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Concept and design of an autonomous micro rover for long term lunar exploration
Research on robotic lunar exploration has seen a broad revival, especially since the Google Lunar X-Prize increasingly brought private endeavors into play. This development is supported by national agencies with the aim of enabling long-term lunar infrastructure for in-situ operations and the establishment of a moon village. One challenge for effective exploration missions is developing a compact and lightweight robotic rover to reduce launch costs and open the possibility for secondary payload options. Existing micro rovers for exploration missions are clearly limited by their design for one day of sunlight and their low level of autonomy. For expanding the potential mission applications and range of use, an extension of lifetime could be reached by surviving the lunar night and providing a higher level of autonomy. To address this objective, the paper presents a system design concept for a lightweight micro rover with long-term mission duration capabilities, derived from a multi-day lunar mission scenario at equatorial regions. Technical solution approaches are described, analyzed, and evaluated, with emphasis put on the harmonization of hardware selection due to a strictly limited budget in dimensions and power
On Consistent Hypothesis Testing In General Hilbert Spaces
Inference on the basis of high-dimensional and functional data are two topics which are discussed frequently in the current statistical literature. A possibility to include both topics in a single approach is working on a very general space for the underlying observations, such as a separable Hilbert space. We propose a general method for consistently hypothesis testing on the basis of random variables with values in separable Hilbert spaces. We avoid concerns with the curse of dimensionality due to a projection idea. We apply well-known test statistics from nonparametric inference to the projected data and integrate over all projections from a specific set and with respect to suitable probability measures. In contrast to classical methods, which are applicable for real-valued random variables or random vectors of dimensions lower than the sample size, the tests can be applied to random vectors of dimensions larger than the sample size or even to functional and high-dimensional data. In general, resampling procedures such as bootstrap or permutation are suitable to determine critical values. The idea can be extended to the case of incomplete observations. Moreover, we develop an efficient algorithm for implementing the method. Examples are given for testing goodness-of-fit in a one-sample situation in [1] or for testing marginal homogeneity on the basis of a paired sample in [2]. Here, the test statistics in use can be seen as generalizations of the well-known Cramérvon-Mises test statistics in the one-sample and two-samples case. The treatment of other testing problems is possible as well. By using the theory of U-statistics, for instance, asymptotic null distributions of the test statistics are obtained as the sample size tends to infinity. Standard continuity assumptions ensure the asymptotic exactness of the tests under the null hypothesis and that the tests detect any alternative in the limit. Simulation studies demonstrate size and power of the tests in the finite sample case, confirm the theoretical findings, and are used for the comparison with concurring procedures. A possible application of the general approach is inference for stock market returns, also in high data frequencies. In the field of empirical finance, statistical inference of stock market prices usually takes place on the basis of related log-returns as data. In the classical models for stock prices, i.e., the exponential Lévy model, Black-Scholes model, and Merton model, properties such as independence and stationarity of the increments ensure an independent and identically structure of the data. Specific trends during certain periods of the stock price processes can cause complications in this regard. In fact, our approach can compensate those effects by the treatment of the log-returns as random vectors or even as functional data
Blind predictions of shake table testing of aggregate masonry buildings
In many historical centers in Europe, stone masonry is part of building aggregates, which developed when the layout of the city or village was densified. The analysis of such building aggregates is very challenging and modelling guidelines missing. Advances in the development of analysis methods have been impeded by the lack of experimental data on the seismic response of such aggregates. The SERA project AIMS (Seismic Testing of Adjacent Interacting Masonry Structures) provides such experimental data by testing an aggregate of two buildings under two horizontal components of dynamic excitation. With the aim to advance the modelling of unreinforced masonry aggregates, a blind prediction competition is organized before the experimental campaign. Each group has been provided a complete set of construction drawings, material properties, testing sequence and the list of measurements to be reported. The applied modelling approaches span from equivalent frame models to Finite Element models using shell elements and discrete element models with solid elements. This paper compares the first entries, regarding the modelling approaches, results in terms of base shear, roof displacements, interface openings, and the failure modes
OpenCouch : Therapiesuche leicht gemacht.
