Neuro-robotics from brain machine interfaces to rehabilitation robotics

CERN Document Server

Artemiadis

2014-01-01

Neuro-robotics is one of the most multidisciplinary fields of the last decades, fusing information and knowledge from neuroscience, engineering and computer science. This book focuses on the results from the strategic alliance between Neuroscience and Robotics that help the scientific community to better understand the brain as well as design robotic devices and algorithms for interfacing humans and robots. The first part of the book introduces the idea of neuro-robotics, by presenting state-of-the-art bio-inspired devices. The second part of the book focuses on human-machine interfaces for pe

A FRAMEWORK FOR SUBCONTRACTOR INTEGRATION IN ALLIANCE CONTRACTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vilasini, Nimesha

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Project alliancing involves the active collaboration of construction project owners and non-owner participants (designer, contractors, and suppliers to deliver projects in an atmosphere of shared responsibilities and liabilities. Alliancing connotes integration but in real practice, it fails to create a true alliance environment since only part of the value chain (owner, designer, main contractor is considered for integration. Consequently subcontractors are very often left out of the key alliance. Therefore this study identifies improvement areas to current alliance practice and suggests changes that will permit critical sub-contracting processes to be integrated into a project’s main alliance. To achieve this objective the research follows a comparative study approach. Information obtained from relevant literature is used to identify current subcontractor management practices and best practices for subcontractor integration in alliances. A case study of an alliance project is used to identify improvement areas in subcontractor management practices in an alliance environment. From these findings, the study proposes a revised alliance framework that integrates subcontractors from the early stages in alliance contracts, thus enabling the realisation of benefits accruable to projects through early contractor involvement.

National project : advanced robot for nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsunemi, T.; Takehara, K.; Hayashi, T.; Okano, H.; Sugiyama, S.

1993-01-01

The national project 'Advanced Robot' has been promoted by the Agency of Industrial science and Technology, MITI for eight years since 1983. The robot for a nuclear plant is one of the projects, and is a prototype intelligent one that also has a three dimensional vision system to generate an environmental model, a quadrupedal walking mechanism to work on stairs and four fingered manipulators to disassemble a valve with a hand tool. Many basic technologies such as an actuator, a tactile sensor, autonomous control and so on progress to high level. The prototype robot succeeded functionally in official demonstration in 1990. More refining such as downsizing and higher intelligence is necessary to realize a commercial robot, while basic technologies are useful to improve conventional robots and systems. This paper presents application studies on the advanced robot technologies. (author)

Project InterActions: A Multigenerational Robotic Learning Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Bers, Marina U.

2007-12-01

This paper presents Project InterActions, a series of 5-week workshops in which very young learners (4- to 7-year-old children) and their parents come together to build and program a personally meaningful robotic project in the context of a multigenerational robotics-based community of practice. The goal of these family workshops is to teach both parents and children about the mechanical and programming aspects involved in robotics, as well as to initiate them in a learning trajectory with and about technology. Results from this project address different ways in which parents and children learn together and provide insights into how to develop educational interventions that would educate parents, as well as children, in new domains of knowledge and skills such as robotics and new technologies.

Software for project-based learning of robot motion planning

Science.gov (United States)

Moll, Mark; Bordeaux, Janice; Kavraki, Lydia E.

2013-12-01

Motion planning is a core problem in robotics concerned with finding feasible paths for a given robot. Motion planning algorithms perform a search in the high-dimensional continuous space of robot configurations and exemplify many of the core algorithmic concepts of search algorithms and associated data structures. Motion planning algorithms can be explained in a simplified two-dimensional setting, but this masks many of the subtleties and complexities of the underlying problem. We have developed software for project-based learning of motion planning that enables deep learning. The projects that we have developed allow advanced undergraduate students and graduate students to reflect on the performance of existing textbook algorithms and their own variations on such algorithms. Formative assessment has been conducted at three institutions. The core of the software used for this teaching module is also used within the Robot Operating System, a widely adopted platform by the robotics research community. This allows for transfer of knowledge and skills to robotics research projects involving a large variety robot hardware platforms.

Human-Robot Teamwork in USAR Environments: The TRADR Project

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Greeff, J. de; Hindriks, K.; Neerincx, M.A.; Kruijff-Korbayova, I.

2015-01-01

The TRADR project aims at developing methods and models for human-robot teamwork, enabling robots to operate in search and rescue environments alongside humans as teammates, rather than as tools. Through a user-centered cognitive engineering method, human-robot teamwork is analyzed, modeled,

A Contest-Oriented Project for Learning Intelligent Mobile Robots

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Hsin-Hsiung; Su, Juing-Huei; Lee, Chyi-Shyong

2013-01-01

A contest-oriented project for undergraduate students to learn implementation skills and theories related to intelligent mobile robots is presented in this paper. The project, related to Micromouse, Robotrace (Robotrace is the title of Taiwanese and Japanese robot races), and line-maze contests was developed by the embedded control system research…

A Project-Based Biologically-Inspired Robotics Module

Science.gov (United States)

Crowder, R. M.; Zauner, K.-P.

2013-01-01

The design of any robotic system requires input from engineers from a variety of technical fields. This paper describes a project-based module, "Biologically-Inspired Robotics," that is offered to Electronics and Computer Science students at the University of Southampton, U.K. The overall objective of the module is for student groups to…

R and D on robots for nuclear power plants in 'advanced robot technology' project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ando, Hiroaki

1987-01-01

The project aims at developing a safe man-robot system of high mobility and workability, highly adaptable to the working environment, and readily and reliably remote-controlled. The plan is to develop 'multi-purpose robots' that can do monitoring, inspection and light work quickly and correctly in areas where access of humans is difficult (e.g. hot spots and the inner space of the primary containment vessel), and 'robots used exclusively for valves, pumps, and other equipment, multi-functional to be used only for specific purposes'. This can be expected to be completed on the basis of results in research and development for the multi-purpose robots. R and D on the total system means manufacturing an optimum system with sufficient functions and performance required for the robot by combining existing technologies most adequately on the basis of the results of research and development on the project. After conceptual drawing and conceptual design, the system will be manufactured and demonstration tests will be completed by fiscal 1987 or 1988. This report describes the total image of the robots concerning the shape, locomotion, manipulation, perception, communication, control management, reliability and environmental durability, and then outlines the research and development activities regarding locomotion, manipulator, tectile sensor, actuator, single-eye three-dimensional measurement, visual data processing, optical spacial transmission, failure repair controller, functional reduction, robot health care and radiation resistance. (Nogami, K.)

Distributed control of multi-robot teams: Cooperative baton passing task

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parker, L.E.

1998-11-01

This research addresses the problem of achieving fault tolerant cooperation within small- to medium-sized teams of heterogeneous mobile robots. The author describes a novel behavior-based, fully distributed architecture, called ALLIANCE, that utilizes adaptive action selection to achieve fault tolerant cooperative control. The robots in this architecture possess a variety of high-level functions that they can perform during a mission, and must at all times select an appropriate action based on the requirements of the mission, the activities of other robots, the current environmental conditions, and their own internal states. Since such cooperative teams often work in dynamic and unpredictable environments, the software architecture allows the team members to respond robustly and reliably to unexpected environmental changes and modifications in the robot team that may occur due to mechanical failure, the learning of new skills, or the addition or removal of robots from the team by human intervention. After presenting ALLIANCE, they describe the implementation of this architecture on a team of physical mobile robots performing a cooperative baton passing task. These experiments illustrate the ability of ALLIANCE to achieve adaptive, fault-tolerant cooperative control amidst dynamic changes during the task.

Strategic alliance for environmental restoration - results of the Chicago Pile 5 large scale demonstration project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aker, R.E.; Bradley, T.L.; Bhattacharyya, S.

1998-01-01

The world's largest environmental cleanup effort is focused upon the DOE weapons complex. These cleanup efforts parallel those which will be required as the commercial nuclear industry reaches the end of licensed life. The strategic Alliance for Environmental Restoration (Strategic Alliance), reflects the cooperative interest of industry, commercial nuclear utilities, university and national laboratory team members to bring a collaborative best-in-class approach to finding, and providing effective delivery of innovative environmental remediation technologies to the DOE Complex and subsequently to industry. The Strategic Alliance is comprised of team members from ComEd, Duke Engineering and Services, 3M, ICF Kaiser, Florida International University, and Argonne National Laboratory in concert with DOE. This team tested and evaluated over twenty innovative technologies in an effort to help provide cost effective technology solutions to DOE/Industry needs for decontamination and decommissioning. This paper summarizes the approach used by the Strategic Alliance and describes the results of this DOE funded project

Peer Mentoring through eAlliances

Science.gov (United States)

Blaha, Cindy; Cunningham, Beth; Cox, Anne; Ramos, Idalia; Whitten, Barbara

2018-06-01

Being a woman in astronomy or physics can be a very isolating experience. Peer mentoring has been shown to help combat this isolation. eAlliance, an NSF ADVANCE PLAN-D program hosted by AAPT, is seeking to establish mutual mentoring networks of women faculty within the physics and astronomy community. The eAlliance program will reduce the isolation of participating faculty members and provide support to help members achieve their personal goals and enhance their career development. Participants register at the eAlliance website (ealliance.aapt.org) and complete a personal profile which is used to match them to other registered women faculty with similar mentoring goals. So far, 95 women have registered in the eAlliance database and 22 of the participants are astronomers. Currently the project has five sponsored eAlliances (with 4-5 members each) and several more in the process of forming. As of March 2018, 4 of the 22 sponsored eAlliance members are astronomers. The mentoring cohorts are holding regular electronic meetings and using project funds to support annual face-to-face meetings at national meetings of their own choosing. The first eAlliance Summit Meeting will be held in July 2018 and will bring all the cohorts together to share their peer mentoring experiences and gather advice for future cohorts just starting out. All women faculty in astronomy and physics are invited to join the eAlliance program.

Multi-robot team design for real-world applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parker, L.E.

1996-10-01

Many of these applications are in dynamic environments requiring capabilities distributed in functionality, space, or time, and therefore often require teams of robots to work together. While much research has been done in recent years, current robotics technology is still far from achieving many of the real world applications. Two primary reasons for this technology gap are that (1) previous work has not adequately addressed the issues of fault tolerance and adaptivity in multi-robot teams, and (2) existing robotics research is often geared at specific applications and is not easily generalized to different, but related, applications. This paper addresses these issues by first describing the design issues of key importance in these real-world cooperative robotics applications: fault tolerance, reliability, adaptivity, and coherence. We then present a general architecture addressing these design issues (called ALLIANCE) that facilities multi-robot cooperation of small- to medium-sized teams in dynamic environments, performing missions composed of loosely coupled subtasks. We illustrate an implementation of ALLIANCE in a real-world application, called Bounding Overwatch, and then discuss how this architecture addresses our key design issues.

Research on robot navigation vision sensor based on grating projection stereo vision

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xiaoling; Luo, Yinsheng; Lin, Yuchi; Zhu, Lei

2016-10-01

A novel visual navigation method based on grating projection stereo vision for mobile robot in dark environment is proposed. This method is combining with grating projection profilometry of plane structured light and stereo vision technology. It can be employed to realize obstacle detection, SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) and vision odometry for mobile robot navigation in dark environment without the image match in stereo vision technology and without phase unwrapping in the grating projection profilometry. First, we research the new vision sensor theoretical, and build geometric and mathematical model of the grating projection stereo vision system. Second, the computational method of 3D coordinates of space obstacle in the robot's visual field is studied, and then the obstacles in the field is located accurately. The result of simulation experiment and analysis shows that this research is useful to break the current autonomous navigation problem of mobile robot in dark environment, and to provide the theoretical basis and exploration direction for further study on navigation of space exploring robot in the dark and without GPS environment.

When and how to create strategic alliances

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reinsvold, C.

1994-01-01

As oil prices remain flat and discoveries become more costly, the relationships between suppliers and operators are changing. Arms-length, unit pricing buying practices remain the norm for many buyers, but others have identified advantages of forming alliances that make greater use of the suppliers' capabilities. Recently, operators and the service industry have started to evolve a new culture that provides value-added solutions in an incentive environment. coupled with long-term risk-sharing or partnering arrangements, the potential advantages to both the operator and supplier are clear. An alliance is a long-term commitment between the operator and one or more supplier organizations, formed to achieve well-defined project objectives in a way that is beneficial to all alliance partners. Alliances take many forms and are adapted to meet the needs of the project. Successful alliances are characterized by trust, common goals and open communication. They build on the efficiencies, capabilities and strengths each partner brings to the relationship. The nine steps to creating a successful alliance are described

The Robobo Project: Bringing Educational Robotics Closer to Real-World Applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bellas, Francisco; Naya, Martin; Varela, Gervasio

2017-01-01

The Robobo Project is a STEM-based project that aims to bring educational robotics, in primary and high school, closer to real-world applications. It is based on the use of a smartphone-based robotic platform called Robobo, a very flexible programming environment, and a set of lessons to integrate...... them. The smartphone provides high-level hardware capabilities in terms of sensors, communications and processing capabilities that allow to create more practical and realistic lessons that exploit human-robot interaction, with a small investment. In this paper, we present the main elements...

Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Cooperation

Science.gov (United States)

1994-02-01

express my heartfelt thanks to my thesis advisor . Rod Brooks. who supported and encouraged me throughout my time at MIT. He provided a good mixture of...group than is possible with individual robots alone. 25 26 CHAPTER 3. ALLIANCE: THE COOPERATIVE ROBO ,ARCHITECTURE’ discuss the implications of these...available, robot teams should take advantage of it; however, I do not want the team to experience total breakdown when communication becomes unavailable

Robotic hand project

OpenAIRE

Karaçizmeli, Cengiz; Çakır, Gökçe; Tükel, Dilek

2014-01-01

In this work, the mechatronic based robotic hand is controlled by the position data taken from the glove which has flex sensors mounted to capture finger bending of the human hand. The angular movement of human hand’s fingers are perceived and processed by a microcontroller, and the robotic hand is controlled by actuating servo motors. It has seen that robotic hand can simulate the movement of the human hand that put on the glove, during tests have done. This robotic hand can be used not only...

ESPRIT Project 6457: Interoperability of Standards for Robotics in CIME

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Haenisch, Jorchen; Kroszynski, Uri; Ludwig, Arnold

The groving need for accurate information about manufacturing data (models of robots and other mechanisms)in diverse industrial applications has initiated ESPRIT Project 6457 InterRob.This InterRob "Specification of a STEP Based Reference Model for Exchange of Robotics Models" act as a basis...

Terpsichore. ENEA's autonomous robotics project; Progetto Tersycore, la robotica autonoma

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Taraglio, S; Zanela, S; Santini, A; Nanni, V [ENEA, Centro Ricerche Casaccia, Rome (Italy). Div. Robotica e Informatica Avanzata

1999-10-01

The article presents some of the Terpsichore project's results aimed to developed and test algorithms and applications for autonomous robotics. Four applications are described: dynamic mapping of a building's interior through the use of ultrasonic sensors; visual drive of an autonomous robot via a neural network controller; a neural network-based stereo vision system that steers a robot through unknown indoor environments; and the evolution of intelligent behaviours via the genetic algorithm approach.

Tinker Tailor Robot Pi -- The Project

Science.gov (United States)

Bianchi, Lynne

2017-01-01

Tinker Tailor Robot Pi (TTRP) is an innovative curriculum development project, which started in September 2014. It involves in-service primary and secondary teachers, university academic engineers, business partners and pupils at Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 (ages 5-14). The focus of the work has been to explore how a pedagogy for primary engineering…

A Realist Study of the North Korea-China Alliance

OpenAIRE

Hedengran, Rasmus Duus; Kondrup, Alexander Schmidt

2017-01-01

The aim of this project was to investigate the nature of the China-North Korea alliance in light of recent developments on the Korean Peninsula. The project found this issue relevant to examine, as this relationship is often identified as being a key factor in shaping the current conflict. The research was centered around the foundations of the alliance and how it has changed to this day. This framework was made possible through the use of Stephen Walt’s balance of threat and alliance formati...

Coordinate transformations, orthographic projections, and robot kinematics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crochetiere, W.J.

1984-01-01

Humans do not consciously think of moving each of their joints while they move their hands from one place to another. Likewise, robot arms can be commanded to move about in cartesian space without the need to address the individual joints. To do this, the direct and inverse kinematic equations of any robot arm must be derived. The direct kinematic equations uniquely transform the joint positions into the position (and orientation) of the hand, whereas the inverse kinematic equations transform the position (and orientation) of the hand into joint positions. The derivation of the inverse kinematic equations for any particular robot is a difficult problem which may have more than one solution. In this paper, these equations are derived for a six degree of freedom robot arm. A combination of matrix operations to perform coordinate rotations, and trigonometry within the appropriate orthographic projects to perform coordinate translations is employed. This complementary approach yields a solution which is more easily obtained, and also more easily visualized. The resulting solution was programmed into a real-time computer as a part of a higher level software system to control the motion of the arm

Development of a multimode navigation system for an assistive robotics project

OpenAIRE

Cherubini , Andrea; Oriolo , G; Macri , F; Aloise , F; Babiloni , F; Cincotti , F; Mattia , D

2007-01-01

International audience; Assistive technology is an emerging area where robotic devices can be used to strengthen the residual abilities of individuals with motor disabilities or to help them achieve independence in the activities of daily living. This paper deals with a project aimed at designing a system that provides remote control of home-installed appliances, including the Sony AIBO, a commercial mobile robot. The development of the project is described by focusing on the design of the ro...

Best intentions: Lessons learned on international partnering and alliance contracts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farrell, S.; McDermott, J.R.; Ramsay, A.; Watzke, J.

1996-01-01

Although the energy industry is still in the early stages of partnering and alliancing, there is enough accumulated experience to be worth sharing information on what has worked and what has not. This paper explores the lessons learned in six agreements in the UK, the US, and the Middle East. It concludes that not all projects are potential candidates for partnering or alliances. Those likely to be successful will contain common characteristics of complexity, uncertainty, technology and duration. Management structure is moving towards integrated teams, although projects currently fall along a broad spectrum before becoming truly integrated. The risk/reward structure is becoming more complex over time, although it is unclear that tinkering with percentage sharing schemes will actually change the behavior of project participants and result in additional cost savings. The use of team building techniques and facilitators may well enhance the alliance implementation, but the choice of both company and individual members is fundamental to success. The overriding success factor, however, is the setting of fair and achievable targets. All of the managers surveyed stated that their projects benefited from the use of a partnering or alliance structure. Three of the projects were far enough along to cite significant cost savings. Although some in the industry are still doubtful that alliances can make a true difference to a project's outcome, those who have participated are convinced they have achieved results which would have been unattainable in a traditional structure. They would add, however, that partnering and alliancing is not easy, and not for all projects. The industry must share practical information if significant learning is to occur

Project ROBOTICS 2008

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Conrad, Finn

Mathematical modelling of Alto Robot, direct- and inverse kinematic transformation,simulation and path control applying MATLAB/SIMULINK.......Mathematical modelling of Alto Robot, direct- and inverse kinematic transformation,simulation and path control applying MATLAB/SIMULINK....

Automation and robotics for the Space Exploration Initiative: Results from Project Outreach

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzales, D.; Criswell, D.; Heer, E.

1991-01-01

A total of 52 submissions were received in the Automation and Robotics (A&R) area during Project Outreach. About half of the submissions (24) contained concepts that were judged to have high utility for the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) and were analyzed further by the robotics panel. These 24 submissions are analyzed here. Three types of robots were proposed in the high scoring submissions: structured task robots (STRs), teleoperated robots (TORs), and surface exploration robots. Several advanced TOR control interface technologies were proposed in the submissions. Many A&R concepts or potential standards were presented or alluded to by the submitters, but few specific technologies or systems were suggested.

DOE Robotics Project. Summary of progress for 1991

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1991-01-01

This document provide the bimonthly progress reports on the Department of Energy (DOE) Robotics Project by the University of Michigan. Reports are provided for the time periods of December 90/January 91 through June 91/July 91. (FI)

The Alliance to Scale Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Seed ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The Alliance to Scale Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Seed Alliance). This project will support digital innovations that solve development challenges. ... It combines three regional, competitive small grants and awards programs from ...

The Role of Ground-Based Robotic Observatories in Satellite Projects

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Hudec, René

2010-01-01

Roč. 2010, - (2010), 594854/1-594854/10 ISSN 1687-7969 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA205/08/1207 Grant - others:ESA(XE) ESA-PECS project No. 98058 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10030501 Keywords : robotic telescopes * satellite projects * INTEGRAL mission Subject RIV: BN - Astronomy, Celestial Mechanics, Astrophysics

Overview of Robotic Devices for Nursing Care Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Hirukawa, Hirohisa

2017-01-01

METI/AMED are conducting a project on the development and deployment of robotic devices for nursing care to enhance the autonomy of elderly persons and assist care givers. An evaluation protocol is presented and the devices developed in the project are introduced. The devices consist of transfer assist devices (wearable/non-wearable), walking assist devices (outdoor/indoor), safety surveillance sensors (nursing home/private home), bath lift and toilet assist.

Alliance - a paradigm shift in energy transportation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cornelson, D.W.

1997-01-01

Key components of the Alliance Pipeline Project were outlined. This joint Canada - U.S. venture consists of a $Can 3.7 billion, producer-driven, high-pressure, rich-gas pipeline from producing fields in western Canada to an interconnection with the North American pipeline grid near Chicago. The initial volume for the system is 1.3 Bcfd, with provision for expansion to 2 Bcfd at minimal cost. The project also includes a $Can 200 million, non-regulated, natural gas liquids extraction plant and delivery system originating near Chicago. Alberta ethane supply and demand for 1995 and supply projections for 2010, (for delivery through the Alliance pipeline?), were also highlighted. 11 figs

Successful alliances driven by processes, not discounts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brett, J.F.; Craig, V.B.; Pile, K.E.; Wadsworth, D.B.; Brett, K.V.; Aslakson, J.

1996-01-01

When alliances are executed properly and partners have a full understanding of true integration, drilling ventures can improve their potential to reduce costs and accelerate production by 12--30%. Many companies enter alliances without a full grasp of the economic potential such a relationship might offer. Many alliances rely too heavily on relationship issues and commercial terms instead of focusing on integrating their technical processes successfully. Process-driven alliance (PDA) is the term adopted by a new Gas Research Institute report prepared by OGCI Management Inc. to represent a fundamentally different way to plan, execute, and evaluate drilling projects. This paper discusses the findings of the GRI study, describing the stability of PDAs, value chain, successful PDAs, changed commercial terms, and characteristics of failure

Terpsichore. ENEA's autonomous robotics project; Progetto Tersycore, la robotica autonoma

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Taraglio, S.; Zanela, S.; Santini, A.; Nanni, V. [ENEA, Centro Ricerche Casaccia, Rome (Italy). Div. Robotica e Informatica Avanzata

1999-10-01

The article presents some of the Terpsichore project's results aimed to developed and test algorithms and applications for autonomous robotics. Four applications are described: dynamic mapping of a building's interior through the use of ultrasonic sensors; visual drive of an autonomous robot via a neural network controller; a neural network-based stereo vision system that steers a robot through unknown indoor environments; and the evolution of intelligent behaviours via the genetic algorithm approach.

Alliance capability as a mediator between experience and alliance performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heimeriks, Koen; Duysters, Geert

This study centers around the way in which firms can enhance alliance performance through the development of alliance capabilities. Whereas most research has focused on inter-firm antecedents of alliance performance, research on intra-firm antecedents pointing to prior experience and internal...... alliance managers and Vice-Presidents of 151 firms. The survey covers over 2600 alliances for the period 1997-2001. This study not only finds that alliance capabilities partially mediate between alliance experience and alliance performance, but also yields novel insights into the micro-level building...

The CI-ROB project: real time monitoring for a robotic prostate curietherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liem, X.; Lartigau, E.; Coelen, V.; Merzouki, R.

2010-01-01

The authors present a project which is still at the proto-typing stage and for which hardware and software are still being developed, and which aims at developing a full line for a robotic curietherapy. It comprises an articulated robotic arm with six degree of freedom, and is based on an auto-regulated loop with real time monitoring and control. An echographic probe acquires the prostate images in real time. An adaptive detection defines the prostate contour. This is performed in a virtual environment which comprises the prostate phantom, the robot and the intervention table. The target is defined in the virtual environment (image coordinates) and coordinates are transmitted to the robot controller which defines the robot movements by using the inverse geometric model. Short communication

Rice postharvest learning alliance in Cambodia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Flor, Rica Joy; Leeuwis, Cees; Maat, Harro; Gummert, Martin

2016-01-01

Research projects employ the learning alliance (LA) approach but there is scepticism that its rhetoric is not evident in practice. The authors examined a case of an implemented LA, comparing its outcomes with assumptions from the project and its conceptual design to evaluate the implementation of

Establishing strategic alliance among hospitals through SAIS: a case study in Taiwan.

Science.gov (United States)

Hung, Won-Fu; Hwang, Hsin-Ginn; Liao, Chechen

2005-01-01

Due to a reformed healthcare insurance system and a gradually decreasing public affairs' budget by the government year by year, Central Taiwan Office (CTO), the Department of Health (DOH) in Taiwan, initiated a strategic alliance project of the hospitals subordinated to the DOH in November, 2001. This project was a five-year plan with an attempt to expand and develop three more strategic alliances covering the northern, southern and eastern regions of Taiwan respectively. Through a cooperative system, such an alliance allows the following: resource sharing, technique collaboration, marketing affiliations and so on. In order to decrease operation management costs and improve the quality of service at hospitals, the strategic alliance practice is supported by IS. We call this alignment the IS-enabled strategic alliance. All the IS-enabled functions are supported by the Strategic Alliance Information System (SAIS). In this article, the SAIS developed by the CTO of the DOH is introduced.

SRT project: tele-robotics maintenance of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gomez-Santamaria, J.; Calleja, J.M.; Carmena, P.; Avello, A.; Rubio, Y.A.

2001-01-01

The main aim of the SRT project was to develop a family of robots to help in the operation of nuclear power plants. Four robotic systems were developed and this paper focuses on three of them: ANAES -a steam leak detector through noise analysis-, MALIBA -a master-slave tele-operation system with force feedback- and ROBICEN -a compact pneumatic wall climbing robot-. ANAES (the Spanish acronym of spectrum analysis) consists of a set of sensor heads attached to a computer. Each head has two microphones and a video camera installed on it, and a DC motor that rotates the head. The heads are shielded with lead and boron steel, especially near the video camera. The noise generated by the plant is recorded every day at the same time and the software compares the recorded noise with the mean values of past records. The system can discern whether the noise has remarkably changed and, through phase analysis of the sound recorded by both microphones, identifies the direction of arrival (DOA) of the new noise, probably a steam leak. Using several heads, the new noise source can be identified. The video camera can be used to ease the location of the steam leaks. The stationariness of the measured noise has been tested in C.N. Cofrentes -a Spanish BWR-6 reactor-. A finished system with six heads has recently been installed in the MSR (moisture separator reheater) of the same plant. MALIBA is a master-slave tele-operated system with force feedback. It consists of two robots: a Stewart platform used as master robot and an open chain robot used as slave. The slave robot follows faithfully the movements of the master, and the master robot can reflect a force proportional to the force exerted by the slave on the environment. Three tools have been developed for the slave robot: a robot hand that includes a small video camera, a pneumatic drill and a rectifier. The results obtained have shown its effectiveness for the designed operations. ROBICEN is a lightweight pneumatic robot

SRT project: tele-robotics maintenance of nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gomez-Santamaria, J. [Iberdrola SA, Madrid (Spain); Calleja, J.M.; Carmena, P. [Endesa, Madrid (Spain); Avello, A.; Rubio, Y.A. [CEIT-Centro de Estudias e Investigaciones Tecnicas de Guipuzcoa, San Sebastian (Spain)

2001-07-01

The main aim of the SRT project was to develop a family of robots to help in the operation of nuclear power plants. Four robotic systems were developed and this paper focuses on three of them: ANAES -a steam leak detector through noise analysis-, MALIBA -a master-slave tele-operation system with force feedback- and ROBICEN -a compact pneumatic wall climbing robot-. ANAES (the Spanish acronym of spectrum analysis) consists of a set of sensor heads attached to a computer. Each head has two microphones and a video camera installed on it, and a DC motor that rotates the head. The heads are shielded with lead and boron steel, especially near the video camera. The noise generated by the plant is recorded every day at the same time and the software compares the recorded noise with the mean values of past records. The system can discern whether the noise has remarkably changed and, through phase analysis of the sound recorded by both microphones, identifies the direction of arrival (DOA) of the new noise, probably a steam leak. Using several heads, the new noise source can be identified. The video camera can be used to ease the location of the steam leaks. The stationariness of the measured noise has been tested in C.N. Cofrentes -a Spanish BWR-6 reactor-. A finished system with six heads has recently been installed in the MSR (moisture separator reheater) of the same plant. MALIBA is a master-slave tele-operated system with force feedback. It consists of two robots: a Stewart platform used as master robot and an open chain robot used as slave. The slave robot follows faithfully the movements of the master, and the master robot can reflect a force proportional to the force exerted by the slave on the environment. Three tools have been developed for the slave robot: a robot hand that includes a small video camera, a pneumatic drill and a rectifier. The results obtained have shown its effectiveness for the designed operations. ROBICEN is a lightweight pneumatic robot

Generating Self-Reliant Teams of Autonomous Cooperating Robots: Desired design Characteristics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parker, L.E.

1999-05-01

The difficulties in designing a cooperative team are significant. Several of the key questions that must be resolved when designing a cooperative control architecture include: How do we formulate, describe, decompose, and allocate problems among a group of intelligent agents? How do we enable agents to communicate and interact? How do we ensure that agents act coherently in their actions? How do we allow agents to recognize and reconcile conflicts? However, in addition to these key issues, the software architecture must be designed to enable multi-robot teams to be robust, reliable, and flexible. Without these capabilities, the resulting robot team will not be able to successfully deal with the dynamic and uncertain nature of the real world. In this extended abstract, we first describe these desired capabilities. We then briefly describe the ALLIANCE software architecture that we have previously developed for multi-robot cooperation. We then briefly analyze the ALLIANCE architecture in terms of the desired design qualities identified.

Race for the wireless robot platform

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2008-07-01

With the world going wireless, Norwegian energy champion Statoil Hydro is pushing forward with an unmanned, robot-operated production platform called Mesa Verde. Enlisted to solve safety and operational issues and help the oil company gain a cost edge on global competitors is an Emerson-Cisco wireless alliance itself facing stiff competition

Using the rear projection of the Socibot Desktop robot for creation of applications with facial expressions

Science.gov (United States)

Gîlcă, G.; Bîzdoacă, N. G.; Diaconu, I.

2016-08-01

This article aims to implement some practical applications using the Socibot Desktop social robot. We mean to realize three applications: creating a speech sequence using the Kiosk menu of the browser interface, creating a program in the Virtual Robot browser interface and making a new guise to be loaded into the robot's memory in order to be projected onto it face. The first application is actually created in the Compose submenu that contains 5 file categories: audio, eyes, face, head, mood, this being helpful in the creation of the projected sequence. The second application is more complex, the completed program containing: audio files, speeches (can be created in over 20 languages), head movements, the robot's facial parameters function of each action units (AUs) of the facial muscles, its expressions and its line of sight. Last application aims to change the robot's appearance with the guise created by us. The guise was created in Adobe Photoshop and then loaded into the robot's memory.

A Multidisciplinary PBL Robot Control Project in Automation and Electronic Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Hassan, Houcine; Domínguez, Carlos; Martínez, Juan-Miguel; Perles, Angel; Capella, Juan-Vicente; Albaladejo, José

2015-01-01

This paper presents a multidisciplinary problem-based learning (PBL) project consisting of the development of a robot arm prototype and the implementation of its control system. The project is carried out as part of Industrial Informatics (II), a compulsory third-year course in the Automation and Electronic Engineering (AEE) degree program at the…

Europairs project: creating an alliance of nuclear and non-nuclear industries for developing nuclear cogeneration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hittner, Dominique; Bogusch, Edgar; Viala, Celine; Angulo, Carmen; Chauvet, Vincent; Fuetterer, Michael A.; De Groot, Sander; Von Lensa, Werner; Ruer, Jacques; Griffay, Gerard; Baaten, Anton

2010-01-01

Developers of High Temperature Reactors (HTR) worldwide acknowledge that the main asset for market breakthrough is its unique ability to address growing needs for industrial cogeneration of heat and power (CHP) owing to its high operating temperature and flexibility, adapted power level, modularity and robust safety features. HTR are thus well suited to most of the non-electric applications of nuclear energy, which represent about 80% of total energy consumption. This opens opportunities for reducing CO 2 emissions and securing energy supply which are complementary to those provided by systems dedicated to electricity generation. A strong alliance between nuclear and process heat user industries is a necessity for developing a nuclear system for the conventional process heat market, much in the same way as the electronuclear development required a close partnership with utilities. Initiating such an alliance is one of the objectives of the EUROPAIRS project just started in the frame of the EURATOM 7. Framework Programme (FP7) under AREVA coordination. Within EUROPAIRS, process heat user industries express their requirements whereas nuclear industry will provide the performance window of HTR. Starting from this shared information, an alliance will be forged by assessing the feasibility and impact of nuclear CHP from technical, industrial, economical, licensing and sustainability perspectives. This assessment work will allow pointing out the main issues and challenges for coupling an HTR with industrial process heat applications. On this basis, a Road-map will be elaborated for achieving an industrially relevant demonstration of such a coupling. This Road-map will not only take into consideration the necessary nuclear developments, but also the required adaptations of industrial application processes and the possible development of heat transport technologies from the nuclear heat source to application processes. Although only a small and short project (21 months

Protecting Place Through Community Alliances: Haida Gwaii Responds to the Proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Project

Science.gov (United States)

Crist, Valine

This research contributes to the emerging dialogue concerning power relationships and the alliances that are challenging current frameworks in an attempt to create positive change. Worldwide, local people in rural places are threatened by development paradigms and conflicting social, political, economic, and ecological values. Large-scale development, such as the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project (NGP), provide a tangible example of our failing systems and make the interplay of these elements palpable. Increasingly, communities are coalescing to challenge the current models and economically motivated agendas threatening Indigenous sovereignty and local lifeways. Central to these coalitions are Indigenous peoples who are aligning with non-Indigenous neighbours to renegotiate power relationships. This research examines these dynamic alliances and uses Haida Gwaii's resistance to the NGP as an example of the formidable strength of community coalitions mobilized by intersecting values. To contextualize the NGP within the broader discourse, I problematize Canada's environmental assessment process and consider how media portrays the growing resistance to the proposed project. Drawing on information presented through the environmental assessment, I analyze the main messages and shared values of Haida Gwaii citizens opposed to the NGP. This thesis focuses on this unanimous and galvanizing resistance, which is largely motivated by the reliance on local food sources and an embodied connection to Haida Gwaii shared by Island citizens. The continued denial of Aboriginal title and rights was inherent throughout this consideration and is an underlying theme throughout the analyses.

The ARAMIS project: a concept robot and technical design.

Science.gov (United States)

Colizzi, Lucio; Lidonnici, Antonio; Pignolo, Loris

2009-11-01

To describe the ARAMIS (Automatic Recovery Arm Motility Integrated System) project, a concept robot applicable in the neuro-rehabilitation of the paretic upper limb after stroke. Methods, results and conclusion: The rationale and engineering of a state-of-the-art, hardware/software integrated robot system, its mechanics, ergonomics, electric/electronics features providing control, safety and suitability of use are described. An ARAMIS prototype has been built and is now available for clinical tests. It allows the therapist to design neuro-rehabilitative (synchronous or asynchronous) training protocols in which sample exercises are generated by a single exoskeleton (operated by the patient's unaffected arm or by the therapist's arm) and mirrored in real-time or offline by the exoskeleton supporting the paretic arm.

Facilitating Programming of Vision-Equipped Robots through Robotic Skills and Projection Mapping

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Rasmus Skovgaard

The field of collaborative industrial robots is currently developing fast both in the industry and in the scientific community. Companies such as Rethink Robotics and Universal Robots are redefining the concept of an industrial robot and entire new markets and use cases are becoming relevant for ...

Comparing internal and alliance-based new product development processes: case studies in the food industry

OpenAIRE

Olsen, Nina Veflen; Gripsrud, Geir

2011-01-01

This is the authors’ final, accepted and refereed manuscript to the article Companies may simultaneously pursue different new product development (NPD) strategies. This article reports a comparative two case design study of in-house NPD projects as well as alliance based NPD projects in a food company. Two contradicting proposition’s of the efficiency of NPD in an alliance compared to NPD performed internally are stated, and the findings indicate that the alliance based NPD solution create...

Comparing internal and alliance-based new product development processes: case studies in the food industry

OpenAIRE

Olsen, Nina Veflen; Gripsrud, Geir

2011-01-01

Companies may simultaneously pursue different new product development (NPD) strategies. This article reports a comparative two case design study of in-house NPD projects as well as alliance based NPD projects in a food company. Two contradicting proposition’s of the efficiency of NPD in an alliance compared to NPD performed internally are stated, and the findings indicate that the alliance based NPD solution creates a better context for NPD than the in-house solution. Less forwarding of unsol...

Aerial gamma ray and magnetic survey: Nebraska/Texas Project, the Alliance and Scottsbluff quadrangles of Nebraska. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1979-12-01

During the months of September and October 1979, EG and G geoMetrics collected 3156 line miles of high sensitivity airborne radiometric and magnetic data in the state of Nebraska in two 1 by 2 degree NTMS quadrangles. This project is part of the Department of Energy's National Uranium Resource Evaluation Program. All radiometric and magnetic data were fully corrected and interpreted by geoMetrics and are presented as three Volumes (one Volume I and two Volume II's). Both quadrangles are dominated by Tertiary nonmarine strata, though the Sand Hills in the eastern central portion of the area is covered by Quaternary dune sand. Some Late Cretaceous marine shales are exposed in the northwest quadrant of Alliance quadrangle. No uranium deposits are known in this area, but outcrops of shales thought to be uraniferous outcrop in the Alliance quadrangle

Alliances - Another Way to Access the Market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Komarov, Yuri A.

1999-01-01

The late 1990s were a difficult period for the world economy: decreased economic growth rate, dropping prices for energy and other raw materials, dropping import prices of natural gas. Companies involved in the energy business are currently at the stage of survival. High-priced projects with increased risks are postponed until better times. Consequently, Gazprom had to cut investments by two thirds. For Gazprom, the problems have been aggravated by the transition from authoritatively planned economy to market economy. Alliances are one of the most effective current methods of operation in the natural gas market. Alliances between Gazprom and leading Western oil and gas companies are beneficial both to the participants and the consumers because such alliances will provide for creation of a service package of the 21th century. The importance for Gazprom of cooperation with its alliance partners is that it makes it possible to implement cost-cutting measures that benefit both producers and consumers. It also makes it possible to ensure reliable distribution of the gas

Review and Support of the Relationship between Alliance Competence and Alliance Orientation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gonzalo R. Llanos-Herrera

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of the formation of strategic alliances among companies. Specifically, it seeks to understand the relationship between alliance competence (Lambe, Speakman & Hunt, 2002 and alliance orientation (Kandemir, Yaprak & Cavusgil, 2006, following some of the most important guidelines of the leading exponents of theories based on resources and dynamic capabilities. Once the concepts were developed we proceeded to establish a hypothesis that seeks to better understand the relationships between the constructs and how they interact to achieve alliances that are beneficial for the parties involved. In particular, the findings corroborate the proposed relationships, supporting a direct link between market orientation constructs and senior management commitment to the alliances, as well as the commitment of senior management and competencies for alliances. As a fundamental contribution to this work, a mediating role of the alliance orientation construct was also detected between the relationship of senior management commitment and alliance competence. Future research is proposed into the elements of the practical guidelines for alliances and the relationship of this construct with the others related to alliances and particularly to their performance.

Preliminary results of BRAVO project: brain computer interfaces for Robotic enhanced Action in Visuo-motOr tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Bergamasco, Massimo; Frisoli, Antonio; Fontana, Marco; Loconsole, Claudio; Leonardis, Daniele; Troncossi, Marco; Foumashi, Mohammad Mozaffari; Parenti-Castelli, Vincenzo

2011-01-01

This paper presents the preliminary results of the project BRAVO (Brain computer interfaces for Robotic enhanced Action in Visuo-motOr tasks). The objective of this project is to define a new approach to the development of assistive and rehabilitative robots for motor impaired users to perform complex visuomotor tasks that require a sequence of reaches, grasps and manipulations of objects. BRAVO aims at developing new robotic interfaces and HW/SW architectures for rehabilitation and regain/restoration of motor function in patients with upper limb sensorimotor impairment through extensive rehabilitation therapy and active assistance in the execution of Activities of Daily Living. The final system developed within this project will include a robotic arm exoskeleton and a hand orthosis that will be integrated together for providing force assistance. The main novelty that BRAVO introduces is the control of the robotic assistive device through the active prediction of intention/action. The system will actually integrate the information about the movement carried out by the user with a prediction of the performed action through an interpretation of current gaze of the user (measured through eye-tracking), brain activation (measured through BCI) and force sensor measurements. © 2011 IEEE

US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance 2014 Capstone Experiment

Science.gov (United States)

2016-07-01

42 Fig. 31 (left) The experimental setup for terrain classification using PreSRS on the Hopper . (right) A computer-aided design schematic of the... Hopper with PreSRS attached to the bottom of the robot foot. ........................44 Fig. 32 Plots of terrain classification accuracy vs. sensor...2.1 Robotics CTA The RCTA is a fundamental research program that began in 2010 and enables Government, industrial , and academic institutions to

Strategic alliance development : a study on alliances between competing firms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wahyuni, S.

