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You are here: Home Section Table Shout it Out Westchester Leaders Ask Governor Cuomo to Find Solutions in Light of Gas Moratorium
Westchester Leaders Ask Governor Cuomo to Find Solutions in Light of Gas Moratorium
Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 February 2019 14:37
Published: Tuesday, 12 February 2019 14:31
Westchester leaders have asked the Governor to intervene in the energy crisis.Westchester government leaders and school superintendents are making a plea to Governor Cuomo to help find solutions to the moratorium on new gas service that Con Edison suddenly imposed on Westchester to go into affect on March 15. The moratorium affects both residential and commercial properties and would prevent developers of new construction and expansion of existing properties from access to gas service.
The letter says, "We do not need to tell you that the news has sent a chill throughout the development community. Given the number of projects already advancing in our cities, towns, and villages, from major redevelopment in cities like New Rochelle, Rye, White Plains, and Yonkers, to the smaller residential, commercial, mixed-use, and school construction projects taking place throughout the county, we are deeply concerned about the potential economic headwinds coming from such a resource crunch."
The leaders ask the Governor to expedite Public Service Commission approval of a proposal from Con Edison called "Smart Solutions for Natural Gas" and to create incentives for the use of clean energy sources. They also ask for the Governor to intervene in clearing the way for a new gas pipeline to bring more natural gas to Westchester. The complete letter is shown below.
We spoke to Assemblywoman Amy Paulin about the moratorium and here are her comments:
"Con Edison surprised all of us with a very short window – two months – before they expect to impose the moratorium. They say that even a year ago they did not anticipate this moratorium. The reason they are imposing this moratorium is to ensure that you, their customer, has heat on the coldest day of the year. They have created this moratorium to preserve your supply."
She explained that the pipelines that convey the gas are privately built and those companies have the right to sell the gas to whatever utility companies they choose.
When we asked why more pipelines had not been built, Paulin said, "Con Ed says they were encouraged to create a smart solution for use of geothermal, heat pumps and other renewables rather than build a pipeline … and the Public Service Commission says Con Edison Assemblywoman Amy Paulinnever came to them with a pipeline solution."
She continued, "There is no need to assess blame now. This is going to be our situation and we are going to have to make the best of it." However if people decide to return to the use of oil and propane because there are not enough incentives for green solutions, they we have a problem."
Here is a copy of the letter:
The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Dear Governor Cuomo,
As representatives of the New Yorkers who live and work in Westchester County, we are writing to ask for your assistance, your leadership, and your outside-the-box creative thinking in dealing with the newly-announced temporary moratorium for new natural gas services in our area.
As you know, on January 17, Con Edison formally announced to the Public Service Commission and to the general public that it would be instituting a temporary moratorium in most of its Westchester County service area for new natural gas services, including residential, commercial, or mixed-use buildings currently in development that will increase peak winter demand. The moratorium is scheduled to begin on March 15 – less than two months after it was announced – and would last for an indeterminate period of time. The only stated exceptions to the moratorium would be for new customers applying for interruptible service, gas service for emergency generators that only activate in the case of an electric outage, or other service patterns that would not be likely to impact gas delivery during peak winter usage.
We do not need to tell you that the news has sent a chill throughout the development community. Given the number of projects already advancing in our cities, towns, and villages, from major redevelopment in cities like New Rochelle, Rye, White Plains, and Yonkers, to the smaller residential, commercial, mixed-use, and school construction projects taking place throughout the county, we are deeply concerned about the potential economic headwinds coming from such a resource crunch. Those headwinds, on top of several other factors, could prove painful for our constituents and for the local economy. That could in turn have a ripple effect in terms of home prices and property values that further depress local economic development.
We were gratified to see the Public Service Commission take this issue so seriously and schedule public hearings in our region during the week of February 11. However, we believe that more creative and pro- active management is required to provide assurance that our region can effectively weather the major impact that this may have on our overall economy.
Specifically, we would appreciate the executive agencies of the state engaging in the following areas:
1.) Expedited Approval of "Smart Solutions" proposed by Con Edison
All of us support the state's transition to sustainable, renewable, and green energy sources as critical to reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, bending the dangerous trend lines of increased carbon emissions, and racing against the clock to fight the threats posed by climate change. Part of that effort has to include the successful promotion of clean energy alternatives that will have the added benefit of avoiding the negative impact natural gas moratorium on specific projects. We understand that Con Edison has submitted a number of proposals under the name "Smart Solutions for Natural Gas Customers." These proposals for increasing the use of geothermal heating and air source heating pump solutions are pending review by the Public Service Commission. We urge that those proposals be placed on an expedited schedule so that they may be available to both new development and existing oil customers who are looking to convert to natural gas or some other method as soon as is practical.
2.) Additional Incentives to Make Green Energy Solutions More Attractive
Both the "Smart Solutions" proposals submitted by Con Edison and the programs of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority create incentives to increase usage of clean energy sources. However, we understand that the cost differential between traditional natural gas and these new cleaner sources of energy is still too steep in many cases. We would urge the executive agencies to proactively and creatively establish new incentive programs to decrease this gap and make it more economically viable for new development and those converting from oil heat to choose smarter, cleaner, and greener options, and that Westchester County be given first priority for any pilot projects stemming from these efforts.
3.) Spearhead new, creative solutions to the question of natural gas transmission
Clearly the underlying conditions involve an increased demand for natural gas, and the constraints of the current infrastructure are insufficient to supply that demand. The main conveyance for natural gas is through interstate or intrastate pipelines, but we live in a challenging regulatory and political environment for the construction of new pipelines for fossil fuels. There are often many legitimate objections raised by local communities and environmental advocates. Although a traditional response to the basic economics of supply and demand would focus on the quick approval of a new pipeline, new construction can take four or five years from the beginning of the approval process by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and state agencies to the time when gas flows to the region, even when these objections from local communities and environmentalists can be accommodated. This raises the specter that the proposed moratorium could last for years before the underlying conditions improve.
Over the years of your service as Governor, you have time and again shown a unique ability to overcome obstacles to the major, critical infrastructure projects that New York relies upon for its economic wellbeing. Your leadership has helped surmount obstacles including outdated regulatory requirements, a lack of creativity in the engineering of a project, or an overreliance on conventional thinking when it comes to risk and financing.
For the sake of our county's economic well-being and the residents and communities that rely upon ongoing development projects put at risk by this sudden and potentially long-lasting natural gas moratorium, we ask you to provide that same leadership, ingenuity, and outside-the-box thinking to our current problem. We are prepared to do what we can to work with you in this effort.
