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April 2016 • The PCB Design Magazine 79 info, for example, can be expressed in plain text or PDF files. More formal data is expressed in structured text files such as CSV, XML or YAML. Consequently the only formats you need are: • Gerber • IPC-D-356A • Text files • PDF, possibly Always output all your drawings in Gerber. This column has been excerpted from the Guide to PCB Fabrication Data: Design to Fabri- cation Data Transfer. PCBDESIGN Karel Tavernier is the managing director of Ucamco. the gerBer guiDe, chapters 9 & 10 A collaborative re- search team has found humanoid robotics and computer avatars could help rehabili- tate people suffering from social disorders such as schizophrenia or social phobia. It is thanks to the theory of similarity, which suggests that it is easier to interact so- cially with someone who looks, behaves or moves like us. Researchers from the University of Bristol, in collaboration with colleagues at the Universities of exeter, Montpellier and naples Federico II, have developed a system to enable a robot or computer avatar to interact with a patient whilst playing a version of the mirror game, in which two play- ers try to copy each other's motion whilst playing with coloured balls that can move horizontally on a string. The paper, part of the eU-funded Alterego proj- ect, is published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. Initially the avatar is like an alter ego, created to look and move like the patient to enhance his or her feelings of attachment. Over time the avatar is slowly altered to become less similar, therefore helping with social rehabilitation. The results show that players sharing similar movement features, or motor signature, interact and co-ordinate bet- ter. This can be used for rehabilitation of patients with serious social disorders as an avatar can be created to act like an alter ego, programmed to look and move like the patient to enhance his or her feelings of at- tachment. Mario di Bernardo, Professor of nonlinear Sys- tems and Control from the Department of engi- neering Mathematics at the University of Bristol, said: "It is very challenging to build an avatar that is intelligent enough to synchronise its motion with a human player, but our initial results are very exciting." The research used the principles of dynamical systems and feedback control theory to embed the avatar with enough 'intelligence' to synchronise and respond to the motion of the human player. The researchers now wish to build on the tech- nology and set-up multiple human-machine inter- action for social rehabilitation and make groups of people and avatars interact with each other to perform joint tasks together. Humanoid Robotics and Computer Avatars