Developing behaviours for interaction with objects close to the body is a primary goal for any organism to survive in the world. Being able to develop such behaviours will be an essential feature in autonomous humanoid robots in order to improve their integration into human environments. Adaptable spatial abilities will make robots safer and improve their social skills, human-robot and robot-robot collaboration abilities. This work investigated how a humanoid robot can explore and create action-based representations of its peripersonal space, the region immediately surrounding the body where reaching is possible without location displacement. It presents three empirical studies based on peripersonal space findings from psychology, neuroscience and robotics. The experiments used a visual perception system based on active-vision and biologically inspired neural networks. The first study investigated the contribution of binocular vision in a reaching task. Results indicated the signal from vergence is a useful embodied depth estimation cue in the peripersonal space in humanoid robots. The second study explored the influence of morphology and postural experience on confidence levels in reaching assessment. Results showed that a decrease of confidence when assessing targets located farther from the body, possibly in accordance to errors in depth estimation from vergence for longer distances. Additionally, it was found that a proprioceptive arm-length signal extends the robot’s peripersonal space. The last experiment modelled development of the reaching skill by implementing motor synergies that progressively unlock degrees of freedom in the arm. The model was advantageous when compared to one that included no developmental stages. The contribution to knowledge of this work is extending the research on biologically-inspired methods for building robots, presenting new ways to further investigate the robotic properties involved in the dynamical adaptation to body and sensing characteristics, vision-based action, morphology and confidence levels in reaching assessment.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-200).

O tema central desta tese se fundamenta no processo conflituoso e contraditório da produção do espaço de Belo Horizonte à luz do paradigma da modernidade. No final do século XIX, a nova capital das Minas é idealizada para representar uma espacialidade moderna distante da antiga imagem colonial de Ouro Preto. O antigo Arraial de Belo Horizonte é destruído para que a nova cidade republicana fosse produzida. Aarão Reis, engenheiro responsável pela idealização da nova capital, revela, no traçado urbano, expressiva influência da urbanística moderna presente nas cidades europeias. Nesse sentido, o projeto da capital republicana revela legados socioespaciais de uma modernidade pretérita que são reinscritos na cidade por meio de novos usos e apropriações. A gestão municipal de Juscelino Kubistchek anuncia políticas urbanas capazes de promover, na capital das Minas, as condições necessárias à produção de novas espacialidades modernizadas pela abertura de grandes avenidas, novos eixos de crescimento da cidade; pela produção do Complexo Arquitetônico da Pampulha, pelo incentivo à cultura mineira e, - o diálogo com o movimento cultural e artístico da nação Assim, gestam-se as condições de produção de uma nova morfologia urbana: a metrópole. A partir da análise do distanciamento estabelecido entre a representação do espaço idealizado e a produção dos espaços de suas representações, refletiu-se nesta tese, sobre a produção de um saber político engendrado no espaço urbano de Belo Horizonte. Os caminhos percorridos em prol da modernidade prometida lançaram a capital nos trilhos do projeto industrial. A gestão municipal de Juscelino Kubistchek promoveu legados socioespaciaos que viabilizaram a espacialidade de uma metrópole em construção/reconstrução. Os desdobramentos da produção da metrópole revelam-se em novas políticas urbanas que, guiadas pela promessa modernizante, patrimonializam as antigas formas e lhes atribuem novos conteúdos. A Praça da Liberdade é um exemplo claro desse processo: produzida para representar os ideais republicanos, encontra-se hoje inserida no Circuito das mercadorias Culturais, mercantiliza, a partir da patrimonialização do seu patrimônio, os legados de uma modernidade pretérita. / The central theme of this thesis is based on the conflicting and contradictory process of the production of the space of Belo Horizonte in the light of the paradigm of modernity. In the late nineteenth century, the new capital of Minas is idealized to represent a modern spatiality, different from the old colonial image of Ouro Preto. The former Arraial de Belo Horizonte was destroyed so that the new republican city was produced. Aarão Reis, the engineer responsible for the idealization of the capital, reveals, through the urban layout, a significant influence of the modern urbanistic present in European cities. Therefore, the project of the republican capital reveals socio-spatial legacies of a past modernity that are reinserted in the city through new uses and appropriations. The city management of Juscelino Kubitschek presents, following the spatial modernity in Belo Horizonte, representations that advertise urban policies able to promote, in the capital of Minas, the necessary conditions to the production of new modernizing spatialities. To ensure, through the great avenues, new axes of the city growth; from the production of Pampulha Architectural Complex, the emergence of a new man, the modern one; from encouraging the local culture, the dialogue with the cultural and artistic movement of the nation has generated the conditions of production of a new urban morphology: the metropolis. In this sense, the theoretical reflections were based on the analysis of the production of Belo Horizonte, a city which has never freed itself from the idealization of being represented as permanently modern. From the analysis of the distance established between the representation of idealized space and the production of the spaces of its representations, there is the production of political knowledge engendered in the urban area of Belo Horizonte. The paths taken in favor of the \"promised modernity\" launched the capital on the tracks of the industrial project. The city government of Juscelino Kubitschek has promoted socio-spatial legacies that enabled the spatiality of a metropolis in production. The consequences of the production of the metropolis reveal themselves in new urban policies which, guided by the \"modernizing promise\", patrimonialize the old ways and engender new content in the old ways by replacing the city in the list of new urbanities. The Liberty Square, produced to represent the republican ideals, now included in the Circuit of Cultural goods, commercializes, from the patrimonialization of their heritage, the legacies of a past modernity.

