Redundant sensing for localisation in outdoor industrial environments

We describe our experiences with automating a large fork-lift type vehicle that operates outdoors and in all weather. In particular, we focus on the use of independent and robust localisation systems for reliable navigation around the worksite. Two localisation systems are briefly described. The first is based on laser range finders and retro-reflective beacons, and the second uses a two camera vision system to estimate the vehicle’s pose relative to a known model of the surrounding buildings. We show the results from an experiment where the 20 tonne experimental vehicle, an autonomous Hot Metal Carrier, was conducting autonomous operations and one of the localisation systems was deliberately made to fail.

Is the sun too bright in Queensland? An approach to robust outdoor colour beacon detection

Using cameras onboard a robot for detecting a coloured stationary target outdoors is a difficult task. Apart from the complexity of separating the target from the background scenery over different ranges, there are also the inconsistencies with direct and reflected illumination from the sun,clouds, moving and stationary objects. They can vary both the illumination on the target and its colour as perceived by the camera. In this paper, we analyse the effect of environment conditions, range to target, camera settings and image processing on the reported colours of various targets. The analysis indicates the colour space and camera configuration that provide the most consistent colour values over varying environment conditions and ranges. This information is used to develop a detection system that provides range and bearing to detected targets. The system is evaluated over various lighting conditions from bright sunlight, shadows and overcast days and demonstrates robust performance. The accuracy of the system is compared against a laser beacon detector with preliminary results indicating it to be a valuable asset for long-range coloured target detection.

Seasonal variations of outdoor air pollution and factors driving them in the school environment in rural Bhutan

A quantitative understanding of outdoor air quality in school environments is crucial given that air pollution levels inside classrooms are significantly influenced by outdoor pollution sources. To date, only a handful of studies have been conducted on this important topic in developing countries. The aim of this study was to quantify pollutant levels in the outdoor environment of a school in Bhutan and assess the factors driving them. Measurements were conducted for 16 weeks, spanning the wet and dry seasons, in a rural school in Bhutan. PM10, PM2.5, particle number (PN) and CO were measured daily using real-time instruments, while weekly samples for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbonyls and NO2 were collected using a passive sampling method. Overall mean PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations (µg/m3) were 27 and 13 for the wet, and 36 and 29 for the dry season, respectively. Only wet season data were available for PN concentrations, with a mean of 2.56 × 103 particles/cm3. Mean CO concentrations were below the detection limit of the instrumentation for the entire measurement period. Only low levels of eight VOCs were detected in both the wet and dry seasons, which presented different seasonal patterns in terms of the concentration of different compounds. The notable carbonyls were formaldehyde and hexaldehyde, with mean concentrations (µg/m3) of 2.37 and 2.41 for the wet, and 6.22 and 0.34 for the dry season, respectively. Mean NO2 cocentration for the dry season was 1.7 µg/m3, while it was below the detection limit of the instrumentation for the wet season. The pollutant concentrations were associated with a number of factors, such as cleaning and combustion activities in and around the school. A comparison with other school studies showed comparable results with a few of the studies, but in general, we found lower pollutant concentrations in the present study.

Community engagement or community conversation?: Boomtown, a large-scale regional, outdoor community theatrical event

On the 18th of July 2013, three hundred local members of Gladstone, Queensland erupted into song and dance performing the fraught history of their community harbourside through tug boat ballets, taiko drumming, German bell ringing and BMX bike riding. Over 17,500 people attended the four performances of Boomtown, a Queensland Music Festival event. This was the largest regional, outdoor community-engaged musical performance staged in Australia. The narrative moved beyond the dominant, pejorative view of Gladstone as an industrial town to include the community members’ sense of purpose and aspirations. It was a celebratory, contentious and ambitious project that sought to disrupt the traditional conventions of performance-making through working in artistically democratic ways. This article explores the potential for Australian Community Engaged Arts (CEA) projects such as Boomtown to democratically engage community members and co-create culturally meaningful work within a community. Research into CEA projects rarely consider how the often delicate conversations between practitioners and the community work. The complex processes of finding and co-writing the narrative, casting, and rehearsing Boomtown are discussed with reference to artistic director/dramaturge Sean Mee’s innovative approaches. Boomtown began with and concluded with community conversations. Skilful negotiation ensured congruence between the townspeople’s stories and the “community story” presented on stage, abrogating potential problems of narrative ownership. To supplement the research, twenty-one personal interviews were undertaken with Gladstone community members invested in the production before, during and after the project: performers, audience members and local professionals. The stories shared and emphasised in the theatricalised story were based on propitious, meaningful, local stories from lived experiences rather than preconceived, trivial or tokenistic matters, and were underpinned by a consensus formed on what was in the best interests of the majority of community members. Boomtown exposed hidden issues in the community and gave voice to thoughts, feelings and concerns which triggered not just engagement, but honest conversation within the community.