Sandra R. Galef Member of the Assembly
Amy R. Paulin, Member of the Assembly
Steve Otis
Member of the Assembly
Terry Clements
Westchester County Legislator
Damon R. Maher
Westchester County Legislator
Josh Cohn
Mayor, City of Rye
Thomas Roach
Mayor, City of White Plains
Warren Lucas
Supervisor, Town of North Salem
Michael Volpe
Mayor, Village of Pelham
Dan Hochvert
Mayor, Village of Scarsdale
Roy R. Montesano Ed.D., Superintendent Bronxville Union Free School District
Dr. Cheryl Champ, Superintendent Pelham Union Free School District
Eric Byrne, Ed.D, Superintendent of Schools Rye City School District
Pietro Fasolino, Board of Education President Rye Neck School District
Benjamin Boykin II
Chairman, Westchester County Board of Legislators
Margaret Cunzio
Westchester County Legislator
Noam Bramson
Mayor, City of New Rochelle
Michael Spano
Mayor, City of Yonkers
Nancy Seligson
Supervisor, Town of Mamaroneck
Victoria Gearity
Mayor, Village of Ossining
Gary Zuckerman Supervisor, Town of Rye
Jennifer Rosen, Board President Briarcliff Manor Board of Education
Dr. Walter Moran, Superintendent of Schools Eastchester Union Free School District
Carol Conklin-Spillane, Superintendent Pocantico Hills School District
Dr. Barbara Ferraro, Superintendent of Schools Rye Neck School District
cc: John B. Rhodes, Chair of the Public Service Commission and Chief Executive Officer, Department of Public Service
Alicia Barton, President and Chief Executive Officer, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority


Trees Archives | Serene Surroundings, Inc.
We found this article while reading through a recent issue of one of our trade magazines and wanted to share it with our readers. We are sharing it as a demonstration of how a well thought out landscape design and specific placements of trees can improve quality of life, as well as positively impact your neighborhood and the local community. We hope you enjoy!
In Suburban Sydney, A Landscape Architect Quantifies the Variable Effects of Street Trees.
Libby Gallagher spent two years collecting data as a PhD student at the University of Sydney on how the different forms, species, and age ranges of street trees affect their ability to lower temperatures, sequester carbon, and reduce household energy costs. "It was an onerous process, to be honest," says Gallagher, a landscape architect and the director of Gallagher Studio in Surry Hills, New South Wales.
Now, however, that hard-earned data is the backbone of Cool Streets, an initiative Gallagher created with community planners Cred Consulting. Gallagher's modeling revealed that nontraditional street planting designs —such as using asymmetrical layouts and a mixture of species—helped keep neighborhoods cooler. However, maximizing benefits relied on trees' reaching maturity, and survival can be tough for juvenile tree stock. Cool Streets wants to improve their chances by helping residents become better tree stewards.
The program measures the potential impacts of different street planting strategies. For instance, a young, 16-foot-high tree can save up to AU$100 on a household's annual electricity bill. Within a few decades, the annual savings can grow to AU$400. The Cool Streets team uses this information in neighborhood workshops as a way to help residents determine planting designs for their streets.
For example, Boonderoo Avenue in suburban Glenwood, New South Wales, is just under a decade old; street trees had never been incorporated. The Cool Streets team shared multiple canopy options with street residents, each accompanied by data quantifying impacts of CO2 emissions and household power bills. Desiring the appearance of neatness and order, residents opted for a symmetrical design using small, compact trees. The option delivered few benefits in terms of cooling. So the Cool Streets team devised ways of maintaining a "neat" appearance using bigger trees that were four times more effective at cooling temperatures and reducing energy bills. The majority of residents were swayed by the data and decided to implement the alternative design.
(C) 2017 Serene Surroundings, Inc.


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September 10, 2022 September 10, 2022 paxchristiusa Blog
Oppose military intervention in Haiti
September 2022 — Pax Christi USA supports the Quixote Center's efforts to raise awareness of and respond to the civil emergency in Haiti:
[From the Quixote Center] The crisis of insecurity in Port au Prince is severe. In July alone nearly 500 people were killed when rival gangs warred in Cite Soleil. Armed groups control transportation routes into and out of the capital, and use this position to extort travelers and businesses, engage in kidnappings, and use extreme violence against those challenging their position.
Against the backdrop of this increasingly desperate situation, the calls for an external force to come in and clean up the gangs seems appealing to many. Louis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States, has argued for the return of a United Nations' peacekeeping mission (the UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti, or MINUSTAH, occupied the country from 2004 until 2017). The Washington Post has been calling for a return of troops in Haiti for some time, and doubled down on the call in an editorial last week. Pam White, former U.S. ambassador to Haiti, was more direct, "Figure out how to get some well trained and equipped troops in Haiti – yesterday."
Calls for foreign intervention are predicated on the belief that the security situation is dire, and that Haitians are too divided to come to an agreement on the fundamental questions regarding transition from the Henry regime currently in place to a new set of governing institutions. Serious questions of how elections are organized and by whom remain sticking points, for example. In this context, a chorus of voices calling for the international community to intervene and fix things is gaining traction.
Read the entire statement on the Quixote Center's website here.
Tagged Haiti, Quixote Center
3 thoughts on "Oppose military intervention in Haiti"
Terence A Lover says:
As long as I can remember, Haiti has been troubled by insecurity–caused by humans and caused by natural disasters. I have worked alongside Haitian immigrants–most times exhibiting respect and an inner joy. Certainly we should pray that food, clothing and shelter needs are addressed and that the strength of nonviolence can guide some sort of movement that is beneficial to the people. Respectfully and deeply, all sides should continue to listen to the people–with all sides joining to meet their needs. Opposing groups should be listened to as well, in order that some compromise be reached. Perhaps outside NONMILITARY arbitrators could become involved. From afar, I cannot even think of having a solution to offer–but only to pray for nonviolent developments. Likewise, I pray for action of a nonviolent nature to be taken. To do nothing in any way should not be an option.
eleanor and John says:
War is always a waste. Compromise and respect for others necessary
Eleanor Krebs says:
negotiation, not violence is needed. In war there are no winners
Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore publishes sign-on ad urging diplomacy, clean energy, disarmament
Navigating a new era in relationship with God, God's creation

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Dr. Charles P. Holmes is an Assistant Professor in the College of Health, Human Services, and Science at Ashford University. He obtained his PhD in Community Health with a Health Education focus and his Master of Science in Public Health from the University of Illinois. Prior to his graduate work, Dr. Holmes earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Eastern Illinois University. Dr. Holmes has been a collegiate instructor for over a decade, teaching at the University of Illinois for six years prior to moving to his new home in Denver, Colorado. His primary foci in teaching are public health, health education, academic writing, and graduate research. Dr. Holmes was appointed Chair of the Institutional Review Board in February 2016.
Dr. Lienau is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education and is an Institutional Review Board member at Ashford University. She obtained her PhD in Education with a minor in Student Development and a M.A. in Counseling from The University of Iowa. Dr. Lienau has over 25 years' experience teaching at the college level, including teaching undergraduates at The University of Iowa, North Dakota State, Moorhead State, and Ashford Universities, and Elmhurst College. In addition, she has extensive experience writing grants and fellowships to federal agencies and administering grants from the DOE, NEH, and NEA. While working for Argosy University, Dr. Lienau taught both masters and doctoral level courses and supervised doctoral student dissertations and masters' capstones. Her research interests focus on the factors affecting college student retention and academic success as well as college level writing. She recently celebrated her ten-year work anniversary at Ashford University.
