World Robot Challenge 2020 -- Partner Robot: A Data-Driven Approach for Room Tidying with Mobile Manipulator

Tidying up a household environment using a mobile manipulator poses various challenges in robotics, such as adaptation to large real-world environmental variations, and safe and robust deployment in the presence of humans.The Partner Robot Challenge in World Robot Challenge (WRC) 2020, a global competition held in September 2021, benchmarked tidying tasks in the real home environments, and importantly, tested for full system performances.For this challenge, we developed an entire household service robot system, which leverages a data-driven approach to adapt to numerous edge cases that occur during the execution, instead of classical manual pre-programmed solutions. In this paper, we describe the core ingredients of the proposed robot system, including visual recognition, object manipulation, and motion planning. Our robot system won the second prize, verifying the effectiveness and potential of data-driven robot systems for mobile manipulation in home environments

The GSMaP Precipitation Retrieval Algorithm for Microwave Sounders-Part I: Over-Ocean Algorithm

Abstract-We develop an over-ocean rainfall retrieval algorithm for the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) based on the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) microwave radiometer algorithm. This algorithm combines an emissionbased estimate from brightness temperature (Tb) at 23 GHz and a scattering-based estimate from Tb at 89 GHz, depending on a scattering index (SI) computed from Tb at both 89 and 150 GHz. Precipitation inhomogeneities are also taken into account. The GSMaP-retrieved rainfall from the AMSU (GSMaP_AMSU) is compared with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) standard algorithm (NOAA_AMSU)-retrieved data using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) data as a reference. Rain rates retrieved by GSMaP_AMSU have better agreement with TRMM estimates over midlatitudes during winter. Better estimates over multitudes over winter are given by the use of Tb at 23 GHz in the GSMaP_AMSU algorithm. It was also shown that GSMaP_AMSU has higher rain detection than NOAA_AMSU. Index Terms-Microwave radiometer (MWR), microwave sounder, precipitation, rain-rate retrieval

Remnants of the early solar system water enriched in heavy oxygen isotopes

Oxygen isotopic composition of our solar system is believed to have resulted from mixing of two isotopically distinct nebular reservoirs, 16O-rich and 17,18O-rich relative to Earth. The nature and composition of the 17,18O-rich reservoir are poorly constrained. We report an in situ discovery of a chemically and isotopically unique material distributed ubiquitously in fine-grained matrix of a primitive carbonaceous chondrite Acfer 094. This material formed by oxidation of Fe,Ni-metal and sulfides by water either in the solar nebula or on a planetesimal. Oxygen isotopic composition of this material indicates that the water was highly enriched in 17O and 18O (δ17,18OSMOW = +180‰ per mil), providing the first evidence for an extremely 17,18O-rich reservoir in the early solar system