We present an avatar system designed to facilitate the embodiment of humanoid robots by human operators, validated through iCub3, a humanoid developed at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. More precisely, the paper makes two contributions: First, we present the humanoid iCub3 as a robotic avatar that integrates the latest significant improvements after about 15 years of development of the iCub series. Second, we present a versatile avatar system enabling humans to embody humanoid robots encompassing aspects such as locomotion, manipulation, voice, and facial expressions with comprehensive sensory feedback including visual, auditory, haptic, weight, and touch modalities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWearable sensors are gaining in popularity because they enable outdoor experimental monitoring. This paper presents a cost-effective sensorised insole based on a mesh of tactile capacitive sensors. Each sensor's spatial resolution is about 4 taxels/cm 2 in order to have an accurate reconstruction of the contact pressure distribution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe intersexual phenotypes of marsupials with XXY and XO chromosome constitutions imply that not all sexual dimorphisms are under the control of testicular hormones and, ultimately, the SRY gene on the Y chromosome. It has been hypothesised that there is a gene on the X chromosome that determines whether either a scrotum will form (one copy of the gene) or a pouch with teats (two copies of the gene). Here, we describe the anatomy and chromosomes of two intersexual dasyurid marsupials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 2n = 14 karyotype is shared by some species in each of the marsupial orders in Australian and American superfamilies, suggesting that the ancestral marsupial chromosome complement was 2n = 14. We have used chromosome painting between distantly related marsupial species to discover whether genome arrangements in 2n = 14 species in two Australian orders support this hypothesis. Cross-species chromosome painting was used to investigate chromosome rearrangements between a macropodid species Macropus eugenii (2n = 16) and a wombat species in a different suborder (Lasiorhinus latifrons, 2n = 14), and a dasyurid species in a different order (Sminthopsis macroura, 2n = 14).
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