Salticids are diurnal hunters known for acute vision, remarkable predatory strategies and jumping ability. Like other jumpers, they strive for stability and smooth landings. Instead of using inertia from swinging appendages or aerodynamic forces by flapping wings as in other organisms, we show that salticids use a different mechanism for in-air stability by using dragline silk, which was previo...

Situational awareness and decision-making are necessary to identify and select the optimal set of mutually non-exclusive hypothesis in order to maximize mission success by adapting system behavior accordingly. This paper presents a hierarchical and decentralized approach for integrated damage assessment and trajectory re-planning in aircraft with uncertainties in navigational decision-making. A...

In this paper, we discuss the development of an Interior Point Method (IPM) solver for Second Order Cone Programming optimization problems that is capable of producing customized ANSI-C code for embedded, real-time applications. The customized code is generated for a given problem structure and makes use of no dynamic memory allocation, minimizes branching, wastes no mathematical or logical com...

Abstract— Autonomous helicopters are required to fly at a wide range of speed close to ground and eventually land in an unprepared cluttered area. Existing planning systems for unmanned rotorcrafts are capable of flying in unmapped environments, however they are restricted to a specific operating regime dictated by the underlying planning algorithm. We address the problem of planning a trajecto...

Synthetic Vision Systems and Enhanced Flight Vision System (SVS/EFVS) technologies have the potential to provide additional margins of safety for aircrew performance and enable operational improvements for low visibility operations in the terminal area environment with equivalent efficiency as visual operations. To meet this potential, research is needed for effective technology development and...

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...

OBJECTIVE We investigated the incidence and injury patterns of acute parachuting injuries evaluated at a level II military facility during a 5-year period to compile medical information that may assist in improving the safety of parachuting. METHODS A retrospective chart review of all parachuting injuries that presented to the Madigan Army Medical Center emergency department in Tacoma, Washin...

Keeping medical practitioners healthy is an important consideration for workforce satisfaction and retention, as well as public safety. However, there is limited evidence demonstrating how to best care for this group. The absence of data is related to the lack of available funding in this area of research. Supporting investigations that examine physician health often "fall through the cracks" o...

BACKGROUND Severe chronic kidney disease is a major limitation for endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR). The aim of this study is to assess the safety and accuracy of fusion imaging, when performing EVAR in the absence of pre- and intra-operative contrast agents. METHODS From October 2013 to February 2014, every patient requiring EVAR and presenting with severe chronic renal impairment ...

This study explores an approach for identifying and characterizing sites on Venus where a future lander mission could attain high probability of safe landing through synthesis Venera surface panoramas, Magellan radar properties, existing global geological maps the surface. Surface panoramas from 9 13 landers were used to define rock size distributions calculate hazardous encounter reference des...