Vision based control for fixed wing UAVs inspecting locally linear infrastructure using skid-to-turn maneuvers

The following paper proposes a novel application of Skid-to-Turn maneuvers for fixed wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) inspecting locally linear infrastructure. Fixed wing UAVs, following the design of manned aircraft, traditionally employ Bank-to-Turn maneuvers to change heading and thus direction of travel. Commonly overlooked is the effect these maneuvers have on downward facing body fixed sensors, which as a result of bank, point away from the feature during turns. By adopting Skid-to-Turn maneuvers, the aircraft is able change heading whilst maintaining wings level flight, thus allowing body fixed sensors to maintain a downward facing orientation. Eliminating roll also helps to improve data quality, as sensors are no longer subjected to the swinging motion induced as they pivot about an axis perpendicular to their line of sight. Traditional tracking controllers that apply an indirect approach of capturing ground based data by flying directly overhead can also see the feature off center due to steady state pitch and roll required to stay on course. An Image Based Visual Servo controller is developed to address this issue, allowing features to be directly tracked within the image plane. Performance of the proposed controller is tested against that of a Bank-to-Turn tracking controller driven by GPS derived cross track error in a simulation environment developed to simulate the field of view of a body fixed camera.

Speckle reduction in optical coherence tomography imaging by affine-motion image registration

Signal-degrading speckle is one factor that can reduce the quality of optical coherence tomography images. We demonstrate the use of a hierarchical model-based motion estimation processing scheme based on an affine-motion model to reduce speckle in optical coherence tomography imaging, by image registration and the averaging of multiple B-scans. The proposed technique is evaluated against other methods available in the literature. The results from a set of retinal images show the benefit of the proposed technique, which provides an improvement in signal-to-noise ratio of the square root of the number of averaged images, leading to clearer visual information in the averaged image. The benefits of the proposed technique are also explored in the case of ocular anterior segment imaging.

Dashboards adoption in the business controller’s decision making process

There has been discussion whether corporate decision-making can be helped by decision support systems regarding qualitative aspects of decision making (e.g. trouble shooting)(Löf and Möller, 2003). Intelligent decision support systems have been developed to help business controllers to perform their business analysis. However, few papers investigated the user’s point of view regarding such systems. How do decision-makers perceive the use of decision support systems, in general, and dashboards in particular? Are dashboards useful tools for business controllers? Based on the technology acceptance model and on the positive mood theory, we suggest a series of antecedent factors that influence the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of dashboards. A survey is used to collect data regarding the measurement constructs. The managerial implications of this paper consist in showing the degree of penetration of dashboards in the decision making in organizations and some of the factors that explain this respective penetration rate.

Models of collective cell motion for cell populations with different aspect ratio : diffusion, proliferation and travelling waves

Continuum, partial differential equation models are often used to describe the collective motion of cell populations, with various types of motility represented by the choice of diffusion coefficient, and cell proliferation captured by the source terms. Previously, the choice of diffusion coefficient has been largely arbitrary, with the decision to choose a particular linear or nonlinear form generally based on calibration arguments rather than making any physical connection with the underlying individual-level properties of the cell motility mechanism. In this work we provide a new link between individual-level models, which account for important cell properties such as varying cell shape and volume exclusion, and population-level partial differential equation models. We work in an exclusion process framework, considering aligned, elongated cells that may occupy more than one lattice site, in order to represent populations of agents with different sizes. Three different idealizations of the individual-level mechanism are proposed, and these are connected to three different partial differential equations, each with a different diffusion coefficient; one linear, one nonlinear and degenerate and one nonlinear and nondegenerate. We test the ability of these three models to predict the population level response of a cell spreading problem for both proliferative and nonproliferative cases. We also explore the potential of our models to predict long time travelling wave invasion rates and extend our results to two dimensional spreading and invasion. Our results show that each model can accurately predict density data for nonproliferative systems, but that only one does so for proliferative systems. Hence great care must be taken to predict density data for with varying cell shape.

Graph rigidity for near-coplanar structure from motion

Recent algorithms for monocular motion capture (MoCap) estimate weak-perspective camera matrices between images using a small subset of approximately-rigid points on the human body (i.e. the torso and hip). A problem with this approach, however, is that these points are often close to coplanar, causing canonical linear factorisation algorithms for rigid structure from motion (SFM) to become extremely sensitive to noise. In this paper, we propose an alternative solution to weak-perspective SFM based on a convex relaxation of graph rigidity. We demonstrate the success of our algorithm on both synthetic and real world data, allowing for much improved solutions to marker less MoCap problems on human bodies. Finally, we propose an approach to solve the two-fold ambiguity over bone direction using a k-nearest neighbour kernel density estimator.

Next generation low-cost motion capture systems can provide comparable spatial accuracy to high-end systems

The objective quantification of three-dimensional kinematics during different functional and occupational tasks is now more in demand than ever. The introduction of new generation of low-cost passive motion capture systems from a number of manufacturers has made this technology accessible for teaching, clinical practice and in small/medium industry. Despite the attractive nature of these systems, their accuracy remains unproved in independent tests. We assessed static linear accuracy, dynamic linear accuracy and compared gait kinematics from a Vicon MX20 system to a Natural Point OptiTrack system. In all experiments data were sampled simultaneously. We identified both systems perform excellently in linear accuracy tests with absolute errors not exceeding 1%. In gait data there was again strong agreement between the two systems in sagittal and coronal plane kinematics. Transverse plane kinematics differed by up to 3 at the knee and hip, which we attributed to the impact of soft tissue artifact accelerations on the data. We suggest that low-cost systems are comparably accurate to their high-end competitors and offer a platform with accuracy acceptable in research for laboratories with a limited budget.

