scholarly journals Raptor: A Design of a Drain Inspection Robot

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (17) ◽  
pp. 5742
Author(s):  
M. A. Viraj J. Muthugala ◽  
Povendhan Palanisamy ◽  
S. M. Bhagya P. Samarakoon ◽  
Saurav Ghante Anantha Padmanabha ◽  
Mohan Rajesh Elara ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fuzzy Logic Controller ◽  
Mechanical Design ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Proper Function ◽  
Robot Design ◽  
Inspection Robot ◽  
Inspection Process ◽  
Test Scenarios ◽  
Public Health And Safety ◽  
Novel Design

Frequent inspections are essential for drains to maintain proper function to ensure public health and safety. Robots have been developed to aid the drain inspection process. However, existing robots designed for drain inspection require improvements in their design and autonomy. This paper proposes a novel design of a drain inspection robot named Raptor. The robot has been designed with a manually reconfigurable wheel axle mechanism, which allows the change of ground clearance height. Design aspects of the robot, such as mechanical design, control architecture and autonomy functions, are comprehensively described in the paper, and insights are included. Maintaining the robot’s position in the middle of a drain when moving along the drain is essential for the inspection process. Thus, a fuzzy logic controller has been introduced to the robot to cater to this demand. Experiments have been conducted by deploying a prototype of the design to drain environments considering a set of diverse test scenarios. Experiment results show that the proposed controller effectively maintains the robot in the middle of a drain while moving along the drain. Therefore, the proposed robot design and the controller would be helpful in improving the productivity of robot-aided inspection of drains.

scholarly journals Falcon: A False Ceiling Inspection Robot

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 5281
Author(s):  
M. A. Viraj J. Muthugala ◽  
Koppaka Ganesh Sai Apuroop ◽  
Saurav Ghante Anantha Padmanabha ◽  
S. M. Bhagya P. Samarakoon ◽  
Mohan Rajesh Elara ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fuzzy Logic ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Robot Design ◽  
Safety Concerns ◽  
Inspection Robot ◽  
Building Maintenance ◽  
Compact Size ◽  
Human Labor ◽  
Inspection Process ◽  
Novel Design

Frequent inspections are essential for false ceilings to maintain the service infrastructures, such as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing, and the structure of false ceilings. Human-labor-based conventional inspection procedures for false ceilings suffer many shortcomings, including safety concerns. Thus, robot-aided solutions are demanded for false ceiling inspections similar to other building maintenance services. However, less work has been conducted on developing robot-aided solutions for false ceiling inspections. This paper proposes a novel design for a robot intended for false ceiling inspections named Falcon. The compact size and the tracked wheel design of the robot allow it to traverse obstacles such as runners and lighting fixtures. The robot’s ability to autonomously follow the perimeter of a false ceiling can improve the productivity of the inspection process since the heading of the robot often changes due to the nature of the terrain, and continuous heading correction is an overhead for a teleoperator. Therefore, a Perimeter-Following Controller (PFC) based on fuzzy logic was integrated into the robot. Experimental results obtained by deploying a prototype of the robot design to a false ceiling testbed confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed PFC in perimeter following and the robot’s features, such as the ability to traverse on runners and fixtures in a false ceiling.

scholarly journals The Fine Line: Rural Justice, Public Health and Safety, and the Coronavirus Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 000276422110031
Author(s):  
Jennifer Sherman ◽  
Jennifer Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
Personal Liberty ◽  
Local Law Enforcement ◽  
Local Law ◽  
Sheriff's Department ◽  
Public Health And Safety

In this article, we provide an early glimpse into how the issues of public health and safety played out in the rural United States during the coronavirus pandemic, focusing on Washington State. We utilize a combination of news articles and press releases, sheriff’s department Facebook posts, publicly available jail data, courtroom observations, in-depth interviews with those who have been held in rural jails, and interviews with rural law enforcement staff to explore this theme. As elected officials, rural sheriffs are beholden to populations that include many who are suspicious of science, liberal agendas, and anything that might threaten what they see as individual freedom. At the same time, they expect local law enforcement to employ punitive measures to control perceived criminal activity in their communities. These communities are often tightly knit, cohesive, and isolated, with high levels of social support both for community members and local leaders, including sheriffs and law enforcement. This complex social context often puts rural sheriffs and law enforcement officers in difficult positions. Given the multiple cross-pressures that rural justice systems faced in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, we explore the circumstances in which they attempted to protect and advocate for the health and safety of both their incarcerated and their nonincarcerated populations. We find that certain characteristics of rural communities both help and hinder local law enforcement in efforts to combat the virus, but these characteristics typically favor informal norms of social control to govern community health. Thus, rural sheriff’s departments repeatedly chose strategies that limited their abilities to protect populations from the disease, in favor of appearing tough on crime and supportive of personal liberty.

scholarly journals The Use of Bacteriophages in the Poultry Industry

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Żbikowska ◽  
Monika Michalczuk ◽  
Beata Dolka
Keyword(s):  
Foodborne Pathogens ◽  
Pathogenic Bacteria ◽  
Bacterial Resistance ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Multidrug Resistant ◽  
Poultry Production ◽  
Salmonella Spp ◽  
Food Contact Surfaces ◽  
Public Health And Safety

The emergence of multidrug-resistant infections and antibiotic failures have raised concerns over human and veterinary medicine worldwide. Poultry production has had to confront the problems of an alarming increase in bacterial resistance, including zoonotic pathogens. According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis have been the most frequently reported human foodborne diseases linked to poultry. This situation has strongly stimulated a renewal of scientists’ interest in bacteriophages (phages) since the beginning of the 21st century. Bacteriophages are the viruses of bacteria. They are abundant in nature, and accompany bacteria in each environment they colonize, including human microbiota. In this review, we focused on the use of bacteriophages as therapeutic agents to treat infections and reduce counts of pathogenic bacteria in poultry, as biocontrol agents to eliminate foodborne pathogens on/in food, and also as disinfectants to reduce contamination on food-contact surfaces or poultry carcasses in industrial conditions. Most of the phage-based products are targeted against the main foodborne pathogens, such as Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, and Clostridium perfringens. Phages are currently addressed at all stages of the poultry production "from farm to fork", however, their implementation into live birds and food products still provokes discussions especially in the context of the current legal framework, limitations, as well as public health and safety.