O tema central desta tese se fundamenta no processo conflituoso e contraditório da produção do espaço de Belo Horizonte à luz do paradigma da modernidade. No final do século XIX, a nova capital das Minas é idealizada para representar uma espacialidade moderna distante da antiga imagem colonial de Ouro Preto. O antigo Arraial de Belo Horizonte é destruído para que a nova cidade republicana fosse produzida. Aarão Reis, engenheiro responsável pela idealização da nova capital, revela, no traçado urbano, expressiva influência da urbanística moderna presente nas cidades europeias. Nesse sentido, o projeto da capital republicana revela legados socioespaciais de uma modernidade pretérita que são reinscritos na cidade por meio de novos usos e apropriações. A gestão municipal de Juscelino Kubistchek anuncia políticas urbanas capazes de promover, na capital das Minas, as condições necessárias à produção de novas espacialidades modernizadas pela abertura de grandes avenidas, novos eixos de crescimento da cidade; pela produção do Complexo Arquitetônico da Pampulha, pelo incentivo à cultura mineira e, - o diálogo com o movimento cultural e artístico da nação Assim, gestam-se as condições de produção de uma nova morfologia urbana: a metrópole. A partir da análise do distanciamento estabelecido entre a representação do espaço idealizado e a produção dos espaços de suas representações, refletiu-se nesta tese, sobre a produção de um saber político engendrado no espaço urbano de Belo Horizonte. Os caminhos percorridos em prol da modernidade prometida lançaram a capital nos trilhos do projeto industrial. A gestão municipal de Juscelino Kubistchek promoveu legados socioespaciaos que viabilizaram a espacialidade de uma metrópole em construção/reconstrução. Os desdobramentos da produção da metrópole revelam-se em novas políticas urbanas que, guiadas pela promessa modernizante, patrimonializam as antigas formas e lhes atribuem novos conteúdos. A Praça da Liberdade é um exemplo claro desse processo: produzida para representar os ideais republicanos, encontra-se hoje inserida no Circuito das mercadorias Culturais, mercantiliza, a partir da patrimonialização do seu patrimônio, os legados de uma modernidade pretérita. / The central theme of this thesis is based on the conflicting and contradictory process of the production of the space of Belo Horizonte in the light of the paradigm of modernity. In the late nineteenth century, the new capital of Minas is idealized to represent a modern spatiality, different from the old colonial image of Ouro Preto. The former Arraial de Belo Horizonte was destroyed so that the new republican city was produced. Aarão Reis, the engineer responsible for the idealization of the capital, reveals, through the urban layout, a significant influence of the modern urbanistic present in European cities. Therefore, the project of the republican capital reveals socio-spatial legacies of a past modernity that are reinserted in the city through new uses and appropriations. The city management of Juscelino Kubitschek presents, following the spatial modernity in Belo Horizonte, representations that advertise urban policies able to promote, in the capital of Minas, the necessary conditions to the production of new modernizing spatialities. To ensure, through the great avenues, new axes of the city growth; from the production of Pampulha Architectural Complex, the emergence of a new man, the modern one; from encouraging the local culture, the dialogue with the cultural and artistic movement of the nation has generated the conditions of production of a new urban morphology: the metropolis. In this sense, the theoretical reflections were based on the analysis of the production of Belo Horizonte, a city which has never freed itself from the idealization of being represented as permanently modern. From the analysis of the distance established between the representation of idealized space and the production of the spaces of its representations, there is the production of political knowledge engendered in the urban area of Belo Horizonte. The paths taken in favor of the \"promised modernity\" launched the capital on the tracks of the industrial project. The city government of Juscelino Kubitschek has promoted socio-spatial legacies that enabled the spatiality of a metropolis in production. The consequences of the production of the metropolis reveal themselves in new urban policies which, guided by the \"modernizing promise\", patrimonialize the old ways and engender new content in the old ways by replacing the city in the list of new urbanities. The Liberty Square, produced to represent the republican ideals, now included in the Circuit of Cultural goods, commercializes, from the patrimonialization of their heritage, the legacies of a past modernity.

