Tootfinder

in gefährlichem Terrain

Good morning friends!
One more #photo from last week's hike with friends.
We were just leaving the summit when I looked back and wanted to a say 'good bye 👋' when I saw this perspective. The cross on the left and the #tree winding itself around.
I just thought this is a stron…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.03467 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

Real-time Neural Dense Elevation Mapping for Urban Terrain with Uncertainty Estimations
Having good knowledge of terrain information is essential for improving the performance of various downstream tasks on complex terrains, especially for the locomotion and navigation of legged robots. We present a novel framework for neural urban terrain reconstruction with uncertainty estimations. It generates dense robot-centric elevation maps online from sparse LiDAR observations. We design a novel pre-processing and point features representation approach that ensures high robustness and comp…

A robot hopper to explore the moon's dangerous terrain
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-robot-hopper-explore-moon-dangerous.html

A robot hopper to explore the moon's dangerous terrain
Intuitive Machines recently had a major breakthrough, successfully becoming the first non-governmental entity to land on the moon in February. At least the landing was partially successful—the company's Odysseus lander ended up on its side, though its instruments and communication links remained at least partially functional. That mission, dubbed IM-1, was the first in a series of ambitious missions the company has planned. And they recently released a paper at the LPSC 2024 conference detail…

#SilentSunday #SoCal #desert

FINALLY! I finished the blog post about my #hiking adventure in the #mountains last year. It took me so long to write it because I am more emotionally connected to this tour than to many others.
Well - I hope you enjoy the read!

A Journey to New Heights: Hiking the Uncharted Summit
Join me on a wonderful mountain adventure with an early start to beat the heat, exploring the solitude of nature. Enjoy with me this fulfilling hike, capturing breathtaking vistas and concluding with a little thrill near the end.

Two climbers found dead after summiting Mt. Whitney via treacherous route
Climbing down the final 400 in snowy conditions usually requires ropes, crampons and ice axes
because a fall on slippery terrain that steep would be almost impossible to stop.
A falling climber who missed the notch on the way down might hurtle thousands of feet down a terrifyingly steep face.
Details are still scarce on where, exactly, Niziol’s and Bolan’s bodies were found.
The Bee re…

2 California climbers found dead on treacherous Mt. Whitney route
Two climbers who were reported missing on Mt. Whitney’s technical Mountaineer’s Route on Tuesday have been found dead.

Exploring UAV Networking from the Terrain Information Completeness Perspective: A Tutorial
Zhengying Lou, Ruibo Wang, Baha Eddine Youcef Belmekki, Mustafa A. Kishk, Mohamed-Slim Alouini
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.04505

Exploring UAV Networking from the Terrain Information Completeness Perspective: A Tutorial
Terrain information is a crucial factor affecting the performance of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks. As a tutorial, this article provides a unique perspective on the completeness of terrain information, summarizing and enhancing the research on terrain-based UAV deployment. In the presence of complete terrain information, two highly discussed topics are UAV-aided map construction and dynamic trajectory design based on maps. We propose a case study illustrating the mutually reinforcing r…

Nuclear Throne is an incredible game, just as I'd heard. I'm glad I jumped on it finally. Figuring out the different random power-up mutations, the runs are fun as hell, twin stick shooting, permadeath, it's a blast. It's tough! But I'm gonna keep trying to get to that throne 🔫
#TwinStickShooters #roguelikes

Mondprogramm Artemis: Drei Unternehmen sollen Mondfahrzeuge bauen
Drei Unternehmen haben nun ein Jahr Zeit, einen Prototyp für ein geländegängiges Lunar Terrain Vehicle zu entwickeln.
https://www.…

🔊 #NowPlaying on fip
Terrain Vague & Marion Josserand:
🎵 Contact
#TerrainVague #MarionJosserand
https://open.spotify.com/track/5TpsBaWTmkIGoBqju4IDqa

Didn’t feel any of the 31 aftershocks, did you?
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/?currentFeatureId=us7000ma74&extent=39.94765,-75.25635&extent=41.40772,-74.22638&autoUpdate=false&range=search&sort=largest&baseLayer=terrain&map=false&search={"name":"Search Results","params":{"latitude":"40.68128","longitude":"-74.74","maxradiuskm":"30","endtime":"2025-04-06T03:00:00.000Z","limit":"20000","orderby":"magnitude","starttime":"2024-03-06T14:23:20.309Z"}}

Herr Baumann-Hartwig von der #DNN hat ein seltsames Demokratievertändnis.
https://www.dnn.de/lokales/dresden/wochenk

Dresdner Stadtrat: Zuviele Köche verkomplizieren den Brei
Vielfalt ist gut und wichtig für die Demokratie. Wenn die Vielfalt allerdings zu einer Lähmung demokratischer Prozesse führt, wird gefährliches Terrain betreten.

