Development Environment for Optimized Locomotion System of Planetary Rovers

This paper addresses the first steps that have been undergone to set up the development environement w.r.t optimization and to modelling and simulation of overall dynamics of the rover driving behaviour under all critical surface terrains, like soft and hard soils, slippage, bulldozing effect and digging in soft soil. Optimization is based on MOPS (Multi-Objective Prameter Synthesis), that is capable for handling several objective functions such as mass reduction, motor power reduction, increase of traction forces, rover stability guarantee, and more. The tool interferes with Matlab/Simulink and with Modelica/Dymola for dynamics model implementation. For modelling and simulation of the overall rover dynamics and terramechanical behaviour in all kind of soils we apply a Matlab based tool that takes advantage of the multibody dynamics tool Simpack. First results of very promising rover optimizations 6 wheels are presented that improve ExoMars rover type wheel suspension systems. Performance of driveability behaviour in different soils is presented as well. The next steps are discusses in order to achieve the planned overall development environment

Lunar Rover with Multiple Science Handling Capability

A rover design study was undertaken for exploration of the Moon. Rovers that have been launched in the past carried a suite of science payload either onboard its body or on the robotic arm’s end. No rover has so far been launched and tasked with “carrying and deploying” a payload on an extraterrestrial surface. This paper describes a lunar rover designed for deploying payload as well as carrying a suite of instruments onboard for conventional science tasks. The main consideration during the rover design process was the usage of existing, in-house technology for development of some rover systems. The manipulation subsystem design was derived from the technology of Light Weight Robot, a dexterous arm originally developed for terrestrial applications. Recent efforts have led to definition of a mission architecture for exploration of the Moon with such a rover. An outline of its design, the manipulating arm technology and the design decisions that were made has been presented

On Advanced Mobility Concepts for Intelligent Planetary Surface Exploration

Surface exploration by wheeled rovers on Earth's Moon (the two Lunokhods) and Mars (Nasa's Sojourner and the two MERs) have been followed since many years already very suc-cessfully, specifically concerning operations over long time. However, despite of this success, the explored surface area was very small, having in mind a total driving distance of about 8 km (Spirit) and 21 km (Opportunity) over 6 years of operation. Moreover, ESA will send its ExoMars rover in 2018 to Mars, and NASA its MSL rover probably this year. However, all these rovers are lacking sufficient on-board intelligence in order to overcome longer dis-tances, driving much faster and deciding autonomously on path planning for the best trajec-tory to follow. In order to increase the scientific output of a rover mission it seems very nec-essary to explore much larger surface areas reliably in much less time. This is the main driver for a robotics institute to combine mechatronics functionalities to develop an intelligent mo-bile wheeled rover with four or six wheels, and having specific kinematics and locomotion suspension depending on the operational terrain of the rover to operate. DLR's Robotics and Mechatronics Center has a long tradition in developing advanced components in the field of light-weight motion actuation, intelligent and soft manipulation and skilled hands and tools, perception and cognition, and in increasing the autonomy of any kind of mechatronic systems. The whole design is supported and is based upon detailed modeling, optimization, and simula-tion tasks. We have developed efficient software tools to simulate the rover driveability per-formance on various terrain characteristics such as soft sandy and hard rocky terrains as well as on inclined planes, where wheel and grouser geometry plays a dominant role. Moreover, rover optimization is performed to support the best engineering intuitions, that will optimize structural and geometric parameters, compare various kinematics suspension concepts, and make use of realistic cost functions like mass and consumed energy minimization, static sta-bility, and more. For self-localization and safe navigation through unknown terrain we make use of fast 3D stereo algorithms that were successfully used e.g. in unmanned air vehicle ap-plications and on terrestrial mobile systems. The advanced rover design approach is applica-ble for lunar as well as Martian surface exploration purposes. A first mobility concept ap-proach for a lunar vehicle will be presented

