Development of Landmark Knowledge at Decision Points

Two experiments investigated how people develop different landmark knowledge at decision points. Participants learned a route in a virtual city once or five times. One distinctive landmark was placed at each intersection of the route. At test, participants were released at each intersection according to the learning order and were required to determine the turning direction. At each intersection, the landmark was removed (no landmark), correctly placed (one landmark), duplicated on the other side (two identical landmarks), or misplaced from another intersection (two different landmarks) to disrupt the landmark sequence. The results suggested that humans develop different landmark knowledge (landmark knowledge for guidance, landmark knowledge for place recognition and knowledge of landmark sequence) with different navigation experience.     

The Influence of Landmarks and Pre-exposure to a Structural Map During the Process of Spatial Knowledge Acquisition: A Study with Children and Adults in a Virtual Environment

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effects of featural information (landmarks) and geometric information (pre-exposure to a structural map) and their possible interaction during the process of spatial knowledge acquisition of 8- and 11-year-old children and adults in a virtual environment. The study confirmed the well-known result of a developmental achievement in spatial cognition from childhood to adulthood. Although landmarks and the pre-exposure to a structural map did not affect the time to learn a specific route, they influenced the use of behavior in spatial learning and eased the acquisition of spatial knowledge measured by a route reversal and map-drawing tasks. Children and adults are able to integrate featural and geometric information in the spatial knowledge acquisition process in an environmental space, but their integration depends on the spatial processing stages that are investigated. Moreover, it was successfully demonstrated that the use of desktop virtual environments seems to be appropriate to investigate the development of spatial cognition.     

The New Generation of Automatic Landmark Detection Systems: Challenges and Guidelines

Abstract

Landmarks are salient objects in an environment. They play an important role in navigation by serving as orientation aids and marking decision points. Recently, there have been several efforts to design methods to automatically designate certain buildings with salient features as landmarks. All of these methodologies consist of similar steps: (a) establishing a neighborhood, usually around an intersection, (b) performing statistical or data mining analysis to find the building with outlier characteristics, and (c) establishing this salient building as the local landmark. Although these advances are significant, we believe that there are still several key issues that need to be fully addressed in order to realize the new generation of Automatic Landmark Detection Systems (ALDSs). Currently, the main shortcomings in the domain of ALDSs is the lack of a thorough and systematic study of attributes of objects that are analyzed to select landmarks, and deficient experimental verification of the benefits of ALDSs to the end users. Unless, these shortcomings are thoroughly addressed, the viability, applicability, and usefulness of ALDSs are uncertain. On the other hand, automatic landmark detection has the potential to be a dynamic, fascinating, and interdisciplinary research topic with wide applicability. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to discuss the current shortcomings in the domain of landmark detection, propose some preliminary solutions, and provide general guidelines for implementation of the new generation of ALDSs. Specifically, we discuss and promote the importance of: (a) widening the types of attributes analyzed in the landmark detection process, (b) weighting each attribute relative to its significance, (c) extending the types of objects considered as landmark candidates beyond just buildings, (d) identifying landmarks outside the vicinity of intersections, (e) identifying false landmarks along routes, and (f) using virtual environments for experiments with ALDSs. Throughout the paper, we discuss several demonstrative examples and experiments to clarify and support the ideas and concepts that are being promoted.     

Is Route Learning More Than Serial Learning?

Abstract

The nature of route learning in terms of the memorizing of landmarks was investigated. In Experiment 1, participants memorized landmarks while being guided through a computer-simulated hallway (dynamic, with spatial context), or while viewing the landmarks one by one in front of a black background (static, without context). Two more conditions completed the 2 × 2 design. One condition preserved the dynamic landmark viewing properties (observers approached each object, passed it, turned to the next object, and so on), but the background was black (dynamic, without context). In the other condition the observer saw a stationary display of each object within a hallway, but did not approach the object (static, with context). Serial recall was much better after viewing the landmarks in the dynamic presentation format with spatial context than in the other conditions. Experiment 2 showed that the superior performance in the dynamic condition with context was abolished when all hallway segments were equally long. This implies that metric information is a component of route knowledge at a very early stage, which is incompatible with the dominant framework, but is compatible with the alternative framework for spatial microgenesis.     

