In this paper, we develop an Intelligent Wheelchair (IW) system to provide safe mobility to the disabled or elderly people with cognitive and motor impairments. Our IW provides two main functions: obstacle avoidance and situation awareness. Firstly, it detects a variety of obstacles by a combination of a camera and 8 range sensors, and finds the viable paths to avoid the collisions of obstacles...

Loose particles on impervious surfaces are an important carrier to transfer pesticides into residential runoff water and subsequently contribute to contamination of urban streams and estuaries by urban-use pesticides. However, data regarding levels of pesticide contamination in the runoff-transferable dusts are scarce and their runoff potential and toxicity impacts to urban watersheds still rem...

We have been developing Robotic Travel Aid (RoTA) “HARUNOBU” to guide the visually impaired in the sidewalk or campus. RoTA is a motor wheel chair equipped with vision system, sonar, differential GPS system, dead reckoning system and a portable GIS. We estimate the performance of RoTA in two viewpoints, the viewpoint of guidance and the viewpoint of safety. RoTA is superior to the guide dog in ...

bandar abbas (center of hormozgan province) is the most important port city in the south of iran because of its historical places, cultural, economic, social and political importance. high risk of earthquake occurrence in this city and its province indicates the necessity of surveying the seismic vulnerability of buildings. the object of this paper is collected from existing buildings, compiled...

We investigated the effects of pedestrian environments on parents’ walking behavior, their perception safety, and willingness to let children walk school. This study was a simulated environment experiment that created six different conditions using sidewalks, landscape buffers, street trees. used within subjects design where participants were exposed all conditions. Participants 26 parents with...

Data trusts are an increasingly popular proposal for managing complex data governance questions, although what they remains contested. Sidewalk Labs proposed creating “Urban Trust” as part of the Toronto “smart” redevelopment a portion Toronto’s waterfront. This its was rejected before cancelled project. research note briefly places Urban Trust within general debate regarding and then discusses...

While doing some volunteer work recently, I was removing broken sidewalk stones and digging down a few inches to eventually add sand new pavers. surprised find an underground wire from the building feeding lamppost distance away. Fortunately, wasn’t damaged by shovel, but this definitely electrical hazard, it could have resulted in injury. The local codes require be buried 24 (60 cm) or, if pro...