Shuttle Entry Air Data System (SEADS) hardware development. Volume 2: History

Hardware development of the Shuttle Entry Air Data System (SEADS) is described. The system consists of an array of fourteen pressure ports, installed in an Orbiter nose cap, which, when coupled with existing fuselage mounted static pressure ports permits computation of entry flight parameters. Elements of the system that are described include the following: (1) penetration assemblies to place pressure port openings at the surface of the nose cap; (2) pressure tubes to transmit the surface pressure to transducers; (3) support posts or manifolds to provide support for, and reduce the length of, the individual pressure tubes; (4) insulation for the manifolds; and (5) a SEADS nose cap. Design, analyses, and tests to develop and certify design for flight are described. Specific tests included plasma arc exposure, radiant thermal, vibration, and structural. Volume one summarizes highlights of the program, particularly as they relate to the final design of SEADS. Volume two summarizes all of the Vought responsible activities in essentially a chronological order

Shuttle Entry Air Data System (SEADS) hardware development. Volume 1: Summary

Hardware development of the Shuttle Entry Data System (SEADS) is described. The system consists of an array of fourteen pressure ports, installed in an Orbiter nose cap, which, when coupled with existing fuselage mounted static pressure ports permits computation of entry flight parameters. Elements of the system that are described include the following: (1) penetration assemblies to place pressure port openings at the surface of the nose cap; (2) pressure tubes to transmit the surface pressure to transducers; (3) support posts or manifolds to provide support for, and reduce the length of, the individual pressure tubes; (4) insulation for the manifolds; and (5) a SEADS nose cap. Design, analyses, and tests to develop and certify design for flight are described. Specific tests include plasma arc exposure, radiant thermal, vibration, and structural. Volume one summarizes highlights of the program, particularly as they relate to the final design of SEADS. Volume two summarizes all of the Vought responsible activities in essentially a chronological order

Fastener apparatus

A fastening apparatus is adapted to be inserted and removed from one side of a work piece having an opposite side which is substantially inaccessible to a worker. A first, externally threaded member is threadingly engaged with a receiving structure, and a second member is inserted within corresponding seats or grooves for interlocking the two members. In the preferred embodiment diverting seats are provided for forming the second member into locking engagement between the receiving structure and the first member. In one embodiment, seat structures are provided for engaging frangible panels or the like for high temperature applications

Urban robotic experimentation: San Francisco, Tokyo and Dubai

Advances in robotics, artificial intelligence and automation have the potential to transform cities and urban social life. However, robotic restructuring of the city is complicated and contested. Technology is still evolving, robotic infrastructure is expensive and there are technical, trust and safety challenges in bringing robots into dynamic urban environments alongside humans. This article examines the nascent field of ‘urban robotics’ in three emblematic yet diverse national-urban contexts that are leading centres for urban robotic experimentation. Focusing on the experimental application of autonomous social robots, the article explores: (i) the rationale for urban robotic experiments and the interests involved, and (ii) the challenges and outcomes of creating meaningful urban spaces for robotic experimentation. The article makes a distinctive contribution to urban research by illuminating a potentially far-reaching but under-researched area of urban policy. It provides a conceptual framework for mapping and understanding the highly contingent, spatially uneven and socially selective processes of robotic urban experimentation

Multi-objective shop floor scheduling using monitored energy data

Modern factories will become more and more directly connected to intermittent energy sources like solar systems or wind turbines as part of a smart grid or a self-sufficient supply. However, solar systems or wind turbines are not able to provide a continuous energy supply over a certain time period. In order to enable an effective use of these intermittent energy sources without using temporary energy storages, it is necessary to rapidly and flexibly adapt the energy demand of the factory to the constantly changing requirements of the energy supply. The adaption of the energy demand to the intermittent supply results in different energy-related objectives for the production system of the factory, such as reducing energy consumption, avoiding power peaks, or achieving a power use within the available power supply. Shop Floor Scheduling can help to pursue these objectives within the production system. For this purpose, a solution methodology based on a meta-heuristic will be described for Flexible Job Shop Scheduling taking into account different energy- as well as productivity-related objectives