Monitoring Object Orientation: Effects of Layout Complexity,Viewpoint Changes,and Object Function

Spatial short-term memory for single target positions is subject to distortions which depend on the spatial layout of visual landmarks. Here, participants had to reproduce the positions of briefly presented targets in the context of three-landmark configurations presented in various orientations. Symmetry properties of distortional patterns were determined by the intrinsic reference system of the landmark configuration as well as by the environment-or body-centered vertical axis. Symmetry was best about the cardinal axes of the landmark system irrespective of their orientation, but symmetry of non-cardinal axes was enhanced when these axes were aligned with the extrinsic vertical. Results are inconsistent with most current models of spatial memory distortions but in line with models explaining distortions in terms of attentional processes in topographical neuronal networks.     

采用双目视觉测量的行星着陆相对导航方法

针对缺少行星表面陆标位置和探测器初始状态等先验信息情况下行星着陆导航问题,提出一种采用双目视觉测量的行星着陆相对导航方法。首先,利用行星表面陆标的双目视觉测量信息建立相对导航坐标系并计算陆标在相对导航坐标系下的位置,然后利用基于奇异值分解（SVD）的优化方法得到探测器在相对导航坐标系下的初始状态估计,最后利用陆标的视觉测量信息估计探测器在相对导航坐标系下的位置、速度和姿态。以火星着陆为例进行数学仿真分析,仿真结果表明本文提出的方法是有效可行的。     

An analysis of peculiarities of the satellite autonomous navigation in sighting unknown landmarks on the planet surface

An analysis of characteristics of autonomous navigation by using optical sighting of unknown landmarks was carried out for artificial satellites in circular orbits around the Earth with altitudes from 300 to 900 km. It is shown that navigational errors vary approximately in inverse proportion to duration of measurements. Also they decrease with an increasing number of sighted landmarks. The errors poorly depend on the orbit altitude if the duration of measurement for each landmark is chosen in proportion to the orbit altitude, or a maximal zenith angle of sighting the landmark remains constant.Some characteristics of the navigational algorithm are given. Admissible deviations of initial orbital elements from their exact values are investigated. For a properly chosen measurement procedure the algorithm proves to be stable even for rather crudely given initial parameters.     

Selection of Salient Features for Route Directions

People navigating in unfamiliar environments rely on wayfinding directions, either given by people familiar with the place, or given by maps or wayfinding services. The essential role of landmarks in human route communication is well-known. However, mapping the human ability to select landmarks ad hoc for route directions to a computational model was never tried before. Wayfinding services manage the problem by using predefined points of interest. These points are not automatically identified, and they are not related to any route. In contrast, here a computational model is presented that selects salient features along a route where needed, e.g., at decision points. We propose measures to formally specify the salience of a feature. The observed values of these measures are subject to stochastical tests in order to identify the most salient features from datasets. The proposed model is implemented and checked for computability with a use case from the city of Vienna. It is also crosschecked with a human subject survey for landmarks along a given route. The survey provides evidence that the proposed model selects features that are strongly correlated to human concepts of landmarks. Hence, integrating the selected salient features in wayfinding directions will produce directions with lower cognitive workload and higher success rates, compared to directions based only on geometry, or on geometry and static points of interest.     

