Data acquired by satellite-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems can be profitably used for the detection and quantification of slow mass movements, provided that the interferometric analysis and data interpretation is guided by field knowledge and comprehension of slope failure/ground deformation mechanisms. The Permanent Scatterers (PS) technique, which overcomes several limitations of...

Given the concept of reliability-based design (RBD) and the growing risk management trend in geotechnical engineering, proper understanding and quantification of uncertainties are very important. The complexity of methods and a large volume of calculations of probabilistic design methods are the most critical reasons for civil engineers not to be comfortable using these approaches. In this rese...

Forty-six ancient Tibetan star-shaped towers and a village are located on a giant slope, which would be partially flooded by a nearby reservoir currently under construction. Ground survey, boreholes, and geophysical investigations have been carried out, with results indicating that the slope consists of loose deposit with a mean thickness of approximately 80 m in addition to an overlying bedroc...

This thesis demonstrates the successful application of Virtual Model Control (VMC) to a simulated sevenlink planar biped for walking dynamically and steadily over sloped terrain with unknown slope gradients and transition locations. The slope gradients were assumed to be between ± 20; and it had maximum transitional gradient change of less than 20 per step. The developed algorithm for sloped te...

This thesis demonstrates the successful application of Virtual Model Control (VMC) to a simulated sevenlink planar biped for walking dynamically and steadily over sloped terrain with unknown slope gradients and transition locations. The slope gradients were assumed to be between ± 200; and it had maximum transitional gradient change of less than 200 per step. The developed algorithm for sloped ...

When standing on a slope, a human adjusts his or her posture, i.e., ankle joint angles adjust to the gradient of the slope. In such adaptive behavior, ground reaction forces play an important role. Based on this view, we propose a new posture control law that employs PD and force feedback control, and prove its effectiveness in creating local stability. Applying this control law to a simple rob...

skidding operations can cause considerable and wide spread soil disturbance. the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of ground skidding operations on soil compaction, moisture content, and total porosity at different levels of slope and traffic frequency. four levels of traffic intensity (3, 8, 13, and >13 passes of a crawler tractor onezhets ? 110) and three levels of slope ( 2...

Gaussian decomposition has been used to extract terrain elevation from waveforms of the satellite lidar GLAS (Geoscience Laser Altimeter System), on board ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite). The common assumption is that one of the extracted Gaussian peaks, especially the lowest one, corresponds to the ground. However, Gaussian decomposition is usually complicated due to the broa...