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.03307 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csRO_…

Bi-level Trajectory Optimization on Uneven Terrains with Differentiable Wheel-Terrain Interaction Model
Navigation of wheeled vehicles on uneven terrain necessitates going beyond the 2D approaches for trajectory planning. Specifically, it is essential to incorporate the full 6dof variation of vehicle pose and its associated stability cost in the planning process. To this end, most recent works aim to learn a neural network model to predict the vehicle evolution. However, such approaches are data-intensive and fraught with generalization issues. In this paper, we present a purely model-based appro…

Eight years ago today I went on my last epic motorcycle ride.
Needless to say, I did NOT slow down in the curves! 😂

3D Printed Wheels Passively Transform To Climb Obstacles
https://poliverso.org/display/0477a01e-8691f7c8-057dc32c2f02fb5b
3D Printed Wheels Passively Transform To Climb Obstacles Wheels do a great job at rolling over all kinds of terrain, particular…

Hey friends!
Last one of the mini series from the #rofangebirge
Yes, there was rain incoming and I wasn't amused about it 😉
https://www.franzgraf.d…

Close Call on the Trails: An Adventure Teetering on Trouble
Embarking on a hiking trip to Austria's Rofan Mountain range in September 2022, we underestimated the altitude's impact on weather. Cloudy forecasts turned to rain and plummeting temperatures. Ill-equipped, we trekked to the summit, captured stunning scenes, and learned the value of respecting natur

Surveillance has a body count https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/20/24106098/cbp-migrant-deaths-border-surveillance

Surveillance has a body count: CBP reports 895 migrant deaths in 2022
A vast surveillance apparatus at the border is not deterring migration but is instead pushing migrants into more dangerous terrain. 2022 was the deadliest year on record at the US-Mexico border.

LOL: Tesla's Cybertruck Thwarted by Sand, Snow, and Regulator Recalls
https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-cybertruck-apocalypse-vehicle-thwarted-stuck-sand-snow-regulator-recalls-2024-5

Tesla's Cybertruck thwarted by sand, snow, and regulator recalls
Tesla's Cybertruck doesn't appear as "apocalypse-proof" as suggested, with the $60,000+ vehicle getting stuck in rough terrain and facing recalls.

@… @… ein Zufallsereignis, abhängig vom Terrain.

UFO: Uncertainty-aware LiDAR-image Fusion for Off-road Semantic Terrain Map Estimation
Ohn Kim, Junwon Seo, Seongyong Ahn, Chong Hui Kim
https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.02642

UFO: Uncertainty-aware LiDAR-image Fusion for Off-road Semantic Terrain Map Estimation
Autonomous off-road navigation requires an accurate semantic understanding of the environment, often converted into a bird's-eye view (BEV) representation for various downstream tasks. While learning-based methods have shown success in generating local semantic terrain maps directly from sensor data, their efficacy in off-road environments is hindered by challenges in accurately representing uncertain terrain features. This paper presents a learning-based fusion method for generating dense terr…

Längere Distanz - Triathlet Pertl begibt sich auf neues Terrain #News #Nachrichten <…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.15087 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csCC_…

On the Existence of Seedless Condensers: Exploring the Terrain
We prove several new results for seedless condensers in the context of three related classes of sources: Non-Oblivious Symbol Fixing (NOSF) sources, one-sided NOSF (oNOSF) sources [AORSV, EUROCRYPT'20], and adversarial Chor-Goldreich (aCG) source [DMOZ, STOC'23]. We think of these sources as a sequence of random variables $\mathbf{X}=\mathbf{X}_1,\dots,\mathbf{X}_\ell$ on $\ell$ symbols where at least $g$ out of these $\ell$ symbols are "good" (i.e., have some min-entropy requirement), denoted …

Here are the best three #photos of my #wildlife encounter last year.
These Chamois were resting alsmost on the trail so that I literally ran into them as I was looking for them FAR higher up the mountain. I'd just be a very bad hunter 😀 Good that I wasn't looking for bears!
Anywa…

Hello there Framed Print by Franz Graf
Purchase a framed print of the photograph "Hello there" by Franz Graf. Choose from multiple print sizes and hundreds of frame and mat options. All framed prints are professionally printed, framed, assembled, and shipped within 3 - 4 business days and delivered ready-to-hang on your wall.

Love uploading walking and biking sequences to #Panoramax. Makes subsequent #OpenStreetMap mods easier. Learning to use #OpenCamera better. Ultimately better than

Panoramax OSM-FR : photo-cartographier les territoires
L'instance Panoramax OSM-FR permet la publication de photo de terrain pour cartographier le territoire. Panoramax favorise la réutilisation des photos pour de nombreux cas d'usages.

Spanners in Planar Domains via Steiner Spanners and non-Steiner Tree Covers
Sujoy Bhore, Bal\'azs Keszegh, Andrey Kupavskii, Hung Le, Alexandre Louvet, D\"om\"ot\"or P\'alv\"olgyi, Csaba D. T\'oth
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.05045

Spanners in Planar Domains via Steiner Spanners and non-Steiner Tree Covers
We study spanners in planar domains, including polygonal domains, polyhedral terrain, and planar metrics. Previous work showed that for any constant $ε\in (0,1)$, one could construct a $(2+ε)$-spanner with $O(n\log(n))$ edges (SICOMP 2019), and there is a lower bound of $Ω(n^2)$ edges for any $(2-ε)$-spanner (SoCG 2015). The main open question is whether a linear number of edges suffices and the stretch can be reduced to $2$. We resolve this problem by showing that for stretch $2$, one need…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.10172 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@ar…

Enhancing wind field resolution in complex terrain through a knowledge-driven machine learning approach
Atmospheric flows are governed by a broad variety of spatio-temporal scales, thus making real-time numerical modeling of such turbulent flows in complex terrain at high resolution computationally intractable. In this study, we demonstrate a neural network approach motivated by Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networks to upscale low-resolution wind fields to generate high-resolution wind fields in an actual wind farm in Bessaker, Norway. The neural network-based model is shown t…

#ThrowBackThursday #RockyMountainNationalPark
View across Fall River Valley from the Trail Ridge Visitors Center, at sunrise. October 2015

🦮 This four-legged robot learned parkour to better navigate obstacles
#robot

This four-legged robot learned parkour to better navigate obstacles
Latest improvements to ANYmal make it better at navigating rubble and tricky terrain.