2003-01-01

The objective of this study was to reveal the development of lSAs (International Strategic Alliances) and the important factors for every phase of an alliance relationship. Since there are a great number of variables that can be assessed throughout the whole process of an alliance life, we decided

Gearing up and accelerating cross-fertilization between academic and industrial robotics research in Europe technology transfer experiments from the ECHORD project

CERN Document Server

Veiga, Germano; Natale, Ciro

2014-01-01

This monograph by Florian Röhrbein, Germano Veiga and Ciro Natale is an edited collection of 15 authoritative contributions in the area of robot technology transfer between academia and industry. It comprises three parts on Future Industrial Robotics, Robotic Grasping as well as Human-Centered Robots. The book chapters cover almost all the topics nowadays considered ‘hot’ within the robotics community, from reliable object recognition to dexterous grasping, from speech recognition to intuitive robot programming, from mobile robot navigation to aerial robotics, from safe physical human-robot interaction to body extenders. All contributions stem from the results of ECHORD – the European Clearing House for Open Robotics Development, a large-scale integrating project funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme from 2009 to 2013. ECHORD’s two main pillars were the so-called experiments, 51 small-sized industry-driven research projects, and the structured dialog, a powerful interac...

Gearing up and accelerating cross-fertilization between academic and industrial robotics research in Europe technology transfer experiments from the ECHORD project

CERN Document Server

Veiga, Germano; Natale, Ciro

2014-01-01

This monograph by Florian Röhrbein, Germano Veiga and Ciro Natale is an edited collection of 15 authoritative contributions in the area of robot technology transfer between academia and industry. It comprises three parts on Future Industrial Robotics, Robotic Grasping as well as Human-Centered Robots. The book chapters cover almost all the topics nowadays considered ‘hot’ within the robotics community, from reliable object recognition to dexterous grasping, from speech recognition to intuitive robot programming, from mobile robot navigation to aerial robotics, from safe physical human-robot interaction to body extenders. All contributions stem from the results of ECHORD – the European Clearing House for Open Robotics Development, a large-scale integrating project funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme from 2009 to 2013. ECHORD’s two main pillars were the so-called experiments, 52 small-sized industry-driven research projects, and the structured dialog, a powerful interac...

Recommendations for cask features for robotic handling from the Advanced Handling Technology Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Drotning, W.

1991-02-01

This report describes the current status and recent progress in the Advanced Handling Technology Project (AHTP) initiated to explore the use of advanced robotic systems and handling technologies to perform automated cask handling operations at radioactive waste handling facilities, and to provide guidance to cask designers on the impact of robotic handling on cask design. Current AHTP tasks have developed system mock-ups to investigate robotic manipulation of impact limiters and cask tiedowns. In addition, cask uprighting and transport, using computer control of a bridge crane and robot, were performed to demonstrate the high speed cask transport operation possible under computer control. All of the current AHTP tasks involving manipulation of impact limiters and tiedowns require robotic operations using a torque wrench. To perform these operations, a pneumatic torque wrench and control system were integrated into the tool suite and control architecture of the gantry robot. The use of captured fasteners is briefly discussed as an area where alternative cask design preferences have resulted from the influence of guidance for robotic handling vs traditional operations experience. Specific robotic handling experiences with these system mock-ups highlight a number of continually recurring design principles: (1) robotic handling feasibility is improved by mechanical designs which emphasize operation with limited dexterity in constrained workspaces; (2) clearances, tolerances, and chamfers must allow for operations under actual conditions with consideration for misalignment and imprecise fixturing; (3) successful robotic handling is enhanced by including design detail in representations for model-based control; (4) robotic handling and overall quality assurance are improved by designs which eliminate the use of loose, disassembled parts. 8 refs., 15 figs

Strategic Alliances: the Potential for Russian Nanoindustry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Inshakova Elena Ivanovna

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Strategic alliances as a form of interfirm cooperation (including international cooperation increase the potential of solving large-scale problems of national nanoindustry development, providing synergy of participants resources united by the principle of complementarity and substitution in the process of joint implementation of complex R&D programs, mobilization and input of significant financial, material, technical and intellectual resources of the participants in nanotechnology projects. Strategic alliances in nanoindustry with national and international companies participation are defined as institutional and organizational form of interfirm cooperation. At this, the upper limit of its functioning is represented by hierarchical relations in transactions within the integrated structures, and the low limit by heterarchical relations in transactions among the detached firms. The paper identifies the main factors of successful functioning of strategic alliances in nanoindustry. At the same time, the participants pursuit of their own economic interests (including non-matching interests will inevitably become a source of origin and accumulation of contradictions in the alliance, which can cause its disintegration or acquisition of a weaker, passive participant by a stronger one. This determines the need for a thorough study of decisions on entering into a strategic alliance, on tactical and operational participation in its management in accordance with the contribution of partners to its creation, defining their authority and share in the results of operations. The article also studies the experience of strategic alliances formation in American and European nanoindustry, and exemplifies the potential of such interfirm cooperation in the realia of Russian economy.

Human-Robot Interaction Directed Research Project

Science.gov (United States)

Sandor, Aniko; Cross, Ernest V., II; Chang, Mai Lee

2014-01-01

Human-robot interaction (HRI) is a discipline investigating the factors affecting the interactions between humans and robots. It is important to evaluate how the design of interfaces and command modalities affect the human's ability to perform tasks accurately, efficiently, and effectively when working with a robot. By understanding the effects of interface design on human performance, workload, and situation awareness, interfaces can be developed to appropriately support the human in performing tasks with minimal errors and with appropriate interaction time and effort. Thus, the results of research on human-robot interfaces have direct implications for the design of robotic systems. This DRP concentrates on three areas associated with interfaces and command modalities in HRI which are applicable to NASA robot systems: 1) Video Overlays, 2) Camera Views, and 3) Command Modalities. The first study focused on video overlays that investigated how Augmented Reality (AR) symbology can be added to the human-robot interface to improve teleoperation performance. Three types of AR symbology were explored in this study, command guidance (CG), situation guidance (SG), and both (SCG). CG symbology gives operators explicit instructions on what commands to input, whereas SG symbology gives operators implicit cues so that operators can infer the input commands. The combination of CG and SG provided operators with explicit and implicit cues allowing the operator to choose which symbology to utilize. The objective of the study was to understand how AR symbology affects the human operator's ability to align a robot arm to a target using a flight stick and the ability to allocate attention between the symbology and external views of the world. The study evaluated the effects type of symbology (CG and SG) has on operator tasks performance and attention allocation during teleoperation of a robot arm. The second study expanded on the first study by evaluating the effects of the type of

Human-Robot Interaction Directed Research Project

Science.gov (United States)

Rochlis, Jennifer; Ezer, Neta; Sandor, Aniko

2011-01-01

Human-robot interaction (HRI) is about understanding and shaping the interactions between humans and robots (Goodrich & Schultz, 2007). It is important to evaluate how the design of interfaces and command modalities affect the human s ability to perform tasks accurately, efficiently, and effectively (Crandall, Goodrich, Olsen Jr., & Nielsen, 2005) It is also critical to evaluate the effects of human-robot interfaces and command modalities on operator mental workload (Sheridan, 1992) and situation awareness (Endsley, Bolt , & Jones, 2003). By understanding the effects of interface design on human performance, workload, and situation awareness, interfaces can be developed that support the human in performing tasks with minimal errors and with appropriate interaction time and effort. Thus, the results of research on human-robot interfaces have direct implications for design. Because the factors associated with interfaces and command modalities in HRI are too numerous to address in 3 years of research, the proposed research concentrates on three manageable areas applicable to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) robot systems. These topic areas emerged from the Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 work that included extensive literature reviews and observations of NASA systems. The three topic areas are: 1) video overlays, 2) camera views, and 3) command modalities. Each area is described in detail below, along with relevance to existing NASA human-robot systems. In addition to studies in these three topic areas, a workshop is proposed for FY12. The workshop will bring together experts in human-robot interaction and robotics to discuss the state of the practice as applicable to research in space robotics. Studies proposed in the area of video overlays consider two factors in the implementation of augmented reality (AR) for operator displays during teleoperation. The first of these factors is the type of navigational guidance provided by AR symbology. In the proposed

Cooperative Robot Teams Applied to the Site Preparation Task

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parker, LE

2001-01-01

Prior to human missions to Mars, infrastructures on Mars that support human survival must be prepared. robotic teams can assist in these advance preparations in a number of ways. This paper addresses one of these advance robotic team tasks--the site preparation task--by proposing a control structure that allows robot teams to cooperatively solve this aspect of infrastructure preparation. A key question in this context is determining how robots should make decisions on which aspect of the site preparation t6ask to address throughout the mission, especially while operating in rough terrains. This paper describes a control approach to solving this problem that is based upon the ALLIANCE architecture, combined with performance-based rough terrain navigation that addresses path planning and control of mobile robots in rough terrain environments. They present the site preparation task and the proposed cooperative control approach, followed by some of the results of the initial testing of various aspects of the system

The Transition from Alliance Networks to Multilateral Alliances in the Global Airline Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergio G. Lazzarini

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This study examines conditions in which alliance networks (informal webs of bilateral entanglements between firms may or may not evolve into multilateral alliances (broad, formal multiple-firm arrangements. I offer a theory to explain the formation of multilateral alliances based on both the resource profile and the structure of existing interfirm networks, and provide an initial test of that theory in the context of the global airline industry. Using data from 75 global airlines and their alliances, I propose a methodology to retrieve samples of alliance networks and then use regression analysis to assess how the resource profile and the structure of these networks influence their formalization into multilateral alliances. I find that multilateral alliances are more likely to emerge when alliance networks exhibit high resource diversity and network structure characterized by moderate density and high centralization. Apparently, while highly sparse networks reduce actors’ awareness of their potential joint collaboration, highly dense or embedded networks substitute for the need for formal controls accompanying multilateral agreements. The effect of centralization suggests that the formation of multilateral alliances tends to be triggered by leading actors directly connected to other network members.

Robot Aesthetics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jochum, Elizabeth Ann; Putnam, Lance Jonathan

This paper considers art-based research practice in robotics through a discussion of our course and relevant research projects in autonomous art. The undergraduate course integrates basic concepts of computer science, robotic art, live performance and aesthetic theory. Through practice...... in robotics research (such as aesthetics, culture and perception), we believe robot aesthetics is an important area for research in contemporary aesthetics....

Robotic and artificial intelligence for keyhole neurosurgery: the ROBOCAST project, a multi-modal autonomous path planner.

Science.gov (United States)

De Momi, E; Ferrigno, G

2010-01-01

The robot and sensors integration for computer-assisted surgery and therapy (ROBOCAST) project (FP7-ICT-2007-215190) is co-funded by the European Union within the Seventh Framework Programme in the field of information and communication technologies. The ROBOCAST project focuses on robot- and artificial-intelligence-assisted keyhole neurosurgery (tumour biopsy and local drug delivery along straight or turning paths). The goal of this project is to assist surgeons with a robotic system controlled by an intelligent high-level controller (HLC) able to gather and integrate information from the surgeon, from diagnostic images, and from an array of on-field sensors. The HLC integrates pre-operative and intra-operative diagnostics data and measurements, intelligence augmentation, multiple-robot dexterity, and multiple sensory inputs in a closed-loop cooperating scheme including a smart interface for improved haptic immersion and integration. This paper, after the overall architecture description, focuses on the intelligent trajectory planner based on risk estimation and human criticism. The current status of development is reported, and first tests on the planner are shown by using a real image stack and risk descriptor phantom. The advantages of using a fuzzy risk description are given by the possibility of upgrading the knowledge on-field without the intervention of a knowledge engineer.

Design and Development of a Mechanical Carrier for Mobile Robot (with rough surface/terrain movement features)- Extension of KINPOE Robot Project for Application at K-1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahmad, H. W.

2012-01-01

During plant (KANUPP) operation, it is difficult or nearly impossible to access and monitor (high) radiation areas where some abnormal condition has to be detected or mitigated. Presence of a surveillance mobile robot will be very useful for such a scenario. This project work is an effort towards the development of a mobile robot that can be used for remote surveillance. A four DOF (degree of freedom) articulated robotic arm, and mobile base is developed. Manipulator is designed using Autodesk inventor, and then fabricated in PIEAS Fabrication Shop. All joints of the manipulator are revolute joints. Maxon DC motors have been used to empower the joints with the help of gears. Spur gear and planetary gear head have been used to increase the torque at joints and to reduce the speed. The report provides complete detail about mechanical design, moreover some casting procedures are also discussed at the end to cast main parts of robot, problems that were faced during the project and their solutions are also discussed in the report. (author)

Sustainable Planning of Cross-Border Cooperation: A Strategy for Alliances in Border Cities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joanna Kurowska-Pysz

2018-05-01

Full Text Available In recent years, cooperation among nations has become a critical issue towards sustainable development of neighbor cities in border areas. In this regard, sustainable common planning approaches and policies are an increasing reality, particularly in European territories. Considering the significant amount of cross-border cooperation (CBC projects and strategies within Europe, it is crucial to promote research approaches that are able to identify the most positive approaches towards the establishment of alliances in border territories, serving as pivotal methodologies for achieving success. Contextually, the present study considered direct and indirect research methods and tools, literature reviews, data collection, computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI and computer-assisted web interview (CAWI, all applied over two European border cities: Cieszyn (Poland and Cesky Tesin (Czech Republic. These methods enabled the assembly of perspectives of local authorities, public and private institutions, non-governmental organizations, and entrepreneurs from the cities under study. Through the analysis of the collected data, five conditions have been identified for the success of strategic alliances in CBC projects: (i well defining the alliance goals; (ii ensuring participation in the alliance of various groups of stakeholders; (iii involvement of both partners with extensive experience in CBC; (iv ensuring the coherence of the key objective; and (v guaranteeing the alliance benefits both sides. These conditions might effectively contribute to achieve more successful outputs in CBC projects, highlighting the relevance of previously developed strategies on the definition of future approaches.

Child-Robot Interaction in the Wild : Field Testing Activities of the ALIZ-E Project

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Greeff, J. de; Blanson Henkemans, O.A.; Fraaije, A.; Solms, L.; Wigdor, N.; Bierman, B.

2014-01-01

A field study was conducted in which CRI activities developed by the ALIZ-E project were tested with the project's primary user group: children with diabetes. This field study resulted in new insights in the modalities and roles a robot aimed at CRI in a healthcare setting might utilise, while in

Strategic Alliance Development - A Process Model A Case Study Integrating Elements of Strategic Alliances

OpenAIRE

Mohd Yunos, Mohd Bulkiah

2007-01-01

There has been enormous increase in the formation of strategic alliance and the research efforts devoted to understanding alliance development process over the last few decades. However, the critical elements that influence the each stage of alliance development are yet unexplored. This dissertation aims to fill this gap and to supplement it by introducing an integrated process model of strategic alliance development and its critical elements. The process model for strategic alliance developm...

Underground mining robot: a CSIR project

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Green, JJ

2012-11-01

Full Text Available The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa is currently developing a robot for the inspection of the ceiling (hanging-wall) in an underground gold mine. The robot autonomously navigates the 30 meter long by 3 meter...

Building Alliance Capability: Management Techniques for Superior Alliance Performance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J.A.J. Draulans (Johan); A-P. de Man (Ard-Pieter); H.W. Volberda (Henk)

2003-01-01

textabstractDespite the fact that they represent a growing element of business strategy, alliances between organisations quite often result in failure. This is partly due to the fact that firms have not built up adequate capabilities to manage alliances. Special management techniques have to be

Partner Capabilities and Alliance Time Frame: An Analysis of International Strategic Alliances from the CEE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Hossein Jalali

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Partner selecton is one of the most discussed issues in strategic alliances literature. However, the majority of research has typically focused on generic partner characteristcs and presented conceptual models for alliance partner selecton, addressing clan image but only limited pieces of the partner selecton puzzle. Rooted in the resource-based view, this paper suggests that partner selecton is contngent upon the intended tme frame of strategic alliances and presents a new and intensive conceptual framework that examines the appropriate partner capability for strategic alliances, in the case of short/medium-term alliances and long-term ones. Based on empirical evidences from 736 alliances in the CEE region, the fndings stress the differences between varied partner capabilites in short/medium-term and long-term alliances. Accordingly, the signifcance of technological capability increases with the number of year’s alliances endured. Moreover, the importance of market capability decreases signifcantly when alliances last for a longer tme frame.

Building alliance capability : management techniques for superior alliance performance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Draulans, J.; Man, de A.P.; Volberda, H.W.

2003-01-01

Despite the fact that they represent a growing element of business strategy, alliances between organisations quite often result in failure. This is partly due to the fact that firms have not built up adequate capabilities to manage alliances. Special management techniques have to be implemented in

Alliance in Youth Care

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Linda Rothman; H. Pijnenburg; Rinie van Rijsingen

2015-01-01

This article introduces the concept of alliance in youth care. The concept of (therapeutic) alliance originates in adult psychotherapy and related research. Alliance refers to the working relationship between youth care workers and their clients. Within this concept, personal (emotional) and task

Alliance Concentration in Multinational Companies : Examining Alliance Portfolios, Firm Structure, and Firm Performance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bos, Brenda; Faems, Dries; Noseleit, Florian

Research summary: This article explores the distribution of alliances across firms' internal structure. Focusing on multinational companies, we examine the impact of alliance portfolio concentrationi.e., the extent to which alliances are concentrated within a limited number of geographic unitson

Alliance Concentration in Multinational Companies : Examining Alliance Portfolios, Firm Structure, and Firm Performance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bos, Brenda; Faems, Dries; Noseleit, Florian

2017-01-01

Research summary: This article explores the distribution of alliances across firms' internal structure. Focusing on multinational companies, we examine the impact of alliance portfolio concentrationi.e., the extent to which alliances are concentrated within a limited number of geographic unitson

Learning in Strategic Technology Alliances

OpenAIRE

SCHOENMAKERS, Wilfred; DUYSTERS, Geert

2003-01-01

In this paper we examine the influence of strategic technology alliances on organisational learning. From an empirical perspective we examined the pre- and post- alliance knowledge bases of allying firms. We found that the pre- alliance knowledge base overlap of the allying firms has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the degree of learning taking place in the alliance. Alliances established for the purpose of learning also show a significantly greater increase in knowledge base overlap f...

Technology alliances in emerging economies : Persistence and interrelation in European firms’alliance formation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jacob, J.; Belderbos, R.; Gilsing, V.A.

2013-01-01

We analyse the patterns and determinants of technology alliance formation with partner firms from emerging economies with a focus on European firms' alliance strategies. We examine to what extent European firms' alliance formation with partners based in emerging economies is persistent – that is, to

The Relationship between Supervisee Stress, Coping Resources, the Working Alliance, and the Supervisory Working Alliance

Science.gov (United States)

Gnilka, Philip B.; Chang, Catherine Y.; Dew, Brian J.

2012-01-01

The authors examined the relationship of perceived stress, specific types of coping resources, the working alliance, and the supervisory working alliance among 232 counselor supervisees. The working alliance and the supervisory working alliance were negatively related to perceived stress and positively related to multiple coping resources. Two…

Alliances in "The Hunger Games"

Science.gov (United States)

Painter, Judith

2012-01-01

This lesson plan is based on "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. Characters in "The Hunger Games" form alliances both inside and outside the arena. Katniss and Gale form alliances within District 12. Katniss, Peeta, and the other tributes form alliances for a variety of reasons during the Games. An alliance means that "someone's got your back"…

Review and Support of the Relationship between Alliance Competence and Alliance Orientation

OpenAIRE

Gonzalo R. Llanos-Herrera; Nelson A. Andrade-Valbuena

2017-01-01

This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of the formation of strategic alliances among companies. Specifically, it seeks to understand the relationship between alliance competence (Lambe, Speakman & Hunt, 2002) and alliance orientation (Kandemir, Yaprak & Cavusgil, 2006), following some of the most important guidelines of the leading exponents of theories based on resources and dynamic capabilities. Once the concepts were developed we proceeded to establish a hypothesis that se...

Developing Alliance Capabilities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heimeriks, Koen H.; Duysters, Geert; Vanhaverbeke, Wim

This paper assesses the differential performance effects of learning mechanisms on the development of alliance capabilities. Prior research has suggested that different capability levels could be identified in which specific intra-firm learning mechanisms are used to enhance a firm's alliance...

FY 1998 Report on research and development project. Research and development of human-cooperative/coexisting robot systems; 1998 nendo ningen kyocho kyozongata robot system kenkyu kaihatsu seika hokokusho

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2000-03-01

This R and D project is aimed at development of the human-cooperative/coexisting robot systems with high safety and reliability, capable of performing complicated works cooperatively and in a coexisting manner with humans in human working and living spaces, in order to help improve safety and efficiency in various industrial areas, improve services and convenience in manufacturing and service areas, and create new industries. The trend surveys cover humanoid robot systems, remote control systems and simulators, and the application surveys cover services for humans, basic humanoids and entertainment communication. The 1998 R and D efforts include research and development, fabrication and surveys for the following themes; (1) fabrication of robot platforms for supporting manual works, (2) development of surrounded visual display systems, (3) development of robot arm manipulation and force displaying systems, (4) development of a dynamic simulator, (5) development of a distributed software platform, (6) researches and development of computation algorithm for kinematic chain dynamics, (7) development of motion teaching system for multi-functional robots, (8) investigation of trends in robotics technology, and (9) researches and surveys of robot application. (NEDO)

The Impacts of Control Mechanism in Strategic Alliance on Alliance Performance: From the Perspective of Boundary Dilemma

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

SHEN Hao; XIE En; WANG Dong

2016-01-01

In order to solve the problem of boundary dilemma in the strategic alliance,this paper firstly examines the impact of the control mechanism in the strategic alliance on the coordinative efficiency and opportunistic risks of the alliance,and then it tests the different impacts of coordinative efficiency and opportunistic risks on the performances of the alliance members.The empirical results indicate that the formal contract control can efficiently resolve the problem of opportunistic risks in the boundary dilemma,so as to improve the performance of the alliance members;whereas the informal social control including relation control and information technology control can efficiently solve the problem of coordinative efficiency in the boundary dilemma,so as to improve the performance of the alliance members.These findings can enrich and extend existing literature in strategic alliance management and provide significant empirical evidences and theoretical supports for the strategic alliance members to resolve boundary dilemma and further enhance alliance cooperative performance.

Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance (RCTA) 2011 Baseline Assessment Experimental Strategy

Science.gov (United States)

2011-09-01

Traversal over different surfaces— climbing stairs , negotiating ditches, etc.—is an inherent mobility concern. The platform capability of moving over...2 design, not run in a factorial manner. a. Goal: To establish a baseline for the height and type of stairs the SUGV is willing to climb . b...bricks to adjust heights of platforms)? (GDRS will handle this.) • Do we want to add something like bags of mulch as steps for the robot to climb or

Knowledge acquisition and complementary specialization in alliances : The impact of technological overlap and alliance experience

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kavusan, Korcan; Noorderhaven, Niels G.; Duysters, Geert M.

2016-01-01

While alliances are widely acknowledged to facilitate knowledge transfers across firms, alliances also allow partnering firms to combine technological capabilities toward joint innovation outcomes through complementary specialization. We examine how technological overlap and alliance experience -

Contractual Alliance Governance: Impact of Different Contract Functions on Alliance Performance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Faems, D.L.M.; Alberink, Rutger; Groen, Arend J.; Klein Woolthuis, Rosalinde

2010-01-01

Recent research on alliance governance has emphasized that contracts can have both a control and coordination function. In this paper, we test the impact of these different contract functions on alliance performance. Conducting structural equation analyses on a sample of 270 Dutch technology

Enacting the alliance : towards a role-based theory of alliance implementation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Noorderhaven, N.G.; Peeters, T.J.G.; Elst, van den J.; Das, T.K.

2011-01-01

Alliance research has tended to neglect the roles of individual managers and employees. However, firms are no unitary actors but complex social systems comprising individuals whose mindsets and interests influence an alliance. Building on organizational role theory we distinguish between three types

Trust in Strategic Alliances

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Bo

2011-01-01

This article examines the dynamic and multi-dimensional nature of trust in strategic alliances. Adopting a co-evolutionary approach, I developed a framework to show how trust, conceptualised in different forms, plays distinct roles at various evolutionary stages of the alliance relationship....... Emphasising the multi-dimensional and dynamic role of trust, the framework illustrates how initial levels of a particular type of trust may co-evolve with the alliance and influence subsequent phases of the relationship – either on its own or in combination with other types or dimensions of trust....... The theoretical distinction between trust as antecedent, moderator and outcome during the evolution of the alliance relationship leads to research questions that may guide future empirical research....

Alliances: Are they effective?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wardt, J. de

1997-01-01

Concern is growing in the oil field that alliances are not doing as well as they should be. Have they been adopted as a panacea without sufficient understanding of what they are and how to implement them? That question is answered in this analysis, which is organized as follows: a changing industry--two key trend drivers; entering a new era of organizing and managing systems; types of contracts--alliances vs. fixed and incentive contracts, limitations of discounting; oilfield alliances--new solutions are needed to improve the system; change/commitments--how changes are being implemented by the innovators, how many really support it; and alliances take effort and time--why it isn't easy to do it right

Control of free-flying space robot manipulator systems

Science.gov (United States)

Cannon, Robert H., Jr.

1990-01-01

New control techniques for self contained, autonomous free flying space robots were developed and tested experimentally. Free flying robots are envisioned as a key element of any successful long term presence in space. These robots must be capable of performing the assembly, maintenance, and inspection, and repair tasks that currently require human extravehicular activity (EVA). A set of research projects were developed and carried out using lab models of satellite robots and a flexible manipulator. The second generation space robot models use air cushion vehicle (ACV) technology to simulate in 2-D the drag free, zero g conditions of space. The current work is divided into 5 major projects: Global Navigation and Control of a Free Floating Robot, Cooperative Manipulation from a Free Flying Robot, Multiple Robot Cooperation, Thrusterless Robotic Locomotion, and Dynamic Payload Manipulation. These projects are examined in detail.

DETERMINING INTERNATIONAL STRATEGIC ALLIANCE PER-FORMANCE

OpenAIRE

Nielsen, Bo Bernhard

2002-01-01

This paper considers the relationship between subjective measures of international al-liance performance and a set of variables, which may act as predictors of success before the alliance is formed (pre-alliance formation factors), and a set of variables which emerge during the operation of the alliance (post-alliance formation factors). The empiri-cal study, based on a web-survey, investigates a sample of Danish partner firms engaged in 48 equity joint ventures and 70 non-equity joint ventur...

THE ALLIANCE FORMATION PROCESS

OpenAIRE

Whipple, Judith M.; Frankel, Robert

1998-01-01

While interest in developing strategic alliances within the food system continues to increase, there remains considerable risk when firms adopt such a cooperative strategy. The risk is due in part to the lack of concrete guidelines that illustrate the steps or stages of alliance development and the important strategic and operational decisions required at each stage. The existence of such guidelines would facilitate alliance formation and enable managers and researchers to better understand a...

Simulation tools for robotics research and assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Fields, MaryAnne; Brewer, Ralph; Edge, Harris L.; Pusey, Jason L.; Weller, Ed; Patel, Dilip G.; DiBerardino, Charles A.

2016-05-01

The Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance (RCTA) program focuses on four overlapping technology areas: Perception, Intelligence, Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), and Dexterous Manipulation and Unique Mobility (DMUM). In addition, the RCTA program has a requirement to assess progress of this research in standalone as well as integrated form. Since the research is evolving and the robotic platforms with unique mobility and dexterous manipulation are in the early development stage and very expensive, an alternate approach is needed for efficient assessment. Simulation of robotic systems, platforms, sensors, and algorithms, is an attractive alternative to expensive field-based testing. Simulation can provide insight during development and debugging unavailable by many other means. This paper explores the maturity of robotic simulation systems for applications to real-world problems in robotic systems research. Open source (such as Gazebo and Moby), commercial (Simulink, Actin, LMS), government (ANVEL/VANE), and the RCTA-developed RIVET simulation environments are examined with respect to their application in the robotic research domains of Perception, Intelligence, HRI, and DMUM. Tradeoffs for applications to representative problems from each domain are presented, along with known deficiencies and disadvantages. In particular, no single robotic simulation environment adequately covers the needs of the robotic researcher in all of the domains. Simulation for DMUM poses unique constraints on the development of physics-based computational models of the robot, the environment and objects within the environment, and the interactions between them. Most current robot simulations focus on quasi-static systems, but dynamic robotic motion places an increased emphasis on the accuracy of the computational models. In order to understand the interaction of dynamic multi-body systems, such as limbed robots, with the environment, it may be necessary to build component

Learning in strategic technology alliances

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schoenmakers, W.W.M.E.; Duysters, G.M.

2006-01-01

In this paper we examine the influence of strategic technology alliances on organisational learning. From an empirical perspective we examine the pre- and post-alliance knowledge bases of allying firms. We find that the pre-alliance knowledge base overlap of the allying firms has an inverted

Trade and the Development of the Pacific Alliance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Armando Hernández Bernal

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The Pacific Alliance is a process of deep integration among Colombia, Chile, Peru and Mexico, which aims to build a free trade area and to project into the Asia-Pacific region, in order to enhance existing trade agreements among the members. There is no deep trade relationships among these four countries, despite having regional agreements since the 1990s, as demonstrated by the low volume of reciprocal exports and imports, in addition to the low indicator of intra-industrial trade. In this paper, intra-regional trade index is calculated among the countries of the Pacific Alliance, evidencing low indicators, but with a growth, encouraged by reciprocal or unilateral policies of commercial opening, and by an environment favoring economic growth throughout the region.

Experiential Learning of Robotics Fundamentals Based on a Case Study of Robot-Assisted Stereotactic Neurosurgery

Science.gov (United States)

Faria, Carlos; Vale, Carolina; Machado, Toni; Erlhagen, Wolfram; Rito, Manuel; Monteiro, Sérgio; Bicho, Estela

2016-01-01

Robotics has been playing an important role in modern surgery, especially in procedures that require extreme precision, such as neurosurgery. This paper addresses the challenge of teaching robotics to undergraduate engineering students, through an experiential learning project of robotics fundamentals based on a case study of robot-assisted…

Robotics at Savannah River

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Byrd, J.S.

1983-01-01

A Robotics Technology Group was organized at the Savannah River Laboratory in August 1982. Many potential applications have been identified that will improve personnel safety, reduce operating costs, and increase productivity using modern robotics and automation. Several active projects are under way to procure robots, to develop unique techniques and systems for the site's processes, and to install the systems in the actual work environments. The projects and development programs are involved in the following general application areas: (1) glove boxes and shielded cell facilities, (2) laboratory chemical processes, (3) fabrication processes for reactor fuel assemblies, (4) sampling processes for separation areas, (5) emergency response in reactor areas, (6) fuel handling in reactor areas, and (7) remote radiation monitoring systems. A Robotics Development Laboratory has been set up for experimental and development work and for demonstration of robotic systems

Teaching Functional Patterns through Robotic Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Boender

2016-11-01

Full Text Available We present our approach to teaching functional programming to First Year Computer Science students at Middlesex University through projects in robotics. A holistic approach is taken to the curriculum, emphasising the connections between different subject areas. A key part of the students' learning is through practical projects that draw upon and integrate the taught material. To support these, we developed the Middlesex Robotic plaTfOrm (MIRTO, an open-source platform built using Raspberry Pi, Arduino, HUB-ee wheels and running Racket (a LISP dialect. In this paper we present the motivations for our choices and explain how a number of concepts of functional programming may be employed when programming robotic applications. We present some students' work with robotics projects: we consider the use of robotics projects to have been a success, both for their value in reinforcing students' understanding of programming concepts and for their value in motivating the students.

Strategic Alliances: the Potential for Russian Nanoindustry

OpenAIRE

Inshakova Elena Ivanovna

2015-01-01

Strategic alliances as a form of interfirm cooperation (including international cooperation) increase the potential of solving large-scale problems of national nanoindustry development, providing synergy of participants resources united by the principle of complementarity and substitution in the process of joint implementation of complex R&D programs, mobilization and input of significant financial, material, technical and intellectual resources of the participants in nanotechnology projects....

Robotics research at Electrotechnical Laboratory-R and D program for advanced robot technology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wakamatsu, S; Akahori, H; Shirai, Y; Kakikura, M

1983-01-01

The purposes of this paper are both to introduce the outline of robotics researches at Electrotechnical Laboratory and to describe the relation between those researches and the national project so called robotics for critical work. The authors first describe the robotics researches and related topics historically which have been continued from the latter half of 1960s as a part of researches on artificial intelligence at Electrotechnical Laboratory. Secondly, they mention the present aspects of our researches, its relation with past results, and changes of basic concepts on robotics systems. Finally, as an extension of our researches, they propose some approaches to establish the following techniques which make very important roles for the success of the national project; (1) manipulation techniques, (2) sensor techniques, (3) autonomous robot control techniques, (4) advanced tele-operation techniques and, (5) system totalizing techniques. 15 references.

BARRIERS OF STRATEGIC ALLIANCES ORGANIZATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladislav M. Sannikov

2014-01-01

Full Text Available General barriers of organization of different types of strategic alliances have beenconsidered in the article. There are several recommendations for overcoming themin cases of international alliances, and in case of work in one state. The article also identified goals and tasks of single coordination center of alliance to overcome organization barriers.

Space applications of Automation, Robotics and Machine Intelligence Systems (ARAMIS). Volume 2: Space projects overview

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, R. H.; Minsky, M. L.; Smith, D. B. S.

1982-01-01

Applications of automation, robotics, and machine intelligence systems (ARAMIS) to space activities, and their related ground support functions are studied so that informed decisions can be made on which aspects of ARAMIS to develop. The space project breakdowns, which are used to identify tasks ('functional elements'), are described. The study method concentrates on the production of a matrix relating space project tasks to pieces of ARAMIS.

The private partners of public health: public-private alliances for public good.

Science.gov (United States)

McDonnell, Sharon; Bryant, Carol; Harris, Jeff; Campbell, Marci Kramish; Lobb, Ano; Hannon, Peggy A; Cross, Jeffrey L; Gray, Barbara

2009-04-01

We sought to convey lessons learned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Prevention Research Centers (PRCs) about the value and challenges of private-sector alliances resulting in innovative health promotion strategies. Several PRCs based in a variety of workplace and community settings contributed. We conducted interviews with principal investigators, a literature review, and a review of case studies of private-sector alliances in a microbusiness model, a macrobusiness model, and as multiparty partnerships supporting public health research, implementation, and human resource services. Private-sector alliances provide many advantages, particularly access to specialized skills generally beyond the expertise of public health entities. These skills include manufacturing, distribution, marketing, business planning, and development. Alliances also allow ready access to employee populations. Public health entities can offer private-sector partners funding opportunities through special grants, data gathering and analysis skills, and enhanced project credibility and trust. Challenges to successful partnerships include time and resource availability and negotiating the cultural divide between public health and the private sector. Critical to success are knowledge of organizational culture, values, mission, currency, and methods of operation; an understanding of and ability to articulate the benefits of the alliance for each partner; and the ability and time to respond to unexpected changes and opportunities. Private-public health alliances are challenging, and developing them takes time and resources, but aspects of these alliances can capitalize on partners' strengths, counteract weaknesses, and build collaborations that produce better outcomes than otherwise possible. Private partners may be necessary for program initiation or success. CDC guidelines and support materials may help nurture these alliances.

Modular Platform for Commercial Mobile Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kjærgaard, Morten

, and not on putting the robots on the commercial market. At the time when this research project was started in May 2010, the amount of successful commercial applications based on mobile robots was very limited. The most known applications were vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, and few examples of specialized transport...... by the individual groups and perhaps a few close industrial partners. This research project addresses the problem of increasing the potential for more commercial applications based on mobile wheeled robots. Therefore the main focus is not on inventing new ground-breaking robotics technology, but instead...... period, a signicant research community was created around one specific robot control framework called ROS. From the very beginning,this research project acknowledged the value of such a community, and put a significant eort into in uencing the ROS framework to become usable also for industry...

A model of strategic marketing alliances for hospices: vertical, internal, osmotic alliances and the complete model.

Science.gov (United States)

Starnes, B J; Self, D R

1999-01-01

This article develops two previous research efforts. William J. Winston (1994, 1995) has proposed a set of strategies by which health care organizations can benefit from forging strategic alliances. Raadt and Self (1997) have proposed a classification model of alliances including horizontal, vertical, internal, and osmotic. In the second of two articles, this paper presents a model of vertical, internal, and osmotic alliances. Advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed. Finally, the complete alliance system model is presented.

Remote controlled data collector robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jozsef Suto

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Today a general need for robots assisting different human activities rises. The goal of the present project is to develop a prototyping robot, which provides facilities for attaching and fitting different kinds of sensors and actuators. This robot provides an easy way to turn a general purpose robot into a special function one.

Strategic alliances and market risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Havenaar, Matthias; Hiscocks, Peter

2012-08-01

Strategic alliances in product development and marketing are crucial to the biotechnology industry. Many alliances, however, are terminated before the drug reaches the market. In this article we make the case that strategic alliances can fail because of how they are negotiated. Alliance contracts are often inflexible and do not allow for changes in market conditions. We propose a model for contract valuation that can assist biotech and/or pharma deal makers in negotiating alliances that have a higher chance of survival in uncertain market conditions. The model makes use of variable royalties and milestone payments. Because licensing is key to the biotech and/or pharma business model this article will be of interest not only to professionals in licensing, but to all professionals active in the industry. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Disentangling the change-alliance relationship: Observational assessment of the therapeutic alliance during change and stuck episodes.

Science.gov (United States)

Mellado, Augusto; Suárez, Nicolás; Altimir, Carolina; Martínez, Claudio; Pérez, Janet; Krause, Mariane; Horvath, Adam

2017-09-01

The therapeutic alliance is considered the most robust process variable associated with positive therapeutic outcome in a variety of psychotherapeutic models [Alexander, L. B., & Luborsky, L. (1986). The Penn Helping Alliance Scales. In L. S. Greenberg & W. M. Pinsoff (Eds.), The psychotherapeutic process: A research handbook (pp. 325-356). New York: Guilford Press; Horvath, A. O., Gaston, L., & Luborsky, L. (1993). The alliance as predictor of benefits of counseling and therapy. In N. Miller, L. Luborsky, J. Barber, & J. P. Docherty (Eds.), Psychodynamic treatment research: A handbook for clinical practice (pp. 247-274). New York, NY: Basic Books; Horvath, A. O., Del Re, A. C., Flückiger, C., & Symonds, D. (2011). Alliance in individual psychotherapy. Psychotherapy, 48, 9-16; Orlinky, D., Grawe, K., & Parks, B. (1994). Process and outcome in psychotherapy: Noch einmal. In A. Bergin & J. S. Garfield (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy and behaviour change (4th ed., pp. 270-378). New York, NY: Wiley and Sons]. The relationship between alliance and outcome has traditionally been studied based on measures that assess these therapy factors at a global level. However, the specific variations of the alliance process and their association with therapy segments that are relevant for change have not yet been fully examined. The present study examines the variations in the therapeutic alliance in 73 significant in-session events: 35 change and 38 stuck episodes identified through the observation of 14 short-term therapies of different theoretical orientations. Variations in the alliance were assessed using the VTAS-SF [Shelef, K., & Diamond, G. (2008). Short form of the revised Vanderbilt Therapeutic Alliance Scale: Development, reliability, and validity. Psychotherapy Research, 18, 433-443]. Nested analyses (HLM) indicate a statistically significant better quality of the alliance during change episodes.

Multi-robot motion control for cooperative observation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parker, L.E. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research

1997-06-01

An important issue that arises in the automation of many security, surveillance, and reconnaissance tasks is that of monitoring (or observing) the movements of targets navigating in a bounded area of interest. A key research issue in these problems is that of sensor placement--determining where sensors should be located to maintain the targets in view. In complex applications involving limited-range sensors, the use of multiple sensors dynamically moving over time is required. In this paper, the authors investigate the use of a cooperative team of autonomous sensor-based robots for the observation of multiple moving targets. They focus primarily on developing the distributed control strategies that allow the robot team to attempt to minimize the total time in which targets escape observation by some robot team member in the area of interest. This paper first formalizes the problem and discusses related work. The authors then present a distributed approximate approach to solving this problem that combines low-level multi-robot control with higher-level reasoning control based on the ALLIANCE formalism. They analyze the effectiveness of the approach by comparing it to 3 other feasible algorithms for cooperative control, showing the superiority of the approach for a large class of problems.

