Search results for: robot management

Authors: Adedayo Ajayi, Patrick Luk, Liyun Lao

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This paper studies the supportive needs for the electrical infrastructure of the green airport. In particular, the core objective revolves around the choice of electric grid configuration required to meet the expected electrified loads, i.e., the taxiing and charging loads of hybrid /pure electric aircraft in the airport. Further, reliability and resilience are critical aspects of a newly proposed grid; the concept of mobile energy storage as energy as a service (EAAS) for grid support in the proposed green airport is investigated using an autonomous electric taxiing robot (A-ETR) at a case study (Cranfield Airport). The performance of the model is verified and validated through DigSILENT power factory simulation software to compare the networks in terms of power quality, short circuit fault levels, system voltage profile, and power losses. Contingency and reliability index analysis are further carried out to show the potential of EAAS on the grid. The results demonstrate that the low voltage a.c network ( LVAC) architecture gives better performance with adequate compensation than the low voltage d.c (LVDC) microgrid architecture for future green airport electrification integration. And A-ETR can deliver energy as a service (EaaS) to improve the airport's electrical power system resilience and energy supply.

Keywords: reliability, voltage profile, flightpath 2050, green airport

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Authors: Seyed Esmail Seyedi Bariran, Khairul Salleh Mohamed Sahari

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In robotics literature, the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is commonly associated with a priori-posteriori problem. The autonomous vehicle needs a neutral map to spontaneously track its local position, i.e., “localization” while at the same time a precise path estimation of the environment state is required for effective route planning and obstacle avoidance. On the other hand, the environmental noise factors can significantly intensify the inherent uncertainties in using odometry information and measurements obtained from the robot’s exteroceptive sensor which in return directly affect the overall performance of the corresponding SLAM. Therefore, the current work is primarily dedicated to provide a diagnostic analysis of six SLAM algorithms including FastSLAM, L-SLAM, GraphSLAM, Grid SLAM and DP-SLAM. A SLAM simulated environment consisting of two sets of landmark locations and robot waypoints was set based on modified EKF and UKF in MATLAB using two separate maps for indoor and outdoor route planning subject to natural and artificial obstacles. The simulation results are expected to provide an unbiased platform to compare the estimation performances of the five SLAM models as well as on the reliability of each SLAM model for indoor and outdoor applications.

Keywords: route planning, obstacle, estimation performance, FastSLAM, L-SLAM, GraphSLAM, Grid SLAM, DP-SLAM

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Authors: Brian Romansky

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There are many practical, commercially available robots and semi-autonomous systems that are currently available for use in a wide variety of construction tasks. Adoption of these technologies has the potential to reduce the time and cost to deliver a project, reduce variability and risk in delivery time, increase quality, and improve safety on the job site. These benefits come with a cost for equipment rental or contract fees, access to specialists to configure the system, and time needed for set-up and support of the machines while in use. Calculation of the net ROI (Return on Investment) requires detailed information about the geometry of the site, the volume of work to be done, the overall project schedule, as well as data on the capabilities and past performance of available robotic systems. Assembling the required data and comparing the ROI for several options is complex and tedious. Many project managers will only consider the use of a robot in targeted applications where the benefits are obvious, resulting in low levels of adoption of automation in the construction industry. This work demonstrates how data already resident in many BIM (Building Information Model) projects can be used to automate ROI estimation for a sample set of commercially available construction robots. Calculations account for set-up and operating time along with scheduling support tasks required while the automated technology is in use. Configuration parameters allow for prioritization of time, cost, or safety as the primary benefit of the technology. A path toward integration and use of automatic ROI calculation with a database of available robots in a BIM platform is described.

Keywords: automation, BIM, robot, ROI.

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Authors: Seongcheol Kwon, Jeongmin Kim, Kwang Ryel Ryu

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We assume an IoT-based smart-home environment where the on-off status of each of the electrical appliances including the room lights can be recognized in a real time by monitoring and analyzing the smart meter data. At any moment in such an environment, we can recognize what the household or the user is doing by referring to the status data of the appliances. In this paper, we focus on a smart-home service that is to activate a robot vacuum cleaner at right time by recognizing the user situation, which requires a situation-aware model that can distinguish the situations that allow vacuum cleaning (Yes) from those that do not (No). We learn as our candidate models a few classifiers such as naïve Bayes, decision tree, and logistic regression that can map the appliance-status data into Yes and No situations. Our training and test data are obtained from simulations of user behaviors, in which a sequence of user situations such as cooking, eating, dish washing, and so on is generated with the status of the relevant appliances changed in accordance with the situation changes. During the simulation, both the situation transition and the resulting appliance status are determined stochastically. To compare the performances of the aforementioned classifiers we obtain their learning curves for different types of users through simulations. The result of our empirical study reveals that naïve Bayes achieves a slightly better classification accuracy than the other compared classifiers.

