In recent years, Land vehicle navigation system (LVNS) technology is a subject of great interest due to its potential for both consumer and business vehicle markets. GPS/INS ( Global Positioning System/ Inertial Navigation System ) integrated system is an effective solution to realize the LVNS. And how to keep communication between the vehicle and satellite while the vehicle is running in a bad environment is the main task in this thesis. The thesis provides an introduction to beam tracking system and two algorithms of how to improve the performance, then compare these two algorithms and choose the suitable one and implement it on ArduPilotMega board using Arduino language, at last test the integrated GPS/INS system in practice in order to estimate the performance. The requirements of the project are the maximum angular speed and angular acceleration speed of the vehicle are  and , respectively. Two algorithms which are Direction Cosine Matrix (DCM) and Euler Angle are evaluated in the system. In this thesis, there are many rotations due to the hostile environment, and DCM algorithm is not suitable for the requirement according to the results of simulation. Therefore, an innovated method which is Euler Angle Algorithm can be one effective way to solve the probelm. The primary idea of Euler Angle algorithm is to calculate the difference between the reference direction vector and the measurement direction vector from GPS and accelerometers, once there is an error rotation, take the cross product and rotate the incorrect direction vector back to original direction. The simulation results show that by implementing EA algorithm, system requirements can be achievable with a 10kHz update rate antenna and a 4000Hz sampling rate gyroscope, also with EA implementation in ArduPilotMega board, the real system tracking ability can be enhanced effectively.

Orientador: Sergio Augusto Cunha / Banca: Margarida Pinheiro Mello / Banca: Luciano Allegretti Mercadante / Banca: Dirce Kiyomi Hayashida Mochida / Banca: Anizio Perissinotto Junior / Resumo: Algumas abordagens matemáticas são utilizadas para descrever o componente rotacional das articulações durante o movimento humano, como por exemplo, as matrizes de rotação do tipo 3x3, ângulos de Euler e Cardan, os eixos helicais e os quatérnions, sendo este último o menos difundido na biomecânica. O presente estudo teve como objetivo apresentar e aplicar o método dos quatérnions como ferramenta biomecânica para a análise de rotação em movimentos esportivos. Para isso, o trabalho foi subdivido em três capítulos. No primeiro, são apresentadas e discutidas as definições e propriedades básicas dos quatérnions e também os cálculos matemáticos para as conversões entre três métodos utilizados para descrever rotações no espaço tridimensional (matriz de rotação, ângulos de Euler e quatérnions). No segundo, são apresentados os procedimentos para o cálculo dos quatérnions e dos ângulos de Euler através de variáveis cinemáticas. No terceiro, foram apresentadas três aplicações dos quatérnions. A primeira trata-se de um estudo no qual a representação dos quatérnions foi empregada com a finalidade de descrever e analisar as rotações ocorridas no joelho durante a aterrissagem unipodal (single leg drop landing); na segunda os quatérnions e os ângulos de Euler foram utilizados para representar os movimentos de rotação que ocorrem na articulação do tornozelo do membro de apoio durante o chute no futebol; e na terceira foram realizadas simulações para o estudo dos quatérnions. Conclui-se que a representação do movimento de rotação das articulações de humanos através dos quatérnions é uma abordagem nova e alternativa, pois possibilita representar o eixo instantâneo de rotação com cálculos matemáticos mais simples quando comparado com outras representações. Este é um tópico relevante uma vez que os movimentos humanos são gerados por ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Mathematical approaches have been utilized to describe joint rotational components during human movement, such as the rotational matrices, Euler angles, Cardan angles, helical axis, and quaternions, in which the last one is the least employed in biomechanics. The objective of the present study was to present and apply the quaternions method as a biomechanical tool to analyze rotation in sport movements. Thus, the thesis was divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, the basic quaternion definitions and properties are presented and discussed, along with the mathematical calculations for the conversion among the three most used methods to describe rotations in three-dimensional space (rotational matrices, Euler angles, and quaternions). In the second chapter, the procedures to calculate the quaternions and Euler angles are presented by means of kinematic variables. The third chapter submitted three applications of quaternions. The first the quaternions were used to describe the rotational movement of the human knee joint during a landing task; the second the quaternions and Euler angle were used to describe the rotational movement of the ankle joint of the foot of support during a soccer kick; In the third application opted-to implement simulations of movements for the study of quaternions. It was conclude that the representation of rotational movements observed in human joints by means of the quaternions is an interesting alternative because it is possible to represent the joint rotational axis with fairly simple mathematical calculations when compared to other forms of representation. The quaternions provide a more adequate representation system to operate rotations without constraints. This is a relevant topic once movements are product of internal and external forces that result in rotations through axis (quaternions), which naturally occurs repeatedly in human joints. / Doutor