@… @… ein Zufallsereignis, abhängig vom Terrain.

Tommy Chouinard, « McGill et Concordia poursuivent Québec »
Depuis le début, je trouve que le gouvernement de la CAQ fait faux débat. La question est comment augmenter le soutien fourni aux universités francophones. Mais Legault ne veut pas les financer, peu importe que ce soit son devoir. En mon avis, Concordia et McGill mène la bataille pour le financement de toute institution publique. La question de la langue sert Š distraire.

Droits de scolarité des étudiants étrangers | McGill et Concordia poursuivent Québec
La bataille politique se déplace sur le terrain juridique : les universités McGill et Concordia contestent devant la Cour supérieure du Québec la nouvelle politique du gouvernement Legault relative aux droits de scolarité imposés aux étudiants provenant des autres provinces canadiennes et de l’étranger.

Accurate Pose Prediction on Signed Distance Fields for Mobile Ground Robots in Rough Terrain
Martin Oehler, Oskar von Stryk
https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.02121

Accurate Pose Prediction on Signed Distance Fields for Mobile Ground Robots in Rough Terrain
Autonomous locomotion for mobile ground robots in unstructured environments such as waypoint navigation or flipper control requires a sufficiently accurate prediction of the robot-terrain interaction. Heuristics like occupancy grids or traversability maps are widely used but limit actions available to robots with active flippers as joint positions are not taken into account. We present a novel iterative geometric method to predict the 3D pose of mobile ground robots with active flippers on unev…

Checked off “saguaro selfie” from the to-do list #strava #trailrunning #cactus

"Merkmale des Untergrunds unter dem #Thwaites-Gletscher enthüllt
Ein Forschungsteam hat felsige Berge und glattes Terrain unter dem Thwaites-Gletscher in der Westantarktis entdeckt - dem breiteste #Gletscher der Erde, der halb so groß wie Deutschland und über 1000 Meter mächtig ist. Da…

Interessant finde ich, dass die Kampagne bei Stufe 10 beginnt und mit einem Endkampf auf Stufe 20 endet. Unbekanntes Terrain für viele Spielleitungen, deshalb wird es auch "DM Guidance" für das Finale geben.
Auf der anderen Seite gibt es das Einführungsabenteuer "Nest of the Eldritch Eye", das in die Kampagne führt, aber nicht Teil des Buches sein wird. Es soll ab heute exklusiv auf

Texas wildfire may become the state’s largest ever
A fast-moving wildfire burning through the Texas Panhandle has now become the largest blaze in state history after churning through a total of 1,075,000 acres across Texas and Oklahoma, forcing evacuations and power outages.
The #smokehousecreekfire ignited in the Panhandle on Monday in rough terrain and unfavorable weather condi…

Panhandle wildfire burns an more than 1 million acres, now the largest in Texas history
A fast-moving wildfire burning through the Texas Panhandle is threatening to become the largest blaze in state history after churning through an estimated 850,000 acres in two days, forcing evacuations and triggering power outages as firefighters struggled to contain the widening swath of flames growing with alarming speed.

A call for essays is always fun! https://2024.splashcon.org/track/splash-2024-Onward-Essays#Call-for-Essays

SPLASH 2024 - Onward! Essays - SPLASH 2024
Onward! Essays is looking for clear and compelling pieces of writing about topics important to the software community. An essay can be long or short. An essay can be an exploration of the topic and its impact, or a story about the circumstances of its creation; it can present a personal view of what is, explore a terrain, or lead the reader in an act of discovery; it can be a philosophical digression or a deep analysis. It can describe a personal journey, perhaps the one the author took to rea…

Bi-level Trajectory Optimization on Uneven Terrains with Differentiable Wheel-Terrain Interaction Model
Amith Manoharan, Aditya Sharma, Himani Belsare, Kaustab Pal, K. Madhava Krishna, Arun Kumar Singh
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.03307

Bi-level Trajectory Optimization on Uneven Terrains with Differentiable Wheel-Terrain Interaction Model
Navigation of wheeled vehicles on uneven terrain necessitates going beyond the 2D approaches for trajectory planning. Specifically, it is essential to incorporate the full 6dof variation of vehicle pose and its associated stability cost in the planning process. To this end, most recent works aim to learn a neural network model to predict the vehicle evolution. However, such approaches are data-intensive and fraught with generalization issues. In this paper, we present a purely model-based appro…

As I just posted one of the photos of the day anyways, I thought I could share a bit of a background story with you as well.
A frosty and chill day - but I went there alone as I wanted to focus more on #photography than just #hiking the summit.

Embracing the Elements: A Frosty Photo Journey
Embark on a chilly adventure with me as I navigate the brisk winds and icy terrain of a winter hike. Join me as I brave the elements, capturing the raw beauty of snow-laden landscapes and gusty summits through the lens of my camera.

Just got wind that "The Saboteur" FINALLY hit Steam. 🤩
:steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/24880/The_Saboteur/
I absolutely ADORED this back in the days. Still own a copy on CD, but... well, it's the 21st century. Excited to see if th…

Save 50% on The Saboteur™ on Steam
This open-world action thriller takes you through the seedy streets of Paris as you seek to undermine the German authority and lead a rebellion. Fight across rooftops and through dangerous alleys, and operate a wide variety of vehicles as you navigate your terrain.

