PURPOSE Our group previously introduced an in vivo proton range verification methodology in which a silicon diode array system is used to correlate the dose rate profile per range modulation wheel cycle of the detector signal to the water-equivalent path length (WEPL) for passively scattered proton beam delivery. The implementation of this system requires a set of calibration data to establish ...

The Kansas City SCOUT Traffic Management System (TMS) is a cooperative effort funded by the State Departments of Transportation of Kansas and Missouri and involving the DOTs, local and state law enforcement, Mid-America Regional Council (MARC—KC MPO), local municipalities and townships, and others. The system integrates dynamic message signs, video surveillance, traffic detection, computer netw...

When designing a mobile robotic team, an engineer is faced with many design choices. This paper discusses the design of a team consisting of two different models of robots with significantly different sensing and control capabilities intended to accomplish a similar task. Two new robotic platforms, the COTS Scout and the MegaScout are described along with their respective design considerations.

The University of Minnesota’s Scout robot is a small cylindrical robot capable of rolling and jumping. In this paper, models describing the robot’s motion under its modi of actuation are developed. These models can be employed for Scout motion prediction and simulation. The models suggest that the determining factor of the Scout’s behavior is the length of the winch cable. The validity of the m...

An 80-year old woman with a history of surgical fixation of her acromio-clavicular joint with three Kirschner wires 3 months earlier presented with shortness of breath and a dislocated shoulder. Computed tomography scan confirmed the diagnosis of a retained Kirchner wire in the right ventricle (Fig. 1) with pericardial effusion (Fig. 2). Figure 1: Scout view showing one wire within the heart sh...

Two new robotic platforms, the MegaScout and the Commercial Off-the-Shelf Scout (COTS Scout), have been developed recently at the University of Minnesota's Center for Distributed Robotics. The two systems were initially unable to communicate with each other. This paper discusses the development of a communications system and a novel software architecture designed to allow the two systems to wor...

A 61-year-old asymptomatic woman was referred for echocardiography to evaluate recently detected systolic murmur. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed an echodense obstructive mass in the left ventricular outflow tract of unclear origin. Subsequent transesophageal echo suggested an intracardiac calcified tumor and recommended surgical excision. Contrast-enhanced cardiac computed tomography (...

For activity quantification based on planar scintillation camera measurements, photon attenuation is an important factor that needs to be corrected for in a patient- and organ-specific manner. One possibility for obtaining attenuation correction maps is to use X-ray CT scout images. Since the intensity of scout images is in relative numbers, their image values need to be multiplied by a factor ...