Section: New Results
Experimental research and software development
Activity recognition from stride detection: a machine learning approach based on geometric patterns and trajectory reconstruction.
Participants : Bertrand Beaufils, Frédéric Chazal, Bertrand Michel.
In collaboration with M. Grelet (Sysnav).
In [23] algorithm for activity recognition is proposed using inertial sensors worn on the ankle. This innovative approach based on geometric patterns uses a stride detector that can detect both normal walking strides and atypical strides such as small steps, side steps and backward walking that existing methods struggle to detect. It is also robust in critical situations, when for example the wearer is sitting and moving the ankle, while most algorithms in the literature would wrongly detect strides. A technique inspired by Zero Velocity Update is used on the stride detection to compute the trajectory of the device. It allows to compute relevant features for the activity recognition learning task. Compared to most algorithms in the literature, this method does not use fixed-size sliding window that could be too short to provide enough information or too long and leads to overlapping issue when the window covers two different activities.
Dynamics of silo deformation under granular discharge
Participant : Miroslav Kramár.
In collaboration with Claudia Colonnello.
In [17], we use Topological Data Analysis to study the post buckling behavior of laboratory scale cylindrical silos under gravity driven granular discharges. Thin walled silos buckle during the discharge if the initial height of the granular column is large enough. The deformation of the silo is reversible as long as the filling height does not exceed a critical value, Lc. Beyond this threshold the deformation becomes permanent and the silo often collapses. We study the dynamics of reversible and irreversible deformation processes, varying the initial filling height around Lc. We find that all reversible processes exhibit striking similarities and they alternate between regimes of slow and fast dynamics. The patterns that occur at the beginning of irreversible deformation processes are topologically very similar to those that arise during reversible processes. However, the dynamics of reversible and irreversible processes is significantly different. In particular, the evolution of irreversible processes is much faster. This allows us to make an early prediction of the collapse of the silo based solely on observations of the deformation patterns.
Characterizing Granular Networks Using Topological Metrics
Participant : Miroslav Kramár.
In collaboration with Joshua Dijksman (Duke Physics), Lenka Kovalcinova and Lou Kondic (NJIT), Jie Ren (Merck Research Lab), Robert Behringer (Duke), and Konstantin Mischaikow (Rutgers).
In [18], we carry out a direct comparison of experimental and numerical realizations of the exact same granular system as it undergoes shear jamming. We adjust the numerical methods used to optimally represent the experimental settings and outcomes up to microscopic contact force dynamics. Measures presented here range form microscopic, through mesoscopic to system-wide characteristics of the system. Topological properties of the mesoscopic force networks provide a key link between mi-cro and macro scales. We report two main findings: the number of particles in the packing that have at least two contacts is a good predictor for the mechanical state of the system, regardless of strain history and packing density. All measures explored in both experiments and numerics, including stress tensor derived measures and contact numbers depend in a universal manner on the fraction of non-rattler particles, fNR. The force network topology also tends to show this universality, yet the shape of the master curve depends much more on the details of the numerical simulations. In particular we show that adding force noise to the numerical data set can significantly alter the topological features in the data. We conclude that both fNR and topological metrics are useful measures to consider when quantifying the state of a granular system.