A Learning-Based Framework for Safe Human-Robot Collaboration with Multiple Backup Control Barrier Functions

Ensuring robot safety in complex environments is a difficult task due to actuation limits, such as torque bounds. This paper presents a safety-critical control framework that leverages learning-based switching between multiple backup controllers to formally guarantee safety under bounded control inputs while satisfying driver intention. By leveraging backup controllers designed to uphold safety and input constraints, backup control barrier functions (BCBFs) construct implicitly defined control invariance sets via a feasible quadratic program (QP). However, BCBF performance largely depends on the design and conservativeness of the chosen backup controller, especially in our setting of human-driven vehicles in complex, e.g, off-road, conditions. While conservativeness can be reduced by using multiple backup controllers, determining when to switch is an open problem. Consequently, we develop a broadcast scheme that estimates driver intention and integrates BCBFs with multiple backup strategies for human-robot interaction. An LSTM classifier uses data inputs from the robot, human, and safety algorithms to continually choose a backup controller in real-time. We demonstrate our method's efficacy on a dual-track robot in obstacle avoidance scenarios. Our framework guarantees robot safety while adhering to driver intention

A parallel solution-adaptive scheme for ideal magnetohydrodynamics

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77232/1/AIAA-1999-3273-200.pd

Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics of Saturn's magnetosphere: A global MHD simulation

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95292/1/jgra21912.pd

Drotaverinum – a new modality of prevention and treatment in cerebral vasospasm after subarachoidian hemorrhage?

Aim: This study want to demonstrate the efficaciousness of drotaverinum as a replacer of papaverine in the prevention and treatment of vasospasm. Material and method: In this study were used 20 albino Wistar male rats. Rats were divided in two groups and vasospasm was induced to the both femoral artery and after that irrigation of the femoral arteries with drotaverinum was performed to demonstrate the vasodilatation that can appear (group A). In the group B after the obtaining of vasospasm irrigation of the femoral arteries with saline solution was performed and this group was used as witness. The length of the vessels was measured when was achieved the vasospasm and also before and after the administration of the solutions. Pictures were taken at every step of dissection and solutions administration to can measure the length of arteries before and after the administration of drotaverinum and the saline solution. Results: In all rats was obtained vasospasm at the femoral artery after clipping the artery and after we irrigate with adrenaline. In the group with drotaverinum we obtained the vasodilatation and in the witness group the caliber of the vessels remain the same. The statistical analysis of the data demonstrate a significant differences between the group were was used drotaverinum and the witness group were was used the saline solution (p<0,001). Conclusions: Drotaverinum has a good vasodilatative effect on arteries and he can prevent the apparition of vasospasm and it can even treat vasospasm if occur by producing local vasodilatation and a good circulation in the area where is administrated. This study showed quantitatively that drotaverinum can treat the experimental peripheral vasospasm in rats

The Farthest Known Supernova: Support for an Accelerating Universe and a Glimpse of the Epoch of Deceleration

We present photometric observations of an apparent Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) at a redshift of ~1.7, the farthest SN observed to date. SN 1997ff, was discovered in a repeat observation by the HST of the HDF-), and serendipitously monitored with NICMOS on HST throughout the GTO campaign. The SN type can be determined from the host galaxy type:an evolved, red elliptical lacking enough recent star formation to provide a significant population of core-collapse SNe. The class- ification is further supported by diagnostics available from the observed colors and temporal behavior of the SN, both of which match a typical SN Ia. The photo- metric record of the SN includes a dozen flux measurements in the I, J, and H bands spanning 35 days in the observed frame. The redshift derived from the SN photometry, z=1.7+/-0.1, is in excellent agreement with the redshift estimate of z=1.65+/-0.15 derived from the U_300,B_450,V_606,I_814,J_110,J_125,H_160, H_165,K_s photometry of the galaxy. Optical and near-infrared spectra of the host provide a very tentative spectroscopic redshift of 1.755. Fits to observations of the SN provide constraints for the redshift-distance relation of SNe~Ia and a powerful test of the current accelerating Universe hypothesis. The apparent SN brightness is consistent with that expected in the decelerating phase of the preferred cosmological model, Omega_M~1/3, Omega_Lambda~2/3. It is inconsistent with grey dust or simple luminosity evolution, candidate astro- physical effects which could mimic past evidence for an accelerating Universe from SNe Ia at z~0.5.We consider several sources of possible systematic error including lensing, SN misclassification, selection bias, and calibration errors. Currently, none of these effects appears likely to challenge our conclusions.Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal 38 pages, 15 figures, Pretty version available at http://icarus.stsci.edu/~stefano/ariess.tar.g