Multi-robot motion control for cooperative observation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parker, L.E.

1997-01-01

An important issue that arises in the automation of many security, surveillance, and reconnaissance tasks is that of monitoring (or observing) the movements of targets navigating in a bounded area of interest. A key research issue in these problems is that of sensor placement--determining where sensors should be located to maintain the targets in view. In complex applications involving limited-range sensors, the use of multiple sensors dynamically moving over time is required. In this paper, the authors investigate the use of a cooperative team of autonomous sensor-based robots for the observation of multiple moving targets. They focus primarily on developing the distributed control strategies that allow the robot team to attempt to minimize the total time in which targets escape observation by some robot team member in the area of interest. This paper first formalizes the problem and discusses related work. The authors then present a distributed approximate approach to solving this problem that combines low-level multi-robot control with higher-level reasoning control based on the ALLIANCE formalism. They analyze the effectiveness of the approach by comparing it to 3 other feasible algorithms for cooperative control, showing the superiority of the approach for a large class of problems

Interpartner Legitimacy in the Alliance Development Process

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kumar, Rajesh; Das, T.K.

2007-01-01

We propose a framework to understand interpartner legitimacy in strategic alliances. Interpartner legitimacy is the mutual acknowledgment by the alliance partners that their actions are proper in the developmental processes of the alliance. We argue that interpartner legitimacy is needed...... legitimacy in different alliance types. Finally, we derive propositions for further research, and discuss strategies that alliance managers can adopt to develop interpartner legitimacy....

Robots in the Roses

OpenAIRE

2014-01-01

2014-04 Robots in the Roses A CRUSER Sponsored Event. The 4th Annual Robots in the Roses provides a venue for Faculty & NPS Students to showcase unmanned systems research (current or completed) and recruit NPS Students to join in researching on your project. Posters, robots, vehicles, videos, and even just plain humans welcome! Families are welcome to attend Robots in the Roses as we'll have a STEM activity for children to participate in.

The problem of formation of strategic oil-gas research alliance's in the Caspian region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kovalenko, V.S.; Silantiev, I.D.; Skorobogatov, V.A.

2002-01-01

Full text : Common information is given here concerning the Caspian region that is located in the juncture zone of two regions : European and Western Asian. While the European region is a great centre of gas consumption, the Western Asian region contains the largest gas accumulation. Gas supply from Iran, Iraq, Turkmenia in the western direction requires strategic alliances in development of hydrocarbon potential. Also project investments on PSA base are more developed. Russia uses PSA mechanisms and strategic alliance formation. Reasons for strategic alliance formation for every company are widely described. Analysis of seismic data proves existence of anomalies of hydrocarbon pool type to filter the prospect portfolio, geological information complex analysis and preparation materials for oil and gas atlas formation. Peculiarity of Caspian region determine the necessing of international strategic alliance for decision infrastructure formation and ecosystem conservation

Software for Project-Based Learning of Robot Motion Planning

Science.gov (United States)

Moll, Mark; Bordeaux, Janice; Kavraki, Lydia E.

2013-01-01

Motion planning is a core problem in robotics concerned with finding feasible paths for a given robot. Motion planning algorithms perform a search in the high-dimensional continuous space of robot configurations and exemplify many of the core algorithmic concepts of search algorithms and associated data structures. Motion planning algorithms can…

The evidence base for successful alliancing

OpenAIRE

Hutchinson, Linda; Spalburg, Nadine

2016-01-01

Introduction: There is increasing recognition that collaborative and integrated working is needed to meet the challenges faced in UK health and care and other public funded services. Alliances and alliance contracts have generated interest as a possible tool that commissioners can use to drive collaboration. There are examples in healthcare from New Zealand and recent alliance developments in services in England.In adopting alliance methodologies for the context of public sector commissioning...

Decentralized Sensor Fusion for Ubiquitous Networking Robotics in Urban Areas

Science.gov (United States)

Sanfeliu, Alberto; Andrade-Cetto, Juan; Barbosa, Marco; Bowden, Richard; Capitán, Jesús; Corominas, Andreu; Gilbert, Andrew; Illingworth, John; Merino, Luis; Mirats, Josep M.; Moreno, Plínio; Ollero, Aníbal; Sequeira, João; Spaan, Matthijs T.J.

2010-01-01

In this article we explain the architecture for the environment and sensors that has been built for the European project URUS (Ubiquitous Networking Robotics in Urban Sites), a project whose objective is to develop an adaptable network robot architecture for cooperation between network robots and human beings and/or the environment in urban areas. The project goal is to deploy a team of robots in an urban area to give a set of services to a user community. This paper addresses the sensor architecture devised for URUS and the type of robots and sensors used, including environment sensors and sensors onboard the robots. Furthermore, we also explain how sensor fusion takes place to achieve urban outdoor execution of robotic services. Finally some results of the project related to the sensor network are highlighted. PMID:22294927

Building a Better Robot

Science.gov (United States)

Navah, Jan

2012-01-01

Kids love to build robots, letting their imaginations run wild with thoughts of what they might look like and what they could be programmed to do. Yet when students use cereal boxes and found objects to make robots, often the projects look too similar and tend to fall apart. This alternative allows students to "build" robots in a different way,…

Electronics and Software Engineer for Robotics Project Intern

Science.gov (United States)

Teijeiro, Antonio

2017-01-01

I was assigned to mentor high school students for the 2017 First Robotics Competition. Using a team based approach, I worked with the students to program the robot and applied my electrical background to build the robot from start to finish. I worked with students who had an interest in electrical engineering to teach them about voltage, current, pulse width modulation, solenoids, electromagnets, relays, DC motors, DC motor controllers, crimping and soldering electrical components, Java programming, and robotic simulation. For the simulation, we worked together to generate graphics files, write simulator description format code, operate Linux, and operate SOLIDWORKS. Upon completion of the FRC season, I transitioned over to providing full time support for the LCS hardware team. During this phase of my internship I helped my co-intern write test steps for two networking hardware DVTs , as well as run cables and update cable running lists.

Technology evaluation report for the Buried Waste Robotics Program Subsurface Mapping Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Griebenow, B.E.

1992-01-01

This document presents a summary of the work performed in support of the Buried Waste Robotics Program Subsurface Mapping Project. The project objective was to demonstrate the feasibility of remotely characterizing buried waste sites. To fulfill this objective, a remotely-operated vehicle, equipped with several sensors, was deployed at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. Descriptions of the equipment and areas involved in the project are included in this report. Additionally, this document provides data that was obtained during characterization operations at the Cold Test Pit and the Subsurface Disposal Area, both at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory's Radioactive Waste Management Complex, and at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant. The knowledge gained from the experience, that can be applied to the next generation remote-characterization system, is extensive and is presented in this report

Smart mobile robot system for rubbish collection

Science.gov (United States)

Ali, Mohammed A. H.; Sien Siang, Tan

2018-03-01

This paper records the research and procedures of developing a smart mobility robot with detection system to collect rubbish. The objective of this paper is to design a mobile robot that can detect and recognize medium-size rubbish such as drinking cans. Besides that, the objective is also to design a mobile robot with the ability to estimate the position of rubbish from the robot. In addition, the mobile robot is also able to approach the rubbish based on position of rubbish. This paper explained about the types of image processing, detection and recognition methods and image filters. This project implements RGB subtraction method as the prior system. Other than that, algorithm for distance measurement based on image plane is implemented in this project. This project is limited to use computer webcam as the sensor. Secondly, the robot is only able to approach the nearest rubbish in the same views of camera vision and any rubbish that contain RGB colour components on its body.

Decentralized Sensor Fusion for Ubiquitous Networking Robotics in Urban Areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aníbal Ollero

2010-03-01

Full Text Available In this article we explain the architecture for the environment and sensors that has been built for the European project URUS (Ubiquitous Networking Robotics in Urban Sites, a project whose objective is to develop an adaptable network robot architecture for cooperation between network robots and human beings and/or the environment in urban areas. The project goal is to deploy a team of robots in an urban area to give a set of services to a user community. This paper addresses the sensor architecture devised for URUS and the type of robots and sensors used, including environment sensors and sensors onboard the robots. Furthermore, we also explain how sensor fusion takes place to achieve urban outdoor execution of robotic services. Finally some results of the project related to the sensor network are highlighted.

RHOBOT: Radiation hardened robotics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bennett, P.C.; Posey, L.D. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

1997-10-01

A survey of robotic applications in radioactive environments has been conducted, and analysis of robotic system components and their response to the varying types and strengths of radiation has been completed. Two specific robotic systems for accident recovery and nuclear fuel movement have been analyzed in detail for radiation hardness. Finally, a general design approach for radiation-hardened robotics systems has been developed and is presented. This report completes this project which was funded under the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.

RHOBOT: Radiation hardened robotics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bennett, P.C.; Posey, L.D.

1997-10-01

A survey of robotic applications in radioactive environments has been conducted, and analysis of robotic system components and their response to the varying types and strengths of radiation has been completed. Two specific robotic systems for accident recovery and nuclear fuel movement have been analyzed in detail for radiation hardness. Finally, a general design approach for radiation-hardened robotics systems has been developed and is presented. This report completes this project which was funded under the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program

Alliance group formation: enabling and constraining effects of embeddedness and social capital in strategic technology alliance networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Duysters, G.M.; Lemmens, C.E.A.V.

2003-01-01

The role of embeddedness and social capital in the process of alliance group formation in strategic technology alliance networks is examined. In particular, the social mechanisms that enable and enforce alliance group formation is studies. It is argued that the enabling effect of embeddedness during

Beef alliances: motivations, extent, and future prospects.

Science.gov (United States)

Schroeder, Ted C; Kovanda, Joseph

2003-07-01

With their growth, it is important to consider how alliances will impact the beef industry in the future. Alliances have the potential to make sweeping changes to cattle production, live and feeder cattle marketing, food safety protocols, use of government grades and standards, ownership structure, supply chain management, wholesale and retail product marketing, risk management, and many other industry activities. In an effort to address these issues, this article addresses the following questions: What is an alliance? What has motivated their proliferation? What have we learned from alliances? What aspects of alliances affect their likelihood of success or failure? What is the future of alliances? Are they a fad or a long-term evolving industry structural change?

Distributed multi-robot sensing and tracking: a behavior-based approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parker, L.E.

1995-01-01

An important issue that arises in the automation of many large-scale surveillance and reconnaissance tasks is that of tracking the movements of (or maintaining passive contact with) objects navigating in a bounded area of interest. Oftentimes in these problems, the area to be monitored will move over time or will not permit fixed sensors, thus requiring a team of mobile sensors -- or robots -- to monitor the area collectively. In these situations, the robots must not only have mechanisms for determining how to track objects and how to fuse information from neighboring robots, but they must also have distributed control strategies for ensuring that the entire area of interest is continually covered to the greatest extent possible. This paper focuses on the distributed control issue by describing a proposed decentralized control mechanism that allows a team of robots to collectively track and monitor objects in an uncluttered area of interest. The approach is based upon an extension to the ALLIANCE behavior-based architecture that generalizes from the domain of loosely-coupled, independent applications to the domain of strongly cooperative applications, in which the action selection of a robot is dependent upon the actions selected by its teammates. We conclude the paper by describing our ongoing implementation of the proposed approach on a team of four mobile robots

Distributed multi-robot sensing and tracking: a behavior-based approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parker, L.E.

1995-12-31

An important issue that arises in the automation of many large-scale surveillance and reconnaissance tasks is that of tracking the movements of (or maintaining passive contact with) objects navigating in a bounded area of interest. Oftentimes in these problems, the area to be monitored will move over time or will not permit fixed sensors, thus requiring a team of mobile sensors -- or robots -- to monitor the area collectively. In these situations, the robots must not only have mechanisms for determining how to track objects and how to fuse information from neighboring robots, but they must also have distributed control strategies for ensuring that the entire area of interest is continually covered to the greatest extent possible. This paper focuses on the distributed control issue by describing a proposed decentralized control mechanism that allows a team of robots to collectively track and monitor objects in an uncluttered area of interest. The approach is based upon an extension to the ALLIANCE behavior-based architecture that generalizes from the domain of loosely-coupled, independent applications to the domain of strongly cooperative applications, in which the action selection of a robot is dependent upon the actions selected by its teammates. We conclude the paper by describing our ongoing implementation of the proposed approach on a team of four mobile robots.

Surveillance robot for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

White, J.R.; Harvey, H.W.; Satterlee, P.E. Jr.

1985-01-01

A demonstration project to determine the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of mobile surveillance robots in nuclear power plants is being conducted by the Remote Technology Corporation (REMOTEC) for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Phase I of the project was completed in March 1984 and included a survey of currently used robotic equipment and the development of a robotics application methodology. Three Tennessee Valley Authority plants were analyzed to identify specific plant areas with a high potential for surveillance robotics. Based on these results, a number of robotic system applications were prepared and evaluated for cost-effectiveness. The system with the highest potential, a mobile surveillance robot, was selected for fabrication and in-plant demonstration testing in a phase II effort. The design, fabrication, and assembly of SURBOT has been completed and cold testing is in process. It will be installed at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant early in 1986 for demonstration testing. Current projections are that SURBOT can be used in approx.40 rooms within the auxiliary building and will have annual savings of over 100 person-rem exposure, 1000 sets of C-zone clothing, and 1000 person-hours of labor

Evaluation of an academic service partnership using a strategic alliance framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, Teri A; James, Dorothy C

2012-01-01

Strategic alliances involve the sharing of resources to achieve mutually relevant benefits and they are flexible ways to access resources outside of one's own institution. The recent landmark report from the Institute of Medicine, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, called for academic and health care organizations to strategically align around the future registered nurse workforce to improve the quality and safety of patient care. The dedicated education unit (DEU) is one practical way for 2 entities to align so that students can learn to administer safe, quality care. Because DEUs have great potential, it is critical to evaluate the alignment between the academic and service partner for appropriate fit, mutual benefit, and long-term success. In this article, we analyze the effectiveness of the Saint Louis University School of Nursing (SLUSON) and Mercy Hospital, St. Louis (MHSL) DEU project, an alliance between a medical center and school of nursing, using the Single Alliance Key Success Model. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Complementarities of internal R&D and alliances with different partner types

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Noseleit, F.; De Faria, P.

2013-01-01

In many innovation projects firms search for external knowledge sources since they cannot rely solely on their own R&D efforts. This study of technology alliances argues that collaborations with external partners affect the innovation output of firms not only directly but also indirectly by

Matching food service products to consumer demands through product development alliances and modularisation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Johanne Rønnow

2009-01-01

of product development managers (with the main themes food trends, meal solutions and product development alliances), as well as data from sensory studies of interactions between meal components. Apart from the quality cycle mentioned above, the research has generated the tools listed below to be applied......, more specifically, meal solutions. The results of this research contribute to the knowledge base on product development in the food industry, mainly regarding quality, product development alliances and modularisation,and fill several gaps in the literature. Future research should focus on further...... in the composition of meal solutions and, therefore cannot control all processing steps and interactions with other meal components. In this project, it is proposed that cooperation between food producers on product development (product development alliances) in relation to meal solutions can improve the quality...

Strategic alliances in engineering, technology and development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jazrawi, W.

1991-01-01

The role of strategic alliances in the development of heavy oil resources, both mineable and in-situ, is discussed. A strategic alliance is defined as a custom designed, long term collaborative working arrangement between two parties to pool, exchange, and integrate their resources to maximize mutual gain. A combination of one or more of the following success factors is seen as contributing to the unlocking of static heavy oil resources: sufficiently high and sustained crude oil prices; strategic intent to pursue heavy oil development regardless of short-term setbacks or economic downturns; technology breakthroughs that can reduce bitumen supply and upgrading costs; and strategic alliances. An idealized model for strategic alliances designed to help develop heavy oil resources is illustrated. The advantages and pitfalls involved in strategic alliances are listed along with the characteristics of viable contract agreements for such alliances. Some examples of strategic alliances in engineering and technology development are presented from Alberta experience. 2 figs., 1 tab

Intelligent robots for nuclear power plant inspection and surveillance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyazawa, Tatsuo; Suzuki, Kazumi; Fujie, Hideo; Fujii, Masaaki; Asai, Takashi; Sugimoto, Hiroshi.

1986-01-01

Recently, the research and development of robotizing the patrol and works in nuclear power plants have been actively carried out since the TMI-2 accident in March, 1979. In this paper, among these robots, six examples of the movable robots, of which the working and movement were intellectualized by using information processing techniques and others, are reported, and their intellectualization is concretely discussed. In Japan, the development of the supporting system for nuclear power generation was carried out for five years from fiscal year 1980 as the project subsidized by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and during this period, the inspection robots for LWR plants were developed. The development of the robots for ultimate working as the large scale project of the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology aiming at further heightening the function is in progress as the eight-year project from fiscal year 1983. Monorail type automatic surveillance robots, system maintenance robots 'AMOOTY', variable crawler type intelligent movable robots, hybrid running type intelligent movable robots, monorail running type small checkup robots, and floor running type checkup and light work robots are reported. Sense information processing control and a robot language processor for expanding the function of autonomous control are outlined. (Kako, I.)

Sensory Robot Gripper

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Drimus, Alin

The project researches and proposes a tactile sensor system for equipping robotic grippers, thus giving them a sense of touch. We start by reviewing work that covers the building of tactile sensors and we focus on the flexible sensors with multiple sensing elements. As the piezoresistive, capacit......The project researches and proposes a tactile sensor system for equipping robotic grippers, thus giving them a sense of touch. We start by reviewing work that covers the building of tactile sensors and we focus on the flexible sensors with multiple sensing elements. As the piezoresistive......, such as establishing of contact, release of contact or slip. The proposed applications are just a few examples of the advantages of equipping robotic grippers with such a tactile sensor system, that is robust, fast, affordable, adaptable to any kind of gripper and has properties similar to the human sense of touch....... Based on experimental validation, we are confident that our proposed tactile sensor solution can be successfully employed in other application areas like reactive grasping, exploration of unknown objects, slip avoidance, dexterous manipulation or service robotics....

The Balancer Policy Reviewed from the Perspective of the ROK-U.S. Alliance: Toward a Mature ROK-U.S. Alliance

Science.gov (United States)

2006-12-01

one of Korea’s ancient three kingdoms, existed for 700 years ruled by 26 wise kings ) in the papers of the Northeast Project, a government-funded...Relations,” in Korea-U.S. Relations in Transition, ed. Baek Jong-chun and Lee Sang-hyun (Sungnam: Sejong Institute, 2002). 51 military alliance it was...President, President’s Roh’s Inauguration Announcement, Vol. 1, Secretary Office, 2003. 62 Sejong Laboratory, National strategy for 21st century

Fostering change within organizational participants of multisectoral health care alliances.

Science.gov (United States)

Hearld, Larry R; Alexander, Jeffrey A; Mittler, Jessica N

2012-01-01

A touted advantage of multisectoral health care alliances is their ability to coordinate diverse constituencies and pursue community health goals in ways that allow them to make greater progress than each constituency could independently. However, participating organizations may have goals that do not entirely overlap or necessarily align with the alliance's goals, which can weaken or undermine an alliance's efforts. Fostering changes within participating organizations in ways that are consistent with the alliance's goals (i.e., alliance-oriented change) may be one mechanism by which alliances can coordinate diverse activities and improve care in their local communities. We examined whether alliance-oriented change within participating organizations is associated with alliance decision-making and conflict management style, level of participation, perceptions of alliance participation benefits and costs, and awareness of alliance activities within participating organizations. The study used two rounds of survey data collected from organizational participants of 14 alliances participating in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Aligning Forces for Quality program. Alliance participants generally reported low levels of alliance-oriented change within their organizations as a result of the alliance and its activities. However, participants reporting higher levels of internal change in response to alliance activities had more positive perceptions of alliance decision-making style, higher levels of participation in alliance activities, more positive perceptions of alliance participation benefits relative to costs, and greater awareness of alliance activities across multiple levels of their respective organizations. Despite relatively low levels of alliance-oriented change within participating organizations, alliances may still have the means to align the goal orientations of a diverse membership and foster change that may extend the reach of the alliance in the community.

The Walk-Man Robot Software Architecture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirko Ferrati

2016-05-01

Full Text Available A software and control architecture for a humanoid robot is a complex and large project, which involves a team of developers/researchers to be coordinated and requires many hard design choices. If such project has to be done in a very limited time, i.e., less than 1 year, more constraints are added and concepts, such as modular design, code reusability, and API definition, need to be used as much as possible. In this work, we describe the software architecture developed for Walk-Man, a robot participant at the Darpa Robotics Challenge. The challenge required the robot to execute many different tasks, such as walking, driving a car, and manipulating objects. These tasks need to be solved by robotics specialists in their corresponding research field, such as humanoid walking, motion planning, or object manipulation. The proposed architecture was developed in 10 months, provided boilerplate code for most of the functionalities required to control a humanoid robot and allowed robotics researchers to produce their control modules for DRC tasks in a short time. Additional capabilities of the architecture include firmware and hardware management, mixing of different middlewares, unreliable network management, and operator control station GUI. All the source code related to the architecture and some control modules have been released as open source projects.

Robot Tracking of Human Subjects in Field Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Graham, Jeffrey; Shillcutt, Kimberly

2003-01-01

Future planetary exploration will involve both humans and robots. Understanding and improving their interaction is a main focus of research in the Intelligent Systems Branch at NASA's Johnson Space Center. By teaming intelligent robots with astronauts on surface extra-vehicular activities (EVAs), safety and productivity can be improved. The EVA Robotic Assistant (ERA) project was established to study the issues of human-robot teams, to develop a testbed robot to assist space-suited humans in exploration tasks, and to experimentally determine the effectiveness of an EVA assistant robot. A companion paper discusses the ERA project in general, its history starting with ASRO (Astronaut-Rover project), and the results of recent field tests in Arizona. This paper focuses on one aspect of the research, robot tracking, in greater detail: the software architecture and algorithms. The ERA robot is capable of moving towards and/or continuously following mobile or stationary targets or sequences of targets. The contributions made by this research include how the low-level pose data is assembled, normalized and communicated, how the tracking algorithm was generalized and implemented, and qualitative performance reports from recent field tests.

Human Robotic Systems (HRS): Robotic ISRU Acquisition Element

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — During 2014, the Robotic ISRU Resource Acquisition project element will develop two technologies:Exploration Ground Data Systems (xGDS)Sample Acquisition on...

Shaping the alliance management agenda: a capability approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Duysters, G.; Saebi, T.; de Man, A.P.

2011-01-01

Over the past years, the topic of alliance capability has captured the attention of numerous alliance scholars. This emerging research stream claims that a main cause for alliance success lies in the partner's individual capability to manage their alliances. This editorial paper reviews the main

Alliance opens for business boosted by EIA forecast

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jaremko, G.

2000-12-04

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the US Department of Energy recently released a new forecast showing US requirements for natural gas growing at a steady pace. By 2020, EIA says, pipeline imports will have climbed by 70 per cent to 5.8 Tcf per year. Tanker imports of natural gas liquids are also set to grow at the rate of 700 bcf annually by 2020. Much of the demand growth is expected to continue to be driven by the expanding use of natural gas in electricity generation, but there are across-the-board increases forecast in US residential, commercial and industrial gas consumption as well, thanks to a predicted overall economic growth of an average three per cent annually. If these predictions materialize, the initial excess pipeline capacity created by the Alliance Pipeline will shrink very quickly. Accordingly, the next major development spawned by Alliance, the Millenium Pipeline Project, an international effort which involves TransCanada Pipelines and Union Gas, as well as the Columbia Energy Group in the US, is expected to move ahead. A target of 2002 is set for the proposed 700 mmcf per day route across Lake Erie to New York State to New York City. In addition to Alliance, there is TransCanada Pipelines' 1.1 bcf per day new capacity added by the Foothills-Northern Border export route. Overall, an average of 1.0 bcf per day of excess capacity is predicted which will, however, last no more than two to five years. The EIA expects that new projects in Alaska and the Northwest Territories will soak up the excess capacity and set off a new round of expansion by the Canadian pipeline system.

Alliance opens for business boosted by EIA forecast

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jaremko, G.

2000-01-01

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the US Department of Energy recently released a new forecast showing US requirements for natural gas growing at a steady pace. By 2020, EIA says, pipeline imports will have climbed by 70 per cent to 5.8 Tcf per year. Tanker imports of natural gas liquids are also set to grow at the rate of 700 bcf annually by 2020. Much of the demand growth is expected to continue to be driven by the expanding use of natural gas in electricity generation, but there are across-the-board increases forecast in US residential, commercial and industrial gas consumption as well, thanks to a predicted overall economic growth of an average three per cent annually. If these predictions materialize, the initial excess pipeline capacity created by the Alliance Pipeline will shrink very quickly. Accordingly, the next major development spawned by Alliance, the Millenium Pipeline Project, an international effort which involves TransCanada Pipelines and Union Gas, as well as the Columbia Energy Group in the US, is expected to move ahead. A target of 2002 is set for the proposed 700 mmcf per day route across Lake Erie to New York State to New York City. In addition to Alliance, there is TransCanada Pipelines' 1.1 bcf per day new capacity added by the Foothills-Northern Border export route. Overall, an average of 1.0 bcf per day of excess capacity is predicted which will, however, last no more than two to five years. The EIA expects that new projects in Alaska and the Northwest Territories will soak up the excess capacity and set off a new round of expansion by the Canadian pipeline system

Relational Governance,Alliance Type and Alliance Performance in Chinese Strategic Alliances%战略联盟中关系控制与联盟类型对联盟绩效的影响研究

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

乐琦; 李建媛; 蒋峦

2016-01-01

基于中国境内141个企业战略联盟样本，首先验证了在中国情境下战略联盟中关系控制对联盟绩效的积极作用，在此基础上检验了联盟类型对关系控制与联盟绩效关系的调节作用。结果表明：与产权联盟相比，非产权联盟中关系控制对联盟绩效的积极作用更大；与横向联盟和非相关联盟相比，纵向联盟中关系控制对联盟绩效的积极作用更大；与本地联盟相比，跨区联盟中关系控制对联盟绩效的积极作用更大；与短期联盟相比，长期联盟中关系控制对联盟绩效的积极作用更大。%Based on a sample of 141 alliances,this paper testifies the positive effect of relational governance on alliance per-formance. Moreover,it is focus on the moderating role of alliance type on the relationship between relational governance and alliance performance. The empirical results show that,compared with equity-based alliance,relational governance has more positive effect on alliance performance in non equity-based alliance;compared to horizontal alliance and irrelevant alliance, relational governance has more positive effect on alliance performance in vertical alliance;compared with local alliance,re-lational governance has more positive effect on alliance performance in cross-region alliance;compared with short-time alli-ance,relational governance has more positive effect on alliance performance in long-time alliance.

Strategic technology alliance termination : an empirical investigation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sadowski, B.M.; Duysters, G.M.

2008-01-01

There is growing consensus that overall alliance termination rates are high. However, despite this track record of termination and despite unsurpassed growth rates of strategic technology alliances, little is known about the reasons for their termination. Typically strategic alliances have been

Crafting successful strategic technology alliances

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Duysters, G.M.; Kok, G.; Vaandrager, M.

1999-01-01

Despite the trend towards an increasing use of strategic technology alliances, mortality rates of cooperative agreements have always been extremely high. In this paper we argue that rapid economic and technological developments have overthrown traditional thinking about alliances and that firms

IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGIC ALLIANCES IN COMPANY’S ACTIVITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena BARANOV

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Strategic alliance is an agreement between two or more organizations to cooperate in a specific business activity, so that each benefits from the strengths of the other, and gains competitive advantage. The formation of strategic alliances has been seen as a response to globalization and increasing uncertainty and complexity in the business environment. Strategic alliances involve the sharing of knowledge and expertise between partners as well as the reduction of risk and costs in areas such as relationships with suppliers and the development of new products and technologies. A strategic alliance is sometimes equated with a joint venture, but an alliance may involve competitors, and generally has a shorter life span. Strategic partnership is a closely related concept. This article analyzes definition of strategic alliance, its benefits, types, process of formation, and provides a few cases studies of strategic alliances. This paper tries to synthesize the scope and role of marketing functions in the determination of effectiveness of strategic alliances. Several propositions from a marketing viewpoint concerning the analysis of alliance process are formulated. On the basis of the propositions, a framework is developed for future research.

Control of free-flying space robot manipulator systems

Science.gov (United States)

Cannon, Robert H., Jr.

1989-01-01

Control techniques for self-contained, autonomous free-flying space robots are being tested and developed. Free-flying space robots are envisioned as a key element of any successful long term presence in space. These robots must be capable of performing the assembly, maintenance, and inspection, and repair tasks that currently require astronaut extra-vehicular activity (EVA). Use of robots will provide economic savings as well as improved astronaut safety by reducing and in many cases, eliminating the need for human EVA. The focus of the work is to develop and carry out a set of research projects using laboratory models of satellite robots. These devices use air-cushion-vehicle (ACV) technology to simulate in two dimensions the drag-free, zero-g conditions of space. Current work is divided into six major projects or research areas. Fixed-base cooperative manipulation work represents our initial entry into multiple arm cooperation and high-level control with a sophisticated user interface. The floating-base cooperative manipulation project strives to transfer some of the technologies developed in the fixed-base work onto a floating base. The global control and navigation experiment seeks to demonstrate simultaneous control of the robot manipulators and the robot base position so that tasks can be accomplished while the base is undergoing a controlled motion. The multiple-vehicle cooperation project's goal is to demonstrate multiple free-floating robots working in teams to carry out tasks too difficult or complex for a single robot to perform. The Location Enhancement Arm Push-off (LEAP) activity's goal is to provide a viable alternative to expendable gas thrusters for vehicle propulsion wherein the robot uses its manipulators to throw itself from place to place. Because the successful execution of the LEAP technique requires an accurate model of the robot and payload mass properties, it was deemed an attractive testbed for adaptive control technology.

Entrepreneurial Alliances: A Study of Entrepreneurship and Strategic Alliances in the Charter School Industry

Science.gov (United States)

Washington, Cheryl A.

2012-01-01

This study investigated the practices, processes, and success rates of 15 entrepreneurial alliances in the Texas charter school industry. The research involved interdisciplinary industries (business and education) and focused on how a specific type of alliance structure utilized social innovation to exploit opportunity and impact change in the…

Managing strategic alliances in the power generation industry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kumar, Rajesh

2003-01-01

Highlights the challenges for power development developers in initiating alliances in the power generation industry. Importance of strategic alliances in the industry; Nature of the alliances in the independent power industry; Strategies for creating and sustaining value in global power development......; Management of tensions inherent in internal and external alliances....

The Healthy ALLiances (HALL) framework: prerequisites for success.

Science.gov (United States)

Koelen, Maria A; Vaandrager, Lenneke; Wagemakers, Annemarie

2012-04-01

Chronic conditions are on the rise worldwide, and there is increasingly a call for the primary care and public health sectors to join forces in alliances. GPs have an important role to play in such alliances. However, successful cooperation is not as obvious as it may seem, and the sectors are not used to working together. The objective is to identify conditions and prerequisites for successful alliances. Identification of conditions and prerequisites is mainly based on stepwise analysis and iterative developments in research on collaboration processes in the area of health promotion and public health. The process as a whole resulted in the framework presented in this paper. This so-called HALL framework identifies three clusters of factors that either hinder or facilitate the success of alliances: (i) institutional factors, (ii) personal factors of participants in the alliance and (iii) factors relating to the organization of the alliance. The institutional and personal factors 'stick' to the stakeholders and are brought into the alliance. The third group refers to the lessons learned from dealing with the first two characteristics to make the alliance successful. Partners in alliances bring in personal attributes and institutional characteristics that can form obstacles to successful alliances, but, when they are addressed in a flexible and positive way, obstacles can be turned in contributory factors, leading to many potential benefits, such as collaborative learning and innovation.

Understanding organizational change for alliancing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

B.M. Keers, Bianca; van Fenema, Paul C.; Zijm, Henk

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine an organization’s operational alignment in the process of alliance formation. Design/methodology/approach: A literature study was conducted on the strategic importance of assessing and aligning organizations’ operations for alliancing. Furthermore, an

Building a working alliance between professionals and service users in family preservation : A multiple case study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Steens, R.; Hermans, K.; van Regenmortel, M.R.F.

2018-01-01

In the margin of the ongoing experimental and quasi-experimental research projects on family preservation, some research projects focus on the process through which families accomplish change and acknowledge the importance of the working alliance. There is, however, little information about barriers

Nasa's Ant-Inspired Swarmie Robots

Science.gov (United States)

Leucht, Kurt W.

2016-01-01

As humans push further beyond the grasp of earth, robotic missions in advance of human missions will play an increasingly important role. These robotic systems will find and retrieve valuable resources as part of an in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) strategy. They will need to be highly autonomous while maintaining high task performance levels. NASA Kennedy Space Center has teamed up with the Biological Computation Lab at the University of New Mexico to create a swarm of small, low-cost, autonomous robots to be used as a ground-based research platform for ISRU missions. The behavior of the robot swarm mimics the central-place foraging strategy of ants to find and collect resources in a previously unmapped environment and return those resources to a central site. This talk will guide the audience through the Swarmie robot project from its conception by students in a New Mexico research lab to its robot trials in an outdoor parking lot at NASA. The software technologies and techniques used on the project will be discussed, as well as various challenges and solutions that were encountered by the development team along the way.

Robotic dismantlement systems at the CP-5 reactor D and D project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seifert, L. S.

1998-01-01

The Chicago Pile 5 (CP-5) Research Reactor Facility is currently undergoing decontamination and decommissioning (D and D) at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) Illinois site. CP-5 was the principle nuclear reactor used to produce neutrons for scientific research at Argonne from 1954 to 1979. The CP-5 reactor was a heavy-water cooled and moderated, enriched uranium-fueled reactor with a graphite reflector. The CP-5 D and D project includes the disassembly, segmentation and removal of all the radioactive components, equipment and structures associated with the CP-5 facility. The Department of Energy's Robotics Technology Development Program and the Federal Energy Technology Center, Morgantown Office provided teleoperated, remote systems for use in the dismantlement of the CP-5 reactor assembly for tasks requiring remote dismantlement as part of the EM-50 Large-Scale Demonstration Program (LSDP). The teleoperated systems provided were the Dual Arm Work Platform (DAWP), the Rosie Mobile Teleoperated Robot Work System (ROSIE), and a remotely-operated crane control system with installed swing-reduction control system. Another remotely operated apparatus, a Brokk BM250, was loaned to ANL by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). This machine is not teleoperated and was not part of the LSDP, but deserves some mention in this discussion. The DAWP is a robotic dismantlement system that includes a pair of Schilling Robotic Systems Titan III hydraulic manipulator arms mounted to a specially designed support platform: a hydraulic power unit (HPU) and a remote operator console. The DAWP is designed to be crane-suspended for remote positioning. ROSIE, developed by RedZone Robotics, Inc. is a mobile, electro-hydraulic, omnidirectional platform with a heavy-duty telescoping boom mounted to the platform's deck. The work system includes the mobile platform (locomotor), a power distribution unit (PDU) and a remote operator console. ROSIE moves about the reactor building

The EarthConnections San Bernardino Alliance: Addressing Diversity in the Geosciences Using a Collective Impact Model

Science.gov (United States)

McGill, S. F.; Benthien, M. L.; Castillo, B. A.; Fitzsimmons, J.; Foutz, A.; Keck, D.; Manduca, C. A.; Noriega, G. R.; Pandya, R. E.; Taber, J. J.; Vargas, B.

2017-12-01

The EarthConnections San Bernardino Alliance is one of three regional alliances supported by the national EarthConnections Collective Impact Alliance, funded by a pilot grant from the National Science Foundation INCLUDES program. All three of the regional alliances share a common vision, focused on developing a diverse geoscience workforce through connecting existing programs and institutions into regional pathways that support and guide students from engagement at an early age with Earth science linked to issues facing the local community, through the many steps and transitions to geoscience-related careers. The San Bernardino Alliance began with collaboration between one university, one community college and one high school and also includes the Southern California Earthquake Center as well as professional geologists in the region. Based on discussions at an opening round table event, the Alliance has chosen to capitalize on existing geology student clubs and deeply engaged faculty and alumni at the founding high school, community college and university members of the Alliance to plan joint field trips, service learning projects, guest speakers, and visits to dinner meetings of the local professional societies for students at participating institutions at various stages along the pathway. The underlying motivation is to connect students to their peers and to mentors at institutions that represent the next step on the pathway, as well as to expose them to careers in geology and to geoscience issues that impact the local community. A second type of intervention we are planning is to promote high quality teaching in introductory Earth science courses at the university, community college and high school levels, including the development of high school honors courses in Earth science. To this end we are hosting an NAGT traveling workshop focused on using active learning and societally relevant issues to develop engaging introductory geoscience courses. This teaching

Management of strategic coopetition among partners within international airline alliances

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frank Himpel

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Background: International network-carriers span the globe by linking airports on all five continents. At the core of those networks are hub-airports that serve as the centers for (inter-national in- and outbound traffic flows. From a business model point of view, the major international carriers are so-called network-carriers, for their core concept is based on transfer-oriented hub-and-spoke-systems. In order to maximize revenue streams of network-carriers, changes in strategic slot allocation and strategic net planning are becoming increasingly relevant. The aim of this work was to analyze the impact of various elements of the management of strategic coopetition among partners within international airline alliances on the revenues obtained by individual partners. Methods: the problems related to the optimization of strategic slot allocation and strategic net planning from the point of view of the individual profit shared and added net contribution margins were discussed. Results and conclusions: Two extreme scenarios may be projected. The first one is that partners within a given alliance system may start to increase merger and acquisition activities. Thereby scale effects may be utilized. The other one is, when rivalry becomes too dominant over time, some partners may (have to exit alliance systems. Thereby "atomic" subsystems may be on the rebound. Strategic coopetition management is aimed to keep leading international network carriers "on track" in the field of alliance management of that nature.

Molecular robots with sensors and intelligence.

Science.gov (United States)

Hagiya, Masami; Konagaya, Akihiko; Kobayashi, Satoshi; Saito, Hirohide; Murata, Satoshi

2014-06-17

CONSPECTUS: What we can call a molecular robot is a set of molecular devices such as sensors, logic gates, and actuators integrated into a consistent system. The molecular robot is supposed to react autonomously to its environment by receiving molecular signals and making decisions by molecular computation. Building such a system has long been a dream of scientists; however, despite extensive efforts, systems having all three functions (sensing, computation, and actuation) have not been realized yet. This Account introduces an ongoing research project that focuses on the development of molecular robotics funded by MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan). This 5 year project started in July 2012 and is titled "Development of Molecular Robots Equipped with Sensors and Intelligence". The major issues in the field of molecular robotics all correspond to a feedback (i.e., plan-do-see) cycle of a robotic system. More specifically, these issues are (1) developing molecular sensors capable of handling a wide array of signals, (2) developing amplification methods of signals to drive molecular computing devices, (3) accelerating molecular computing, (4) developing actuators that are controllable by molecular computers, and (5) providing bodies of molecular robots encapsulating the above molecular devices, which implement the conformational changes and locomotion of the robots. In this Account, the latest contributions to the project are reported. There are four research teams in the project that specialize on sensing, intelligence, amoeba-like actuation, and slime-like actuation, respectively. The molecular sensor team is focusing on the development of molecular sensors that can handle a variety of signals. This team is also investigating methods to amplify signals from the molecular sensors. The molecular intelligence team is developing molecular computers and is currently focusing on a new photochemical technology for accelerating DNA

A demonstration of remote survey and characterization of a buried waste site using the SRIP [Soldier Robot Interface Project] testbed

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burks, B.L.; Richardson, B.S.; Armstrong, G.A.; Hamel, W.R.; Jansen, J.F.; Killough, S.M.; Thompson, D.H.; Emery, M.S.

1990-01-01

During FY 1990, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) supported the Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (ER ampersand WM) Office of Technology Development through several projects including the development of a semiautonomous survey of a buried waste site using a remotely operated all-terrain robotic testbed borrowed from the US Army. The testbed was developed for the US Army's Human Engineering Laboratory (HEL) for the US Army's Soldier Robot Interface Project (SRIP). Initial development of the SRIP testbed was performed by a team including ORNL, HEL, Tooele Army Depot, and Odetics, Inc., as an experimental testbed for a variety of human factors issues related to military applications of robotics. The SRIP testbed was made available to the DOE and ORNL for the further development required for a remote landfill survey. The robot was modified extensively, equipped with environmental sensors, and used to demonstrate an automated remote survey of Solid Waste Storage Area No. 3 (SWSA 3) at ORNL on Tuesday, September 18, 1990. Burial trenches in this area containing contaminated materials were covered with soil nearly twenty years ago. This paper describes the SRIP testbed and work performed in FY 1990 to demonstrate a semiautonomous landfill survey at ORNL. 5 refs

Strategic Alliance Poker: Demonstrating the Importance of Complementary Resources and Trust in Strategic Alliance Management

Science.gov (United States)

Reutzel, Christopher R.; Worthington, William J.; Collins, Jamie D.

