Cropscout II, a modular mini field robot for precision agriculture

In this paper a small agricultural robot named Cropscout II is described. Besides the objective to participate in the annual Field Robot Event competition Cropscout II operates as a modular test bed for autonomous robot control using sensor fusion techniques and artificial intelligence. The main challenge in this aspect is to cope with the poorly structured environment and the variation in shape, size and color of biological objects encountered in the open field. The very flexible and modular design of the system in both the electrical and mechanical way proofed to have many advantages. Unless some of the tasks to complete were solved very well the final conclusion is that it is still a big challenge to build a robot for the wide variety of different and unpredictable outdoor conditions. Future research on all aspects is essentia

Farm level optimal water management: Assistant for irrigation under Defecit (FLOW-AID)

Flow-aid is an on-going 6th Framework European project (2006-2009) with the objective to contribute to sustainable irrigated agriculture by developing an irrigation management system that can be used for crop production in cases with limited water supply and marginal water quality. The project integrates innovative sensor technologies into a decision support system, taking into consideration boundary conditions and constraints for a number of practical growing systems in the Mediterranean. It focuses on innovative, simple and affordable, hard- and software concepts for deficit irrigation; particularly a maintenance free tensiometer, a wireless and low-power sensor network; an expert system to assist annual farm zoning and crop planning in view of expected water availability and quality; and an irrigation scheduler for allocation of water for multiple plots at farm level. The system is being evaluated at four sites located in Italy, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. The sites are chosen in such a way that they differ in the type of constraints, irrigation structures, crop types, water supplies (availability of amount and quality), the local goals, and their complexity. This paper describes the overall concept and briefly the progress of the first year research

Implicit and Explicit Self-Esteem in Current, Remitted, Recovered, and Comorbid Depression and Anxiety Disorders: The NESDA Study

BACKGROUND: Dual processing models of psychopathology emphasize the relevance of differentiating between deliberative self-evaluative processes (explicit self-esteem; ESE) and automatically-elicited affective self-associations (implicit self-esteem; ISE). It has been proposed that both low ESE and ISE would be involved in major depressive disorder (MDD) and anxiety disorders (AD). Further, it has been hypothesized that MDD and AD may result in a low ISE "scar" that may contribute to recurrence after remission. However, the available evidence provides no straightforward support for the relevance of low ISE in MDD/AD, and studies testing the relevance of discrepant SE even showed that especially high ISE combined with low ESE is predictive of the development of internalizing symptoms. However, these earlier findings have been limited by small sample sizes, poorly defined groups in terms of comorbidity and phase of the disorders, and by using inadequate indices of discrepant SE. Therefore, this study tested further the proposed role of ISE and discrepant SE in a large-scale study allowing for stricter differentiation between groups and phase of disorder. METHOD: In the context of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA), we selected participants with current MDD (n = 60), AD (n = 111), and comorbid MDD/AD (n = 71), remitted MDD (n = 41), AD (n = 29), and comorbid MDD/AD (n = 14), recovered MDD (n = 136) and AD (n = 98), and never MDD or AD controls (n = 382). The Implicit Association Test was used to index ISE and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale indexed ESE. RESULTS: Controls reported higher ESE than all other groups, and current comorbid MDD/AD had lower ESE than all other clinical groups. ISE was only lower than controls in current comorbid AD/MDD. Discrepant self-esteem (difference between ISE and ESE) was not associated with disorder status once controlling for ESE. LIMITATIONS: Cross-sectional design limits causal inferences. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest a prominent role for ESE in MDD and AD, while in comorbid MDD/AD negative self-evaluations are also present at the implicit level. There was no evidence to support the view that AD and MDD would result in a low ISE "scar"

Influence of sad mood induction on implicit self-esteem and its relationship with symptoms of depression and anxiety

Background and objectivesImplicit self-esteem (ISE) refers to the valence of triggered associations when the self is activated. Despite theories, previous studies often fail to observe low ISE in depression and anxiety. It is feasible that sad mood is required to activate dysfunctional self-associations. The present study tested the following hypotheses: i) ISE is lower following a sad mood induction (SMI); ii) the relationship between ISE and level of depression/anxiety symptoms is relatively strong when ISE is measured during sad mood; iii) individuals with higher levels of depression/anxiety symptoms will show a relatively large decrease in ISE following a SMI.MethodsIn this mixed-designed study, university students completed the self-esteem implicit association test (IAT) either at baseline (control condition; n = 46) or following a SMI (experimental condition; n = 49). To test the third hypothesis, a SMI and IAT were also given in the control condition. Both conditions completed self-report measures of explicit self-esteem (ESE), and symptoms of depression and anxiety.ResultsThere was no support for the first two hypotheses, but some support that symptoms of anxiety correlated with larger decreases in ISE following a SMI which partly supported the third hypothesis. This disappeared when controlling for multiple testing.LimitationsResults are limited to non-clinical participants.ConclusionsWhile ISE was robust against increases in sad mood, there was some tentative support that symptoms of anxiety were related to larger decreases in ISE following a SMI

Effects of a red card on goal-scoring in World Cup football matches

We examine the effect of the sending-off of a player on the goal-scoring rates in FIFA World Cup matches in tournaments from 1998 to 2014. We use a hazard rate framework in which the effect of a red card is modeled as a shift in the goal-scoring rate. A red card may harm the team that receives a red card and may be beneficial for their opponent. Indeed, we find that the goal-scoring rate of the sanctioned team goes down, while the goal-scoring rate of the non-sanctioned team goes up

Structured Design of a Novel End-Effector for a Bush Trimming Robot

The European TrimBot 2020 project researches the robotics and vision technologies to prototype the first autonomous outdoor garden trimming robot. The robot navigates over different terrains, approaches boxwood plants and trims them to a desired shape. The robot platform is based on a modified Bosch robot lawnmower,which navigates autonomously using 3D-based vision scene analysis. During trimming a robotic arm is controlled by visual servo in order to trim the bush. A novel end-effector had to be designed to guarantee flexibility of the manipulator, precision of trimming and smoothness of the trimmed bush surface. This paper describes the structured design of this bush trimmer. When faced with a design problem with many interconnecting system elements, structured design is a tool to be used to iteratively and step by step guide the designers in making the right design choices at the right moment during the different design phases. First, preliminary research is done to analyse the problem and to assess the goals of the end-effector. Second, the functions are determined and working principles are found and put into a coherent structure. Finally, this leads to a composition of several preliminary designs of which the most promising one is determined. This design is built as a working prototype. Next to this, 3D-Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools and rapid prototyping is used to test ideas along the design process. The final design, based on contra-rotating blades, was discussed in terms of how and to what extent it has met the requirements, objectives and functions found during the structured design process. Moreover, the results of lab and field tests have shown the first functional results and points of improvements have been identified. A novel trimming method, by contra-rotating blades, has been found using structured design which meets the demands and limitations of other system components of the robot