992 research outputs found
On the Power of Manifold Samples in Exploring Configuration Spaces and the Dimensionality of Narrow Passages
We extend our study of Motion Planning via Manifold Samples (MMS), a general
algorithmic framework that combines geometric methods for the exact and
complete analysis of low-dimensional configuration spaces with sampling-based
approaches that are appropriate for higher dimensions. The framework explores
the configuration space by taking samples that are entire low-dimensional
manifolds of the configuration space capturing its connectivity much better
than isolated point samples. The contributions of this paper are as follows:
(i) We present a recursive application of MMS in a six-dimensional
configuration space, enabling the coordination of two polygonal robots
translating and rotating amidst polygonal obstacles. In the adduced experiments
for the more demanding test cases MMS clearly outperforms PRM, with over
20-fold speedup in a coordination-tight setting. (ii) A probabilistic
completeness proof for the most prevalent case, namely MMS with samples that
are affine subspaces. (iii) A closer examination of the test cases reveals that
MMS has, in comparison to standard sampling-based algorithms, a significant
advantage in scenarios containing high-dimensional narrow passages. This
provokes a novel characterization of narrow passages which attempts to capture
their dimensionality, an attribute that had been (to a large extent) unattended
in previous definitions.Comment: 20 page
Optimal randomized incremental construction for guaranteed logarithmic planar point location
Given a planar map of segments in which we wish to efficiently locate
points, we present the first randomized incremental construction of the
well-known trapezoidal-map search-structure that only requires expected preprocessing time while deterministically guaranteeing worst-case
linear storage space and worst-case logarithmic query time. This settles a long
standing open problem; the best previously known construction time of such a
structure, which is based on a directed acyclic graph, so-called the history
DAG, and with the above worst-case space and query-time guarantees, was
expected . The result is based on a deeper understanding of the
structure of the history DAG, its depth in relation to the length of its
longest search path, as well as its correspondence to the trapezoidal search
tree. Our results immediately extend to planar maps induced by finite
collections of pairwise interior disjoint well-behaved curves.Comment: The article significantly extends the theoretical aspects of the work
presented in http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.543
Complexity of the General Chromatic Art Gallery Problem
In the original Art Gallery Problem (AGP), one seeks the minimum number of
guards required to cover a polygon . We consider the Chromatic AGP (CAGP),
where the guards are colored. As long as is completely covered, the number
of guards does not matter, but guards with overlapping visibility regions must
have different colors. This problem has applications in landmark-based mobile
robot navigation: Guards are landmarks, which have to be distinguishable (hence
the colors), and are used to encode motion primitives, \eg, "move towards the
red landmark". Let , the chromatic number of , denote the minimum
number of colors required to color any guard cover of . We show that
determining, whether is \NP-hard for all . Keeping
the number of colors minimal is of great interest for robot navigation, because
less types of landmarks lead to cheaper and more reliable recognition
Few-cycle Pulses Amplification For Attosecond Science Applications Modeling And Experiments
The emergence of mode-locked oscillators providing pulses with durations as short as a few electric-field cycles in the near infra-red has paved the way toward electric-field sensitive physics experiments. In addition, the control of the relative phase between the carrier and the pulse envelope, developed in the early 2000’s and rewarded by a Nobel price in 2005, now provides unprecedented control over the pulse behaviour. The amplification of such pulses to the millijoule level has been an on-going task in a few world-class laboratories and has triggered the dawn of attoscience, the science of events happening on an attosecond timescale. This work describes the theoretical aspects, modeling and experimental implementation of HERACLES, the Laser Plasma Laboratory optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) designed to deliver amplified carrier-envelope phase stabilized 8-fs pulses with energy beyond 1 mJ at repetition rates up to 10 kHz at 800 nm central wavelength. The design of the hybrid fiber/solid-state amplifier line delivering 85-ps pulses with energy up to 10 mJ at repetition rates in the multi-kHz regime tailored for pumping the optical parametric amplifier stages is presented. The novel stretcher/compressor design of HERACLES, suitable for handling optical pulses with spectra exceeding 300 nm of bandwidth with unprecedented flexibility, is fully modeled and also presented in the frame of this thesis. Finally, a 3D model of the multistage non-collinear optical parametric amplifier is also reported. The current and foreseen overall performances of HERACLES are presented. This facility is designed to enable attosecond physics experiments, high-harmonic generation and physics of plasma studies
Geographieunterricht videobasiert analysieren – Konzeption und Evaluation eines videobasierten Lernsettings zur Förderung der professionellen Unterrichtswahrnehmung
Lehrpersonen werden im Unterrichtsalltag mit der Heterogenität von Lerngruppen konfrontiert. Um individuelle Lernangebote initiieren zu können, muss eine Lehrperson fähig sein, heterogenitäts- und lernrelevante Ereignisse im komplexen Unterrichtsgeschehen professionell wahrzunehmen. Zur Förderung dieser domänenspezifischen Fähigkeit bei angehenden Geographielehrkräften wurde eine videobasierte Lehrveranstaltung im Rahmen der vom BMBF geförderten Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung an der Universität Münster konzipiert, durchgeführt und evaluiert. Der inhaltliche Analyseschwerpunkt liegt auf dem Einsatz von Lernunterstützungen als elementare Charakteristika eines heterogenitätssensiblen Unterrichts. Im Beitrag werden werden theorie- und empiriegestützt die Konzipierung, Durchführung und Evaluation der videobasierten Lehrveranstaltung vorgestellt
A Parallel Distributed Strategy for Arraying a Scattered Robot Swarm
We consider the problem of organizing a scattered group of robots in
two-dimensional space, with geometric maximum distance between robots. The
communication graph of the swarm is connected, but there is no central
authority for organizing it. We want to arrange them into a sorted and
equally-spaced array between the robots with lowest and highest label, while
maintaining a connected communication network.
In this paper, we describe a distributed method to accomplish these goals,
without using central control, while also keeping time, travel distance and
communication cost at a minimum. We proceed in a number of stages (leader
election, initial path construction, subtree contraction, geometric
straightening, and distributed sorting), none of which requires a central
authority, but still accomplishes best possible parallelization. The overall
arraying is performed in time, individual messages, and
travel distance. Implementation of the sorting and navigation use communication
messages of fixed size, and are a practical solution for large populations of
low-cost robots
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