2012-01-01

Strategic Alliance Poker (SAP) provides instructors with an opportunity to integrate the resource based view with their discussion of strategic alliances in undergraduate Strategic Management courses. Specifically, SAP provides Strategic Management instructors with an experiential exercise that can be used to illustrate the value creation…

Strategic alliances for improved performance in underground mining

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bessinger, S.L.; Langley, S.B.

1999-01-01

As the competitive climate of the modern coal industry continues, it seems clear that only by the intervention of small, highly focused workgroups will new efficiency and economy result in the continuous improvement required to survive and prosper. Strategic Alliances, drawing from known and proven principles, can contribute to efficiency and economy. However, individual attitudes and corporate-cultures often must change to foster the growth of functional Strategic Alliances. Motivating personal change in individuals within prospective Strategic Alliance partners is perhaps the most difficult element about establishing a new Strategic Alliance or maintaining an existing Alliance. Ultimately, Strategic Alliances are not fundamentally about corporations, or executives as leaders, but about individuals throughout the endeavors of both partner-organizations and a shared-vision to achieve a common goal

Systematic approach to the application of automation, robotics, and machine intelligence systems (aramis) to future space projects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, D B.S.

1983-01-01

The potential applications of automation, robotics and machine intelligence systems (ARAMIS) to space projects are investigated, through a systematic method. In this method selected space projects are broken down into space project tasks, and 69 of these tasks are selected for study. Candidate ARAMIS options are defined for each task. The relative merits of these options are evaluated according to seven indices of performance. Logical sequences of ARAMIS development are also defined. Based on this data, promising applications of ARAMIS are identified for space project tasks. General conclusions and recommendations for further study are also presented. 6 references.

Integrated Robotic systems for Humanitarian Demining

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Colon

2007-06-01

Full Text Available This paper summarises the main results of 10 years of research and development in Humanitarian Demining. The Hudem project focuses on mine detection systems and aims at provided different solutions to support the mine detection operations. Robots using different kind of locomotion systems have been designed and tested on dummy minefields. In order to control these robots, software interfaces, control algorithms, visual positioning and terrain following systems have also been developed. Typical data acquisition results obtained during trial campaigns with robots and data acquisition systems are reported. Lessons learned during the project and future work conclude this paper.

Towards Alliance Performance Management in Service Logistics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bianca Keers

2015-04-01

Full Text Available This study explores the management of stakeholder values for alliance success. A multiple-case study method is used to analyze – within six organizations attempting to form alliances – how the management of inter-organizational dimensions of stakeholder value adds to the success of an alliance business strategy. Our study focuses on the establishment of vertical service alliances within the Dutch maritime sector, including private-private as well as public-private initiatives. The findings point toward the usefulness of developing an inter-organizational success map. Because of its comprehensive multi-stakeholder orientation, a success map can be used by alliance managers to understand management’s considerations, including the trade-offs among an alliance’s various performance drivers. This new conceptual thinking can enhance research and best practices on inter-organizational design.

Managing multiple facets of risk in new product alliances

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lee, R.P.; Johnson, J.L.

2010-01-01

The trend of forming alliances to develop new products continues; however, many of these new product alliances fail. As such we explore how key risk types intrinsic in new product alliances, performance, relational, and knowledge appropriation risks, influence alliance success. Further, we theorize

Robots and Cultural Heritage: New Museum Experiences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudio Germak

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The introduction of new technologies to enhance the visiting museum experience is not a novelty. A large variety of interactive systems are nowadays available, including virtual tours, which makes cultural heritage accessible remotely. The theme of increase in accessibility and attractiveness has lately been faced with the employment of the service robotics, covering various types of applications. Regrettably, many of robotics solutions appear less successful in terms of utility and usability. On the basis of this awareness, a design for a new robotic solution for cultural heritage has been proposed. The project, developed at the royal residence of Racconigi Castle, consists of a telepresence robot designed as a tool to explore inaccessible areas of the heritage. The employed robot, called Virgil, was expressly designed for the project. The control of the robot is entrusted to the museum guides in order to enhance their work and enrich the cultural storytelling.

Robotics in Orthopedics: A Brave New World.

Science.gov (United States)

Parsley, Brian S

2018-02-16

Future health-care projection projects a significant growth in population by 2020. Health care has seen an exponential growth in technology to address the growing population with the decreasing number of physicians and health-care workers. Robotics in health care has been introduced to address this growing need. Early adoption of robotics was limited because of the limited application of the technology, the cumbersome nature of the equipment, and technical complications. A continued improvement in efficacy, adaptability, and cost reduction has stimulated increased interest in robotic-assisted surgery. The evolution in orthopedic surgery has allowed for advanced surgical planning, precision robotic machining of bone, improved implant-bone contact, optimization of implant placement, and optimization of the mechanical alignment. The potential benefits of robotic surgery include improved surgical work flow, improvements in efficacy and reduction in surgical time. Robotic-assisted surgery will continue to evolve in the orthopedic field. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Alliances and Bisection Width for Planar Graphs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Martin; Revsbæk, Morten

2013-01-01

An alliance in a graph is a set of vertices (allies) such that each vertex in the alliance has at least as many allies (counting the vertex itself) as non-allies in its neighborhood of the graph. We show that any planar graph with minimum degree at least 4 can be split into two alliances in polyn...

Therapeutic alliance in a randomized clinical trial for bulimia nervosa.

Science.gov (United States)

Accurso, Erin C; Fitzsimmons-Craft, Ellen E; Ciao, Anna; Cao, Li; Crosby, Ross D; Smith, Tracey L; Klein, Marjorie H; Mitchell, James E; Crow, Scott J; Wonderlich, Stephen A; Peterson, Carol B

2015-06-01

This study examined the temporal relation between therapeutic alliance and outcome in two treatments for bulimia nervosa (BN). Eighty adults with BN symptoms were randomized to 21 sessions of integrative cognitive-affective therapy (ICAT) or enhanced cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT-E). Bulimic symptoms (i.e., frequency of binge eating and purging) were assessed at each session and posttreatment. Therapeutic alliance (Working Alliance Inventory) was assessed at Sessions 2, 8, 14, and posttreatment. Repeated-measures analyses using linear mixed models with random intercepts were conducted to determine differences in alliance growth by treatment and patient characteristics. Mixed-effects models examined the relation between alliance and symptom improvement. Overall, patients in both treatments reported strong therapeutic alliances. Regardless of treatment, greater therapeutic alliance between (but not within) subjects predicted greater reductions in bulimic behavior; reductions in bulimic behavior also predicted improved alliance. Patients with higher depression, anxiety, or emotion dysregulation had a stronger therapeutic alliance in CBT-E than ICAT, while those with more intimacy problems had greater improvement in therapeutic alliance in ICAT compared to CBT-E. Therapeutic alliance has a unique impact on outcome, independent of the impact of symptom improvement on alliance. Within- and between-subjects effects revealed that changes in alliance over time did not predict symptom improvement, but rather that individuals who had a stronger alliance overall had better bulimic symptom outcomes. These findings indicate that therapeutic alliance is an important predictor of outcome in the treatment of BN. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Medical Robots: Current Systems and Research Directions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ryan A. Beasley

2012-01-01

Full Text Available First used medically in 1985, robots now make an impact in laparoscopy, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, emergency response, and various other medical disciplines. This paper provides a review of medical robot history and surveys the capabilities of current medical robot systems, primarily focusing on commercially available systems while covering a few prominent research projects. By examining robotic systems across time and disciplines, trends are discernible that imply future capabilities of medical robots, for example, increased usage of intraoperative images, improved robot arm design, and haptic feedback to guide the surgeon.

International Conference Educational Robotics 2016

CERN Document Server

Moro, Michele; Menegatti, Emanuele

2017-01-01

This book includes papers presented at the International Conference “Educational Robotics 2016 (EDUROBOTICS)”, Athens, November 25, 2016. The papers build on constructivist and constructionist pedagogy and cover a variety of topics, including teacher education, design of educational robotics activities, didactical models, assessment methods, theater robotics, programming & making electronics with Snap4Arduino, the Duckietown project, robotics driven by tangible programming, Lego Mindstorms combined with App Inventor, the Orbital Education Platform, Anthropomorphic Robots and Human Meaning Makers in Education, and more. It provides researchers interested in educational robotics with the latest advances in the field with a focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) education. At the same time it offers teachers and educators from primary to secondary and tertiary education insights into how educational robotics can trigger the development of technological interest and 21st c...

A systematic approach to the application of Automation, Robotics, and Machine Intelligence Systems /ARAMIS/ to future space projects

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, D. B. S.

1982-01-01

The potential applications of Automation, Robotics, and Machine Intelligence Systems (ARAMIS) to space projects are investigated, through a systematic method. In this method selected space projects are broken down into space project tasks, and 69 of these tasks are selected for study. Candidate ARAMIS options are defined for each task. The relative merits of these options are evaluated according to seven indices of performance. Logical sequences of ARAMIS development are also defined. Based on this data, promising applications of ARAMIS are

HUMAN FOLLOWING ON ROS FRAMEWORK A MOBILE ROBOT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gigih Priyandoko

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Service mobile robot is playing a more critical role in today's society as more people such as a disabled person or the elderly are in need of mobile robot assistance. An autonomous person following ability shows great importance to the overall role of service mobile robot in assisting human. The objective of this paper focuses on developing a robot follow a person. The robot is equipped with the necessary sensors such as a Microsoft Kinect sensor and a Hokuyo laser sensor. Four suitable tracking methods are introduced in this project which is implemented and tested on the person following algorithm. The tracking methods implemented are face detection, leg detection, color detection and person blob detection. All of the algorithms implementations in this project is performed using Robot Operating System (ROS. The result showed that the mobile robot could track and follow the target person based on the person movement.

Your alliances are too stable.

Science.gov (United States)

Ernst, David; Bamford, James

2005-06-01

A 2004 McKinsey survey of more than 30 companies reveals that at least 70% of them have major alliances that are underperforming and in need of restructuring. Moreover, JVs that broaden or otherwise adjust their scope have a 79% success rate, versus 33% for ventures that remain essentially unchanged. Yet most firms don't routinely evaluate the need to overhaul their alliances or intervene to correct performance problems. That means corporations are missing huge opportunities: By revamping just one large alliance, a company can generate 100 million dololars to 300 million dollars in extra income a year. Here's how to unlock more value from alliances: (1) Launch the process. Don't wait until your venture is in the middle of a crisis; regularly scan your major alliances to determine which need restructuring. Once you've targeted one, designate a restructuring team and find a senior sponsor to push the process along. Then delineate the scope of the team's work. (2) Diagnose performance. Evaluate the venture on the following performance dimensions: ownership and financials, strategy, operations, governance, and organization and talent. Identify the root causes of the venture's problems, not just the symptoms, and estimate how much each problem is costing the company. (3) Generate restructuring options. Based on the diagnosis, decide whether to fix, grow, or exit the alliance. Assuming the answer is fix or grow, determine whether fundamental or incremental changes are needed, using the five performance dimensions above as a framework. Then assemble three or four packages of restructuring options, test them with shareholders, and gain parents' approval. (4) Execute the changes. Embark on a widespread and consistent communication effort, building support among executives in the JV and the parent companies. So the process stays on track, assign accountability to certain groups or individuals.

Inventing Japan's 'robotics culture': the repeated assembly of science, technology, and culture in social robotics.

Science.gov (United States)

Sabanović, Selma

2014-06-01

Using interviews, participant observation, and published documents, this article analyzes the co-construction of robotics and culture in Japan through the technical discourse and practices of robotics researchers. Three cases from current robotics research--the seal-like robot PARO, the Humanoid Robotics Project HRP-2 humanoid, and 'kansei robotics' - show the different ways in which scientists invoke culture to provide epistemological grounding and possibilities for social acceptance of their work. These examples show how the production and consumption of social robotic technologies are associated with traditional crafts and values, how roboticists negotiate among social, technical, and cultural constraints while designing robots, and how humans and robots are constructed as cultural subjects in social robotics discourse. The conceptual focus is on the repeated assembly of cultural models of social behavior, organization, cognition, and technology through roboticists' narratives about the development of advanced robotic technologies. This article provides a picture of robotics as the dynamic construction of technology and culture and concludes with a discussion of the limits and possibilities of this vision in promoting a culturally situated understanding of technology and a multicultural view of science.

Alliance Approach to the Modeling of Interfaces in Complex Heterogeneous Objects

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Votruba, Z.; Novák, Mirko

2010-01-01

Roč. 20, č. 5 (2010), s. 609-619 ISSN 1210-0552 R&D Projects: GA AV ČR IAA201240701 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10300504 Keywords : system alliance * interface * dynamics * control * automaton * neural structures * complex objects * heterogeneity * wholes * agents * holons Subject RIV: BC - Control Systems Theory Impact factor: 0.511, year: 2010

Developments of STR project in the scope of teleoperation handling robotic for the operation in Spanish nuclear facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bielza, M.; Gomez Santamaria, J.; Izquierdo, J.A.; Martinez, S.; Linares, F.; Avello, A.; Gago, M.J.

1998-01-01

The main objective of the Teleoperated Robotic Systems project (SRT) is the development of teleoperated robotic systems for use in the inspection, surveillance and maintenance operations in nuclear and radioactive installations. These systems make possible the reduction of the individual and collective doses of the workers that undertake these operations, as well as an increase of plant availability as it is possible to carry out specific tasks of inspection and surveillance in high radiation dose areas without having to reduce the power of the installation. This project started in 1995, deciding to priorize the inspection equipment in a first phase. When this work were advanced, the development of the manipulation activities was carried out to being consider the nuclear installations needs. As a result of this work, the manipulation requirements were elaborated in order to prepare the beginning technical specifications to design the equipment s. These developments are based on a fixed manipulator which is located closed to the equipment that we want to repair, and an arm manipulator which moves by caterpillars, it is easier to control than others; and the navigation system which allows the robot self-locating in the complex area. In this paper the conclusions about the manipulation requirements are described, as well as the state of the manipulation prototype. (Author)

The Power of Educational Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Cummings, Timothy

The purpose of this action research project was to investigate the impact a students' participation in educational robotics has on his or her performance in the STEM subjects. This study attempted to utilize educational robotics as a method for increasing student achievement and engagement in STEM subjects. Over the course of 12 weeks, an after-school robotics program was offered to students. Guided by the standards and principles of VEX IQ, a leading resource in educational robotics, students worked in collaboration on creating a design for their robot, building and testing their robot, and competing in the VEX IQ Crossover Challenge. Student data was gathered through a pre-participation survey, observations from the work they performed in robotics club, their performance in STEM subject classes, and the analysis of their end-of-the-year report card. Results suggest that the students who participate in robotics club experienced a positive impact on their performance in STEM subject classes.

Managing Adaptation in Multi-Partner Collaboration: Role of Alliance Board

OpenAIRE

Barbic, Frano; Hidalgo Nuchera, Antonio

2015-01-01

Adaptation to changing circumstances is crucial for success of alliances. Using a longitudinal case study of the R&D non-equity multi-partner alliance between four partners, we examine how the alliance board can complement incomplete contracts for coordinated adaptation. We trace the interactions between the partners in order to explore the functioning of the alliance board in multi-partner alliances for coordinated adaptation. We found that alliance board can complement incomplete contract, ...

Terra Nova breaks new ground for alliances

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ghiselin, D.

1996-01-01

This paper reviews the development of alliances to help develop the Terra Nova oil and gas field in the offshore Atlantic areas of Canada. Largely attributed to BP, the strategic alliance concept got its start in the North Sea and on the North Slope of Alaska. BP saw it as the best way to take advantage of economy-of-scale, mitigate risk, and achieve outsourcing goals while retaining their core competencies. This paper reviews the methods of developing the alliances, the developing of a development plan for the Terra Nova field, and how the alliance plans to maximize the profittability of the operation for all involved

Plutonium Immobilization Project - Robotic canister loading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hamilton, R.L.

2000-01-01

The Plutonium Immobilization Program (PIP) is a joint venture between the Savannah River Site (SRS), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). When operational in 2008, the PIP will fulfill the nation's nonproliferation commitment by placing surplus weapons-grade plutonium in a permanently stable ceramic form and making it unattractive for reuse. Since there are significant radiation and security concerns, the program team is developing novel and unique technology to remotely perform plutonium immobilization tasks. The remote task covered in this paper employs a jointed arm robot to load seven 3.5 inch diameter, 135-pound cylinders (magazines) through the 4 inch diameter neck of a stainless steel canister. Working through the narrow canister neck, the robot secures the magazines into a specially designed rack pre-installed in the canister. To provide the deterrent effect, the canisters are filled with a mixture of high-level waste and glass at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF)

The CI-ROB project: real time monitoring for a robotic prostate curietherapy; Projet CI-ROB: surveillance en temps reel pour curietherapie robotisee de prostate

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liem, X.; Lartigau, E. [Centre Oscar-Lambret, 59 - Lille (France); Coelen, V.; Merzouki, R. [Polytech-Lille, 59 - Lille (France)

2010-10-15

The authors present a project which is still at the proto-typing stage and for which hardware and software are still being developed, and which aims at developing a full line for a robotic curietherapy. It comprises an articulated robotic arm with six degree of freedom, and is based on an auto-regulated loop with real time monitoring and control. An echographic probe acquires the prostate images in real time. An adaptive detection defines the prostate contour. This is performed in a virtual environment which comprises the prostate phantom, the robot and the intervention table. The target is defined in the virtual environment (image coordinates) and coordinates are transmitted to the robot controller which defines the robot movements by using the inverse geometric model. Short communication

Learning and specialization in strategic alliances

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kavusan, K.; Noorderhaven, Niels; Duijsters, Geert

2017-01-01

We explore the conditions enabling partners in strategic alliances to acquire valuable technological knowledge from each other, and to specialize in complementary areas. Our findings show that knowledge acquisition across alliance partners is maximized when the technological knowledge bases of

A Measure of the Parent-Team Alliance in Youth Residential Psychiatry: The Revised Short Working Alliance Inventory.

Science.gov (United States)

Lamers, Audri; Delsing, Marc J M H; van Widenfelt, Brigit M; Vermeiren, Robert R J M

The therapeutic alliance between multidisciplinary teams and parents within youth (semi) residential psychiatry is essential for the treatment process and forms a promising process variable for Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROM). No short evaluative instrument, however, is currently available to assess parent-team alliance. In this study, the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Version (WAV-12), a widely used alliance questionnaire, was adjusted to assess parent-team alliance from both a parent and team perspective within a youth residential setting. Psychometric properties, including factor structure and validity of the subscales, were explored. A sample of youth with mainly complex developmental disorders admitted to 11 inpatient and day patient units of a child and adolescent psychiatric institute participated in this study. The case manager involved with the youth and the primary caregiver of 87 youth completed the revised WAV-12 (WAV-12R). The team version of the WAV-12R showed a good fit to the original conceptualized model, and distinguished Bond, Task and Goal scales. For the parents' version an adjusted model with Insight, Bond and combined Task/Goal scales had the best fit. The reliability and validity of the scales were shown to be good. This paper presents preliminary evidence that the parent and treatment team versions of the WAV-12R are psychometrically sound for assessing parent-team alliance within youth (semi) residential psychiatry in the Netherlands. The team and parents' versions of the WAV-12R are recommended instruments to complement outcome measures in ROM.

Human-Robot Planetary Exploration Teams

Science.gov (United States)

Tyree, Kimberly

2004-01-01

The EVA Robotic Assistant (ERA) project at NASA Johnson Space Center studies human-robot interaction and robotic assistance for future human planetary exploration. Over the past four years, the ERA project has been performing field tests with one or more four-wheeled robotic platforms and one or more space-suited humans. These tests have provided experience in how robots can assist humans, how robots and humans can communicate in remote environments, and what combination of humans and robots works best for different scenarios. The most efficient way to understand what tasks human explorers will actually perform, and how robots can best assist them, is to have human explorers and scientists go and explore in an outdoor, planetary-relevant environment, with robots to demonstrate what they are capable of, and roboticists to observe the results. It can be difficult to have a human expert itemize all the needed tasks required for exploration while sitting in a lab: humans do not always remember all the details, and experts in one arena may not even recognize that the lower level tasks they take for granted may be essential for a roboticist to know about. Field tests thus create conditions that more accurately reveal missing components and invalid assumptions, as well as allow tests and comparisons of new approaches and demonstrations of working systems. We have performed field tests in our local rock yard, in several locations in the Arizona desert, and in the Utah desert. We have tested multiple exploration scenarios, such as geological traverses, cable or solar panel deployments, and science instrument deployments. The configuration of our robot can be changed, based on what equipment is needed for a given scenario, and the sensor mast can even be placed on one of two robot bases, each with different motion capabilities. The software architecture of our robot is also designed to be as modular as possible, to allow for hardware and configuration changes. Two focus

Research 0n Incentive Mechanism of General Contractor and Subcontractors Dynamic Alliance in Construction Project Based on Team Cooperation

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, Honglian; Sun, Aihua; Liu, Quanru; Chen, Zhiyi

2018-03-01

It is the key of motivating sub-contractors working hard and mutual cooperation, ensuring implementation overall goal of the project that to design rational incentive mechanism for general contractor. Based on the principal-agency theory, the subcontractor efforts is divided into two parts, one for individual efforts, another helping other subcontractors, team Cooperation incentive models of multiple subcontractors are set up, incentive schemes and intensities are also given. The results show that the general contractor may provide individual and team motivation incentives when subcontractors working independently, not affecting each other in time and space; otherwise, the general contractor may only provide individual incentive to entice teams collaboration between subcontractors and helping each other. The conclusions can provide a reference for the subcontract design of general and sub-contractor dynamic alliances.

Collaborative Customer Management in Financial Services Alliances

OpenAIRE

Geib, Malte; Kolbe, Lutz; Brenner, Walter

2004-01-01

The integration of the financial services industry and many financial services companies' focus on core competencies have led to the emergence of financial services alliances. These alliances face a variety of challenges regarding an integrated approach to customer relationship management (CRM) by the partner companies.In this paper we describe the challenges derived from an analysis of five financial services companies that formed different financial services alliances. The main inhibitors o...

China-Russia Alliance - a common choice of the two countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ma Hang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Compared with Sino-Soviet Alliance and NATO countries alliance, China -Russia Alliance should have its own characteristics. China-Russia Alliance can further enhance strategic mutual trust betweeneach other, enhance cooperation quality and space, to promote the mutualprogress and prosperity, achieve national revival of China and Russia as soon as possible, which is the ultimate goal of theChina-Russia Alliance.

Hexapod Robot

Science.gov (United States)

Begody, Ericka

2016-01-01

The project I am working on at NASA-Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX is a hexapod robot. This project was started by various engineers at the Trick Lab. The goal of this project is to have the hexapod track a yellow ball or possibly another object from left to right and up/down. The purpose is to have it track an object like a real creature. The project will consist of using software and hardware. This project started with a hexapod robot which uses a senor bar to track a yellow ball but with a limited field of vision. The sensor bar acts as the robots "head." Two servos will be added to the hexapod to create flexion and extension of the head. The neck and head servos will have to be programmed to be added to the original memory map of the existing servos. I will be using preexisting code. The main programming language that will be used to add to the preexisting code is C++. The trick modeling and simulation software will also be used in the process to improve its tracking and movement. This project will use a trial and error approach, basically seeing what works and what does not. The first step is to initially understand how the hexapod works. To get a general understanding of how the hexapod maneuvers and plan on how to had a neck and head servo which works with the rest of the body. The second step would be configuring the head and neck servos with the leg servos. During this step, limits will be programmed specifically for the each servo. By doing this, the servo is limited to how far it can rotate both clockwise and counterclockwise and this is to prevent hardware damage. The hexapod will have two modes in which it works in. The first mode will be if the sensor bar does not detect an object. If the object it is programmed to look for is not in its view it will automatically scan from left to right 3 times then up and down once. The second mode will be if the sensor bar does detect the object. In this mode the hexapod will track the object from left to

Cask system design guidance for robotic handling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Griesmeyer, J.M.; Drotning, W.D.; Morimoto, A.K.; Bennett, P.C.

1990-10-01

Remote automated cask handling has the potential to reduce both the occupational exposure and the time required to process a nuclear waste transport cask at a handling facility. The ongoing Advanced Handling Technologies Project (AHTP) at Sandia National Laboratories is described. AHTP was initiated to explore the use of advanced robotic systems to perform cask handling operations at handling facilities for radioactive waste, and to provide guidance to cask designers regarding the impact of robotic handling on cask design. The proof-of-concept robotic systems developed in AHTP are intended to extrapolate from currently available commercial systems to the systems that will be available by the time that a repository would be open for operation. The project investigates those cask handling operations that would be performed at a nuclear waste repository facility during cask receiving and handling. The ongoing AHTP indicates that design guidance, rather than design specification, is appropriate, since the requirements for robotic handling do not place severe restrictions on cask design but rather focus on attention to detail and design for limited dexterity. The cask system design features that facilitate robotic handling operations are discussed, and results obtained from AHTP design and operation experience are summarized. The application of these design considerations is illustrated by discussion of the robot systems and their operation on cask feature mock-ups used in the AHTP project. 11 refs., 11 figs

Multiprocessor development for robot control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Jong Min; Kim, Seung Ho; Hwang, Suk Yeoung; Sohn, Surg Won; Kim, Byung Soo; Kim, Chang Hoi; Lee, Yong Bum; Kim, Woong Ki

1988-12-01

The object of this project is to develop a multiprocessor system which is essential to robot technology. A multiprocessor system interconnecting many single board computer is much faster and flexible than a single processor. The developed multiprocessor will be used to control nuclear mobile robot, so a loosely coupled system is adopted as a robot controller. A total configuration of controller is divided into three main parts in related with its function. It is consisted of supervisory control part, functional control part, remote control part. The designed control system is to be expanded easily for further use with a modular architecture, so the functional independency within sub-systems can be obtained throughout the system structure. Electromagnetic interference affecting to the control system is minimized by using optical fiber as communication media between robot and control system. System performances is enhanced not only by using distributed architecture in hardware, but by adopting real-time, multi-tasking operating system in software. The iRMX86 OS is used and reconfigured for real-time, multi-tasking operation. RS-485 serial communication protocol is used between functional control part and remote control part. Since the developed multiprocessor control system is an essential and fundamental technology for artificial intelligent robot, the result of this project can be applied directly to nuclear mobile robot. (Author)

Key state legislative provisions on purchasing alliances.

Science.gov (United States)

Wicks, E K; Curtis, R E; Haugh, K

1994-01-01

In order to function effectively in post-reform healthcare markets, behavioral healthcare professionals must understand and interact with health purchasing alliances. Healthcare reform initiatives based upon the principles of managed competition envision an important role for cooperative health purchasing organizations, or "health alliances," that collect premiums and contract with health plans for the provision of comprehensive health services delivered within the framework of a standardized benefit package. Health purchasing alliances have already been implemented in eight states, and this trend is expected to grow. The following article illustrates the structure and authority of the health alliances that are already in operation, and is presented here to give Behavioral Healthcare Tomorrow journal readers an up-to-date overview of reforming healthcare markets. This matrix arrays recent state laws which we identify as clearly including components of managed competition or purchasing alliances. Other states undoubtedly have elements of reform that include some aspects of these concepts. For example, under legislation, a Vermont health care authority was established and, among other things, charged with developing two comprehensive reform proposals, one of which will involve multipayors and the other a single-payor system. Options will likely embody many of the activities of alliances. Vermont is not included in this matrix because these provisions are still in the developmental stage.

Some Qualitative Requirements for Testing of Nuclear Emergency Response Robots

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eom, Heungseop; Cho, Jai Wan; Choi, Youngsoo; Jeong, Kyungmin

2014-01-01

Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) is carrying out the project 'Development of Core Technology for Remote Response in Nuclear Emergency Situation', and as a part of the project, we are studying the reliability and performance requirements of nuclear emergency response robots. In this paper, we described some qualitative requirements for testing of nuclear emergency response robots which are different to general emergency response robots. We briefly introduced test requirements of general emergency response robots and described some qualitative aspects of test requirements for nuclear emergency response robots. When considering an immature field-robot technology and variety of nuclear emergency situations, it seems hard to establish quantitative test requirements of these robots at this time. However, based on studies of nuclear severe accidents and the experience of Fukushima NPP accident, we can expect some test requirements including quantitative ones for nuclear emergency response robots

Towards a dynamic concept of alliance capability

OpenAIRE

SLUYTS, Kim; MARTENS, Rudy; MATTHYSSENS, Paul

2008-01-01

This paper has a threefold purpose. First, we offer a literature review on alliance capability based on strategic and competence based management literature. Second, we extend existing literature on alliance capability by breaking this concept down into five sub capabilities, which are each linked to a stage of the alliance life cycle. Finally, we suggest how firms can support these capabilities through structural, technological and people-related tools and techniques. We argue that current l...

Promoting Diversity in Undergraduate Research in Robotics-Based Seismic

Science.gov (United States)

Gifford, C. M.; Arthur, C. L.; Carmichael, B. L.; Webber, G. K.; Agah, A.

2006-12-01

The motivation for this research was to investigate forming evenly-spaced grid patterns with a team of mobile robots for future use in seismic imaging in polar environments. A team of robots was incrementally designed and simulated by incorporating sensors and altering each robot's controller. Challenges, design issues, and efficiency were also addressed. This research project incorporated the efforts of two undergraduate REU students from Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) in North Carolina, and the research staff at the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) at the University of Kansas. ECSU is a historically black university. Mentoring these two minority students in scientific research, seismic, robotics, and simulation will hopefully encourage them to pursue graduate degrees in science-related or engineering fields. The goals for this 10-week internship during summer 2006 were to educate the students in the fields of seismology, robotics, and virtual prototyping and simulation. Incrementally designing a robot platform for future enhancement and evaluation was central to this research, and involved simulation of several robots working together to change seismic grid shape and spacing. This process gave these undergraduate students experience and knowledge in an actual research project for a real-world application. The two undergraduate students gained valuable research experience and advanced their knowledge of seismic imaging, robotics, sensors, and simulation. They learned that seismic sensors can be used in an array to gather 2D and 3D images of the subsurface. They also learned that robotics can support dangerous or difficult human activities, such as those in a harsh polar environment, by increasing automation, robustness, and precision. Simulating robot designs also gave them experience in programming behaviors for mobile robots. Thus far, one academic paper has resulted from their research. This paper received third place at the 2006

The Alliance Capability of Technology-Based Born Globals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Oxtorp, Liliya Altshuler; Elg, Ulf

2015-01-01

A detailed investigation of the aspects comprising the alliance capability of technology-based born globals. Alliance capability is regarded as a set of organizational skills necessary from the decision to search for a partner for a technology collaboration, which may also involve a marketing...... and risks of collaborating with MNEs.Methodology: A longitudinal process study of a Danish technology born global with three embedded cases of its R&D and marketing alliances with Asian MNEs.Findings: The organisational skills comprising the alliance capability are defined to be internal and external...

Interoperability of Standards for Robotics in CIME

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kroszynski, Uri; Sørensen, Torben; Ludwig, Arnold

1997-01-01

Esprit Project 6457 "Interoperability of Standards for Robotics in CIME (InterRob)" belongs to the Subprogramme "Integration in Manufacturing" of Esprit, the European Specific Programme for Research and Development in Information Technology supported by the European Commision.The first main goal...... of InterRob was to close the information chain between product design, simulation, programming, and robot control by developing standardized interfaces and their software implementation for standards STEP (International Standard for the Exchange of Product model data, ISO 10303) and IRL (Industrial Robot...... Language, DIN 66312). This is a continuation of the previous Esprit projects CAD*I and NIRO, which developed substantial basics of STEP.The InterRob approach is based on standardized models for product geometry, kinematics, robotics, dynamics and control, hence on a coherent neutral information model...

ENTREPRENEURIAL ECO-SYSTEMS & REGIONAL ALLIANCES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joe ENGLISH

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The study of universities and their role in enterprise development, support and education is very mature. However when Isenberg coined the term ‘entrepreneurial ecosystem’ and suggested that higher education was one of the key foundation blocks of a regional eco-system it threw open the concept of the university having a wider role in the overall business, economic and civic life of a region. What is this wider role, and how do the universities themselves view their place in this evolving entrepreneurial eco-system? How do they fit into Regional Alliances set up to build regional economic development? This paper introduces two pilot Alliances that have been recently formed using both the education institutes and the wider eco-system to drive Innovation and Graduate Employability (The SHIP and REAL Alliances.

Culture-Led Discrepancies and Negotiating Conflicts in Strategic Outsourcing Alliances

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gammelgaard, Jens; Kumar, Rajesh; Worm, Verner

2013-01-01

Outsourcing and alliance collaboration have become prominent features of the global economy. Empirical studies demonstrate that outsourcing alliances are often not as successful as their initiators expect them to be. National cultural differences are frequently viewed as a crucial factor when...... such alliances fail. While empirical studies are abundant, theoretical frameworks that explicate the role of national cultural differences in shaping the dynamics of outsourcing alliances are rare. This article builds on Kumar and Nti's (1998) discrepancy model to specify how culture affects the dynamics...... of outsourcing alliances. We suggest that national cultural differences give rise to process and outcome discrepancies in outsourcing alliances. Notably, outsourcing alliances evolve through three stages–formation, operation and outcome–with discrepancies arising in each of these stages (Das & Teng, 2002). We...

Robotics research in Chile

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Javier Ruiz-del-Solar

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The development of research in robotics in a developing country is a challenging task. Factors such as low research funds, low trust from local companies and the government, and a small number of qualified researchers hinder the development of strong, local research groups. In this article, and as a case of study, we present our research group in robotics at the Advanced Mining Technology Center of the Universidad de Chile, and the way in which we have addressed these challenges. In 2008, we decided to focus our research efforts in mining, which is the main industry in Chile. We observed that this industry has needs in terms of safety, productivity, operational continuity, and environmental care. All these needs could be addressed with robotics and automation technology. In a first stage, we concentrate ourselves in building capabilities in field robotics, starting with the automation of a commercial vehicle. An important outcome of this project was the earn of the local mining industry confidence. Then, in a second stage started in 2012, we began working with the local mining industry in technological projects. In this article, we describe three of the technological projects that we have developed with industry support: (i an autonomous vehicle for mining environments without global positioning system coverage; (ii the inspection of the irrigation flow in heap leach piles using unmanned aerial vehicles and thermal cameras; and (iii an enhanced vision system for vehicle teleoperation in adverse climatic conditions.

Brand alliance. Building block for scientific organisations´ marketing strategy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joern Redler

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper addresses management issues of brand alliances as part of a scientific organisation´s marketing strategy. Though brand alliances have become quite popular with consumer products they seem to be exceptions in the marketing context of academic or scientific organisations. Against this background, the paper develops a brand alliance approach considering requirements of strategically marketing scientific organisations. As a starting point, brand alliances are discussed as a sub-category to brand combinations. Furthermore, opportunities for scientific organisations associated with the alliance approach are elucidated as well as, from a more general perspective, major threats. In the following course, the paper focuses on modelling a framework of customer-based brand alliance effects, referring to the behavioural science-based view of brands which conceptualises brands as the psychological reaction to the exposure of brand elements like a name, logo or symbols. In that context, prerequisites for success are examined as well. Further, essential components of a brand alliance management process are discussed and its application to scientific organisations is expounded. Aspects like, e.g., choosing and evaluating a partner brand, positioning a brand alliance or monitoring brand alliance performance are illuminated. In regard to practical application also factors and requirements for organisation´s brand alliance success are outlined.

Essays on capability development through alliances

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kavusan, K.

2015-01-01

As a result of the surging rate of technological innovation in the last decades, firms in high-technology industries increasingly rely on alliances to tap into external knowledge sources and to develop new products and services. While alliances are of vital importance to many firms to develop new

The European radioecology alliance: encouraging the coordination and integration of research activities in radioecology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Real, A. [Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas - CIEMAT (Spain); European Radioecology Alliance Association, French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety - IRSN, 31 Avenue de la Division Leclerc, BP 17, 92262 Fontenay-aux-Roses Cedex (France); Currivan, Lorraine [Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland - RPII (Ireland); Gariel, Jean-Christophe [Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire - IRSN (France); Hardeman, Frank [SCK.CEN (Belgium); Howard, Brenda [Natural Environment Research Council - NERC, UK (United Kingdom); Lukashenko, Sergey [Kazakhstan Republic Institute of Nuclear Physics - NNCRK (Kazakhstan); Lund, Ingemar [Swedish Radiation Safety Authority - SSM (Sweden); Sabatier, Laure [Commissariat a l' energie atomique et aux energies alternatives - CEA (France); Sachs, Susanne [Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf - HZDR (Germany); Salomaa, Sisko [Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority - STUK (Finland); Smith, James [University of Portsmouth - UoP (United Kingdom); Steiner, Martin [Federal Office for Radiation Protection - BfS (Germany); Strand, Per [Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority - NRPA (Norway); Tschiersch, Jochen [Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen - HMGU (Germany); Hinton, Thomas [Strategy for Allied Radioecology - STAR Coordinator, IRSN (France); Vandenhove, Hildegarde [COordination and iMplementation of a pan-European instrumenT for radioecology - COMET Coordinator, SCK.CEN (Belgium)

2014-07-01

The European Radioecology Alliance was established in 2009 with a firm conviction from its eight founding European organizations that joining forces would enhance the competence of radioecology science in Europe. The main objective of the Radioecology Alliance is to progressively strengthen the coordination and integration of research in the field of radioecology at national, European and international level. The integration of the European radioecology community will be a key aspect facing the upcoming EURATOM Horizon 2020 framework programme. In 2012, the Radioecology Alliance was officially constituted as an Association, and in June 2013 grew from 8 to 14 members from 10 different countries (Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Norway, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom). Within the framework of the Radioecology Alliance, a Network of Excellence in Radioecology STAR (Strategy for Allied Radioecology) was created in 2011 with financial support of the EC FP7. More recently, the project COMET (Coordination and implementation of a pan-European instrument for radioecology) has been also funded by the EC to strengthen the pan-European research initiative on the radiation impact on man and the environment by facilitating the integration of the Research and Development activities in radioecology. The Radioecology Alliance, in close collaboration with STAR in the first phase, and more recently with COMET, has developed for the first time a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) on Radioecology. The SRA identifies three challenges: (1) To predict human and wildlife exposure more robustly by quantifying the key processes that most influence radionuclide transfers; (2) To determine ecological consequences under realistic exposure conditions and (3) To improve human and environmental protection by integrating radioecology. Within these 3 challenges, 15 research lines have been identified. After a consultation process which included not only the scientific community

The London Geography Alliance: Re-Connecting the School Subject with the University Discipline

Science.gov (United States)

Standish, Alex; Hawley, Duncan; Willy, Tessa

2016-01-01

The London Geography Alliance was established to provide a network of subject-based support to primary and secondary schools, by linking teachers and university lecturers. Workshops and fieldwork were conducted over a 17-month period to address different aspects of the geography curriculum. The effects of the project were evaluated using…

1998 annual report of Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-01-01

Key accomplishments of the Petroleum Technology Alliance of Canada (PTAC) during 1998 are summarized. PTAC is an association that facilitates collaborative research and technology development in the conventional oil and gas industry. Accomplishments in 1998 included the launch of 21 new research and development projects, increased memberships, and 16 successful workshops which focused on PTAC research and development initiatives in environmental impacts, conventional heavy oil, well completions, inactive well management and well abandonment. A financial statement attesting to the PTAC's financial health is included with this annual report. 2 tabs

The Effects of Trust in Virtual Strategic-Alliance Performance Outcomes

Science.gov (United States)

Preston-Ortiz, Dina

2010-01-01

Outsourcing increases supported by technology have led to the formation of virtual strategic partnerships. Historically, 70% to 75% of alliance partnerships fail because members are often competitors outside the alliance network. To address alliance failure, a Delphi Study was conducted to identify the role of trust and alliance performance…

'Filigree Robotics'

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2016-01-01

-scale 3D printed ceramics accompanied by prints, videos and ceramic probes, which introduce the material and design processes of the project.'Filigree Robotics' experiments with a combination of the traditional ceramic technique of ‘Overforming’ with 3d Laserscan and Robotic extrusion technique...... application of reflectivity after an initial 3d print. The consideration and integration of this material practice into a digital workflow took place in an interdisciplinary collaboration of Ceramicist Flemming Tvede Hansen from KADK Superformlab and architectural researchers from CITA (Martin Tamke, Henrik...... to the creation of the form and invites for experimentation. In Filigree Robotics we combine the crafting of the mold with a parallel running generative algorithm, which is fed by a constant laserscan of the 3d surface. This algorithm, analyses the topology of the mold, identifies high and low points and uses...

