Abstract: A card is provided, such as a credit card or security card, that may transmit information to a magnetic stripe reader via a magnetic emulator. The emulator may transmit the information in order to reduce the amount of circuitry needed to emulate a particular block of information. Additionally, for example, one or more buttons may be included on the card. Buttons may be includes, for example, to provide a control interface to navigate through various options of the card. Additionally, coding schemes may be selected via buttons. Furthermore, a card may be locked until a private number is entered into a card or a number may only be generated (e.g., displayed and/or emulated) once a particular private number is entered into a card.

Abstract: A robot leg assembly including a hip joint and an upper leg member. A proximal end portion of the upper leg member rotatably coupled to the hip joint. The robot leg assembly including a knee joint rotatably coupled to a distal end portion of the upper leg member, a lower leg member rotatably coupled to the knee joint, a linear actuator disposed on the upper leg member and defining a motion axis, and a motor coupled to the linear actuator and a linkage coupled to the translation stage and to the lower leg member. The linear actuator includes a translation stage moveable along the motion axis to translate rotational motion of the motor to linear motion of the translation stage along the motion axis, which moves the linkage to rotate the lower leg member relative to the upper leg member at the knee joint.

Abstract: A motion manager for a vehicle includes one or more processors, and the one or more processors are configured to: receive acceleration request values from a plurality of applications and driver assistance levels associated with the respective acceleration request values; select the smallest acceleration request value of the plurality of acceleration request values received; select the highest driver assistance level of the plurality of driver assistance levels received; and while outputting a specified value according to the selected acceleration request value to an actuator of the vehicle, stop the output of the specified value under a condition according to the selected driver assistance level.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems and methods directed to an industrial robot that can perform mobile manipulation (e.g., dexterous mobile manipulation). A robotic arm may be capable of precise control when reaching into tight spaces, may be robust to impacts and collisions, and/or may limit the mass of the robotic arm to reduce the load on the battery and increase runtime. A robotic arm may include differently configured proximal joints and/or distal joints. Proximal joints may be designed to promote modularity and may include separate functional units, such as modular actuators, encoder, bearings, and/or clutches. Distal joints may be designed to promote integration and may include offset actuators to enable a through-bore for the internal routing of vacuum, power, and signal connections.

Abstract: A motion manager for a vehicle includes one or more processors. The one or more processors are configured to: receive acceleration request values from a plurality of applications and driver assistance levels associated with the respective acceleration request values; select the highest driver assistance level of the driver assistance levels received; select the smallest acceleration request value of the acceleration request values associated with the selected driver assistance level; output a specified value according to the selected acceleration request value to an actuator of the vehicle; and stop the output of the specified value under a condition according to the selected driver assistance level.

Abstract: A method and apparatus to create water vapor supersaturation and particulate counts from an air sample. The method and apparatus include introducing an air sample into a chamber connected to an optical detector and an outlet by pumping at the outlet. The method further includes passing air through the chamber and optical detector in a steady flow, and subsequently closing the inlet while continuing the pumping to expand the air sample and exhaust a portion of the air sample through the optical detector. The walls of the particle chamber are wetted with a fluid such as water, and one portion of the wall is warmer than the other portions such that there is some condensational growth prior to the expansion, and yet more condensational growth during the expansion. The cycles are repeated by continuously repeating the introducing, passing and closing.

Abstract: Provided herein are methods of producing a photoreceptor precursor (PRP) cell population derived from stem cells. Further provided herein are methods of using the PRP cell populations, such as for therapeutics.

Abstract: A gripper mechanism includes a pair of gripper jaws, a linear actuator, and a rocker bogey. The linear actuator drives a first gripper jaw to move relative to a second gripper jaw. Here, the linear actuator includes a screw shaft and a drive nut where the drive nut includes a protrusion having protrusion axis expending along a length of the protrusion. The protrusion axis is perpendicular to an actuation axis of the linear actuator along a length of the screw shaft. The rocker bogey is coupled to the drive nut at the protrusion to form a pivot point for the rocker bogey and to enable the rocker bogey to pivot about the protrusion axis when the linear actuator drives the first gripper jaw to move relative to the second gripper jaw.

Abstract: A method and apparatus to create water vapor supersaturation and particulate counts from an air sample. The method and apparatus include introducing an air sample into a chamber by passing a flow into the chamber through the inlet by pumping at the outlet. The method further includes closing the inlet while continuing the pumping to exhaust the air sample from the chamber through the outlet. The pumping is performed at a rate operable to reduce pressure inside the chamber such that the air sample in the central portion of the chamber cools, and water vapor from walls of the chamber has time to diffuse into the air sample in the chamber from the walls. The cycles are repeated by continuously repeating the introducing and closing. The walls of the chamber may be wet or dry.

Abstract: Disclosed is an method for use of an intramedullary nail comprising a shaft having a length, a diameter, an exterior bone contacting surface, a leading (or distal) end and a trailing (or proximal) end, wherein the leading end is progressively tapered and comprises a well or cup, adapted to receive the tip of a standard K-wire, the trailing end comprises a driving fitting adapted for attachment to a driving tool for insertion of the nail into the prepared bone, the trailing end may optionally include an internal thread that can be used to secure the nail to a drill guide which can also function as an insertion handle, and the nail's shaft may also optionally be equipped with threaded and/or unthreaded cross-drilled holes for insertion of unicortical locking screws and bone screws, respectively, once the nail is placed as desired.

