Deposits of clastic carbonate-dominated (calciclastic) sedimentary slope systems in the rock record have been identified mostly as linearly-consistent carbonate apron deposits, even though most ancient clastic carbonate slope deposits fit the submarine fan systems better. Calciclastic submarine fans are consequently rarely described and are poorly understood. Subsequently, very little is known especially in mud-dominated calciclastic submarine fan systems. Presented in this study are a sedimentological core and petrographic characterisation of samples from eleven boreholes from the Lower Carboniferous of Bowland Basin (Northwest England) that reveals a >250 m thick calciturbidite complex deposited in a calciclastic submarine fan setting. Seven facies are recognised from core and thin section characterisation and are grouped into three carbonate turbidite sequences. They include: 1) Calciturbidites, comprising mostly of highto low-density, wavy-laminated bioclast-rich facies; 2) low-density densite mudstones which are characterised by planar laminated and unlaminated muddominated facies; and 3) Calcidebrites which are muddy or hyper-concentrated debrisflow deposits occurring as poorly-sorted, chaotic, mud-supported floatstones. These

Phd by thesis

Planning algorithms are impacting technical disciplines and industries around the world, including robotics, computer-aided design, manufacturing, computer graphics, aerospace applications, drug design, and protein folding. This coherent and comprehensive book unifies material from several sources, including robotics, control theory, artificial intelligence, and algorithms. The treatment is centered on robot motion planning but integrates material on planning in discrete spaces. A major part of the book is devoted to planning under uncertainty, including decision theory, Markov decision processes, and information spaces, which are the “configuration spaces” of all sensor-based planning problems. The last part of the book delves into planning under differential constraints that arise when automating the motions of virtually any mechanical system. Developed from courses taught by the author, the book is intended for students, engineers, and researchers in robotics, artificial intelligence, and control theory as well as computer graphics, algorithms, and computational biology.

Planning Algorithms: Introductory Material

Humans perceive the three-dimensional structure of the world with apparent ease. However, despite all of the recent advances in computer vision research, the dream of having a computer interpret an image at the same level as a two-year old remains elusive. Why is computer vision such a challenging problem and what is the current state of the art? Computer Vision: Algorithms and Applications explores the variety of techniques commonly used to analyze and interpret images. It also describes challenging real-world applications where vision is being successfully used, both for specialized applications such as medical imaging, and for fun, consumer-level tasks such as image editing and stitching, which students can apply to their own personal photos and videos. More than just a source of recipes, this exceptionally authoritative and comprehensive textbook/reference also takes a scientific approach to basic vision problems, formulating physical models of the imaging process before inverting them to produce descriptions of a scene. These problems are also analyzed using statistical models and solved using rigorous engineering techniques Topics and features: structured to support active curricula and project-oriented courses, with tips in the Introduction for using the book in a variety of customized courses; presents exercises at the end of each chapter with a heavy emphasis on testing algorithms and containing numerous suggestions for small mid-term projects; provides additional material and more detailed mathematical topics in the Appendices, which cover linear algebra, numerical techniques, and Bayesian estimation theory; suggests additional reading at the end of each chapter, including the latest research in each sub-field, in addition to a full Bibliography at the end of the book; supplies supplementary course material for students at the associated website, http://szeliski.org/Book/. Suitable for an upper-level undergraduate or graduate-level course in computer science or engineering, this textbook focuses on basic techniques that work under real-world conditions and encourages students to push their creative boundaries. Its design and exposition also make it eminently suitable as a unique reference to the fundamental techniques and current research literature in computer vision.