Dr. Irina Weisblat is an Assistant Professor in the Forbes School of Business at Ashford University. She holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership from San Diego State University (SDSU) and a Master's degree in Business Administration from National University, San Diego. Her educational background, business expertise, and leadership roles have influenced her research interests that focus on educational effectiveness. She explored the question of whether the skills that the colleges teach actually meet the needs of the global economy. She believes in innovative teaching, as jobs in the 21st century require advanced competencies, leadership, and critical thinking. Dr. Weisblat was named Outstanding Business Educator and presented with the Scholarship Achievement Awards. In 2015, she received the Ashford University Outstanding Academic Scholar award. Dr. Weisblat is a contributing author to the National Standards for Business Education (2013). She published research-based articles in refereed journals, book reviews in professional journals, and two textbook supplements on Entrepreneurship. Dr. Weisblat is past President of California Business Education Association, President of the International Society of Business Education (ISBE), and President of the Ashford University's chapter of Sigma Beta Delta Honor Society.
Dr. Shari Schwartz is Chair of the Social and Criminal Justice Program and an Assistant Professor in the College of Liberal Arts at Ashford University. She holds a Ph.D. in Legal Psychology from Florida International University (FIU), a Master's Degree in Legal Psychology (FIU), and a Master's Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (FIU). Her educational background and expertise have influenced her research interests in judicial and juror decision making, effects of and remedies for stress in law enforcement officers, implicit bias in the criminal justice system, and psychologists as expert witnesses. Dr. Schwartz has been with Ashford since 2013.
Dr. Blizard is an Assistant Professor in the Division of General Education, where he serves as Course Lead for SCI 207, Our Dependence upon the Environment. He holds a doctorate in Environmental Science from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, a Master's degree in Geology from Colorado State University, a Master's Degree in Education in Instructional Design and Technology from Kaplan University, a Bachelor's degree in Geology from Carleton College, and an Elementary I Montessori teaching certification from the Institute for Advanced Montessori Studies. Dr. Blizard has been an educator for over two decades, working with students from age 3 through PhD. He has taught courses in earth science, environmental science, and sustainability at a number of online universities. His research interests include exploring ways to promote transformative learning experiences in the online classroom, as well as sense of place education in the online environment. Dr. Blizard has taught at Ashford since 2013.
Dr. Lane Andrew is an Associate Dean of the Humanities & Science Department in the Division of General Education at Ashford University. He earned his PhD in Mathematics Education from the University of Northern Colorado, his Master of Science in Mathematics from University of Denver, and his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Colorado. Dr. Andrew has taught a wide variety of mathematics courses, from 4th grade math up through abstract algebra. His first experience with instructing math was as a tutor for home schooled children and struggling college students. Most of his experience, however, has been at the post-secondary level. He enjoys helping students understand difficult mathematical concepts and his favorite courses to teach are Calculus I and Trigonometry. Dr. Andrew has been teaching online since 2007 and says, "The integration of online homework systems, with hints and links to the textbook for support, is a great way to help students engage with mathematical content." Dr. Andrew resides in Denver, CO with his wife Joyce and their three children. He is an avid Broncos fan and enjoys meeting up with friends at coffee shops in his spare time.


Nutritious home cooked meals are prepared on site for lunch and tea. These follow all national guidelines for a healthy and balanced diet. It caters for all dietary requirements and provides the children with choices to aid their independence and each personal preference.
Meal times are planned to be interactive and stimulating, promoting independence and choice, whilst encouraging social interaction for all.
Children have their own water bottles, available at all times throughout the day.
Provide an indoor and outdoor environment and routines that promote physical activity.
Have a large garden that encourages many different types of gross motor movements.


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biggovernment
secondamendment
firstamendment
The answer to tyranny is suddenly obvious: 2A sanctuaries and armed militias in every county, every state across America
12/22/2019 / By Mike Adams
Nothing scares authoritarian-minded Leftists more than the word "militia." It brings to their twisted minds images of banjos and chew spit drool, long beards and camo-printed underwear, smoking hot AR-15s and rustic American flags. The delusional, lawless Left is absolutely convinced that militias are somehow illegal, even when they are specifically named in the Second Amendment, and Leftists apparently have no clue that militias largely consist of present or former members of law enforcement or the U.S. military, along with a wide array of law-abiding citizens who share a common desire to defend the republic and preserve the rule of law.
Now, militias are exploding in popularity across America, right alongside 2A sanctuaries ("gun sanctuaries") which are suddenly skyrocketing in popularity in states way beyond Virginia. Think Oregon, Illinois, New Mexico, Washington and even California, among other states.
This has set the radical Left into a total panic, and they're desperately trying to pressure liberal lawmakers to find some way to declare militias to be illegal. Democrat-run Virginia is attempting to pass a new law, SB64, that would achieve that goal, criminalizing all self-defense training activities overnight, even ensnaring martial arts instructors and concealed carry firearms instructors as felons.
The radical Left started the whole "sanctuary" movement… now they're watching in terror at what they've unleashed
What's especially ironic about all this is that it's the lawless Left that started the whole "sanctuary" movement which set the precedent of states, counties or municipalities declaring themselves immune from laws they don't like. Of course, for the radical Left, their sanctuaries were all about protecting illegal aliens and granting them legal immunity, even if they were rapists, murderers or child traffickers. There's no crime too extreme for a Leftist to ignore when they're trying to grow their voting base with more illegals, it turns out.
Having established the "sanctuary" movement themselves, the Left is now screaming bloody murder at the spontaneous uprisings of "gun sanctuaries" — counties or cities that declare they will not follow laws which trample the Second Amendment rights of their citizens. According to the hypocritical Left, gun sanctuaries are illegal, but their own illegal immigration sanctuaries must be respected. That's the Left for you: If they didn't have double standards, they would have no standards at all.
For example, just yesterday, National File reported that Virginia's Attorney General has officially declare 2A sanctuary counties and cities in Virginia to be illegal. As reported by Frankine Stockes:
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring issued an advisory opinion on the Commonwealth's ever-growing 2nd Amendment sanctuary movement Friday morning, saying the resolutions passed by over 100 Virginia localities have "no legal effect."
In Virginia, a reported 90+ counties and municipalities have declared pro-2A sanctuary status. As of 12/19, the tally was 85 counties, 9 cities and 17 towns. The pro-2A map of Virginia looks like this (where green means pro-2A): (source: VCDL.org)
A similar movement is spontaneously spreading to many other states, increasingly shaping those states into what can only be described as Democrat-controlled capital cities surrounded by pro-2A counties populated by real Americans.
In almost every state in America, the Democrats are literally surrounded by gun-owning, pro-2A Americans who are sick and tired of being censored, slandered and threatened by authoritarian Democrats. And the uprising against that tyranny looks like the map you see above: An explosion of 2A sanctuary counties.
The movement is spreading like wildfire across America, effectively drawing the battle lines of the coming civil war which seems on the verge of breaking out at almost any moment.
"An armed and trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republics — that without standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe…" – James Madison (First Inaugural Address, Saturday, March 4, 1809.)
