Rapid and Cheap Learning by Exploiting Biarticular Muscles — A Case Study With a Two-Dimensional Serpentine Robot

This study is intended to deal with the interplay between control and mechanical systems, and to discuss the 'brain–body interaction as it should be', particularly from the viewpoint of learning. To this end, we have employed a decentralized control of a two-dimensional serpentine robot consisting of several identical body segments as a practical example. The preliminary simulation results derived indicate that the convergence of decentralized learning of locomotion control can be significantly improved, even with an extremely simple learning algorithm, i.e., a gradient method, by introducing biarticular muscles which induce long-distant physical interaction between the body segments compared to the one only with monoarticular muscles. This strongly suggests the fact that a certain amount of computation should be offloaded from the brain into its body, which allows robots to emerge various with interesting functionalities.     

Dynamic mechanical,mechanical and morphological properties of reactive thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer/unsaturated polyester/glass fibre hybrid composites

Abstract

Unsaturated polyester (UP) reinforced with self-synthesised reactive thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer (TLCP)–methacryloyl copolymer (LCMC) and glass fibre (GF), the hybrid composites of UP/GF/LCMC were prepared by moulding technology. The dynamic mechanical analysis indicated that storage modulus and glass transition temperature (T _g) of hybrid composites increased significantly because of the addition of LCMC. The effect of LCMC content on the mechanical properties of LCMC/UP/GF hybrid composites such as impact strength, specific strength and modulus and load–displacement relationship were also investigated through static mechanical tests. The mechanical properties of hybrid composites increased significantly because of the addition of LCMC. The crystal behaviour analysis of LCMC/UP blend was investigated by X-ray diffraction and polarising optical microscopy. The results showed that the crystal phase and texture structure of LCMC still existed in the blends after blending with UP. The morphology of fracture surfaces of hybrid composites containing different TLCP contents was observed by scanning electron microscopy. The present paper discussed the mechanism for the improvement of dynamic mechanical and mechanical properties.     

Selective image enhancement using attribute morphology

Abstract

Numerous applications in image interpretation involve feature extraction. In many low-contrast images, this process is pre-empted by an image enhancement phase to improve the quality of features and accentuate fine details. Few attempts at image enhancement have focused on a selective approach, whereby features are enhanced based on their characteristics. This technical note presents preliminary work on a novel image enhancement algorithm based on attribute morphology. The algorithm is amorphous, that is, it does not rely on the shape of a neighbourhood operator, but rather on a feature attribute such as area or contrast. The algorithm can be directed towards differently shaped structures simultaneously without undue noise amplification. The algorithm is demonstrated through the enhancement of features in various biological images.     

Development of morphological technique for segmentation of anatomical objects in abdominal MRI

Abstract

In this paper, a morphological technique for the segmentation of abdominal organs in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images is proposed based on watershed segmentation. New morphological based preprocessing and post-processing techniques are developed to reduce oversegmentation by means of removing and merging spurious segments. The preprocessing aims at removing trivial regions as well as background noise by combining thresholding, morphological smoothing, Gaussian smoothing and morphological edge detection. To obtain a more concise region representation, the watershed segmented image is post-processed, where a region adjacency list is built for the region merging process that produces the final segments. To control the merging process, a similarity function is defined, whence the most similar neighbouring regions are merged. The proposed technique produces effective and significant results in successfully segmenting various anatomical objects in axial MRI images of the abdomen, as it is shown in this paper.     

Threat analysis for transport of radioactive material using morphological analysis

Abstract

The Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) was commissioned by the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate to carry out a pilot study which would serve as the basis for a revised set of regulations regarding physical protection and administrative routines for the transport of radioactive material. The pilot study was to develop a prototype model by which a comprehensive threat analysis could be carried out. The study employed computer aided morphological analysis, which is a flexible, non-quantified modelling method developed at FOI during the 1990s. The paper will present the methodological foundations of morphological analysis and present the prototype models involving general threat scenarios, transport situations, antagonists and strategic measures.