Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) electrodes are traditionally placed in the dorsal epidural space to stimulate the dorsal column fibers for pain therapy. Recently, SCS has gained attention in restoring gait. However, the motor fibers triggering locomotion are located in the ventral and lateral spinal cord. Currently, SCS electrodes are steered manually, making it difficult to navigate them to the lateral and ventral motor fibers in the spinal cord. In this work, we propose a helically micro-machined continuum robot that can bend in a helical shape when subjected to actuation tendon forces. Using a stiff outer tube and adding translational and rotational degrees of freedom, this helical continuum robot can perform follow-the-leader (FTL) motion. We propose a kinematic model to relate tendon stroke and geometric parameters of the robot's helical shape to its acquired trajectory and end-effector position. We evaluate the proposed kinematic model and the robot's FTL motion capability experimentally. The stroke-based method, which links tendon stroke values to the robot's shape, showed inaccuracies with a 19.84 mm deviation and an RMSE of 14.42 mm for 63.6 mm of robot's length bending. The position-based method, using kinematic equations to map joint space to task space, performed better with a 10.54 mm deviation and an RMSE of 8.04 mm. Follow-the-leader experiments showed deviations of 11.24 mm and 7.32 mm, with RMSE values of 8.67 mm and 5.18 mm for the stroke-based and position-based methods, respectively. Furthermore, end-effector trajectories in two FTL motion trials are compared to confirm the robot's repeatable behavior. Finally, we demonstrate the robot's operation on a 3D-printed spinal cord phantom model.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. The company behind a disastrous change to a Kentucky city's school bus routes that resulted in more than a week of canceled classes had similar problems in two cities in neighboring Ohio last year. Touting its connections to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, bus-routing vendor AlphaRoute pitched its mathematical models and machine-learning technology as a way of saving money and smoothing out complex bus routes in Louisville, Kentucky, and school districts across the U.S. But real-world problems often got in the way.

In Causal Bayesian Optimization (CBO), an agent intervenes on an unknown structural causal model to maximize a downstream reward variable. In this paper, we consider the generalization where other agents or external events also intervene on the system, which is key for enabling adaptiveness to non-stationarities such as weather changes, market forces, or adversaries. We formalize this generalization of CBO as Adversarial Causal Bayesian Optimization (ACBO) and introduce the first algorithm for ACBO with bounded regret: Causal Bayesian Optimization with Multiplicative Weights (CBO-MW). Our approach combines a classical online learning strategy with causal modeling of the rewards. To achieve this, it computes optimistic counterfactual reward estimates by propagating uncertainty through the causal graph. We derive regret bounds for CBO-MW that naturally depend on graph-related quantities. We further propose a scalable implementation for the case of combinatorial interventions and submodular rewards. Empirically, CBO-MW outperforms non-causal and non-adversarial Bayesian optimization methods on synthetic environments and environments based on real-word data. Our experiments include a realistic demonstration of how CBO-MW can be used to learn users' demand patterns in a shared mobility system and reposition vehicles in strategic areas. How can a scientist efficiently optimize an unknown function that is expensive to evaluate?

The DARPA Subterranean Challenge was designed for competitors to develop and deploy teams of autonomous robots to explore difficult unknown underground environments. Categorised in to human-made tunnels, underground urban infrastructure and natural caves, each of these subdomains had many challenging elements for robot perception, locomotion, navigation and autonomy. These included degraded wireless communication, poor visibility due to smoke, narrow passages and doorways, clutter, uneven ground, slippery and loose terrain, stairs, ledges, overhangs, dripping water, and dynamic obstacles that move to block paths among others. In the Final Event of this challenge held in September 2021, the course consisted of all three subdomains. The task was for the robot team to perform a scavenger hunt for a number of pre-defined artefacts within a limited time frame. Only one human supervisor was allowed to communicate with the robots once they were in the course. Points were scored when accurate detections and their locations were communicated back to the scoring server. A total of 8 teams competed in the finals held at the Mega Cavern in Louisville, KY, USA. This article describes the systems deployed by Team CSIRO Data61 that tied for the top score and won second place at the event.

Roman V. Yampolskiy holds a PhD degree from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo. There he was a recipient of a four year NSF (National Science Foundation) IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) fellowship. Before beginning his doctoral studies Dr. Yampolskiy received a BS/MS (High Honors) combined degree in Computer Science from Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, USA. After completing his PhD dissertation Dr. Yampolskiy held a position of an Affiliate Academic at the Center for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University of London, College of London. In 2008 Dr. Yampolskiy accepted an assistant professor position at the Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville, KY.

GE Appliances and Swedish freight technology company Einride announced the debut of what they say is the first autonomous and electric truck to operate on US soil this week. Einride has been operating internationally since 2019 but will bring its autonomous Pods to the US for the first time on GE Appliances' 750-acre Appliance Park campus in Louisville, Kentucky. Einride is also providing GE Appliances with electric vehicles at locations in Tennessee and Georgia. The companies claimed that the partnership will save GE Appliances 970 tons of CO2 emissions within the first year. "Sustainability and cost-efficiency is a prerequisite for implementing innovation into our business strategy," said Bill Good, vice president of manufacturing at GE Appliances.

BEGIN ARTICLE PREVIEW: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. signage is displayed outside of a store in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., on … [+] Friday, May 15, 2015. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is expected to release first-quarter earnings results before the opening of U.S. financial markets on May 19. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg © 2015 Bloomberg Finance LP Walmart has been investing heavily in robots, such as for cleaning floors. But the company’s efforts have not been without their challenges.  This week Walmart terminated its engagement with Bossa Nova Robotics, which is a developer of robots to track inventory in store aisles. This decision came after testing and using the technology for the past five years (about 500 robots had been in operation). So then why did Walmart do this? Well, it appears that a major reason was the ROI (Return on Investment). For the most part, humans could do the job more effectively than robots.  “Workers can perfo

This and all episodes at: http://aiandyou.net/ .   What does it look like to be on the front lines of academic research into making future AI safe? It looks like Roman Yampolskiy, professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, director of their Cyber Security lab and key contributor to the field of AI Safety. With over 100 papers and books on AI, Roman is recognized as an AI expert the world over. In this first part of our interview, we talk about his latest paper, a comprehensive analysis of the Control Problem, the central issue of AI safety: How do we ensure future AI remains under our control? All this and our usual look at today's AI headlines. Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.  

Fox News Flash top headlines for May 6 are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com A Kentucky man has been charged with murder for fatally punching his 1-year-old son in the head after becoming angry over losing a video game, authorities said Sunday. Anthony Trice, 26, was watching the baby Friday when he grew enraged over losing the game, threw his controller and struck the infant in the head, the Louisville Metro Police Department said. Trice tried to comfort the baby, carrying him into the kitchen, but dropped him, Louisville station WAVE-TV reported.

The HTA Robotics Team seeks help raising funds for our trip to the Vex IQ Robotics World Championships in Louisville, KY. Our students have worked tirelessly this season, we now need your help to reach our goal of attending the World Championships. In order to meet this goal, we are asking for donations or sponsorships from local businesses. By giving, you will be helping our students represent HTA and our great State of Hawaii as they compete with the best teams from around the world in this prestigious international competition.