Search

This study is designed to investigate the social perception processes related to gait perception. In particular, we will be investigate wether naive perceivers are able to accurately infer targets' political orientation from their gait.

A project of research examining the effect of attitudinal determinants on successful immigration of refugees from the Middle East

Unmanned vehicles, equipped with radiation detection sensors, can serve as a valuable aid to personnel responding to radiological incidents. The use of tele-operated ground vehicles avoids human exposure to hazardous environments, which in addition to radioactive contamination, might present other risks to personnel. Autonomous unmanned vehicles using algorithms for radioisotope classification, source localization, and efficient exploration allow these vehicles to conduct surveys with reduced human supervision allowing teams to address larger areas in less time. This work presents systems for autonomous radiation search with results presented in several proof-of-concept demonstrations.

The acquisition of synchronous EO imagery and gamma radiation data in aerial overflights of an unmanned aircraft can provide valuable spatial context for radioactive source mapping. Using image-based 3D reconstruction methods, a terrain map can be generated and used to reason about more likely radiation source locations. For instance, vehicles may be likely hiding places for nuclear materials, so a source model with assigned probability is used at the vehicle to reduce the overall uncertainty in position estimation. Environment reconstructions based on EO imagery with a mapped gamma radiation overlay provide intrinsic correlations between the datasets. Using radioactive material dispersion models or point source models, the derived correlations serve to enhance coarse gamma radiation data. The use of autonomous unmanned aircraft provide a valuable tool in acquiring these data as they are capable of accurate and repeatable position control while eliminating exposure danger to the operators. In this experiment, two sources (.084 Ci 137Ce and .00048 Ci 133Ba) were distributed in a field with varying terrain and a scan was conducted using the Virginia Tech Yamaha RMAX autonomous helicopter equipped with a two-camera imaging system and a NaI scintillation-type spectrometer. Terrain reconstruction was conducted using both structure from motion (SfM) and stereo vision techniques, and radiation data synchronized to the imagery was overlaid.