We apply manipulation planning to computer animation. A new path planner is presented that automatically computes the collision-free trajectories for several cooperating arms to manipulate a movable object between two configurations. This implemented planner is capable of dealing with complicated tasks where regrasping is involved. In addition, we present a new inverse kinematics algorithm for the human arms. This algorithm is utilized by the planner for the generation of realistic human arm motions as they manipulate objects. We view our system as a tool for facilitating the production of animation.

Heat-flow sensing is expected to be an important technological component of smart thermal management in the future. Conventionally, the thermoelectric (TE) conversion technique, which is based on the Seebeck effect, has been used to measure a heat flow by converting the flow into electric voltage. However, for ubiquitous heat-flow visualization, thin and flexible sensors with extremely low thermal resistance are highly desired. Recently, another type of TE effect, the longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (LSSE), has aroused great interest because the LSSE potentially offers favourable features for TE applications such as simple thin-film device structures. Here we demonstrate an LSSE-based flexible TE sheet that is especially suitable for a heat-flow sensing application. This TE sheet contained a Ni0.2Zn0.3Fe2.5O4 film which was formed on a flexible plastic sheet using a spray-coating method known as “ferrite plating”. The experimental results suggest that the ferrite-plated film, which has a columnar crystal structure aligned perpendicular to the film plane, functions as a unique one-dimensional spin-current conductor suitable for bendable LSSE-based sensors. This newly developed thin TE sheet may be attached to differently shaped heat sources without obstructing an innate heat flux, paving the way to versatile heat-flow measurements and management.

Abstract-This paper presents a general and efficient method that uses a configuration space for planning a collision-free path among known stationary obstacles for an arbitrarily moving object with six degrees of freedom. The basic approach taken in this method is to restrict the free space concerning path planning and to avoid executing unnecessary collision detections.

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A NiZn ferrite film (3 μm thick) was deposited at 90 °C by the spin-spray ferrite plating from an aqueous solution onto a 50 Ω microstrip line formed on an epoxy printed circuit board (PCB). A strong magnetic loss was caused by the ferrite film in a GHz range, ΔPloss reaching 67% attenuation at 3 GHz, the upper limit of our measurement. Furthermore, the reflection loss was very weak, S11 being smaller than 7%. Thus plated NiZn ferrite films hold strong promise to be actually applied to a type of thin film electromagnetic noise suppressors; the films can be directly deposited onto noise sources (semiconductor elements or electronic circuits) to attenuate conducted-electromagnetic noises in the GHz range. Because the plated NiZn ferrite film was magnetically isotropic in film plane, the noise suppressors will be isotropic, attenuating noise electromagnetic waves radiated from any directions. The NiZn ferrite film was also plated on a flat glass substrate as a standard, which exhibited natural resonance frequency of fr=500 MHz and initial real permeability of μ′=50. Compared to these values, the film on the PCB had higher fr of 850 MHz, though reduced in μ′ to 40. But the spectrum of the imaginary permeability μ″ shifted to a higher frequency range. This facilitated the strong magnetic loss at the high frequencies. The higher fr for the film on the PCB may be attributed to the undulated columnar structure of the film which was observed by scanning electron microscopy.