Inter-personal motor interaction is facilitated by hand pairing

The extent to which hand dominance may influence how each agent contributes to inter-personal coordination remains unknown. In the present study, right-handed human participants performed object balancing tasks either in dyadic conditions with each agent using one hand (left or right), or in bimanual conditions where each agent performed the task individually with both hands. We found that object load was shared between two hands more asymmetrically in dyadic than single-agent conditions. However, hand dominance did not influence how two hands shared the object load. In contrast, hand dominance was a major factor in modulating hand vertical movement speed. Furthermore, the magnitude of internal force produced by two hands against each other correlated with the synchrony between the two hands’ movement in dyads. This finding supports the important role of internal force in haptic communication. Importantly, both internal force and movement synchrony were affected by hand dominance of the paired participants. Overall, these results demonstrate, for the first time, that pairing of one dominant and one non-dominant hand may promote asymmetrical roles within a dyad during joint physical interactions. This appears to enable the agent using the dominant hand to actively maintain effective haptic communication and task performance.

From Surface to Subsurface: Diversity, Composition, and Abundance of Sessile and Endolithic Bacterial, Archaeal, and Eukaryotic Communities in Sand, Clay and Rock Substrates in the Laurentians (Quebec, Canada)

Microbial communities play an important role in shallow terrestrial subsurface ecosystems. Most studies of this habitat have focused on planktonic communities that are found in the groundwater of aquifer systems and only target specific microbial groups. Therefore, a systematic understanding of the processes that govern the assembly of endolithic and sessile communities is still missing. This study aims to understand the effect of depth and biotic factors on these communities, to better unravel their origins and to compare their composition with the communities detected in groundwater. To do so, we collected samples from two profiles (~0–50 m) in aquifer sites in the Laurentians (Quebec, Canada), performed DNA extractions and Illumina sequencing. The results suggest that changes in geological material characteristics with depth represent a strong ecological and phylogenetical filter for most archaeal and bacterial communities. Additionally, the vertical movement of water from the surface plays a major role in shallow subsurface microbial assembly processes. Furthermore, biotic interactions between bacteria and eukaryotes were mostly positive which may indicate cooperative or mutualistic potential associations, such as cross-feeding and/or syntrophic relationships in the terrestrial subsurface. Our results also point toward the importance of sampling both the geological formation and groundwater when it comes to studying its overall microbiology.

Zoomorphic Mobile Robot Development for Vertical Movement Based on the Geometrical Family Caterpillar

Research in robotics is one of the promising areas in mobile robot development, which is planned to be implemented in extreme dangerous conditions of areas explored by humans. This article aims at developing and improving a prototype of zoomorphic mobile robots that are designed to repeat the existing biological objects in nature. The authors performed a detailed analysis on the structure and dynamics of the geometrical family caterpillar movement, which is passed on a practical design implemented to perform the dynamic movement on uneven vertical surfaces. Based on the obtained analysis, the design and kinematic scheme of the movement is developed. Also, the structural control scheme via the Internet technologies that allow carrying out remote control is presented in this paper, considering the dangerous mobile robot work zones. To test the recommended solutions, the authors developed detailed 3D printed models of the mobile robot constructions for the implemented hardware. The model of the mobile robot is constructed, and the control system with examples of the user program code implementations is performed. Several experiments were performed, which showed the efficiency of the achieved mobile robot for solving problems of vertical movement on uneven metal surfaces. Moreover, the obtained slow motion of the designed robot proves that the simulated robot behaves similarly to the natural behavior of caterpillar movement.

Study on the Motion Stability of the Autonomous Underwater Helicopter

The hydrodynamic performance of a novel hovering autonomous underwater vehicle, the autonomous underwater helicopter (AUH), with an original disk-shaped hull (HG1) and an improved fore–aft asymmetric hull (HG3), is investigated by means of computational fluid dynamics with the adoption of overlapping mesh method. The hydrodynamic performance of the two hull shapes in surge motion with variation of the angle of attack is compared. The results show that HG3 has less resistance and higher motion stability compared to HG1. With the angle of attack reaching 10 degrees, both HG1 and HG3 achieve the maximum lift-to-drag ratio, which is higher for HG3 compared to HG1. Furthermore, based on the numerical simulation of the plane motion mechanism test (PMM) and according to Routh’s stability criterion, the horizontal movement and vertical movement stability indexes of HG1 and HG3 (GHHG1=1.0, GVHG1=49.7, GHHG2=1.0, GVHG3=2.1) are obtained, which further show that the AUH has better vertical movement stability than the torpedo-shaped AUV. Furthermore, the scale model tail velocity experiment indirectly shows that HG3 has better hydrodynamic performance than HG1.