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.05765 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

Examining the simulation-to-reality gap of a wheel loader digging in deformable terrain
We investigate how well a physics-based simulator can replicate a real wheel loader performing bucket filling in a pile of soil. The comparison is made using field test time series of the vehicle motion and actuation forces, loaded mass, and total work. The vehicle was modeled as a rigid multibody system with frictional contacts, driveline, and linear actuators. For the soil, we tested discrete element models of different resolutions, with and without multiscale acceleration. The spatio-tempora…

Bi-level Trajectory Optimization on Uneven Terrains with Differentiable Wheel-Terrain Interaction Model
Amith Manoharan, Aditya Sharma, Himani Belsare, Kaustab Pal, K. Madhava Krishna, Arun Kumar Singh
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.03307

Bi-level Trajectory Optimization on Uneven Terrains with Differentiable Wheel-Terrain Interaction Model
Navigation of wheeled vehicles on uneven terrain necessitates going beyond the 2D approaches for trajectory planning. Specifically, it is essential to incorporate the full 6dof variation of vehicle pose and its associated stability cost in the planning process. To this end, most recent works aim to learn a neural network model to predict the vehicle evolution. However, such approaches are data-intensive and fraught with generalization issues. In this paper, we present a purely model-based appro…

Solche Bilder wird es in Zukunft weniger geben. Vorgestern wurde der 366. Tag einer weltweiten mittleren #Rekordtemperatur der #Ozene „gefeiert“. Und die #Wärme kommt aus der

As I just posted one of the photos of the day anyways, I thought I could share a bit of a background story with you as well.
A frosty and chill day - but I went there alone as I wanted to focus more on #photography than just #hiking the summit.

Embracing the Elements: A Frosty Photo Journey
Embark on a chilly adventure with me as I navigate the brisk winds and icy terrain of a winter hike. Join me as I brave the elements, capturing the raw beauty of snow-laden landscapes and gusty summits through the lens of my camera.

#MountainMonday #RockyMountainNationalPark
Never Summer Range, from Trail Ridge Road. July 2019

Physics-Informed LSTM-Based Delay Compensation Framework for Teleoperated UGVs
Ahmad Abubakar, Yahya Zweiri, AbdelGafoor Haddad, Mubarak Yakubu, Ruqayya Alhammadi, Lakmal Seneviratne
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.16587

Physics-Informed LSTM-Based Delay Compensation Framework for Teleoperated UGVs
Bilateral teleoperation of low-speed Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) on soft terrains is crucial for applications like lunar exploration, offering effective control of terrain-induced longitudinal slippage. However, latency arising from transmission delays over a network presents a challenge in maintaining high-fidelity closed-loop integration, potentially hindering UGV controls and leading to poor command-tracking performance. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a novel predictor fr…

Checked off “saguaro selfie” from the to-do list #strava #trailrunning #cactus

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04139 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arX…

Tibial Strains are Sensitive to Speed, but not Grade, Perturbations During Running
A fatigue-failure process is hypothesized to govern the development of tibial stress fractures, where bone damage is highly dependent on the peak strain magnitude. To date, much of the work examining tibial strains during running has ignored uphill and downhill running despite the prevalence of this terrain. This study examined the sensitivity of tibial strains to changes in running grade and speed using a combined musculoskeletal-finite element modeling routine. Seventeen participants ran on a…

Cantors from the Ethiopian Orthodox church performed poetry and sung prayer that introduced their tradition’s celebration of nature and the spiritual significance of trees.
“Within the landlocked nation of Ethiopia, the mighty Blue Nile emanates from Lake Tana, the country’s largest lake.
Radiating outward from this sacred source, a scattering of forest islands dot the arid highlands, like a handful of emeralds strewn across the parched terrain,” Dodds explained in his audio guide…

Good morning friends!
Just wanted to share this view again with you.
It was such a great day and such a rewarding view. I'm now off to meet friends and walk some mountain 😊
#nature #naturephotography

Localization and Offline Mapping of High-Voltage Substations in Rough Terrain Using a Ground Vehicle
Ioannis Alamanos, George P. Moustris, Costas S. Tzafestas
https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.19875

Localization and Offline Mapping of High-Voltage Substations in Rough Terrain Using a Ground Vehicle
This paper proposes an efficient hybrid localization framework for the autonomous navigation of an unmanned ground vehicle in uneven or rough terrain, as well as techniques for detailed processing of 3D point cloud data. The framework is an extended version of FAST-LIO2 algorithm aiming at robust localization in known point cloud maps using Lidar and inertial data. The system is based on a hybrid scheme which allows the robot to not only localize in a pre-built map, but concurrently perform sim…

Hybrid Work meets Agile Software Development: A Systematic Mapping Study
Dron Khanna, Emily Laue Christensen, Saagarika Gosu, Xiaofeng Wang, Maria Paasivaara
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.09983

Hybrid Work meets Agile Software Development: A Systematic Mapping Study
Hybrid work, a fusion of different work environments that allow employees to work in and outside their offices, represents a new frontier for agile researchers to explore. However, due to the nascent nature of the research phenomena, we are yet to achieve a good understanding of the research terrain formulated when hybrid work meets agile software development. This systematic mapping study, we aimed to provide a good understanding of this emerging research area. The systematic process we follow…

Good morning friends!
Just wanted to share this view again with you.
It was such a great day and such a rewarding view. I'm now off to meet friends and walk some mountain 😊
#nature #naturephotography

Spektakuläres Video - Odermatt geht unter die Segler #News #Nachrichten

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.09302 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csRO_…