Editorial: Cognitive Semantics and Spatio-Temporal Ontologies

How do people describe the location of a target object to another? This task requires a reference object or frame and terms of reference. Traditional linguistic analyses have loosely organized perspectives around people, objects, or environments as reference objects, using reference terms based on a viewpoint or the intrinsic sides of an object, such as left, right, front, and back or based on the environment, such as north, south, east, and west. In actual communication, social, spatial, and cognitive factors may also affect perspective choice. We examine those factors by varying the spatial information (landmarks and cardinal directions), the communication task (relative cognitive burden to speakers and addressees), and the culture of participants (American and Japanese). Speakers used addressees' perspectives more when addressees had the greater cognitive burden. They also used landmarks and cardinal directions when they were available, especially to avoid difficult discriminations like left/right. Some cases appearing to be perspective taking can be interpreted as using a person as a landmark. Finally, terms like near indicating close proximity were preferred to far and to terms requiring projection of directions. Globally, perspective choices of American and Japanese samples were strikingly similar; that is, Japanese did not select addressees' perspectives more than Americans. The traditional linguistic analyses need to be enhanced to account for effects of cognitive, situational, and social factors.     

Wayfinding Performance in and the Spatial Knowledge of a Color-coded Building for Adults and Children

The study reported here investigates the effect color has on the performance in a wayfinding task,the wayfinding strategies used and the acquisition of survey knowledge of a total of sixty participants: twenty second graders,sixth graders, and adults each. All participants had to find their way to a goal in a virtual environment with either a colored or a gray ground. After that,they had to find the shortest way from the start position to the goal in two consecutive trials,to draw a sketch map of the maze,and to mark the position of the goal figure in an overview of the maze. The results showed that color helped all participants to improve their performance in the wayfinding task, influenced the use of some wayfinding strategies but did not improve the acquisition of survey knowledge. Furthermore, there was a developmental achievement from second graders to adults. The results implicate firstly that children and adults similarly rely on the structuring of space through color when navigating through an unfamiliar large-scale environment,and secondly that there is a dissociation between wayfinding behavior and spatial knowledge.     

基于遗传算法的多星座选星方法

提出了一种基于遗传算法的选星方法,该方法能够准确、快速地实现多个全球导航卫星系统(GNSS)下选星颗数大于4的选星。经过大量试验确定了遗传算法选星的选择、交叉、变异等关键参数,并通过在交叉和变异中穿插染色体优选过程克服了遗传算法的选星结果容易陷入局部最优的缺点。以不同GNSS星座个数和不同选星颗数下的选星仿真校验了所设定遗传参数的有效性和可靠性。仿真结果表明,利用遗传算法可以高效、准确地实现选星,该方法特别适用于多星座多选星颗数的情况。     

Wayfinding Through Orientation

Dominant approaches in computer-assisted wayfinding support adhere to the deeply problematic principles of turn-by-turn navigation. In this article, we suggest a new approach called “Wayfinding Through Orientation,” which supports the acquisition of spatial knowledge and cognitive mapping for advancing the user’s spatial orientation. Being oriented on one’s way is a prerequisite to enabling people to verify instructions and to incorporate new spatial information into their existing knowledge structure. In three studies described in this article we first present empirical evidence that people can be supported in survey knowledge acquisition through suitable wayfinding instructions. Consequently, we explore orientation information in human wayfinding instructions. Finally, we outline how orientation information can be communicated within a prototypically implemented navigation assistance system.     

环境压强对NEPE推进剂单向拉伸力学行为的影响

采用单向拉伸实验,研究了不同温度、不同拉速、不同环境压强对NEPE推进剂力学行为的影响。结果表明,环境压强对NEPE推进剂力学行为的影响存在一个阈值,超过该阈值后,环境压强对最大强度的影响不大,对最大伸长率无明显影响规律。同时,采用双剪强度理论,建立了NEPE推进剂最大剪应力强度与环境压强的关系。结果表明,两者呈现较好的线性关系,根据关系式得出,在低温下推进剂最大剪应力强度对环境压强更敏感,并对该关系式的其他应用进行了简要分析。采用SEM法观测结果表明,环境压强主要在抑制颗粒脱湿、降低空穴方面有较强作用。     

