Dynamic collision avoidance system for a manipulator based on RGB-D data

The new paradigms of Industry 4.0 demand the collabora- tion between robot and humans. They could help and collaborate each other without any additional safety unlike other manipulators. The robot should have the ability of acquire the environment and plan (or re-plan) on-the- y the movement avoiding the obstacles and people. This paper proposes a system that acquires the environment space, based on a kinect sensor, performs the path planning of a UR5 manipulator for pick and place tasks while avoiding the objects, based on the point cloud from kinect. Results allow to validate the proposed system.Project ”TEC4Growth - Pervasive Intelligence, Enhancers and Proofs of Concept with Industrial Impact/NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000020” is financed by the North Portugal Regional Operational. Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, and through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This work is also financed by the ERDF – European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation -COMPETE 2020 Programme within project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006961, and by National Funds through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) as part of project UID/EEA/50014/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The role of endogenous versus exogenous sources in the exposome of putative genotoxins and consequences for risk assessment

The “totality” of the human exposure is conceived to encompass life-associated endogenous and exogenous aggregate exposures. Process-related contaminants (PRCs) are not only formed in foods by heat processing, but also occur endogenously in the organism as physiological components of energy metabolism, potentially also generated by the human microbiome. To arrive at a comprehensive risk assessment, it is necessary to understand the contribution of in vivo background occurrence as compared to the ingestion from exogenous sources. Hence, this review provides an overview of the knowledge on the contribution of endogenous exposure to the overall exposure to putative genotoxic food contaminants, namely ethanol, acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, acrylamide, acrolein, α,β-unsaturated alkenals, glycation compounds, N-nitroso compounds, ethylene oxide, furans, 2- and 3-MCPD, and glycidyl esters. The evidence discussed herein allows to conclude that endogenous formation of some contaminants appears to contribute substantially to the exposome. This is of critical importance for risk assessment in the cases where endogenous exposure is suspected to outweigh the exogenous one (e.g. formaldehyde and acrolein)

Multi-robot grasp planning for sequential assembly operations

This paper addresses the problem of finding robot configurations to grasp assembly parts during a sequence of collaborative assembly operations. We formulate the search for such configurations as a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP).Collision constraints in an operation and transfer constraints between operations determine the sets of feasible robot configurations. We show that solving the connected constraint graph with off-the-shelf CSP algorithms can quickly become infeasible even fora few sequential assembly operations. We present an algorithm which, through the assumption of feasible regrasps, divides the CSP into independent smaller problems that can be solved exponentially faster. The algorithm then uses local search techniques to improve this solution by removing a gradually increasing number of regrasps from the plan. The algorithm enables the user to stop the planner anytime and use the current best plan if the cost of removing regrasps from the plan exceeds the cost of executing those regrasps. We present simulation experiments to compare our algorithm’s performance toa naive algorithm which directly solves the connected constraint graph. We also present a physical robot system which uses the output of our planner to grasp and bring parts together in assembly configurations

Clinical outcome of skin yaws lesions after treatment with benzathinebenzylpenicillin in a pygmy population in Lobaye, Central African Republic

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Yaws is a bacterial skin and bone infectious disease caused by <it>Treponema pallidum pertenue</it>. It is endemic, particularly among pygmies in Central African Republic. To assess the clinical cure rate after treatment with benzathinepenicillin in this population, we conducted a cohort survey of 243 patients in the Lobaye region.</p> <p>Findings and conclusion</p> <p>The rate of healing of lesions after 5 months was 95.9%. This relatively satisfactory level of therapeutic response implies that yaws could be controlled in the Central African Republic. Thus, reinforcement of the management of new cases and of contacts is suggested.</p

Human Herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) Sequentially Shapes the NK Cell Repertoire during the Course of Asymptomatic Infection and Kaposi Sarcoma

