The efficiency of the automatic execution of complex assembly tasks can be enhanced by the identification of the contact state. In this paper we derive a new method for testing a hypothesized contact state using force sensing in the presence of sensing and control uncertainty. The hypothesized contact state is represented as a collection of elementary contacts. The feasibility of the elementary...

As alternatives to conventional metals, new plasmonic materials offer many advantages in the rapidly growing fields of plasmonics and metamaterials. These advantages include low intrinsic loss, semiconductor-based design, compatibility with standard nanofabrication processes, tunability, and others. Transparent conducting oxides such as Al:ZnO, Ga:ZnO and indium-tin-oxide (ITO) enable many high...

Computing tight resource-level bounds is a fundamental problem in the construction of flexible plans with resource utilization. In this paper we describe an efficient algorithm that builds a resource envelope, the tightest possible such bound. The algorithm is based on transforming the temporal network of resource consuming and producing events into a flow network with nodes equal to the events...

speci cations. 3.1.1 Maintaining Invariants Through Goal Regression Indirect methods de ne the action-selection mapping by deriving it from some description of the environment and the goal, whether in the form of an explicit combinatorial object like a graph, or in the form of declarative assertions, such as operator descriptions found in classical AI planning systems. To illustrate how a stimu...

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a powerful approach for measuring gene expression levels in cells and tissues, but it relies on high-quality RNA. We demonstrate here that statistical adjustment employing existing quality measures largely fails to remove the effects of RNA degradation when RNA quality associates with the outcome of interest. Using RNA-seq data from a molecular degradation experiment...

Creativity – whether in humans or machines – is more than a matter of simple creation. To be “creative” implies an ability to do more than invent, but an ability to recognize and appreciate the inventions of others. After all, the ability to recognize surprising value in the efforts of others is the same ability we use to guide our own creative efforts. Solipsistic creativity is rare indeed, an...