Keywords: situation-awareness, smart home, IoT, machine learning, classifier

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Authors: Brahmi Brahim, Mohammad Habibur Rahman, Maarouf Saad, Cristóbal Ochoa Luna

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A repetitive training movement is an efficient method to improve the ability and movement performance of stroke survivors and help them to recover their lost motor function and acquire new skills. The ETS-MARSE is seven degrees of freedom (DOF) exoskeleton robot developed to be worn on the lateral side of the right upper-extremity to assist and rehabilitate the patients with upper-extremity dysfunction resulting from stroke. Practically, rehabilitation activities are repetitive tasks, which make the assistive/robotic systems to suffer from repetitive/periodic uncertainties and external perturbations induced by the high-order dynamic model (seven DOF) and interaction with human muscle which impact on the tracking performance and even on the stability of the exoskeleton. To ensure the robustness and the stability of the robot, a new nonlinear backstepping control was implemented with designed tests performed by healthy subjects. In order to limit and to reject the periodic/repetitive disturbances, an iterative estimator was integrated into the control of the system. The estimator does not need the precise dynamic model of the exoskeleton. Experimental results confirm the robustness and accuracy of the controller performance to deal with the external perturbation, and the effectiveness of the iterative estimator to reject the repetitive/periodic disturbances.

Keywords: backstepping control, iterative control, Rehabilitation, ETS-MARSE

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Authors: Solomon Okorley

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With the emergence of artificial intelligence, a proposition that has been made with increasing conviction is the need to assign legal personhood to robots. A major problem that arises when dealing with robots is the issue of liability: who do it hold liable when a robot causes harm? The suggestion to assign legal personality to robots has been made to aid in the assignment of liability. This paper contends that it is premature to assign legal personhood to robots. The paper employed the doctrinal and comparative research methodology. The paper first discusses the various theories that underpin the granting of legal personhood to juridical personalities to ascertain whether these theories can aid in the proposition to assign legal personhood to robots. These theories include fiction theory, aggregate theory, realist theory, and organism theory. Except for the aggregate theory, the fiction theory, the realist theory and the organism theory provide a good foundation to the proposal for legal personhood to be assigned to robots. The paper considers whether robots should be assigned legal personhood from a jurisprudential approach. The legal positivists assert that no metaphysical presuppositions are needed to determine who could be a legal person: the sole deciding factor is the engagement in legal relations and this prerequisite could be fulfilled by robots. However, rationalists, religionists and naturalists assert that the satisfaction of the metaphysical criteria is the basis of legal personality and since robots do not possess this feature, they cannot be assigned legal personhood. This differing perspective shows that the jurisprudential school of thought to which one belongs influences the decision whether to assign legal personhood to robots. The paper makes arguments for and against the assigning of legal personhood to robots. Assigning legal personhood to robots is necessary for the assigning of liability; and since robots are independent in their operation, they should be assigned legal personhood. However, it is argued that the degree of autonomy is insufficient. Robots do not understand legal obligations; they do not have a will of their own and the purported autonomy that they possess is an ‘imputed autonomy’. A crucial question to be asked is ‘whether it is desirable to confer legal personhood on robots’ and not ‘whether legal personhood should be assigned to robots’. This is due to the subjective nature of the responses to such a question as well as the peculiarities of countries in response to this question. The main argument in support of assigning legal personhood to robots is to aid in assigning liability. However, it is argued conferring legal personhood on robots is not the only way to deal with liability issues. Since any of the stakeholders involved with the robot system can be held liable for an accident, it is not desirable to assign legal personhood to robot. It is forecasted that in the epoch of strong artificial intelligence, granting robots legal personhood is plausible; however, in the current era, it is premature.

Keywords: autonomy, legal personhood, premature, jurisprudential

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Authors: Peter Ekene Egwu

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Waste management is of critical importance in Africa for reasons related to public health, human dignity, climate resilience and environmental preservation. However, delivering waste management services requires adequate funding, which has generally been lacking in a context where the generation of waste is outpacing the development of waste management infrastructure in most cities. The sector represents a growing percentage of cities’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and some of the African cities profiled in this study are now designing waste management strategies with emission reduction in mind.