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Computer Vision: Algorithms and Applications

We present a real-time algorithm which can recover the 3D trajectory of a monocular camera, moving rapidly through a previously unknown scene. Our system, which we dub MonoSLAM, is the first successful application of the SLAM methodology from mobile robotics to the "pure vision" domain of a single uncontrolled camera, achieving real time but drift-free performance inaccessible to structure from motion approaches. The core of the approach is the online creation of a sparse but persistent map of natural landmarks within a probabilistic framework. Our key novel contributions include an active approach to mapping and measurement, the use of a general motion model for smooth camera movement, and solutions for monocular feature initialization and feature orientation estimation. Together, these add up to an extremely efficient and robust algorithm which runs at 30 Hz with standard PC and camera hardware. This work extends the range of robotic systems in which SLAM can be usefully applied, but also opens up new areas. We present applications of MonoSLAM to real-time 3D localization and mapping for a high-performance full-size humanoid robot and live augmented reality with a hand-held camera

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MonoSLAM: Real-Time Single Camera SLAM

This paper describes the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) problem and the essential methods for solving the SLAM problem and summarizes key implementations and demonstrations of the method. While there are still many practical issues to overcome, especially in more complex outdoor environments, the general SLAM method is now a well understood and established part of robotics. Another part of the tutorial summarized more recent works in addressing some of the remaining issues in SLAM, including computation, feature representation, and data association

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Simultaneous localization and mapping: part I

The invention comprises an autonomous off-road vehicle capable of traveling at high speeds. Preferred embodiments of the invention comprise a system for sensory instrument stabilization comprises three axis assemblies movable about three orthogonal axes. The invention also comprises novel methods for generating a high accuracy route for a robotically controlled vehicle. Other aspects of the invention include drive time, perception-based path adjustments to steer a robotic vehicle within an intended corridor. Another embodiment of the invention comprises the consideration of vehicular dynamics in generating a high accuracy route and in steering a robotic vehicle within an intended corridor.

Methods, devices and systems for high-speed autonomous vehicle and high-speed autonomous vehicle

A 2-D perception system that exploits the accuracy and resolution of a laser range sensor to determine the position and orientation of a mobile robot in a mine environment is described. The perception system detects features from range sensor data and matches the features to a map of the mine to compute the sensor position. The features used are line segments and corners, which represent the typical geometry of the mine walls and intersections found in room-and-pillar-type mining. The position estimate is refined by minimizing the error between the map and sensed features. This position information can be used for autonomous navigation when a map of the mine is available or to survey the mine in order to build such a map. The technique is applied to robot navigation in a mine mockup. A refinement of this system could guide machines to yield productive, safe mining operations. >

Position estimator for underground mine equipment

Atacama Desert Trek: A Planetary Analog Field Experiment

The need for light weight yet highly mobile robotic platforms is driven by the limitation of available power. With unlimited energy, surface exploration missions could survive for months or years and greatly exceed their current productivity. The Sun-Synchronous Navigation project is developing long-duration solar-powered robot exploration through research in planning techniques and low-mass robot configurations. Hyperion is a rover designed and built for experiments in sun-synchronous exploration. This paper details Hyperion's steering mechanism and control, which features 4-wheel independent drive and an innovative passively articulated steering joint for locomotion.

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Steering and control of a passively articulated robot

A system and method for controlling an autonomously navigated vehicle uses a vehicle manager to control vehicle subsystems and to respond to commands from either a vehicle navigation system or a remote control panel. The vehicle manager controls vehicle subsystems including a speed control subsystem, a steering control subsystem, an auxiliary control subsystem, and a monitor subsystem. The speed control subsystem controls the speed of the vehicle in response to a speed command from the vehicle manager. The steering control subsystem controls the steering angle of the vehicle in response to a steering command from the vehicle manager. The auxiliary control subsystem controls auxiliary functions of the vehicle in response to an auxiliary command from the vehicle manager. The monitor subsystem monitors the status of each of the other subsystems and provides the status to the vehicle manager.

William Whittaker

Papers

Methods, devices and systems for high-speed autonomous vehicle and high-speed autonomous vehicle

Position estimator for underground mine equipment

Atacama Desert Trek: A Planetary Analog Field Experiment

Steering and control of a passively articulated robot

System and method for controlling an autonomously navigated vehicle