Robot navigation control based on monocular images: An image processing algorithm for obstacle avoidance decisions

This paper covers the use of monocular vision to control autonomous navigation for a robot in a dynamically changing environment. The solution focused on using colour segmentation against a selected floor plane to distinctly separate obstacles from traversable space, this is then supplemented with canny edge detection to separate similarly coloured boundaries to the floor plane. The resulting binary map (where white identifies an obstacle-free area and black identifies an obstacle) could then be processed by fuzzy logic or neural networks to control the robot’s next movements. Findings shows that the algorithm performed strongly on solid coloured carpets, wooden and concrete floors but had difficulty in separating colours in multi-coloured floor types such as patterned carpets

Exploring miscommunication and collaborative behaviour in human-robot interaction

This paper presents the first step in designing a speech-enabled robot that is capable of natural management of miscommunication. It describes the methods and results of two WOz studies, in which dyads of naïve participants interacted in a collaborative task. The first WOz study explored human miscommunication management. The second study investigated how shared visual space and monitoring shape the processes of feedback and communication in task-oriented interactions. The results provide insights for the development of human-inspired and robust natural language interfaces in robots

A corpus-based analysis of route instructions in human-robot interaction

This paper investigates how users employ spatial descriptions to navigate a speech-enabled robot. We created a simulated environment in which users gave route instructions in a dialogic real-time interaction with a robot, which was operated by naïve participants. The ability of robot monitoring was also manipulated in two experimental conditions. The results provide evidence that the content of the instructions and strategies of the users vary depending on the conditions and demands of the interaction. As expected, the route instructions frequently were underspecified and arbitrary. The findings of this study elucidate the complexity in interpreting spatial language in HRI. However, they also point to the need for endowing mobile robots with richer dialogue resources to compensate for the uncertainties arising from language as well as the environment

Python for teaching introductory programming: A quantitative evaluation

This paper compares two different approaches of teaching introductory programming by quantitatively analysing the student assessments in a real classroom. The first approach is to emphasise the principles of object-oriented programming and design using Java from the very beginning. The second approach is to first teach the basic programming concepts (loops, branch, and use of libraries) using Python and then move on to oriented programming using Java. Each approach was adopted for one academic year (2008-09 and 2009-10) with first year undergraduate students. Quantitative analysis of the student assessments from the first semester of each year was then carried out. The results of this analysis are presented in this paper. These results suggest that the later approach leads to enhanced learning of introductory programming concepts by students

Robust Η∞Control for a Class of Discrete Time-Delay Stochastic Systems with Randomly Occurring Nonlinearities

Copyright © 2014 Yamin Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.In this paper, we consider the robust Η∞ control problem for a class of discrete time-delay stochastic systems with randomly occurring nonlinearities. The parameter uncertainties enter all the system matrices; the stochastic disturbances are both state and control dependent, and the randomly occurring nonlinearities obey the sector boundedness conditions. The purpose of the problem addressed is to design a state feedback controller such that, for all admissible uncertainties, nonlinearities, and time delays, the closed-loop system is robustly asymptotically stable in the mean square, and a prescribed Η∞ disturbance rejection attenuation level is also guaranteed. By using the Lyapunov stability theory and stochastic analysis tools, a linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach is developed to derive sufficient conditions ensuring the existence of the desired controllers, where the conditions are dependent on the lower and upper bounds of the time-varying delays. The explicit parameterization of the desired controller gains is also given. Finally, a numerical example is exploited to show the usefulness of the results obtained.This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 61374010, 61074129, and 61175111, the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China under Grant BK2012682, the Qing Lan Project of Jiangsu Province (2010), the 333 Project of Jiangsu Province (2011), and the Six Talents Peak Project of Jiangsu Province (2012)

Mobile robot localization using robust extended H-infinity filtering

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2009 Institution of Mechanical Engineers.In this paper, a novel methodology is provided for accurate localization of a mobile robot using autonomous navigation based on internal and external sensors. A new robust extended H∞ filter is developed to deal with the non-linear kinematic model of the robot and the non-linear distance measurements, together with process and measurement noises. The proposed filter relies on a two-step prediction-correction structure, which is similar to a Kalman filter. Simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.EPSRC, the Nuffield Foundation, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Existence of random attractors for a class of second order lattice dynamical systems with Brownian motions

Copyright © 2014 Yamin Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.For abstract, see attached file.The National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant nos. 61374010, 61074129, and 61175111, the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China under Grant BK2012682, the Qing Lan Project of Jiangsu Province (2010), the 333 Project of Jiangsu Province (2011), and the Six Talents Peak Project of Jiangsu Province (DZXX-047)

Enhancing Practice and Achievement in Introductory Programming With a Robot Olympics

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Decoding a Three-Dimensional Conformal Manifold

We study the one-dimensional complex conformal manifold that controls the infrared dynamics of a three-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric theory of three chiral superfields with a cubic superpotential. Two special points on this conformal manifold are the well-known XYZ model and three decoupled copies of the critical Wess-Zumino model. The conformal manifold enjoys a discrete duality group isomorphic to $S_4$ and can be thought of as an orbifold of $\mathbf{CP}^1$. We use the $4-\varepsilon$ expansion and the numerical conformal bootstrap to calculate the spectrum of conformal dimensions of low-lying operators and their OPE coefficients, and find a very good quantitative agreement between the two approaches.Comment: 59 pages, 13 figure

Multi-criteria decision-making model for supporting manufacturing settlements location in Africa after COVID-19

The COVID-19 emergency is affecting manufacturing industries all over the world. Notably, it has generated several issues in the products’ supply and the global value chain in African countries. Besides this, Africa’s manufacturing value-added rate grew only 1.5 since 2018, and the foreign direct investment (FDI) from multinational enterprises (MNEs) remains very low due to high-risk factors. Most of these factors are linked to a non-optimized location selection that can adversely affect plant performance. For these reasons, supporting decision-makers in selecting the suitable country location in Africa is crucial, both for contributing to countries’ growth and companies’ performance. This research aims at presenting a comprehensive multi-criteria decision-making model (MCDM) to be used by MNEs to evaluate the best countries to develop new manufacturing settlements, highlighting the criteria that COVID-19 has impacted. Thus, it has affected countries’ performance, impacting the plant location selection choices. A combination of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods have also been used for comparative analysis. The criteria used in the proposed approach have been validated with a panel of MNEs experts