Movement Detection with Event-Based Cameras: Comparison with Frame-Based Cameras in Robot Object Tracking Using Powerlink Communication

Event-based cameras are not common in industrial applications despite the fact that they can add multiple advantages for applications with moving objects. In comparison with frame-based cameras, the amount of generated data is very low while keeping the main information in the scene. For an industrial environment with interconnected systems, data reduction becomes very important to avoid network congestion and provide faster response time. However, the use of new sensors as event-based cameras is not common since they do not usually provide connectivity to industrial buses. This work develops a network node based on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), including data acquisition and tracking position for an event-based camera. It also includes spurious reduction and filtering algorithms while keeping the main features at the scene. The FPGA node also includes the stack of the network protocol to provide standard communication among other nodes. The powerlink IEEE 61158 industrial network is used to communicate the FPGA with a controller connected to a self-developed two-axis servo-controlled robot. The inverse kinematics model for the robot is included in the controller. To complete the system and provide a comparison, a traditional frame-based camera is also connected to the controller. Response time and robustness to lighting conditions are tested. Results show that, using the event-based camera, the robot can follow the object using fast image recognition achieving up to 85% percent data reduction providing an average of 99 ms faster position detection and less dispersion in position detection (4.96 mm vs. 17.74 mm in the Y-axis position, and 2.18 mm vs. 8.26 mm in the X-axis position) than the frame-based camera, showing that event-based cameras are more stable under light changes. Additionally, event-based cameras offer intrinsic advantages due to the low computational complexity required: small size, low power, reduced data and low cost. Thus, it is demonstrated how the development of new equipment and algorithms can be efficiently integrated into an industrial system, merging commercial industrial equipment with new devices

The application of robotics to a mobility aid for the elderly blind

In this paper we describe a novel application of mobile robot technology to the construction of a mobility for the frail blind. The robot mobility aid discussed in this paper physically supports the person walking behind it and provides obstacle avoidance to ensure safer travel. As in all Assistive Technology projects, a clear understanding of the user's needs is vital and we summarise the main user requirements for our device. We then describe the mechanical design, the user interface, the software and hardware architectures of our robot. We describe the results of evaluations carried out by both mobility experts and users and finally we outline our plans for further development

The Effect of Food Insecurity Training on Knowledge, Awareness, Screening, and Intervention Practices within Two Pediatric Wards at an Academic Medical Center

Background and Introduction • Food insecurity is a major driver of preventable disease. Providers can screen to identify patients at risk for food insecurity using a two-question survey tool called “The Hunger Vital Sign”. Screening barriers identified in the literature include lack of provider knowledge, comfort, and capacity for effective intervention. Addressing this provider knowledge gap through training is essential for implementing robust and sustainable clinical food insecurity screening practices. • This study aims to evaluate the effect of food insecurity education on providers’ knowledge and awareness of food insecurity and their likelihood to screen and make referrals for at-risk patients, as well as to encourage healthcare providers to foster a culture of food insecurity screening and intervention in their practices. Objectives 1. To determine providers’ knowledge of food insecurity and awareness of referral practices and resources to help patients experiencing food insecurity. 2. To determine if providers’ participation in formal food insecurity training influences their likelihood of incorporating food insecurity screening into their patient interviews. 3. To determine if providers’ action following a positive screen is affected by participating in food insecurity training.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1285/thumbnail.jp

Superembeddings, Partial Supersymmetry Breaking and Superbranes

It is advocated that the superembedding approach is a generic covariant method for the description of superbranes as models of (partial) spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. As an illustration we construct (in the framework of superembeddings) an n=1, d=3 worldvolume superfield action for a supermembrane propagating in N=1, D=4,5,7 and 11-dimensional supergravity backgrounds. We then show how in the case of an N=1, D=4 target superspace gauge fixing local worldvolume superdiffeomorphisms in the covariant supermembrane action results in an effective N=2, d=3 supersymmetric field theory with N=2 supersymmetry being spontaneously broken down to N=1. The broken part of N=2, d=3 supersymmetry is nonlinearly realized when acting on Goldstone N=1, d=3 superfields, which describe physical degrees of freedom of the model. As an introduction to the formalism, the procedure of getting effective field theories with partially broken supersymmetry by gauge fixing covariant superbrane actions is also demonstrated with a simpler example of a massive N=2, D=2 superparticle.Comment: LaTeX2e file, 31 page. (v2) Established relationship with hep-th/9901003 in new Subsection 3.6. Misprints corrected. (v3) Added acknowledgemen

Polytypic Genetic Programming

Program synthesis via heuristic search often requires a great deal of boilerplate code to adapt program APIs to the search mechanism. In addition, the majority of existing approaches are not type-safe: i.e. they can fail at runtime because the search mechanisms lack the strict type information often available to the compiler. In this article, we describe Polytope, a Scala framework that uses polytypic programming, a relatively recent advance in program abstraction. Polytope requires a minimum of boilerplate code and supports a form of strong-typing in which type rules are automatically enforced by the compiler, even for search operations such as mutation which are applied at run-time. By operating directly on language-native expressions, it provides an embeddable optimization procedure for existing code. We give a tutorial example of the specific polytypic approach we adopt and compare both runtime efficiency and required lines of code against the well-known EpochX GP framework, showing comparable performance in the former and the complete elimination of boilerplate for the latter