Cycling for transport and recreation: Associations with the socio-economic, natural and built environment

This study examined associations between objective environmental attributes and, separately, transport (TC) and recreational cycling (RC). Environmental attributes were more strongly associated with TC than RC. Distances to areas with the best bicycle infrastructure and urban amenities may be key environmental factors influencing TC but not RC. Government investments in bicycle infrastructure within inner Brisbane appear to have resulted in more TC than in outer areas and to appeal to residents of both the most and least disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Extending this infrastructure to residents living in disadvantaged and advantaged neighbourhoods outside the CBD could expand TC participation.

Factors influencing the outdoor concentration of carbonaceous aerosols at urban schools in Brisbane, Australia: implications for children’s exposure

This comprehensive study aimed to determine the sources and driving factors of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) concentrations in ambient PM2.5 in urban schools. Sampling was conducted outdoors at 25 schools in the Brisbane Metropolitan Area, Australia. Concentrations of primary and secondary OC were quantified using the EC tracer method, with secondary OC accounting for an average of 60%. Principal component analysis distinguished the contributing sources above the background and identified groups of schools with differing levels of primary and secondary carbonaceous aerosols. Overall, the results showed that vehicle emissions, local weather conditions and secondary organic aerosols (SOA) were the key factors influencing concentrations of carbonaceous component of PM2.5 at these schools. These results provide insights into children’s exposure to vehicle emissions and SOA at such urban schools.

Development of a robust framework for an outdoor mobile manipulation UAV

There is a growing interest to autonomously collect or manipulate objects in remote or unknown environments, such as mountains, gullies, bush-land, or rough terrain. There are several limitations of conventional methods using manned or remotely controlled aircraft. The capability of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) used in parallel with robotic manipulators could overcome some of these limitations. By enabling the autonomous exploration of both naturally hazardous environments, or areas which are biologically, chemically, or radioactively contaminated, it is possible to collect samples and data from such environments without directly exposing personnel to such risks. This paper covers the design, integration, and initial testing of a framework for outdoor mobile manipulation UAV. The framework is designed to allow further integration and testing of complex control theories, with the capability to operate outdoors in unknown environments. The results obtained act as a reference for the effectiveness of the integrated sensors and low-level control methods used for the preliminary testing, as well as identifying the key technologies needed for the development of an outdoor capable system.

Worldwide outdoor round robin study of organic photovoltaic devices and modules

Accurate characterization and reporting of organic photovoltaic (OPV) device performance remains one of the important challenges in the field. The large spread among the efficiencies of devices with the same structure reported by different groups is significantly caused by different procedures and equipment used during testing. The presented article addresses this issue by offering a new method of device testing using “suitcase sample” approach combined with outdoor testing that limits the diversity of the equipment, and a strict measurement protocol. A round robin outdoor characterization of roll-to-roll coated OPV cells and modules conducted among 46 laboratories worldwide is presented, where the samples and the testing equipment were integrated in a compact suitcase that served both as a sample transportation tool and as a holder and test equipment during testing. In addition, an internet based coordination was used via plasticphotovoltaics.org that allowed fast and efficient communication among participants and provided a controlled reporting format for the results that eased the analysis of the data. The reported deviations among the laboratories were limited to 5% when compared to the Si reference device integrated in the suitcase and were up to 8% when calculated using the local irradiance data. Therefore, this method offers a fast, cheap and efficient tool for sample sharing and testing that allows conducting outdoor measurements of OPV devices in a reproducible manner.

How can land and urban development make houses healthier?

Traditionally, the main focus of the professional community involved with indoor air quality has been indoor pollution sources, preventing or reducing their emissions, as well as lowering the impact of the sources by replacing the polluted indoor air with "fresh" outdoor air. However, urban outdoor air cannot often be considered "fresh", as it contains high concentrations of pollutants emitted from motor vehicles - the main outdoor pollution sources in cities. Evidence from epidemiological studies conducted worldwide demonstrates that outdoor air quality has considerable effects on human health, despite the fact that people spend the majority of their time indoors. This is because pollution from outdoors penetrates indoors and becomes a major constituent of indoor pollution. Urban land and transport development has significant impact on the overall air quality of the urban airshed as well as the pollution concentration in the vicinity of high-density traffic areas. Therefore, an overall improvement in indoor air quality would be achieved by lowering urban airshed pollution, as well as by lowering the impact of the hot spots on indoor air. This paper explores the elements of urban land and vehicle transport developments, their impact on global and local air quality, and how the science of outdoor pollution generation and transport in the air could be utilized in urban development towards lowering indoor air pollution.

