Olfaction as a soldier——a review of the physiology and its present and future use in the military

Olfaction is one of our 5 main qualitative sensory abilities. In this review, we have examined the physiology of olfaction from the olfactory receptor to the brain. Through analyzing the physiology of olfaction, we have found that the biochemistry of olfactory nerve stimulation is unique from that of other similar pathways. Upon receiving large amounts of input from the olfactory nerve, the olfactory bulb, followed by several layers of centrifugal and centripetal processing in the brain, has to sort the information from the input as well as integrate it with other inputs from the brain to develop a coherent understanding of the input. We then examined the implications of olfaction in the military, the practical applications of electronic noses and problems associated with injury to olfaction that could affect compensation and combat worthiness of a soldier following injury. In the military, olfaction can allow the army to perform at its best through 4 main methods, namely ensuring olfaction is consistent with other dimensions of perception(ensuring optimal olfaction ability in all soldiers in combat), understanding the impact of different common combat environments on the sense of smell, utilizing odor as a defense mechanism and using olfactory aids when necessary. Electronic noses are olfactory aids that have a large potential in the military ranging from saving lives through the detection of explosives to potential methods for improving combustion efficiency. There are several problems associated with injury to olfaction that should be considered when deciding on compensation and combat worthiness of the soldier following an injury.

EFFECT OF THE DISTRIBUTARY OF NASAL MEATUSES ON OLFACTION

Considering the effect of distributary of the interior meatus and middle meatus on olfaction, an unsteady two-dimensional model of olfaction has been developed with describing the mean cross-sectional velocity of odorant flow in the common meatus as a function of axis coordinate. The analytical solution is obtained, and it reveals the relation among the physiological parameters of the model. The obtained results are in agreement with those of experiments. This investigation is valuable for a research for the mechanism of olfaction.

Multi-Robot Collaborative Hunting in Cluttered Environments With Obstacle-Avoiding Voronoi Cells

This work proposes an online collaborative hunting strategy for multi-robot systems based on obstacle-avoiding Voronoi cells in a complex dynamic environment. This involves firstly designing the construction method using a support vector machine(SVM) based on the definition of buffered Voronoi cells(BVCs). Based on the safe collision-free region of the robots, the boundary weights between the robots and the obstacles are dynamically updated such that the robots are tangent to the buffered Voronoi safety areas without intersecting with the obstacles. Then, the robots are controlled to move within their own buffered Voronoi safety area to achieve collision-avoidance with other robots and obstacles. The next step involves proposing a hunting method that optimizes collaboration between the pursuers and evaders. Some hunting points are generated and distributed evenly around a circle. Next, the pursuers are assigned to match the optimal points based on the Hungarian algorithm.Then, a hunting controller is designed to improve the containment capability and minimize containment time based on collision risk. Finally, simulation results have demonstrated that the proposed cooperative hunting method is more competitive in terms of time and travel distance.

Trajectory compensation for multi-robot coordinated lifting system considering elastic catenary of the rope

The multi-robot coordinated lifting system is an unconstrained system with a rigid and flexible coupling.The deformation of the flexible rope causes errors in the movement trajectory of the lifting system.Based on the kinematic and dynamic analysis of the lifting system,the elastic catenary mod-el considering the elasticity and mass of the flexible rope is established,and the effect of the deform-ation of the flexible rope on the position and posture of the suspended object is analyzed.According to the deformation of flexible rope,a real-time trajectory compensation method is proposed based on the compensation principle of position and posture.Under the lifting task of the low-speed move-ment,this is compared with that of the system which neglects the deformation of the flexible rope.The trajectoy of the lifting system considering the deformation of flexible rope.The results show that the mass and elasticity of the flexible rope can not be neglected.Meanwhile,the proposed trajectory compensation method can improve the movement accuracy of the lifting system,which verifies the ef-fectiveness of this compensation method.The research results provide the basis for trajectory plan-ning and coordinated control of the lifting system。

A Survey of Underwater Multi-Robot Systems

As a cross-cutting field between ocean development and multi-robot system(MRS),the underwater multi-robot system(UMRS)has gained increasing attention from researchers and engineers in recent decades.In this paper,we present a comprehensive survey of cooperation issues,one of the key components of UMRS,from the perspective of the emergence of new functions.More specifically,we categorize the cooperation in terms of task-space,motion-space,measurement-space,as well as their combination.Further,we analyze the architecture of UMRS from three aspects,i.e.,the performance of the individual underwater robot,the new functions of underwater robots,and the technical approaches of MRS.To conclude,we have discussed related promising directions for future research.This survey provides valuable insight into the reasonable utilization of UMRS to attain diverse underwater tasks in complex ocean application scenarios.