Green revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications of imposed innovation for the wellbeing of rural smallholders

Green Revolution policies are again being pursued to drive agricultural growth and reduce poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. However conditions have changed since the well-documented successes of the 1960s and 1970s benefited smallholders in southern Asia and beyond. We argue that under contemporary constraints the mechanisms for achieving improvements in the lives of smallholder farmers through such policies are unclear and that both policy rationale and means of governing agricultural innovation are crucial for pro-poor impacts. To critically analyze Rwanda’s Green Revolution policies and impacts from a local perspective, a mixed methods, multidimensional wellbeing approach is applied in rural areas in mountainous western Rwanda. Here Malthusian policy framing has been used to justify imposed rather than ‘‘induced innovation”. The policies involve a substantial transformation for rural farmers from a traditional polyculture system supporting subsistence and local trade to the adoption of modern seed varieties, inputs, and credit in order to specialize in marketable crops and achieve increased production and income. Although policies have been deemed successful in raising yields and conventionally measured poverty rates have fallen over the same period, such trends were found to be quite incongruous with local experiences. Disaggregated results reveal that only a relatively wealthy minority were able to adhere to the enforced modernization and policies appear to be exacerbating landlessness and inequality for poorer rural inhabitants. Negative impacts were evident for the majority of households as subsistence practices were disrupted, poverty exacerbated, local systems of knowledge, trade, and labor were impaired, and land tenure security and autonomy were curtailed. In order to mitigate the effects we recommend that inventive pro-poor forms of tenure and cooperation (none of which preclude improvements to input availability, market linkages, and infrastructure) may provide positive outcomes for rural people, and importantly in Rwanda, for those who have become landless in recent years. We conclude that policies promoting a Green Revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa should not all be considered to be pro-poor or even to be of a similar type, but rather should be the subject of rigorous impact assessment. Such assessment should be based not only on consistent, objective indicators but pay attention to localized impacts on land tenure, agricultural practices, and the wellbeing of socially differentiated people

Fast-Speed Compared to Slow-Speed Eccentric Muscle Actions are Detrimental to Jump Performance in Elite Soccer Players In-Season

Purpose: To examine the effect of fast-speed vs. slow-speed eccentric muscle actions resistance training on lower-body strength, vertical jump height, sprint speed and COD performance in elite soccer players during a competitive season. Methods: Twenty-two elite soccer players, from a single team, were randomly selected to groups that undertook either 1 s (fast speed [1S]) or 4 s (slow speed [4S]) eccentric resistance training during the in-season period. A five-week programme was conducted during an elite top division European League soccer season. Performance measures, including predicted one repetition maximum (1RM) back squat, countermovement jump (CMJ), 20 m sprint and change of direction (COD) were tested before and after the intervention period. Total match and training running distance and muscle soreness were also recorded during each week of the intervention. Results: An ANCOVA showed significant group effects (P = 0.01) for CMJ with a greater jump height in the 1S group post-intervention (95% CI [1.1 to 6.9 cm]). Despite an overall increase in 1RM pre- to post-training (95% CI [10.0 kg to 15.3 Kg], ES: 0.69), there were no significant differences (P > 0.05) between groups after the intervention. Similarly, there were no differences between groups for COD, 20 m sprint or muscle soreness. Conclusion: Faster eccentric muscle actions may be superior for increasing jumping movements in elite soccer players in-season

Testing the predictions of sex allocation hypotheses in dimorphic, cooperatively breeding riflemen

Evolutionary theory predicts that parents should invest equally in the two sexes. If one sex is more costly, a production bias is predicted in favour of the other. Two well-studied causes of differential costs are size dimorphism, in which the larger sex should be more costly, and sex-biased helping in cooperative breeders, in which the more helpful sex should be less costly because future helping ‘repays’ some of its parents’ investment. We studied a bird species in which both processes should favour production of males. Female riflemen Acanthisitta chloris are larger than males, and we documented greater provisioning effort in more female-biased broods indicating they are likely costlier to raise. Riflemen are also cooperative breeders, and males provide more help than females. Contrary to expectations, we observed no male bias in brood sex ratios, which did not differ significantly from parity. We tested whether the lack of a population-wide pattern was a result of facultative sex allocation by individual females, but this hypothesis was not supported either. Our results show an absence of adaptive patterns despite a clear directional hypothesis derived from theory. This appears to be associated with a suboptimal female-biased investment ratio. We conclude that predictions of adaptive sex allocation may falter because of mechanistic constraint, unrecognised costs and benefits, or weak selection