Die Auswirkungen psychischer Erkrankungen stellen ein zunehmendes Thema in unserer Gesellschaft dar. Allein in Deutschland erkranken jedes Jahr ein Viertel aller Menschen psychisch. Besonders seit der Pandemie wächst die Nachfrage nach psychotherapeutischer Behandlung stetig an, wodurch die Wartelisten in den Praxen immer länger werden. Betroffene müssen oft ein halbes Jahr oder länger auf einen Therapieplatz warten und sind gezwungen zu nehmen, was gerade frei ist. Dabei ist es für den Therapieerfolg essenziell, dass nicht nur die Therapie auf einen abgestimmt ist, sondern auch die Chemie zwischen Therapeut:in und Patient:in passt. OpenCouch ist eine Anwendung, die Betroffene bei der Therapieplatzsuche unterstützen soll, indem sie Informationen und Tools zur Verfügung stellt, um trotz der geringen Verfügbarkeit einen Therapieplatz finden zu können, der einen Behandlungserfolg garantiert
Potential of hybrid neural network local path planner for small UAV in urban environments
This work proposes a hybrid algorithm combining an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with a conventional local path planner to navigate UAVs efficiently in various unknown urban environments. The proposed method of a Hybrid Artificial Neural Network Avoidance System is called HANNAS. The ANN analyses a video stream and classifies the current environment. This information about the current Environment is used to set several control parameters of a conventional local path planner, the 3DVFH*. The local path planner then plans the path toward a specific goal point based on distance data from a depth camera. We trained and tested a state-of-the-art image segmentation algorithm, PP-LiteSeg. The proposed HANNAS method reaches a failure probability of 17%, which is less than half the failure probability of the baseline and around half the failure probability of an improved, bio-inspired version of the 3DVFH*. The proposed HANNAS method does not show any disadvantages regarding flight time or flight distance
Ein Abschied auf Zeit : der Totenritus der Toraja
Die Kultur der Tana Toraja haben einen ganz besonderen Umgang mit dem Tod. Verstorbene werden bis zu der eigentlichen Bestattung als „krank“ angesehen und solange im Alltag mit eingebunden, ganz so als ob es sich um eine noch lebende Person handelt. Der Totenritus kann mehrere Tage andauern und Familie und Freund reisen aus dem ganzen Land herbei, um dem Fest beizuwohnen. Hier geht niemand einsam und das Sterben ist sogar ein wichtiger Bestandteil des Lebens. Studien aus Deutschland hingegen zeigen, dass zunehmend einsamer gestorben wird. Außerdem ist der Tod weiterhin ein Tabuthema. Genau dort setzt die Ausstellung und die entstandene Publikation über die Toraja-Kultur an. Einblicke in den Umgang mit dem Tod anderer Länder regen zu Reflexion und Diskurs an. Gestalterisch gibt es immer wieder Kontaktpunkte, die das Zusammenspiel der Lebenden und dem Jenseits widerspiegeln
Railway Challenge - moderne Auflage der Rainhill Trials?
Die IMechE Railway Challenge wird jährlich in Stapleford, Großbritannien ausgetragen. Im Rahmen der Challenge entwickeln und bauen Studierende eine Lokomotive und vergleichen sich in verschiedenen Disziplinen, darunter eine automatisierte Zielbremsung, optimale Energierückgewinnung beim Bremsen und minimale Geräuschemissionen. Neben diesen und weiteren technischen Wettbewerbsdisziplinen treten die Fahrzeuge und die Teams auch in nicht-technischen Disziplinen wie einer Business Case Challenge an
Automotive safety approach for future eVTOL vehicles
The eVTOL industry is a rapidly growing mass market expected to start in 2024. eVTOL compete, caused by their predicted missions, with ground-based transportation modes, including mainly passenger cars. Therefore, the automotive and classical aircraft design process is reviewed and compared to highlight advantages for eVTOL development. A special focus is on ergonomic comfort and safety. The need for further investigation of eVTOL’s crashworthiness is outlined by, first, specifying the relevance of passive safety via accident statistics and customer perception analysis; second, comparing the current state of regulation and certification; and third, discussing the advantages of integral safety and applying the automotive safety approach for eVTOL development. Integral safety links active and passive safety, while the automotive safety approach means implementing standardized mandatory full-vehicle crash tests for future eVTOL. Subsequently, possible crash impact conditions are analyzed, and three full-vehicle crash load cases are presented
Trends in commercial vehicle powertrains
Low emission zones and truck bans, the rising price of diesel and increases in road tolls: all of these factors are putting serious pressure on the transport industry. Commercial vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers are in the process of identifying new solutions to these challenges as part of their efforts to meet the EEV (enhanced environmentally friendly vehicle) limits, which are currently the most robust European exhaust and emissions standards for trucks and buses
Investigation of Flow Separation Inside a Conical Rocket Nozzle With the Aid of an Annular Cross Flow
Flow separation is a phenomenon that occurs in all kinds of supersonic nozzles sometimes during run-up and shut-down operations. Especially in expansion nozzles of rocket engines with large area ratio, flow separation can trigger strong side loads that can damage the structure of the nozzle. The investigation presented in this paper seeks to establish measures that may be applied to alter the point of flow separation. In order to achieve this, a supersonic nozzle was placed at the exit plane of the conical nozzle. This resulted in the generation of cross flow surrounding the core jet flow from the conical nozzle. Due to the entrainment of the gas stream from the conical nozzle the pressure in its exit plane was found to be lower than that of the ambient. A Cold gas instead of hot combustion gases was used as the working fluid. A mathematical simulation of the concept was validated by experiment. Measurements confirmed the simulation results that due to the introduction of a second nozzle the pressure in the separated region of the conical nozzle was significantly reduced. It was also established that the boundary layer separation inside the conical nozzle was delayed thus allowing an increased degree of overexpansion. The condition established by the pressure measurements was also demonstrated qualitatively using transparent nozzle configurations