Keywords: management waste material, Africa, uses of new technology to manage waste, waste management

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Authors: Abdelouahab Errida, Bouchra Lotfi, Elalami Semma

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In this paper, we try to address the topic of multiple change management by adopting an engineered research methodology, conducted within a Moroccan company during its implementation of several change projects that aim at improving its supply chain management performance. Firstly, we present the key concepts related to our research, namely change management, multiproject management and supply chain management. Then, we try to assess how the change management and multi-project management are applied in this company. Finally, we try to propose an approach that will help managers in dealing with multiple change projects. This approach proposes to integrate change management, project management and multi-project management for managing change projects according to three organizational levels: executive level, project portfolio level and change project level.

Keywords: change management, multi-project management, project management, change portfolio, supply chain management,

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Authors: François Chiocchio, Mahshid Gharibpour

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Regardless of the extent to which succession management is implemented in the private sector, it is still overlooked in the public sector. Traditional succession management is evolving providing a better alignment between business strategies and HR strategies. Succession management brings sustainable effectiveness for succession programs through career path development, knowledge and skill transfer, job retention, as well as high-potential candidates’ empowerment for upcoming vacancies. By way of a systematic literature review, we bring into focus strategic succession management in public organizations and discuss best ways of implementation. 

Keywords: succession management, strategic succession management, public organization, succession management model

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Authors: Vajhollah Ghorbanizadeh, Seyed Mohsen Asadi, Mirali Seyednaghavi, Davoud Hoseynpour

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In the current era, all organizations need knowledge to be able to manage the diverse human resources. Creative, dynamic and knowledge-based Human resources are important competitive advantage and the scarcest resource in today's knowledge-based economy. In addition managers with skills of knowledge management must be aware of human resource management science. It is now generally accepted that successful implementation of knowledge management requires dynamic interaction between knowledge management and human resource management. This is emphasized at systematic approach to knowledge management as well. However human resource management can be complementary of knowledge management because human resources management with the aim of empowering human resources as the key resource organizations in the 21st century, the use of other resources, creating and growing and developing today. Thus, knowledge is the major capital of every organization which is introduced through the process of knowledge management. In this context, knowledge management is systematic approach to create, receive, organize, access, and use of knowledge and learning in the organization. This article aims to define and explain the concepts of knowledge management and human resource management and the importance of these processes and concepts. Literature related to knowledge management and human resource management as well as related topics were studied, then to design, illustrate and provide a theoretical model to explain the factors affecting the relationship between knowledge management and human resource management and knowledge management system approach, for schematic design and are drawn.

Keywords: systemic approach, human resources, knowledge, human resources management, knowledge management

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Authors: Vinicius G. Goecks, Gregory M. Gremillion, William D. Nothwang

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Modern approaches to train intelligent agents rely on prolonged training sessions, high amounts of input data, and multiple interactions with the environment. This restricts the application of these learning algorithms in robotics and real-world applications, in which there is low tolerance to inadequate actions, interactions are expensive, and real-time processing and action are required. This paper addresses this issue introducing CyberSteer, a novel approach to efficiently design intrinsic reward functions based on human intention to guide deep reinforcement learning agents with no environment-dependent rewards. CyberSteer uses non-expert human operators for initial demonstration of a given task or desired behavior. The trajectories collected are used to train a behavior cloning deep neural network that asynchronously runs in the background and suggests actions to the deep reinforcement learning module. An intrinsic reward is computed based on the similarity between actions suggested and taken by the deep reinforcement learning algorithm commanding the agent. This intrinsic reward can also be reshaped through additional human demonstration or critique. This approach removes the need for environment-dependent or hand-engineered rewards while still being able to safely shape the behavior of autonomous robotic agents, in this case, based on human intention. CyberSteer is tested in a high-fidelity unmanned aerial vehicle simulation environment, the Microsoft AirSim. The simulated aerial robot performs collision avoidance through a clustered forest environment using forward-looking depth sensing and roll, pitch, and yaw references angle commands to the flight controller. This approach shows that the behavior of robotic systems can be shaped in a reduced amount of time when guided by a non-expert human, who is only aware of the high-level goals of the task. Decreasing the amount of training time required and increasing safety during training maneuvers will allow for faster deployment of intelligent robotic agents in dynamic real-world applications.