Detecting Grasping Sites in a Martian Lava Tube: Multi-Stage Perception Trade Study for ReachBot
This paper presents a trade study analysis to design and evaluate the perception system architecture for ReachBot. ReachBot is a novel robotic concept that uses grippers at the end of deployable booms for navigation of rough terrain such as walls of caves and lava tubes. Previous studies on ReachBot have discussed the overall robot design, placement and number of deployable booms, and gripper mechanism design; however, analysis of the perception and sensing system remains underdeveloped. Becaus…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.05765 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

Examining the simulation-to-reality gap of a wheel loader digging in deformable terrain
We investigate how well a physics-based simulator can replicate a real wheel loader performing bucket filling in a pile of soil. The comparison is made using field test time series of the vehicle motion and actuation forces, loaded mass, and total work. The vehicle was modeled as a rigid multibody system with frictional contacts, driveline, and linear actuators. For the soil, we tested discrete element models of different resolutions, with and without multiscale acceleration. The spatio-tempora…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.13818 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arX…

Hyperuniformity on Mars: Pebbles scattered on sand
In Gale Crater near Mars' equator, dunes and ripples of sand stand out from the general orderless, rocky terrain. In addition, images from Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover, reveal more subtle orderly forms: widespread, meter-scale domains of evenly spaced, pebble-size rocks (termed clasts) on wind-blown sand in scattered locations. Here, we examine quantitatively several clast domains on both Mars and Earth, and compare their geometry with that of random points. The clast distributi…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.09007 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

MonoForce: Self-supervised Learning of Physics-aware Model for Predicting Robot-terrain Interaction
While autonomous navigation of mobile robots on rigid terrain is a well-explored problem, navigating on deformable terrain such as tall grass or bushes remains a challenge. To address it, we introduce an explainable, physics-aware and end-to-end differentiable model which predicts the outcome of robot-terrain interaction from camera images, both on rigid and non-rigid terrain. The proposed MonoForce model consists of a black-box module which predicts robot-terrain interaction forces from onboar…

Traversability-aware Adaptive Optimization for Path Planning and Control in Mountainous Terrain
Se-Wook Yoo, E In Son, Seung-Woo Seo
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.03274

Traversability-aware Adaptive Optimization for Path Planning and Control in Mountainous Terrain
Autonomous navigation in extreme mountainous terrains poses challenges due to the presence of mobility-stressing elements and undulating surfaces, making it particularly difficult compared to conventional off-road driving scenarios. In such environments, estimating traversability solely based on exteroceptive sensors often leads to the inability to reach the goal due to a high prevalence of non-traversable areas. In this paper, we consider traversability as a relative value that integrates the …

Traversability-aware Adaptive Optimization for Path Planning and Control in Mountainous Terrain
Se-Wook Yoo, E In Son, Seung-Woo Seo
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.03274

Traversability-aware Adaptive Optimization for Path Planning and Control in Mountainous Terrain
Autonomous navigation in extreme mountainous terrains poses challenges due to the presence of mobility-stressing elements and undulating surfaces, making it particularly difficult compared to conventional off-road driving scenarios. In such environments, estimating traversability solely based on exteroceptive sensors often leads to the inability to reach the goal due to a high prevalence of non-traversable areas. In this paper, we consider traversability as a relative value that integrates the …

🚲 E-bikes hold huge promise for sustainable transport in rural tourist areas, says researcher
https://theconversation.com/e-bikes-are-freewheeling-through-rain-and-over-hills…

E-bikes are freewheeling through rain and over hills, with huge promise for sustainable transport in rural tourist areas
Research shows that rain and hilly terrain doesn’t put people off e-bikes.

A Reduced-Order Resistive Force Model for Robotic Foot-Mud Interactions
Xunjie Chen, Jingang Yi, Jerry Shan
https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.02617 https://

A Reduced-Order Resistive Force Model for Robotic Foot-Mud Interactions
Legged robots are well-suited for broad exploration tasks in complex environments with yielding terrain. Understanding robotic foot-terrain interactions is critical for safe locomotion and walking efficiency for legged robots. This paper presents a reduced-order resistive-force model for robotic-foot/mud interactions. We focus on vertical robot locomotion on mud and propose a visco-elasto-plastic analog to model the foot/mud interaction forces. Dynamic behaviors such as mud visco-elasticity, wi…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.05100 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_ees…

Design of Efficient Point-Mass Filter with Application in Terrain Aided Navigation
This paper deals with state estimation of stochastic models with linear state dynamics, continuous or discrete in time. The emphasis is laid on a numerical solution to the state prediction by the time-update step of the grid-point-based point-mass filter (PMF), which is the most computationally demanding part of the PMF algorithm. A novel efficient PMF (ePMF) estimator, unifying continuous and discrete, approaches is proposed, designed, and discussed. By numerical illustrations, it is shown, th…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.13991 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csRO_…

METAVerse: Meta-Learning Traversability Cost Map for Off-Road Navigation
Autonomous navigation in off-road conditions requires an accurate estimation of terrain traversability. However, traversability estimation in unstructured environments is subject to high uncertainty due to the variability of numerous factors that influence vehicle-terrain interaction. Consequently, it is challenging to obtain a generalizable model that can accurately predict traversability in a variety of environments. This paper presents METAVerse, a meta-learning framework for learning a glob…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.09888 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_…