Militia groups are also exploding in popularity nationwide
What's really causing the deranged, mentally ill Left to panic, however, is the uptick in militia membership nationwide. We're hearing from multiple sources that militia membership is up everywhere, and new militia organizations are popping into existence in several states.
From Law Enforcement Today:
Monday morning, Law Enforcement Today reported on how Tazewell County, Virginia is crafting a militia to defend the Constitution in the state. And within hours, we were flooded with thousands of emails from people across the state – police officers, veterans, and patriotic Americans – who said they are joining.
"I always thought these militia folks were nuts," wrote one man to LET. "As a retired law enforcement officer, I saw them as running against law enforcement. Now I realize that they are often made up of LE and we need to bridge that divide. The nation is turning upside down. That's why I joined in Oregon."
Open discussion boards like Modern Militia Movement (ModernMilitiaMovement.com) appear to be experiencing brisk activity, too. The site's guidelines are clearly stated on its home page:
It is the duty of the citizen's militia's to protect and defend the unalienable rights of all members of their communities. Under no circumstances will the Modern Militia Movement, tolerate those who advocate acts of criminal violence, terrorism, or a change from our Republic form of government; nor will it support any specific political party or candidate, nor espouse any particular religious denomination or doctrine. All members must understand the duties and obligation of both citizens and government under the United States Constitution.
That's a far cry from what Leftists think militias are all about, of course.
As Lone Star Watchmen, a Texas militia group, describes itself:
First and foremost we are your average American citizens, we have pride and express it. We are doctors, lawyers, your firemen, and EMT in your local community. We are your citizen soldiers who always ready to serve. We are dads and moms, we are American Citizens. We come together as a group united by our moral beliefs, and our loyalty to our Constitution and Texas. We live by and support what the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights decrees.
Lone Star Watchmen even specifically spells out what they are not:
We are not revolutionaries. We are not a hate group. We are not Anti-Goverment. We are, however, in favor of promoting education and resources for the protection against Tyranny and the corruption of Government officials, bad and unconstitutional legislation and/or policies.
One county in Virginia — Tazewell — has just passed a new ordinance to actually create a militia. As LET reports, "the new ordinance calls for concealed weapons training for any resident of the county that can lawfully own a gun."
The III% Security Force group (also known as the III% Patriot Militia) describes itself as:
…[P]atriotic men and women who will uphold the Constitution, defend themselves and the states we are present in, from all enemies foreign and domestic. We are an active militia. By requesting to join you agree to start the process of becoming an active, trained, and vetted member of III% Security Force. We love our country, our freedom, and our liberty and we will always have the right to defend it. If this sounds like a militia you would be interested in, join us.
Watch their recruitment video here to get a sense of what the group is all about:
Oath Keepers, a national group composed largely of former law enforcement and military veterans who swear to uphold the Constitution and resist domestic enemies, is also experiencing increased interest. I interviewed Stewart Rhodes, the head of Oath Keepers, for a Counterthink episode that aired last year. You can watch the full interview here to get a sense of Rhodes and what his organization stands for:
Learning more about militias
The militia movement is going mainstream. Pro-2A gun sanctuaries are exploding everywhere, mostly in response to Democrats now seeking the complete evisceration of the Second Amendment and the criminalization of private gun ownership.
Matt Bracken called all this in 2003 — 16 years ago! — in his fiction book which portrayed almost the exact scenario we're seeing unfold in Virginia today, complete with looking gun confiscation roadblocks. Read Bracken's stunningly accurate 2003 description of all this at this link from AmericanPartisan.org.
If you're looking for additional information about militias:
MyMilitia.com hosts something called the Militia Emergency Response Channel, along with maps, forums, news and more, covering militia groups nationwide.
The Constitution Society publishes a state-by-state directory of militias. They even publish a guide to starting your own militia.
Militia Net publishes a list of militia groups, state by state.
We are covering gun sanctuaries news at GunSanctuaries.com.
Should you join a local militia? That's up to you, but at the very least, you should buy a Ghost Gunner, make your own non-serialized AR-15s, and be ready to defend your nation against the demonic, lawless tyranny of the insane Left, which honors no civil liberties whatsoever. (Keep it all legal. The Ghost Gunner is outlawed in New Jersey.) In truth, the radical Left is coming to kill you, and they won't stop until you're dead in a ditch. Have no illusions about where this is headed.
Tagged Under: 2A sanctuaries, firearms, freedom, gun sanctuaries, guns, Liberty, militias, patriot, Second Amendment, Tyranny
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TOTAL election meddling, voter fraud by criminal Twitter
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Toward Autonomous Rotation-Aware Unmanned Aerial Grasping
11/09/2018 ∙ by Shijie Lin, et al. ∙ Wuhan University ∙ 0 ∙ share
Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Manipulators (UAMs) have shown promising potentials to transform passive sensing missions into active 3-dimension interactive missions, but they still suffer from some difficulties impeding their wide applications, such as target detection and stabilization. This letter presents a vision-based autonomous UAM with a 3DoF robotic arm for rotational grasping, with a compensation on displacement for center of gravity. First, the hardware, software architecture and state estimation methods are detailed. All the mechanical designs are fully provided as open-source hardware for the reuse by the community. Then, we analyze the flow distribution generated by rotors and plan the robotic arm's motion based on this analysis. Next, a novel detection approach called Rotation-SqueezeDet is proposed to enable rotation-aware grasping, which can give the target position and rotation angle in near real-time on Jetson TX2. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed scheme is validated in multiple experimental trials, highlighting it's applicability of autonomous aerial grasping in GPS-denied environments.
Shijie Lin
Jinwang Wang
1 publication
Wen Yang
Guisong Xia
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Experimental Implementation of a New Non-redundant 6-DOF Quadrotor Manipulation System
This paper presents an experimental validation of a new quadrotor-based ...
03/28/2019 ∙ by Ahmed Khalifa, et al. ∙ 0 ∙ share
Unmanned aerial manipulators (UAMs) are known as one specific type of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with one or multiple robotic arms and have attracted a lot research in recent years [1] . One main advantage of UAM is that it shows promising potentials to transform passive sensing missions into active 3-dimension (3D) interactive missions like grasping [2] and assembling [3] . The capabilities like aerial maneuvering and hovering make it possible for UAM to accomplish dangerous missions like grasping the rubbish on the cliff in scenic spots. Fig. 1(d) illustrates some dangerous and costly rubbish cleaning works.
For the autonomous aerial manipulating missions, building a controllable system is always the first step. However, many factors can influence the stability of the overall system, such as the change of Center of Gravity (CoG) generated by the movements of the robotic arm, the reaction force produced by robotic arm, the complex aerodynamics effects. Many efforts have been done to reduce these effects.
A comprehensive dynamic model of hexacopter with a robotic arm has been built in [4] , analyzed the effects of CoG change and mass distributions. For successfully accomplishing the insertion task, a two-stage cascaded PID controller has been proposed in [3] . A Variable Parameter Integral Backstepping (VPIB) controller proposed in [5] can control an UAM with better performance than PID controller. With a movable compensation mechanism, a multilayer architecture controller compensate the internal and external effects layer by layer to control the UAM was presented [6] . To suppress the torque generated by the movements of robotic arm, a novel mechanism with a simplified model has been adopted in [7] .
