Abstract: A computer-implemented method of answering questions comprises: receiving, by one or more processors, a query; based on the query, generating, by the one or more processors, a matrix; based on the matrix, modifying, by the one or more processors, a dynamic memory; based on the matrix, determining, by the one or more processors, a first response from the dynamic memory; based on the matrix, determining, by the one or more processors, a second response from a database; based on the first response and the second response, determining, by the one or more processors, a third response; and in response to the query, providing, by the one or more processors, the third response.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method of controlling an autonomous system comprises: accessing, by one or more processors, sensor data that includes information regarding an area; disregarding, by the one or more processors, a portion of the sensor data that corresponds to objects outside of a region of interest; identifying, by the one or more processors, a plurality of objects from the sensor data; assigning, by the one or more processors, a priority to each of the plurality of objects; based on the priorities of the objects, selecting, by the one or more processors, a subset of the plurality of objects; generating, by the one or more processors, a representation of the selected objects; providing, by the one or more processors, the representation to a machine learning system as an input; and based on an output from the machine learning system resulting from the input, controlling the autonomous system.

Abstract: A system which includes two electrodes for use as cathode and anode, respectively, can perform water electrolysis. Each of the two electrodes includes a self-supporting electrode material containing a porous core material and a coating material. The porous core material includes carbon, and the coating material contains a transition metal phosphide. The two electrodes include identical electrode material, and each of the electrodes contains a connector to connect to a power source.

Abstract: A method for preparing a doped optical fibre preform includes formulating, a rare earth material or a functional metal material and a co-doping agent into a doping solution, mixing a high-purity quartz powder with the doping solution, drying same at a temperature of 100°C.-150°C. for 12-48 hours, crushing and screening the same to obtain a doped quartz powder; depositing the doped quartz powder onto the surface of a target rod to form a doped core layer; replacing the doped quartz powder with the high-purity quartz powder, and depositing the high-purity quartz powder onto the surface of the doped core layer to form a quartz outer cladding; and removing the target rod, and gradually collapsing the entirety formed from the doped core layer and the quartz outer cladding at a high temperature to obtain the doped optical fibre preform.

Abstract: Described are methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products for finding correspondences of one or more parts in a camera image of two or more cameras. For a first part in a first camera image of a first camera, a first 3D ray that is a first back-projection of a first feature coordinate of the first part in the first camera image to a 3D physical space is calculated. For a second part in a second camera image of a second camera, a second 3D ray that is a second back-projection of a second feature coordinate of the second part in the second camera image to the 3D physical space is calculated, wherein the first feature coordinate and the second feature coordinate correspond to a first feature as identified in a model. A first distance between the first 3D ray and the second 3D ray is calculated.

Abstract: Described are machine vision systems and methods for simultaneous kinematic and hand-eye calibration. A machine vision system includes a robot or motion stage and a camera in communication with a control system. The control system is configured to move the robot or motion stage to poses, and for each pose: capture an image of calibration target features and robot joint angles or motion stage encoder counts. The control system is configured to obtain initial values for robot or motion stage calibration parameters, and determine initial values for hand-eye calibration parameters based on the initial values for the robot or motion stage calibration parameters, the image, and joint angles or encoder counts. The control system is configured to determine final values for the hand-eye calibration parameters and robot or motion stage calibration parameters by refining the hand-eye calibration parameters and robot or motion stage calibration parameters to minimize a cost function.

Abstract: Described are machine vision systems and methods for simultaneous kinematic and hand-eye calibration. A machine vision system includes a robot or motion stage and a camera in communication with a control system. The control system is configured to move the robot or motion stage to poses, and for each pose: capture an image of calibration target features and robot joint angles or motion stage encoder counts. The control system is configured to obtain initial values for robot or motion stage calibration parameters, and determine initial values for hand-eye calibration parameters based on the initial values for the robot or motion stage calibration parameters, the image, and joint angles or encoder counts. The control system is configured to determine final values for the hand-eye calibration parameters and robot or motion stage calibration parameters by refining the hand-eye calibration parameters and robot or motion stage calibration parameters to minimize a cost function.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing of a porous electrode material, wherein the porous electrode material comprises transition metal phosphide on a porous structure comprising transition metal. The method comprises contacting elemental phosphorous and a porous structure comprising transition metal, and heating, in an inert atmosphere, the contacted elemental phosphorous and the porous structure comprising transition metal to a temperature in the temperature range of 300 to 1100° C., thereby reacting at least a part of the phosphorous and at least a part of the transition metal under formation of transition metal phosphide on the surface of the porous structure, thereby forming the porous electrode material. The present invention further relates to a porous electrode material obtainable by the method.

Abstract: The present disclosure discloses a full adder based on resistive-switching devices and an operation method thereof. A multi-bit full adder circuit is constituted by using a cross-bar array of resistive-switching devices, wherein data of standard sums is stored on the principle diagonal of the cross-bar array in a nonvolatile manner, and carry data is stored in adjacent units on both sides of the principle diagonal. The carry data is stored according to whether the storage loop (crosstalk loop) is turned on. With the present disclosure, the multi-bit full adder circuit is significantly simplified. Thereby, additional circuits for generating a carry signal are reduced, the circuit delay and chip area are decreased, and the adder has an ability of nonvolatile storage.

