The Design and Realization of a Sensitive Walking Platform

Legged locomotion provides robots with the capability of adapting to different terrain conditions. General complex terrain traversal methodologies solely rely on proprioception which readily leads to instability under dynamical situations. Biological legged locomotion utilizes somatosensory feedback to sense the real-time interaction of the feet with ground to enhance stability. Nevertheless, limited attention has been given to sensing the feet-terrain interaction in robotics. This project introduces a paradigm shift in robotic walking called sensitive walking realized through the development of a compliant bipedal platform. Sensitive walking extends upon the success of sensitive manipulation which utilizes tactile feedback to localize an object to grasp, determine an appropriate manipulation configuration, and constantly adapts to maintain grasp stability. Based on the same concepts of sensitive manipulation, sensitive walking utilizes podotactile feedback to enhance real-time walking stability by effectively adapting to variations in the terrain. Adapting legged robotic platforms to sensitive walking is not as simple as attaching any tactile sensor to the feet of a robot. The sensors and the limbs need to have specific characteristics that support the implementation of the algorithms and allow the biped to safely come in contact with the terrain and detect the interaction forces. The challenges in handling the synergy of hardware and sensor design, and fabrication in a podotactile-based sensitive walking robot are addressed. The bipedal platform provides contact compliance through 12 series elastic actuators and contains 190 highly flexible tactile sensors capable of sensing forces at any incident angle. Sensitive walking algorithms are provided to handle multi-legged locomotion challenges including stairs and irregular terrain

Science Education for the Future

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) of Australia conducts science-based workshops for K-12 students. The CSIRO seeks a method to assess the impact of these workshops on student interest and attitude toward science. This project developed and administered a set of assessments to gauge the programs\u27 effects on student interest and attitude. The project team collected data through the use of surveys, interviews, and observations providing the CSIRO with recommendations for program improvements and tools for ongoing assessment

Sabertooth: A High Mobility Quadrupedal Robot Platform

Team Sabertooth aimed to design and realize an innovative high mobility, quadrupedal robot platform capable of delivering a payload over terrain otherwise impassable by wheeled vehicles at a speed of 5 feet per second. The robot uses a spring system in each of its legs for energy efficient locomotion. The 4ft x 3ft x 3ft freestanding four legged robot weighs approximately 300 pounds with an additional payload capacity of 30 pounds. An important feature of the robot is the passive, two degree of freedom body joint which allows flexibility in terms of robot motions for going around tight corners and ascending stairs. A distributed control and software architecture is used for world mapping, path planning and motion control

Sabertooth: A High Mobility Quadrupedal Robot Platform

Team Sabertooth aimed to design and realize an innovative high mobility, quadrupedal robot capable of delivering a payload over terrain impassable by wheeled vehicles at a speed of 5fps. The robot is designed to ascend and descend stairs. The robot uses a spring system in each of its legs for energy efficient locomotion. The 4\u27x3\u27x3\u27 freestanding four legged robot weighs approximately 300lbs with an additional payload capacity of 30lbs. The passive two degree of freedom body joint allows flexibility in terms of robot motion for going around tight corners and ascending stairs. The system integrates sensors for staircase recognition, obstacle avoidance, and distance calculation. A distributed control and software architecture is used for world mapping, path planning and motion control

Onset of Perturbative Color Opacity at Small x and Upsilon Coherent Photoproduction off heavy nuclei at LHC

We study photon-induced coherent production of Upsilon in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions at LHC and demonstrate that the counting rates will be sufficient to measure nuclear shadowing of generalized gluon distributions. This will establish the transition from the regime of color transparency to the regime of perturbative color opacity in an unambiguous way. We argue that such measurements will provide the possibility to investigate the interaction of ultra-small color dipoles with nuclei in QCD at large energies, which are beyond the reach of the electron-nucleon (nucleus) colliders, and will unambiguously discriminate between the leading twist and higher twist scenarios of gluon nuclear shadowing.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

The Fungus <i>Beauveria bassiana</i> Alters Amounts of Sterols, Fatty Acids, and Hydroxycinnamic Acids in Potato <i>Solanum tuberosum</i>

The entomopathogenic endophytic fungus Beauveria bassiana can colonize plants resulting in growth promotion and protection against phytopathogenic microorganisms. However, physiological changes in potato plants (Solanum tuberosum) during this interaction are poorly understood. In the present work, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and high-performance liquid chromatography were used to analyze sterol, fatty acid, and phenolic acid concentrations in potato plants inoculated with B. bassiana conidia in soil. We showed an increase in amounts of stigmasterol, minor sterol compounds, and some hydroxy fatty acids in leaves after the fungal treatment. Moreover, levels of hydroxycinnamic acids, especially chlorogenic acid, were elevated in roots following the B. bassiana inoculation. We propose that these changes could have been caused by oxidative reactions, and the alterations may have resulted in growth-stimulatory and protective effects of B. bassiana on the plants

