Indoor Geo-location And Tracking Of Mobile Autonomous Robot

The field of robotics has always been one of fascination right from the day of Terminator. Even though we still do not have robots that can actually replicate human action and intelligence, progress is being made in the right direction. Robotic applications range from defense to civilian, in public safety and fire fighting. With the increase in urban-warfare robot tracking inside buildings and in cities form a very important application. The numerous applications range from munitions tracking to replacing soldiers for reconnaissance information. Fire fighters use robots for survey of the affected area. Tracking robots has been limited to the local area under consideration. Decision making is inhibited due to limited local knowledge and approximations have to be made. An effective decision making would involve tracking the robot in earth co-ordinates such as latitude and longitude. GPS signal provides us sufficient and reliable data for such decision making. The main drawback of using GPS is that it is unavailable indoors and also there is signal attenuation outdoors. Indoor geolocation forms the basis of tracking robots inside buildings and other places where GPS signals are unavailable. Indoor geolocation has traditionally been the field of wireless networks using techniques such as low frequency RF signals and ultra-wideband antennas. In this thesis we propose a novel method for achieving geolocation and enable tracking. Geolocation and tracking are achieved by a combination of Gyroscope and encoders together referred to as the Inertial Navigation System (INS). Gyroscopes have been widely used in aerospace applications for stabilizing aircrafts. In our case we use gyroscope as means of determining the heading of the robot. Further, commands can be sent to the robot when it is off balance or off-track. Sensors are inherently error prone; hence the process of geolocation is complicated and limited by the imperfect mathematical modeling of input noise. We make use of Kalman Filter for processing erroneous sensor data, as it provides us a robust and stable algorithm. The error characteristics of the sensors are input to the Kalman Filter and filtered data is obtained. We have performed a large set of experiments, both indoors and outdoors to test the reliability of the system. In outdoors we have used the GPS signal to aid the INS measurements. When indoors we utilize the last known position and extrapolate to obtain the GPS co-ordinates

Establishment of the nasal microbiota in the first 18 months of life: Correlation with early-onset rhinitis and wheezing.

BACKGROUND: Dynamic establishment of the nasal microbiota in early life influences local mucosal immune responses and susceptibility to childhood respiratory disorders. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this case-control study was to monitor, evaluate, and compare development of the nasal microbiota of infants with rhinitis and wheeze in the first 18 months of life with those of healthy control subjects. METHODS: Anterior nasal swabs of 122 subjects belonging to the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) birth cohort were collected longitudinally over 7 time points in the first 18 months of life. Nasal microbiota signatures were analyzed by using 16S rRNA multiplexed pair-end sequencing from 3 clinical groups: (1) patients with rhinitis alone (n = 28), (2) patients with rhinitis with concomitant wheeze (n = 34), and (3) healthy control subjects (n = 60). RESULTS: Maturation of the nasal microbiome followed distinctive patterns in infants from both rhinitis groups compared with control subjects. Bacterial diversity increased over the period of 18 months of life in control infants, whereas infants with rhinitis showed a decreasing trend (P < .05). An increase in abundance of the Oxalobacteraceae family (Proteobacteria phylum) and Aerococcaceae family (Firmicutes phylum) was associated with rhinitis and concomitant wheeze (adjusted P < .01), whereas the Corynebacteriaceae family (Actinobacteria phylum) and early colonization with the Staphylococcaceae family (Firmicutes phylum; 3 weeks until 9 months) were associated with control subjects (adjusted P < .05). The only difference between the rhinitis and control groups was a reduced abundance of the Corynebacteriaceae family (adjusted P < .05). Determinants of nasal microbiota succession included sex, mode of delivery, presence of siblings, and infant care attendance. CONCLUSION: Our results support the hypothesis that the nasal microbiome is involved in development of early-onset rhinitis and wheeze in infants

Photoproduct selectivity in reactions involving singlet and triplet excited states within bile salt micelles

Generally, photochemical reactions tend to give more than one product. For such reactions to be useful one should be able to control them to yield a single product. Of the many approaches used in this context, the use of reaction media with features different from those of isotropic solutions has been very effective. We provide results of our studies on four reactions within bile salt micelles (cholic acid and deoxycholic acid). These four reactions involve homolytic cleavage of a C-C or C-O bond to yield either a singlet or triplet radical pair. The bile salt micelles control the rotational and translational mobilities of the radical pair, resulting in photoproduct selectivity. The dynamic nature of the bile salt micelles results in differential effects on the singlet and triplet radical pairs

Photochemical studies on manganese-quinone complexes: Part 1- Photoinduced intramolecular electron transfer in bis(aquo)bis(phthiocolato) manganese(II)

575-578[Mn(II)(phth)2(H2O)2] complex (phth =anion of 2-methyl-3-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone), after the xenon lamp flash photolysis in ethanol undergoes an intramolecular electron transfer involving oxidation of manganese(II) center and generation of a semiquinone species.This isconfirmedby optical and EPR spectra indicating charge transfer to ligand (CTTL) photochemistry

Regioselective photodimerization of cinnamic acids in water: templation with cucurbiturils

Cinnamic acids upon irradiation in solution undergo geometric isomerization while dimerizing to different dimers in the crystalline state. Controlling the nature of the dimer formed upon irradiation remains a challenging task. We have aligned a variety of cinnamic acid molecules in a head-head fashion employing cucurbit[8]uril, a weakly water soluble host as a template. The water solubility of cucurbit[8]uril is enhanced by inclusion of water soluble cinnamic acids and positions the olefins in an arrangement that favors the formation of syn head-head cyclobutanes in near quantitative yields. This methodology works in both solid state as well as in aqueous solution. Irradiation of cinnamic acid complexes with γ-cyclodextrin has been carried out as a comparison. We find that while cucurbit[8]uril functions well both in solid state and aqueous solution, cyclodextrin works best as solid complexes only. Consistent with the postulated requirement of large cavities for templating olefins to dimerization, irradiation of complexes of cinnamic acid with cucurbit[7]uril resulted in only the corresponding cis isomers

Templating photodimerization of trans-cinnamic acids with cucurbit[8]uril and γ-cyclodextrin

Cucurbit[8]uril and γ-cyclodextrin are able to align two olefin molecules in a head-head fashion within their large cavities. Excitation of such templated olefins results in syn head-head cyclobutanes in nearly quantitative yields. The methodology revealed here works with trans-cinnamic acids that do not dimerize either in solution or in the solid state and with the ones that yield only anti head-tail dimer in the solid state

Template directed photodimerization of trans-1,2-bis(n-pyridyl)ethylenes and stilbazoles in water

Template induced photodimerization of trans-1,2-bis(n-pyridyl)ethylene dihydrochlorides and trans-n-stilbazole hydrochlorides within cucurbit[8]uril in aqueous media leads to high yields of the syn dimer

Water-Soluble Dendrimers as Photochemical Reaction Media: Chemical Behavior of Singlet and Triplet Radical Pairs Inside Dendritic Reaction Cavities

Water-soluble poly(alkyl aryl ether) dendrimers have been explored for their use as hosts of organic substrates in aqueous media. Prototypical photoreactions, namely, photo Fries reaction of (a)1-naphthyl benzoate and (b) 1-naphthyl phenyl ester and R-cleavage reaction of (a) dibenzyl ketones and(b) benzoin alkyl ethers, have been examined. We find that a dendritic microenvironment not only restricts the mobility of radical intermediates but also rigidly encapsulates the substrate, intermediates, and products from leaking to the bulk environment. Comparative studies of the same photoreactions in micellar media demonstrate that dendritic media offer much better constrainment than the micelles