This article describes a fully functional autonomous system with two cooperating robots that disassembles complex Duplo 1 structures in a restricted environment. The system operates on a table-top world with any number of Duplo structures for which object models have been given. The structures are disassembled down to individual parts, using basic operations of single part removal, object partitioning, and the addition of stabilizing supports to structures that would otherwise fall over. All aspects are automatically planned, including operation selection, path and grasp planning, and simultaneous cooperative robot motion. Operations are chosen so as to not create unstable structures and to not risk breakage in areas of low structural integrity. Overall planning is done with a process mechanism that heuristically generates efficient disassembly sequences, without searching a space of all possible operations. Several examples of actual system operation, using real robots, are presented.

This paper argues that the Social Security OASDI Trust Fund is widely misunderstood by the public, thereby corrupting the debate on how to handle future scheduled benefits, and increasing the risk of program changes that would not be accepted if people understood how the program functions. The Trust Fund is a fiscal nullity but appears to be regarded by many as essential, hence the public debate is about how to "fix" it, rather than about the moral question of whether to fund scheduled benefits, which are clearly affordable. This misunderstanding indicates the need for a shift in emphasis in public descriptions of the program. For this, this paper lays out a set of data, arguments and analogies that are asserted to be accurate representations of the OASDI program and Trust Fund operation, and which are proposed as tools for public education. Finally, this paper argues that an important step in shifting public debate is to re-institute full recourse to Treasury funding for any payroll tax shortfall, which will force the public debate back to benefit levels and revenue sources.

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