The contribution of innate immunity to immunosurveillance of the oncogenic Human Herpes Virus 8 (HHV8) has not been studied in depth. We investigated NK cell phenotype and function in 70 HHV8-infected subjects, either asymptomatic carriers or having developed Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). Our results revealed substantial alterations of the NK cell receptor repertoire in healthy HHV8 carriers, with reduced expression of NKp30, NKp46 and CD161 receptors. In addition, down-modulation of the activating NKG2D receptor, associated with impaired NK-cell lytic capacity, was observed in patients with active KS. Resolution of KS after treatment was accompanied with restoration of NKG2D levels and NK cell activity. HHV8-latently infected endothelial cells overexpressed ligands of several NK cell receptors, including NKG2D ligands. The strong expression of NKG2D ligands by tumor cells was confirmed in situ by immunohistochemical staining of KS biopsies. However, no tumor-infiltrating NK cells were detected, suggesting a defect in NK cell homing or survival in the KS microenvironment. Among the known KS-derived immunoregulatory factors, we identified prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) as a critical element responsible for the down-modulation of NKG2D expression on resting NK cells. Moreover, PGE2 prevented up-regulation of the NKG2D and NKp30 receptors on IL-15-activated NK cells, and inhibited the IL-15-induced proliferation and survival of NK cells. Altogether, our observations are consistent with distinct immunoevasion mechanisms that allow HHV8 to escape NK cell responses stepwise, first at early stages of infection to facilitate the maintenance of viral latency, and later to promote tumor cell growth through suppression of NKG2D-mediated functions. Importantly, our results provide additional support to the use of PGE2 inhibitors as an attractive approach to treat aggressive KS, as they could restore activation and survival of tumoricidal NK cells

Manipulation planning under changing external forces

This paper presents a planner that enables robots to manipulate objects under changing external forces. Particularly, we focus on the scenario where a human applies a sequence of forceful operations, e.g. cutting and drilling, on an object that is held by a robot. The planner produces an efficient manipulation plan by choosing stable grasps on the object, by intelligently deciding when the robot should change its grasp on the object as the external forces change, and by choosing subsequent grasps such that they minimize the number of regrasps required in the long-term. Furthermore, as it switches from one grasp to the other, the planner solves the bimanual regrasping in the air by using an alternating sequence of bimanual and unimanual grasps. We also present a conic formulation to address force uncertainties inherent in human-applied external forces, using which the planner can robustly assess the stability of a grasp configuration without sacrificing planning efficiency. We provide a planner implementation on a dual-arm robot and present a variety of simulated and real human-robot experiments to show the performance of our planner

Rapport III.6. Bilan économique des ouvrages de protection contre les crues

A graphical method for the determination of the cost of floods and the saving or ‘ benefit ’ contributed by flood protection works is described. A few reference floods are selected and their cost determined ; the recurrence frequency of these costs due to the recurrence of the main hydrographical factors considered to be responsible for the corresponding damage is defined. The ‘ benefit ’ expected from various types of structure are compared, being attributed a ‘ degree of confidence ’ depending on their frequency distribution.On expose une méthode graphique d’évaluation du coût économique des crues et des recettes apportées par un ouvrage de protection. Pour ce faire on sélectionne quelques crues de référence dont on évalue les coûts ; on définit parallèlement la fréquence de renouvellement de ces coûts par celle des paramètres hydrologiques considérés comme principaux responsables des dommages correspondants. On compare les recettes espérées, procurées par différents types d’ouvrages, en leur affectant un degré de confiance défini par leur répartition fréquentielle.Maistre P., Siméon P. Rapport III.6. Bilan économique des ouvrages de protection contre les crues. In: La prévision des crues et la protection contre les inondations. Dixièmes journées de l'hydraulique. Paris, 5, 6 et 7 juin 1968. Tome 3, 1969

A Collision Checker for Car-Like Robots Coordination

: This paper presents a geometric algorithm dealing with collision checking in the framework of multiple mobile robot coordination. We consider that several mobile robots have planned their own collision-free path by taking into account the obstacles, but ignoring the presence of other robots. We first compute the domain swept by each robot when moving along its path; such a domain is called a trace. Then the algorithm computes the coordination configurations for one robot with respect to the others, i.e. the configurations along the path where the robot enters the traces of the other robots or exits from them. This information may be exploited to coordinate the motions of all the robots. 1 Introduction This paper presents a geometric algorithm dealing with collision checking in the framework of multiple mobile robot coordination. Path planning for multiple robots has been addressed along two main axis: centralized and decentralized approaches. In the centralized approaches the sear..

Move3D: a generic platform for path planning

This paper reports on Move3D, a software platform dedicated to collision-free path planning. The algorithms are based on probabilistic approaches and take advandtage of the progress of computer performance. The generality comes from a dedicated software architecture allowing a rapid design of path planners. The paper focuses on recent results obtained in logistics for industrial installations, in graphics animation and in mobile robotics as well. 1 Introduction Path planning has been an active research field in robotics for more than 20 years [26]. Algorithms become more and more mature. Moreover, they take advantage of the increasing progresses of computer speed: with the same algorithms, it is today possible to solve problems which were out of scope five years ago. The range of the potential applications of path planning algorithms becomes broader. This paper presents the software plateform Move3D currently developed at LAAS for generic multipurpose applications. From an algorithm..