Effects of Mesoscale Eddies On Intraseasonal Variability of Intermediate Water East of Taiwan

The variability of intermediate water (IW) east of Taiwan was investigated utilizing 17 months of long-term, continuous and synchronous measurements of temperature, salinity and current from mooring sites deployed at 122ºE/23ºN from January 2016 to May 2017. For the first time, we prove that the intraseasonal variability in the IW within significant periods of ~80 days was caused by mesoscale eddies propagating westward from the Subtropic Counter Current (STCC) area. The correlation coefficients between sea level anomalies (SLAs) and the Kuroshio, and between SLAs and the minimum salinity in the intermediate layer, were 0.63 and 0.52, respectively. The anticyclonic (cyclonic) eddies from the STCC, increased (decreased) the speed of the Kuroshio as well as increase (decrease) the temperature and salinity in the 400–600 m in east of Taiwan. Combines Archiving, Validation and Interpretation of Satellite Oceanographic (AVISO) products data, showed that temperature and salinity increased (decreased) in the intermediate layer due to the downward (upward) vertical movement of the water mass by anticyclonic (cyclonic) eddies. Anticyclonic eddies strengthened the Kuroshio and benefitted SCSIW flowing through the Luzon Strait to enhance salinity, while cyclonic eddies weakened the Kuroshio and favored relatively low-salt NPIW, in the area east of Taiwan.

Design and Fabrication of Elevators Using AVR Microcontroller

Men, along with the progress in his civilization and daily life, felt the need more and more every day that in addition to all the facilities and tools he had created for himself to move horizontally, he needed a tool to move himself and his tools and loads in the horizontal direction. Is. Images have been recorded in history that show that he invented methods for vertical movement in the distant past. Initially, this was done by levers and animals. An elevator is a permanent public vehicle that moves between predefined levels. The elevator is the only means of transportation used by all age groups and is the most common means of vertical movement in the world. The elevator is installed inside an environment that consists of three parts: 1. Engine room 2. Elevator well 3. Well. The gearbox motor acts as the heart of the elevator and the control panel acts as the core of the elevator. The aim of this research is to simulate and build the circuit and the building of the elevator so that it can be equipped with new facilities and sensors by using reprogramming if necessary to make its operation safer and provide more comfort for the passengers. Here we have programmed the AVR microcontroller using codevisionAVR software and performed the simulation using Proteus software.

HEXAPOD MOVEMENT ALGORITHMS TO AVOID INTERFERENCE. ANGULAR MOVEMENT

This paper considers the possibility of using a stepping robot - hexapod for research, monitoring the condition of technical dry channels, enclosed spaces and more. Compared to existing designs used today, the hexapod has a list of advantages that make it a more versatile tool, namely: autonomy, due to the power supply installed at work, design features that ensure its increased patency on uneven surfaces. Instead, this type of work requires the development of complex algorithms for movement than in the case of wheeled or tracked machines, ie. hexapod is a platform that moves the limbs, which in turn move with the help of servos. Therefore, the movement of the platform is provided by the control of each servo. In addition, environmental information is additionally processed from rangefinders, limb con-tact sensors with the surface, cameras, accelerometers, etc. Particular attention is paid to robot rotation algorithms, as the proposed scope imposes restrictions on the ability to maneuver freely in space. An algorithm for rotating robots in confined spaces based on limb state matrices has been developed, which greatly simplifies the practical implementation and allows to easily change the type of stroke during the hexapod operation. It is also proposed to introduce a buffer state matrix, which allows you to remember the last position of the limbs of the robot in case of its failure, after the elimination of which, it is possible to continue moving from any last state. Or return to the starting position and change the route. The versatility of the algorithm allows its use not only in the development of the software part of the hesapod, but also for other types of walking robots. Since the developed algorithm allows you to easily modify the types of moves at each iteration of the step. In the future, it is planned to test this algorithm on a model of a hexapod and supplement it with the necessary components for vertical movement, which is very important for passability in this area of application.

Dynamics of the habitat use of three predatory freshwater fish in a lentic ecosystem

To understand the conditions of coexistence in multiple-species predator community, we studied longitudinal and vertical movement of pike (Esox lucius), pikeperch (Sander lucioperca) and catfish (Silurus glanis) in the Rimov Reservoir, using an autonomous telemetry system for 11 months. We found significant differences among these three species in movement and depth that varied considerably in time, with the greatest differences between warm (late spring and early autumn) and cold season (late autumn to early spring). Preference for different sections of the reservoir was stable for pike, while pikeperch and catfish frequently visited tributary during the warm season, and moved closer to the dam during the cold season. Pike longitudinal activity was highest in the cold season, pikeperch in the warm season, and catfish activity peaked in both the warm and cold seasons. Overlap in the depth used among species was higher in the warm season, when all species used the upper layer of the water column, and lower in cold season, when pikeperch and catfish used deeper areas. These results demonstrated ability of predators to actively inspect a large portion of the reservoir in both longitudinal and vertical dimensions, although differing in the timing of their habitat use and activity.