Managing a Fleet of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) using Cloud Robotics Platform

In this paper, we provide details of implementing a system for managing a fleet of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) operating in a factory or a warehouse premise. While the robots are themselves autonomous in its motion and obstacle avoidance capability, the target destination for each robot is provided by a global planner. The global planner and the ground vehicles (robots) constitute a multi agent system (MAS) which communicate with each other over a wireless network. Three different approaches are explored for implementation. The first two approaches make use of the distributed computing based Networked Robotics architecture and communication framework of Robot Operating System (ROS) itself while the third approach uses Rapyuta Cloud Robotics framework for this implementation. The comparative performance of these approaches are analyzed through simulation as well as real world experiment with actual robots. These analyses provide an in-depth understanding of the inner working of the Cloud Robotics Platform in contrast to the usual ROS framework. The insight gained through this exercise will be valuable for students as well as practicing engineers interested in implementing similar systems else where. In the process, we also identify few critical limitations of the current Rapyuta platform and provide suggestions to overcome them.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures, journal pape

Deep phenotyping and genomic data from a nationally representative study on dementia in India

The Harmonized Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia for the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI-DAD) is a nationally representative in-depth study of cognitive aging and dementia. We present a publicly available dataset of harmonized cognitive measures of 4,096 adults 60 years of age and older in India, collected across 18 states and union territories. Blood samples were obtained to carry out whole blood and serum-based assays. Results are included in a venous blood specimen datafile that can be linked to the Harmonized LASI-DAD dataset. A global screening array of 960 LASI-DAD respondents is also publicly available for download, in addition to neuroimaging data on 137 LASI-DAD participants. Altogether, these datasets provide comprehensive information on older adults in India that allow researchers to further understand risk factors associated with cognitive impairment and dementia.Peer reviewe

Alpha Coverage: Bounding the Interconnection Gap for Vehicular Internet Access

Abstract—Vehicular Internet access via open WLAN access points (APs) has been demonstrated to be a feasible solution to provide opportunistic data service to moving vehicles. Using an in situ deployment, however, such a solution does not provide worstcase performance guarantees due to unpredictable intermittent connectivity. On the other hand, a solution that tries to cover every point in an entire road network with APs (full coverage) is not very practical due to the prohibitive deployment and operational cost. In this paper, we introduce a new notion of intermittent coverage for mobile users, called α-coverage, which provides worst-case guarantees on the interconnection gap while using significantly fewer APs than needed for full coverage. We propose efficient algorithms to verify whether a given deployment provides α-coverage and approximation algorithms for determining a deployment of APs that will provide α-coverage. We compare α-coverage with opportunistic access of open WLAN APs (modeled as a random deployment) via simulations over a real-world road network and show that using the same number of APs as random deployment, α-coverage bounds the interconnection gap to a much smaller distance than that in a random deployment. I

Maximizing the Contact Opportunity for Vehicular Internet Access

Abstract—With increasing popularity of media enabled handhelds, the need for high data-rate services for mobile users is evident. Large-scale Wireless LANs (WLANs) can provide such a service, but they are expensive to deploy and maintain. Open WLAN access-points (APs), on the other hand, need no new deployments, but can offer only opportunistic services with no guarantees on short term throughput. In contrast, a carefully planned sparse deployment of roadside WiFi provides an economically scalable infrastructure with quality of service assurance to mobile users. In this paper, we propose to study deployment techniques for providing roadside WiFi services. In particular, we present a new metric, called Contact Opportunity, as a characterization of a roadside WiFi network. Informally, the contact opportunity for a given deployment measures the fraction of distance or time that a mobile user is in contact with some AP when moving through a certain path. Such a metric is closely related to the quality of data service that a mobile user might experience while driving through the system. We then present an efficient deployment method that maximizes the worst case contact opportunity under a budget constraint. We further show how to extend this concept and the deployment techniques to a more intuitive metric – the average throughput – by taking various dynamic elements into account. Simulations over a real road network and experimental results show that our approach achieves more than 200 % higher minimum contact opportunity, 30%-100 % higher average contact opportunity and a significantly improved distribution of average throughput compared with two commonly used algorithms. I

Preclinical Development of Mahanine-Enriched Fraction from Indian Spice Murraya koenigii for the Management of Cancer: Efficacy, Temperature/pH stability, Pharmacokinetics, Acute and Chronic Toxicity (14-180 Days) Studies

Murraya koenigii is well documented in the Indian ancient medical text “Charaka Samhita.” The carbazole alkaloid “mahanine” from this plant exhibited anticancer activity against several cancers. Here, we have taken a comprehensive study to standardize the method for the preparation of a mahanine-enriched fraction (MEF) with the highest yield and defined markers. Our optimized method produced MEF having the highest amount of mahanine, a major marker, with excellent in vitro antiproliferative activity against ovarian and breast cancer cells as evidenced by decreased cell viability by MTT assay. Moreover, it exhibited condensed and fragmented nuclei by DAPI staining and increased annexin V-/PI-stained cells after MEF treatment, indicating apoptosis. It also exhibited good efficacy in ovarian and breast cancer syngeneic mice models, with an ED50 of 300 mg/kg body weight (BW). MEF is stable up to 40°C for ≥3 months. Its biological activity remains unchanged at a wide range of pH (1-10) for up to ~3 hours, indicating a safe oral route of administration. Additionally, the comparative pharmacokinetics of MEF and mahanine in rats showed a 31% higher bioavailability of mahanine in MEF-fed rats compared to rats fed with mahanine alone. Furthermore, mice fed with MEF at 5000 mg/kg BW single dose, 300-1500 mg/kg BW/day for 14 days, and 300 mg/kg BW/day for 28, 90, and 180 days for subacute, subchronic, chronic studies, respectively, did not show any significant clinical signs of toxicity, behavioral changes, mortality, organ weights, serum biochemistry, and hematological parameters indicating no/minimum toxicity for up to 180 days. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report showing the pH/temperature stability and chronic toxicity studies of MEF along with in vivo efficacy against breast cancer. Taken together, our study will enhance the commercial value of this highly potential medicinal plant and will be helpful as a reference material for its clinical development

Trap Coverage: Allowing Coverage Holes of Bounded Diameter in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract—Tracking of movements such as that of people, animals, vehicles, or of phenomena such as fire, can be achieved by deploying a wireless sensor network. So far only prototype systems have been deployed and hence the issue of scale has not become critical. Real-life deployments, however, will be at large scale and achieving this scale will become prohibitively expensive if we require every point in the region to be covered (i.e., full coverage), as has been the case in prototype deployments. In this paper we therefore propose a new model of coverage, called Trap Coverage, that scales well with large deployment regions. A sensor network providing Trap Coverage guarantees that any moving object or phenomena can move at most a (known) displacement before it is guaranteed to be detected by the network, for any trajectory and speed. Applications aside, trap coverage generalizes the de-facto model of full coverage by allowing holes of a given maximum diameter. From a probabilistic analysis perspective, the trap coverage model explains the continuum between percolation (when coverage holes become finite) and full coverage (when coverage holes cease to exist). We take first steps toward establishing a strong foundation for this new model of coverage. We derive reliable, explicit estimates for the density needed to achieve trap coverage with a given diameter when sensors are deployed randomly. Our density estimates are more accurate than those obtained using asymptotic critical conditions. We show by simulation that our analytical predictions of density are quite accurate even for small networks. We then propose polynomial-time algorithms to determine the level of trap coverage achieved once sensors are deployed on the ground. Finally, we point out several new research problems that arise by the introduction of the trap coverage model. I