The World robot summit disaster robotics category – achievements of the 2018 preliminary competition

The World Robot Summit is a robot Olympics and aims to be held in a different country every four years from 2020. The concept of the Plant Disaster Prevention challenge is daily inspections, checks, and emergency response in industrial plants, and in this competition, robots must carry out these types of missions in a mock-up plant. The concept of the Tunnel Disaster Response and Recovery challenge is emergency response to tunnel disasters, and is a simulation competition whereby teams compete to show their ability to deal with disasters, by collecting information and removing debris. The Standard Disaster Robotics challenge assesses, in the form of a contest, the standard performance levels of a robot that are necessary for disaster prevention and emergency response. The World Robot Summit Preliminary Competition was held at Tokyo Big Sight in October 2018, and 36 teams participated in the Disaster Robotics Category. UGVs and UAVs contended the merits of new technology for solving complex problems, using core technologies such as mobility, sensing, recognition, performing operations, human interface, autonomous intelligence etc., as well as system integration and implementation of strategies for completing missions, gaining high-level results.     

Fine-tuned,molecular-composite,organosilica membranes for highly efficient propylene/propane separation via suitable pore size

Fine-tuned, molecular-composite, organosilica membranes were fabricated via the co-condensation of organosilica precursors bis(triethoxysilyl)acetylene (BTESA) and bis(triethoxysilyl)benzene (BTESB). Fourier transform infrared and UV–vis spectra confirmed the co-condensation behaviors of BTESA and BTESB. The evolution of the network structure indicated that the incorporated BTESB decreased the membrane pore size, which was determined by a modified gas translation model according to the steric effect of the phenyl groups. The incorporation of BTESB to BTESA finely tuned the membrane structure and endowed the resultant composite membrane with improved separation properties. The BTESAB 9:1 membrane (molar ratio of BTESA/BTESB was 9:1) exhibited high C₃H₆ permeance at 4.5 × 10⁻⁸ mol m⁻² s⁻¹ Pa⁻¹ and a C₃H₆/C₃H₈ permeance ratio of 33 at 50°C. One of the most important developments of this study involved clearly defining the relationship between membrane pore size and C₃H₆/C₃H₈ separation performance for organosilica membranes in single and binary separation systems.     

Computation of mutual entropy in quantum markov chains

There are several damping phenomena in quantum optics. Such phenomena have been usually explained by open systems. In statistical physics, open system dynamics have been used to study the irreversibility and the approach to equilibrium. In this paper, the dynamical change of the mutual entropy for an open system, frequently studied in the quantum optics literature, is rigorously computed through a model of quantum Markov chain. In particular, the concrete formula of Stinespring expression for such a model is obtained and applied to the derivation of the mutual entropy, and some computational results are presented.     

Effect of Milling on Slip Casting of Partially Stabilized Zirconia

Specimens of partially stabilized zirconia were slip cast from aqueous suspensions and sintered at 1500°C for 3 h. The relative density of the cast specimens and the firing shrinkage of the sintered specimens depend on the milling time for the suspension. Vickers hardness and K_IC values of 11.46±s0.07 GN/m² and 6.10 ±0.04 MN.m^3/2, respectively, were obtained for all sintered specimens. The dispersion of the suspension is important in increasing the relative density of the cast specimens.     

Chaos control and noise suppression in external-cavitysemiconductor lasers

Feedback-induced chaos and intensity noise enhancement in a laser diode with external optical feedback are studied by computer simulations. The enhancement of relative intensity noise (RIN) that is often observed in experiments is considered as a result of the feedback-induced deterministic chaos and the intensity noise suppression is treated from the viewpoint of chaos control. Especially, the conventional noise suppressing technique known as a high-frequency injection modulation is turned into a problem of stabilizing chaos through parameter modulations. We developed an analytical method which allows to optimize the modulation frequency from the linear stability analysis of the dynamical model that describes the laser diode with external feedback. The robustness of the modulation with respect to the modulation frequency and depth is verified and the results suggest the feasibility of applying our method to actual noise suppression. The RIN in the low-frequency region (up to 100 MHz) is shown to be reduced to the solitary laser level when the feedback-induced chaos is effectively controlled with the optimized modulation frequency     

Pulmonary vascular disease and operative indications in complete atrioventricular canal defect in early infancy

Pulmonary vascular disease was morphometrically analyzed in 67 patients (mean age, 19 months) with isolated complete atrioventricular canal defect. Complete obstruction of the small pulmonary arterial lumen resulting from acute fibrous proliferation and atrophy of the peripheral arterial media, which were considered absolute operative contraindications, were characteristic in six patients with Down's syndrome. Morphometric analysis of medial thickness revealed that thinning of the media of the small pulmonary arteries is generally observed at around 6 months of age in patients with complete atrioventricular canal defect and that the media in patients who have complete atrioventricular canal defect and Down's syndrome was thinner than that in such patients without Down's syndrome. These results suggest that thinning of the media as a result of two factors--Down's syndrome and aging--facilitates the rapid occurrence of fibrous intimal proliferation. Therefore intracardiac repair is desirable within 6 months of life, before medial thinning, in patients with complete atrioventricular canal defect and Down's syndrome. Excluding patients with absolute operative contraindications, the scores of the index of pulmonary vascular disease in operative survivors were below 2.0 and death occurred when scores were more than 2.2. The pulmonary vascular resistances measured in room air and by the oxygen inhalation and tolazoline tests in patients with operative contraindications were more than 7.3, 3.8, and 6.6 units.m2, respectively. We thus conclude that lung biopsy should be undertaken for patients in whom pulmonary vascular resistance is beyond these values to determine the appropriateness of surgical intervention.     

Graphite formation on Ni film by chemical vapor deposition

Thin film formation of graphite by chemical vapor deposition using 2-methyl-1,2′-naphthyl ketone as a starting material was carried out on Ni film substrates. On Ni films directly deposited on quartz glass, the graphite films were obtained when the Ni film thickness was above 1 000 Å and above 5 000 Å at 700 °C and 1 000 °C, respectively. Depositions on thinner Ni film substrates comprise amorphous carbon (a-C) or graphite tubes which was owing to the thermal coagulation of the Ni film into droplets. On the other hand, graphite film was obtained on the Ni film with thickness 10 Å when a-C was inserted between the Ni film and the quartz glass. The coagulation of the Ni film is considered to be avoided by inserting a-C layer.     

Fibre Bragg grating compression-tuned over 110 nm

A fibre Bragg grating with a tuning range covering beyond the C- and L-bands has been realised, which represents the broadest tuning range reported of any Bragg grating. The device exhibits constant spectral response and polarisation mode dispersion within these bands.     

Analytical evaluation technique of self-phase-modulation effect onthe performance of cascaded optical amplifier systems

We propose an approximate analytical evaluation technique of self-phase-modulation (SPM) in cascaded optical amplifier systems. The effect of SPM on optical pulse distortion is represented by the increase in the α-parameter of the transmitter. The waveform distortion is approximated by assuming that the pulse is transmitted over a dispersive fiber without nonlinearity. This technique greatly reduces the calculation time, and is especially useful in designing cascaded amplifier systems, evaluating theoretical maximum transmission distance