Aerial service robotics: the AIRobots perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marconi, L.; Basile, F.; Caprari, G.; Carloni, Raffaella; Chiacchio, P.; Hurzeler, C.; Lippiello, V.; Naldi, R.; Siciliano, B.; Stramigioli, Stefano; Zwicker, E.

This paper presents the main vision and research activities of the ongoing European project AIRobots (Innova- tive Aerial Service Robot for Remote Inspection by Contact, www.airobots.eu). The goal of AIRobots is to develop a new generation of aerial service robots capable of supporting human beings

Robustness inembedded software for autonomous robots

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Broenink, Johannes F.; Brodskiy, Y.; Dresscher, Douwe; Stramigioli, Stefano

2014-01-01

The European BRICS project aims to bring about a long-lasting change in robotics research and development in industry as well as in academia. It wants to change the current situation of non-interoperable, monolithic and single-sourcing robotic components into a situation that other domains have

Robot and Human Surface Operations on Solar System Bodies

Science.gov (United States)

Weisbin, C. R.; Easter, R.; Rodriguez, G.

2001-01-01

This paper presents a comparison of robot and human surface operations on solar system bodies. The topics include: 1) Long Range Vision of Surface Scenarios; 2) Human and Robots Complement Each Other; 3) Respective Human and Robot Strengths; 4) Need More In-Depth Quantitative Analysis; 5) Projected Study Objectives; 6) Analysis Process Summary; 7) Mission Scenarios Decompose into Primitive Tasks; 7) Features of the Projected Analysis Approach; and 8) The "Getting There Effect" is a Major Consideration. This paper is in viewgraph form.

Mobile robot for hazardous environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bains, N.

1995-01-01

This paper describes the architecture and potential applications of the autonomous robot for a known environment (ARK). The ARK project has developed an autonomous mobile robot that can move around by itself in a complicated nuclear environment utilizing a number of sensors for navigation. The primary sensor system is computer vision. The ARK has the intelligence to determine its position utilizing open-quotes natural landmarks,close quotes such as ordinary building features at any point along its path. It is this feature that gives ARK its uniqueness to operate in an industrial type of environment. The prime motivation to develop ARK was the potential application of mobile robots in radioactive areas within nuclear generating stations and for nuclear waste sites. The project budget is $9 million over 4 yr and will be completed in October 1995

Exploring the role of robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kilbourn, Kyle; Bay, Marie Brøndum

2011-01-01

a welfare technology project and our early attempts at performing relations in the context of robotics and automation, assumed to be an integral part of sterilization work for medical instruments. We focus on several aspects of the project: relations between work within and outside of the project...

EXOS research on master controllers for robotic devices

Science.gov (United States)

Marcus, Beth A.; An, Ben; Eberman, Brian

1992-01-01

Two projects are currently being conducted by EXOS under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program with NASA. One project will develop a force feedback device for controlling robot hands, the other will develop an elbow and shoulder exoskeleton which can be integrated with other EXOS devices to provide whole robot arm and hand control. Aspects covered are the project objectives, important research issues which have arisen during the developments, and interim results of the projects. The Phase 1 projects currently underway will result in hardware prototypes and identification of research issues required for complete system development and/or integration.

MART: an overview of the Mobile Autonomous Robot Twente project

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tillema, H.G.; de Graaf, A.J.; Koster, M.P.; Nauta, J.M.; Oelen, W.; Schipper, D.A.

1993-01-01

At the University of Twente a mobile autonomous robot system is built that is designed to operate in a 'factory of the future'. Multiple robots, consisting of a manipulator on top of a vehicle, will drive through an assembly hall to collect components at part supply stations and to assemble

Development of Methodologies, Metrics, and Tools for Investigating Human-Robot Interaction in Space Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Ezer, Neta; Zumbado, Jennifer Rochlis; Sandor, Aniko; Boyer, Jennifer

2011-01-01

Human-robot systems are expected to have a central role in future space exploration missions that extend beyond low-earth orbit [1]. As part of a directed research project funded by NASA s Human Research Program (HRP), researchers at the Johnson Space Center have started to use a variety of techniques, including literature reviews, case studies, knowledge capture, field studies, and experiments to understand critical human-robot interaction (HRI) variables for current and future systems. Activities accomplished to date include observations of the International Space Station s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), Robonaut, and Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV), as well as interviews with robotics trainers, robot operators, and developers of gesture interfaces. A survey of methods and metrics used in HRI was completed to identify those most applicable to space robotics. These methods and metrics included techniques and tools associated with task performance, the quantification of human-robot interactions and communication, usability, human workload, and situation awareness. The need for more research in areas such as natural interfaces, compensations for loss of signal and poor video quality, psycho-physiological feedback, and common HRI testbeds were identified. The initial findings from these activities and planned future research are discussed. Human-robot systems are expected to have a central role in future space exploration missions that extend beyond low-earth orbit [1]. As part of a directed research project funded by NASA s Human Research Program (HRP), researchers at the Johnson Space Center have started to use a variety of techniques, including literature reviews, case studies, knowledge capture, field studies, and experiments to understand critical human-robot interaction (HRI) variables for current and future systems. Activities accomplished to date include observations of the International Space Station s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator

Methodological Aspects of Modelling and Simulation of Robotized Workstations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naqib Daneshjo

2018-05-01

Full Text Available From the point of view of development of application and program products, key directions that need to be respected in computer support for project activities are quite clearly specified. User interfaces with a high degree of graphical interactive convenience, two-dimensional and three-dimensional computer graphics contribute greatly to streamlining project methodologies and procedures in particular. This is mainly due to the fact that a high number of solved tasks is clearly graphic in the modern design of robotic systems. Automation of graphical character tasks is therefore a significant development direction for the subject area. The authors present results of their research in the area of automation and computer-aided design of robotized systems. A new methodical approach to modelling robotic workstations, consisting of ten steps incorporated into the four phases of the logistics process of creating and implementing a robotic workplace, is presented. The emphasis is placed on the modelling and simulation phase with verification of elaborated methodologies on specific projects or elements of the robotized welding plant in automotive production.

Avatar Robot for Crew Performance and Behavioral Health

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This project investigates the effectiveness of using an avatar robotic platform as a crew assistant and a family member substitute. This type of avatar robot is...

Presence of Life-Like Robot Expressions Influences Children’s Enjoyment of Human-Robot Interactions in the Field

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cameron, David; Fernando, Samuel; Collins, Emily; Millings, Abigail; Moore, Roger; Sharkey, Amanda; Evers, Vanessa; Prescott, Tony

Emotions, and emotional expression, have a broad influence on the interactions we have with others and are thus a key factor to consider in developing social robots. As part of a collaborative EU project, this study examined the impact of lifelike affective facial expressions, in the humanoid robot

The SHERPA project: Smart collaboration between humans and ground-aerial robots for improving rescuing activities in alpine environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marconi, L.; Melchiorri, C.; Beetz, M.; Pangercic, D.; Siegwart, R.; Leutenegger, S.; Carloni, Raffaella; Stramigioli, Stefano; Bruyninckx, H.; Doherty, P.; Kleiner, A.; Lippiello, V.; Finzi, A.; Siciliano, B.; Sala, A.; Tomatis, N.

2012-01-01

The goal of the paper is to present the foreseen research activity of the European project “SHERPA‿ whose activities will start officially on February 1th 2013. The goal of SHERPA is to develop a mixed ground and aerial robotic platform to support search and rescue activities in a real-world hostile

78 FR 5710 - Airworthiness Directives; Engine Alliance Turbofan Engines

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-28

... Airworthiness Directives; Engine Alliance Turbofan Engines AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT... all Engine Alliance GP7270 and GP7277 turbofan engines. This AD requires initial and repetitive...) Applicability This AD applies to all Engine Alliance GP7270 and GP7277 turbofan engines with a high-pressure...

The Walk-Man Robot Software Architecture

OpenAIRE

Mirko Ferrati; Alessandro Settimi; Alessandro Settimi; Luca Muratore; Alberto Cardellino; Alessio Rocchi; Enrico Mingo Hoffman; Corrado Pavan; Dimitrios Kanoulas; Nikos G. Tsagarakis; Lorenzo Natale; Lucia Pallottino

2016-01-01

A software and control architecture for a humanoid robot is a complex and large project, which involves a team of developers/researchers to be coordinated and requires many hard design choices. If such project has to be done in a very limited time, i.e., less than 1 year, more constraints are added and concepts, such as modular design, code reusability, and API definition, need to be used as much as possible. In this work, we describe the software architecture developed for Walk-Man, a robot ...

DOE EM industry programs robotics development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Staubly, R.; Kothari, V.

1998-01-01

The Office of Science and Technology (OST) manages an aggressive program for RD and D, as well as testing and evaluation for the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Environmental Management (EM) organization. The goal is to develop new and improved environmental restoration and waste management technologies to clean up the inventory of the DOE weapons complex faster, safer, and cheaper than is possible with currently available technologies. Robotic systems reduce worker exposure to the absolute minimum, while providing proven, cost-effective, and, for some applications, the only acceptable technique for addressing challenging problems. Development of robotic systems for remote operations occurs in three main categories: tank waste characterization and retrieval; decontamination and dismantlement; and characterization, mapping, and inspection systems. In addition, the Federal Energy Technology Center (FETC) has some other projects which fall under the heading of supporting R and D. The central objective of all FETC robotic projects is to make robotic systems more attractive by reducing costs and health risks associated with the deployment of robotic technologies in the cleanup of the nuclear weapons complex. This will be accomplished through development of robots that are cheaper, faster, safer, and more reliable, as well as more straightforward to modify/adapt and more intuitive to operate with autonomous capabilities and intelligent controls that prevent accidents and optimize task execution

Possibility of Strategic Alliance from Competition:A Game Analysis

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

张树义; 陈彦茹

2004-01-01

The possibility for two competitive firms to form a strategic alliance was quantitatively analyzed with the game theory. The strategic alliance could be formed in an infinitely repeated game with complete information or a finitely repeated game with incomplete information. In the former situation, the discount ratio is important. If the discount ratio is large enough, alliance would be a possible solution. In the latter situation, the bigger the possibility of the rationality is, the more possible is for both firms to make strategic alliance.

Methodology for cloud-based design of robots

Science.gov (United States)

Ogorodnikova, O. M.; Vaganov, K. A.; Putimtsev, I. D.

2017-09-01

This paper presents some important results for cloud-based designing a robot arm by a group of students. Methodology for the cloud-based design was developed and used to initiate interdisciplinary project about research and development of a specific manipulator. The whole project data files were hosted by Ural Federal University data center. The 3D (three-dimensional) model of the robot arm was created using Siemens PLM software (Product Lifecycle Management) and structured as a complex mechatronics product by means of Siemens Teamcenter thin client; all processes were performed in the clouds. The robot arm was designed in purpose to load blanks up to 1 kg into the work space of the milling machine for performing student's researches.

Group Innovation Ability of Agricultural Technological Innovation Strategic Alliance

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Chishun; MA; Jintian; YU

2013-01-01

Agricultural technological innovation strategic alliance, as an important form of strategic alliance, has steadily strengthened the collaborative management among organizations and raised competitive power with the backing of improved group innovation ability. This article studies innovation ability from individual innovation ability to the group innovation ability. Firstly, basic connotation of group innovation ability is to be concluded through the comparison of individual and group innovation ability. Secondly, evaluation index system is to be established based on the influencing factors of the group innovation ability of agricultural technological innovation strategic alliance and evaluation is based on three dimensions, namely organization technological innovation ability, alliance collaborative innovation ability as well as innovation environment. Furthermore, basic methods for promoting the group innovation ability of alliance are to be proposed.

The Thai-Australian Health Alliance: developing health management capacity and sustainability for primary health care services.

Science.gov (United States)

Briggs, D S; Tejativaddhana, P; Cruickshank, M; Fraser, J; Campbell, S

2010-11-01

There have been recent calls for a renewed worldwide focus on primary health care. The Thai-Australian Health Alliance addresses this call by developing health care management capability in primary health care professionals in rural Thailand. This paper describes the history and current activities of the Thai-Australian Health Alliance and its approaches to developing health care management capacity for primary care services through international collaborations in research, education and training over a sustained time period. The Alliance's approach is described herein as a distributed network of practices with access to shared knowledge through collaboration. Its research and education approaches involve action research, multi-methods projects, and evaluative studies in the context of workshops and field studies. WHO principles underpin this approach, with countries sharing practical experiences and outcomes, encouraging leadership and management resource networks, creating clearing houses/knowledge centres, and harmonising and aligning partners with their country's health systems. Various evaluations of the Alliance's activities have demonstrated that a capacity building approach that aligns researchers, educators and health practitioners in comparative and reflective activities can be effective in transferring knowledge and skills among a collaboration's partners. Project participants, including primary health care practitioners, health policy makers and academics embraced the need to acquire management skills to sustain primary care units. Participants believe that the approaches described herein were crucial to developing the management skills needed of health care professionals for rural and remote primary health care. The implementation of this initiative was challenged by pre-existing low opinions of the importance of the management role in health care, but with time the Alliance's activities highlighted for all the importance of health care management

Specification of a STEP Based Reference Model for Exchange of Robotics Models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Haenisch, Jochen; Kroszynski, Uri; Ludwig, Arnold

robot programming, the descriptions of geometry, kinematics, robotics, dynamics, and controller data using STEP are addressed as major goals of the project.The Project Consortium has now released the "Specificatin of a STEP Based Reference Model for Exchange of Robotics Models" on which a series......ESPRIT Project 6457: "Interoperability of Standards for Robotics in CIME" (InterRob) belongs to the Subprogram "Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Engineering" of ESPRIT, the European Specific Programme for Research and Development in Information Technology supported by the European Commision....... InterRob aims to develop an integrated solution to precision manufacturing by combining product data and database technologies with robotic off-line programming and simulation. Benefits arise from the use of high level simulation tools and developing standards for the exchange of product model data...

The class project of cyber-driver

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. S. Sorokoumov

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This article describes a class project of cyber-driver, i.e. an android robot controlling a mobile platform. This project can be used both to teach high-school students in programming, hardware design and foundations of robotic science by solving some important and scientifically interesting tasks. Despite the great number of modern android robotics systems, their software controlling systems often have serious issues. Such actions as rough terrain movement or stairs climbing can be performed simply and accurately by both humans and animals but not by biosimilar robots. The traditional systems in these cases demand many complex and precise settings to perform such movements and nevertheless they remain very vulnerable to random factors. In robotic perception models the situation is similar: casual human tasks as image recognition or scene analysis need complex algorithms and huge computer resources if performed by robots. Biologically-inspired models can improve matters in robotic science. Human movement copying is often used for solving this problem in practice but it does not allow copying considerable aspects of movement controlling in nervous system. Both controlling quality and testing quality for the aforementioned tasks can be essentially improved if the robot uses techniques similar to central motor programs of human. This project helps students to study this important domain. Besides, robotic perception can imitate biological systems more closely. Such biologically-inspired perception models give structure to computer vision systems and allow developing these systems quicker. The cyber-driver project is an example of biologically-inspired educational system. The system proposed consists of android robot that can manipulate levers, wheels and buttons, and mobile robotic platform. Educational robotic platform YARP-3 allows easy modification of constructing arms and grippers encouraging students’ creativity. The software of the robot can

78 FR 35747 - Airworthiness Directives; Engine Alliance Turbofan Engines

Science.gov (United States)

2013-06-14

... Airworthiness Directives; Engine Alliance Turbofan Engines AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT... Alliance GP7270 and GP7277 turbofan engines. This AD was prompted by damage to the high-pressure compressor... Alliance GP7270 and GP7277 turbofan engines with a high-pressure compressor (HPC) stage 6 disk, part number...

Ties that tear apart : the social embeddedness of strategic alliance termination

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rooks, G.; Snijders, C.C.P.; Duysters, G.M.

2013-01-01

Strategic alliances between firms are inherently unstable, and many alliances fail before the planned termination date. Most studies of the instability of strategic alliances focus on internal factors, such as tensions between alliance partners. In the present study social networks, in particular

Ties that tear apart. The social embeddedness of strategic alliance termination

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rook, G.; Snijders, C.; Duijsters, G.M.

2013-01-01

Strategic alliances between firms are inherently unstable, and many alliances fail before the planned termination date. Most studies of the instability of strategic alliances focus on internal factors, such as tensions between alliance partners. In the present study social networks, in particular

Building Teen Futures with Underwater Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Wallace, Michael L.; Freitas, William M.

2016-01-01

Preparing young Americans with science and technology skills has been on the forefront of educational reform for several years, and Extension has responded. Robotics projects have become a natural fit for 4-H clubs, with members' experiences ranging from using Lego® Mindstorms® and other "purchase and assemble" robotics kits to building…

Prototyping and Simulation of Robot Group Intelligence using Kohonen Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhijun; Mirdamadi, Reza; Wang, Qing

2016-01-01

Intelligent agents such as robots can form ad hoc networks and replace human being in many dangerous scenarios such as a complicated disaster relief site. This project prototypes and builds a computer simulator to simulate robot kinetics, unsupervised learning using Kohonen networks, as well as group intelligence when an ad hoc network is formed. Each robot is modeled using an object with a simple set of attributes and methods that define its internal states and possible actions it may take under certain circumstances. As the result, simple, reliable, and affordable robots can be deployed to form the network. The simulator simulates a group of robots as an unsupervised learning unit and tests the learning results under scenarios with different complexities. The simulation results show that a group of robots could demonstrate highly collaborative behavior on a complex terrain. This study could potentially provide a software simulation platform for testing individual and group capability of robots before the design process and manufacturing of robots. Therefore, results of the project have the potential to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of robot design and building.

Multinational Corporation and International Strategic Alliance

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

陆兮

2015-01-01

The world is now deeply into the second great wave of globalization, in which product, capital, and markets are becoming more and more integrated across countries. Multinational corporations are gaining their rapid growth around the globe and playing a significant role in the world economy. Meanwhile, the accelerated rate of globalization has also imposed pressures on MNCs, left them desperately seeking overseas alliances in order to remain competitive. International strategic alliances, which bring together large and commonly competitive firms for specific purposes, have gradual y shown its importance in the world market. And the form of international joint venture is now widely adopted. Then after the formation of alliances, selecting the right partner, formulating right strategies, establishing harmonious and effective partnership are generally the key to success.

The working alliance and Clinician-assisted Emotional Disclosure for rheumatoid arthritis.

Science.gov (United States)

Lumley, Mark A; Anderson, Timothy; Ankawi, Brett; Goldman, Gregory; Perri, LisaCaitlin M; Bianco, Joseph A; Keefe, Francis J

2018-01-01

The working alliance predicts improvement following general psychotherapy, but how it operates in brief interventions conducted with medically ill patients is unknown. Also, the role of the working alliance may differ in emotion-focused versus educational interventions. We report secondary analyses of a randomized clinical trial (Keefe et al.) [35], in which patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) received four nurse-provided sessions of either a) Clinician-assisted Emotional Disclosure (CAED), which emphasized the disclosure, expression, and processing of emotions related to stressful events; or b) Arthritis Education (AE), which provided basic education about RA. The Working Alliance Inventory was completed by both patient and nurse after each session. Patients were evaluated on multiple health measures at baseline and 1, 3, and 12months post-treatment. Analyses compared the alliance between interventions and related the alliance to outcomes within interventions. Patients in CAED reported a lower alliance than patients in AE. Interestingly, in CAED, lower alliance ratings predicted better outcomes (improved functioning, lower pain behaviors, lower inflammation, lower daily stress), whereas in AE, the working alliance was largely not predictive of outcomes. Having nurses encourage emotional disclosure among patients with RA reduced the patients' working alliance, but a lower alliance nonetheless predicted better patient outcomes, perhaps reflecting successful engagement in an intervention that is emotionally and relationally challenging. The level and predictive validity of the working alliance likely depends on patient, provider, and intervention factors, and further study of the working alliance in psychosocial interventions in the medical context is needed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

E-infocenter, a visual tool for project management in educational robotics using web technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kathia Pittí Patiño

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Normal.dotm 0 0 1 147 838 Universidad de Salamanca 6 1 1029 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Internet applications and educational robotics are technologies that are characterized by their relatively novelty and motivating character. They are the ideal setting for the application of active teaching methods. The project-based learning is considered as one of the most attractive of these teaching methods. Under our approach, the projects with robots makes use of the Web 2.0 collaborative environment, so this one will be considered as student support tool. In this way they can develop many skills that are easily transferable to the work-market. In this paper, an online visual tool called E-infocenter is described. We will show the developed selection process, the design and the implementation of the mentioned project management. This tool has been used for the first time for six weeks in the workshop “Vehicles LEGO NXT” that is, an experience dedicated to children aged between 8 and 15 years. The benefits perceived by the participants have been at management level, emotional and collaboration.

Family Caregiver Alliance

Science.gov (United States)

... on your schedule. Look for our launch soon! FAMILY CARE NAVIGATOR ─ Click on Your State AL AK ... AiA18 Smart Patients Caregivers Community In partnership with Family Caregiver Alliance Learn more Caregiver Research Studies show ...

Competition between alliance blocks : the case of the RISC microprocessor technology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vanhaverbeke, W.P.M.; Noorderhaven, N.G.

2001-01-01

Competition between alliance blocks is a new form of rivalry: groups of firms link together for a common purpose by means of strategic alliances, and competition between alliance blocks is superimposed on competition between individual firms. This paper focuses on alliance blocks in the RISC

Robotics in Japan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martin, T.

1987-02-01

In September 1986, a group of German scientists visited Japanese institutions dealing with advanced robotics research, to gain a deeper insight in the Japanese status of this technology. Research projects found and discussions led in seven leading research institutes and seven firms are reported. Advanced robot or handling systems to ease or avoid human exposure to activities in harsh, demanding or dangerous conditions or environment are mainly dealt with. The Japanese show vast research activities in this area in the pre-competitive stage especially in the nuclear and underwater application area. (orig.) [de

An Overview of Strategic Alliances between Universities and Corporations

Science.gov (United States)

Elmuti, Dean; Abebe, Michael; Nicolosi, Marco

2005-01-01

Purpose: Strategic alliances generally represent inter-firm cooperative agreements aimed at achieving competitive advantage for the partners. In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in strategic alliances by multinational firms. This paper aims to explore the essence of these alliances and why they have become such a growing area of…

Socially assistive robots : a comprehensive approach to extending independent living

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Johnson, D.O.; Cuijpers, R.H.; Juola, J.F.; Torta, E.; Simonov, M.; Frisiello, A.; Bazzani, M.; Yan, W.; Weber, C.; Wermter, S.; Meins, N.; Oberzaucher, J.; Panek, P. (Paul); Edelmayer, G.; Mayer, P.; Beck, C.

2014-01-01

Demographic developments have challenged our research on how to assist elderly people by using robots. The KSERA (Knowledgeable SErvice Robots for Aging) project integrates smart home technology and a socially-assistive robot to extend independent living for elderly people, in particular those with

Collaborative innovation effort and size in alliances

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Asikainen, Anna-Leena; Radziwon, Agnieszka

of organisational and marketing innovations. Additionally, small firms were more likely (than large) to engage into alliances as a part of their strategy. On more general level our data also confirm that factors such as: number of highly educated employees, foreign ownership of a firm and presence of firm......This study presents quantitative investigation of the factors that influence the process of forming strategic alliances with a special focus on the role of innovation strategies and firm’s size in alliance building process. The empirical sample is based on a large scale data from the Community...

Library Services Alliance of New Mexico. 1994 Annual report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1995-09-01

The Library Services Alliance is a unique multi-type library consortium committed to resource sharing. As a voluntary association of university and governmental laboratory libraries supporting scientific research, the Alliance has become a leader in New Mexico in using cooperative ventures to cost-effectively expand resources supporting their scientific and technical communities. During 1994, the alliance continued to expand on their strategic planning foundation to enhance access to research information for the scientific and technical communities. Significant progress was made in facilitating easy access to the on-line catalogs of member libraries via connections through the Internet. Access to Alliance resources is now available via the World Wide Web and Gopher, as well as links to other databases and electronic information. This report highlights the accomplishments of the Alliance during calendar year 1994.

Laboratory robotics projects in the Analytical Development Division at the Savannah River Laboratory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lien, O.G.; Steele, A.W.

1986-01-01

To encourage the application of robotics technology for routine radiobench applications, a laboratory dedicated to the research and development of contained robotic systems is being constructed. The facility will have several robots located in laminar flow hoods, and the hoods are being designed to allow the possibility for multiple robots to work together. This paper presents both the design features of the hoods and the general layout of the laboratory, and also discusses an application of a robotic system for the routine nuclear counting of gamma tube samples. The gamma tube system is presently operating in one of the routine analysis laboratories. 5 figs

Ploidy levels among species in the 'Oxalis tuberosa alliance' as inferred by flow cytometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Emshwiller, Eve

2002-06-01

The 'Oxalis tuberosa alliance' is a group of Andean Oxalis species allied to the Andean tuber crop O. tuberosa Molina (Oxalidaceae), commonly known as 'oca'. As part of a larger project studying the origins of polyploidy and domestication of cultivated oca, flow cytometry was used to survey DNA ploidy levels among Bolivian and Peruvian accessions of alliance members. In addition, this study provided a first assessment of C-values in the alliance by estimating nuclear DNA contents of these accessions using chicken erythrocytes as internal standard. Ten Bolivian accessions of cultivated O. tuberosa were confirmed to be octoploid, with a mean nuclear DNA content of approx. 3.6 pg/2C. Two Peruvian wild Oxalis species, O. phaeotricha and O. picchensis, were inferred to be tetraploid (both with approx. 1.67 pg/2C), the latter being one of the putative progenitors of O. tuberosa identified by chloroplast-expressed glutamine synthetase data in prior work. The remaining accessions (from 78 populations provisionally identified as 35 species) were DNA diploid, with nuclear DNA contents varying from 0.79 to 1.34 pg/2C.

The therapeutic alliance: a psychoanalytic perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Freebury, D R

1989-11-01

Psychoanalysis has long distinguished between the transference neurosis and that part of the communication between therapist and patient which depends upon a relatively intact part of the patient's ego. It has been proposed that it is this capacity of the patient that sustains the difficult work of dealing with communications which are the consequence of transference, and which often threaten the viability of the treatment. This quality has been referred to variously as the unobjectionable positive transference, rational transference, mature transference, therapeutic alliance and working alliance. The ever broadening scope of Psychoanalysis, along with our greater knowledge of early childhood development, has enhanced our understanding of the many influences affecting the treatment alliances. Newer views of the transference, which stress the significance of the therapists' contributions to the therapeutic dyad, make it clear that the therapeutic alliance can no longer be explained as some simple, reality based, conflict free, motivating force. It involves, rather, a complex interaction of several factors, to each of which one must add the therapists' reciprocal reactions. Psychotherapy outcome research will need to take all of these factors into consideration.

Robustness of airline alliance route networks

Science.gov (United States)

Lordan, Oriol; Sallan, Jose M.; Simo, Pep; Gonzalez-Prieto, David

2015-05-01

The aim of this study is to analyze the robustness of the three major airline alliances' (i.e., Star Alliance, oneworld and SkyTeam) route networks. Firstly, the normalization of a multi-scale measure of vulnerability is proposed in order to perform the analysis in networks with different sizes, i.e., number of nodes. An alternative node selection criterion is also proposed in order to study robustness and vulnerability of such complex networks, based on network efficiency. And lastly, a new procedure - the inverted adaptive strategy - is presented to sort the nodes in order to anticipate network breakdown. Finally, the robustness of the three alliance networks are analyzed with (1) a normalized multi-scale measure of vulnerability, (2) an adaptive strategy based on four different criteria and (3) an inverted adaptive strategy based on the efficiency criterion. The results show that Star Alliance has the most resilient route network, followed by SkyTeam and then oneworld. It was also shown that the inverted adaptive strategy based on the efficiency criterion - inverted efficiency - shows a great success in quickly breaking networks similar to that found with betweenness criterion but with even better results.

NASA, Engineering, and Swarming Robots

Science.gov (United States)

Leucht, Kurt

2015-01-01

This presentation is an introduction to NASA, to science and engineering, to biologically inspired robotics, and to the Swarmie ant-inspired robot project at KSC. This presentation is geared towards elementary school students, middle school students, and also high school students. This presentation is suitable for use in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) outreach events. The first use of this presentation will be on Oct 28, 2015 at Madison Middle School in Titusville, Florida where the author has been asked by the NASA-KSC Speakers Bureau to speak to the students about the Swarmie robots.

AN INVESTIGATION INTO FACTORS INFLUENCING INTERNATIONAL STRATEGIC ALLIANCE PROCESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sari Wahyuni

2003-02-01

Full Text Available Empirical research indicates that strategic alliances, like other organizational forms, emerge as an adaptive mechanism to market uncertainty, and their developments over time reflect the co-evolution of distinctive firm capabilities and of industry and market activities. Interestingly, most strategic alliances go through similar revolutionary cycles in terms of their motives and capabilities toward the cooperative relationship. Studies in this areas how that alliance failure is an outcome of the co-evolutionary adjustment to changes in the market, the competitive dynamics between partners, and assessment of efficiency of the alliance as an alternative governance structure. It is thus critical to adopt a dynamics perspective and historical observations of cooperative process. This paper attempts to distil, derive and integrate theories across different perspectives into a unified framework that offers a better understanding of alliance process development. Our analysis shows that we can divide strategic alliance development into three phases of development: formation, operation and evaluation. We further endeavor to seek the important factors that should be taken into account in each stage of their life.

Further Validation of the Learning Alliance Inventory: The Roles of Working Alliance, Rapport, and Immediacy in Student Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Rogers, Daniel T.

2015-01-01

This study further examined the reliability and validity of the Learning Alliance Inventory (LAI), a self-report measure designed to assess the working alliance between a student and a teacher. The LAI was found to have good internal consistency and test--retest reliability, and it demonstrated the predicted convergence with measures of immediacy…

Advanced robot vision system for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Onoguchi, Kazunori; Kawamura, Atsuro; Nakayama, Ryoichi.

1991-01-01

We have developed a robot vision system for advanced robots used in nuclear power plants, under a contract with the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. This work is part of the large-scale 'advanced robot technology' project. The robot vision system consists of self-location measurement, obstacle detection, and object recognition subsystems, which are activated by a total control subsystem. This paper presents details of these subsystems and the experimental results obtained. (author)

IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGIC ALLIANCES IN COMPANY’S ACTIVITY

OpenAIRE

Elena BARANOV

2013-01-01

Strategic alliance is an agreement between two or more organizations to cooperate in a specific business activity, so that each benefits from the strengths of the other, and gains competitive advantage. The formation of strategic alliances has been seen as a response to globalization and increasing uncertainty and complexity in the business environment. Strategic alliances involve the sharing of knowledge and expertise between partners as well as the reduction of risk and costs in areas such ...

RoboDB: an application of Semantic Web Technologies to robotics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Juarez, Alex; Hu, J.; Feijs, L.M.G.

2011-01-01

RoboDB is a knowledge acquisition system that gathers information about robots. RoboDB uses Semantic Web technologies and tools to help the user in creating semantic descriptions of robot embodiments and their capabilities, as well as in building an ontology of robotics projects, research

Human-robot skills transfer interfaces for a flexible surgical robot.

Science.gov (United States)

Calinon, Sylvain; Bruno, Danilo; Malekzadeh, Milad S; Nanayakkara, Thrishantha; Caldwell, Darwin G

2014-09-01

In minimally invasive surgery, tools go through narrow openings and manipulate soft organs to perform surgical tasks. There are limitations in current robot-assisted surgical systems due to the rigidity of robot tools. The aim of the STIFF-FLOP European project is to develop a soft robotic arm to perform surgical tasks. The flexibility of the robot allows the surgeon to move within organs to reach remote areas inside the body and perform challenging procedures in laparoscopy. This article addresses the problem of designing learning interfaces enabling the transfer of skills from human demonstration. Robot programming by demonstration encompasses a wide range of learning strategies, from simple mimicking of the demonstrator's actions to the higher level imitation of the underlying intent extracted from the demonstrations. By focusing on this last form, we study the problem of extracting an objective function explaining the demonstrations from an over-specified set of candidate reward functions, and using this information for self-refinement of the skill. In contrast to inverse reinforcement learning strategies that attempt to explain the observations with reward functions defined for the entire task (or a set of pre-defined reward profiles active for different parts of the task), the proposed approach is based on context-dependent reward-weighted learning, where the robot can learn the relevance of candidate objective functions with respect to the current phase of the task or encountered situation. The robot then exploits this information for skills refinement in the policy parameters space. The proposed approach is tested in simulation with a cutting task performed by the STIFF-FLOP flexible robot, using kinesthetic demonstrations from a Barrett WAM manipulator. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

How does the robot affect outcomes? A retrospective review of open, laparoscopic, and robotic Heller myotomy for achalasia.

Science.gov (United States)

Shaligram, Abhijit; Unnirevi, Jayaraj; Simorov, Anton; Kothari, Vishal M; Oleynikov, Dmitry

2012-04-01

Robotic techniques are routinely used in urological and gynecological procedures; however, their role in general surgical procedures is limited. A robotic technique has been successfully adopted for a minimally invasive Heller myotomy procedure for achalasia. This study aims to compare perioperative outcomes following open, laparoscopic, and robotic Heller myotomy. This study is a multicenter, retrospective analysis utilizing a large administrative database. The University Health System Consortium (UHC) is an alliance between academic medical centers and affiliate hospitals. The UHC database was accessed using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes and analyzed. 2,683 patients with achalasia underwent Heller myotomy between October 2007 and June 2011. Myotomy was performed by open surgery (OM) in 418 patients, by laparoscopic approach (LM) in 2,116, and by robotic approach (RM) in 149. Comparison between LM and RM groups demonstrated no significant difference in mortality (0.14 vs. 0.0%; P = 1), morbidity (5.19 vs. 4.02%; P = 0.7), intensive care unit (ICU) admission (6.62 vs. 3.36%; P = 0.12), length of stay (LOS) (2.70 ± 3.87 days vs. 2.42 ± 2.69 days; P = 0.34), or 30-day readmission (1.41 vs. 2.84%; P = 0.27). However, hospital costs were significantly lower for the LM group (US $7,441 ± 7,897 vs. US $9,415 ± 5,515; P = 0.0028). Comparison between OM and RM demonstrated significant lower morbidity (9.08 vs. 4.02%; P = 0.02), ICU admission rate (14.01 vs. 3.36%, P = 0.0002), and LOS (4.42 ± 5.25 days vs. 2.42 ± 2.69 days; P = 0.0001). The perioperative outcomes are superior in LM and RM groups when compared with OM. The outcomes for the LM and RM group are comparable, with the robotic group having slightly improved results, although with increased costs. We conclude that robotic surgery is equivalent in safety and efficacy to laparoscopic Heller myotomy, and feel that the increased cost should come down as

What Do Chinese and Foreign Universities Value about Their Strategic Alliances? Exploring a Dimension of Higher Education Alliances in a Cross Cultural Context

Science.gov (United States)

Willis, Mike

2003-01-01

There are now over 5,000 alliances between Chinese and foreign universities but there is little research on how managers from the two sides value the various aspects of their educational alliances. This research finds that both sides valued a range of alliance levels, types, activities, sizes and structures but there were significant differences.…

Strategic alliances : Alliance contracting and trust in an evolutionary perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gerard Berendsen; Ineke Pieters; Ben Alders

2009-01-01

In this paper we will identify the contract dimensions of alliance contracts directed at joint development of new products or services. We will determine to what extent these contract dimensions are adaptable to future needs and insights. We will also provide insight into the contingency of these

History and structure of Japan-US nuclear alliance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoshioka, Hitoshi

2011-01-01

'Japan-US nuclear alliance' for civil use of nuclear energy was used here as technical term for the state Japanese commercial power plants were all water-cooled reactors under the US nuclear engineering umbrella and US admitted Japanese development of all 'SNT: sensitive nuclear technology' in the area of nuclear fuel cycle. 'Japan-US alliance' was used for various areas closely related with national security while 'Japan-US nuclear weapon alliance' was for military use of nuclear energy such as nuclear weapon (transport methods included) and counter weapon system. Military and civil use of nuclear energy relied fundamentally on common technical bases and especially nuclear fuel cycle related technologies were directly connected to both uses and called 'SNT'. Japanese nuclear policy sticking to SNT might come from the axiom: nuclear engineering for national security, that meant Japan refrained from nuclear arms but maintained technical and industrial potential of nuclear arms. This could be called 'nuclear arms standby strategy' and derived from compromise of both countries to play role of stabilizer of 'Japan-US alliance'. History of Japanese nuclear power development could be well understood as formation process of 'Japan-US nuclear alliance'. If Fukushima Daiichi accident forced nuclear power to phase out, nuclear fuel cycle would be obliged to terminate. This meant failure of the axiom and dissolution of 'Japan-US nuclear alliance'. (T. Tanaka)

Caracterization of the process of forming strategic alliances

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luciano Mattana

2009-03-01

Full Text Available The union between companies has represented an increase in their competitive capabilities. The strategic alliances have been shown as alternatives for the adequacy of the conduct and organizational framework of the companies toward the market and the world economic juncture. Nevertheless, researches demonstrate that a good number of enterprises of this nature fail. In this sense, this study aimed at characterizing the formation and sustentation of a strategic alliance which has already been formed for 26 years and, thus, verifying the main foundations which are responsible for the maintenance of the union health. The unity of analysis was the alliance between companies as FEMSA and CVI Indústria de Refrigerantes Ltda. Through the method of case study, using the qualitative technique with the aim of describing the case in study, four managers and one collaborator, all of them linked to the alliance, were interviewed. The research allowed establishing that the main foundations of sustaining the alliance in study are in the individual abilities of the partnerships, in the synergy among individual strategies and in the feeling of mutual confidence which exists. Moreover, it was found out that, in the moments of crisis, the major factor responsible for the maintenance of the business is the determination of the upper management on keeping a climate of enthusiasm between the participants of the strategic alliance.

Coal mine enterprise integration based on strategic alliance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhou, Q.; Sun, J.; Xu, S. [Tsinghua University, Beijing (China). Dept. of Computer Science and Technology

2003-07-01

The relationship between coal mine and related enterprise was analysed. Aiming at the competitive world market as well as the dynamic requirement, a coal mine enterprise integration strategy and a enterprise strategic alliance were proposed for the product providing service business pattern. The modelling method of the enterprise strategic alliance was proposed, including the relationship view model, information view model and business process view model. The idea of enterprise strategic alliance is useful for enterprise integration. 6 refs., 2 figs.

Product development alliances: factors influencing formation and success

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Johanne Rønnow; Harmsen, Hanne; Friis, Alan

2008-01-01

, results indicate that success factors are rather universal across industries and types of alliances. Research limitations/implications - Further research should explore the findings further, both within the food industry context, as well as more broadly in terms of geography and industry. Practical...... implications - Managers obtain a tool for planning and refining their innovation strategy and actions regarding product development alliances. Originality/value - This research contributes to the presently limited literature on product development alliances, specifically in the food industry context....

Alliances in Human Biology: The Harvard Committee on Industrial Physiology, 1929-1939.

Science.gov (United States)

Oakes, Jason

2015-08-01

In 1929 the newly-reorganized Rockefeller Foundation funded the work of a cross-disciplinary group at Harvard University called the Committee on Industrial Physiology (CIP). The committee's research and pedagogical work was oriented towards different things for different members of the alliance. The CIP program included a research component in the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory and Elton May's interpretation of the Hawthorne Studies; a pedagogical aspect as part of Wallace Donham's curriculum for Harvard Business School; and Lawrence Henderson's work with the Harvard Pareto Circle, his course Sociology 23, and the Harvard Society of Fellows. The key actors within the CIP alliance shared a concern with training men for elite careers in government service, business leadership, and academic prominence. But the first communications between the CIP and the Rockefeller Foundation did not emphasize training in human biology. Instead, the CIP presented itself as a coordinating body that would be able to organize all the varied work going on at Harvard that did not fit easily into one department, and it was on this basis that the CIP became legible to the President of Harvard, A. Lawrence Lowell, and to Rockefeller's Division of Social Sciences. The members of the CIP alliance used the term human biology for this project of research, training and institutional coordination.

Autonomous Robot Navigation In Public Nature Park

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jens Christian; Andersen, Nils Axel; Ravn, Ole

2005-01-01

This extended abstract describes a project to make a robot travel autonomously across a public nature park. The challenge is to detect and follow the right path across junctions and open squares avoiding people and obstacles. The robot is equipped with a laser scanner, a (low accuracy) GPS, wheel...

From rhetoric to reality: consumer engagement in 16 multi-stakeholder alliances.

