Search results for " Vehicle"
showing 10 items of 389 documents
Predicting consumer purchase intention toward hybrid vehicles : testing the moderating role of price sensitivity
2020
PurposeToday, global warming is one of the most acute challenges in the world, prominently caused by greenhouse gases. The introduction of hybrid-vehicles (HVs) is thus, one of the industrial initiatives to tackle this challenge by allowing at least some proportionate reduction in global-gas-emissions. Such initiatives like HVs have also affected the consumers’ green-purchase-intention (GPI). Hence, underpinned into the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), this study aims to analyze consumers’ response in terms of GPI for HVs, in addition to exploring the moderating-effect of price-sensitivity between independent-variables (attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control) and con…
UWSim-NET: An Open-Source Framework for Experimentation in Communications for Underwater Robotics
2019
The communication with the remotely operated vehicles (ROV) in underwater applications are usually based on umbilical cables. The increase in the number of ROVs in cooperative interventions motivates the interest in underwater wireless communications. They have a high impact in robotic applications because of their limited performance in underwater scenarios. In this work we present UWSim-NET, an extension of the simulator for underwater robotics UWSim, which is based on the Robot Operating System (ROS). UWSim-NET integrates a communications module based on Network Simulator 3 (NS3) that allows to model the physical and data link layers. Experiments demonstrating the capabilities of UWSim-N…
OMNI-DRL: Learning to Fly in Forests with Omnidirectional Images
2022
Perception is crucial for drone obstacle avoidance in complex, static, and unstructured outdoor environments. However, most navigation solutions based on Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) use limited Field-Of-View (FOV) images as input. In this paper, we demonstrate that omnidirectional images improve these methods. Thus, we provide a comparative benchmark of several visual modalities for navigation: ground truth depth, ground truth semantic segmentation, and RGB images. These exhaustive comparisons reveal that it is superior to use an omnidirectional camera to navigate with classical DRL methods. Finally, we show in two different virtual forest environments that adapting the convolution to…
In vivo antioxidant treatment protects against bleomycin-induced lung damage in rats
2003
1. This study examines the activity of the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine on bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in rats with emphasis on the early inflammatory phase. 2. Rats receiving N-acetylcysteine (300 mg kg(-1) day(-1), intraperitoneal) had less augmented lung wet weight, and lower levels of proteins, lactate dehydrogenase, neutrophil and macrophage counts in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and lung myeloperoxidase activity with a betterment of histological score at 3 days postbleomycin. 3. A diminished lung GSH/GSSG ratio and augmented lipid hydroperoxides were observed 3 days postbleomycin. These changes were attenuated by N-acetylcysteine. Alveolar macrophages from bleomycin-exposed r…
OMC: An Optical Monitoring Camera for INTEGRAL
2003
The Optical Monitoring Camera (OMC) will observe the optical emission from the prime targets of the gammaray instruments onboard the ESA mission INTEGRAL, with the support of the JEM-X monitor in the X-ray domain. This capability will provide invaluable diagnostic information on the nature and the physics of the sources over a broad wavelength range. Its main scientific objectives are: (1) to monitor the optical emission from the sources observed by the gamma- and X-ray instruments, measuring the time and intensity structure of the optical emission for comparison with variability at high energies, and (2) to provide the brightness and position of the optical counterpart of any gamma- or X-r…
EU transition in power sector: How RES affects the design and operations of transmission power systems
2019
In the past, much of Europe's electricity grid network has been designed in consideration of the locations of conventional generation plants. However, a large share of today's renewables production – notably variable wind and solar – does not correspond to this grid architecture. Interconnectors, in addition to internal infrastructure, are key to creating new electricity corridors to connect areas of surplus to areas of scarcity. In this context, in 2014 the European Council, in recognizing that a fundamental role of transmission infrastructure is to enable the integration of areas of high renewable energy potential with main consumption areas, endorsed the proposal by the European Commissi…
OMC: An Optical Monitoring Camera for INTEGRAL - Instrument description and performance
2003
The Optical Monitoring Camera (OMC) will observe the optical emission from the prime targets of the gammaray instruments onboard the ESA mission INTEGRAL, with the support of the JEM-X monitor in the X-ray domain. This capability will provide invaluable diagnostic information on the nature and the physics of the sources over a broad wavelength range. Its main scientific objectives are: ( 1) to monitor the optical emission from the sources observed by the gamma- and X-ray instruments, measuring the time and intensity structure of the optical emission for comparison with variability at high energies, and ( 2) to provide the brightness and position of the optical counterpart of any gamma- or X…
Space variant vision and pipelined architecture for time to impact computation
2002
Image analysis is one of the most interesting ways for a mobile vehicle to understand its environment. One of the tasks of an autonomous vehicle is to get accurate information of what it has in front, to avoid collision or find a way to a target. This task requires real-time restrictions depending on the vehicle speed and external object movement. The use of normal cameras, with homogeneous (squared) pixel distribution, for real-time image processing, usually requires high performance computing and high image rates. A different approach makes use of a CMOS space-variant camera that yields a high frame rate with low data bandwidth. The camera also performs the log-polar transform, simplifyin…
A mixed reality simulator for an autonomous delivery system using platooning
2021
Developments in the field of autonomous vehicles have encouraged research to innovate technology to solve everyday problems. E-commerce has been on the rise and, freighttransportation is considered an environmental nuisance, especially in the city centers. Electric vehicles have been proposed to reduce the environmental impact of transit vehicles. A package delivery system using a platoon of autonomous electric delivery vehicles and established public transport networks in cities can be employed to solve these problems. But autonomous vehicle testing is a point of concern for authorities and the public alike. This paper acknowledges this problem of validating the algorithms used to create a…
INTEGRAL/SPI ground calibration
2003
Three calibration campaigns of the spectrometer SPI have been performed before launch in order to determine the instrument characteristics, such as the effective detection area, the spectral resolution and the angular resolution. Absolute determination of the effective area has been obtained from simulations and measurements. At 1 MeV, the effective area is 65 cm^2 for a point source on the optical axis, the spectral resolution ~2.3 keV. The angular resolution is better than 2.5 deg and the source separation capability about 1 deg. Some temperature dependant parameters will require permanent in-flight calibration.