Leveraging blockchain based decentralized apps for the Tokyo Olympics amid the COVID-19 pandemic

First Monday ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rishi Sabarigirisan ◽  
Aditi Biswas ◽  
Ridhi Rohatgi ◽  
Shyam KC ◽  
Shekhar Shukla
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Strategic Objectives ◽  
Crowd Management ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Smooth Contact ◽  
Public Health And Safety

The COVID-19 pandemic has induced a cloud of uncertainty over the mega sports event, the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Cancelling or re-scheduling the event could have serious repercussions on the economic, social and environmental well-being for the involved stakeholders. Thus, it becomes critical to conduct events of this magnitude by adopting appropriate public health measures. In this research, we primarily focus on two main premises relative to public health and safety, contact tracing and crowd management. We explore and evaluate the usability of blockchain based decentralized apps in crowd management and contact tracing for the Tokyo Olympics using value-focused thinking (VFT). A VFT framework aids in narrowing fundamental and strategic objectives that need to be addressed for smooth contact tracing and crowd management by understanding stakeholder viewpoints. We established an equivalence of the objectives identified through VFT with blockchain technology properties. Further, we also present a conceptual ideation of contact tracing and crowd management through blockchain based decentralized apps for the Tokyo Olympics. This work could potentially assist decision-makers, researchers and stakeholders involved in organizing the Tokyo Olympics in understanding and analysing the utility of blockchain based decentralized apps for crowd management and contact tracing.

Examining Impacts of COVID-19-Related Stay-At-Home Orders through a Two-Way Random Effects Model

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110469
Author(s):  
Anshu Bamney ◽  
Hisham Jashami ◽  
Sarvani Sonduru Pantangi ◽  
Jayson Ambabo ◽  
Megat-Usamah Megat-Johari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Random Effects ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Case Reports ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Random Effects Model ◽  
Public Health And Safety ◽  
Over Time ◽  
At Home

The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching impacts on public health and safety, economics, and the transportation system. To reduce the spread of this disease, federal and local governments around the world have introduced stay-at-home orders and other restrictions on travel to “non-essential” businesses to implement social distancing. Preliminary evidence suggests substantial variability in the impacts of these orders in the United States, both across states and over time. This study examines this issue using daily county-level vehicle miles traveled (VMT) data for the 48 continental U.S. states and the District of Columbia. A two-way random effects model is estimated to assess changes in VMT from March 1 to June 30, 2020 as compared with baseline January travel levels. The implementation of stay-at-home orders was associated with a 56.4 percent reduction in VMT on average. However, this effect was shown to dissipate over time, which may be attributable to “quarantine fatigue.” In the absence of full shelter-in-place orders, travel was also reduced where restrictions on select businesses were introduced. For example, restrictions on entertainment, indoor dining, and indoor recreational activities corresponded to reductions in VMT of 3 to 4 percent while restrictions on retail and personal care facilities showed 13 percent lower traffic levels. VMT was also shown to vary based on the number of COVID case reports, as well as with respect to other characteristics, including median household income, political leanings, and how rural the county was in nature.

Bogus Doctor Deceptions during Multi-Casualty Events and Disasters

2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 25-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antony Nocera ◽  
Anne M. Newton
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Medical Literature ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Medical Practitioner ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Secure Systems ◽  
Public Health And Safety

AbstractBogus doctors pose a threat to public health and safety, and they present a security threat at disaster and multi-casualty event sites. A “bogus doctor” is an individual who misrepresents him/herself as a registered medical practitioner by their demeanour, actions, dress, or surroundings, while not entitled to be on a register of medical practitioners. There are very few reports in the medical literature, but practitioners have encountered them at the site of a disaster or multi-casualty event. This paper examines the five cases identified in the literature. Secure systems that confirm a health professional's identity and qualifications are required to avoid unnecessary delays and to protect the victims and health professionals providing the care.

Design and fabrication of a lower limb exoskeleton to assist in stair ascending

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Payman Joudzadeh ◽  
Alireza Hadi ◽  
Bahram Tarvirdizadeh ◽  
Danial Borooghani ◽  
Khalil Alipour
Keyword(s):  
Lower Limb ◽  
System Performance ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Stair Climbing ◽  
Robot Design ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Lower Limb Exoskeleton ◽  
Knee Braces ◽  
Novel Design

Purpose This paper aims to deal with the development of a novel lower limb exoskeleton to assist disabled people in stair ascending. Design/methodology/approach For this purpose, a novel design of a mixture of motors and cables has been proposed for users to wear them easily and show the application of the system in stair climbing. Findings One of the prominences of this study is the provided robot design where four joints are actuated with only two motors; each motor actuates either the knees or ankles. Another advantage of the designed system is that with motors placed in a backpack, the knee braces can be worn under clothes to be concealed. Finally, the system performance is evaluated using electromyography (EMG) signals showing 28 per cent reduction in energy consumption of related muscles. Originality/value This investigation deals with the development of a novel lower limb exoskeleton to assist disabled people in stair ascending.

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