Science.gov (United States)

Greene, Jessica; Farley, Diane C; Christianson, Jon B; Scanlon, Dennis P; Shi, Yunfeng

2016-08-01

A key component of the Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) program was engaging consumers in their health and healthcare. We examined the extent to which the alliances embraced 4 areas of consumer engagement: self-management, consumer friendliness of reports of healthcare provider quality, involvement of consumers in alliance governance, and the integration of consumers into quality improvement teams. We used a largely qualitative approach. The evaluation team conducted 1100 in-depth interviews with alliance stakeholders. Two authors reviewed the consumer engagement data for each alliance to assess its level of embrace in the 4 consumer engagement areas. For consumer friendliness of public reporting websites, we also assessed alliance public reports for reading level, technical language, and evaluable displays. Population-level effects were also examined for self-management and public reporting. Consumer engagement was new to most alliances, and few had staff with consumer engagement expertise or existing consumer constituencies. For each area of consumer engagement, some alliances enthusiastically embraced the work, other alliances made a concerted but limited effort to develop programs, and a third group of alliances did the minimum work required. Integrating consumers into governance was the area most often embraced, followed by making public reports consumer friendly. Two alliances strongly embraced both self-management and integrating patients into quality improvement efforts. The AF4Q program did not have greater population level effects from self-management or public reporting than were those observed in a national comparison sample. The AF4Q program sparked a few alliances to develop robust consumer engagement programming, while most alliances tried consumer engagement efforts for the first time and developed an appreciation for integrating consumer perspectives into their work.

Enabling technologies for the prassi autonomous robot

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Taraglio, S; Nanni, V [ENEA, Robotics and Information Technology Division, Rome (Italy)

2001-07-01

In this book are summarised some of the results of the PRASSI project as presented by the different partners of the effort. PRASSI is an acronym which stands for Autonomous Robotic Platform for the Security and Surveillance of plants, the Italian for it is 'Piattaforma Robotica per la Sorveglianza e Sicurezza d'Impianto'. This project has been funded by the Italian Ministry for the Education, the University and the Research (MIUR) in the framework of the project High Performance Computing Applied to Robotics (Calcolo Parallelo con Applicazioni alla Robotica) of the law 95/1995. The idea behind such an initiative is that of fostering the knowledge and possibly the use of high performance computing in the research and industrial community. In other words, robotic scientists are always simplifying their algorithms or using particular approaches (e.g. soft computing) in order to use standard processors for difficult sensorial data processing; well, what if an embedded parallel computer were available, with at least one magnitude more of computing power?.

How Partner Characteristics Can Affect Performance of Alliances with Different Time Frames?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seyed Hossein JALALI

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Firms increasingly adopt cooperative strategies and form strategic alliances with foreign partners to be prosperous in entering to international market. Most of scholars have typically focused on generic, conceptual models for alliances partner selection, addressing only limited dimensions of the partner characteristics. This paper presents a new empirical framework that considering the effect of partner characteristics on export performance of alliances, in the case of short/mediumterm alliances and long-term ones. The study explores the effective partner characteristics for each type of alliances based on a sample of 540 alliances which rooted in East European region and also, have at least one Iranian partner. The findings stress the differences between varied partner characteristics in short/medium-term and long-term alliances. More specifically, results introduce a framework that addresses certain and specific partner characteristics to improve the export performance of alliances, due to the time frame of strategic alliances.

Strategic Classification and Examination of the Development of Current Airline Alliance Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhi H.; Evans, Michael

2002-01-01

Previous research argues that despite the fact that strategic alliances have become an important feature of the world airline industry, little rigorous analysis has been done on the effects of these alliances. This is partially because there is a lack of precise definitions to specify different types of airline alliances in the literature. This research identifies several categories of airline alliances through a strategic classification of the current alliance activities involving the major airlines for the period 1989 to 1999. The classification enables this research to examine how strategic alliance activities are evolving, particularly to compare how airlines in North America, the European Union and the Asia Pacific region have committed to different alliances. Findings show that there is a significant difference between the number and scope of alliances adopted in the three aviation markets. These findings facilitate research to further analyse the impact of market liberalization on various formations of strategic airline alliances.

Positioning the laparoscopic camera with industrial robot arm

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Capolei, Marie Claire; Wu, Haiyan; Andersen, Nils Axel

2017-01-01

This paper introduces a solution for the movement control of the laparoscopic camera employing a teleoperated robotic assistant. The project propose an autonomous robotic solution based on an industrial manipulator, provided with a modular software which is applicable to large scale. The robot arm...... industrial robot arm is designated to accomplish this manipulation task. The software is implemented in ROS in order to facilitate future extensions. The experimental results shows a manipulator capable of moving fast and smoothly the surgical tool around a remote center of motion....

USING THE SYNERGY OF ALLIANCES AND PARTNERSHIP FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

OpenAIRE

Elena DOVAL; Oriana DOVAL

2010-01-01

The purpose of this research is to demonstrate by searching the literature that the synergy of different types of alliances and partnership brings much more opportunities for the sustainable growth of the companies. After a briefing about definitions, types and purpose of alliances and partnership the paper reminds the process of alliances and partnership formation and emphasises the main advantages and limits of alliances and partnership Finally, a new type of company is defined, i.e. ‘the s...

The Physician-Patient Working Alliance in Hemodialysis Treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Fuertes, Jairo N; Rubinstein, Sofia; Reyes, Mariela; Iampornpipopchai, Pichet; Mujeeb, Shanza; Smith, Carroll R; Toporovsky, Arielle

2017-01-01

Over the past 20 years, the role of psychological and social factors, including the physician-patient working alliance, have emerged as integral components of medical care for patients with a myriad of health conditions. The current study examines a model comprised of psychological-interpersonal factors and the extent to which it explains patient satisfaction with and adherence to hemodialysis treatment. One hundred and seven adults with end-stage renal disease who were receiving regular outpatient hemodialysis participated in the study. Path analyses show that the physician-patient working alliance indirectly predicts patient adherence through patient satisfaction and patients' outcome expectations. The working alliance directly predicts patients' quality of life. It is concluded that consistent with previous research, the physician-patient working alliance is a significant factor in predicting key patient behaviors in medical care.

Manned spacecraft automation and robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Erickson, Jon D.

1987-01-01

The Space Station holds promise of being a showcase user and driver of advanced automation and robotics technology. The author addresses the advances in automation and robotics from the Space Shuttle - with its high-reliability redundancy management and fault tolerance design and its remote manipulator system - to the projected knowledge-based systems for monitoring, control, fault diagnosis, planning, and scheduling, and the telerobotic systems of the future Space Station.

Design and Implementation of Modular Software for Programming Mobile Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alessandro Farinelli

2006-03-01

Full Text Available This article describes a software development toolkit for programming mobile robots, that has been used on different platforms and for different robotic applications. We address design choices, implementation issues and results in the realization of our robot programming environment, that has been devised and built from many people since 1998. We believe that the proposed framework is extremely useful not only for experienced robotic software developers, but also for students approaching robotic research projects.

Pyro: A Python-Based Versatile Programming Environment for Teaching Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Blank, Douglas; Kumar, Deepak; Meeden, Lisa; Yanco, Holly

2004-01-01

In this article we describe a programming framework called Pyro, which provides a set of abstractions that allows students to write platform-independent robot programs. This project is unique because of its focus on the pedagogical implications of teaching mobile robotics via a top-down approach. We describe the background of the project, its…

Advantages and pitfalls of South Africa-Angola strategic alliances

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. J. Vogel

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Owing to a shortage of South African research focusing on international strategic alliances, this study aimed to determine whether the advantages and pitfalls of international strategic alliances referred to in international business publications are also applicable to South African international strategic alliances. Design/Methodology/Approach: This was a formal, empirical study that targeted the 163 South African enterprises which were members of the South African-Angolan Chamber of Commerce in 2005 and 2006. Findings: The results identified joint ventures as the most prominent mode of entry when expanding into developing countries and, with few exceptions, the findings support the advantages and pitfalls of international strategic alliances identified in other international publications. Value of the research: A great deal of international management research over the years has been focused on the importance of strategic alliances as a mode of entry, as well as on the pitfalls experienced by alliance partners, particularly in developed countries. However, the lack of such research in Africa in general and South Africa in particular means that South African enterprises must base their entry mode selection on non-South African research findings, and although this sample size was small, the lack of other Africa-specific research makes this research significant. Implications: With South Africa being the largest source of FDI into the rest of Africa, the findings of this paper show that South African enterprises can attain the advantages associated with international strategic alliances when using this mode of entry into Africa. In terms of pitfalls, the findings highlight the need for multinational enterprises to pay specific attention to the role of governments when forming strategic alliances.

Richer Connections to Robotics through Project Personalization

Science.gov (United States)

Veltman, Melanie; Davidson, Valerie; Deyell, Bethany

2012-01-01

In this work, we describe youth outreach activities carried out under the Chair for Women in Science and Engineering for Ontario (CWSE-ON) program. Specifically, we outline our design and implementation of robotics workshops to introduce and engage middle and secondary school students in engineering and computer science. Toward the goal of…

How Do Airlines Perceive That Strategic Alliances Affect Their Individual Branding?

Science.gov (United States)

Kalligiannis, Konstantinos; Iatrou, Kostas; Mason, Keith

2006-01-01

Much research has been carried out to evaluate the impact of strategic alliance membership on the performance of airlines. However it would be of interest to identify how airlines perceive this impact in terms of branding by each of the three global alliance groupings. It is the purpose of this paper to gather the opinion of airlines, belonging to the three strategic alliance groups, on the impact that the strategic alliance brands have had on their individual brands and how do they perceive that this impact will change in the future. To achieve this, a comprehensive survey of the alliance management and marketing departments of airlines participating in the three global strategic alliances was required. The results from this survey give an indication whether the strategic airline alliances, which are often referred to as marketing agreements, enhance, damage or have no impact on the individual airline brands.

Design of a Robotic Ankle Joint for a Microspine-Based Robot

Science.gov (United States)

Thatte, Nitish

2011-01-01

Successful robotic exploration of near-Earth asteroids necessitates a method of securely anchoring to the surface of these bodies without gravitational assistance. Microspine grip- per arrays that can grasp rock faces are a potential solution to this problem. A key component of a future microspine-based rover will be the ankle used to attach each microspine gripper to the robot. The ankle's purpose is twofold: 1) to allow the gripper to conform to the rock so a higher percentage of microspines attach to the surface, and 2) to neutralize torques that may dislodge the grippers from the wall. Parts were developed using computer aided design and manufactured using a variety of methods including selective laser sintering, CNC milling, and traditional manual machining techniques. Upon completion of the final prototype, the gripper and ankle system was tested to demonstrate robotic engagement and disengagement of the gripper and to determine load bearing ability. The immediate application of this project is to out t the Lemur IIb robot so it can climb and hang from rock walls.

Pumping services alliance: A new strategy for the 90's

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Milligan, M.R.; Smith, T.; Crombie, D.

1993-01-01

Shell Canada has forged a pumping services alliance with Nowsco Well Service Ltd. for an initial two year period. The alliance will cover pumping related services such as well cementation, well stimulation, coiled tubing work and, in the future could include other services such as pressure testing, corrosion inhibition treatments, flowline pigging, and pumping pipeline inspection tools. The alliance represents a major challenge in operating philosophy away from a competitive bidding strategy to a new strategy of forging business alliances that afford both parties benefits in a more cooperative mode. The alliance incorporates the service company more into the business of Shell Canada and comprises engineering and operations capability. The perceived benefits such an alliance would bring to the business are identified and the key issues that guided selection are documented. Detailed submissions from four major service companies were received and reviwed in a prequalification stage; final selection was made by a multi-disciplinary team. A joint mission statement was prepared that represented Nowsco's and Shell's vision of the alliance and helped guide the negotiations leading to a contract being struck complete with key result areas and performance measurement criteria. 5 refs

Firm Performance and Alliance Capability: The mediating role of culture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Man, A.P.; Luvison, D.

2015-01-01

Purpose – Extant literature has looked at the effect of alliance capability and organizational culture on alliance portfolio performance, but the relationship between the two has not been explored. The purpose of this paper is to explore the hypothesis that an alliance supportive culture is not only

AAL robotics: state of the field and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Payr, Sabine; Werner, Franz; Werner, Katharina

2015-01-01

The field of "AAL Robotics", combining AAL and robotics as disciplines, has not yet been precisely defined and does not present accepted structures and concepts that would allow to communicate unequivocally its methods, projects, and approaches. The paper presents a method of defining and categorizing AAL robots and presents the resulting classes of robots with regard to the activities they assist. The classification is useful in that it is able to cover the breadth of the field, but a more fine-grained description of functionalities will be needed in further research to establish the potential of robots to assist independent living of older adults.

High level functions for the intuitive use of an assistive robot.

Science.gov (United States)

Lebec, Olivier; Ben Ghezala, Mohamed Walid; Leynart, Violaine; Laffont, Isabelle; Fattal, Charles; Devilliers, Laurence; Chastagnol, Clement; Martin, Jean-Claude; Mezouar, Youcef; Korrapatti, Hermanth; Dupourqué, Vincent; Leroux, Christophe

2013-06-01

This document presents the research project ARMEN (Assistive Robotics to Maintain Elderly People in a Natural environment), aimed at the development of a user friendly robot with advanced functions for assistance to elderly or disabled persons at home. Focus is given to the robot SAM (Smart Autonomous Majordomo) and its new features of navigation, manipulation, object recognition, and knowledge representation developed for the intuitive supervision of the robot. The results of the technical evaluations show the value and potential of these functions for practical applications. The paper also documents the details of the clinical evaluations carried out with elderly and disabled persons in a therapeutic setting to validate the project.

Android Robotics and the Conceptualization of Human Beings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nørskov, Marco; Platz, Anemone

Japan has for decades been a first-mover and pacemaker with respect to the development of humanoid and android robots [1]. In this conceptual paper, we aim to demonstrate how certain android robotic projects can be embedded and interpreted within a Japanese notion of nature, where the artificial...... is not opposed to nature and where conventionalized idealizations in general are cherished over original state of the latter [2]. Furthermore, we will discuss how android robots epitomize challenges to the macro and micro levels of society. [1] J. Robertson, Robo Sapiens Japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family...

Passive mapping and intermittent exploration for mobile robots

Science.gov (United States)

Engleson, Sean P.

1994-01-01

An adaptive state space architecture is combined with diktiometric representation to provide the framework for designing a robot mapping system with flexible navigation planning tasks. This involves indexing waypoints described as expectations, geometric indexing, and perceptual indexing. Matching and updating the robot's projected position and sensory inputs with indexing waypoints involves matchers, dynamic priorities, transients, and waypoint restructuring. The robot's map learning can be opganized around the principles of passive mapping.

Impact of HMO market structure on physician-hospital strategic alliances.

Science.gov (United States)

Burns, L R; Bazzoli, G J; Dynan, L; Wholey, D R

2000-04-01

To assess the impact of HMO market structure on the formation of physician-hospital strategic alliances from 1993 through 1995. The two trends, managed care and physician-hospital integration have been prominent in reshaping insurance and provider markets over the past decade. Pooled cross-sectional data from the InterStudy HMO Census and the Annual Survey conducted by the American Hospital Association (AHA) between 1993 and the end of 1995 to examine the effects of HMO penetration and HMO numbers in a market on the formation of hospital-sponsored alliances with physicians. Because prior research has found nonlinear effects of HMOs on a variety of dependent variables, we operationalized HMO market structure two ways: using a Taylor series expansion and cross-classifying quartile distributions of HMO penetration and numbers into 16 dummy indicators. Alliance formation was operationalized using the presence of any alliance model (IPA, PHO, MSO, and foundation) and the sum of the four models present in the hospital. Because managed care and physician-hospital integration are endogenous (e.g., some hospitals also sponsor HMOs), we used an instrumental variables approach to model the determinants of HMO penetration and HMO numbers. These instruments were then used with other predictors of alliance formation: physician supply characteristics, the extent of hospital competition, hospital-level descriptors, population size and demographic characteristics, and indicators for each year. All equations were estimated at the MSA level using mixed linear models and first-difference models. Contrary to conventional wisdom, alliance formation is shaped by the number of HMOs in the market rather than by HMO penetration. This confirms a growing perception that hospital-sponsored alliances with physicians are contracting vehicles for managed care: the greater the number of HMOs to contract with, the greater the development of alliances. The models also show that alliance formation is

Sense-making’s role in creating alliance supportive organizational cultures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Man, A.P.; Luvison, D.

2014-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to analyze the way in which organizational culture affects alliance performance. The literature has begun to focus on intra-firm antecedents of alliance success, but so far has mainly focused on structural aspects like the presence of an alliance department. This

Environmental restoration and waste management: Robotics technology development program: Robotics 5-year program plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-01-01

In FY 1990 Robotics Technology Development Program (RTDP) planning teams visited five DOE sites. These sites were selected by the Office of Technology Development to provide a needs basis for developing a 5-Year Plan. Visits to five DOE sites provided identification of needs for robotics technology development to support Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (ER ampersand WM) projects at those sites. Additional site visits will be conducted in the future to expand the planning basis. This volume summarizes both the results of the site visits and the needs and requirements of the priority ER ampersand WM activities at the sites, including potential needs for robotics and remote systems technology. It also discusses hazards associated with the site activities and any problems or technical uncertainties associated with dealing with the hazards in the performance of the ER ampersand WM work. Robotic or remote systems currently under development for remediation projects or waste operations are also discussed. The information in this document is organized principally by site, activity, and priority. Section 2.0, Site Needs, is based on information from the site visit reports and provides a summary which focuses on the site needs and requirements for each priority activity. Section 2.0 also records evaluations and discussions by the RTDP team following the site visit. Section 3.0, Commonality Assessment, documents similar site needs where common, or cross-cutting, robotics technology might be applied to several activities. Section 4.0 contains a summary of the site needs and requirements in tabular form. 1 tab

Investigating an approach to the alliance based on interpersonal defense theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Westerman, Michael A; Muran, J Christopher

2017-09-01

Notwithstanding consistent findings of significant relationships between the alliance and outcome, questions remain to be answered about the relatively small magnitude of those correlations, the mechanisms underlying the association, and how to conceptualize the alliance construct. We conducted a preliminary study of an approach to the alliance based on interpersonal defense theory, which is an interpersonal reconceptualization of defense processes, to investigate the promise of this alternative approach as a way to address the outstanding issues. We employed qualitative, theory-building case study methodology, closely examining alliance processes at four time points in the treatment of a case in terms of a case formulation based on interpersonal defense theory. The results suggested that our approach made it possible to recognize key processes in the alliance and that it helps explain how the alliance influences outcome. Our analyses also provided a rich set of concrete illustrations of the alliance phenomena identified by the theory. The findings suggest that an approach to the alliance based on interpersonal defense theory holds promise. However, although the qualitative method we employed has advantages, it also has limitations. We offer suggestions about how future qualitative and quantitative investigations could build on this study.

AN INVESTIGATION INTO FACTORS INFLUENCING INTERNATIONAL STRATEGIC ALLIANCE PROCESS

OpenAIRE

Sari Wahyuni; Theo J.B.M. Postma

2003-01-01

Empirical research indicates that strategic alliances, like other organizational forms, emerge as an adaptive mechanism to market uncertainty, and their developments over time reflect the co-evolution of distinctive firm capabilities and of industry and market activities. Interestingly, most strategic alliances go through similar revolutionary cycles in terms of their motives and capabilities toward the cooperative relationship. Studies in this areas how that alliance failure is an outcome of...

Towards Competitive Commercial Autonomous Robots: The Configuration Problem

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kjærgaard, Morten; Andersen, Nils Axel; Ravn, Ole

2011-01-01

knowledge about the underlying algorithms. The framework also makes it possible for the robot to autonomously calibrate itself, resulting in higher stability of the robot and less development time required. The work is a result of an industrial research project aimed at lowering development costs...

Beyond contracts : Governing structures in non-equity alliances

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reuer, Jeffrey; Devarakonda, S.V.

Non-equity alliances are often portrayed in the literature as purely contractual collaborative agreements. This paper questions the notion that contractual safeguards and incentives alone provide the formal governance mechanisms that undergird non-equity alliances. We argue and show that partners

Experience in the use of teleoperated robotic equipment in the Spanish Nuclear Power Plants (S.R.T. Project)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bielza, M.; Gomez, J.; Izquierdo, J.A.; Bercedo, A.; Espallardo, J.A.; Martinez, A.; Carmena, P.; Pascual, J.L.

1998-01-01

The main objective of the Teleoperated Robotic Systems project (SRT) is the development of teleoperated robotic systems for use in the inspection, surveillance and maintenance operations in nuclear and radioactive installations. These systems make possible the reduction of the individual and collective doses of the workers that undertake these operations, as well as an increase of plant availability as it is possible to carry out specific tasks of inspection and surveillance in high radiation dose areas without to reduce the power of the installation. This project started in 1995 deciding to priorize the inspection equipment in a first phase. As a result of this work currently several semi-industrial products are available: ROBCAR, ROBICEN y ANAES. These have been installed for testing and commercial operation in Spanish nuclear installations. In this paper the experience of using these prototypes in the S.M. de Garona and Cofrentes nuclear power plants is described, as well as the improvements in the design of these systems derived from these experiences that have been incorporated to the industrial prototypes that are currently in the last phase of development. (Author)

A 2.5D Map-Based Mobile Robot Localization via Cooperation of Aerial and Ground Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Nam, Tae Hyeon; Shim, Jae Hong; Cho, Young Im

2017-11-25

Recently, there has been increasing interest in studying the task coordination of aerial and ground robots. When a robot begins navigation in an unknown area, it has no information about the surrounding environment. Accordingly, for robots to perform tasks based on location information, they need a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) process that uses sensor information to draw a map of the environment, while simultaneously estimating the current location of the robot on the map. This paper aims to present a localization method based in cooperation between aerial and ground robots in an indoor environment. The proposed method allows a ground robot to reach accurate destination by using a 2.5D elevation map built by a low-cost RGB-D (Red Green and Blue-Depth) sensor and 2D Laser sensor attached onto an aerial robot. A 2.5D elevation map is formed by projecting height information of an obstacle using depth information obtained by the RGB-D sensor onto a grid map, which is generated by using the 2D Laser sensor and scan matching. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for its accuracy in location recognition and computing speed.

A 2.5D Map-Based Mobile Robot Localization via Cooperation of Aerial and Ground Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tae Hyeon Nam

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Recently, there has been increasing interest in studying the task coordination of aerial and ground robots. When a robot begins navigation in an unknown area, it has no information about the surrounding environment. Accordingly, for robots to perform tasks based on location information, they need a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM process that uses sensor information to draw a map of the environment, while simultaneously estimating the current location of the robot on the map. This paper aims to present a localization method based in cooperation between aerial and ground robots in an indoor environment. The proposed method allows a ground robot to reach accurate destination by using a 2.5D elevation map built by a low-cost RGB-D (Red Green and Blue-Depth sensor and 2D Laser sensor attached onto an aerial robot. A 2.5D elevation map is formed by projecting height information of an obstacle using depth information obtained by the RGB-D sensor onto a grid map, which is generated by using the 2D Laser sensor and scan matching. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for its accuracy in location recognition and computing speed.

YARP: Yet Another Robot Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lorenzo Natale

2008-11-01

Full Text Available We describe YARP, Yet Another Robot Platform, an open-source project that encapsulates lessons from our experience in building humanoid robots. The goal of YARP is to minimize the effort devoted to infrastructure-level software development by facilitating code reuse, modularity and so maximize research-level development and collaboration. Humanoid robotics is a "bleeding edge" field of research, with constant flux in sensors, actuators, and processors. Code reuse and maintenance is therefore a significant challenge. We describe the main problems we faced and the solutions we adopted. In short, the main features of YARP include support for inter-process communication, image processing as well as a class hierarchy to ease code reuse across different hardware platforms. YARP is currently used and tested on Windows, Linux and QNX6 which are common operating systems used in robotics.

Intelligent monitoring-based safety system of massage robot

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

胡宁; 李长胜; 王利峰; 胡磊; 徐晓军; 邹雲鹏; 胡玥; 沈晨

2016-01-01

As an important attribute of robots, safety is involved in each link of the full life cycle of robots, including the design, manufacturing, operation and maintenance. The present study on robot safety is a systematic project. Traditionally, robot safety is defined as follows: robots should not collide with humans, or robots should not harm humans when they collide. Based on this definition of robot safety, researchers have proposed ex ante and ex post safety standards and safety strategies and used the risk index and risk level as the evaluation indexes for safety methods. A massage robot realizes its massage therapy function through applying a rhythmic force on the massage object. Therefore, the traditional definition of safety, safety strategies, and safety realization methods cannot satisfy the function and safety requirements of massage robots. Based on the descriptions of the environment of massage robots and the tasks of massage robots, the present study analyzes the safety requirements of massage robots; analyzes the potential safety dangers of massage robots using the fault tree tool; proposes an error monitoring-based intelligent safety system for massage robots through monitoring and evaluating potential safety danger states, as well as decision making based on potential safety danger states; and verifies the feasibility of the intelligent safety system through an experiment.

A perfect match : an empirical investigation into partner selection as an alliance capability

OpenAIRE

Duisters, Danielle

2013-01-01

Strategic alliances have become a cornerstone of business development. Not only the number of alliances but also the percentage of revenues coming from alliances has increased. Individual companies form alliances to enter new markets, to gain knowledge, or to share risk and resources to bring value to their consumers. So alliances are more and more integrated into company strategy. In this study, alliances are defined as voluntary, evolving, open-ended, and flexible organizational forms betwe...

Do Strategic Alliances, Acquisitions, and R

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martynov Aleksey

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper studies possible complementarities and substitution effects between such strategic choices as alliances, acquisitions and internal R&D investments. The findings indicate that a firm’s absorptive capacity affects the presence of complementarities and substitution effects among those strategic choices. Firms with high absorptive capacity exhibit substitution effects between alliances and acquisitions and between alliances and internal R&D investments. Firms with high absorptive capacity also exhibit complementarities between acquisitions and additional R&D investments. These results were obtained from panel data of large and medium U.S. companies spanning the years 1998-2009. The results are robust to the use of different measures of performance: profitability, market-to-book value, and sales growth. This paper contributes to our understanding of the role of absorptive capacity for the optimal choice of inter-organizational strategy vs. greater internal R&D investments.

[Human-robot global Simulink modeling and analysis for an end-effector upper limb rehabilitation robot].

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yali; Ji, Linhong

2018-02-01

Robot rehabilitation has been a primary therapy method for the urgent rehabilitation demands of paralyzed patients after a stroke. The parameters in rehabilitation training such as the range of the training, which should be adjustable according to each participant's functional ability, are the key factors influencing the effectiveness of rehabilitation therapy. Therapists design rehabilitation projects based on the semiquantitative functional assessment scales and their experience. But these therapies based on therapists' experience cannot be implemented in robot rehabilitation therapy. This paper modeled the global human-robot by Simulink in order to analyze the relationship between the parameters in robot rehabilitation therapy and the patients' movement functional abilities. We compared the shoulder and elbow angles calculated by simulation with the angles recorded by motion capture system while the healthy subjects completed the simulated action. Results showed there was a remarkable correlation between the simulation data and the experiment data, which verified the validity of the human-robot global Simulink model. Besides, the relationship between the circle radius in the drawing tasks in robot rehabilitation training and the active movement degrees of shoulder as well as elbow was also matched by a linear, which also had a remarkable fitting coefficient. The matched linear can be a quantitative reference for the robot rehabilitation training parameters.

An Analogue Interface for Musical Robots

OpenAIRE

Long, Jason; Kapur, Ajay; Carnegie, Dale

2016-01-01

The majority of musical robotics performances, projects and installations utilise microcontroller hardware to digitally interface the robotic instruments with sequencer software and other musical controllers, often via a personal computer. While in many ways digital interfacing offers considerable power and flexibility, digital protocols, equipment and audio workstations often tend to suggest particular music-making work-flows and have resolution and timing limitations. This paper describes t...

TinyOS Alliance Structure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonnet, Philippe; Culler, David; Estrin, Deborah

2006-01-01

This memo describes the goals and organization structure of the TinyOS Alliance. It covers membership, the working group forums for contribution, intellectual property, source licensing, and the TinyOS Steering Committee (TSC)....

The Factor Structure of The Working Alliance Inventory in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Science.gov (United States)

Andrusyna, Tomasz P.; Tang, Tony Z.; DeRubeis, Robert J.; Luborsky, Lester

2001-01-01

Studies of the therapeutic alliance in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) have varied in their results, necessitating a deeper understanding of this construct. Through an exploratory factor analysis of the alliance in CBT, as measured by the Working Alliance Inventory (shortened, observer-rated version), the authors found a two-factor structure of alliance that challenges the commonly accepted one general factor of alliance. The results suggest that the relationship between therapist and client (Relationship) may be largely independent of the client's agreement with and confidence in the therapist and CBT (Agreement/ Confidence), necessitating independent measures of these two factors, not one measure of a general alliance factor. PMID:11402080

Anthropomorphism in Human-Robot Co-evolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Damiano, Luisa; Dumouchel, Paul

2018-01-01

Social robotics entertains a particular relationship with anthropomorphism, which it neither sees as a cognitive error, nor as a sign of immaturity. Rather it considers that this common human tendency, which is hypothesized to have evolved because it favored cooperation among early humans, can be used today to facilitate social interactions between humans and a new type of cooperative and interactive agents - social robots. This approach leads social robotics to focus research on the engineering of robots that activate anthropomorphic projections in users. The objective is to give robots "social presence" and "social behaviors" that are sufficiently credible for human users to engage in comfortable and potentially long-lasting relations with these machines. This choice of 'applied anthropomorphism' as a research methodology exposes the artifacts produced by social robotics to ethical condemnation: social robots are judged to be a "cheating" technology, as they generate in users the illusion of reciprocal social and affective relations. This article takes position in this debate, not only developing a series of arguments relevant to philosophy of mind, cognitive sciences, and robotic AI, but also asking what social robotics can teach us about anthropomorphism. On this basis, we propose a theoretical perspective that characterizes anthropomorphism as a basic mechanism of interaction, and rebuts the ethical reflections that a priori condemns "anthropomorphism-based" social robots. To address the relevant ethical issues, we promote a critical experimentally based ethical approach to social robotics, "synthetic ethics," which aims at allowing humans to use social robots for two main goals: self-knowledge and moral growth.

Laws on Robots, Laws by Robots, Laws in Robots : Regulating Robot Behaviour by Design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leenes, R.E.; Lucivero, F.

2015-01-01

Speculation about robot morality is almost as old as the concept of a robot itself. Asimov’s three laws of robotics provide an early and well-discussed example of moral rules robots should observe. Despite the widespread influence of the three laws of robotics and their role in shaping visions of

Development of an advanced intelligent robot navigation system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hai Quan Dai; Dalton, G.R.; Tulenko, J.; Crane, C.C. III

1992-01-01

As part of the US Department of Energy's Robotics for Advanced Reactors Project, the authors are in the process of assembling an advanced intelligent robotic navigation and control system based on previous work performed on this project in the areas of computer control, database access, graphical interfaces, shared data and computations, computer vision for positions determination, and sonar-based computer navigation systems. The system will feature three levels of goals: (1) high-level system for management of lower level functions to achieve specific functional goals; (2) intermediate level of goals such as position determination, obstacle avoidance, and discovering unexpected objects; and (3) other supplementary low-level functions such as reading and recording sonar or video camera data. In its current phase, the Cybermotion K2A mobile robot is not equipped with an onboard computer system, which will be included in the final phase. By that time, the onboard system will play important roles in vision processing and in robotic control communication

Development of commercial robots for radwaste handling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Colborn, K.A.

1988-01-01

The cost and dose burden associated with low level radwaste handling activities is a matter of increasing concern to the commercial nuclear power industry. This concern is evidenced by the fact that many utilities have begun to revaluate waste generation, handling, and disposal activities at their plants in an effort to improve their overall radwaste handling operations. This paper reports on the project Robots for Radwaste Handling, to identify the potential of robots to improve radwaste handling operations. The project has focussed on the potential of remote or automated technology to improve well defined, recognizable radwaste operations. The project focussed on repetitive, low skill level radwaste handling and decontamination tasks which involve significant radiation exposure

The dynamics of alliances. A game theoretical approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ridder, A. de

2007-01-01

In this dissertation, Annelies de Ridder presents a game theoretical approach to strategic alliances. More specifically, the dynamics of and within alliances have been studied. To do so, four new models have been developed in the game theoretical tradition. Both coalition theory and strategic game

NASA's Robotics Mining Competition Provides Undergraduates Full Life Cycle Systems Engineering Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Stecklein, Jonette

2017-01-01

NASA has held an annual robotic mining competition for teams of university/college students since 2010. This competition is yearlong, suitable for a senior university engineering capstone project. It encompasses the full project life cycle from ideation of a robot design to actual tele-operation of the robot in simulated Mars conditions mining and collecting simulated regolith. A major required element for this competition is a Systems Engineering Paper in which each team describes the systems engineering approaches used on their project. The score for the Systems Engineering Paper contributes 25% towards the team's score for the competition's grand prize. The required use of systems engineering on the project by this competition introduces the students to an intense practical application of systems engineering throughout a full project life cycle.

Multiprocessor development for robot control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, John Min; Kim, Seung Ho; Kim, Chang Hoi; Kim, Byung Soo; Hwang, Suk Yeong; Lee, Young Bum; Sohn, Suk Won; Kim, Woon Gi

1990-01-01

The project of this study is to develop a real time controller applying autonomous robotic systems operated in hostile environment. Developed control system is designed with a multiprocessor to get independency and reliability as well as to extend the system easily. The control system is designed in three distinct subsystems (supervisory control part, functional control part, and remote control part). To review the functional performance of developed controller, a prototype mobile robot, which was installed 4 DOF mainpulator, was designed and manufactured. Initial tests showed that the robot could turn with a radius of 38 cm and a maximum speed of 1.26 km/hr and go over obstacle of 18 cm in height. (author)

Autonomous Assembly of Solar Array Modules by a Team of Robots

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This project will investigate the hypothesis that Intelligent Precision Jigging Robots (IPJRs) and auxiliary robotic manipulators can autonomously perform the local...

Robotic applications at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Griebenow, B.E.; Marts, D.J.

1990-01-01

The Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) has several programs and projected programs that involve work in hazardous environments. Robotics/remote handling technology is being considered for an active role in these programs. The most appealing aspect of using robotics is in the area of personnel safety. Any task requiring an individual to enter a hazardous or potentially hazardous environment can benefit substantially from robotics by removing the operator from the environment and having him conduct the work remotely. Several INEL programs were evaluated based on their applications for robotics and the results and some conclusions are discussed in this paper. 1 fig

Enabling technologies for the prassi autonomous robot

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Taraglio, S.; Nanni, V. [ENEA, Robotics and Information Technology Division, Rome (Italy)

2001-07-01

In this book are summarised some of the results of the PRASSI project as presented by the different partners of the effort. PRASSI is an acronym which stands for Autonomous Robotic Platform for the Security and Surveillance of plants, the Italian for it is 'Piattaforma Robotica per la Sorveglianza e Sicurezza d'Impianto'. This project has been funded by the Italian Ministry for the Education, the University and the Research (MIUR) in the framework of the project High Performance Computing Applied to Robotics (Calcolo Parallelo con Applicazioni alla Robotica) of the law 95/1995. The idea behind such an initiative is that of fostering the knowledge and possibly the use of high performance computing in the research and industrial community. In other words, robotic scientists are always simplifying their algorithms or using particular approaches (e.g. soft computing) in order to use standard processors for difficult sensorial data processing; well, what if an embedded parallel computer were available, with at least one magnitude more of computing power?.

Task Analysis and Job Descriptions for Robotics/Automated Systems Technicians. Final Report. Volume 1.

Science.gov (United States)

Hull, Daniel M.; Lovett, James E.

The Robotics/Automated Systems Technician (RAST) project developed a robotics technician model curriculum for the use of state directors of vocational education and two-year college vocational/technical educators. A baseline management plan was developed to guide the project. To provide awareness, project staff developed a dissemination plan…

The allianced enterprise : global strategies for corporate collaboration

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Duysters, G.M.; Man, de A.P.; Vasudevan, A.

2001-01-01

Firms all over the world are entering into strategic alliances. Successful alliance management, however, requires corporations to adapt their management models to the demands of this new mode of organization. New tools, techniques and ideas need to be introduced in order to fully benefit from the

ALLIANCES: simulation platform for radioactive waste disposal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deville, E.; Montarnal, Ph.; Loth, L.; Chavant, C.

2009-01-01

CEA, ANDRA and EDF are jointly developing the software platform ALLIANCES whose aim is to produce a tool for the simulation of nuclear waste storage and disposal. This type of simulations deals with highly coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical and radioactive (T-H-M-C-R) processes. ALLIANCES' aim is to accumulate within the same simulation environment the already acquired knowledge and to gradually integrate new knowledge. The current version of ALLIANCES contains the following modules: - Hydraulics and reactive transport in unsaturated and saturated media; - Multi-phase flow; - Mechanical thermal-hydraulics; - Thermo-Aeraulics; - Chemistry/Transport coupling in saturated media; - Alteration of waste package coupled with the environment; - Sensitivity analysis tools. The next releases will include more physical phenomena like: reactive transport in unsaturated flow and multicomponent multiphase flow; incorporation of responses surfaces in sensitivity analysis tools; integration of parallel numerical codes for flow and transport. Since the distribution of the first release of ALLIANCES (December 2003), the platform was used by ANDRA for his safety simulation program and by CEA for reactive transport simulations (migration of uranium in a soil, diffusion of different reactive species on laboratory samples, glass/iron/clay interaction). (authors)

A Concurrent Programming Language for Arduino and Educational Robotics

OpenAIRE

Morán, Ricardo; Teragni, Matías; Zabala, Gonzalo

2017-01-01

Arduino is currently one of the most popular platforms for educational robotics due to its low cost and large amount of available resources online. The Arduino software library provides an abstraction layer over the hardware details, making it possible for novices to build interesting projects. However, its lack of support for concurrency makes some educational robotics projects difficult. In this paper, we explore different approaches to solve this problem and we propose the implementation o...

Anthropomimetic Robots: Concept, Construction and Modelling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alan Diamond

2012-11-01

Full Text Available An anthropomimetic robot is one that closely copies the mechanics of the human body by having a human-like jointed skeleton moved by compliant muscle-like actuators. This paper describes the progress achieved in building anthropomimetic torsos in two projects, CRONOS and ECCEROBOT. In each, the bones were hand-moulded in a thermoplastic and the muscles were implemented by DC motors shortening and extending elastic tendons. Anthropomimetic robots differ from conventionally engineered robots by having complex joints and compliant tendon driven actuation that can cross more than one joint. Taken together, these characteristics make the robots unsuitable for control by standard methods, and so the ability to model them is important for developing heuristic methods of control and also for providing forward models. The robots were modelled using physics-based techniques which enable the study of the generation of movements and also of interactions with arbitrary objects. The lightweight and compliant structure of the robots was found to be safe for human proximity and contact.

The clinical partnership as strategic alliance.

Science.gov (United States)

Novotny, Jeanne M; Donahue, Moreen; Bhalla, Bharat B

2004-01-01

The purpose of this article is to describe a renewed partnership between a collegiate school of nursing and a community hospital. Universities and hospitals are searching for creative solutions to increase the number of registered nurses available to meet the demand for nursing care. An affiliation agreement had been in existence for many years, but health care system imperatives made it necessary to redesign the partnership between nursing education and nursing service. The model used to develop this new partnership is based on the work done in the field of management and is in the form of a strategic alliance. The success of a strategic alliance depends on two key factors: the relationship between partners and partnership performance. Identified outcomes show that this partnership is helping to meet the increasing demand for nursing care by building student capacity, satisfying mutual needs of faculty and clinical staff, and removing economic barriers. This article describes the development of the strategic alliance, its current status, and strategies for the future.

The Automated Assembly Team contributions to the APRIMED Agile Manufacturing Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jones, R.E.; Ames, A.L.; Calton, T.L.

1995-06-01

The Automated Assembly Team of the APRIMED Project (abbreviated as A') consists of two parts: the Archimedes Project, which is an ongoing project developing automated assembly technology, and the A' Robot Team. Archimedes is a second generation assembly planning system that both provides a general high-level assembly sequencing capability and, for a smaller class of products, facilitates automatic programming of a robotic workcell to assemble them. The A' robot team designed, developed, and implemented a flexible robot workcell which served as the automated factory of the A' project. In this document we briefly describe the role of automated assembly planning in agile manufacturing, and specifically describe the contributions of the Archimedes project and the A' robot team to the A' project. We introduce the concepts of the Archimedes automated assembly planning project, and discuss the enhancements to Archimedes which were developed in response to the needs of the A' project. We also present the work of the A' robot team in designing and developing the A' robot workcell, including all tooling and programming to support assembly of the A' discriminator devices. Finally, we discuss the process changes which these technologies have enabled in the A' project

Networks of military alliances, wars, and international trade.

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Matthew O; Nei, Stephen

2015-12-15

We investigate the role of networks of alliances in preventing (multilateral) interstate wars. We first show that, in the absence of international trade, no network of alliances is peaceful and stable. We then show that international trade induces peaceful and stable networks: Trade increases the density of alliances so that countries are less vulnerable to attack and also reduces countries' incentives to attack an ally. We present historical data on wars and trade showing that the dramatic drop in interstate wars since 1950 is paralleled by a densification and stabilization of trading relationships and alliances. Based on the model we also examine some specific relationships, finding that countries with high levels of trade with their allies are less likely to be involved in wars with any other countries (including allies and nonallies), and that an increase in trade between two countries correlates with a lower chance that they will go to war with each other.

