Pose consensus in networks of heterogeneous robots with variable time delays

This paper proposes a novel pose (position and orientation) consensus controller for networks of heterogeneous robots modeled in the operational space. The proposed controller is a distributed proportional plus damping scheme that, with a slight modification, solves both the leader–follower and leaderless consensus problems. A singularity‐free representation, unit quaternion, is used to describe the robots orientation, and the network is represented by an undirected and connected interconnection graph. Furthermore, it is shown that the controller is robust to interconnection variable time delays. Experiments with a network of two 6‐degrees‐of‐freedom robots are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sparkle measurement revisited: A closer look at the details

Four years after introduction of the first instrument for measurement of sparkle, the foundations have been reconsidered, and the pool of practical experience has been analyzed to provide a more detailed and complete picture of the subject matter. The following aspects are introduced and discussed: observation conditions and resulting requirements for imaging (sampling) and filtering, analysis of spatial periods and frequencies as a basis for filtering, spatial filtering concepts, sparkle in the frequency domain, sparkle evaluation based on analysis of single images and difference images, origins of unwanted sparkle components, scaling and offset in sparkle evaluation, and verification of the method.     

DFT studies on armchair (5, 5) SWCNT functionalization. Modification of selected structural and spectroscopic parameters upon two-atom molecule attachment

Density functional theory (DFT) studies on adsorption of several gaseous homo- and hetero-diatomic molecules (AB) including H₂, O₂, N₂, NO and CO on external surface of H-capped pristine armchair (5, 5) single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) were conducted. Structures of C₇₀H₁₀ and the corresponding C₇₀H₁₀–AB adducts were fully optimized at the B3LYP/6-311G* level of theory. Calculated HOMO/LUMO energy gaps (E_g), ¹³C NMR chemical shifts and IR/Raman parameters were analyzed and critically compared with available experimental data. Significant changes of carbon NMR atom chemical shifts (up to −100 ppm) and shielding anisotropies (up to −180 ppm) at sites of addition were observed. Functionalized SWCNTs produced IR and Raman spectra different from the pristine nanotube model. The selective changes in vibrational spectra will help in assigning the topology of functionalization at the nanotube wall.     

Physically Meaningful Rendering using Tristimulus Colours

In photorealistic image synthesis the radiative transfer equation is often not solved by simulating every wavelength of light, but instead by computing tristimulus transport, for instance using sRGB primaries as a basis. This choice is convenient, because input texture data is usually stored in RGB colour spaces. However, there are problems with this approach which are often overlooked or ignored. By comparing to spectral reference renderings, we show how rendering in tristimulus colour spaces introduces colour shifts in indirect light, violation of energy conservation, and unexpected behaviour in participating media. Furthermore, we introduce a fast method to compute spectra from almost any given XYZ input colour. It creates spectra that match the input colour precisely. Additionally, like in natural reflectance spectra, their energy is smoothly distributed over wide wavelength bands. This method is both useful to upsample RGB input data when spectral transport is used and as an intermediate step for corrected tristimulus‐based transport. Finally, we show how energy conservation can be enforced in RGB by mapping colours to valid reflectances.     

Path‐space Motion Estimation and Decomposition for Robust Animation Filtering

Renderings of animation sequences with physics‐based Monte Carlo light transport simulations are exceedingly costly to generate frame‐by‐frame, yet much of this computation is highly redundant due to the strong coherence in space, time and among samples. A promising approach pursued in prior work entails subsampling the sequence in space, time, and number of samples, followed by image‐based spatio‐temporal upsampling and denoising. These methods can provide significant performance gains, though major issues remain: firstly, in a multiple scattering simulation, the final pixel color is the composite of many different light transport phenomena, and this conflicting information causes artifacts in image‐based methods. Secondly, motion vectors are needed to establish correspondence between the pixels in different frames, but it is unclear how to obtain them for most kinds of light paths (e.g. an object seen through a curved glass panel). To reduce these ambiguities, we propose a general decomposition framework, where the final pixel color is separated into components corresponding to disjoint subsets of the space of light paths. Each component is accompanied by motion vectors and other auxiliary features such as reflectance and surface normals. The motion vectors of specular paths are computed using a temporal extension of manifold exploration and the remaining components use a specialized variant of optical flow. Our experiments show that this decomposition leads to significant improvements in three image‐based applications: denoising, spatial upsampling, and temporal interpolation.     

