We describe a wheeled robotic system which navigates along outdoor “trails” intended for hikers and bikers. Through a combination of appearance and structural cues derived from stereo omnidirectional color cameras and a tiltable laser range-finder, the system is able to detect and track rough paths despite widely varying tread material, border vegetation, and illumination conditions. The approa...

The hydraulic steering mechanism can lead the vehicle’s hydraulic system more complex and the tire wear heavier in the process of steering, which is detrimental to the steering control of the articulated motordriven vehicle. Thus the skid steering mode is implemented in the articulated motor-driven vehicle in this paper. This mode can simplify the vehicle without steering cylinder and it is mor...

Skid-steered vehicles, by design, must skid in order to maneuver. The skidding causes the vehicle to behave discontinuously during a maneuver as well as introduces complications to the observation of the vehicle’s state, both of which affect a controller’s performance. This paper addresses estimation of contact state by applying switched system optimization to estimate skidding properties of th...

Assessing a landing zone (LZ) reliably is essential for safe operation of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aerial vehicles that land at unimproved locations. Currently an operator has to rely on visual assessment to make an approach decision; however. visual information from afar is insufficient to judge slope and detect small obstacles. Prior work has modeled LZ quality based on plane fitti...

Three popular algorithms (FOF, DENMAX, and SKID) to identify halos in cosmological N-body simulations are compared with each other and with the predicted mass function from Press-Schechter theory. It is shown that the resulting distribution of halo masses strongly depends upon the choice of free parameters in the three algorithms, and therefore much care in their choice is needed. For many para...

Engineering applications can be used to mitigate the adverse effects of soil compaction and amend compacted soils. Previous literature has highlighted beneficial interventions such as litter mulching incorporation on skid trails. However, little is known about effectiveness these alternatives in restoring forest quality after logging. The objective this study was properly elucidate above mentio...

Processes responsible for natural recovery of compacted forest soils are poorly understood, making estimating their problematic. Bulk density was measured over 7 years at nine boreal sites in Alberta, Canada, where harvest-only and three skidding treatments were installed (~10,000 samples). Air soil temperatures, moisture redox potential, snow depth also on the adjacent seven-cycle skid trail. ...

sustainable forest management in caspian forests of iran requires cost-benefit analysis in order to maintain the quality of timber stands during logging operations. this study was done with the aim of cost and gross revenue computations from current logging (net present value) in three adjacent compartments in district 2 of shafroud watershed. motion and time studies were carried out during fel...

The purpose of present research work is to develop gastro retentive formulation for Moxifloxacin using various release retardants. Moxifloxacin, novel synthetic fluoro quinolone, antibacterial agent. Floating tablets of Moxifloxacin. HCl were prepared using variable amounts of HPMCK4M, HPMCK15M and HPMCK100M with effervescent mixtures by direct compression technique. Totally 9 formulations were...