Asynchrony between host plant and insects-defoliator within a tritrophic system: The role of herbivore innate immunity

The effects of asynchrony in the phenology of spring-feeding insect-defoliators and their host plants on insects’ fitness, as well as the importance of this effect for the population dynamics of outbreaking species of insects, is a widespread and well-documented phenomenon. However, the spreading of this phenomenon through the food chain, and especially those mechanisms operating this spreading, are still unclear. In this paper, we study the effect of seasonally declined leafquality (estimated in terms of phenolics and nitrogen content) on herbivore fitness, immune parameters and resistance against pathogen by using the silver birch Betula pendula—gypsy moth Lymantria dispar—nucleopolyhedrovirus as the tritrophic system. We show that a phenological mismatch induced by the delay in the emergence of gypsy moth larvae and following feeding on mature leaves has negative effects on the female pupal weight, on the rate of larval development and on the activity of phenoloxidase in the plasma of haemolymph. In addition, the larval susceptibility to exogenous nucleopolyhydrovirus infection as well as covert virus activation were both enhanced due to the phenological mismatch. The observed effects of phenological mismatch on insect-baculovirus interaction may partially explain the strong and fast fluctuations in the population dynamics of the gypsy moth that is often observed in the studied part of the defoliator area. This study also reveals some indirect mechanisms of effect related to host plant quality, which operate through the insect innate immune status and affect resistance to both exogenous and endogenous virus

Asynchrony between Host Plant and Insects-Defoliator within a Tritrophic System: The Role of Herbivore Innate Immunity

<div><p>The effects of asynchrony in the phenology of spring-feeding insect-defoliators and their host plants on insects’ fitness, as well as the importance of this effect for the population dynamics of outbreaking species of insects, is a widespread and well-documented phenomenon. However, the spreading of this phenomenon through the food chain, and especially those mechanisms operating this spreading, are still unclear. In this paper, we study the effect of seasonally declined leafquality (estimated in terms of phenolics and nitrogen content) on herbivore fitness, immune parameters and resistance against pathogen by using the silver birch <i>Betula pendula</i>—gypsy moth <i>Lymantria dispar</i>—nucleopolyhedrovirus as the tritrophic system. We show that a phenological mismatch induced by the delay in the emergence of gypsy moth larvae and following feeding on mature leaves has negative effects on the female pupal weight, on the rate of larval development and on the activity of phenoloxidase in the plasma of haemolymph. In addition, the larval susceptibility to exogenous nucleopolyhydrovirus infection as well as covert virus activation were both enhanced due to the phenological mismatch. The observed effects of phenological mismatch on insect-baculovirus interaction may partially explain the strong and fast fluctuations in the population dynamics of the gypsy moth that is often observed in the studied part of the defoliator area. This study also reveals some indirect mechanisms of effect related to host plant quality, which operate through the insect innate immune status and affect resistance to both exogenous and endogenous virus.</p></div

The effect of mismatch in the egg hatch of <i>L</i>. <i>dispar</i> on (a) the phenoloxidase activity in the plasma of fourth instar larvae, measured as ΔA₄₉₀ min^-1μl^-1 plasma (mean±SE), on (b) the phenoloxidase activity in the plasma of fourth instar larvae, measured as ΔA₄₉₀ min^-1 mg^-1 protein (mean±SE), on (c) the encapsulation of the nylon implant inserted into the hemocoel of fourth instar larvae (mean±SE), and on (d) the total hemocytes count in the haemolymph of fourth instar larvae (mean±SE).

<p>The data were pair-wise compared by the post hoc Fisher LSD procedure. The letters above the bar mean the significant differences (at P<0.05) to be compared with the bars abbreviated by the same letters within the bar. Uppercase letters mark the differences within the female group while lowercase letters mark the differences within the male group. The asterisk means the significant differences at <i>P</i>≤0.05 between males and females within one point of mismatch.</p

The statistical analysis of the leaf chemistry dynamics during spring development of <i>Betula pendula</i> leaves (values are presented in Fig 2) carried out with regression analysis.

<p>*arabinopyranoside or arabinofuranoside</p><p>The statistical analysis of the leaf chemistry dynamics during spring development of <i>Betula pendula</i> leaves (values are presented in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0130988#pone.0130988.g002" target="_blank">Fig 2</a>) carried out with regression analysis.</p