Making Bipedal Robot Experiments Reproducible and Comparable: The Eurobench Software Approach

This study describes the software methodology designed for systematic benchmarking of bipedal systems through the computation of performance indicators from data collected during an experimentation stage. Under the umbrella of the European project Eurobench, we collected approximately 30 protocols with related testbeds and scoring algorithms, aiming at characterizing the performances of humanoids, exoskeletons, and/or prosthesis under different conditions. The main challenge addressed in this study concerns the standardization of the scoring process to permit a systematic benchmark of the experiments. The complexity of this process is mainly due to the lack of consistency in how to store and organize experimental data, how to define the input and output of benchmarking algorithms, and how to implement these algorithms. We propose a simple but efficient methodology for preparing scoring algorithms, to ensure reproducibility and replicability of results. This methodology mainly constrains the interface of the software and enables the engineer to develop his/her metric in his/her favorite language. Continuous integration and deployment tools are then used to verify the replicability of the software and to generate an executable instance independent of the language through dockerization. This article presents this methodology and points at all the metrics and documentation repositories designed with this policy in Eurobench. Applying this approach to other protocols and metrics would ease the reproduction, replication, and comparison of experiments.This study is supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement no 779963, project Eurobench

Physical activity characterization:Does one site fit all?

Background: It is evident that a growing number of studies advocate a wrist-worn accelerometer for the assessment of patterns of physical activity a priori, yet the veracity of this site rather than any other body-mounted location for its accuracy in classifying activity is hitherto unexplored. Objective: The objective of this review was to identify the relative accuracy with which physical activities can be classified according to accelerometer site and analytical technique. Methods: A search of electronic databases was conducted using Web of Science, PubMed and Google Scholar. This review included studies written in the English language, published between database inception and December 2017, which characterized physical activities using a single accelerometer and reported the accuracy of the technique. Results: A total of 118 articles were initially retrieved. After duplicates were removed and the remaining articles screened, 32 full-text articles were reviewed, resulting in the inclusion of 19 articles that met the eligibility criteria. Conclusion: There is no 'one site fits all' approach to the selection of accelerometer site location or analytical technique. Research design and focus should always inform the most suitable location of attachment, and should be driven by the type of activity being characterized

Towards a Unified Terminology for Benchmarking Bipedal Systems

In the European project EUROBENCH, we are developing a framework for benchmarking the performances of bipedal systems: from humans to humanoids through wearable robots. Fair benchmarking requires defining and sharing clear and complete protocols so that bipedal systems can be studied and compared within similar and reproducible conditions. Even if the experimental methods and system comparisons are common scientific tasks, the description of the experimental protocols that are followed are rarely complete enough to allow it to be replicated. We list, in this article, the information required to properly define a protocol (e.g. experiment objectives, testbeds, type of collected and processed data, performance indicators used to score and compare experiments). Agreeing on a common terminology for benchmarking concepts will ease the evaluation of new technologies and promote communication between the different stakeholders involved in the development and use of bipedal systems.Supported by the H2020 EUROBENCH project, grant No. 779963

Inventory and mapping of Posidonia oceanica reefs of the French Mediterranean coast

International audiencePosidonia oceanicareefs along the French Mediterranean coast were inventoried and mapped using bibliographical data, analysis of aerial photos, images obtained using drone and 3D models. Sixteen previously unreported reefs and another 13 reefs that had been destroyed or disappeared were identified. In all, 75 Posidonia reef structures have were known to exist but today there are only 62 left

InContexto: Multisensor Architecture to Obtain People Context from Smartphones

The way users intectact with smartphones is changing after the improvements made in their embedded sensors. Increasingly, these devices are being employed as tools to observe individuals habits. Smartphones provide a great set of embedded sensors, such as accelerometer, digital compass, gyroscope, GPS, microphone, and camera. This paper aims to describe a distributed architecture, called inContexto, to recognize user context information using mobile phones. Moreover, it aims to infer physical actions performed by users such as walking, running, and still. Sensory data is collected by HTC magic application made in Android OS, and it was tested achieving about 97% of accuracy classifying five different actions (still, walking and running).This work was supported in part by Projects CICYT TIN2011-28620-C02-01, CICYT TEC2011-28626-C02-02, CAM CONTEXTS (S2009/TIC-1485), and DPS2008-07029- C02-02.Publicad