Space is a social product and produced socially. For a social analysis, it is therefore necessary to put equal emphasis on conceptualisations of time and space and to analyse the production process of space. This thesis aims to analyse the production of capitalist space and it is based on Lefebvre&rsquo / s conceptualisation of &lsquo / production of space&rsquo / within the context of Marxist urban space theories. It is based on the argument that every mode of production creates its own spaces and the new spaces call for new social relations. In the analysis of space, historical geographical materialism and realist geography are used. In this thesis, the production of urban space of Ankara is analysed with an emphasis on social relations of planning and architecture. Ankara as the capital city is a spatial representation of nation state and national identity. Spatial representations and practices are analysed in terms of Atat&uuml / rk Boulevard and the squares of Ulus, Sihhiye and Kizilay. Within this scope, public buildings and monuments, housing, transportation and commercial spaces are examined by drawing on Lefebvre&rsquo / s conceptual triad of &lsquo / spatial practices&rsquo / , &lsquo / representations of space&rsquo / and &lsquo / spaces of representation&rsquo / . In the production process of the urban space of Ankara, history of space is considered as the history of its forms and representations and the production of urban space is examined in historical periods. The exploratory type of research used in this study is primarily based on documentary-historical data.

Bandpass microwave filters are often modeled as a set of coupled discrete and localized resonators. This model is adequate in the narrow-band case. It, however, fails to describe accurately compact structures where stray couplings can be strong. To address this problem, a new view is proposed in this thesis. Instead of basing the model on localized discrete resonances, we start by constructing a model that is based on the global resonances of the structure. These are the resonances that the ports see and emerge when the entire structure is treated as a single unit. The resulting circuit, the transversal circuit, is universal. It is valid for any coupled resonator filter. The circuit is used in optimization of compact and ultra wideband suspended stripline filters and excellent results were obtained. In order to relate the global-eigen modes model to the conventional model, the issue of representation of microwave filters is investigated in detail. It is shown that a microwave filter can be represented by an infinite number of similar coupling matrices by using different modes as basis. According to this new view, a similarity transformation in microwave coupled resonator filters is interpreted as a change of basis. Two circuits that are related by a similarity transformation represent the same filter structure by using different sets of modes as basis. These conclusions were exploited in establishing a design theory for filters with dual-mode cavities. The new theory leads to direct and accurate design techniques that need no, or minimal, optimization. No tuning is used in the CAD steps. Tuning may only be required to account for manufacturing tolerances. A new tuning configuration is described and validated by computer simulation. A novel dual-mode filter with improved quality factor and reduced sensitivity is developed and designed within the same approach. The filter is fabricated and measured and excellent results are achieved. The same design methodology was used to introduce a new class of dual-mode dual-band microwave filters with improved sensitivity. It is also shown that canonical dual-mode filters can be designed within the same view with minimal local optimization of the input cavity. / Thesis (Ph.D, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2010-03-31 01:33:36.818

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