Abstract: This invention provides a system and method that ties the coordinate spaces at the two locations together during calibration time using features on a runtime workpiece instead of a calibration target. Three possible scenarios are contemplated: wherein the same workpiece features are imaged and identified at both locations; wherein the imaged features of the runtime workpiece differ at each location (with a CAD or measured workpiece rendition available); and wherein the first location containing a motion stage has been calibrated to the motion stage using hand-eye calibration and the second location is hand-eye calibrated to the same motion stage by transferring the runtime part back and forth between locations. Illustratively, the quality of the first two techniques can be improved by running multiple runtime workpieces each with a different pose, extracting and accumulating such features at each location; and then using the accumulated features to tie the two coordinate spaces.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems and methods for machine vision. A machine vision system includes a motion rendering device, a first image sensor, and a second image sensor. The machine visions system includes a processor configured to run a computer program stored in memory that is configured to determine a first transformation that allows mapping between the first coordinate system associated with the motion rendering device and the second coordinate system associated with the first image sensor, and to determine a second transformation that allows mapping between the first coordinate system associated with the motion rendering device and the third coordinate system associated with the second image sensor.

Abstract: A macromolecule-based conductive composite material and a PTC element. The macromolecule-based conductive composite material comprises: a macromolecule base material, having a volume fraction of the macromolecule base material of 20%-75%; a conductive filler with a core-shell granule structure and dispersed in the macromolecule base material, having a volume fraction of 25%-80%; and a coupling agent, being a titanate coupling agent and accounting for 0%-5% of the volume of the conductive filler. The PTC element prepared by using the macromolecule-based conductive composite material comprises at least two metal electrode plates (12, 12?), a macromolecule-based conductive composite material (11) being closely combined with the metal electrode plates (12, 12?). The PTC element prepared from the macromolecule-based conductive composite material has the advantages of low room-temperature resistivity, outstanding weather durability, good voltage resistance and good resistor repeatability.

Abstract: The present disclosure discloses a full adder based on resistive-switching devices and an operation method thereof. A multi-bit full adder circuit is constituted by using a cross-bar array of resistive-switching devices, wherein data of standard sums is stored on the principle diagonal of the cross-bar array in a nonvolatile manner, and carry data is stored in adjacent units on both sides of the principle diagonal. The carry data is stored according to whether the storage loop (crosstalk loop) is turned on. With the present disclosure, the multi-bit full adder circuit is significantly simplified. Thereby, additional circuits for generating a carry signal are reduced, the circuit delay and chip area are decreased, and the adder has an ability of nonvolatile storage.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, an apparatus, and a system for establishing an FCoE communication connection and a name server. According to a WWN world wide name identifier of a target to be accessed, a destination MAC address used to access the target to be accessed is acquired. According to the destination MAC address, a login operation is performed for the target to be accessed, to establish an FCoE fiber channel over Ethernet communication connection, so that an FCoE initiator may directly establish a communication connection with an FCoE target, thereby reducing data transmission delay and lightening the processing load of an original FCoE forwarder.

Abstract: A system and method for robustly calibrating a vision system and a robot is provided. The system and method enables a plurality of cameras to be calibrated into a robot base coordinate system to enable a machine vision/robot control system to accurately identify the location of objects of interest within robot base coordinates.

Abstract: A BrTCP24 gene for controlling the growth of Chinese cabbage and its applications. The BrTCP24 gene has the nucleotide sequence shown in SEQ ID No. 1, the whole length of which is 1221 bp. The gene is useful for improving the production of economic crop. As indicated by experimental results, the gene serves as a controlling gene for plant growth and has the function of down-regulating the plant growth. Through overexpressing the gene, a transgenic plant smaller than the wild one can be obtained. The gene of the invention can provide theory basis and gene source for breeding new varieties of crops.

Abstract: A system and method for robustly calibrating a vision system and a robot is provided. The system and method enables a plurality of cameras to be calibrated into a robot base coordinate system to enable a machine vision/robot control system to accurately identify the location of objects of interest within robot base coordinates.

Abstract: A method for measuring data retention characteristic of an RRAM device includes: a) controlling a temperature of a sample stage to maintain the RRAM device at a predetermined temperature; b) setting the RRAM device to a high-resistance state or a low-resistance state; c) measuring data retention time by applying a predetermined voltage to the RRAM device so that a resistive state failure of the RRAM device occurs; d) repeating the steps a)-c) to perform a plurality of measurements; e) calculating a resistive state failure probability F(t) of the RRAM device from the data retention time in the plurality of measurements; and f) fitting the resistive state failure probability F(t), and calculating predicted data retention time tE by using parameters obtained from the fitting. The data retention time of the RRAM device may be predicted by combining voltage acceleration and temperature acceleration.

Abstract: This invention provides a system and method for determining correspondence between camera assemblies in a 3D vision system implementation having a plurality of cameras arranged at different orientations with respect to a scene involving microscopic and near microscopic objects under manufacture moved by a manipulator, so as to acquire contemporaneous images of a runtime object and determine the pose of the object for the purpose of guiding manipulator motion. At least one of the camera assemblies includes a non-perspective lens. The searched 2D object features of the acquired non-perspective image, corresponding to trained object features in the non-perspective camera assembly can be combined with the searched 2D object features in images of other camera assemblies, based on their trained object features to generate a set of 3D features and thereby determine a 3D pose of the object.

Abstract: A resistive switching memory device and a method for operating the same are disclosed. The device includes a plurality of resistive switching memory units arranged in a matrix, each of which includes a switching element and a resistive switching device, and the switching element being connected to a word line at its control terminal, to the resistive switching device at one terminal, and to a bit line at the other terminal; a word line decoder adapted to decode an input address signal to switch on the switching element in at least one of resistive switching memory units; and a driving circuit adapted to apply a voltage pulse whose front edge changes slowly across the resistive switching device by the bit line synchronously with the switching-on of the switching element.