Fig. 1: (a) An unmanned aerial manipulator is grasping a plastic bottle to accomplish autonomous grasping tasks. (b) Sample images in UAV-DB dataset with plastic bottle groundtruth labeled by red box. (c) Detection results of Rotation-SqueezeDet with 2D box and rotation angle. (d) Workers are carrying out dangerous garbage disposal work on the cliff.
Usually, human operators are unable to accurately control the UAM due to observation change and data transmission delay. Such inaccuracy causes the robotic arm to be difficult to align and grasp the targets. Therefore it is better that the UAM can work without relying on external control. For fully autonomous grasping, the UAM needs perception ability. However, currently only a few works [8] , [9] , [10] considered robust visual perception aided autonomous grasping. An Image-Based Visual Servo (IBVS) was implemented in [8] to help locating the position of the targeted object. Feature models are used in [9] to find the position of known targets. In [8] , correlation filters were adopted to track targets.
In recent years, End-to-End object detection algorithms like [11] , [12] and [13] have shown surprising results. However, attempts directly applying these methods in the UAM system usually end with failure or unsatisfactory robustness. The reason lies in the objects, like bottles, in UAV perspective often appeared with arbitrary poses as shown in Fig. 1(b), since the camera is tight-coupled and rotated with the UAV body. Moreover, most grasping missions need target's rotation angle for not touching the target when the end-effector is approaching. Furthermore, the performance like robustness and efficiency of the detection algorithms play an important role in grasping missions since it can bring more mobility to the UAM. However, even with NVIDIA Jetson TX2, current common oriented bounding boxes based methods like [14, 15] are still unable to run onboard since both require more than 11G GPU memory and Jetson TX2 only has 8G GPU memory.
In order to solve the problems mentioned above, we propose Rotation-SqueezeDet which can regress rotation angle and position in 2-dimension (2D) image in near real-time. Unlike the common horizontal bounding box descriptor (cx,cy,w,h), where (cx,cy) is the center location, w and h are the width and height of the bounding box, respectively, Rotation-SqueezeDet introduces a new θ term, and thus uses (cx,cy,w,h,θ) as descriptor to describe object position and rotation angle in the 2D image. This not only makes the detection more robust since the bounding box included fewer background, but also provides the rotation angle of the target. By using Intel RealSense D435 depth camera, the relative 3D distance of targets can be measured in the point cloud generated by registered depth image once the target is detected. Hence, a rotation-aware grasping for autonomous grasping is possible. A glimpse of detection results is shown in Fig. 1(c).
When applying the UAM into real world scenes, the flow generated by rotors can easily blew the lightweight targets away, like empty plastic bottles, and it is hard to predict whether an object can be easily blew away by the downward flow or not. Hence, a safety grasping action is better to be taken under weak or no flow influenced conditions. High-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation results of many different UAVs have been presented in [16] . From the observation of these results, the flow generated by each UAV's rotor is decreasing rapidly in the outter-wing area. Further, we roughly confirmed this observations from experiments by using an digital anemometer. To reduce the flow effects, the design and motion planning of robotic arm are in the light of the CFD sumulations and our flow measurements. Our experimental results have shown that grasping under weak or no flow influenced is possible.
The main contributions of this letter can be summarized as follows:
The Rotation-SqueezeDet method is proposed. This method can run on Jetson TX2 in near real-time and enable successful rotation-aware grasping. We believe that this method will be suitable in not only the aerial grasping but also general missions.
We consider the flow influence for designing and moving the robotic arm. The designed UAM can grasp lightweight objects in weak or no flow influenced area during flight.
We have designed and assembled the UAM platform. The system is affordable since it costs less than $2300 USD and can fly without relying on expensive visual motion caption system. All mechanical structures are provided as open–hardware for reuse by the community. Link:https://github.com/eleboss/UAMmech
The rest of this letter is organized as follows. Section II describes the design and details of the overall system. Section III describes the motion planning and control of the robotic arm. Section IV describes the complete vision system including Rotation-SqueezeDet. Section V experimentally demonstrates the system including autonomous grasping and vision system performance. Finally, the conclusion and future work are presented in Section VI.
Ii System Description
Ii-a Notation
The East, North and Up (ENU) coordinate system is used as world-fixed inertial frame corresponding to {xw,yw,zw}. Following the definition of well known Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) parameters [17] , the link frame of Link i is defined as the {xi,yi,zi}, i=0 is the fixed arm frame. The definition of link frame is detailed in Fig. 2 and the table in the bottom left gives the D-H parameters of robotic arm. The body frame is assumed to be the geometrical center of the UAM denoted as {xb,yb,zb}. Gx, Gy, Gz indicate the CoG of the UAM in body frame {xb,yb,zb}. (ϕ,θ,ψ) indicate the roll-pitch-yaw Euler angels. {xt,yt,zt} define the detected targets in the RealSense D435 camera frame.
Fig. 2: Coornidates system and D-H parameter of the robotic arm.
Fig. 3: Hardware components of the UAM
Ii-B Hardware
In this work, a modified DJI hexacopter frame F550111www.dji.com/flame-wheel-arf/feature is adopted. The hardware components are shown in Fig. 3.
The propulsion module of the UAM is composed of Sunnysky222www.rcsunnysky.com x3108s motor, Hobbywing333www.hobbywing.com platinum Electronic Speed Controller (ESC), and 10 inches propeller. The Pixhawk4444www.holybro.com/product/55 autopilot with PX4555https://github.com/PX4/Firmware V1.8.0 flight stack and NVIDIA Jetson TX2666developer.nvidia.com/embedded/buy/jetson-tx2 are placed at the top of the UAM as the main computing devices. A global shutter monochrome camera777www.jinyandianzi.com is tight-coupled with Pixhawk4 by using a 3D-printed anti-vibration damping plate. A Benewake TFmini888www.benewake.com/tfmini.html laser rangefinder is chosen for being cheap, lightweight and with up to 12m maximum detection range, mounted downward facing to privide altitude feedback. An Intel RealSense D435999www.realsense.intel.com/stereo camera is mounted at the middle of the drone facing forward to find the targets.
We build a displacement compensation system (DCS) which can move counterweight to align the CoG and thus improves the stability of the total system. The DCS is mounted in the middle of UAM and made by 3D printed PLA material, including tow rails, a slide table and a bus servo to provide drive force. The LEBOT101010www.lobot-robot.com LX-15D serial bus servos are chosen for being budget friendly, lightweight, and having multiple extra structures to facilitate the installation. Another significant advantage of the bus servo is it can largely reduce the wiring complexity and control difficulty. So we can only use one serial port in Jetson TX2 to control all servos. While the LX-15D servo can only provide 240∘ feedback, we use a short range time of flight (ToF) laser rangefinder GY-53 to provide the battery position feedback.