A radiological method to determine the accuracy of motion capture marker placement on palpable anatomical landmarks through a shoe

The accuracy of marker placement on palpable surface anatomical landmarks is an important consideration in biomechanics. Although marker placement reliability has been studied in some depth, it remains unclear whether or not the markers are accurately positioned over the intended landmark in order to define the static position and orientation of the segment. A novel method using commonly available X-ray imaging was developed to identify the accuracy of markers placed on the shoe surface by palpating landmarks through the shoe. An anterior–posterior and lateral–medial X-ray was taken on 24 participants with a newly developed marker set applied to both the skin and shoe. The vector magnitude of both skin- and shoe-mounted markers from the anatomical landmark was calculated, as well as the mean marker offset between skin- and shoe-mounted markers. The accuracy of placing markers on the shoe relative to the skin-mounted markers, accounting for shoe thickness, was less than 5mm for all markers studied. Further, when using the developed guidelines provided in this study, the method was deemed reliable (Intra-rater ICCs¼0.50–0.92). In conclusion, the method proposed here can reliably assess marker placement accuracy on the shoe surface relative to chosen anatomical landmarks beneath the skin.

A comparison of two commercially available motion capture systems for gait analysis : high end vs low-cost

In 1999 Richards compared the accuracy of commercially available motion capture systems commonly used in biomechanics. Richards identified that in static tests the optical motion capture systems generally produced RMS errors of less than 1.0 mm. During dynamic tests, the RMS error increased to up to 4.2 mm in some systems. In the last 12 years motion capture systems have continued to evolve and now include high-resolution CCD or CMOS image sensors, wireless communication, and high full frame sampling frequencies. In addition to hardware advances, there have also been a number of advances in software, which includes improved calibration and tracking algorithms, real time data streaming, and the introduction of the c3d standard. These advances have allowed the system manufactures to maintain a high retail price in the name of advancement. In areas such as gait analysis and ergonomics many of the advanced features such as high resolution image sensors and high sampling frequencies are not required due to the nature of the task often investigated. Recently Natural Point introduced low cost cameras, which on face value appear to be suitable as at very least a high quality teaching tool in biomechanics and possibly even a research tool when coupled with the correct calibration and tracking software. The aim of the study was therefore to compare both the linear accuracy and quality of angular kinematics from a typical high end motion capture system and a low cost system during a simple task.

Reducing Actuator Switchings for Motion Control of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

A priority when designing control strategies for autonomous underwater vehicles is to emphasize their cost of implementation on a real vehicle. Indeed, due to the vehicles' design and the actuation modes usually under consideration for underwater plateforms the number of actuator switchings must be kept to a small value to insure feasibility and precision. This is the main objective of the algorithm presented in this paper. The theory is illustrated on two examples, one is a fully actuated underwater vehicle capable of motion in six-degrees-of freedom and one is minimally actuated with control motions in the vertical plane only.

Does section 420A impose ‘strict liability’ upon controllers for acts or omissions of agents and experts?

This article addresses in depth the question of whether section 420A of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) imposes ‘strict liability’ upon a controller for the failure of an agent or expert to take reasonable care. The weight of existing authority appears to suggest that controllers are liable under s 420A for the carelessness of their agents or expert advisers. However, a closer analysis of the text of the provision and relevant Australian and UK case law demonstrates that this aspect of the statutory construction of s 420A remains very much an open question. This article ultimately contends for a construction of s 420A which requires a controller to adequately supervise and scrutinise, but which does not render a blameless controller strictly liable for all careless acts and omissions of agents and expert advisers.

Reducing actuator switchings for motion control of autonomous underwater vehicles

A priority when designing control strategies for autonomous underwater vehicles is to emphasize their cost of implementation on a real vehicle and at the same time to minimize a prescribed criterion such as time, energy, payload or combination of those. Indeed, the major issue is that due to the vehicles' design and the actuation modes usually under consideration for underwater platforms the number of actuator switchings must be kept to a small value to ensure feasibility and precision. This constraint is typically not verified by optimal trajectories which might not even be piecewise constants. Our goal is to provide a feasible trajectory that minimizes the number of switchings while maintaining some qualities of the desired trajectory, such as optimality with respect to a given criterion. The one-sided Lipschitz constant is used to derive theoretical estimates. The theory is illustrated on two examples, one is a fully actuated underwater vehicle capable of motion in six degrees-of-freedom and one is minimally actuated with control motions constrained to the vertical plane.

Understanding the relationships between the calf muscle pump, ankle range of motion and healing for adults with venous leg ulcers: a review of the literature

Exercise offers the potential to improve circulation, wound healing outcomes, and functional and emotional wellbeing for adults experiencing venous leg ulceration. Individuals with chronic leg ulcers typically have multiple comorbidities such as arthritis, asthma, chronic obstructive airways disease, cardiac disease or neuromuscular disorders, which would also benefit from regular exercise. The aim of this review is to highlight the relationships between the calf muscle pump and venous return and range of ankle motion for adults with venous leg ulcers. The effect of exercise will also be considered in relation to the healing rates for adults experiencing venous leg ulceration. The findings suggest there is evidence that exercises which engage the calf muscle pump improve venous return. Ankle range of motion, which is crucial for complete activation of the calf muscle pump, can also be improved with simple, home-based exercise programs. However, observational studies still report that venous leg ulcer patients are less physically active than age-matched controls. Therefore, the behavioural reasons for not exercising must be considered. Only two studies, both underpowered, have assessed the effect of exercise on the healing rates of venous leg ulcers. In conclusion, exercise is feasible with this patient population. However, future studies with larger sample sizes are needed to provide stronger evidence to support the therapeutic benefit of exercise as an adjunct therapy in wound care.