Olfactory dysfunction in dementia

The natural aging process brings about some inevitable consequences, such as olfactory dysfunction, which is also frequently linked to numerous neurodegenerative disorders. Many age-related dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease, Vascular dementia, Parkinson's disease, and Frontotemporal Dementia often display olfactory dysfunction. Despite the overwhelming evidence of above mentioned facts, the symptomatic relevance and potential clinical and pre-clinical value of olfactory dysfunction remains overlooked by many clinicians and public alike. Olfactory dysfunction has strong practical implications on daily activities and, although not as prominent as in other mammals, olfaction is still an evolutionarily relevant sense involved in human survival(e.g., smelling gas; bad food). In this work, we provide a brief review of current research related to the olfactory dysfunction profiles in different types of dementia. Additionally, we present a compilation of accessible, easy to use olfaction assessment tools; and highlight future directions in terms of improving clinical diagnosis in patient care and research.

Gini Coefficient-based Task Allocation for Multi-robot Systems With Limited Energy Resources

Nowadays, robots generally have a variety of capabilities, which often form a coalition replacing human to work in dangerous environment, such as rescue, exploration, etc. In these operating conditions, the energy supply of robots usually cannot be guaranteed. If the energy resources of some robots are consumed too fast, the number of the future tasks of the coalition will be affected. This paper will develop a novel task allocation method based on Gini coefficient to make full use of limited energy resources of multi-robot system to maximize the number of tasks. At the same time, considering resources consumption,we incorporate the market-based allocation mechanism into our Gini coefficient-based method and propose a hybrid method,which can flexibly optimize the task completion number and the resource consumption according to the application contexts.Experiments show that the multi-robot system with limited energy resources can accomplish more tasks by the proposed Gini coefficient-based method, and the hybrid method can be dynamically adaptive to changes of the work environment and realize the dual optimization goals.

A Survey of Multi-robot Regular and Adversarial Patrolling

Multi-robot systems can be applied to patrol a concerned environment for security purposes.According to different goals,this work reviews the existing researches in a multi-robot patrolling field from the perspectives of regular and adversarial patrolling.Regular patrolling requires robots to visit important locations as frequently as possible and a series of deterministic strategies are proposed,while adversarial one focuses on unpredictable robots’moving patterns to maximize adversary detection probability.Under each category,a systematic survey is done including problem statements and modeling,patrolling objectives and evaluation criteria,and representative patrolling strategies and approaches.Existing problems and open questions are presented accordingly.

Olfactory function in psychotic disorders: Insights from neuroimaging studies

Olfactory deficits on measures of identification, familiarity,and memory are consistently noted in patients with psychotic disorders relative to age-matched controls. Olfactory intensity ratings, however, appear to remain intact while the data on hedonics and detection threshold are inconsistent. Despite the behavioral abnormalities noted, no specific regional brain hypoactivity has been identified in psychosis patients, for any of the olfactory domains. However, an intriguing finding emerged from this review in that the amygdala and pirifom cortices were not noted to be abnormal in hedonic processing(nor was the amygdala identified abnormal in any study) in psychotic disorders. This finding is in contrast to the literature in healthy individuals, in that this brain region is strongly implicated in olfactory processing(particularly for unpleasant odorants). Secondary olfactory cortex(orbitofrontal cortices, thalamus, and insula) was abnormally activated in the studies examined, particularly for hedonic processing. Further research, using consistent methodology, is required for better understanding the neurobiology of olfactory deficits. The authors suggest taking age and sex differences into consideration and further contrasting olfactory subgroups(impaired vs intact) to better our understanding of the heterogeneity of psychotic disorders.

Multi-robot task allocation for exploration

The problem of allocating a number of exploration tasks to a team of mobile robots in dynamic environments was studied. The team mission is to visit several distributed targets. The path cost of target is proportional to the distance that a robot has to move to visit the target. The team objective is to minimize the average path cost of target over all targets. Finding an optimal allocation is strongly NP-hard. The proposed algorithm can produce a near-optimal solution to it. The allocation can be cast in terms of a multi-round single-item auction by which robots bid on targets. In each auction round, one target is assigned to a robot that produces the lowest path cost of the target. The allocated targets form a forest where each tree corresponds a robot’s exploring targets set. Each robot constructs an exploring path through depth-first search in its target tree. The time complexity of the proposed algorithm is polynomial. Simulation experiments show that the allocating method is valid.