Principles of designing mobile robots for nuclear applications: Some Soviet development projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adamov, E.O.; Ivanov, V.G.; Meieran, H.B.

1990-01-01

The I.V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy and the Research and Design Institute of Power Engineering, both designers of nuclear power plant systems and located in Moscow, USSR, have collectively recognized the positive merits of utilizing mobile robots in the nuclear industry. They have given authority to their subsidiary agency CENOTECH to mount an active campaign to program the development of new generations of mobile robots that will support routine and emergency situation operations in the nuclear industry. CENOTECH's rationale for design and performance requirements of mobile robot units to be utilized in the nuclear industry is presented in this paper. A description of design, performance requirements, and operational characteristics of four mobile robots that have been developed at CENOTECH within the past 3 yr is also presented: the 2-tracked KURSOR; the 4 hybrid-wheeled TELER; the 12-wheeled BUGGY with articulated platforms; and the 2-tracked SADKO

The alliance relationship analysis of international terrorist organizations with link prediction

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Ling; Fang, Haiyang; Tian, Yanfang; Yang, Tinghong; Zhao, Jing

2017-09-01

Terrorism is a huge public hazard of the international community. Alliances of terrorist organizations may cause more serious threat to national security and world peace. Understanding alliances between global terrorist organizations will facilitate more effective anti-terrorism collaboration between governments. Based on publicly available data, this study constructed a alliance network between terrorist organizations and analyzed the alliance relationships with link prediction. We proposed a novel index based on optimal weighted fusion of six similarity indices, in which the optimal weight is calculated by genetic algorithm. Our experimental results showed that this algorithm could achieve better results on the networks than other algorithms. Using this method, we successfully digged out 21 real terrorist organizations alliance from current data. Our experiment shows that this approach used for terrorist organizations alliance mining is effective and this study is expected to benefit the form of a more powerful anti-terrorism strategy.

Drum inspection robots: Application development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hazen, F.B.; Warner, R.D.

1996-01-01

Throughout the Department of Energy (DOE), drums containing mixed and low level stored waste are inspected, as mandated by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and other regulations. The inspections are intended to prevent leaks by finding corrosion long before the drums are breached. The DOE Office of Science and Technology (OST) has sponsored efforts towards the development of robotic drum inspectors. This emerging application for mobile and remote sensing has broad applicability for DOE and commercial waste storage areas. Three full scale robot prototypes have been under development, and another project has prototyped a novel technique to analyze robotically collected drum images. In general, the robots consist of a mobile, self-navigating base vehicle, outfitted with sensor packages so that rust and other corrosion cues can be automatically identified. They promise the potential to lower radiation dose and operator effort required, while improving diligence, consistency, and documentation

MODULAR MANIPULATOR FOR ROBOTICS APPLICATIONS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geisinger, Joseph W. Ph.D.

2001-01-01

ARM Automation, Inc. is developing a FR-amework of modular actuators that can address the DOE's wide range of robotics needs. The objective of this effort is to demonstrate the effectiveness of this technology by constructing a manipulator FR-om these actuators within a glovebox for Automated Plutonium Processing (APP). At the end of the project, the system of actuators was used to construct several different manipulator configurations, which accommodate common glovebox tasks such as repackaging. The modular nature and quickconnects of this system simplify installation into ''hot'' boxes and any potential modifications or repair therein. This work focused on the development of self-contained robotic actuator modules including the embedded electronic controls for the purpose of building a manipulator system. Both of the actuators developed under this project contain the control electronics, sensors, motor, gear train, wiring, system communications and mechanical interfaces of a complete robotics servo device. Test actuators and accompanying DISC(trademark)s underwent validation testing at The University of Texas at Austin and ARM Automation, Inc. following final design and fabrication. The system also included custom links, an umbilical cord, an open architecture PC-based system controller, and operational software that permitted integration into a completely functional robotic manipulator system. The open architecture on which this system is based avoids proprietary interfaces and communication protocols which only serve to limit the capabilities and flexibility of automation equipment. The system was integrated and tested in the contractor's facility for intended performance and operations. The manipulator was tested using the full-scale equipment and process mock-ups. The project produced a practical and operational system including a quantitative evaluation of its performance and cost

Required Steps of Managing International Equity Placement Strategic Alliance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Harimukti Wandebori

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the research is to unravel the steps of managing international equity placement strategic alliance (IEPSA. The steps of managing an IEPSA are obtained by conducting theoretical review. The theoretical reviews consist of theory of strategic alliance; definition, classification, and finding definition of an IEPSA, political and analytical considerations and the necessary steps. These steps of managing IEPSA can be classified into analyzing of macro consideration, micro consideration, domestic company’s stakeholder support, cultural understanding, strategic planning, internal support, human resource management, organizational arrangement, management control system, evolved cultural understanding, and evaluating results. In this research, the domestic partners who formed the IEPSAs are limited to State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs. The IEPSA was one of the means of privatization. The research will be beneficial for both foreign and domestic partners who form an IEPSA in the previous SOEs. By knowing the steps of managing the IEPSA both partners will be able to secure a successful implementation of IEPSA. By identifying the steps of managing the IEPSA, the stakeholder will not see IEPSA as threat rather as an opportunity to improve performance, to create synergy, and generate benefits for both partners and stakeholder. By knowing the necessary steps of managing the IEPSA, the stakeholder including society and politician will envisage the IEPSA as a means of effectively improving the SOEs’ performances.The research was espected to provide contributions for the research on strategic alliances. Apparently, there exist no literatures discussing about IEPSA in the domain of strategic alliances. Keywords: strategic alliance, equity placement, international equity placement strategic alliance, privatization, steps of international equity placement strategic alliance, state-owned enterprises

Navigation control of a multi-functional eye robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ali, F.A.M.; Hashmi, B.; Younas, A.; Abid, B.

2016-01-01

The advancement in robotic field is enhanced rigorously in the past Few decades. Robots are being used in different fields of science as well as warfare. The research shows that in the near future, robots would be able to serve in fighting wars. Different countries and their armies have already deployed several military robots. However, there exist some drawbacks of robots like their inefficiency and inability to work under abnormal conditions. Ascent of artificial intelligence may resolve this issue in the coming future. The main focus of this paper is to provide a low cost and long range most efficient mechanical as well as software design of an Eye Robot. Using a blend of robotics and image processing with an addition of artificial intelligence path navigation techniques, this project is designed and implemented by controlling the robot (including robotic arm and camera) through a 2.4 GHz RF module manually. Autonomous function of the robot includes navigation based on the path assigned to the robot. The path is drawn on a VB based application and then transferred to the robot wirelessly or through serial port. A Wi-Fi based Optical Character Recognition (OCR) implemented video streaming can also be observed at remote devices like laptops. (author)

Cultural Robotics: The Culture of Robotics and Robotics in Culture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hooman Samani

2013-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we have investigated the concept of “Cultural Robotics” with regard to the evolution of social into cultural robots in the 21st Century. By defining the concept of culture, the potential development of a culture between humans and robots is explored. Based on the cultural values of the robotics developers, and the learning ability of current robots, cultural attributes in this regard are in the process of being formed, which would define the new concept of cultural robotics. According to the importance of the embodiment of robots in the sense of presence, the influence of robots in communication culture is anticipated. The sustainability of robotics culture based on diversity for cultural communities for various acceptance modalities is explored in order to anticipate the creation of different attributes of culture between robots and humans in the future.

Integration of Robotic Resources into FORCEnet

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Nguyen, Chinh; Carroll, Daniel; Nguyen, Hoa

2006-01-01

The Networked Intelligence Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (NISR) project integrates robotic resources into Composeable FORCEnet to control and exploit unmanned systems over extremely long distances...

New Actors and Alliances in Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Richey, Lisa Ann; Ponte, Stefano

2014-01-01

‘New actors and alliances in development’ brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars exploring how development financing and interventions are being shaped by a wider and more complex platform of actors than usually considered in the existing literature. The contributors also trace...... a changing set of key relations and alliances in development – those between business and consumers; ngos and celebrities; philanthropic organisations and the state; diaspora groups and transnational advocacy networks; ruling elites and productive capitalists; and ‘new donors’ and developing country...

Friendly network robotics; Friendly network robotics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-03-01

This paper summarizes the research results on the friendly network robotics in fiscal 1996. This research assumes an android robot as an ultimate robot and the future robot system utilizing computer network technology. The robot aiming at human daily work activities in factories or under extreme environments is required to work under usual human work environments. The human robot with similar size, shape and functions to human being is desirable. Such robot having a head with two eyes, two ears and mouth can hold a conversation with human being, can walk with two legs by autonomous adaptive control, and has a behavior intelligence. Remote operation of such robot is also possible through high-speed computer network. As a key technology to use this robot under coexistence with human being, establishment of human coexistent robotics was studied. As network based robotics, use of robots connected with computer networks was also studied. In addition, the R-cube (R{sup 3}) plan (realtime remote control robot technology) was proposed. 82 refs., 86 figs., 12 tabs.

ANDROID BASED TELEOPERATION FOR THE FINCH ROBOT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oliver Faust

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The act of creating a robot involves systems engineering and creative problem solutions. It is about using established components to create a system that works in the natural or at least in the human environment. The current project is no exception, we have used the Robot Operating System (ROS to create an android based teleoperator application for the Finch robot. A Raspberry Pi processing platform establishes the link between the android device and the Finch robot. The most creative task, during the system design, was to translate the commands from the teleoperator application into wheel movements of the Finch robot. The translation must take into account the physical setup of the robot, including unintended negative influences, such as drag. The command translation involved a nonlinear coordinate transformation. The ROS framework enabled us to focus on that nonstandard coordinate translation task by offering a high level of abstraction and the ability to create component functionalities independently.

The International Planetary Data Alliance (IPDA)

Science.gov (United States)

Stein, Thomas; Gopala Krishna, Barla; Crichton, Daniel J.

2016-07-01

projects and coordinates international collaboration. In executing its mission, the IPDA conducts a number of focused projects to enable interoperability, construction of compatible archives, and the operation of the IPDA as a whole. These projects have helped to establish the IPDA and to move the collaboration forward. A key project that is currently underway is the implementation of the PDS4 data standard. Given the international focus, it has been critical that the PDS and the IPDA collaborate on its development. Also, many other projects have been conducted successfully, including the IPDA Requirements Document, Data Dictionary Modelling, ESA Registry Integration, the Tools Registry, and several demonstrations of interoperability protocols applied to specific missions and data sets (PDS4/PDAP (Planetary Data Access Protocol), Venus Express Interoperability). The IPDA has grown significantly since its first meetings back in November 2006. The steering committee is composed today of 28 members from 24 countries or international organizations. In addition, a technical expert group composed of 20 members from participating countries provides supportive input on technical and compatibility issues. A number of IPDA projects are ongoing, including the creation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) template for international missions; the investigation of IVOA/IPDA (International Virtual Observatory Alliance-IVOA) interaction; PDS4 implementation project; the development of international registries to enable registration and search of data, tools and services; and Chandrayaan-1 interoperability project with PDAP. In addition, the IPDA continues with outreach activities, being present or represented at national and international levels and at meetings such as COSPAR, AGU, EPSC, and EGU. Further information on IPDA activities, standards, and tools are available at the web page http://www.planetarydata.org. Tool and service developers are encouraged to register their products

Introduction to autonomous mobile robotics using Lego Mindstorms NXT

Science.gov (United States)

Akın, H. Levent; Meriçli, Çetin; Meriçli, Tekin

2013-12-01

Teaching the fundamentals of robotics to computer science undergraduates requires designing a well-balanced curriculum that is complemented with hands-on applications on a platform that allows rapid construction of complex robots, and implementation of sophisticated algorithms. This paper describes such an elective introductory course where the Lego Mindstorms NXT kits are used as the robot platform. The aims, scope and contents of the course are presented, and the design of the laboratory sessions as well as the term projects, which address several core problems of robotics and artificial intelligence simultaneously, are explained in detail.

Audio localization for mobile robots

OpenAIRE

de Guillebon, Thibaut; Grau Saldes, Antoni; Bolea Monte, Yolanda

2009-01-01

The department of the University for which I worked is developing a project based on the interaction with robots in the environment. My work was to define an audio system for the robot. This audio system that I have to realize consists on a mobile head which is able to follow the sound in its environment. This subject was treated as a research problem, with the liberty to find and develop different solutions and make them evolve in the chosen way.

The Creation of a Multi-Human, Multi-Robot Interactive Jam Session

OpenAIRE

Weinberg, Gil; Blosser, Brian; Mallikarjuna, Trishul; Raman, Aparna

2009-01-01

This paper presents an interactive and improvisational jam session, including human players and two robotic musicians. The project was developed in an effort to create novel and inspiring music through human-robot collaboration. The jam session incorporates Shimon, a newly-developed socially-interactive robotic marimba player, and Haile, a perceptual robotic percussionist developed in previous work. The paper gives an overview of the musical perception modules, adaptive improvisation modes an...

Anthropomorphism in Human–Robot Co-evolution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luisa Damiano

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Social robotics entertains a particular relationship with anthropomorphism, which it neither sees as a cognitive error, nor as a sign of immaturity. Rather it considers that this common human tendency, which is hypothesized to have evolved because it favored cooperation among early humans, can be used today to facilitate social interactions between humans and a new type of cooperative and interactive agents – social robots. This approach leads social robotics to focus research on the engineering of robots that activate anthropomorphic projections in users. The objective is to give robots “social presence” and “social behaviors” that are sufficiently credible for human users to engage in comfortable and potentially long-lasting relations with these machines. This choice of ‘applied anthropomorphism’ as a research methodology exposes the artifacts produced by social robotics to ethical condemnation: social robots are judged to be a “cheating” technology, as they generate in users the illusion of reciprocal social and affective relations. This article takes position in this debate, not only developing a series of arguments relevant to philosophy of mind, cognitive sciences, and robotic AI, but also asking what social robotics can teach us about anthropomorphism. On this basis, we propose a theoretical perspective that characterizes anthropomorphism as a basic mechanism of interaction, and rebuts the ethical reflections that a priori condemns “anthropomorphism-based” social robots. To address the relevant ethical issues, we promote a critical experimentally based ethical approach to social robotics, “synthetic ethics,” which aims at allowing humans to use social robots for two main goals: self-knowledge and moral growth.

Anthropomorphism in Human–Robot Co-evolution

Science.gov (United States)

Damiano, Luisa; Dumouchel, Paul

2018-01-01

Social robotics entertains a particular relationship with anthropomorphism, which it neither sees as a cognitive error, nor as a sign of immaturity. Rather it considers that this common human tendency, which is hypothesized to have evolved because it favored cooperation among early humans, can be used today to facilitate social interactions between humans and a new type of cooperative and interactive agents – social robots. This approach leads social robotics to focus research on the engineering of robots that activate anthropomorphic projections in users. The objective is to give robots “social presence” and “social behaviors” that are sufficiently credible for human users to engage in comfortable and potentially long-lasting relations with these machines. This choice of ‘applied anthropomorphism’ as a research methodology exposes the artifacts produced by social robotics to ethical condemnation: social robots are judged to be a “cheating” technology, as they generate in users the illusion of reciprocal social and affective relations. This article takes position in this debate, not only developing a series of arguments relevant to philosophy of mind, cognitive sciences, and robotic AI, but also asking what social robotics can teach us about anthropomorphism. On this basis, we propose a theoretical perspective that characterizes anthropomorphism as a basic mechanism of interaction, and rebuts the ethical reflections that a priori condemns “anthropomorphism-based” social robots. To address the relevant ethical issues, we promote a critical experimentally based ethical approach to social robotics, “synthetic ethics,” which aims at allowing humans to use social robots for two main goals: self-knowledge and moral growth. PMID:29632507

ROBERT autonomous navigation robot with artificial vision

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cipollini, A.; Meo, G.B.; Nanni, V.; Rossi, L.; Taraglio, S.; Ferjancic, C.

1993-01-01

This work, a joint research between ENEA (the Italian National Agency for Energy, New Technologies and the Environment) and DIGlTAL, presents the layout of the ROBERT project, ROBot with Environmental Recognizing Tools, under development in ENEA laboratories. This project aims at the development of an autonomous mobile vehicle able to navigate in a known indoor environment through the use of artificial vision. The general architecture of the robot is shown together with the data and control flow among the various subsystems. Also the inner structure of the latter complete with the functionalities are given in detail

Robot vision for nuclear advanced robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakayama, Ryoichi; Okano, Hideharu; Kuno, Yoshinori; Miyazawa, Tatsuo; Shimada, Hideo; Okada, Satoshi; Kawamura, Astuo

1991-01-01

This paper describes Robot Vision and Operation System for Nuclear Advanced Robot. This Robot Vision consists of robot position detection, obstacle detection and object recognition. With these vision techniques, a mobile robot can make a path and move autonomously along the planned path. The authors implemented the above robot vision system on the 'Advanced Robot for Nuclear Power Plant' and tested in an environment mocked up as nuclear power plant facilities. Since the operation system for this robot consists of operator's console and a large stereo monitor, this system can be easily operated by one person. Experimental tests were made using the Advanced Robot (nuclear robot). Results indicate that the proposed operation system is very useful, and can be operate by only person. (author)

Introducing autonomy to robotic manipulators in the nuclear industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boddy, C.L.; Webster, A.W.

1991-01-01

The National Advanced Robotics Research Centre was set up in 1988 to provide a forum for the development and transfer to industry of the technology of Advanced Robotics. In the area of robot manipulators, research has been carried out into increasing the low-level autonomy of such devices e.g. reactive collision avoidance, gross base disturbance rejection. This groundwork has proven the feasibility of using advanced control concepts in robotic manipulators, and, indeed, indicated new areas of robot kinematic design which can now be successfully exploited. Within the newly defined BNFL Integrated Robotics Programme a number of joint projects have been defined to demonstrate this technology in realistic environments, including the use of advanced interactive computer simulation and kinematically redundant manipulators. (author)

Governance processes and change within organizational participants of multi-sectoral community health care alliances: the mediating role of vision, mission, strategy agreement and perceived alliance value.

Science.gov (United States)

Hearld, Larry R; Alexander, Jeffrey A

2014-03-01

Multi-sectoral community health care alliances are organizations that bring together individuals and organizations from different industry sectors to work collaboratively on improving the health and health care in local communities. Long-term success and sustainability of alliances are dependent on their ability to galvanize participants to take action within their 'home' organizations and institutionalize the vision, goals, and programs within participating organizations and the broader community. The purpose of this study was to investigate two mechanisms by which alliance leadership and management processes may promote such changes within organizations participating in alliances. The findings of the study suggest that, despite modest levels of change undertaken by participating organizations, more positive perceptions of alliance leadership, decision making, and conflict management were associated with a greater likelihood of participating organizations making changes as a result of their participation in the alliance, in part by promoting greater vision, mission, and strategy agreement and higher levels of perceived value. Leadership processes had a stronger relationship with change within participating organizations than decision-making style and conflict management processes. Open-ended responses by participants indicated that participating organizations most often incorporated new measures or goals into their existing portfolio of strategic plans and activities in response to alliance participation.

Intelligence for Human-Assistant Planetary Surface Robots

Science.gov (United States)

Hirsh, Robert; Graham, Jeffrey; Tyree, Kimberly; Sierhuis, Maarten; Clancey, William J.

2006-01-01

The central premise in developing effective human-assistant planetary surface robots is that robotic intelligence is needed. The exact type, method, forms and/or quantity of intelligence is an open issue being explored on the ERA project, as well as others. In addition to field testing, theoretical research into this area can help provide answers on how to design future planetary robots. Many fundamental intelligence issues are discussed by Murphy [2], including (a) learning, (b) planning, (c) reasoning, (d) problem solving, (e) knowledge representation, and (f) computer vision (stereo tracking, gestures). The new "social interaction/emotional" form of intelligence that some consider critical to Human Robot Interaction (HRI) can also be addressed by human assistant planetary surface robots, as human operators feel more comfortable working with a robot when the robot is verbally (or even physically) interacting with them. Arkin [3] and Murphy are both proponents of the hybrid deliberative-reasoning/reactive-execution architecture as the best general architecture for fully realizing robot potential, and the robots discussed herein implement a design continuously progressing toward this hybrid philosophy. The remainder of this chapter will describe the challenges associated with robotic assistance to astronauts, our general research approach, the intelligence incorporated into our robots, and the results and lessons learned from over six years of testing human-assistant mobile robots in field settings relevant to planetary exploration. The chapter concludes with some key considerations for future work in this area.

Therapeutic working alliance: From a psychoanalitical to a pantheoretical conception

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Praper

2004-05-01

Full Text Available Although the concept of therapeutic working alliance was rooted in psychoanalysis, today it is more prominent in psychoanalytic psychotherapies than psychoanalysis. It is rather surprising that we cannot find the concept in the Laplanche and Pontalis Dictionary. During the last two decades a growing body of empirical research material on therapeutic working alliance was published, confirming the idea of the alliance as a separate dimension of therapeutic relationship with few recognisable components. The dimension of the therapeutic working alliance was examined in several approaches and proved as one of the most important therapeutic factors, regardless of the approach, and it has finally been accepted as a pantheoretical concept.

Alliance entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial orientation: the mediating effect of knowledge transfer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arash Rezazadeh

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Today’s rapidly changing business environment has impelled companies to cooperate with their competitors gaining more competitive advantages by achieving win-win situation. Thereby, building alliances as one of the cooperative strategies has been adopted by many enterprises, consequently attracting great attention of numerous scholars. Nevertheless, the alliance literature seems to lack studies in the domain of entrepreneurship. Accordingly, this paper aims to extend entrepreneurship into the field of alliances highlighting two phenomenal concepts: alliance entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial orientation. Hence, the relationship between these two constructs together with the mediating role of knowledge transfer between alliance partners are investigated. We used Structural Equation Modeling with Partial Least Squares (PLS-SEM technique under two sections of measurement model and structural model assessment in order to analyze data. The results gathered from Iran’s automotive industry confirmed the positive significant impact of alliance entrepreneurship on partners’ entrepreneurial orientation and the mediating effect of knowledge transfer

Recent trends for practical rehabilitation robotics, current challenges and the future.

Science.gov (United States)

Yakub, Fitri; Md Khudzari, Ahmad Zahran; Mori, Yasuchika

2014-03-01

This paper presents and studies various selected literature primarily from conference proceedings, journals and clinical tests of the robotic, mechatronics, neurology and biomedical engineering of rehabilitation robotic systems. The present paper focuses of three main categories: types of rehabilitation robots, key technologies with current issues and future challenges. Literature on fundamental research with some examples from commercialized robots and new robot development projects related to rehabilitation are introduced. Most of the commercialized robots presented in this paper are well known especially to robotics engineers and scholars in the robotic field, but are less known to humanities scholars. The field of rehabilitation robot research is expanding; in light of this, some of the current issues and future challenges in rehabilitation robot engineering are recalled, examined and clarified with future directions. This paper is concluded with some recommendations with respect to rehabilitation robots.

Self-repairing control for damaged robotic manipulators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eisler, G.R.; Robinett, R.D.; Dohrmann, C.R.; Driessen, B.J.

1997-03-01

Algorithms have been developed allowing operation of robotic systems under damaged conditions. Specific areas addressed were optimal sensor location, adaptive nonlinear control, fault-tolerant robot design, and dynamic path-planning. A seven-degree-of-freedom, hydraulic manipulator, with fault-tolerant joint design was also constructed and tested. This report completes this project which was funded under the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program

An Autonomous Robotic System for Mapping Weeds in Fields

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Karl Damkjær; Garcia Ruiz, Francisco Jose; Kazmi, Wajahat

2013-01-01

The ASETA project develops theory and methods for robotic agricultural systems. In ASETA, unmanned aircraft and unmanned ground vehicles are used to automate the task of identifying and removing weeds in sugar beet fields. The framework for a working automatic robotic weeding system is presented...

An Exploration of the Working Alliance in Mental Health Case Management

Science.gov (United States)

Kondrat, David C.; Early, Theresa J.

2010-01-01

The working alliance between clients and helpers has been identified as a common factor of treatment effectiveness, yet very little research has explored variables associated with working alliance between mental health case managers and their consumers. This study explored the potential covariates of working alliance within community mental health…

Strategic alliances in healthcare: opportunities for the Veterans Affairs healthcare system.

Science.gov (United States)

Halverson, P K; Kaluzny, A D; Young, G J

1997-01-01

Strategic alliances are proving to be effective strategies for responding and adapting to changing environments, and as such they offer the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system valuable opportunities for accomplishing the goals of its major reorganization effort. This article begins with an examination of basic strategic-alliance structures that are employed across many different types of industries. Next, consideration is given to the ways in which these basic alliance structures may be adapted to the unique organizations and individuals that serve as providers, purchasers, and consumers of health services. Finally, this article explores how models of strategic alliance in healthcare can be tailored to the specific needs and constraints of the VA healthcare system through an examination of existing and potential alliance opportunities.

Financial analysis for the infusion alliance.

Science.gov (United States)

Perucca, Roxanne

2010-01-01

Providing high-quality, cost-efficient care is a major strategic initiative of every health care organization. Today's health care environment is transparent; very competitive; and focused upon providing exceptional service, safety, and quality. Establishing an infusion alliance facilitates the achievement of organizational strategic initiatives, that is, increases patient throughput, decreases length of stay, prevents the occurrence of infusion-related complications, enhances customer satisfaction, and provides greater cost-efficiency. This article will discuss how to develop a financial analysis that promotes value and enhances the financial outcomes of an infusion alliance.

A perfect match : an empirical investigation into partner selection as an alliance capability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Duisters, Danielle

2013-01-01

Strategic alliances have become a cornerstone of business development. Not only the number of alliances but also the percentage of revenues coming from alliances has increased. Individual companies form alliances to enter new markets, to gain knowledge, or to share risk and resources to bring value

The International Planetary Data Alliance

Science.gov (United States)

Stein, T.; Arviset, C.; Crichton, D. J.

2017-12-01

The International Planetary Data Alliance (IPDA) is an association of partners with the aim of improving the quality of planetary science data and services to the end users of space based instrumentation. The specific mission of the IPDA is to facilitate global access to, and exchange of, high quality scientific data products managed across international boundaries. Ensuring proper capture, accessibility and availability of the data is the task of the individual member space agencies. The IPDA was formed in 2006 with the purpose of adopting standards and developing collaborations across agencies to ensure data is captured in common formats. Member agencies include: Armenian Astronomical Society, China National Space Agency (CNSA), European Space Agency (ESA), German Aerospace Center (DLR), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Italian Space Agency (ASI), Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), National Air and Space Administration (NASA), National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), Space Research Institute (IKI), UAE Space Agency, and UK Space Agency. The IPDA Steering Committee oversees the execution of projects and coordinates international collaboration. The IPDA conducts a number of focused projects to enable interoperability, construction of compatible archives, and the operation of the IPDA as a whole. These projects have helped to establish the IPDA and to move the collaboration forward. A key project that is currently underway is the implementation of the PDS4 data standard. Given the international focus, it has been critical that the PDS and the IPDA collaborate on its development. Also, other projects have been conducted successfully, including developing the IPDA architecture and corresponding requirements, developing shared registries for data and tools across international boundaries, and common templates for supporting agreements for archiving and sharing data for international missions. Several projects demonstrating interoperability across

FROM ME TO US: THE CONSTRUCTION OF FAMILY ALLIANCE.

Science.gov (United States)

Galdiolo, Sarah; Roskam, Isabelle

2016-01-01

This longitudinal prospective and multi-informant study based on a three-wave research program (pregnancy, 12 months' postpartum, and 16 months' postpartum) aimed to determine the process of construction of family alliance, as assessed by the Lausanne Trilogue Play (Fivaz-Depeursinge & Corboz-Warnery, 1999). A model using parents' individual characteristics (i.e., personality traits and attachment orientations) as distal variables, coparenting as a mediator, child's temperament as a moderator, and family alliance as outcome was tested using structural equation modeling on 62 nonreferred families. Results showed that both parents' conscientiousness was positively and mothers' avoidant attachment and fathers' anxious attachment were negatively and indirectly (via coparenting) associated with the family alliance. The discussion underlines mothers' and fathers' different roles and the importance of coparenting as a core mechanism in the development of family alliance. © 2015 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

Integrated Robotic Systems for Humanitarian Demining

OpenAIRE

Colon, E.; Cubber, G. De; Ping, H.; Habumuremyi, J-C; Sahli, H.; Baudoin, Y.

2007-01-01

This paper summarises the main results of 10 years of research and development in Humanitarian Demining. The Hudem project focuses on mine detection systems and aims at provided different solutions to support the mine detection operations. Robots using different kind of locomotion systems have been designed and tested on dummy minefields. In order to control these robots, software interfaces, control algorithms, visual positioning and terrain following systems have also been developed. Typica...

Aerial service robots: an overview of the AIRobots activity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marconi, L.; Naldi, R.; Torre, A.; Nikolic, J.; Huerzeler, C.; Caprari, G.; Zwicker, E.; Siciliano, B.; Lippiello, V.; Carloni, Raffaella; Stramigioli, Stefano

This video paper outlines some of the results achieved during the first two years of the ongoing European project AIRobots (Innovative Aerial Service Robots for Remote Inspection by Contact, www.airobots.eu). Goal of AIRobots is to develop a new generation of aerial service robots capable of

Integración del brazo robot IRB120 en entorno ROS-MATLAB

OpenAIRE

Gómez Cuadrado, José Manuel

2017-01-01

Este proyecto usa el entorno ROS (Robot Operating System) para desarrollar el control del brazo robot IRB 120 y su implementación en el entorno de trabajo MATLAB. Se explicará la creación del modelo del robot, la planificación de trayectorias y la comunicación con dicho robot. This project uses the ROS (Robot Operating System) environment for developing the control of the IRB 120 robotic arm and its implementation in the MATLAB working environment. It will explain the creation of the...

Alliance Pipeline : the new kid on the block

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cornelson, D.

1998-01-01

An update on progress of Alliance Pipelines, comments on issues facing gas transporters from western Canada, some discussion of gas supply in general, and the prospects for future expansion of the natural gas industry are provided. According to industry insiders, North American gas demand is expected to increase by 1.5 per cent per year. In order for Canadian gas to participate in this growth additional pipeline capacity is needed. The Alliance Pipeline capacity represents about 20 per cent of this demand growth over the next 5 years. The Alliance Pipeline development will create an opportunity to deliver western Canadian gas to Chicago, a point where North American market competition exists and the market volume and liquidity is large. This presentation also provides an update on the current regulatory status and construction timing. Currently, Alliance has over C$8 billion in firm shipping commitments and up to C$5 billion in financing in place. Pipeline construction will begin in the spring of 1999; it is expected to be operational by the fall of 2000. tabs., figs

Motives behind Strategic Alliance Formation among Medium-Sized Manufacturing Firms in Tanzania

OpenAIRE

Kafigi Jeje

2014-01-01

Research on strategic alliance motives has attracted a great attention as firms strive to become market leaders. One critical area is to assess the contribution of these motives to strategic alliance formation. Most studies on alliance motives concentrate on international strategic alliances that involve large or multinational corporations from developed economies. Little research has been done on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), particularly Medium-Sized Enterprises (MEs) from the manufa...

Supplier Alliances for Engineered Equipment in Capital Projects

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Harper, Douglas

2003-01-01

.... Managing the engineered equipment is important during all phases of the project not only because of their high dollar value but also because the long manufacturing lead times often drive the overall project schedules...

Quantifying and Maximizing Performance of a Human-Centric Robot under Precision, Safety, and Robot Specification Constraints

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The research project is an effort towards achieving 99.99% safety of mobile robots working alongside humans while matching the precision performance of industrial...

Strategic Alliances in Education: The Knowledge Engineering Web

Science.gov (United States)

Westera, Wim; van den Herik, Jaap; van de Vrie, Evert

2004-01-01

The field of higher education shows a jumble of alliances between fellow institutes. The alliances are strategic in kind and serve an economy-of-scales concept. A large scale is a prerequisite for allocating the budgets for new educational methods and technologies in order to keep the educational services up-to-date. All too often, however,…

Dynamics of alliance formation and the egalitarian revolution.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergey Gavrilets

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Arguably the most influential force in human history is the formation of social coalitions and alliances (i.e., long-lasting coalitions and their impact on individual power. Understanding the dynamics of alliance formation and its consequences for biological, social, and cultural evolution is a formidable theoretical challenge. In most great ape species, coalitions occur at individual and group levels and among both kin and non-kin. Nonetheless, ape societies remain essentially hierarchical, and coalitions rarely weaken social inequality. In contrast, human hunter-gatherers show a remarkable tendency to egalitarianism, and human coalitions and alliances occur not only among individuals and groups, but also among groups of groups. These observations suggest that the evolutionary dynamics of human coalitions can only be understood in the context of social networks and cognitive evolution. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we develop a stochastic model describing the emergence of networks of allies resulting from within-group competition for status or mates between individuals utilizing dyadic information. The model shows that alliances often emerge in a phase transition-like fashion if the group size, awareness, aggressiveness, and persuasiveness of individuals are large and the decay rate of individual affinities is small. With cultural inheritance of social networks, a single leveling alliance including all group members can emerge in several generations. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We propose a simple and flexible theoretical approach for studying the dynamics of alliance emergence applicable where game-theoretic methods are not practical. Our approach is both scalable and expandable. It is scalable in that it can be generalized to larger groups, or groups of groups. It is expandable in that it allows for inclusion of additional factors such as behavioral, genetic, social, and cultural features. Our results suggest that a rapid

The parent-child-therapist alliance: A case study using a strategic approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Naidu, Thirusha; Behari, Sheethal

2010-06-01

In this paper we present a single case study of a clinical approach that addresses the needs of parents and their children in psychotherapy. The approach begins by addressing the child's and parent's concerns separately at first by establishing strong therapeutic alliances with each, and then proceeds to address the concerns of the parent-child dyad. The basic premise is that the therapeutic alliance is the central element to successful outcomes in psychotherapy. The nature of alliance-building and its associated methods and techniques have been extensively considered for adult therapy. However, there is considerably less written on the therapeutic alliance with children and adolescents in the context of family interventions. We briefly examine some theoretical dimensions and applications of the therapeutic alliance in psychotherapy with children/adolescents and their parents. A three-phase alliance-building psychotherapy strategy, founded on the idea that each therapeutic relationship warrants an effective working alliance, is proposed. The case of a single mother and her adolescent daughter is employed to illustrate the strategy.

MODULAR MANIPULATOR FOR ROBOTICS APPLICATIONS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Joseph W. Geisinger, Ph.D.

2001-07-31

ARM Automation, Inc. is developing a framework of modular actuators that can address the DOE's wide range of robotics needs. The objective of this effort is to demonstrate the effectiveness of this technology by constructing a manipulator from these actuators within a glovebox for Automated Plutonium Processing (APP). At the end of the project, the system of actuators was used to construct several different manipulator configurations, which accommodate common glovebox tasks such as repackaging. The modular nature and quickconnects of this system simplify installation into ''hot'' boxes and any potential modifications or repair therein. This work focused on the development of self-contained robotic actuator modules including the embedded electronic controls for the purpose of building a manipulator system. Both of the actuators developed under this project contain the control electronics, sensors, motor, gear train, wiring, system communications and mechanical interfaces of a complete robotics servo device. Test actuators and accompanying DISC{trademark}s underwent validation testing at The University of Texas at Austin and ARM Automation, Inc. following final design and fabrication. The system also included custom links, an umbilical cord, an open architecture PC-based system controller, and operational software that permitted integration into a completely functional robotic manipulator system. The open architecture on which this system is based avoids proprietary interfaces and communication protocols which only serve to limit the capabilities and flexibility of automation equipment. The system was integrated and tested in the contractor's facility for intended performance and operations. The manipulator was tested using the full-scale equipment and process mock-ups. The project produced a practical and operational system including a quantitative evaluation of its performance and cost.

Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) - Better Buildings Neighborhood Program at Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance: Home Performance with Energy Star® and Better Buildings Performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holzhauser, Andy; Jones, Chris; Faust, Jeremy; Meyer, Chris; Van Divender, Lisa

2013-12-30

The Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance (Energy Alliance) is a nonprofit economic development agency dedicated to helping Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky communities reduce energy consumption. The Energy Alliance has launched programs to educate homeowners, commercial property owners, and nonprofit organizations about energy efficiency opportunities they can use to drive energy use reductions and financial savings, while extending significant focus to creating/retaining jobs through these programs. The mission of the Energy Alliance is based on the premise that investment in energy efficiency can lead to transformative economic development in a region. With support from seven municipalities, the Energy Alliance began operation in early 2010 and has been among the fastest growing nonprofit organizations in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area. The Energy Alliance offers two programs endorsed by the Department of Energy: the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® Program for homeowners and the Better Buildings Performance Program for commercial entities. Both programs couple expert guidance, project management, and education in energy efficiency best practices with incentives and innovative energy efficiency financing to help building owners effectively invest in the energy efficiency, comfort, health, longevity, and environmental impact of their residential or commercial buildings. The Energy Alliance has raised over $23 million of public and private capital to build a robust market for energy efficiency investment. Of the $23 million, $17 million was a direct grant from the Department of Energy Better Buildings Neighborhood Program (BBNP). The organization’s investments in energy efficiency projects in the residential and commercial sector have led to well over $50 million in direct economic activity and created over 375,000 hours of labor created or retained. In addition, over 250 workers have been trained through the Building Performance Training

Nonlinear analysis of the cooperation of strategic alliances through stochastic catastrophe theory

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Yan; Hu, Bin; Wu, Jiang; Zhang, Jianhua

2014-04-01

The excitation intervention of strategic alliance may change with the changes in the parameters of circumstance (e.g., external alliance tasks). As a result, the stable cooperation between members may suffer a complete unplanned betrayal at last. However, current perspectives on strategic alliances cannot adequately explain this transition mechanism. This study is a first attempt to analyze this nonlinear phenomenon through stochastic catastrophe theory (SCT). A stochastic dynamics model is constructed based on the cooperation of strategic alliance from the perspective of evolutionary game theory. SCT explains the discontinuous changes caused by the changes in environmental parameters. Theoretically, we identify conditions where catastrophe can occur in the cooperation of alliance members.

Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Popov, E. P.; Iurevich, E. I.

The history and the current status of robotics are reviewed, as are the design, operation, and principal applications of industrial robots. Attention is given to programmable robots, robots with adaptive control and elements of artificial intelligence, and remotely controlled robots. The applications of robots discussed include mechanical engineering, cargo handling during transportation and storage, mining, and metallurgy. The future prospects of robotics are briefly outlined.

A novel low-cost mobile robot for rapid prototyping of precision farming applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Kjeld; Neerup, Mathias Mikkel; Larsen, Leon Bonde

Experimental research in precision farming is a significant challenge due to the considerable resources required to perform field experiments. Simulating the field environment is a frequently used technique which is useful for functional software tests, but beyond that it is necessary to perform...... experiments. In this work we present a novel FrobitPro robot platform designed for rapid prototyping of FroboMind field robot applications. FrobitPro has a fundamental design similar to many current wheeled and tracked robots such as the Kongskilde Robotti, and the workflow of migrating from simulation...... as outdoor driving in semi-rugged terrain such as grass fields and bare soil. This paper presents the FrobitPro robot and describes two use cases in current research projects, namely the Grassbots project which focuses on harvesting of grass on lowland areas for biofuel production and the SAFE project...

Creating Value from Alliance Portfolios : Connecting Internal Structures and External Knowledge Recombination

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bos, Brenda

2016-01-01

Nowadays many firms are simultaneously engaged in multiple alliances with different partners. Alliance scholars have therefore started to develop a portfolio perspective, which analyzes the performance implications of the total collection of firms’ alliances. In this dissertation, we point to an

The effect of congruence in patient and therapist alliance on patient's symptomatic levels.

Science.gov (United States)

Zilcha-Mano, Sigal; Snyder, John; Silberschatz, George

2017-05-01

The ability of alliance to predict outcome has been widely demonstrated, but less is known about the effect of the level of congruence between patient and therapist alliance ratings on outcome. In the current study we examined whether the degree of congruence between patient and therapist alliance ratings can predict symptomatic levels 1 month later in treatment. The sample consisted of 127 patient-therapist dyads. Patients and therapists reported on their alliance levels, and patients reported their symptomatic levels 1 month later. Polynomial regression and response surface analysis were used to examine congruence. Findings suggest that when the congruence level of patient and therapist alliance ratings was not taken into account, only the therapist's alliance served as a significant predictor of symptomatic levels. But when the degree of congruence between patient and therapist alliance ratings was considered, the degree of congruence was a significant predictor of symptomatic levels 1 month later in treatment. Findings support the importance of the level of congruence between patient and therapist alliance ratings in predicting patient's symptomatic levels.