Interkulturelle Kompetenz als Lernziel

--

Judges’ Well-Being and the Importance of Meaningful Work

At their swearing-in ceremonies, most judges are filled with a sense of meaning, pride, and happiness after achieving such an honored role. And rightly so. Alexander Hamilton said that “the first duty of society is justice,” and judges play a central role in this epic duty. With this duty, however, comes enormous responsibility—and plenty of pressure. Judges are not always well-prepared to deal with the stressful realities of the job that come after the ceremony and celebrations have ended, including overloaded dockets, heightened public scrutiny, weighty decisions, disturbing evidence, irritating lawyers and litigants, anxiety over time limits and expectations of perfection, threats to safety, social isolation, and more.1 That this onslaught of new pressures does not cause a diagnosable mental health disorder or addiction for many judges does not mean that they are mentally healthy, fully engaged, or thriving. Instead, too many end up feeling isolated, trapped, and burned out. The National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being recently issued a watershed report—The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change—that calls for judges and all of the profession’s stakeholders to prioritize well-being. The report defines well-being as a “continuous process toward thriving across all life dimensions”2 and establishes it as a key contributor to professional competence. In February 2018, the American Bar Association (ABA) House of Delegates endorsed the report through Resolution 105.3 These developments, along with many other initiatives cropping up across the profession, suggest a growing demand for positive changes to support lawyer thriving

Winter Bird Assemblages in Rural and Urban Environments: A National Survey

Urban development has a marked effect on the ecological and behavioural traits of many living organisms, including birds. In this paper, we analysed differences in the numbers of wintering birds between rural and urban areas in Poland. We also analysed species richness and abundance in relation to longitude, latitude, human population size, and landscape structure. All these parameters were analysed using modern statistical techniques incorporating species detectability. We counted birds in 156 squares (0.25 km2 each) in December 2012 and again in January 2013 in locations in and around 26 urban areas across Poland (in each urban area we surveyed 3 squares and 3 squares in nearby rural areas). The influence of twelve potential environmental variables on species abundance and richness was assessed with Generalized Linear Mixed Models, Principal Components and Detrended Correspondence Analyses. Totals of 72 bird species and 89,710 individual birds were recorded in this study. On average (±SE) 13.3 ± 0.3 species and 288 ± 14 individuals were recorded in each square in each survey. A formal comparison of rural and urban areas revealed that 27 species had a significant preference; 17 to rural areas and 10 to urban areas. Moreover, overall abundance in urban areas was more than double that of rural areas. There was almost a complete separation of rural and urban bird communities. Significantly more birds and more bird species were recorded in January compared to December. We conclude that differences between rural and urban areas in terms of winter conditions and the availability of resources are reflected in different bird communities in the two environments

Something Was Rotten At Garden Fresh: Tax Evasion And Accounting Fraud At A Produce Wholesaler

Most fraud cases prepared for use in auditing and fraud examination courses involve theft-of-asset or financial statement misstatement types of frauds.  Based on an actual case, we present a situation where the owner of a wholesale produce business, Garden Fresh, adjusted accounting records to evade taxes.  Changes in the produce industry were threatening Garden Fresh’s business, and the owner used funds generated from the tax-evasion fraud to support purchases from the company’s buyers.  In the end, the fraud and business could not be sustained, and Garden Fresh failed.  An important learning objective of the case is to illustrate how journal entries can be used to conceal a fraud, and how understanding accounting is essential for uncovering some frauds.  The Garden Fresh case has been used in an undergraduate auditing class, and assessment results indicate that the case is effective for meeting identified learning objectives.  The case would also be appropriate for use in taxation, fraud examination, forensic accounting, and small business courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels

Open Digital Forms

International audienceThe maintenance of digital libraries often passes through physical paper forms. Such forms are tedious to handle for both senders and receivers. Several commercial solutions exist for the digitization of forms. However, most of them are proprietary, expensive, centralized, or require software installation. With this demo, we propose a free, secure, and lightweight framework for digital forms. It is based on HTML documents with embedded JavaScript, it uses exclusively open standards, and it does not require a centralized architecture. Our forms can be digitally signed with the OpenPGP standard, and they contain machine-readable RDFa. Thus, they allow for the semantic analysis, sharing, re-use, or merger of documents across users or institutions

An evaluation of citizen volunteer monitoring initiatives in the national estuary program (NEP)

pages II, VI missingThe National Estuary Program (NEP) has as its core an excellent public involvement strategy. As a result, NEPs can be viewed as ideal financial and technical support `umbrellas' under which citizen volunteer monitoring activities can be readily and successfully established. This study focused on individual NEPs nationally and their citizen volunteer water quality monitoring (VWQM) activities. In particular, three elements responsible for successful volunteers programs, program initiation, implementation and evaluation were examined. Under these elements, various aspects of volunteer programs were addressed, such as financial and technical support, recruitment success, volunteer training, program size, scope, parameters sampled and technology employed. Areas where volunteer programs were particularly successful and less successful were also identified