Airborne particulate matter at a bus station : concentration levels and governing parameters

Traffic emissions are an important contributor to ambient air pollution, especially in large cities featuring extensive and high density traffic networks. Bus fleets represent a significant part of inner city traffic causing an increase in exposure to general public, passengers and drivers along bus routes and at bus stations. Limited information is available on quantification of the levels, and governing parameters affecting the air pollution exposure at bus stations. The presented study investigated the bus emissions-dominated ambient air in a large, inner city bus station, with a specific focus on submicrometer particles. The study’s objectives were (i) quantification of the concentration levels; (ii) characterisation of the spatio-temporal variation; (iii) identification of the parameters governing the emissions levels at the bus station and (iv) assessment of the relationship between particle concentrations measured at the street level (background) and within the bus station. The results show that up to 90% of the emissions at the station are ultrafine particles (smaller than 100 nm), with the concentration levels up to 10 times the value of urban ambient air background (annual) and up to 4 times the local ambient air background. The governing parameters affecting particle concentration at the station were bus flow rate and meteorological conditions (wind velocity). Particle concentration followed a diurnal trend, with an increase in the morning and evening, associated with traffic rush hours. Passengers’ exposure could be significant compared to the average outdoor and indoor exposure levels.

Assessing health risk associated with airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by chemometrics and toxic equivalency factors

Some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous in air and have been implicated as carcinogenic materials. Therefore, literature is replete with studies that are focused on their occurrence and profiles in indoor and outdoor air samples. However, because the relative potency of individual PAHs vary widely, health risks associated with the presence of PAHs in a particular environment cannot be extrapolated directly from the concentrations of individual PAHs in that environment. In addition, database on the potency of PAH mixtures is currently limited. In this paper, we have utilized multi-criteria decision making methods (MCDMs) to simultaneously correlate PAH-related health risk in some microenvironments to the concentration levels, ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) activity induction equivalency factors and toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) of PAHs found in those microenvironments. The results showed that the relative risk associated with PAHs in different air samples depends on the index used. Nevertheless, this approach offers a promising tool that could help identify microenvironments of concern and assist the prioritisation of control strategies.

Determination of particle concentration in the breathing zone for four different types of office ventilation systems

Many factors affect the airflow patterns, thermal comfort, contaminant removal efficiency and indoor air quality at individual workstations in office buildings. In this study, four ventilation systems were used in a test chamber designed to represent an area of a typical office building floor and reproduce the real characteristics of a modern office space. Measurements of particle concentration and thermal parameters (temperature and velocity) were carried out for each of the following types of ventilation systems: a) conventional air distribution system with ceiling supply and return; b) conventional air distribution system with ceiling supply and return near the floor; c) underfloor air distribution system; and d) split system. The measurements aimed to analyse the particle removal efficiency in the breathing zone and the impact of particle concentration on an individual at the workstation. The efficiency of the ventilation system was analysed by measuring particle size and concentration, ventilation effectiveness and the Indoor/Outdoor ratio. Each ventilation system showed different airflow patterns and the efficiency of each ventilation system in the removal of the particles in the breathing zone showed no correlation with particle size and the various methods of analyses used.

Extreme sports as a facilitator of ecocentricity and positive life changes

Extreme sports and extreme sports participants have been most commonly explored from a negative perspective, for example the 'need to take unnecessary risks'. This study reports on findings that indicate a more positive experience. A phenomenological method was used via unstructured interviews with 15 extreme sports participants and other first hand accounts. The extreme sports included B.A.S.E. jumping, big wave surfing, extreme skiing, waterfall kayaking, extreme mountaineering and solo rope-free climbing. Results indicate that participating in activities that involve a real chance of death, fear and the realisation that nature in its extreme is far greater and more powerful than humanity triggers positive life changes, and an eco-centric standpoint.

Waterfalls : resources for tourism

While very few waterfalls may be regarded as tourism destinations, many are attractions. This paper discusses waterfalls within the theoretical frameworks developed by economists and geographers in the field of recreation and tourism. Examples are drawn from various parts of the world, including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with Jamaica examined as a case study. Here, as in many tourism areas, although visitors usually choose their destinations for reasons other than the appeal of waterfalls, these landscape features play important roles as attractions. Often associated with ecotourism, waterfalls help to diversify the tourism product and spread the benefits as well as some of the associated problems of tourism to less developed areas.