Rapid hydrofracture of icy moon shells: insights from glaciology
Europa's surface features many regions of complex topography termed 'chaos terrains'. One set of hypotheses for chaos terrain formation require upward migration of liquid water from perched water bodies formed by convection and tidal heating within the icy shell. However, consideration of the behaviour of terrestrial ice sheets suggests the rapid downwards, not upwards, movement of water from perched water bodies, initiated through hydrofracture and without a propagation limit provided there is…

Learning Surface Terrain Classifications from Ground Penetrating Radar
Anja Sheppard, Jason Brown, Nilton Renno, Katherine A. Skinner
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.09094

Learning Surface Terrain Classifications from Ground Penetrating Radar
Terrain classification is an important problem for mobile robots operating in extreme environments as it can aid downstream tasks such as autonomous navigation and planning. While RGB cameras are widely used for terrain identification, vision-based methods can suffer due to poor lighting conditions and occlusions. In this paper, we propose the novel use of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for terrain characterization for mobile robot platforms. Our approach leverages machine learning for surface …

Happy Easter friends!
My stats from yesterday's #cycling loop.
It's been a really nice 2.5h out in the sun. Lots of head wind in one direction but also nice tailwind on the way back.
The photo is taken at the #sylvenstein reservoir with Lot's of

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.04030 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csRO_…

Adaptive Force-Based Control of Dynamic Legged Locomotion over Uneven Terrain
Agile-legged robots have proven to be highly effective in navigating and performing tasks in complex and challenging environments, including disaster zones and industrial settings. However, these applications normally require the capability of carrying heavy loads while maintaining dynamic motion. Therefore, this paper presents a novel methodology for incorporating adaptive control into a force-based control system. Recent advancements in the control of quadruped robots show that force control …

Hey friends! Here's the summit-view of the hike that I described in the last posts.
I'm so glad that I took this #photo as I had almost forgotten about the whole #hiking trip. Now I'm eager again to go out and have such a view up to the

Late-April Solitude: A Solo Alpine Journey
In the quiet majesty of a late-April solo hike, the mountain landscape revealed a subtle beauty in transition. The snow-covered peaks, the muted hues of transitioning grass, and the dance of light and shadow became a testament to the unfiltered allure of nature awakening from its winter slumber.

#goodmorning friends!
Not a single cloud on today's morning walk. Just fresh & chill air.
I'm looking forward to having a long weekend. We haven't planned anything yet except "being outside".
#getoutside

I posted this one recently already but I had to think about it when I read the #FotoVorschlag
"A wie..." Alpen?
So please excuse me for posting again.
The photo was taken when Sahara dust was blown over the alps. That caused the orange sky.
#nature

I posted this one recently already but I had to think about it when I read the #FotoVorschlag
"A wie..." Alpen?
So please excuse me for posting again.
The photo was taken when Sahara dust was blown over the alps. That caused the orange sky.
#nature

Terrain-Aware Stride-Level Trajectory Forecasting for a Powered Hip Exoskeleton via Vision and Kinematics Fusion
Ruoqi Zhao, Xingbang Yan, Yubo Fan
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.11945

Terrain-Aware Stride-Level Trajectory Forecasting for a Powered Hip Exoskeleton via Vision and Kinematics Fusion
Powered hip exoskeletons have shown the ability for locomotion assistance during treadmill walking. However, providing suitable assistance in real-world walking scenarios which involve changing terrain remains challenging. Recent research suggests that forecasting the lower limb joint's angles could provide target trajectories for exoskeletons and prostheses, and the performance could be improved with visual information. In this letter, We share a real-world dataset of 10 healthy subjects walki…

Hey friends! I finally wrote about my second attempt to get a #photo of the frozen #waterfall
Unfortunately, it wasn't THAT frozen anymore - but ... wasn't it even better?! I wrote down the story in my blog and this time I also uploaded the photo to FineArtsAmerica if you think about …

Frozen by Franz Graf
Frozen Photograph by Franz Graf

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.10797 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

Large-Scale Multi-Robot Coverage Path Planning via Local Search
We study graph-based Multi-Robot Coverage Path Planning (MCPP) that aims to compute coverage paths for multiple robots to cover all vertices of a given 2D grid terrain graph $G$. Existing graph-based MCPP algorithms first compute a tree cover on $G$ -- a forest of multiple trees that cover all vertices -- and then employ the Spanning Tree Coverage (STC) paradigm to generate coverage paths on the decomposed graph $D$ of the terrain graph $G$ by circumnavigating the edges of the computed trees, a…

Dexterous Legged Locomotion in Confined 3D Spaces with Reinforcement Learning
Zifan Xu, Amir Hossain Raj, Xuesu Xiao, Peter Stone
https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.03848

Dexterous Legged Locomotion in Confined 3D Spaces with Reinforcement Learning
Recent advances of locomotion controllers utilizing deep reinforcement learning (RL) have yielded impressive results in terms of achieving rapid and robust locomotion across challenging terrain, such as rugged rocks, non-rigid ground, and slippery surfaces. However, while these controllers primarily address challenges underneath the robot, relatively little research has investigated legged mobility through confined 3D spaces, such as narrow tunnels or irregular voids, which impose all-around co…

Hey friends, the weather today was awful. Great for processing photos!
That was an icy adventure in January!
Below -16°C! I don't know if I ever was out just to take #photos at such low temperatures. The gear was also a little bit frozen.
Unfortunately, I didn't get the photo that I was aiming for 🙁 but I got some others that I neither planned nor expected.
Well, I …

Hey friends of the #mountains!
One more #photo from the hike I blogged about recently. This was about at 8am, shortly before reaching the hut. I plan to walk this mountain range later this year. I guess it'll be really cool 🙂
That day, the path led me to the left side further up th…

A Journey to New Heights: Hiking the Uncharted Summit
Join me on a wonderful mountain adventure with an early start to beat the heat, exploring the solitude of nature. Enjoy with me this fulfilling hike, capturing breathtaking vistas and concluding with a little thrill near the end.