Photoelasticity Raycasting

We present a novel physically‐based method to visualize stress tensor fields. By incorporating photoelasticity into traditional raycasting and extending it with reflection and refraction, taking into account polarization, we obtain the virtual counterpart to traditional experimental polariscopes. This allows us to provide photoelastic analysis of stress tensor fields in arbitrary domains. In our model, the optical material properties, such as stress‐optic coefficient and refractive index, can either be chosen in compliance with the subject under investigation, or, in case of stress problems that do not model optical properties or that are not transparent, be chosen according to known or even new transparent materials. This enables direct application of established polariscope methodology together with respective interpretation. Using a GPU‐based implementation, we compare our technique to experimental data, and demonstrate its utility with several simulated datasets.     

An Exploratory Study of Data Sketching for Visual Representation

Hand‐drawn sketching on napkins or whiteboards is a common, accessible method for generating visual representations. This practice is shared by experts and non‐experts and is probably one of the faster and more expressive ways to draft a visual representation of data. In order to better understand the types of and variations in what people produce when sketching data, we conducted a qualitative study. We asked people with varying degrees of visualization expertise, from novices to experts, to manually sketch representations of a small, easily understandable dataset using pencils and paper and to report on what they learned or found interesting about the data. From this study, we extract a data sketching representation continuum from numeracy to abstraction; a data report spectrum from individual data items to speculative data hypothesis; and show the correspondence between the representation types and the data reports from our results set. From these observations we discuss the participants’ representations in relation to their data reports, indicating implications for design and potentially fruitful directions for research.     

Persistent Homology for the Evaluation of Dimensionality Reduction Schemes

High‐dimensional data sets are a prevalent occurrence in many application domains. This data is commonly visualized using dimensionality reduction (DR) methods. DR methods provide e.g. a two‐dimensional embedding of the abstract data that retains relevant high‐dimensional characteristics such as local distances between data points. Since the amount of DR algorithms from which users may choose is steadily increasing, assessing their quality becomes more and more important. We present a novel technique to quantify and compare the quality of DR algorithms that is based on persistent homology. An inherent beneficial property of persistent homology is its robustness against noise which makes it well suited for real world data. Our pipeline informs about the best DR technique for a given data set and chosen metric (e.g. preservation of local distances) and provides knowledge about the local quality of an embedding, thereby helping users understand the shortcomings of the selected DR method. The utility of our method is demonstrated using application data from multiple domains and a variety of commonly used DR methods.     

Towards a smooth design process for static communicative node‐link diagrams

Node‐link infographics are visually very rich and can communicate messages effectively, but can be very difficult to create, often involving a painstaking and artisanal process. In this paper we present an investigation of node‐link visualizations for communication and how to better support their creation. We begin by breaking down these images into their basic elements and analyzing how they are created. We then present a set of techniques aimed at improving the creation workflow by bringing more flexibility and power to users, letting them manipulate all aspects of a node‐link diagram (layout, visual attributes, etc.) while taking into account the context in which it will appear. These techniques were implemented in a proof‐of‐concept prototype called GraphCoiffure, which was designed as an intermediary step between graph drawing/editing software and image authoring applications. We describe how GraphCoiffure improves the workflow and illustrate its benefits through practical examples.     

Woodification: User‐Controlled Cambial Growth Modeling

We present a botanical simulation of secondary (cambial) tree growth coupled to a physical cracking simulation of its bark. Whereas level set growth would use a fixed resolution voxel grid, our system extends the deformable simplicial complex (DSC), supporting new biological growth functions robustly on any surface polygonal mesh with adaptive subdivision, collision detection and topological control. We extend the DSC with temporally coherent texturing, and surface cracking with a user‐controllable biological model coupled to the stresses introduced by the cambial growth model.