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.

/pdf/computer-vision-algorithms-and-applications-25dn6wu83j.pdf

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

/pdf/monoslam-real-time-single-camera-slam-ydmj8dc1vj.pdf

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

/pdf/simultaneous-localization-and-mapping-part-i-22ofxwafhj.pdf

Simultaneous localization and mapping: part I

A new project called Life in the Atacama (LITA) motivates navigational autonomy over 100 kilometers and over days or weeks LITA is chartered to develop technology to enable robotic astrobiology, while at the same time conducting useful research into the extremes of life on Earth Two years from now, the team must demonstrate coordinated robotic science over several weeks A key component is Mission-Level Path Planning, which plans routes that coordinate large-scale terrain avoidance, path timing, and battery energy management Its goal is to yield plans that provide a framework not only for locomotion, but for other activities like solar charging and hibernation In April 2003, we conducted the first of three field experiments in the Chilean desert This paper documents our findings on this new level of robotic autonomy

/pdf/field-experiments-in-mission-level-path-execution-and-re-na26ye6ud2.pdf

Field Experiments in Mission-Level Path Execution and Re-Planning

Carnegie Mellon University has proposed an educationaland entertainment-based robotic lunar mission which will last two years and cover 1000km on the moon and revisit several historic sites. With the transmission of live panoramic video, participants will be provided the opportunity for interactively exploring the moon through teleoperation and telepresence. The requirement of panoramic video and telepresence demands high data rates on the order of 7.5 Mbps. This is challenging since the power available for communication is approximately 100W and occupied bandwidth is limited to less than 10 MHz. The tough environment on the moon introduces additional challenges of survivability and reliability. A communication system based on a phased array antenna, Nyquist QPSK modulation and a rate 2/3 Turbo code is presented which can satisfy requirements of continuous high data rate communication at low power and bandwidth reliably over a two year mission duration. Three ground stations with 22m parabolic antennas are required around the world to maintain continuous communication. The transmission will then be relayed via satellite to the current control station location. This paper presents an overview of the mission, and communication requirements and design.

/pdf/earth-moon-communication-from-a-moving-lunar-rover-2qb0rjlv7t.pdf

Earth-Moon Communication from a Moving Lunar Rover

Carnegie Mellon University is pursuing research of robotic vehicles for lunar exploration. In our mission scenario two rovers will traverse one thousand kilometers on the Moon over a period of two years, starting in 1998. Throughout the mission the rovers will transmit to Earth rich video telemetry to be used by theme parks ventures and scientist worldwide. Critical to achieving the goals of the two-year mission is the rover's locomotion capability. The requirements of survivability in the harsh lunar environment, substantial terrainability and long term reliability drive the configuration of the locomotion system. These performance requirements have led to the consideration of a wheeled configuration as the preferred locomotion scheme for the intended lunar traverse. To achieve substantial climbing capability and mitigate body excursions we selected a six-wheeled configuration that utilizes pivot arm linkages for body suspension. In this paper we discuss the configuration of robotic locomotion for the moon, and describe analysis and experimental results obtained through testing of a physical prototype.

A prototype locomotion concept for a lunar robotic explorer

Report of the Resource Allocation for Mental health and Prescribing (RAMP) Project

Future robotic missions to the poles of the Moon and Mercury will face challenges not encountered by current and prior planetary rover missions. Careful energy-aware spatiotemporal path planning will be required to accomplish mission objectives at high cadence under changing illumination conditions. With attention to landing site and time, such spatiotemporal path planning may enable extended missions on order of months that would not otherwise be possible. This work presents improvements in energy-aware spatiotemporal path planning for multiple waypoints to significantly reduce planning time. A time-compression technique is used to simplify planning in areas where changes occur infrequently. Consideration of end-goal reachability reduces the search space. Finally, heuristics that use pre-computation with static obstacles speed up the search.

William Whittaker

Papers

Field Experiments in Mission-Level Path Execution and Re-Planning

Earth-Moon Communication from a Moving Lunar Rover

A prototype locomotion concept for a lunar robotic explorer

Report of the Resource Allocation for Mental health and Prescribing (RAMP) Project

Accelerating energy-aware spatiotemporal path planning for the lunar poles