Topics of The Sky: Ashbery\u27s Involving Search for The Poem

An essay lived by John Ashbery\u27s Three Poems with special attention to the possibility of cosmic relevance. This paper attempts to imagine priorities and needs proper to celestial bodies. Three Poems is the consciousness that gives possibility to the text, while Blanchot, Nietzsche, and other thinkers ground its exploration in philosophical analysis

Sample Manipulation System for Sample Analysis at Mars

The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument will analyze Martian samples collected by the Mars Science Laboratory Rover with a suite of spectrometers. This paper discusses the driving requirements, design, and lessons learned in the development of the Sample Manipulation System (SMS) within SAM. The SMS stores and manipulates 74 sample cups to be used for solid sample pyrolysis experiments. Focus is given to the unique mechanism architecture developed to deliver a high packing density of sample cups in a reliable, fault tolerant manner while minimizing system mass and control complexity. Lessons learned are presented on contamination control, launch restraint mechanisms for fragile sample cups, and mechanism test data

Human-wheelchair collaboration through prediction of intention and adaptive assistance

Powered wheelchair users want to be active drivers, not just passengers. However, in some situations (varying from person to person), they may require assistance; hence, research is being carried out into the development of 'smart' wheelchairs. Predominantly, this research has been derived from the field of mobile robotics, focussing on creating autonomous systems, which unfortunately tend to treat the human as little more than a precious piece of cargo. Instead, the design should be based around each individual user's abilities and desires, maximising the amount of control they are given. In this paper, we look at how collaborative control techniques can be used to achieve this, offering the user help, as and when it is required. We then evaluate the effects of this collaboration, which is built by predicting user intentions and responding to these predictions with adaptable levels of assistance

Lifelong robot-assisted mobility: Models, Tools, and Challenges

Increasing the autonomy of users with disabilities through robot-assisted mobility has the potential of facilitating their sensorimotor and social development, as well as reducing the burden of caring for such populations in both inpatient and outpatient settings. While techniques for task-specific assistance exist, they are largely focused on satisfying short-term goals, utilising stationary user models. For lifelong users and particularly for those with rapidly changing sensorimotor skills (for example very young children), adaptive models that take into consideration these developmental trajectories are becoming very important. In this paper, we present our approach to lifelong user models for robot-assisted mobility, and discuss existing models and tools, as well as challenges that remain ahead

Increasing robotic wheelchair safety with collaborative control: Evidence from secondary task experiments

Powered wheelchairs play a vital role in bringing independence to the severely mobility-impaired. Our robotic wheelchair aims to assist users in driving safely, without undermining their capabilities or curtailing the natural development of their skills. An important research question is to determine the conditions under which shared control is most beneficial. In this paper, we describe an experiment, where a distracting secondary task caused the majority of participants to crash the wheelchair when driving without assistance. However, when they were assisted by our collaborative controller, not only did they drive safely, but they also increased their performance in the secondary task. We demonstrate that a degree of shared control is beneficial even to proficient drivers under certain circumstances, for instance when they are under a heightened workload

Robotic Wheelchairs: Scientific Experimentation or Social Intervention?

Abstract— Research in robotics is becoming an ever more applied science. Roboticists acknowledge the existence of a role for experiments in their research, but whether the results of such experiments provide useful information to the intended industry or profession remains somewhat ambiguous. In this paper, we particularly consider experiments relating to robotic wheelchairs. There are many prototype robotic wheelchairs, but what level of performance must they achieve before being accepted into mainstream society and how do we verify the reliability of such performance? How can researchers evaluate their systems effectively? We compare and contrast the metrics used by medical practitioners to gauge the mobility status of a patient with those that are popularly used in academia to evaluate robotic wheelchair performance. We conclude that to design and execute successful experiments with robotic wheelchairs, researchers must draw not only on the experience of the intended end users, but also on the expertise of the medical practitioners who assess and support the patients in the day–to–day use of their wheelchairs

Inhibition of microbial sulfate reduction in a flow-through column system by (per)chlorate treatment.

Microbial sulfate reduction is a primary cause of oil reservoir souring. Here we show that amendment with chlorate or perchlorate [collectively (per)chlorate] potentially resolves this issue. Triplicate packed columns inoculated with marine sediment were flushed with coastal water amended with yeast extract and one of nitrate, chlorate, or perchlorate. Results showed that although sulfide production was dramatically reduced by all treatments, effluent sulfide was observed in the nitrate (10 mM) treatment after an initial inhibition period. In contrast, no effluent sulfide was observed with (per)chlorate (10 mM). Microbial community analyses indicated temporal community shifts and phylogenetic clustering by treatment. Nitrate addition stimulated Xanthomonadaceae and Rhizobiaceae growth, supporting their role in nitrate metabolism. (Per)chlorate showed distinct effects on microbial community structure compared with nitrate and resulted in a general suppression of the community relative to the untreated control combined with a significant decrease in sulfate reducing species abundance indicating specific toxicity. Furthermore, chlorate stimulated Pseudomonadaceae and Pseudoalteromonadaceae, members of which are known chlorate respirers, suggesting that chlorate may also control sulfidogenesis by biocompetitive exclusion of sulfate-reduction. Perchlorate addition stimulated Desulfobulbaceae and Desulfomonadaceae, which contain sulfide oxidizing and elemental sulfur-reducing species respectively, suggesting that effluent sulfide concentrations may be controlled through sulfur redox cycling in addition to toxicity and biocompetitive exclusion. Sulfur isotope analyses further support sulfur cycling in the columns, even when sulfide is not detected. This study indicates that (per)chlorate show great promise as inhibitors of sulfidogenesis in natural communities and provides insight into which organisms and respiratory processes are involved