Abstract: A motion manager includes one or more processors configured to: receive a stop holding request for keeping a vehicle in a stopped state as one of motion requests from application software; and output an instruction value for turning ON a hydraulic brake to the hydraulic brake on a condition that the stop holding request is received. The one or more processors are configured to continue outputting the instruction value to a parking brake regardless of a presence or absence of the stop holding request, when outputting an instruction value for turning ON a parking brake to the parking brake after starting outputting the instruction value and until switching of the parking brake to an ON state is completed.

Abstract: Systems and methods for a perception system for a lower body powered exoskeleton device are provided. The perception system includes a camera configured to capture one or more images of terrain in proximity to the exoskeleton device, an at least one processor. The at least one processor is programmed to perform footstep planning for the exoskeleton device based, at least in part, on the captured one or more images of terrain, and issue an instruction to perform a first action based, at least in part, on the footstep planning.

Abstract: The disclosure provides systems and methods for mitigating slip of a robot appendage. In one aspect, a method for mitigating slip of a robot appendage includes (i) receiving an input from one or more sensors, (ii) determining, based on the received input, an appendage position of the robot appendage, (iii) determining a filter position for the robot appendage, (iv) determining a distance between the appendage position and the filter position, (v) determining, based on the distance, a force to apply to the robot appendage, (vi) causing one or more actuators to apply the force to the robot appendage, (vii) determining whether the distance is greater than a threshold distance, and (viii) responsive to determining that the distance is greater than the threshold distance, the control system adjusting the filter position to a position, which is the threshold distance from the appendage position, for use in a next iteration.

Abstract: A method of identifying stairs from footfalls includes receiving a plurality of footfall locations of a robot traversing an environment. Each respective footfall location indicates a location where a leg of the robot contacted a support surface. The method also includes determining a plurality of candidate footfall location pairs based on the plurality of footfall locations. The candidate footfall location pair includes a first and a second candidate footfall location. The method further includes clustering the first candidate footfall location into a first cluster group based on a height of the first candidate footfall location and clustering the second candidate footfall location into a second cluster group based on a height of the second candidate footfall location. The method additionally includes generating a stair model by representing each of the cluster groups as a corresponding stair and delineating each stair based on a respective midpoint between each adjacent cluster group.

Abstract: A method of manipulating boxes includes receiving a minimum box size for a plurality of boxes varying in size located in a walled container. The method also includes dividing a grip area of a gripper into a plurality of zones. The method further includes locating a set of candidate boxes based on an image from a visual sensor. For each zone, the method additionally includes, determining an overlap of a respective zone with one or more neighboring boxes to the set of candidate boxes. The method also includes determining a grasp pose for a target candidate box that avoids one or more walls of the walled container. The method further includes executing the grasp pose to lift the target candidate box by the gripper where the gripper activates each zone of the plurality of zones that does not overlap a respective neighboring box to the target candidate box.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for operating a mobile robot in a loading dock environment are provided. The method comprises capturing, by a camera system of the mobile robot, at least one image of the loading dock environment, and processing, by at least one hardware processor of the mobile robot, the at least one image using a machine learning model trained to identify one or more features of the loading dock environment.

Abstract: An information processing method includes receiving shift requests to control a shift range of a vehicle from a plurality of application software products configured to implement driver assistance functions of the vehicle, arbitrating the shift requests by using, as a condition, whether each of the received shift requests is a request in a traveling range or a request in a parking range, when the traveling range is the shift range in which a driving wheel of the vehicle is rotatable and the parking range is the shift range in which the driving wheel is not rotatable, and generating an instruction value for an action request to drive an actuator based on a result of arbitration.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for determining a pose of an object sensed by a camera system of a mobile robot are described. The method includes acquiring, using the camera system, a first image of the object from a first perspective and a second image of the object from a second perspective, and determining, by a processor of the camera system, a pose of the object based, at least in part, on a first set of sparse features associated with the object detected in the first image and a second set of sparse features associated with the object detected in the second image.

Abstract: A brake control device includes a processor that controls a brake device of a vehicle. The processor receives a first braking request indicating first braking force by the brake device which is requested from an application that implements a driver assistance function of the vehicle. The processor receives a second braking request indicating second braking force by the brake device which is requested depending on an operation amount of a brake pedal of the vehicle. The processor starts override control when the processor receives the second braking request while the processor controls the brake device in accordance with the first braking request.

Abstract: A method of grasping and/or placing multiple objects by a gripper of a mobile robot. The multi-grasp method includes determining one or more candidate groups of objects to grasp by the suction-based gripper of the mobile robot, each of the one or more candidate groups of objects including a plurality of objects, determining a grasp quality score for each of the one or more candidate groups of objects, and grasping, by the suction-based gripper of the mobile robot, all objects in a candidate group of objects based, at least in part, on the grasp quality score. The multi-place method includes determining an allowed width associated with the conveyor, selecting a multi-place technique based, at least in part, on the allowed width and a dimension of the multiple grasped objects, and controlling the mobile robot to place the multiple grasped objects on the conveyor based on the selected multi-place technique.