this graph. This is solved by our newly proposed closed boundary candidates searching algorithm called "Bidirectional Shortest Path (BDSP)". The efficiency and robustness of the proposed method are tested on real video sequences as well as during a robot arm pouring experiment.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, The 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2017) submission ID 103

Static and dynamic disorder in nanocrystalline materials

Peak profiles in X-ray Diffraction (XRD) patterns from nanocrystalline materials are affected by static and dynamic disorder which is specific of the size and shape of the nanocrystalline domains. Owing to their intrinsic differences, the two types of disorder can be separated, providing independent information from the modelling of the XRD patterns. In the present thesis a model for the static strain created by the nanoparticle surface is proposed. The model is built within the frame of the Whole Powder Pattern Modelling (WPPM) approach for XRD line profile analysis, developed at the University of Trento in the past 20 years. The WPPM approach is decribed in details. Based on a complex Fourier Transform of the diffraction profiles, the model leads to general equations to be used with the WPPM approach to represent the distorted atomic configuration with respect to the reference bulk one. The model was also implemented in TOPAS, a commercial and very popular software, developing a specific macro allowing a larger community of users to benefit of this new opportunity of studying nanocrystalline materials. The thesis work also extended to a more traditional and general description of strain broadening of XRD peak profiles, involving invariant forms under the Laue group symmetry operations of the material under study. As for the dynamic strain, the fundamentals of the Thermal Diffuse Scattering (TDS) contribution to the peak profiles are reviewed. Starting from the original work of B.E. Warren, the theory is generalized to account for surface effects, leading to a particular model developed recently at the University of Trento. This model was thoroughly reviewed and corrected. To test the model a parallel computer code in C was written, exploiting Molecular Dynamics simulations for obtaining reliable and independent estimates of static and dynamic disorder in nanocrystals

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Mechanistic aspects of sodium-binding sites in LeuT-like fold symporters

Secondary active transporters are of paramount biological impact in all living cells, facilitating the movement of many different substrates across the membrane against a concentration gradient. The uphill transport of one substrate is coupled to the downhill transport of another and driven by the electrochemical gradient. In the last decade, an increasing number of atomic structures of secondary transporters have been reported, confirming a very fundamental mechanistic concept known as the alternating-access cycle. The wealth of structures of transporters sharing the so-called LeuT-like fold that is characterized by two five-transmembrane-helix repeats sharing a 2-fold inverted pseudo symmetry has raised big hopes to finally describe alternating access on a molecular level. Although comparing the individual transporter states of different LeuT-like fold transporters revealed striking similarities, the coupling process, which represents the heart of secondary transport, is far from being understood. Here, we review the structural, functional, and biophysical validation of sodium-binding sites in four different LeuT-like fold transporters. The conservation of sodium sites is discussed in light of their role as key elements connecting symmetry-related structural domains, which are involved in substrate translocation. Moreover, we highlight their crucial roles in conformational changes of LeuT-like fold transporters and their implication on a unifying mechanism in secondary transport