We wish to navigate across complicated three-dimensional structures. We describe a robot that can propel itself on a web of surfaces oriented around arbitrary directions in three-space. This robot is an inchworm-like robot with a simple, modular, and exi-ble design. We present control algorithms for the task-level skills that allow the robot to walk vertically, horizontally , and inverted, and ...

We investigate the characteristics of constant-amplitude input shapers for robust time-optimal maneuvers of exi-ble structures. Trends in the timing of the shaper impulses are shown as a function of the system damping constant and move distance. The insensitivity to modeling errors, time-optimality, amount of vibration caused during maneuvers, and high frequency excitation of these shapers are ...

From the viewpoint of multilingual generation, the common underlying knowledge base should be kept clear of language-speciic concepts. This goal presupposes that lexical items of various languages cannot map one-to-one onto concepts all the time. We propose a more exi-ble way of attaching lexical items to conngurations of concepts and roles, and a lexical option nder that determines the set of ...

The objective of this study was to determine, via simulation, the premium required for dairy farmers supplying milk with a high concentration of unsaturated fatty acids (UFA) to a dairy processor to equal the operating profit ($/ha) of average farms, under New Zealand conditions. Fifty average farms (AVE farms) and fifty farms that fed an oilseed supplement to dairy cows (UFA farms) were simula...

Abstract With the day by exhausting nonrenewable resources, it becomes crucial to focus on renewable sources of energy and get maximum output from them. Wind is a major source in many parts India. Other such are solar energy, biomass etc. Our objective during this project was predict wind speed for medium-term so as help farms channelizing an efficient manner throughput farms.

BACKGROUND Several highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) outbreaks have been reported over the past decade. South Korea recently faced AI outbreaks whose economic impact was estimated to be 6.3 billion dollars, equivalent to nearly 50% of the profit generated by the poultry-related industries in 2008. In addition, AI is threatening to cause a human pandemic of potentially devastating proportio...

Benchmarking is the practice of establishing the relative performance of a business or enterprise against an appropriate standard, generally industry standards derived from a survey of farms. The Policy Commission into the Future of Farming and Food (2002) highlighted a need to spread and improve benchmarking on farms. The requirements of effective benchmarking are illustrated in a ten step fra...

Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in poultry can cause severe economic damage and represent a public health threat. Development of efficient containment measures requires an understanding of how these influenza viruses are transmitted between farms. However, the actual mechanisms of interfarm transmission are largely unknown. Dispersal of infectious material by wind has been sugges...

The concept of multifunctional use of marine offshore areas receives increased significance in the light of sustainable development in heavily used marine areas. Here we defined potential areas in the German EEZ for the co-utilization of offshore wind farms and offshore aquaculture applying integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) approaches. We combined a geographic information system (GIS)...