An Analytic Model for Negative Obstacle Detection with Lidar and Numerical Validation Using Physics-Based Simulation.

Negative obstacles have long been a challenging aspect of autonomous navigation for ground vehicles. However, as terrestrial lidar sensors have become lighter and less costly, they have increasingly been deployed on small, low-flying UAV, affording an opportunity to use these sensors to aid in autonomous navigation. In this work, we develop an analytical model for predicting the ability of UAV or UGV mounted lidar sensors to detect negative obstacles.

Impact of Virtual Reality-Generated Construction Environments at Different Heights on Postural Stability and Fall Risk.

Background: Falls due to postural instability are common in construction environments especially from a height. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of virtual reality (VR)-generated environments at different virtual heights on postural stability.

Methods: Nineteen adults were analyzed for postural stability, tested in real (No VR) environment and in three VR environments, randomly assigned, at virtual heights of 0 ft.

Closing the Wearable Gap-Part V: Development of a Pressure-Sensitive Sock Utilizing Soft Sensors.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of compressible soft robotic sensors (C-SRS) in determining plantar pressure to infer vertical and shear forces in wearable technology: A ground reaction pressure sock (GRPS). To assess pressure relationships between C-SRS, pressure cells on a BodiTrak Vector Plate, and Kistler Force Plates, thirteen volunteers performed three repetitions of three different movements: squats, shifting center-of-pressure right to left foot, and shifting toes to heels with C-SRS in both anterior-posterior (A/P) and medial-lateral (M/L) sensor orientations. Pearson correlation coefficient of C-SRS to BodiTrak Vector Plate resulted in an average R-value greater than 0.

Impact of occupational footwear and workload on postural stability in work safety.

Background: The impact of occupational footwear and workload on postural stability has been studied previously to prevent fall-related workplace injuries.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of two types of occupational footwear [steel-toed (SB) and tactical (TB) work boots] on human balance, when exposed to physical workload.

Methods: Postural stability was evaluated in eighteen male participants in the following conditions: eyes open (EO), eyes closed (EC), eyes open unstable surface (EOU) and eyes closed unstable surface (ECU).

Virtual-Reality-Induced Visual Perturbations Impact Postural Control System Behavior.

Background: Virtual reality (VR) is becoming a widespread tool in rehabilitation, especially for postural stability. However, the impact of using VR in a "moving wall paradigm" (visual perturbation), specifically without and with anticipation of the perturbation, is unknown.

Methods: Nineteen healthy subjects performed three trials of static balance testing on a force plate under three different conditions: baseline (no perturbation), unexpected VR perturbation, and expected VR perturbation.

Semantic Segmentation with Transfer Learning for Off-Road Autonomous Driving.

Since the state-of-the-art deep learning algorithms demand a large training dataset, which is often unavailable in some domains, the transfer of knowledge from one domain to another has been a trending technique in the computer vision field. However, this method may not be a straight-forward task considering several issues such as original network size or large differences between the source and target domain. In this paper, we perform transfer learning for semantic segmentation of off-road driving environments using a pre-trained segmentation network called DeconvNet.

Impact of military type footwear and load carrying workload on postural stability.

Postural stability has been shown to be impacted by footwear and task performed. This study analysed the impact of two military footwear, standard boot (STB) and minimalist boot (MTB) on postural stability, before (PRE) and after (POST) a load carriage task. Sixteen participants were tested for postural stability using sensory organisation and motor control tests on Neurocom Equitest™.

Evaluating pedestrian behavior at crosswalks: Validation of a pedestrian behavior questionnaire for the U.S. population.

The aim of this study was to develop and validate a self-reporting Pedestrian Behavior Questionnaire (PBQ) for the U.S. population to measure frequency of risky behaviors among pedestrians.

Efficacy of virtual reality in pedestrian safety research.

Advances in virtual reality technology present new opportunities for human factors research in areas that are dangerous, difficult, or expensive to study in the real world. The authors developed a new pedestrian simulator using the HTC Vive head mounted display and Unity software. Pedestrian head position and orientation were tracked as participants attempted to safely cross a virtual signalized intersection (5.