The 2007 Darpa grand challenge is a 100 km race between autonomous vehicles in an urban environment. This paper presents the results of kinematic motion study in order to quantify the minimum perception range requirements of a canonical set of manoeuvres that are required for the event. The paper also considers the potential advantage that a course reversal strategy may provide competitors that...

This paper reports on various aspects of the Intelligent Vehicle Systems (IVS) team’s involvement in the recent 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, wherein our platform, the autonomous “XAV-250,” competed as one of the 11 finalists qualifying for the event. We provide a candid discussion of the hardware and software design process that led to our team’s entry, along with lessons learned at this event a...

A taxonomic study was conducted to clarify the relationships of two bacterial populations belonging to the genus Weissella. A total of 39 strains originating mainly from Malaysian foods (22 strains) and clinical samples from humans (9 strains) and animals (6 strains) were analysed using a polyphasic taxonomic approach. The methods included classical phenotyping, whole-cell protein electrophores...

We present a case study in the design of an autonomous robotic software subsystem for managing mission execution and discrete traffic interaction in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. Its role is reviewed in the context of the overall software system that controls “Boss”, Tartan Racing’s winning entry in the competition. Design criteria are presented, followed by the application of design principl...

The idea that somemedical procedures are unnecessary and can do more harm than good is as old as medicine itself. In Mesopotamia 38 centuries ago, Hammurabi proclaimed a law threatening overzealous surgeons with the loss of a hand or an eye. In 1915, at the height of a surgical vogue for prophylactic appendicectomy, Ernest Codman offended his Boston colleagues with a cartoon (figure⇓) mocking t...

In November 2007 the international competition DARPA Urban Challenge took place on the former George Airforce Base in Victorville, California to significantly promote the research and development on autonomously driving vehicles for urban environments. In the final race only eleven out of initially 89 competitors participated and “Boss” from Carnegie Mellon University succeeded. This paper summ...

Alcohol-use disorders, and particularly binge drinking habits, have dramatically increased among adolescents and young adults during the last decade (Johnston et al., 2007; ValenciaMartı́n et al., 2007) and now constitute a crucial public health problem in Western countries (Gill, 2002; Miller et al., 2007). Nevertheless, if the deleterious consequences of this alcoholconsumption pattern have be...

Haze is a major environmental concern in many cities because it adversely affects people’s physiological and psychological well-being. This paper examines the extent of haze in Macao during the period 1986–2016. It identifies the relationships between haze, energy use, and meteorological conditions directly. The haze in Macao changed over the period 1986–2016 with air pollution getting worse an...

INTRODUCTION Fatal poisonings among drug addicts in Denmark in 2012 were examined. Cause of death, abuse pattern and geographic differences are discussed and data are compared with previous studies. METHODS All fatal poisonings examined at the three institutes of forensic medicine in Denmark in 2012 were included in the study. RESULTS A total of 188 fatal intoxications were recorded. The me...