Degrees of change: between and within population variation in thermal reaction norms of phenology in a viviparous lizard

As the earth warms, populations will be faced with novel environments to which they may not be adapted. In the short term, populations can be buffered against the negative effects, or maximize the beneficial effects, of such environmental change via phenotypic plasticity and, in the longer term, via adaptive evolution. However, the extent and direction of these population-level responses will be dependent on the degree to which responses vary among the individuals within them (i.e., within population variation in plasticity), which is, itself, likely to vary among populations. Despite this, we have estimates of among-individual variation in plastic responses across multiple populations for only a few systems. This lack of data limits our ability to predict the consequences of environmental change for population and species persistence accurately. Here, we utilized a 16-yr data set from climatically distinct populations of the viviparous skink Niveoscincus ocellatus tracking over 1,200 litters from more than 600 females from each population to examine inter- and intrapopulation variability in the response of parturition date to environmental temperature. We found that these populations share a common population-mean reaction norm but differ in the degree to which reaction norms vary among individuals. These results suggest that even where populations share a common mean-level response, we cannot assume that they will be affected similarly by altered environmental conditions. If we are to assess how changing climates will impact species and populations accurately, we require estimates of how plastic responses vary both among and within populations.publishedVersio

Regulating sidewalk delivery robots as a disruptive new urban technology

Sidewalk delivery robots are increasingly being deployed in diverse urban contexts, raising issues about the most appropriate form of regulation to maintain pedestrian flows and protect the public. This paper examines the evolution of sidewalk robot governance in a “hot spot” of urban robotic application in the State of California (USA), where different municipal authorities have experimented with prohibitive, permissive and collaborative forms of sidewalk re-regulation in response to the various potential disruptions and risks associated with the new technology. Combining detailed policy analysis and interviews, the paper takes forward literature on the regulatory challenges and opportunities in making space for urban robotics as a disruptive technology

Sex reversal explains some, but not all, climate-mediated sex ratio variation within a viviparous reptile

Evolutionary transitions in sex-determining systems have occurred frequently yet understanding how they occur remains a major challenge. In reptiles, transitions from genetic to temperature-dependent sex determination can occur if the gene products that determine sex evolve thermal sensitivity, resulting in sex-reversed individuals. However, evidence of sex reversal is limited to oviparous reptiles. Here we used thermal experiments to test whether sex reversal is responsible for differences in sex determination in a viviparous reptile, Carinascincus ocellatus, a species with XY sex chromosomes and population-specific sex ratio response to temperature. We show that sex reversal is occurring and that its frequency is related to temperature. Sex reversal was unidirectional (phenotypic males with XX genotype) and observed in both high- and low-elevation populations. We propose that XX-biased genotypic sex ratios could produce either male- or female-biased phenotypic sex ratios as observed in low-elevation C. ocellatus under variable rates of XX sex reversal. We discuss reasons why sex reversal may not influence sex ratios at high elevation. Our results suggest that the mechanism responsible for evolutionary transitions from genotypic to temperature-dependent sex determination is more complex than can be explained by a single process such as sex reversal

Urban AI in China: social control or hyper-capitalist development in the post-smart city?

Research and wider societal debates has explored the potentially transformative role of AI in extended social control and hyper-capitalist development in China. In this paper, we use those debates to reflect on experiments with Urban AI in China. The key issue is whether AI offers something distinctive or different compared with the logics and imaginaries of ideas of the smart city. Analysis of emblematic sites of urban AI management in the cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou demonstrates: the resonances and dissonances between urban AI and smart. But they also demonstrate distinctive and complex landscape of urban AI experiments that is not neatly captured in social control and free market applications perspectives on AI. Moreover, the urban experimental contexts in which AI is being rolled, reveal aspirations for creating new “digital empires,” exploring new limits on data power and potential social resistance. The paper makes a distinctive contribution by providing a new framework for comparing logics of computational urban management in the context of emerging AI applications. As such the paper provides a distinctive framework for situating future applications of urban AI management in China and identifies the future urban research priorities