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-02-06Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:00:59Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 santiago_prp_dr_rcla.pdf: 2163510 bytes, checksum: 5a3d88f241b63eecc316abda948bc85a (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Algumas abordagens matemáticas são utilizadas para descrever o componente rotacional das articulações durante o movimento humano, como por exemplo, as matrizes de rotação do tipo 3x3, ângulos de Euler e Cardan, os eixos helicais e os quatérnions, sendo este último o menos difundido na biomecânica. O presente estudo teve como objetivo apresentar e aplicar o método dos quatérnions como ferramenta biomecânica para a análise de rotação em movimentos esportivos. Para isso, o trabalho foi subdivido em três capítulos. No primeiro, são apresentadas e discutidas as definições e propriedades básicas dos quatérnions e também os cálculos matemáticos para as conversões entre três métodos utilizados para descrever rotações no espaço tridimensional (matriz de rotação, ângulos de Euler e quatérnions). No segundo, são apresentados os procedimentos para o cálculo dos quatérnions e dos ângulos de Euler através de variáveis cinemáticas. No terceiro, foram apresentadas três aplicações dos quatérnions. A primeira trata-se de um estudo no qual a representação dos quatérnions foi empregada com a finalidade de descrever e analisar as rotações ocorridas no joelho durante a aterrissagem unipodal (single leg drop landing); na segunda os quatérnions e os ângulos de Euler foram utilizados para representar os movimentos de rotação que ocorrem na articulação do tornozelo do membro de apoio durante o chute no futebol; e na terceira foram realizadas simulações para o estudo dos quatérnions. Conclui-se que a representação do movimento de rotação das articulações de humanos através dos quatérnions é uma abordagem nova e alternativa, pois possibilita representar o eixo instantâneo de rotação com cálculos matemáticos mais simples quando comparado com outras representações. Este é um tópico relevante uma vez que os movimentos humanos são gerados por... / Mathematical approaches have been utilized to describe joint rotational components during human movement, such as the rotational matrices, Euler angles, Cardan angles, helical axis, and quaternions, in which the last one is the least employed in biomechanics. The objective of the present study was to present and apply the quaternions method as a biomechanical tool to analyze rotation in sport movements. Thus, the thesis was divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, the basic quaternion definitions and properties are presented and discussed, along with the mathematical calculations for the conversion among the three most used methods to describe rotations in three-dimensional space (rotational matrices, Euler angles, and quaternions). In the second chapter, the procedures to calculate the quaternions and Euler angles are presented by means of kinematic variables. The third chapter submitted three applications of quaternions. The first the quaternions were used to describe the rotational movement of the human knee joint during a landing task; the second the quaternions and Euler angle were used to describe the rotational movement of the ankle joint of the foot of support during a soccer kick; In the third application opted-to implement simulations of movements for the study of quaternions. It was conclude that the representation of rotational movements observed in human joints by means of the quaternions is an interesting alternative because it is possible to represent the joint rotational axis with fairly simple mathematical calculations when compared to other forms of representation. The quaternions provide a more adequate representation system to operate rotations without constraints. This is a relevant topic once movements are product of internal and external forces that result in rotations through axis (quaternions), which naturally occurs repeatedly in human joints.

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The world is slowly moving into increased human-robot interaction where both humans and robots can co-exist in the same domain. For the robot to be able to operate effectively in a man’s designed environment, it becomes necessary to model the robot with human capabilities as humans are seen as more capable. Replicating human becomes a huge challenge due to numerous degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) that human possess resulting into too many variables and nonlinear equations. Other challenges do occur like singularities.   In this thesis, the singularity challenge of a redundant humanoid arm is explored while maintaining a simple 7 DOF serial chain structure. As opposed to the 30 DOF human arm, a simpler 7 DOF humanoid arm is adopted and studied to eliminate the singularity challenges. The singularity problem mainly comes from the elbow and the spherical joints at the shoulder and wrist. A step-by-step review of available inverse kinematics techniques is made with more focus on the iterative Jacobian-based methods. A step-by-step approach is adopted so as to identify the source of singularities while using the iterative Jacobian-based techniques that are able to handle the nonlinearities of the equations.   The Singular Value Filtering (SVF) technique coupled with Selectively Damped Least Squares (SDLS) is employed. Without any restrictions to the stretch of the arm or end-effector pose, the method demonstrates, in conjunction with Euler angle singularity avoidance method, the elimination of singularity problems. This is achieved with no adjustment to kinematic model of the manipulator.

The simplicity principle posits that we interpret sense data as the simplest consistent distal cause, or that our high level perceptual representations of stimuli are optimized for simplicity. The traditional paradigm used to test this principle is coding theory, where alternate representations of stimuli are constructed, simplicity is measured as shortness of representation length, and behavioural experiments attempt to show that the shortest representations correspond best to perception. In this study we apply coding theory to marker-based human walking motion. We compare two representation schemes. The first is based on marker coordinates in a body-centred Cartesian coordinate system. The second is based on a model of 15 rigid body segments with Euler angles and a Cartesian translation for each. Both of our schemes are principal component (PC)-based implementations of a norm-based multidimensional object space – a type of model for high level perceptual schemes that has received attention in the literature over the past two decades. Representation length is quantified as number of retained PC’s, with error increasing with discarded PC’s. We generalize simplicity to efficiency measured as error across all possible lengths, where more efficient schemes admit less error across lengths. We find that the Cartesian coordinates-based scheme is more efficient than the Euler angles and translations-based scheme across a database of 100 walkers. In order to link this finding to perception we turn to the caricature effect that subjects can identify caricatures of familiar stimuli more accurately than veridicals. Our design was to compare walker caricatures generated in our two schemes in the hope of finding that one gives caricatures that benefit identification more than the other, from which we would conclude the former to be a better model of the true perceptual scheme. However, we find that analogous caricatures between the two schemes are only distinguishable at caricature levels so extreme that identification performance breaks down, so our design became infeasible and no conclusion for a simplicity principle in walker perception is reached. We also measure a curve of increasing then decreasing identification performance with caricature level and an optimal level at approximately double the distinctiveness of a typical walker. / Thesis (Master, Neuroscience Studies) -- Queen's University, 2010-10-29 19:16:39.943