A Parallel Adaptive 3D MHD Scheme for Modeling Coronal and Solar Wind Plasma Flows

A parallel adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) scheme is described for solving the governing equations of ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) in three space dimensions. This solution algorithm makes use of modern finite-volume numerical methodology to provide a combination of high solution accuracy and computational robustness. Efficient and scalable implementations of the method have been developed for massively parallel computer architectures and high performance achieved. Numerical results are discussed for a simplified model of the initiation and evolution of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the inner heliosphere. The results demonstrate the potential of this numerical tool for enhancing our understanding of coronal and solar wind plasma processes.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43790/1/11214_2004_Article_234016.pd

Halloween Storm Simulations with the Space Weather Modeling Framework

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77046/1/AIAA-2006-87-256.pd

Clustering Properties of restframe UV selected galaxies I: the correlation length derived from GALEX data in the local Universe

We present the first measurements of the angular correlation function of galaxies selected in the far (1530 A) and near (2310 A) Ultraviolet from the GALEX survey fields overlapping SDSS DR5 in low galactic extinction regions. The area used covers 120 sqdeg (GALEX - MIS) down to magnitude AB = 22, yielding a total of 100,000 galaxies. The mean correlation length is ~ 3.7 \pm 0.6 Mpc and no significant trend is seen for this value as a function of the limiting apparent magnitude or between the GALEX bands. This estimate is close to that found from samples of blue galaxies in the local universe selected in the visible, and similar to that derived at z ~ 3 for LBGs with similar rest frame selection criteria. This result supports models that predict anti-biasing of star forming galaxies at low redshift, and brings an additional clue to the downsizing of star formation at z<1.Comment: Accepted for publication in GALEX Special ApJs, December 200

Clustering Properties of restframe UV selected galaxies II: Migration of Star Formation sites with cosmic time from GALEX and CFHTLS

We analyze the clustering properties of ultraviolet selected galaxies by using GALEX-SDSS data at z<0.6 and CFHTLS deep u' imaging at z=1. These datasets provide a unique basis at z< 1 which can be directly compared with high redshift samples built with similar selection criteria. We discuss the dependence of the correlation function parameters (r0, delta) on the ultraviolet luminosity as well as the linear bias evolution. We find that the bias parameter shows a gradual decline from high (b > 2) to low redshift (b ~ 0.79^{+0.1}_{-0.08}). When accounting for the fraction of the star formation activity enclosed in the different samples, our results suggest that the bulk of star formation migrated from high mass dark matter halos at z>2 (10^12 < M_min < 10^13 M_sun, located in high density regions), to less massive halos at low redshift (M_min < 10^12 M_sun, located in low density regions). This result extends the ``downsizing'' picture (shift of the star formation activity from high stellar mass systems at high z to low stellar mass at low z) to the dark matter distribution.Comment: Accepted for Publication in the Special GALEX Ap. J. Supplement, December 2007 Version with full resolution fig1 available at http://taltos.pha.jhu.edu/~sebastien/papers/Galex_p2.ps.g

A Three-dimensional Model of the Solar Wind Incorporating Solar Magnetogram Observations

We present a new compressible MHD model for simulating the three-dimensional structure of the solar wind under steady state conditions. The initial potential magnetic field is reconstructed throughout the computational volume using the source surface method, in which the necessary boundary conditions for the field are provided by solar magnetogram data. The solar wind in our simulations is powered by the energy interchange between the plasma and large-scale MHD turbulence, assuming that the additional energy is stored in the "turbulent" internal degrees of freedom. In order to reproduce the observed bimodal structure of the solar wind, the thermodynamic quantities for the initial state are varied with the heliographic latitude and longitude depending on the strength of the radial magnetic field