Dynamic Frontier-Led Swarming:Multi-Robot Repeated Coverage in Dynamic Environments

A common assumption of coverage path planning research is a static environment.Such environments require only a single visit to each area to achieve coverage.However,some real-world environments are characterised by the presence of unexpected,dynamic obstacles.They require areas to be revisited periodically to maintain an accurate coverage map,as well as reactive obstacle avoidance.This paper proposes a novel swarmbased control algorithm for multi-robot exploration and repeated coverage in environments with unknown,dynamic obstacles.The algorithm combines two elements:frontier-led swarming for driving exploration by a group of robots,and pheromone-based stigmergy for controlling repeated coverage while avoiding obstacles.We tested the performance of our approach on heterogeneous and homogeneous groups of mobile robots in different environments.We measure both repeated coverage performance and obstacle avoidance ability.Through a series of comparison experiments,we demonstrate that our proposed strategy has superior performance to recently presented multi-robot repeated coverage methodologies.

Genetic Algorithm Based Combinatorial Auction Method for Multi-Robot Task Allocation

An improved genetic algorithm is proposed to solve the problem of bad real-time performance or inability to get a global optimal/better solution when applying single-item auction （SIA） method or combinatorial auction method to multi-robot task allocation. The genetic algorithm based combinatorial auction （GACA） method which combines the basic-genetic algorithm with a new concept of ringed chromosome is used to solve the winner determination problem （WDP） of combinatorial auction. The simulation experiments are conducted in OpenSim, a multi-robot simulator. The results show that GACA can get a satisfying solution in a reasonable shot time, and compared with SIA or parthenogenesis algorithm combinatorial auction （PGACA） method, it is the simplest and has higher search efficiency, also, GACA can get a global better/optimal solution and satisfy the high real-time requirement of multi-robot task allocation.

Multi-Robot Privacy-Preserving Algorithms Based on Federated Learning:A Review

The robotics industry has seen rapid development in recent years due to the Corona Virus Disease 2019.With the development of sensors and smart devices,factories and enterprises have accumulated a large amount of data in their daily production,which creates extremely favorable conditions for robots to perform machine learning.However,in recent years,people’s awareness of data privacy has been increasing,leading to the inability to circulate data between different enterprises,resulting in the emergence of data silos.The emergence of federated learning provides a feasible solution to this problem,and the combination of federated learning and multi-robot systems can break down data silos and improve the overall performance of robots.However,as scholars have studied more deeply,they found that federated learning has very limited privacy protection.Therefore,how to protect data privacy from infringement remains an important issue.In this paper,we first give a brief introduction to the current development of multi-robot and federated learning;second,we review three aspects of privacy protection methods commonly used,privacy protection methods for multi-robot,and Other Problems Faced by Multi-robot Systems,focusing on method comparisons and challenges;and finally draw conclusions and predict possible future research directions.

Multi-robot hunting strategy based on FIS and artificial immune algorithm

data is gathered to describe the relative location and relative motion state of the robots, which in turn forms the beginning stage of the fuzzy rule. The artificial immune algorithm optimizes and generates the rule data base and adaptive design considers factors in measuring the hunting efficiency. The optimized rules are applied to the hunting task and the results show that the algorithm can effectively actualize hunting of multiple mobile robots.

Graph rigidity and localization of multi-robot formations

This paper provides theoretical foundation for the problem of localization in multi-robot formations. Sufficient and necessary conditions for completely localizing a formation of mobile robots/vehicles in SE(2) based on distributed sensor networks and graph rigidity are proposed. A method for estimating the quality of localizations via a linearized weighted least-squares algorithm is presented, which considers incomplete and noisy sensory information. The approach in this paper had been implemented in a multi-robot system of five car-like robots equipped with omni-directional cameras and IEEE 802.11b wireless network.

