Data-Driven Approach to Simulating Realistic Human Joint Constraints

Modeling realistic human joint limits is important for applications involving physical human-robot interaction. However, setting appropriate human joint limits is challenging because it is pose-dependent: the range of joint motion varies depending on the positions of other bones. The paper introduces a new technique to accurately simulate human joint limits in physics simulation. We propose to learn an implicit equation to represent the boundary of valid human joint configurations from real human data. The function in the implicit equation is represented by a fully connected neural network whose gradients can be efficiently computed via back-propagation. Using gradients, we can efficiently enforce realistic human joint limits through constraint forces in a physics engine or as constraints in an optimization problem.Comment: To appear at ICRA 2018; 6 pages, 9 figures; for associated video, see https://youtu.be/wzkoE7wCbu

Relation between directed polymers in random media and random bond dimer models

We reassess the relation between classical lattice dimer models and the continuum elastic description of a lattice of fluctuating polymers. In the absence of randomness we determine the density and line tension of the polymers in terms of the bond weights of hard-core dimers on the square and the hexagonal lattice. For the latter, we demonstrate the equivalence of the canonical ensemble for the dimer model and the grand-canonical description for polymers by performing explicitly the continuum limit. Using this equivalence for the random bond dimer model on a square lattice, we resolve a previously observed discrepancy between numerical results for the random dimer model and a replica approach for polymers in random media. Further potential applications of the equivalence are briefly discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Hyperon Electromagnetic Properties in Two-Flavor Chiral Perturbation Theory

The pion mass dependence of hyperon electromagnetic properties is determined using two-flavor heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. Specifically we compute chiral corrections to the charge radii, magnetic moments, and magnetic radii of the spin one-half hyperons, as well as the charge radii, magnetic moments, magnetic radii, electric quadrupole moments, and quadrupole radii of the spin three-half hyperons. Results for the nucleon and delta are also included. Efficacy of the two-flavor theory is investigated by analyzing the role played by virtual kaons. For the electromagnetic properties of spin one-half hyperons, kaon loop contributions are shown to be well described by terms analytic in the pion mass squared. Similarly kaon contributions to the magnetic moments of spin three-half hyperons are well described in the two-flavor theory. The remaining electromagnetic properties of spin three-half resonances can be described in two-flavor chiral perturbation theory, however, this description fails just beyond the physical pion mass. For the case of experimentally known hyperon magnetic moments and charge radii, we demonstrate that chiral corrections are under reasonable control, in contrast to the behavior of these observables in the three-flavor chiral expansion. The formulae we derive are ideal for performing the pion mass extrapolation of lattice QCD data obtained at the physical strange quark mass.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figures, v3: published versio

Hyperon Axial Charges in Two-Flavor Chiral Perturbation Theory

We use two-flavor heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory to investigate the isovector axial charges of the spin one-half hyperons. Expressions for these hyperon axial charges are derived at next-to-leading order in the chiral expansion. We utilize phenomenological and lattice QCD inputs to assess the convergence of the two-flavor theory, which appears to be best for cascades.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figures, published versio