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- Robotics Related
- Computational Biology Related
Robotics Related
Studying Abductive Reasoning by Playing Mastermind [1]
17. February 2021

- © Copyright??
Mastermind is a simple, but very clever code-breaking board game
from the 70s. It is a perfect example of abductive reasoning, also
called inference to the best explanation. Abduction is a method of
(scientific) reasoning in which one chooses the hypothesis that best
explains the available evidence. Abduction is the third type of logic
inference, in addition to deductive and inductive reasoning. For
example, medical doctors perform abduction when diagnosing a disease
(hypothesis) given the observable symptoms (evidence). Abductive
reasoning can produce false hypotheses, for example, because there
might be several diseases producing similar symptoms. Doctors then go
through progressively complex tests, successively decreasing the set
of possible diseases matching the evidence – in principle very
similar to playing Mastermind.
more to: Studying Abductive
Reasoning by Playing Mastermind [2]
When Robots Know What to Reach for - Contact-Based Motion
Planning [3]
28. May 2020

- © Copyright??
We all tried to navigate in a dark room in the middle of the night.
Even when we know the room, it is challenging because our visual
perception is high uncertainty. Uncertain perception and motion make
motion planning an even harder problem. But reaching out to the wall
to guide our hand is a simple and robust way because contact not just
reduces uncertainty in our location.
more to: When Robots Know What
to Reach for - Contact-Based Motion Planning [4]
Proportional Valves for Precise Air-Mass/Air-Flow Control of Soft
Pneumatic Actuators [5]
27. May 2020

- © Robotics
The soft robotic hands developed in our lab are pneumatically
actuated. That means, by opening inflation and deflation valves in a
controlled manner, we can control the enclosed air in a particular
air-chamber. The valves used are so called “binary valves”,
referring to the characteristic that they only can take on two
different states – open/closed. This comes with a drawback. If we
want to close the fingers of the hand slowly, lets say to grasp an
object, we need to open-close-open-close the valves in a bang-bang
controlled manner that results in jittery movements of the finger. To
enable smooth and slow movements, we would need a way to regulate the
air-flow that is introduced when we open the valves.
Proportional valves are a way to tackle this problem. Unlike binary
control valves which produce full flow when energized, proportional
control valves produce pressure or flow proportional to an electrical
signal. In recent years valves of this kind that satisfy our
pressure-range requirements have become commercially available.
more to: Proportional Valves
for Precise Air-Mass/Air-Flow Control of Soft Pneumatic
Actuators [6]
Human-like grasping with robot-like reactiveness [7]
28. May 2020

- © Copyright??
If we want robots to help with daily chores, first they need to
interact with their environment physically, and second, these machines
need to accept their imperfection both in their motion and
perception. This is a difficult problem because modeling the
environment and dynamic interactions are either a weak approximation
or too complex to plan robustly or efficiently.
more to: Human-like grasping
with robot-like reactiveness [8]
Computational Biology
Related
Leveraging Data from Mass Spectrometry to Improve Cross-Links
[9]

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Cross-Links are experimentally derived distance constraints that
can be used to guide protein structure prediction. The current
cross-linking data is obtained from multiple mass spectrometer runs
and pre-filtered. In the pre-fltering step we lose a lot of
information. For instance, there is ambiguity in the data that is
currently handled in a greedy fashion. The idea of this project is to
go one step back and look at the "raw" data from the mass spectrometry
experiments. The hope is by including external information and dealing
directly with the ambiguity in the data we can improve the number of
cross-links and/or need fewer experiments for a similar yield.
more to: Leveraging Data from
Mass Spectrometry to Improve Cross-Links [10]
Leveraging Crosslinks for Template Retrieval [11]

- © Copyright??
Cross-Link Mass Spectometry is an experimental technique that
provides residue distance constraints on the native structure. The
method has been previously used to guide ab initio protein structure
prediction. You will develop in this thesis a method that leverages
cross-links to find homologous structures to the target in the PDB.
For that, you will compare the distance constraints provided by
cross-links with simulated cross-links for the templates from the PDB.
more to: Leveraging Crosslinks
for Template Retrieval [12]
------
Links: ------
[1]
https://www.robotics.tu-berlin.de/menue/theses/open
_theses/robotics_related/studying_abductive_reasoning_b
y_playing_mastermind/parameter/en/font0/minhilfe/
[2]
https://www.robotics.tu-berlin.de/menue/theses/open
_theses/robotics_related/studying_abductive_reasoning_b
y_playing_mastermind/parameter/en/font0/minhilfe/
[3]
https://www.robotics.tu-berlin.de/menue/theses/open
_theses/robotics_related/when_robots_know_what_to_reach
_for_contact_based_motion_planning/parameter/en/font0/m
inhilfe/
[4]
https://www.robotics.tu-berlin.de/menue/theses/open
_theses/robotics_related/when_robots_know_what_to_reach
_for_contact_based_motion_planning/parameter/en/font0/m
inhilfe/
[5]
https://www.robotics.tu-berlin.de/menue/theses/open
_theses/robotics_related/proportional_valves_for_precis
e_air_massair_flow_control_of_soft_pneumatic_actuators/
parameter/en/font0/minhilfe/
[6]
https://www.robotics.tu-berlin.de/menue/theses/open
_theses/robotics_related/proportional_valves_for_precis
e_air_massair_flow_control_of_soft_pneumatic_actuators/
parameter/en/font0/minhilfe/
[7]
https://www.robotics.tu-berlin.de/menue/theses/open
_theses/robotics_related/human_like_grasping_with_robot
_like_reactiveness/parameter/en/font0/minhilfe/
[8]
https://www.robotics.tu-berlin.de/menue/theses/open
_theses/robotics_related/human_like_grasping_with_robot
_like_reactiveness/parameter/en/font0/minhilfe/
[9]
https://www.robotics.tu-berlin.de/menue/theses/open
_theses/computational_biology_related/leveraging_data_f
rom_mass_spectrometry_to_improve_cross_links/parameter/
en/font0/minhilfe/
[10]
https://www.robotics.tu-berlin.de/menue/theses/ope
n_theses/computational_biology_related/leveraging_data_
from_mass_spectrometry_to_improve_cross_links/parameter
/en/font0/minhilfe/
[11]
https://www.robotics.tu-berlin.de/menue/theses/ope
n_theses/computational_biology_related/leveraging_cross
links_for_template_retrieval/parameter/en/font0/minhilf
e/
[12]
https://www.robotics.tu-berlin.de/menue/theses/ope
n_theses/computational_biology_related/leveraging_cross
links_for_template_retrieval/parameter/en/font0/minhilf
e/