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.17484 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

Pixel to Elevation: Learning to Predict Elevation Maps at Long Range using Images for Autonomous Offroad Navigation
Understanding terrain topology at long-range is crucial for the success of off-road robotic missions, especially when navigating at high-speeds. LiDAR sensors, which are currently heavily relied upon for geometric mapping, provide sparse measurements when mapping at greater distances. To address this challenge, we present a novel learning-based approach capable of predicting terrain elevation maps at long-range using only onboard egocentric images in real-time. Our proposed method is comprised …

Hey all!
I'm back to posting some #hiking #photos . For those having read the blog already, it isn't new. I took this photo right after leaving the #summit behind me and starting the descend.…

A Journey to New Heights: Hiking the Uncharted Summit
Join me on a wonderful mountain adventure with an early start to beat the heat, exploring the solitude of nature. Enjoy with me this fulfilling hike, capturing breathtaking vistas and concluding with a little thrill near the end.

I'm just reading an article of the alpine club about incidents in winter hiking. One report is directly here in the neighbourhood where I spend my outdoor time.
"In the thawed snow, I lost my footing despite the spikes and fell about 150 meters over steep terrain. Both forearms and one ankle were broken."
Yeah - I avoid this part of this particular mountain range in winter for a reason ...

PhysORD: A Neuro-Symbolic Approach for Physics-infused Motion Prediction in Off-road Driving
Zhipeng Zhao, Bowen Li, Yi Du, Taimeng Fu, Chen Wang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.01596 …

PhysORD: A Neuro-Symbolic Approach for Physics-infused Motion Prediction in Off-road Driving
Motion prediction is critical for autonomous off-road driving, however, it presents significantly more challenges than on-road driving because of the complex interaction between the vehicle and the terrain. Traditional physics-based approaches encounter difficulties in accurately modeling dynamic systems and external disturbance. In contrast, data-driven neural networks require extensive datasets and struggle with explicitly capturing the fundamental physical laws, which can easily lead to poor…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.04831 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csRO_…

Safe Low-Altitude Navigation in Steep Terrain with Fixed-Wing Aerial Vehicles
Fixed-wing aerial vehicles provide an efficient way to navigate long distances or cover large areas for environmental monitoring applications. By design, they also require large open spaces due to limited maneuverability. However, strict regulatory and safety altitude limits constrain the available space. Especially in complex, confined, or steep terrain, ensuring the vehicle does not enter an inevitable collision state(ICS) can be challenging. In this work, we propose a strategy to find safe p…

Energy-Optimized Planning in Non-Uniform Wind Fields with Fixed-Wing Aerial Vehicles
Yufei Duan, Florian Achermann, Jaeyoung Lim, Roland Siegwart
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.02077 …

Energy-Optimized Planning in Non-Uniform Wind Fields with Fixed-Wing Aerial Vehicles
Fixed-wing small uncrewed aerial vehicles (sUAVs) possess the capability to remain airborne for extended durations and traverse vast distances. However, their operation is susceptible to wind conditions, particularly in regions of complex terrain where high wind speeds may push the aircraft beyond its operational limitations, potentially raising safety concerns. Moreover, wind impacts the energy required to follow a path, especially in locations where the wind direction and speed are not favora…

Last year we went to the #Rofan region near the #Achensee. This mountain range is a real dream. So versatile... That day there were a couple of clouds coming in. - I just looked around if any of the surrounding summits would look nice as a motive.
With my new 300mm lens - which is like a binocu…

Last year we went to the #Rofan region near the #Achensee. This mountain range is a real dream. So versatile... That day there were a couple of clouds coming in. - I just looked around if any of the surrounding summits would look nice as a motive.
With my new 300mm lens - which is like a binocu…

Comparing Motion Distortion Between Vehicle Field Deployments
Nicolas Samson, Dominic Baril, Julien L\'epine, Fran\c{c}ois Pomerleau
https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.00189

Comparing Motion Distortion Between Vehicle Field Deployments
Recent advances in autonomous driving for uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) have spurred significant development, particularly in challenging terrains. This paper introduces a classification system assessing various UGV deployments reported in the literature. Our approach considers motion distortion features that include internal UGV features, such as mass and speed, and external features, such as terrain complexity, which all influence the efficiency of models and navigation systems. We present …

Hey friends, sorry for the spam. But I just rediscovered this shot and remembered this uncommon situation where we decided to retreat from a hike as we didn't feel comfortable of crossing the part ahead. One of us was also a little afraid of heights ... a challenging section paired with anxiety - in such situations I don't hesitate a second to cancel.
And NEVER give that person a bad feeling. I hope you agree.

