The ability to map the profit made across a cotton field would enable producers to see in detail where money is being made or lost on their farms. This ability, which requires sitespecific knowledge of yield, fiber quality, and input costs would further enable them to implement precise field management practices to ensure that they receive the highest return possible on each portion of a field and do not waste materials and other inputs throughout the field. Investigators at Texas A&M previously developed a wireless-GPS system that tracks where a module of cotton comes from within a field. This system is a necessary component in mapping fiber quality, which is a major determiner of price and thus profit. Three drawbacks to the previous wireless-GPS system are that (1) a person must manually trigger the system to send wireless communications when a field machine dumps its load of cotton, (2) multiple field machines of the same type (e.g., two cotton pickers) cannot be used simultaneously on the same system within the same field, and (3) no software is available to automatically produce fiber-quality maps after the data are downloaded from the gin. The first two drawbacks, the need for an automatic communication-triggering system and the needed capability for multiple field machines of the same type are the problems addressed in this work. To solve the first problem, a sensing and control system was added to a harvester to automatically indicate when the machine is dumping a basket load of cotton so that wireless messages can be automatically sent from the harvester to subsequent field machines without human intervention. This automated communication-triggering system was incorporated into the existing wireless- GPS system, rigorously field tested, and ultimately proven to operate as designed. Linking data collected with this system together with classing information will enable producers to create fiber-quality maps, and linking fiber-quality maps with yield and input-cost maps will enable them to create profit maps. Additionally, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) system was integrated with the wireless-GPS system to allow for multiple field machines of the same type. The RFID system was also rigorously field tested and proven to operate as designed. Finally, the entire system was field tested as a whole and operated according to design. Thus, the wireless-GPS module tracking system now operates without human intervention and works with multiple field machines of each type, two additional capabilities required for practical use in large farming operations.

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ITC/USA 2012 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Eighth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2012 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / The Western Aeronautical Test Range of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Dryden Flight Research Center needed to address the aging software and hardware of its current situational awareness display application, the Global Real-Time Interactive Map (GRIM). GRIM was initially developed in the late 1980s and executes on older PC architectures using a Linux operating system that is no longer supported. Additionally, the software is difficult to maintain due to its complexity and loss of developer knowledge. It was decided that a replacement application must be developed or acquired in the near future. The replacement must provide the functionality of the original system, the ability to monitor test flight vehicles in real-time, and add improvements such as high resolution imagery and true 3-dimensional capability. This paper will discuss the process of determining the best approach to replace GRIM, and the functionality and capabilities of the first release of the Positional Awareness Map 3D.

No description available.

When animals explore a new environment, they do not acquire a precise map of the places visited. In fact, research has shown that learning is a recurring process. Over time, new information helps the animal to update their perception of the locations it has visited. Yet, they are still able to use the fuzzy and often incomplete representation to find their way home. This process has been termed the cognitive mapping process. The work presented in this thesis uses a mobile robot equipped with sonar sensors to investigate the nature of such a process. Specifically, what is the information that is fundamental and prevalent in spatial navigation? Initially, the robot is instructed to compute a “cognitive map” of its environment. Since a robot is not a cognitive agent, it cannot, by definition, compute a cognitive map. Hence the robot is used as a test bed for understanding the cognitive mapping process. Yeap’s (1988) theory of cognitive mapping forms the foundation for computing the robot’s representation of the places it has visited. He argued that a network of local spaces is computed early in the cognitive mapping process. Yeap coined these local spaces as Absolute Space Representations (ASRs). However, ASR is not just a process of partitioning the environment into smaller local regions. The ASRs describe the bounded space that one is in, how one could leave that space (exits) and how the exits serves to link the ASRs to form a network that serves as the cognitive map (see Jefferies (1999)). Like the animal’s cognitive map, ASRs are not precise geometrical maps of the environment but rather, provide a rough shape or feel of the space the robot is currently in. Once the robot computes its “cognitive map”, it is then, like foraging and hoarding animals, instructed to find its way home. To do so, the robot uses two crucial pieces of information: distance between exits of ASRs and relative orientation of adjacent ASRs. A simple animal-like strategy was implemented for the robot to locate home. Results from the experiments demonstrated the robot’s ability to determine its location within the visited environment along its journey. This task was performed without the use of an accurate map. From these results and reviews of various findings related to cognitive mapping for various animals, we deduce that: Different animals have different sensing capabilities. They live in different environments and therefore face unique challenges. Consequently, they evolve to have different navigational strategies. However, we believe two crucial pieces of information are inherent in all animals and form the fundamentals of navigation: distance and orientation. Higher level animals may encode and may even prefer richer information to enhance the animal’s cognitive map. Nonetheless, distance and orientation will always be computed as a core process of cognitive mapping. We believe this insight will help future research to better understand the complex nature of cognitive mapping.

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-133). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 238-246). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (MA)--University of Montana, 2008. / Title from author supplied metadata. Contents viewed on February 11, 2010. Includes bibliographical references.

<p>Denna rapport jämför tre stycken texturmappningsalgoritmer vars uppgift är att öka detaljrikedomen på ytor utan att tillföra några extra polygoner. Algoritmerna är tre stycken pixel-shaders vars uppgift är att skapa illusionen av tre dimensioner istället för två på de ytor algoritmerna är applicerad på. Ytor med få polygoner ska se ut att bestå utav många fler.</p><p>Fyra expriment har utförts på tre, till formen mycket olika, 3D-modeller tillsammans med tre olika texturuppsättningar berstående utav färg-, normal- och höjdtextur.</p><p>Resultatet visar att alla tre tekniker har olika starka och svaga sidor och på så vis sina optimala användningsområden.</p>