A 5200mAh 4S-35C battery weighted 0.525kg is used for providing enough power to the propulsion system and as counterweight for the DCS. And this battery can sustain the flight time around 3min. Another 1500mAh 3S-30C weight 0.138kg battery is used for providing power to the robotic arm and computing facilitates.
Fig. 4: An overview of the software architecture.
Drive forces of robotic arm are also provided by LX-15D servos. The robotic arm has 3-DoF and can grasp objects by the end-effector. The first 2-DoF provide the robotic arm mobility to move at the planar 2D plane. The last DoF enables a rotational grasping by cooperating with vision system. The last DoF is of vital important for the rotated objects grasping, since the unrotated grasping can easily tip the object.
The total takeoff weight of the UAM is about 4.08kg. Thanks to the carbon fibre material and Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) material, the robotic arm is only weighted 0.459kg and has 43cm extended range.
Ii-C Software Architecture
The software runs on two main processors: Pixhawk4 and Jetson TX2, and all processes are running onboard. Fig. 4 gives an overview of the system software architecture. Note that the Jetson TX2 is overclocked to run at max clock rate and unlocked 2 external CPU cores to generate more computing power.
Robot Operating System (ROS) [18] is a pseudo-operating system which allows developers to work cooperating by following its running mechanism. Modules related to state estimation and flying control are running on Pixhawk4 and exchange data with Jetson TX2 by MAVROS111111https://github.com/mavlink/mavros. Visual Inertial Odometry (VIO) and object detection algorithms are running on Jetson TX2. A state machine is adopted to set the robotic arm motion and UAM waypoint. So the grasping position (xsw,ysw,zsw) of the UAM can be given by:
⎡⎢ ⎢ ⎢⎣xswyswzsw1⎤⎥ ⎥ ⎥⎦=⎡⎢ ⎢ ⎢⎣xwywzw1⎤⎥ ⎥ ⎥⎦+TWBTBC⎡⎢ ⎢ ⎢⎣xtytzt1⎤⎥ ⎥ ⎥⎦−TWBTB0⎡⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢⎣xg0yg001⎤⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥⎦ (1)
where TWB,TB0,TBC∈R4×4 are the homogeneous transformation matrix, TB0 transforms the fixed arm frame to body frame, TBC transforms the camera frame to the body frame, TWB transforms the body frame to the world-fixed frame, (xg0,yg0) is the grasping point.
We use the cascaded PID controller to control the drone, the position loop runs at TX2, the velocity loop runs at the Pixhawk4. The parameters of the cascaded PID are tuned when the robotic arm keeps static at the yellow star point (xf0,yf0) shown in Fig. 5.
Ii-D State Estimation
State estimation is the foundation of our system as it provides crucial information to help other parts to achieve the best performance. In this work, we use the Pixhawk4 built-in Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to fuse multiple sensors feedback for state estimation.
Global Positioning System (GPS) usually fails to provide global positioning feedback when in indoor environment. Hence, in order to fly indoor, without using expensive visual motion caption system, we integrate the VINS-mono [19] VIO to provide the local position feedback, and it can provide the highest level of accuracy and robustness compared with multiple VIO [20] . The VINS-mono runs at 10hz with loop-closure and the output is rotated to ENU world-fixed frame denoted (xvw,yvw,zvw). For the VINS-mono, we use the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) in Pixhawk4 as the inertial input, and a monochrome global shutter camera runs at 640×400 resolution and 90 Frames Pre Second (FPS) to provide clear images as visual input. To reduce drifting, the monochrome camera and Pixhawk4 are tight-coupled by using the 3D printed structures, the camera intrinsic matrix and camera to imu transformation parameters are carefully calibrated by using kalibr [21] . Due to the computation limitation and data transmission delay, the output of VINS-mono runs in Jetson TX2 has about 140ms delay compared with current IMU output. In order to synchronize these outputs, we first calculate the velocity of VINS-mono estimation (˙xvw,˙yvw,˙zvw), then apply some random movements to the UAM, so the delay time can be found by comparing (˙xvw,˙yvw,˙zvw) with the Pixhawk4 velocity estimation. Finally, (xvw,yvw,zvw) is used as external vision aid of the Pixhawk4 onboard EKF to give 100hz state estimation.
For robust flying, the main altitude feedback is not given by the VINS-mono but the TFmini rangefinder. The total delay of TFmini measurement is about 30ms.
Iii Robotic Arm & Dcs
Iii-a Robotic Arm Motion Planning
In order to find the workspace of robotic arm, the forward kinematics of a 3DoF robotic arm is given by the following equations:
x0=L1cosθ1+L2cos(θ1+θ2)
y0=L1sinθ1+L2sin(θ1+θ2) (2)
θ3=θ
where L1, L2 are the lengths of the first and the second links. θ1, θ2, θ3 are the rotation angles of each joint, (x0,y0) is the point in arm fixed frame. Since the θ3 is only related to target rotation angle θ, the workspace of our robotic arm is equal to a planar 2DoF robotic arm model. The table presented in Fig. 2 gives a clear D-H parameters definition of the robotic arm.
Based on the flow measurements which will be described in section V-B and mechanical limits, the actual workspace is given in Fig. 5, the green points indicate weak or no flow influenced area, red points indicate strong flow influenced area. The blue star point is the dropping point and the purple star point is the grasping point (xg0,yg0). The robotic arm holds at the yellow star point (xf0,yf0) during flight. And all these points can be redefined depend on the applications.
Fig. 5: Workspace of robotic arm printed by using forward kinematics considered flow influence.
We use Inverse Kinematics (IK) to solve the desired rotation angle of each joints. Assumed the robotic arm is planning to move to (x0,y0) point, the IK result is given by:
θ2=±arccos(x02+y02−L12−L222L1L2) (3)
Here θ2∈[0,π] is downward elbow solution, and θ1 can be derived by:
θ1= arctan(x02/y02)− (4)
arccos(x02+y02+L12−L222L1√x02+y02)
Iii-B CoG Compensation
When the UAM is static on the ground and the robotic arm hold static at (xf0,yf0), a symmetry placement design is utilized to make sure the Gx and Gy are fitted with the geometry center.
However, movements of the robotic arm can change the Gx. For the dynamic Gx alignment, we adopte the strategy presented in [6] called DCS, moving the battery as a counterweight since it's weight can provide sufficient compensation in relatively short moving distance.
CoG transformation of Link i and the end-effector payload from link frame to the body frame is given by:
⎡⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢⎣xgbiygbizgbi1⎤⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥⎦=TB0T0i⎡⎢ ⎢ ⎢ ⎢⎣xciycizci1⎤⎥ ⎥ ⎥ ⎥⎦ (5)
where T0i,TB0∈R4×4 are the homogeneous transformation matrices, TB0 transforms from fixed arm frame to body frame, T0i transforms from each link frame to the fixed arm frame. (xci, yci, zci) is the CoG position of Link i in the fixed arm frame. (xgbi, ygbi, zgbi) is the CoG position of Link i in body frame, here i=3 indicates the grasped object.