Kinematic parameter calibration method for industrial robot manipulator using the relative position

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ha, In Chul

2008-01-01

A new calibration method for industrial robot system calibration on a manufacturing floor is presented in this paper. To calibrate the robot system, a laser sensor to measure the distance between robot tool and measurement surface is attached to the robot end-effector and a grid is established in the floor. Given two position command pulses for a robot manipulator and using the position difference between two command pulses, the relative position measurement calibration method will find the real robot kinematic parameters. The procedures developed have been applied to an industrial robot. Finally, the effects of the models used to calibrate the robot are discussed. This calibration method represents an effective, low cost and feasible technique for the industrial robot calibration in lab. projects and industrial environments

Robot 2015 : Second Iberian Robotics Conference : Advances in Robotics

CERN Document Server

Moreira, António; Lima, Pedro; Montano, Luis; Muñoz-Martinez, Victor

2016-01-01

This book contains a selection of papers accepted for presentation and discussion at ROBOT 2015: Second Iberian Robotics Conference, held in Lisbon, Portugal, November 19th-21th, 2015. ROBOT 2015 is part of a series of conferences that are a joint organization of SPR – “Sociedade Portuguesa de Robótica/ Portuguese Society for Robotics”, SEIDROB – Sociedad Española para la Investigación y Desarrollo de la Robótica/ Spanish Society for Research and Development in Robotics and CEA-GTRob – Grupo Temático de Robótica/ Robotics Thematic Group. The conference organization had also the collaboration of several universities and research institutes, including: University of Minho, University of Porto, University of Lisbon, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, University of Aveiro, University of Zaragoza, University of Malaga, LIACC, INESC-TEC and LARSyS. Robot 2015 was focussed on the Robotics scientific and technological activities in the Iberian Peninsula, although open to research and delegates from other...

Stingray-inspired robot with simply actuated intermediate motion

Science.gov (United States)

Neely, Lincoln; Gaiennie, Jack; Noble, Nick; Erickson, Jonathan C.

2016-04-01

Batoids, or rays, utilize unique forms of locomotion that may offer more efficient techniques of motorized propulsion in various marine environments. We present a novel biomimetic engineering design and assembly of a stingray-inspired robot swimmer. The robots locomotion mimics the Dasyatis americana, or southern stingray, whose distinction among rays is its intermediate motion, characterized by sweeping strokes that propagate between 1/2-1 wavelength of the fin profile in the posterior direction. Though oscillatory ( wavelengths) ray-based robots have been created, this project demonstrates new engineering possibilities in what is, to the best of our knowledge, the first intermediately propelled batoid-based robot. The robots fins were made of silicone rubber, cast in a 3-D printed mold, with wingspan of 42 cm (1/2 - 1/5 scale for males and females, respectively, scale of model organism). Two anteriorly placed servomotors per fin were used, all controlled by one wirelessly enabled Arduino microcontroller. Each servomotor oscillated a flexible rod with cylindrical joint, whose frequency, speed, and front-back phase delay were user-programmed over wireless connection. During free-swimming tests, the fin profile developed about 0.8 wavelength, qualifying for successful mimicry of its biological inspiration. The robot satisfactorily maintained straight-line motion, reaching average peak velocity of 9.4+/-1.0 cm/s (0.27-0.03 body lengths/second) at its optimum flapping frequency of 1.4 Hz. This is in the same order of magnitude of speed normalized to body length achieved by others in two recent batoid-based projects. In summary, our robot performed intermediate stingray locomotion with relatively fewer components, which reveals robust potential for innovation of the simple intermediate batoid-based robot swimmer.

Towards EvoBot: A liquid-handling robot able to automatize and optimize experiments based on real-time feedback

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Faina, Andres; Nejatimoharrami, Farzad; Støy, Kasper

The EVOBLISS project combines scientific approaches from robotics, artificial intelligence, chemistry, and microbiology and aims to capitalize on the state of the art in these disparate disciplines and combine them together into a coherent project to produce i) a generally useful, expandable...... for improved function. Scientifically, we will investigate the possibility of optimizing artificial chemical life, microbial ecosystems, and nanoparticles and their physiochemical, dynamic environments using robot facilitated, artificial evolution. This paper deals with the first goal of the EVOBLISS project......Bot robot which was used to show the feasibility of this approach [1]. This robot was able to perform proof of concept experiments, but was too fragile to conduct systematic scientific experiments in artificial chemical life. Furthermore, the EvoBot robot will increase the features of the SplotBot robot...

Service Robots for Hospitals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Özkil, Ali Gürcan

services to maintain the quality of healthcare provided. This thesis and the Industrial PhD project aim to address logistics, which is the most resource demanding service in a hospital. The scale of the transportation tasks is huge and the material flow in a hospital is comparable to that of a factory. We......Hospitals are complex and dynamic organisms that are vital to the well-being of societies. Providing good quality healthcare is the ultimate goal of a hospital, and it is what most of us are only concerned with. A hospital, on the other hand, has to orchestrate a great deal of supplementary...... believe that these transportation tasks, to a great extent, can be and will be automated using mobile robots. This thesis consequently addresses the key technical issues of implementing service robots in hospitals. In simple terms, a robotic system for automating hospital logistics has to be reliable...

Persistence of and interrelation between horizontal and vertical technology alliances

OpenAIRE

Belderbos, R.A.; Gilsing, V.; Lokshin, B.

2009-01-01

We examine how and to what extent the propensity to be engaged in alliances with different partner types (suppliers, customers and competitors) depends on prior alliance engagement with partner firms of the same type (persistence) and prior engagement in alliances with the other partner types (interrelation). We derive hypotheses from a combined competence and governance view of collaboration, and test these on an extensive panel dataset of innovation-active Dutch firms during 1996-2004. We f...

Ambivalence and alliance ruptures in cognitive behavioral therapy for generalized anxiety.

Science.gov (United States)

Hunter, Jennifer A; Button, Melissa L; Westra, Henny A

2014-01-01

Client ambivalence about change (or motivation) is regarded as central to outcomes in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). However, little research has been conducted to examine the impact of client ambivalence about change on therapy process variables such as the therapeutic alliance. Given the demonstrated limitations of self-report measures of key constructs such as ambivalence and motivation, the present study instead employed a newly adapted observational measure of client ambivalence. Client statements regarding change (change talk (CT) and counter-change talk (CCT)) were coded in early (session 1 or 2) therapy sessions of CBT for generalized anxiety disorder. The frequency of CT and CCT was then compared between clients who later experienced an alliance rupture with their therapist, and clients who did not. The results showed that clients in dyads who later experienced an alliance rupture expressed significantly more CCT at the outset of therapy than clients who did not later experience an alliance rupture. However, CT utterances did not significantly differ between alliance rupture and no-rupture groups. CCT may strain the alliance because clients expressing higher levels of CCT early in therapy may be less receptive to therapist direction in CBT. Consequently, it is recommended that clients and therapists work together to carefully address these key moments in therapy so as to prevent alliance rupture and preserve client engagement in therapy.

A Socio-technical Approach for Transient SME Alliances

Science.gov (United States)

Rezgui, Yacine

The paper discusses technical requirements to promote the adoption of alliance modes of operation by SMEs in the construction sector. These requirements have provided a basis for specifying a set of functionality to support the collaboration and cooperation needs of SMEs. While service-oriented architectures and semantic web services provide the middleware technology to implement the identified functionality, a number of key technical limitations have been identified, including lack of support for the dynamic and non-functional characteristics of SME alliances distributed business processes, lack of execution monitoring functionality to manage running business processes, and lack of support for semantic reasoning to enable SME business process service composition. The paper examines these issues and provides key directions for supporting SME alliances effectively.

Research project RoboGas{sup Inspector}. Gas leak detection with autonomous mobile robots; Forschungsprojekt RoboGas{sup Inspector}. Gaslecksuche mit autonomen mobilen Robotern

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Habib, Abdelkarim [BAM Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung, Berlin (Germany); Bonow, Gero; Kroll, Andreas [Fachgebiet Mess- und Regelungstechnik, Universitaet Kassel, Kassel (Germany); Hegenberg, Jens; Schmidt, Ludger [Fachgebiet Mensch-Maschine-Systemtechnik, Universitaet Kassel, Kassel (Germany); Barz, Thomas; Schulz, Dirk [Fraunhofer FKIE, Unbemannte Systeme, Wachtberg (Germany)

2013-05-15

As part of the promotional program AUTONOMIK of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany) a consortium of nine project partners developed a prototype of an autonomous mobile robot looking for gas leaks in extended industrial equipment. The autonomous mobility of the system for any systems was implemented using different types of sensors for self-localization and navigation. The tele-operation enables a manual intervention in the process. The robot performs inspection tasks in industrial plants by means of video technology and remote gas measurement technology without driving into the possible risk areas and without the presence of humans. The robot can be used for routine inspections of facilities or for the targeted inspection of specific plant components. Thanks to the remote sensing technique also plant components can be inspected which are difficult to be inspected due to their limited accessibility by conventional measurement techniques.

Reprogramming the articulated robotic arm for glass handling by using Arduino microcontroller

Science.gov (United States)

Razali, Zol Bahri; Kader, Mohamed Mydin M. Abdul; Kadir, Mohd Asmadi Akmal; Daud, Mohd Hisam

2017-09-01

The application of articulated robotic arm in industries is raised due to the expansion of using robot to replace human task, especially for the harmful tasks. However a few problems happen with the program use to schedule the arm, Thus the purpose of this project is to design, fabricate and integrate an articulated robotic arm by using Arduino microcontroller for handling glass sorting system. This project was designed to segregate glass and non-glass waste which would be pioneer step for recycling. This robotic arm has four servo motors to operate as a whole; three for the body and one for holding mechanism. This intelligent system is controlled by Arduino microcontroller and build with optical sensor to provide the distinguish objects that will be handled. Solidworks model was used to produce the detail design of the robotic arm and make the mechanical properties analysis by using a CAD software.

The History and Accomplishments of the LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance.

Science.gov (United States)

Mathews-Bradshaw, Beth; Johnson, Rebecca; Kaplan, Stuart; Craddock, Kelli; Hayes-Lattin, Brandon

2011-03-01

This article outlines the history, background, and accomplishments of the LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance. The LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance, a program of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, was developed as a vehicle for a strategic plan designed to implement the Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Progress Review Group (AYAO PRG) recommendations. The AYAO PRG was co-sponsored by Lance Armstrong Foundation and the National Cancer Institute (NCI); both LIVESTRONG and NCI provide strategic oversight and guidance to the Alliance. Highlights and accomplishments: The Alliance accomplishments include the publication of disease-specific retrospective analyses, funding of an AYA cohort study and biorepository proposal, publication of two position statements on guidelines for care of AYAs with cancer and training for AYA oncology health professionals, promotion of an international charter of rights for AYA cancer patients, creation and distribution of a survey to college health professionals, creation and implementation of a Cancer Centers Working Group and Institutional Review Board Toolkit, and continued growth and collaboration through an annual meeting. The growth and success of the Alliance has coincided with the growth of AYA oncology as a field. The collaborative environment of the Alliance draws together a diverse group of individuals united in the effort to increase survival rates and improve the quality of life for adolescents and young adults diagnosed with cancer.

The development of robot application technology in nuclear facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Seung Ho; Lee, Jong Min; Kim, Chang Hoe; Kim, Byung Soo; Sohn, Surg Won; Hwoang, Suk Yeoung; Lee, Yong Bum; Kim, Woong Ki

1992-12-01

The objective of this project is to establish the basic technologies for advanced robotic systems operated in unstructured environment. The developed robotic system, which is remotely controlled, is expected to reduce the radiation dosage for workers who do the maintenance, inspection, and repairing work in nuclear facilities. The two major work scopes of this project in this year are to study the control scheme of advanced robotic system and develop a mobile robot. An inverse kinematic algorithm of 7 degrees of freedom anthropomorphic manipulator is investigated for dexterous control. Extended closed-loop schemes for solving the inverse kinematics of the redundant manipulator have been proposed and decentralized adaptive controller was designed by utilizing a new cartesian space controller. Control architecture of neural network has been developed, which has a strong capability on solving the kinematics of manipulator. The planetary wheel assembly has been implemented in the design to be suitable for plant. The design of manipulator has been implemented to operate with the battery power in the mobile system. This project will continue to be a major technical driver, with nuclear plant maintenance and waste management applications in conjunction with 'Long-term nuclear development program' over the next decade. (Author)

Reliability and radiation tolerance of robots for nuclear applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lauridsen, K [Risoe National Lab. (Denmark); Decreton, M [SCK.CEN (Belgium); Seifert, C C [Siemens AG (Germany); Sharp, R [AEA Technology (United Kingdom)

1996-10-01

The reliability of a robot for nuclear applications will be affected by environmental factors such as dust, water, vibrations, heat, and, in particular, ionising radiation. The present report describes the work carried out in a project addressing the reliability and radiation tolerance of such robots. A widely representative range of components and materials has been radiation tested and the test results have been collated in a database along with data provided by the participants from earlier work and data acquired from other sources. A radiation effects guide has been written for the use by designers of electronic equipment for robots. A generic reliability model has been set up together with generic failure strategies, forming the basis for specific reliability modelling carried out in other projects. Modelling tools have been examined and developed for the prediction of the performance of electronic circuits subjected to radiation. Reports have been produced dealing with the prediction and detection of upcoming failures in electronic systems. Operational experience from the use of robots in radiation work in various contexts has been compiled in a report, and another report has been written on cost/benefit considerations about the use of robots. Also the possible impact of robots on the safety of the surrounding plant has been considered and reported. (au) 16 ills., 236 refs.

Reliability and radiation tolerance of robots for nuclear applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lauridsen, K.; Decreton, M.; Seifert, C.C.; Sharp, R.

1996-10-01

The reliability of a robot for nuclear applications will be affected by environmental factors such as dust, water, vibrations, heat, and, in particular, ionising radiation. The present report describes the work carried out in a project addressing the reliability and radiation tolerance of such robots. A widely representative range of components and materials has been radiation tested and the test results have been collated in a database along with data provided by the participants from earlier work and data acquired from other sources. A radiation effects guide has been written for the use by designers of electronic equipment for robots. A generic reliability model has been set up together with generic failure strategies, forming the basis for specific reliability modelling carried out in other projects. Modelling tools have been examined and developed for the prediction of the performance of electronic circuits subjected to radiation. Reports have been produced dealing with the prediction and detection of upcoming failures in electronic systems. Operational experience from the use of robots in radiation work in various contexts has been compiled in a report, and another report has been written on cost/benefit considerations about the use of robots. Also the possible impact of robots on the safety of the surrounding plant has been considered and reported. (au) 16 ills., 236 refs

Cultural Robotics: The Culture of Robotics and Robotics in Culture

OpenAIRE

Hooman Samani; Elham Saadatian; Natalie Pang; Doros Polydorou; Owen Noel Newton Fernando; Ryohei Nakatsu; Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh

2013-01-01

In this paper, we have investigated the concept of “Cultural Robotics” with regard to the evolution of social into cultural robots in the 21st Century. By defining the concept of culture, the potential development of a culture between humans and robots is explored. Based on the cultural values of the robotics developers, and the learning ability of current robots, cultural attributes in this regard are in the process of being formed, which would define the new concept of cultural robotics. Ac...

研发型战略联盟风险预警机制研究%An Identification andEarly Warning Model for R&D Alliance Strategies

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

胡振华; 张宁辉

2011-01-01

研发型联盟对风险的识别和预警直接决定了研发活动的成败.本文针对研发型联盟面临的风险进行了风险预警设计,首先依据风险的来源划分了联盟可能面临的风险种类,其次明确了联盟风险识别程序；在此基础上,构建了包含六元素(目标、文化、方法、组织、信息、过程)的研发型战略联盟风险预警模式,六个元素构成了风险预警的有机整体,运用管理熵理论对研发联盟风险预警度量进行了量化处理,以熵权从内外两个来源确定联盟的风险度量,并以传递熵概念来明确预警信号指标的准确性,给出了一个较为完整和准确的量化预警模型,以期利于联盟决策者的风险防范应对策略制定.%R&D alliance is a strategic alliance strategy that has been widely used to improve a company's technology innovation and product development activities. Companies often create R&D alliances through equity relationships or contracts, and dissolve them when projects are complete. The R&D alliance is embedded with conflicts and risks because its success depends on the realization of the synergy between partners and the synergy is difficult to be achieved. An early warning system for R&D alliance needs to have a systematic approach to managing risks for all companies involved in the alliance. Therefore, any model needs to include warning objectives, organization, methods, information, culture and process.An early warning system's goal is to ensure that all early risk warning activities are aligned with the entire strategic objectives of R&D alliance. We must integrate the overall perspective of R&D alliance into the calculation of risks of early-warning activities that members are involved with. The model of establishing an R&D alliance for risk warning agencies is dynamic, innovative and flexible. Systems thinking methods are required to solve risk warning issues, from a holistic point of view to the evaluation

What happens when a robot favors someone? How a tour guide robot uses gaze behavior to address multiple persons while storytelling about art

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Karreman, Daphne Eleonora; Sépulveda Bradford, Gilberto; van Dijk, Elisabeth M.A.G.; Lohse, M.; Evers, Vanessa

2013-01-01

We report intermediate results of an ongoing study into the effectiveness of robot gaze behaviors when addressing multiple persons. The work is being carried out as part of the EU FP7 project FROG and concerns the design and evaluation of interactive behaviors of a tour guide robot. Our objective is

From CAD to Robot: Undergraduate Capstone Design in Engineering Technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kuldeep S. Rawat

2013-06-01

Full Text Available A novel senior project in designing and implementing a wheeled platform-based experimental mobile robot is discussed. This mobile robot design project was used as a platform to learn sensor interfacing, microcontroller programming, motor control, and electronic circuit design and troubleshooting. A specially designed proto board was used so that students could experiment with various types of sensors and supporting electronic circuitry. The modules implemented in this project are, servo motor control, infrared (IR-based obstacle detection and avoidance, temperature sensing, and IR wireless communication. An 8-bit Peripheral Interface Controller (PIC microcontroller, operating at 20MHz, was used as a programmable controller to monitor external environment through sensors and make appropriate decisions. PIC microcontroller was programmed using PICBasic PRO, a BASIC like high-level language. The implementation was divided into separate experiments, through which the students progressively completed the mobile robot. This progressive experimentation helped students develop their knowledge of interfacing, microcontroller programming, electronic control, circuit design, and troubleshooting in an incremental manner. The robot design experiments, sensor interfacing, electronic control, supporting circuitry, problems faced and troubleshooting during implementation are discussed in the paper.

Robot Actors, Robot Dramaturgies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jochum, Elizabeth

This paper considers the use of tele-operated robots in live performance. Robots and performance have long been linked, from the working androids and automata staged in popular exhibitions during the nineteenth century and the robots featured at Cybernetic Serendipity (1968) and the World Expo...

Coupling methodology within the software platform alliances

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Montarnal, Ph; Deville, E; Adam, E; Bengaouer, A [CEA Saclay, Dept. de Modelisation des Systemes et Structures 91 - Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Dimier, A; Gaombalet, J; Loth, L [Agence Nationale pour la Gestion des Dechets Radioactifs (ANDRA), 92 - Chatenay Malabry (France); Chavant, C [Electricite de France (EDF), 92 - Clamart (France)

2005-07-01

CEA, ANDRA and EDF are jointly developing the software platform ALLIANCES which aim is to produce a tool for the simulation of nuclear waste storage and disposal repository. This type of simulations deals with highly coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical and chemical (T-H-M-C) processes. A key objective of Alliances is to give the capability for coupling algorithms development between existing codes. The aim of this paper is to present coupling methodology use in the context of this software platform. (author)

Coupling methodology within the software platform alliances

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Montarnal, Ph.; Deville, E.; Adam, E.; Bengaouer, A.; Dimier, A.; Gaombalet, J.; Loth, L.; Chavant, C.

2005-01-01

CEA, ANDRA and EDF are jointly developing the software platform ALLIANCES which aim is to produce a tool for the simulation of nuclear waste storage and disposal repository. This type of simulations deals with highly coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical and chemical (T-H-M-C) processes. A key objective of Alliances is to give the capability for coupling algorithms development between existing codes. The aim of this paper is to present coupling methodology use in the context of this software platform. (author)

A Case Study: Motivational Attributes of 4-H Participants Engaged in Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Mariah Lea

2013-01-01

Robotics has gained a great deal of popularity across the United States as a means to engage youth in science, technology, engineering, and math. Understanding what motivates youth and adults to participate in a robotics project is critical to understanding how to engage others. By developing a robotics program built on a proper understanding of…

Developing concepts for improved efficiency of robot work preparation

OpenAIRE

Essers, M.S.; Vaneker, Thomas H.J.

2013-01-01

SInBot[1] is a large research project that focuses on maximizing the efficient use of mobile industrial robots during medium sized production runs. The system that will be described in this paper will focusses on the development and validation of concepts for efficient work preparation for cells of intelligent mobile robots that execute medium sized production runs. For a wide range of products, the machining tasks will be defined on an appropriate level, enabling control over the robots beha...

Skill Based Instruction of Collaborative Robots in Industrial Settings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schou, Casper; Andersen, Rasmus Skovgaard; Chrysostomou, Dimitrios

2018-01-01

During the past decades increasing need for more flexible and agile manufacturing equipment has spawned a growing interest in collaborative robots. Contrary to traditional industrial robots, collaborative robots are intended for operating alongside the production personnel in dynamic or semi...... several user studies, the usability of SBS and the task level programming approach has been demonstrated. SBS has been utilized in several international research projects where SBS has been deployed and tested in three real manufacturing settings. Collectively, the industrial exploitations have...

Robotic Toys as a Catalyst for Mathematical Problem Solving

Science.gov (United States)

Highfield, Kate

2010-01-01

Robotic toys present unique opportunities for teachers of young children to integrate mathematics learning with engaging problem-solving tasks. This article describes a series of tasks using Bee-bots and Pro-bots, developed as part a larger project examining young children's use of robotic toys as tools in developing mathematical and metacognitive…

Robot Programming.

Science.gov (United States)

1982-12-01

Paris, France, June, 1982, 519-530. Latoinbe, J. C. "Equipe Intelligence Artificielle et Robotique: Etat d’avancement des recherches," Laboratoire...8217AD-A127 233 ROBOT PROGRRMMING(U) MASSACHUSETTS INST OFGTECHi/ CAMBRIDGE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LAB T LOZANO-PEREZ UNCLASSIFIED DC8 AI-9 N884...NAME AND ADDRESS 10. PROGRAM ELEMENT. PROJECT. TASK Artificial Intelligence Laboratory AREA I WORK UNIT NUMBERS ,. 545 Technology Square Cambridge

Challenges Fostering Unwillingness to Form Strategic Alliances among Medium-Sized Manufacturing Firms in Tanzania

OpenAIRE

Kafigi Jeje

2014-01-01

For many years, strategic alliances have attracted the attention of researchers. The most researched area is the challenges facing the development and maintenance of strategic alliances. Most studies on alliance challenges have concentrated on strategic alliances among large firms in developed economies. Little research has been done on the link between these challenges and firms¡¯ unwillingness to form strategic alliances. We therefore want to find whether the unwillingness to form strategic...

Medical Robotics - A Real Challenge of Present and Especially Future

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ionel STARETU

2013-12-01

Full Text Available If we make a brief scan of the field known as Medical Robotics, we find that in recent years there has been an impetuous development of applications involving medical robots. Obviously, the most spectacular are remote robotic surgery systems, which, for example, in U.S. have been used in more than 3.5-4 million interventions. The systems AESOP, da Vinci and ZEUS are currently run in minimally invasive robotic surgery. Encouraging results were obtained at MIT (USA using robots in physiotherapy. Pearl is a robot designed as personal assistant of older patients, affected by disabilities. The Universities of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon successfully develop it. In Plymouth and Aachen, researchers are involved in the creation of intelligent wheelchairs. At the University of Karlsruhe, robotic systems applicable to neurosurgery are created. Thus, the MICRoN project aims to create a robot to manipulate micron-sized objects with nanometer precision, applications including intervention in the living biological cells. In several research centers one works on the improvement of neural interfaces, from which it is expected a new generation of prostheses, controlled through functional electrical stimulation. It is also projected that the microsystem technology (MST will have a major impact in medicine through the introduction of new diagnostic techniques, dosing, remote microsurgery and neural prostheses, all based on the concept of minimally invasive therapy, mentioned above. This is the approximate image of research in Medical Robotics and obviously of some related fields, whose dynamics has been impressive lately, a trend that is maintained and even has clear signs of amplification, and fully justifies this approach. In this context, we will present the main concepts and applications of medical robotics in order to achieve a more suggestive and convincing image of this area of great interest and perspective.

Novozymes-Monsanto bioag alliance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Henning Otte

2017-01-01

er begge drevet af globale udfordringer med hensyn til den fremtidige fødevaresituation og -forsyning. På imagefronten er der dog tale om meget forskellige virksomheder, hvilket dog ikke ser ud til at have været afgørende. Begge partnere har individuelle styrker og svagheder i alliance...

Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance

Science.gov (United States)

Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance Crisis Hotline Information Coping with a Crisis Suicide Prevention Information Psychiatric Hospitalization ... sign-up Education info, training, events Mood Disorders Depression Bipolar Disorder Anxiety Screening Center Co-occurring Illnesses/ ...

Design and Evaluation of a DIY Construction System for Educational Robot Kits

Science.gov (United States)

Vandevelde, Cesar; Wyffels, Francis; Ciocci, Maria-Cristina; Vanderborght, Bram; Saldien, Jelle

2016-01-01

Building a robot from scratch in an educational context can be a challenging prospect. While a multitude of projects exist that simplify the electronics and software aspects of a robot, the same cannot be said for construction systems for robotics. In this paper, we present our efforts to create a low-cost do-it-yourself construction system for…

Representations of Parent-Child Alliances in Children's Family Drawings

Science.gov (United States)

Leon, Kim; Wallace, Tamar; Rudy, Duane

2007-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between children's representations of parent-child alliances (PCA) and their peer relationship quality, using a new scale that was developed to rate representations of PCA in children's family drawings. The parent-child alliance pattern is characterized by a relationship between parent and…

Surgical Robotics Research in Cardiovascular Disease

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pohost, Gerald M; Guthrie, Barton L; Steiner, Charles

2008-02-29

This grant is to support a research in robotics at three major medical centers: the University of Southern California-USC- (Project 1); the University of Alabama at Birmingham-UAB-(Project 2); and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation-CCF-(Project 3). Project 1 is oriented toward cardiovascular applications, while projects 2 and 3 are oriented toward neurosurgical applications. The main objective of Project 1 is to develop an approach to assist patients in maintaining a constant level of stress while undergoing magnetic resonance imaging or spectroscopy. The specific project is to use handgrip to detect the changes in high energy phosphate metabolism between rest and stress. The high energy phosphates, ATP and phosphocreatine (PCr) are responsible for the energy of the heart muscle (myocardium) responsible for its contractile function. If the blood supply to the myocardium in insufficient to support metabolism and contractility during stress, the high energy phosphates, particularly PCr, will decrease in concentration. The high energy phosphates can be tracked using phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopy ({sup 31}P MRS). In Project 2 the UAB Surgical Robotics project focuses on the use of virtual presence to assist with remote surgery and surgical training. The goal of this proposal was to assemble a pilot system for proof of concept. The pilot project was completed successfully and was judged to demonstrate that the concept of remote surgical assistance as applied to surgery and surgical training was feasible and warranted further development. The main objective of Project 3 is to develop a system to allow for the tele-robotic delivery of instrumentation during a functional neurosurgical procedure (Figure 3). Instrumentation such as micro-electrical recording probes or deep brain stimulation leads. Current methods for the delivery of these instruments involve the integration of linear actuators to stereotactic navigation systems. The control of these delivery

Surgical Robotics Research in Cardiovascular Disease

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pohost, Gerald M; Guthrie, Barton L; Steiner, Charles

2008-01-01

This grant is to support a research in robotics at three major medical centers: the University of Southern California-USC- (Project 1); the University of Alabama at Birmingham-UAB-(Project 2); and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation-CCF-(Project 3). Project 1 is oriented toward cardiovascular applications, while projects 2 and 3 are oriented toward neurosurgical applications. The main objective of Project 1 is to develop an approach to assist patients in maintaining a constant level of stress while undergoing magnetic resonance imaging or spectroscopy. The specific project is to use handgrip to detect the changes in high energy phosphate metabolism between rest and stress. The high energy phosphates, ATP and phosphocreatine (PCr) are responsible for the energy of the heart muscle (myocardium) responsible for its contractile function. If the blood supply to the myocardium in insufficient to support metabolism and contractility during stress, the high energy phosphates, particularly PCr, will decrease in concentration. The high energy phosphates can be tracked using phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 31 P MRS). In Project 2 the UAB Surgical Robotics project focuses on the use of virtual presence to assist with remote surgery and surgical training. The goal of this proposal was to assemble a pilot system for proof of concept. The pilot project was completed successfully and was judged to demonstrate that the concept of remote surgical assistance as applied to surgery and surgical training was feasible and warranted further development. The main objective of Project 3 is to develop a system to allow for the tele-robotic delivery of instrumentation during a functional neurosurgical procedure (Figure 3). Instrumentation such as micro-electrical recording probes or deep brain stimulation leads. Current methods for the delivery of these instruments involve the integration of linear actuators to stereotactic navigation systems. The control of these delivery devices

A Preliminary Study of Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Fong, Terrence; Flueckiger, Lorenzo; Kunz, Clayton; Lees, David; Schreiner, John; Siegel, Michael; Hiatt, Laura M.; Nourbakhsh, Illah; Simmons, Reid; Ambrose, Robert

2006-01-01

The Peer-to-Peer Human-Robot Interaction (P2P-HRI) project is developing techniques to improve task coordination and collaboration between human and robot partners. Our work is motivated by the need to develop effective human-robot teams for space mission operations. A central element of our approach is creating dialogue and interaction tools that enable humans and robots to flexibly support one another. In order to understand how this approach can influence task performance, we recently conducted a series of tests simulating a lunar construction task with a human-robot team. In this paper, we describe the tests performed, discuss our initial results, and analyze the effect of intervention on task performance.

Design and Implementation an Autonomous Humanoid Robot Based on Fuzzy Rule-Based Motion Controller

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohsen Taheri

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Research on humanoid robotics in Mechatronics and Automation Laboratory, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Islamic Azad University Khorasgan branch (Isfahan of Iran was started at
the beginning of this decade. Various research prototypes for humanoid robots have been designed and are going through evolution over these years. This paper describes the hardware and software design of the kid size humanoid robot systems of the PERSIA Team in 2009. The robot has 20 actuated degrees of freedom based on Hitec HSR898. In this paper we have tried to focus on areas such as mechanical structure, Image processing unit, robot controller, Robot AI and behavior
learning. In 2009, our developments for the Kid size humanoid robot include: (1 the design and construction of our new humanoid robots (2 the design and construction of a new hardware and software controller to be used in our robots. The project is described in two main parts: Hardware and Software. The software is developed a robot application which consists walking controller, autonomous motion robot, self localization base on vision and Particle Filter, local AI, Trajectory Planning, Motion Controller and Network. The hardware consists of the mechanical structure and the driver circuit board. Each robot is able to walk, fast walk, pass, kick and dribble when it catches
the ball. These humanoids have been successfully participating in various robotic soccer competitions. This project is still in progress and some new interesting methods are described in the current report.

Game Theory Study on Distributors' Alliance to Gain Competitive Advantage in Marketing Channel

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

ZHAO Shi-ying; CHEN Jie; WANG Fang-hua

2005-01-01

Using the Cournot Game Model, this paper has analyzed the motivation of the distributors' alliance to gain competitive advantage in marketing channel. At first, this paper separately analyzed the advantage of alliance in the situation of oneshort game and infinitely repeated game, then, based on the analysis of distributors' betrayal of the alliance under infinitely repeated game, the conditions to maintain the distributors alliance are put forward and discussed.

Study on the knowledge management of strategic alliances in high technology enterprises

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

TANG Yu; WANG Hong-qi; WANG Shan-shan

2005-01-01

With the development of knowledge economy, the competition between high technology enterprises has gradually evolved into the competition of core competence based on knowledge, because high technology enterprises are typical knowledge-based enterprises. Few enterprises, especially for high technology firms, have all of the knowledge they need to compete effectively in the marketplace both at home and abroad, so more and more high technology companies are taking the advantage of strategic alliances to get their complementary knowledge. Since knowledge is the source of an enterprise' s competitiveness, knowledge management has become the most important means for enterprises to gain competitive advantage. There has been an increased growth in the literature on strategic alliances in recent decades. But what is less discussed in the existing literature on strategic alliances is the issue of knowledge management of strategic alliances in high technology enterprises. Based on the characteristics of strategic alliances in high technology enterprises, and in line with the implication and the goal of knowledge management, this study tries to delve into this issue. The paper analyzes the key factors relevant to the knowledge management of strategic alliances in high technology enterprises and proposes guide lines on the process and measures that should be taken in the knowledge management of strategic alliances in high technology enterprises.

Is Ethics of Robotics about Robots? Philosophy of Robotics Beyond Realism and Individualilsm.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Coeckelbergh, Mark

2011-01-01

If we are doing ethics of robotics, what exactly is the object of our inquiry? This paper challenges 'individualist' robot ontology and 'individualist' social philosophy of robots. It is argued that ethics of robotics should not study and evaluate robotics exclusively in terms of individual

ROBOSIM, a simulator for robotic systems

Science.gov (United States)

Hinman, Elaine M.; Fernandez, Ken; Cook, George E.

1991-01-01

ROBOSIM, a simulator for robotic systems, was developed by NASA to aid in the rapid prototyping of automation. ROBOSIM has allowed the development of improved robotic systems concepts for both earth-based and proposed on-orbit applications while significantly reducing development costs. In a cooperative effort with an area university, ROBOSIM was further developed for use in the classroom as a safe and cost-effective way of allowing students to study robotic systems. Students have used ROBOSIM to study existing robotic systems and systems which they have designed in the classroom. Since an advanced simulator/trainer of this type is beneficial not only to NASA projects and programs but industry and academia as well, NASA is in the process of developing this technology for wider public use. An update on the simulators's new application areas, the improvements made to the simulator's design, and current efforts to ensure the timely transfer of this technology are presented.

Trust and Its Impact on Cooperation in Alliance Networks:Theory and Practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wlodzimierz SROKA

2011-11-01

Full Text Available At present we can observe the increasing role of cooperation among companies all around the world. Cooperation includes many forms, such as alliances, joint ventures, networks, clusters, outsourcing and others. Trust is one of the most important factors of success of any cooperation activity, because it can lower transaction costs, increase productivity and innovativeness, facilitate inter-organizational relationships and resolve conflicts. Therefore the paper discusses the basic problems of trust in alliance networks. The text consists of theoretical deliberations devoted to alliance networks and trust. The practical case of the company from machine industry that formed a portfolio of alliances based on trust is also an important part of the text. The conclusion of the paper is that portfolio of alliances based on trust is worth pursuing.

Research on Efficiency of Knowledge Transfer in Technical Innovation Alliances

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang-sheng, Jiang

The knowledge transfer efficiency (KTE) is closely relative to the success or failure of technology innovation in strategic alliances. This paper takes the KTE as the essential variable to establish the benefit function model of technology innovations to explore the KTE's influences on partners' innovative decisions under two different modes: independent innovations and alliance innovations. It is found that the higher the KTE, the greater the reducing extent of production costs is. The results could provide some theoretical supports for selections of the optimal competitive-ooperative relationship and managerial flexibility in technical innovation alliances.

76 FR 54758 - Alliance Pipeline L.P.; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Assessment for the Planned...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-09-02

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Docket No. PF11-7-000] Alliance Pipeline L.P.; Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Assessment for the Planned Tioga Lateral Project, Request for Comments on Environmental Issues, and Notice of Public Scoping Meeting The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or...

Practical evaluation of robots for elderly in Denmark — an overview

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Søren Tranberg; Andersen, Hans Jørgen; Bak, Thomas

2010-01-01

Robots for elderly have drawn a great deal of attention as it is a controversial topic being pushed forward by the fact that there will be a dramatic increase of elderly in most western countries. Within the field of HRI, much research has been conducted on robots interacting with elderly and also...... a number of commercial products have been introduced to the market. Since 2006, a number of projects have been launched in Denmark in order to evaluate robot technology in practice in elder care. This paper gives an brief overview of a selected number of projects and outlines the characteristics...... and results. Finally it is discussed how HRI can benefit from these....

Space technology and robotics in school projects

Science.gov (United States)

Villias, Georgios

2016-04-01

Space-related educational activities is a very inspiring and attractive way to involve students into science courses, present them the variety of STEM careers that they can follow, while giving them at the same time the opportunity to develop various practical and communication skills necessary for their future professional development. As part of a large scale extracurricular course in Space Science, Space Technology and Robotics that has been introduced in our school, our students, divided in smaller groups of 3-4 students in each, try to understand the challenges that current and future space exploration is facing. Following a mixture of an inquiry-based learning methodology and hands-on practical activities related with constructions and experiments, students get a glimpse of the pre-mentioned fields. Our main goal is to gain practical knowledge and inspiration from the exciting field of Space, to attain an adequate level of team spirit and effective cooperation, while developing technical and research data-mining skills. We use the following two approaches: 1. Constructive (Technical) approach Designing and constructing various customized robotic machines, that will simulate the future space exploration vehicles and satellites needed to study the atmosphere, surface and subsurface of planets, moons or other planetary bodies of our solar system that have shown some promising indications for the existence of life, taking seriously into account their special characteristics and known existing conditions (like Mars, Titan, Europa & Enceladus). The STEM tools we use are the following: - LEGO Mindstorms: to construct rovers for surface exploration. - Hydrobots: an MIT's SeaPerch program for the construction of submarine semi-autonomous robots. - CanSats: Arduino-based microsatellites able to receive, record & transmit data. - Space balloons: appropriate for high altitude atmospheric measurements & photography. 2. Scientific approach Conducting interesting physics

Exploratorium: Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Brand, Judith, Ed.

2002-01-01

This issue of Exploratorium Magazine focuses on the topic robotics. It explains how to make a vibrating robotic bug and features articles on robots. Contents include: (1) "Where Robot Mice and Robot Men Run Round in Robot Towns" (Ray Bradbury); (2) "Robots at Work" (Jake Widman); (3) "Make a Vibrating Robotic Bug" (Modesto Tamez); (4) "The Robot…

On Compliant Underactuated Robotic Fingers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wassink, M.

2011-01-01

Driven by societal trends, such as aging, and by a desire to drive economic growth and enhance commercial competitiveness, researchers have tried to move robots from structured manufacturing tasks to unstructured professional and personal service applications. As announced in the Falcon project, an

The therapeutic alliance in internet interventions: A narrative review and suggestions for future research.

Science.gov (United States)

Berger, Thomas

2017-09-01

Research on Internet interventions has grown rapidly over the recent years and evidence is growing that Internet-based treatments often result in similar outcomes as conventional face-to-face psychotherapy. Yet there are still unanswered concerns such as whether a therapeutic alliance can be established over the Internet and whether the alliance is important in this new treatment format. A narrative review of studies formally assessing the therapeutic alliance in Internet interventions was conducted. It is the first review summarizing findings on the therapeutic alliance that (i) distinguishes between different forms of Internet interventions and (ii) does not restrict itself to specific Internet-based treatment formats such as guided self-help treatments, e-mail or videoconferencing therapies. Independent of communication modalities, diagnostic groups and amount of contact between clients and therapists, client-rated alliance scores were high, roughly equivalent to alliance ratings found in studies on face-to-face therapy. Mixed results were found regarding the therapist-rated alliance and alliance-outcome associations. The review points to the limitations of the available evidence and identifies unanswered questions. It is concluded that one of the major tasks for future research is to identify unique characteristics of the therapeutic alliance in the different treatment formats.

Presentation of political Alliances in the Romanian audiovisual media

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Flaviu Calin RUS

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This material wishes to highlight the way in which the main political alliances have been formed in Romania in the last 20 years, as well as the way they have been reflected in the media. Moreover, we have tried to analyze the involvement of journalists and political analysts in explaining these political events. The study will focus on four political alliances, namely: CDR (the Romanian Democratic Convention, D.A. (Y.E.S. - Justice and Truth between PNL – the National Liberal Party and PD - the Democratic Party, ACD (the Centre-Right Alliance between PNL and PC – the Conservative Party and USL (the Social-Liberal Union between PSD – the Social Democrat Party, PNL and PC.

Sustaining alliances for integrity.

Science.gov (United States)

Werhane, P H

2000-01-01

Research in business ethics has shown that value-grounded organizations outperform their counterparts in business terms and that industries can successfully regulate themselves. The market in health care, systems theory, and stakeholder analysis are used to generate a set of five potential core values to sustain an Ethics Alliance of Oral Health Organizations.