HMA Spec Revisions and Testing 2018

INDOT’s HMA specifications and testing procedures are changing for 2018. We will present a summary of those changes, and what to expect

Superpave5: What is It?

INDOT revised the asphalt specification in 2019 based on the concept of Superpave 5—that higher in-place density yields improved performance disability. This session will provide insight into the science of how Superpave 5 works while giving designers an understanding of how it affects design and construction specifications

Legal framework for small autonomous agricultural robots

Legal structures may form barriers to, or enablers of, adoption of precision agriculture management with small autonomous agricultural robots. This article develops a conceptual regulatory framework for small autonomous agricultural robots, from a practical, self-contained engineering guide perspective, sufficient to get working research and commercial agricultural roboticists quickly and easily up and running within the law. The article examines the liability framework, or rather lack of it, for agricultural robotics in EU, and their transpositions to UK law, as a case study illustrating general international legal concepts and issues. It examines how the law may provide mitigating effects on the liability regime, and how contracts can be developed between agents within it to enable smooth operation. It covers other legal aspects of operation such as the use of shared communications resources and privacy in the reuse of robot-collected data. Where there are some grey areas in current law, it argues that new proposals could be developed to reform these to promote further innovation and investment in agricultural robots

Indiana Asphalt Binder Specification Changes

The Indiana DOT is significantly revising asphalt binder specifications that will impact all contracts as early as 2024. The base asphalt binder grade in Indiana is changing from PG 64-22 to PG 58-28 and the testing requirements for all asphalt binders will change from PG binder testing to MSCR and percent recovery. This session will provide the background, overview, and expectations needed for pavement designers, consultants, contractors, DOT, and local agency personnel to understand

The politics of climate change in Australia

Global climate change has become one of the most contentious and divisive issues in Australian politics. In part, this reflects the nature of the problem itself and Australia’s vulnerability both to manifestations of climate change on one hand and its mitigation on the other. While a land of heat and drought, and still a major agricultural producer, Australia also has an immediate economic interest in the maintenance of a global fossil fuel economy given its status as the world’s largest exporter of coal. And while Australia has one of the world’s oldest Green political parties, its citizens are also among the largest per-capita greenhouse gas emitters in the world. With this context it is unsurprising that action on climate change should be contentious and climate change might indeed be defined as a “wicked” or “diabolical” problem.1 Yet the frequency and ferocity of contestation in Australia within the last decade over how to respond to climate change has been stunning, as has the oscillation of public opinion on whether, and how, to act in response to global climate change. Making sense of these dynamics is not simply a matter of pointing to the opposition of different interests. It also requires attention to the ways in which the problem and responses to it have been framed; how different groups have mobilized in support or opposition to climate change action and in what sites; how public debate has evolved and been influenced by changing domestic and international contexts; and what policy responses have ultimately been pursued in response, with what effects. These are questions of politics, and the questions that animate both this special issue and the papers that constitute it. If politics can be understood as a site of contestation over the values of a society, how they might be protected or advanced and how risks and costs should be distributed across that society, no issue has seemed to compel such radically different and oppositional responses (both in parliament and in public debate) as climate change

The Triumphs of Pelops and Bellerophon: Unique Mosaic Evidence of <i>Romanitas</i> in Late Roman Britain

AbstractA Roman villa building at Mud Hole, Boxford, West Berkshire, was examined by excavation in 2017 and 2019, and found to be of probable fourth-century date. One room of this otherwise seemingly modest villa contained a remarkable late fourth-century figured mosaic, which features a number of rare mythological subjects not previously encountered in Britain. Inscriptions suggest the name of the villa owner (Caepio) and his wife (Fortunata), with a possible Spanish connection. The mosaic's central panel is ornamented with the triumphs of Pelops and Bellerophon, the former known only from two other mosaics, in Syria and Spain. The borders also contain depictions of stories unknown on other mosaics, but all concerned with aspects of triumph. The central panel is upheld by walking telamones (giants), otherwise only known on a mosaic from Tusculum, and the mosaicists have attempted to use foreshortening to give the floor a trompe l'oeil effect. The rare subjects depicted on the floor all relate to either Poseidon, Pelops, Bellerophon or Atlas, and suggest high standards of mythological knowledge and longevity of classical culture amongst the villa-owning inhabitants of late fourth-century Berkshire. The mosaic shows a connection to earlier depictions of the Pelops story, but is highly original in its interpretation of them and follows a contemporary trend, not previously encountered in Britain, of its subjects breaking out from their ornamental borders. The mosaic is an altogether exceptional discovery and can be considered an important example of late Roman art so far found in Britain.</jats:p

Local Metrical and Global Topological Maps in the Hybrid Spatial Semantic Hierarchy

Topological and metrical methods for representing spatial knowledge have complementary strengths. We present a hybrid extension to the Spatial Semantic Hierarchy that combines their strengths and avoids their weaknesses. Metrical SLAM methods are used to build local maps of small-scale space within the sensory horizon of the agent, while topological methods are used to represent the structure of large-scale space. We describe how a local perceptual map is analyzed to identify a local topology description and is abstracted to a topological place. The mapbuilding method creates a set of topological map hypotheses that are consistent with travel experience. The set of maps is guaranteed under reasonable assumptions to include the correct map. We demonstrate the method on a real environment with multiple nested large-scale loops

Integrating multiple representations of spatial knowledge for mapping, navigation, and communication

A robotic chauffeur should reason about spatial information with a variety of scales, dimensions, and ontologies. Rich representations of both the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of space not only enable robust navigation behavior, but also permit natural communication with a human passenger. We apply a hierarchical framework of spatial knowledge inspired by human cognitive abilities, the Hybrid Spatial Semantic Hierarchy, to common navigation tasks: safe motion, localization, map-building, and route planning. We also discuss the straightforward mapping between the variety of ways in which people communicate with a chauffeur and the framework’s heterogeneous concepts of spatial knowledge. We present pilot experiments with a virtual chauffeur