I-SATCHMO: An Improvement of SATCHMO

We introduce a method for reducing the redundant search space for SATCHMO's model generation approach by means of intelligent backtracking. During the reasoning, we mark an asserted consequent atom as useful whenever it has been used as an antecedent atom for forward chaining. We show that a splitting of the consequence of a non-Horn clause is unnecessary if one of its consequent atoms is found not to be useful at the time it is retracted from the database on backtracking, and therefore the remaining splitting over the clause's consequence can be immediately abandoned. In this way, much of the redundant search space can be eliminated. Our method is simple in principle, easy to implement in Prolog, independent of other refinements, and effective for model generation theorem proving.     

Eliminating redundant search space on backtracking for forward chaining theorem proving

This paper introduces some improvements on the intelligent backtracking strategy for forward chaining theorem proving. How to decide a minimal useful consequent atom set for a refutation derived at a node in a proof tree is discussed. In most cases, an unnecessary non-Horn clause used for forward chaining will be split only once. The increase of the search space by invoking unnecessary forward chaining clauses will be nearly linear, not exponential anymore.In this paper, the principle of the proposed method and its correctness are introduced. Moreover,some examples are provided to show that the proposed approach is powerful for forward chaining theorem proving.     

Control software with supporting features to enhance the quality of tactile feedback

Tactile displays are devices for cutaneous stimulation to be integrated in haptic feedback systems e.g. in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery. In general, there are severely limited in performance due to the necessary small size. In this work, we have developed a control software with the goal to allow simple hardware to present sensible tactile information to the user. For the development and evaluation of the software including various features to improve tactile feedback, a tactile display with twelve servo-driven pins was used. With the pins moving upwards and downwards, height maps can be presented to the user’s finger. The feedback system runs at a frequency of 50 Hz which generates the sensation of a fluid movement. The supporting features include a simulation of shear forces which give the user information on the movement direction of the sensor. A smoothing algorithm was implemented to prevent jerky pin movements. High effort was put in the generation of well distinguishable vibration patterns. These serve to enhance the presentation of the height maps or even allow a second layer of information.In an evaluation series, the control software and the support functions were extensively tested. The users were capable of distinguishing differences in height as low as 0.05 mm or differences in width smaller than the pin spacing. The task to find an invisible object only with the help of different vibration patterns was solved with great success. In a practical test, the users had to pursuit invisible paths standing out from the surroundings for 1 mm and less using the mouse relying only on tactile feedback. The users showed very good performance here with each user finishing every part of the test. This leads to the conclusion that our control software is an appropriate mean to create sensible tactile feedback even with limited hardware.     

Quasi-dynamic analysis,design optimization,and evaluation of a two-finger underactuated hand

Underactuated hands are able to achieve shape adaptation to conformally grasp a wide variety of objects, while keeping low undesirable hand attributes such as weight, size, complexity and cost. The available analytical and simulation studies of planar underactuated hands normally assume quasi-static conditions and a fixed object. In the present paper, a new quasi-dynamic analysis of the grasping process in the horizontal plane by a planar, two-finger, four-joint underactuated hand is presented. The study considers object movement during the grasping process, and also contact friction with a surface that supports the object. An extensive and versatile simulation program, based on the analysis, is developed to investigate the effects of various parameters of hand and object on the grasping process. A prototype hand has been developed and the simulation results are validated experimentally. An extensive and detailed study and optimization exercise is carried out using the developed simulation tool. Specifically, the study concerns a manipulative grasping process that moves the object to the hand centerline during the process. Important new findings on the influence of link dimensions, link angular speeds, friction with the supporting surface, object mass and object size on the grasping performance of the hand in this scenario are presented. The results are used to establish new design guidelines for the hand. In particular, the results indicate that in the case where there is limited information on the size and precise initial location of the object to be grasped, the optimal hand design would involve inner to outer phalange size ratios of approximately 3:1, and inner phalange joints that are very close to each other.     

I—SATCHMORE：An Improvement of A—SATCHMORE

This paper presents an improvement of A-SATCHMORE (SATCHMORE with Availability).A-SATCHMORE incorporates relevancy testing and availability checking into SATCHMO to prune away irrelevant forward chaining.However ,considering every consequent atom of those non-Horn clauses being derivable,A-SATCHMORE may suffer from a potential explosion of the search space when some of such consequent atoms are actually underivable.This paper introduces a solution for this problem and shows its correctness.     

Fast connected-component labeling

Labeling of connected components in a binary image is one of the most fundamental operations in pattern recognition: labeling is required whenever a computer needs to recognize objects (connected components) in a binary image. This paper presents a fast two-scan algorithm for labeling of connected components in binary images. We propose an efficient procedure for assigning provisional labels to object pixels and checking label equivalence. Our algorithm is very simple in principle, easy to implement, and suitable for hardware and parallel implementation. We show the correctness of our algorithm, analyze its complexity, and compare it with other labeling algorithms. Experimental results demonstrated that our algorithm is superior to conventional labeling algorithms.     

A new algorithm for solving nearly penta-diagonal Toeplitz linear systems

A new numerical algorithm for solving nearly penta-diagonal Toeplitz linear systems is presented. The algorithm is suited for implementation using Computer Algebra Systems (CASs) such as MATLAB, MACSYMA and MAPLE. Numerical examples are given in order to illustrate the efficiency of our algorithm.     

Handwriting character classification using Freeman’s olfactory KIII model

KIII model is an olfactory model proposed by W. J. Freeman referring to a physiological structure of mammal??s olfactory system. The KIII model has been applied to kinds of pattern recognition systems, for example, electronic nose, tea classification, etc. However, the dynamics of neurons in the KIII model is given by Hodgkin-Huxley??s second-order differential equation and it consumes a very high computation cost. In this paper, we propose a simplified dynamics of chaotic neuron instead of the Hodgkin-Huxley dynamics at first, and secondly, we propose to use Fourier transformation with high resolution capability to extract features of time series behaviors of internal states of M1 nodes in KIII model instead of the conventional standard deviation method. Furthermore, paying attention to the point that human brain does visual processing as same as olfactory processing in the sense of information processing, a handwriting image recognition problem is treated as a new application field of KIII model. Through the computer simulation of the handwriting character classification, it is shown that the proposed method is useful by the comparison of experiment results with both computation time and recognition accuracy.