Choosing Safety Over Summit
Choosing a recommended trail, we confronted a precarious section, captured in the poignant photograph. This narrative explores the wisdom of prioritizing safety over summit ambitions, discovering that true adventure lies not just in peaks but in the courage to retreat

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.11171 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

Sim-to-real transfer of active suspension control using deep reinforcement learning
We explore sim-to-real transfer of deep reinforcement learning controllers for a heavy vehicle with active suspensions designed for traversing rough terrain. While related research primarily focuses on lightweight robots with electric motors and fast actuation, this study uses a forestry vehicle with a complex hydraulic driveline and slow actuation. We simulate the vehicle using multibody dynamics and apply system identification to find an appropriate set of simulation parameters. We then train…

Hey friends, finally weekend!
I'm sharing one of the photos from this #hiking trip to the #mountains last year (I wrote about it already). A wonderful day, starting early, going lonely and finally reaching that summit that I wanted to hike since long.
It's hard to express such …

A Journey to New Heights: Hiking the Uncharted Summit
Join me on a wonderful mountain adventure with an early start to beat the heat, exploring the solitude of nature. Enjoy with me this fulfilling hike, capturing breathtaking vistas and concluding with a little thrill near the end.

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.17484 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

Pixel to Elevation: Learning to Predict Elevation Maps at Long Range using Images for Autonomous Offroad Navigation
Understanding terrain topology at long-range is crucial for the success of off-road robotic missions, especially when navigating at high-speeds. LiDAR sensors, which are currently heavily relied upon for geometric mapping, provide sparse measurements when mapping at greater distances. To address this challenge, we present a novel learning-based approach capable of predicting terrain elevation maps at long-range using only onboard egocentric images in real-time. Our proposed method is comprised …

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.05580 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

Risk-aware Meta-level Decision Making for Exploration Under Uncertainty
Robotic exploration of unknown environments is fundamentally a problem of decision making under uncertainty where the robot must account for uncertainty in sensor measurements, localization, action execution, as well as many other factors. For large-scale exploration applications, autonomous systems must overcome the challenges of sequentially deciding which areas of the environment are valuable to explore while safely evaluating the risks associated with obstacles and hazardous terrain. In thi…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.18065 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csRO_…

A Probabilistic Motion Model for Skid-Steer Wheeled Mobile Robot Navigation on Off-Road Terrains
Skid-Steer Wheeled Mobile Robots (SSWMRs) are increasingly being used for off-road autonomy applications. When turning at high speeds, these robots tend to undergo significant skidding and slipping. In this work, using Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) and Sigma-Point Transforms, we estimate the non-linear effects of tire-terrain interaction on robot velocities in a probabilistic fashion. Using the mean estimates from GPR, we propose a data-driven dynamic motion model that is more accurate at p…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.17392 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csRO_…

Natural-artificial hybrid swarm: Cyborg-insect group navigation in unknown obstructed soft terrain
Navigating multi-robot systems in complex terrains has always been a challenging task. This is due to the inherent limitations of traditional robots in collision avoidance, adaptation to unknown environments, and sustained energy efficiency. In order to overcome these limitations, this research proposes a solution by integrating living insects with miniature electronic controllers to enable robotic-like programmable control, and proposing a novel control algorithm for swarming. Although these c…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.15030 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csRO_…

Tuning-free Quasi-stiffness Control Framework of a Powered Transfemoral Prosthesis for Task-adaptive Walking
Impedance-based control represents a prevalent strategy in the development of powered transfemoral prostheses. However, creating a task-adaptive, tuning-free controller that effectively generalizes across diverse locomotion modes and terrain conditions continues to be a significant challenge. This letter proposes a tuning-free and task-adaptive quasi-stiffness control framework for powered prostheses that generalizes across various walking tasks, including the torque-angle relationship reconstr…

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.01519 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@arXiv_csRO_…

Decision-Oriented Learning Using Differentiable Submodular Maximization for Multi-Robot Coordination
We present a differentiable, decision-oriented learning framework for cost prediction in a class of multi-robot decision-making problems, in which the robots need to trade off the task performance with the costs of taking actions when they select actions to take. Specifically, we consider the cases where the task performance is measured by a known monotone submodular function (e.g., coverage, mutual information), and the cost of actions depends on the context (e.g., wind and terrain conditions)…

Autonomous Mapless Navigation on Uneven Terrains
Hassan Jardali, Mahmoud Ali, Lantao Liu
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.13443 https://arx…

Autonomous Mapless Navigation on Uneven Terrains
We propose a new method for autonomous navigation in uneven terrains by utilizing a sparse Gaussian Process (SGP) based local perception model. The SGP local perception model is trained on local ranging observation (pointcloud) to learn the terrain elevation profile and extract the feasible navigation subgoals around the robot. Subsequently, a cost function, which prioritizes the safety of the robot in terms of keeping the robot's roll and pitch angles bounded within a specified range, is used …

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.16016 has been replaced.
link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=a

V-STRONG: Visual Self-Supervised Traversability Learning for Off-road Navigation
Reliable estimation of terrain traversability is critical for the successful deployment of autonomous systems in wild, outdoor environments. Given the lack of large-scale annotated datasets for off-road navigation, strictly-supervised learning approaches remain limited in their generalization ability. To this end, we introduce a novel, image-based self-supervised learning method for traversability prediction, leveraging a state-of-the-art vision foundation model for improved out-of-distribution…

Airship Formations for Animal Motion Capture and Behavior Analysis
Eric Price, Aamir Ahmad
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.08986 https://a…

Airship Formations for Animal Motion Capture and Behavior Analysis
Using UAVs for wildlife observation and motion capture offers manifold advantages for studying animals in the wild, especially grazing herds in open terrain. The aerial perspective allows observation at a scale and depth that is not possible on the ground, offering new insights into group behavior. However, the very nature of wildlife field-studies puts traditional fixed wing and multi-copter systems to their limits: limited flight time, noise and safety aspects affect their efficacy, where lig…