A large number of attitude estimation algorithms assume sensor placement along the axis of rotation. These models assume that all measured accelerations are due to gravity, while in reality this is not always the case. By expanding the system model to accommodate centrifugal and tangential accelerations the attitude can be more accurately estimated. This thesis introduces an approach to model a...

In Brans–Dicke theory the Universe becomes divided after inflation into many exponentially large domains with different values of the effective gravitational constant. Such a process can be described by diffusion equations for the probability of finding a certain value of the inflaton and dilaton fields in a physical volume of the Universe. For a typical chaotic inflation potential, the solutio...

We investigate the possibility that dark energy does not couple to gravitation in the same way as ordinary matter, yielding a violation of the weak and strong equivalence principles on cosmological scales. We build a transient mechanism in which gravitation is pushed away from general relativity by a Born-Infeld gauge interaction acting as an abnormally weighting (dark) energy. This mechanism a...

A new path-planning algorithm for a motion simulator based on an industrial robot is introduced and compared with the classical washout filter. The algorithm calculates the path of the simulator cell via the solution of an optimization problem with constraints like the workspace of the simulator or maximum joint angle accelerations. Several test results are presented in order to validate the ne...

We address the pitfalls of averaging by exploiting the longitudinal variation in aid to identify sudden and sharp increases in aid flows. Focusing on specific events, we test if aid accelerations correspond to policies and shocks in the recipient country. For a large sample of 145 recipient countries and 33 donors from 19602007, we find that positive regime changes and wars are significant pred...

Controversy surrounds the risk of heading a soccer ball. The research objectives were to determine the statistical distributions of head accelerations during soccer heading for adult versus youth players, to compare results with known safe levels, and to suggest steps to reduce risk for children. Monte Carlo simulations of large numbers of head-ball impacts were done using equations of motion b...

To obtain kinematic accelerations with high accuracy and reliability, multiple Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers with a single antenna can be used for airborne gravimetry. The data collected from each receiver can be processed for kinematic accelerations that may be combined using simple averaging. Here, however, uncorrelated errors from instrument errors in each receiver also will be i...

In examining films of lifting movements in a study of the size-weight illusion (Davis & Roberts, 1976) a consistency was noted in the values obtained for the maximum accelerations of the objects lifted. While at first surprising, this finding can be embedded significantly in theories relating to kinesthetic illusions and the perception of weight and to theories on the control of general physica...