To align the Gx at geometry center, a linear slider is designed to move the battery and the position of the battery pb in the body frame can be calculated by:
pb=∑3i=1mixgbimb (6)
where mi is the mass of Link i, mb is the mass of battery .
The displacement compensation plays a key role in stabilizing the UAM. Without the DCS, the change of CoG can easily make aside rotor reach the maximum thrust leading to unstable. And this method works well in limited speed movement of robotic arm. To guarantee the compensation performance, we limit the rotation speed of each joint in robotic arm to make sure it does not exceed the maximum compensation speed of the linear slider.
Iii-C Control
The total control diagram of the robotic arm and DCS are shown in Fig. 6. In Fig .6, v1,v2,v3,v4 is the rotation speed of the servos and the θ1cur,θ2cur,θ3cur,pbcur indicate the current feedback. Three linear PID controllers are adopted to control the robotic arm. Another PID controller uses the position of the battery pb, detected by a laser rangefinder, to control the linear slider. All PID parameters are well tuned to guarantee a stable and smooth control.
Fig. 6: Control diagram of the DCS and robotic arm.
Iv Vision System
In this section, we introduce the vision system including a light and fast oriented-object detection model called Rotation-SqueezeDet and a target localization framework based on Rotation-SqueezeDet detection results and point clouds from the depth camera.
Our proposed model is inspired by SqueezeDet [22] and Rotation Region Proposal Networks (RRPN) [14] . As the former, SqueezeDet is a single-pass detection pipeline combining bounding box localization and classification by a single network. It appears to be the smallest object detector by virtue of powerful but small backend network of SqueezeNet [13, 23] . As the latter, RRPN is based on Faster R-CNN [11] , it can detect oriented objects. The difference between Faster R-CNN and RRPN is described as below. In Faster R-CNN, the Region of Interests (RoIs) are generated by Region Proposal Network (RPN), and the RoIs are rectangles which can be written as R=(xmin,ymin,xmax,ymax)=(cx,cy,w,h). These RoIs have regressed from k anchors which are generated by some predefined scales and aspect ratios. However, in RRPN, instead, it uses Rotation anchors (R-anchors) and rotation RoI pooling, brings ability to predict oriented bounding boxes denoted as R=(cx,cy,w,h,θ).
Object detection algorithms like Faster R-CNN have high accuracy but slow processing speed and large storage requirement. Moreover, RRPN is slower than Faster R-CNN, it takes twice as much time as the Faster-RCNN [14] . Thus RRPN does not meet our run-time requirement. Considering a comparable accuracy and run-time on Jetson TX2, SqueezeDet is a suitable choice, it can run about 45FPS with 424×240 pixels image on Jetson TX2 and easy to train. However, SqueezeDet cannot predict the θ of rotated object because it uses horizontal bounding boxes. So we designed a model which can generate oriented bounding boxes based on SqueezeDet and named Rotation-SqueezeDet, it can run on Jetson TX2 in near real time.
Fig. 7: Rotation-SqueezeDet's detection pipeline.
Iv-a Network Architecture
The overall model of Rotation-SqueezeDet is illustrated in Fig. 7
. In this model, a convolutional neural network, SqueezeNet V1.1, first takes an image as input and extracts a low-resolution, high dimensional feature map from the image. Then the feature map is fed into the
Fw×Fh convolutional layers to compute oriented bounding boxes at each position of conv feature map. Next, each oriented bounding box is associated with (5+C+1) values, where 5 is the number of bounding box parameters, C is the number of classes, and 1 is the confidence score. And each position on the conv feature map computes K×(5+1+C) values that encode the bounding box predictions. Here, K is the number of R-anchors, each R-anchor can be described by 5 parameters as (cax,cay,wa,ha,θa), (cax,cay) are R-anchor's center on image, wa,ha,θa are the width, height and angle of R-anchor, respectively. Notice that (cx,cy,w,h,θ) are decoded from predicted parameters tuple v, which is the direct outputs from the conv feature map. Here v are encoded as follow:
vx=cx−caxwa,vy=cy−cayha,
vw=logwwa,vh=loghha,vθ=θ−θa+kπ (7)
where (cx,cy,w,h,θ) are parameters describe the predicted oriented bounding box, (cax,cay,wa,ha,θa) are parameters describe the R-anchor, and here k∈Z to ensure θ∈[0,π).
Iv-B Oriented IoU Computation
To efficiently predict the rotation angle of object, we introduce a parallel IoU computing method. First, we attempt to calculate the IoU using the OpenCV's functions rotatedRectangleIntersection and contourArea directly. However, the efficiency of these functions are poor because they cannot compute parallelly. Thus, we use a simple and efficient method to approximately compute the IoU parallelly, which is to use the angle deviation of two oriented bounding boxes. The approximate IoU [24] can be computed by:
IoU⋆=IoU∗abs(1−θb1−θb2π) (8)
where θb1 and θb2 are the rotation angle of two oriented bounding boxes, IoU is computed by treating oriented bounding boxes as horizontal bounding boxes.
Iv-C R-Anchors' Selection
The R-Anchors are different from the horizontal anchors. And for the R-Anchors' selection, we use a K-means based method described in
[25] to select R-anchors' w and h to match the data distribution, we set k as 9
in K-means and treat objects' angle distribution as a uniform distribution, i.e., we set R-anchors' angle as
{0,π9,2π9,3π9,4π9,5π9,6π9,7π9,8π9}. Therefore there are 81 anchors at each conv feature map position.
Iv-D Object Localization
To acquire the real world position of the target, we use the RGB-D camera to detect and locate the target. First, the aligned RGB image and point clouds can be obtained by aligning RGB image and depth image in the same coordinate system. Next, the subarea of the total point clouds containing location information of the target which can be extracted from the whole point clouds by utilizing the detection result (cx,cy,w,h,θ). After that, we use a small central subarea of target's point clouds to calculate its real world position (xt,yt,zt) in the camera frame given by:
(xt,yt,zt)=(1Lk2∑i=0Xip,1Mk2∑i=0Yip,1Nk2∑i=0Zip) (9)
where (Xp,Yp,Zp) are the coordinates of the point clouds set of the center subarea of target's bounding box, its superscript indicates the ith point value started from top left corner. L,M,N are the valid points number of Xp,Yp,Zp, respectively. The central subarea of target's point clouds can be written as (cx,cy,k,k), the k×k is the size of selected central subarea of target's point clouds, which can be calculated by:
k={5if min(w,h)>5min(w,h)otherwise
Here we set k as 5 to reduce the computing burden. Finally, the parameters of position and rotation angle of target can be written as: (xt,yt,zt,θ), θ is the rotation angle of target's anchor.
V Experiments
The experimental setup is mentioned in Section II. During the flight tests, all data are logged onboard with no external data transmission. A high resolution video about the experiments are available here:http://youtu.be/v_hGzN8VIAU
V-a Vision System Results
We trained and evaluated our vision system based on our pervious work UAV-BD [26] , a bottle image dataset under UAV perspective. It contains about 34,791 object instances in 25,407 images labelled by oriented bounding boxes. For training and evaluating our model, 64% of the images were randomly selected as the training data, 16% as validation data and the rest 20% as the testing data.