固体火箭发动机药柱主动段飞行时应力应变分析

为了探讨固体火箭发动机药柱主动段飞行时的形变、应力和应变变化规律,以星形药型发动机为例,采用三维粘弹性有限元法,根据推进剂药柱的燃烧规律,通过计算发动机药柱在整个工作过程中不同烧蚀情况下各构成部分的结构响应,得到了主动段飞行时发动机药柱在不同环境温度、燃气内压与轴向过载联合作用下位移、应力和应变场随时间的变化规律。结果表明,低温点火发射时,内压增压至峰值时为发动机最危险时刻。     

纯磁控微小卫星的姿态捕获控制研究

针对纯磁控微小卫星姿态捕获问题,提出了一种基于姿态角和姿态角速度反馈的磁
矩能量控制律。利用Matrosov定理证明了该控制律具有一致渐近稳定性,能够保证星体最终
稳定到唯一的零轨道姿态角平衡位置。结合某在研低轨纳星,分析了气动力矩作用下星体大
角度姿态捕获的纯磁控性能。仿真结果表明,所设计的能量控制律具有一致渐近稳定特性,
考虑气动力矩影响时可在一个轨道周期内完成纳星姿态捕获,控制精度较高。该控制律具有
较好的工程应用前景,对于低成本微小卫星的研制是一个有益的探索。     

某型蒸发式稳定器气动及燃烧特性研究

为解决亚燃冲压发动机在高速低温来流条件下的可靠点火、火焰稳定和高效燃烧问题,对某型蒸发式火焰稳定器分别进行了冷态流场和燃烧流场的数值研究,并与常规V型火焰稳定器进行了对比分析。研究结果表明:在给定范围内,蒸发式稳定器随来流速度的增大,总压恢复系数和停留时间明显减小,回流区长度、回流率和燃烧效率变化不大;与相同槽宽的常规V型火焰稳定器相比,回流率明显减小,总压恢复系数、回流区长度和停留时间略有减小。蒸发式稳定器后部形成明显的回流区,且基本上不受外部主流流动的干扰,通过单独控制稳定器局部供油,可以使稳定器在最佳油气比下工作,有利于在高速来流条件下可靠工作。     

The SERENDIP piggyback SETI project

The SERENDIP project is an ongoing program of monitoring and processing broadband radio signals acquired by existing radio astronomy observatories. SERENDIP operates in a piggyback mode: it makes use of whatever observing plan (sequence of frequencies, sky coordinates, and polarizations) is under way at its host observatory. Moreover, the SERENDIP data acquisition system, once installed, operates autonomously. This approach makes it possible to obtain large amounts of high quality observing time in a manner that is economical and that does not adversely affect ongoing radio astronomy survey work. The SERENDIP II system has been installed at the NRAO 300-foot telescope at Green Bank, West Virginia, and has operated there for several thousand hours. In this report, we summarize our findings from these observations and describe the present status of the project. Two key elements of SERENDIP are the automated data acquisition system that uses adaptive thresholds and logs only statistically significant peaks in the real-time power spectra, and the subsequent off-line analysis programs that identify and reject a variety of interference signals. Several specific correlations have been identified that offer promise. At present, the development and testing of these interference rejection algorithms is the main thrust of our work.     

我国月面巡视探测器定位方法研究

月球自动巡视勘查技术中的月面巡视探测器的导航控制,需要研究月面巡视探测器的定位技术。文章通过对国外漫游车定位方法的研究,提出了我国月面巡视探测器在全局坐标系和局部坐标系中进行定位的方法。月面巡视探测器在全局坐标系中的定位可以采用星敏感器以及陆标辨识的方式;局部坐标系的定位可以采用惯性导航系统 里程计以及着陆器帮助下定位和视觉里程计的定位方法。这几种定位方式的组合应用,能够满足月面巡视探测器导航方面的定位要求。