Comparative proteomic analysis of olfactory rosettes in anadromous Coilia nasus and resident Coilia nasus

The Japanese grenadier anchovy (Coilia nasus) undergoes upstream migration to spawning annually but can also be observed in freshwater resident populations. It has been hypothesized that anadromous adult C. nasus may utilize olfactory cues to locate spawning grounds. We firstly performed a comparative proteome analysis about olfactory rosettes in two populations to hunt for the proteomic changes. Among 5 408 identified proteins, 1 515 proteins (629 up-regulated and 886 down-regulated) were differentially expressed. Especially, several proteins and pathways associated with olfactory signaling were found to be significantly differential. Compared with resident C. nasus, the expressions of Golf protein and the sodium/calcium exchanger were significantly up-regulated in anadromous C. nasus. The expression of adenylate cyclase and regulator of G-protein signaling (RGS) were decreased. Our findings suggest a decrease in the expression of cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) in anadromous C. nasus compared to resident C. nasus. The expression of Calmodulin (CaM) was increased and CaM-dependent protein kinase Ⅱ(CaMKⅡ) was decreased. In addition, KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of up-regulated proteins indicated statistically significant difference not only in olfactory transduction but also in the cGMP-PKG signal pathway. Furtherly, we sought out some proteins expressed in the same trend occurring in DEGs (differentially expressed genes) and DEPs (differentially expressed proteins) by doing the integrative analysis of proteome and transcriptome in olfactory rosettes of C. nasus.

Endothelin increases the proliferation of rat olfactory mucosa cells

The olfactory mucosa holds olfactory sensory neurons directly in contact with an aggressive environment. In order to maintain its integrity, it is one of the few neural zones which are continuously renewed during the whole animal life. Among several factors regulating this renewal, endothelin acts as an anti-apoptotic factor in the rat olfactory epithelium. In the present study, we explored whether endothelin could also act as a proliferative factor. Using primary culture of the olfactory mucosa, we found that an early treatment with endothelin increased its growth. Consistently, a treatment with a mixture of BQ123 and BQ788(endothelin receptor antagonists) decreased the primary culture growth without affecting the cellular death level. We then used combined approaches of calcium imaging, reverse transcriptase-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and protein level measurements to show that endothelin was locally synthetized by the primary culture until it reached confluency. Furthermore, in vivo intranasal instillation of endothelin receptor antagonists led to a decrease of olfactory mucosa cell expressing proliferating cell nuclear antigen(PCNA), a marker of proliferation. Only short-term treatment reduced the PCNA level in the olfactory mucosa cells. When the treatment was prolonged, the PCNA level was not statistically affected but the expression level of endothelin was increased. Overall, our results show that endothelin plays a proliferative role in the olfactory mucosa and that its level is dynamically regulated. This study was approved by the Comité d’éthique en expérimentation animale COMETHEA(COMETHEA C2 EA-45;protocol approval #12-058) on November 28, 2012.

Related Factors Affecting Olfactory Ability of Dogs

Dog has a very sensitive olfactory sensory system. Observation showed that there were great differences in olfactory ability of different breeds of dogs, and even the same dog presented different olfactory abilities under different physiological conditions. Thus, the author discussed several factors influencing olfaction of dog from the aspects of gene, environment, anatomy and physiology.

Evaluation of Formaldehyde as a Potential Cause of Olfactory Dysfunction in Hairdressers

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the olfactory function between hairdressers exposed to formaldehyde and unexposed controls, as exposure to toxic agents is a potential cause of olfactory disorders in humans. Hairdressing professionals frequently encounter formaldehyde, a component found in hair products that are known to have various toxic effects on the human body, including alterations in the sense of smell. Methods: A total of 32 hairdressing volunteers exposed to formaldehyde and 32 non-exposed volunteers matched for age, sex, education and smoking status underwent the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT®). Results: The findings demonstrated a decrease in UPSIT® olfactory test scores and a higher degree of olfactory loss among hairdressers exposed to formaldehyde (mean UPSIT® scores: 30.6 vs 35.1, p Conclusion: Occupational exposure of hairdressers to formaldehyde is associated with diminished olfactory function. Education approach and promotion of personal protective equipment usage should be encouraged.

COLLISION-FREE OF MULTI-ROBOT SYSTEMS IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT

This paper described a new method to plan out welding paths for multiple robots in virtual manufacturing environment. We first distribute welding tasks and priority for multi robots, and then apply corresponding behavior rules to help to plan out welding paths for robots collision free, which is a base fixed problem. Finally, we testify the algorithm to be practical in virtual environment, and output robot programs to direct production process. This new way will help us to find a new development method for multiple robots path planning.