All object detection experiments were implemented on TensorFlow
[27] . We used the pertrained model, SqueezeNet v1.1, to initialize the network. And the system was trained 100k steps with a batch size of 20 and a learning rate of 0.01. Besides, weight decay and momentum were 0.0001 and 0.9, respectively. The optimizer was MomentumOptimizer.
As shown in Fig. 8(a), the AP of Rotation-SqueezeDet on UAV-BD is about 78.0% when IoU=0.5. The run-time on Jetson TX2 is about 41ms with the size of 424×240 pixels color image.
Fig. 8: (a) AP results of Rotation-SqueezeNet validated in UAV-BD. (b) The flow speed measured by digital anemometer and the subfigure in the top right corner is the moving path of the anemometer during measurement.
V-B Flow Distribution Validation
In order to verify the simulation results presented in [16] and give a rough parameter estimation for the planning mentioned in Section III. We disarmed the UAM on the ground and used Smart AS856121212en.smartsensor.cn/products_detail/productId=248.html anemometer to measure the downward flow distribution. Since the flow is highly complex, we cannot give a very accurate flow distribution by just using an anemometer, thus we only measured a 2D flow distribution to give a rough estimation for the robotic arm planning. The moving path of anemometer is given in the top right corner of Fig. 8(b) and the vertical distance from the anemometer to the rotor is about 16cm. Following this path, we recorded the average value of 5 measurements at one point and drew the curve in Fig. 8(b). Hence, the horizontal axis is the distance from the central position of UAM body to the outside following this path. From the observation of Fig. 8(b), the flow speed is decreasing rapidly at about 8cm and 30cm, and reaching the top speed at about 21cm which is the underside of rotors. The 8cm is close to inside of the UAM, the 30cm is close to the outside of the UAM. So the flow speed is relative weak when at the central position and outside position of the UAM, this observation basically agrees with the simulation results in [16] .
Fig. 9: Control errors history during the whole aerial robotic arm moving.
Fig. 10: Snapshots of the robotic arm aerial moving experiments. Many movements are carried out during this flight to test the system.
V-C Aerial Robotic Arm Moving Test
To evaluate the stability and controllability of our system, the UAV was programmed to hovering at a certain point. In Fig. 9, the control errors of the system during this flight were logged and presented. After finishing takeoff procedure, the robotic arm will automatically move to multiple points and rotate the end-effector 90∘
. The DCS was activated in this flight, moving the battery to compensate the change of CoG generated by movements of robotic arm. The standard deviation of control error in world-fixed frame are about 3.64cm in x axis, 2.37cm in y axis and 1.16cm in in z axis, indicated our system can keep hovering at the certain point no matter the robotic arm is moving or not. we noticed that during the whole test, the error increased at several points including 5, 10 and 22 seconds, respectively. This was caused by the moving of the robotic arm, but our system could always stabilize itself. Fig.
10 shows some snapshots of the robotic arm aerial moving experiments.
V-D Autonomous Grasping
Autonomous grasping experiments with objects placed vertically and obliquely have also been conducted. Fig. 11
presents the key steps of these two grasping experiments. The subfigures were taken at specific moments ordered by the number in the bottom left corner: ① indicated the UAM is searching specific target. Here we use the plastic bottle as target; ② indicated the UAM has detected the target and given its relative position. The UAM will then align its position to the grasping position; ③ indicated the UAM hovering at the grasping position and the end effector is about to grasp the bottle. ④ indicated the UAM dropping the bottle at the dropping point. The odometry given by the onboard EKF in 100hz rates were simultaneously presented in the top left corner, showing our system can run indoor without using any external visual motion caption system. The detection results and the calculated relative distance of the target objects were also simultaneously presented in the top right corner during searching.
In Fig. 11(a), the target was vertically placed at the top of a cube which weight is about 120g. By comparing images captured at ① and ②, it is easily to know the bottle is not shown in ① but detected in ②. The UAM was using a constant speeded to search in ①, and speeded up to get close to target after ②. The end-effector successfully approached and grabbed the target in ③ verified our methods worked well, and the plastic bottle was not flipped by the downward flow. In ④ the UAM can automatically drop the target at the dropping point indicates our system is capable of automatically finishing the whole grasping task.
In Fig. 11(b), the procedures were basically same as mentioned above. What different is we placed the empty bottle with about 45∘ rotation by using tapes. ② gave the detected target with its relative position and rotated angle. In ③ the end-effector used the rotation information of the target to successfully grasp the target.
These experimental results have shown that our system has capability to accomplish autonomous grasping mission.
(a) Autonomous grasping of a bottle placed vertically
(b) Autonomous grasping of a bottle placed obliquely
Fig. 11: Snapshots of autonomous grasping experiments. The number in subfigures indicate selected moments: ① indicated the UAM is searching specific target; ② indicated the UAM detected the target and gives its relative position; ③ indicated the UAM hovering at the grasping position and the end effector is about to grasp the bottle. ④ indicated the UAM dropping the grasped target at the dropping points.
Vi Conclusion and Future Work
In this letter, we developed an approach to enable a UAM to grasp lightweight objects. The key challenges included detecting and locating objects in UAM perspective, CoG compensation, and the flow influence to the objects, all of which made the autonomous grasping mission very difficult. We showed the effectiveness of our approach in real tests with the ability to detect, locate and grasp objects with arbitrary pose in GPS-denied environments without relying on the visual motion caption system. We believe that the proposed solution, both in terms of hardware and algorithms, will be useful in not only the aerial grasping missions but also general grasping missions since the vision system can be applied to any kind of robotic arm. Future work will be set out to investigate how to estimate the 6D pose of object in real-time. We will also improve the stability by using the servos with torque feedback and adopting more advanced controller for the UAM.
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Mark Matthews is a specialist on innovation strategy and public policy. He has worked at senior levels in academia and consulting in both the UK and in Australia. Over 2016/17 he helped to launch the consultancy firm SDG Economic Development (for whom he now works as a Special Advisor) and is currently working on a range of innovation strategy projects.
His career highlights include running a science diplomacy unit jointly funded by the European Commission and the Australian Government and launching and running a public policy a think tank located in a major research university. He has sat on a range of government advisory committees, chaired high-level strategic dialogues, and co-led a path-breaking joint government-academic team in Australia which researched and wrote a state government economic development White Paper. Whilst working in Australia he also developed the format and co-produced the Australian Broadcasting Corporations' Future Forum television series. Mark teaches capacity-building courses for government officials, and has participated in a wide range of strategy assignments together with evaluations and reviews of government interventions. He is particularly interested in governments' distinctive role as uncertainty and risk manager of 'last resort' and the implications of this role for public sector reform. He is the author of Transformational Public Policy: A New Strategy for Coping with Uncertainty and Risk (Routledge: Studies in Governance and Public Policy).
His contributions to the Work Foundation focus on the nexus between Industrial Strategy, innovation capability and global economic and technological inter-connectivity – with an emphasis on understanding the implications for future employment levels and quality of work in the UK.