Application of hand-eye coordination in reaching with a humanoid

Reaching is the prerequisite for all kinds of physical manipulation by which robots interact with the physical world. In this research project, we try to build an application on the iCub humanoid platform to reach visually seen objects located in workspace. We also investigate humans’ ability to reach to objects using visual feedback and intend for the application to reproduce human-like behavior with a simplified model. This application includes fine motor control, object recognition, spatial transformations, stereovision, gaze control, and hand-eye coordination. We also discuss different methods in both vision and control that we use in the application.Ope

Does the Dirac Cone Exist in Silicene on Metal Substrates?

Absence of the Dirac cone due to a strong band hybridization is revealed to be a common feature for epitaxial silicene on metal substrates according to our first-principles calculations for silicene on Ir, Cu, Mg, Au, Pt, Al, and Ag substrates. The destroyed Dirac cone of silicene, however, can be effectively restored with linear or parabolic dispersion by intercalating alkali metal atoms between silicene and the metal substrates, offering an opportunity to study the intriguing properties of silicene without further transfer of silicene from the metal substrates

Winter Olympic Games in South Korea: Media Coverage of NoKo and Public Opinion in the PRC and USA in 2018

Mohammed Al-Azdee, Yanmin Yu, Zeyuan Du, and Srishti Puri's poster on the media coverage of North Korea and public opinion of in both the People's Republic of Korea and the United States of America in the context of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea

Effective Thermal Conductivity Calculation and Measurement of Litz Wire based on the Porous Metal Materials Structure

Litz wires are employed in high-frequency electrical machines due to their advantages of reducing the ac losses, including minimizing the skin effect and the proximity effect. In order to improve the reliability of such machines, and enable accurate thermal predictions at the design stage, accurate calculation of the thermal conductivity of litz wire is important. In this paper, a calculation method based on the Gasar porous metal materials model is put forward. In this method, a cell model is extracted from the litz wire, and a thermal resistance network is used to calculate the equivalent thermal conductivity (ETC). Following this, two finite-element analysis (FEA) models for the same litz wire are built, one with actual thermal conductivities for the different constituent materials and another with the calculated equivalent thermal conductivity for an equivalent material, with the two models showing similar thermal characteristics. Finally, an experimental setup is built for measuring the steady-state ETC of litz wire. The apparatus structure and characteristics are described in detail, and the experiment uncertainty and measurement errors are analyzed. Three types of litz wire are measured in the experimental, and the results from experiment and calculation are consistent

Interfacial Properties of Bilayer and Trilayer Graphene on Metal Substrates

One popular approach to prepare graphene is to grow them on transition metal substrates via chemical vapor deposition. By using the density functional theory with dispersion correction, we systematically investigate for the first time the interfacial properties of bilayer (BLG) and trilayer graphene (TLG) on metal substrates. Three categories of interfacial structures are revealed. The adsorption of B(T)LG on Al, Ag, Cu, Au, and Pt substrates is a weak physisorption, but a band gap can be opened. The adsorption of B(T)LG on Ti, Ni, and Co substrates is a strong chemisorption, and a stacking-insensitive band gap is opened for the two uncontacted layers of TLG. The adsorption of B(T)LG on Pd substrate is a weaker chemisorption, with a band gap opened for the uncontacted layers. This fundamental study also helps for B(T)LG device study due to inevitable graphene/metal contact.Comment: 1 table, 8 figure