This work is devoted to the Dynamic Space Allocation Problem, where project duration is divided into a number of consecutive periods, each of them associated with a number of activities. The resources required by the activities have to be available in the corresponding workspaces and those sitting idle during a period have to be stored. This problem contains the Quadratic Assignment Problem (QA...

In this abstract, we study GRASP and VNS heuristics for Max-Cut, together with a combination of the two in a hybrid procedure. GRASP [3, 4, 5] is characterized by a construction phase and a local search phase. The iterative construction builds a solution, one element at a time, randomly selected from a restricted candidate list (RCL), whose elements are well-ranked according to a greedy functio...

Physical schemas are representations of simple physically grounded relationships and interactions such as “move,” “push,” and “contain.” We believe they are the conceptual primitives an agent employs to understand its environment. Physical schemas can be used at varying levels of abstraction across a variety of domains. We have designed a domain-general agent simulation and control testbed base...

A state variable formulation of the remote manipulation problem is presented, applicable to human supervised or autonomous computer-manipula-tors. A discrete state vector, containing position variables for the manipulator and relevant objects, spans a quantized state space comprising many static configurations of objects and hand. A manipulation task is a desired new state. State transitions ar...

Grasping power (GP) by means of functional electrical stimulation (FES) was measured in a patient with C6 complete tetraplegia. This was compared with GP by means of the dynamic tenodesis effect, the flexor hinge splint and the GP of normal female. Palmar grasp strength by means of FES was approximately 16 % of the control group and 2.4 times greater than the flexor hinge splint. Lateral grasp ...

Grasping mechanisms (grippers) are used for a wide range of applications including fixturing arrangements, industrial, agricultural, and service robotics for medical and home use. The gripper must immobilize the object it is manipulating , while applying the minimal necessary grasping force, in order to prevent the grasped object's bruising. Performing grasp analysis and synthesis, requires the...

We measured the input-output properties of the hand grasps of 14 individuals with tetraplegia at the C5/C6 level who had received an implanted upper limb neuroprosthesis. The data provide a quantitative description of grasp-opening and grasp-force control with neuroprosthetic hand grasp systems. Static properties were estimated by slowly ramping the command (input) from 0 to 100%. A hand-held s...