Keywords: human-robot interaction, intelligent robots, robot learning, semisupervised learning, unmanned aerial vehicles

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Authors: Juan Carlos Montalvo-Rodriguez, Juan Felipe Espinosa-Cristia, Pablo Islas Madariaga, Jorge Cifuentes Valenzuela

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This article presents different relationships between top management and innovative companies, based on the developments of creativity and innovation management. First of all, it contextualizes the innovative company in relation to management, creativity, and innovation. Secondly, it delves into the vision of top management of innovative companies, from the perspectives of the management of creativity and innovation. Thirdly, their commonalities are highlighted, bearing in mind the importance that both approaches attribute to aspects such as leadership, networks, strategy, culture, technology, environment, and complexity in the top management of innovative companies. Based on the above, an integration of both fields of study is proposed, as an alternative to deepen the relationship between senior management and the innovative company.

Keywords: top management, creativity, innovation, innovative firm, leadership, strategy

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Authors: Hamadi Khlif

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This paper deals with the understanding of the concept of e-management and the development of a measuring instrument adapted to the new problems encountered during the application of this new practice within the modern enterprise. Two principal e-management factors have been isolated in an exploratory study carried out among 260 participants. A confirmatory study applied to a second sample of 270 participants has been established in a cross-validation of the scale of measurement. The study presents the literature review specifically dedicated to e-management and the results of the exploratory and confirmatory phase of the development of this scale, which demonstrates satisfactory psychometric qualities. The e-management has two dimensions: a managerial dimension and a technological dimension.

Keywords: e-management, management, ICT deployment, mode of management

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Authors: Chitsuphang Ungsvanonda

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Objective of this research is to study the government’s theater management system regarding planning and operation. Also studying how the management associate with the change of an environment. This is to gather an appropriate model to develop a theater management system especially regarding all show performance. The research will be done by a Qualitative Research with an interview of 35 person by specify and unexpectedly group.

Keywords: management, theatre, social, culture

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Authors: Omer Akkaya, Nurullah Ekmekcı, Muammer Zerenler

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Innovation for businesses means a new product and service and sometimes a new implementation. Total Quality Management is a management philosophy which focus on customer, process and system.There is a certain relationship between principles of Total Quality Management and innovation performance. Main aim of this study is to show how the implementation and principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) affect a firm's innovation performance. Also, this paper discusses positive and negative affects of Total Quality Management on innovation performance and demonstrates some examples.

Keywords: innovation, innovation types, total quality management, principles of total quality management

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Authors: Lisa C. Wan

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To address customers’ safety concerns, more and more hospitality companies are using service robots to provide contactless services. For many companies, the switch from human employees to service robots to lower the contagion risk during and after the pandemic may be permanent. The market size for hospitality service robots is estimated to reach US$3,083 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 25.5% from 2021 to 2030. While service robots may effectively reduce interpersonal contacts and health risk, it also eliminates the social interactions desired by customers. A recent survey revealed that more than 60% of Americans feel lonely during the pandemic. People who are traveling can also feel isolated when they are at a hotel far away from home. It is therefore important for the hospitality companies to understand whether and how social robots can remedy deprived social connection not only due to a pandemic but also for a trip away from home in the post-pandemic future. This study complements extant hospitality literature regarding service robots by examining how service robots can forge social connections with customers. The service robots we are concerned with are those that can interact and communicate with humans; we broadly refer to them as social robots. We define a social robot as one that is equipped with interaction capabilities – it can either be one that directly interacts with the consumer or one through which the consumer can interact with other humans. Drawing on the theories of mind perception, we propose that service robots can foster social connectedness and increase the perception of social competence of the robot, but these effects will vary across cultures. By applying theories of mind perception and cultural dimension to the hospitality setting, this study shows that service robots that are equipped with social connection function will receive a more favorable evaluation from the consumers and enhance their intention to visit a hotel. The more favorable reaction to social robots is stronger for collectivists (i.e., Asians) than individualists (i.e., Westerners). To our knowledge, this is among the first studies to investigate the impact of culture on consumer reactions to social robots in the hospitality and tourism context. Moreover, this research extends the literature by examining whether people imbue non-human entities (i.e., telepresence social robots) with social competence. Because social robots that foster social connection with humans are still rare in hospitality and tourism, this aspect is an underexplored research area. Our study is the first to propose that, just like their human counterparts that possess relevant social skills, social robots’ interaction capabilities (e.g., telepresence robots) are used to infer social competence. More studies will be conducted to examine consumer reactions to humanoid (vs. non-humanoid) robot in the hospitality settings to generalize our research findings.

Keywords: service robots, COVID-19, social connection, cultures

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Authors: Qiang Fu, Abu Saleh

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Research studies are highly fragmented when an innovation management framework is being discussed. With the aim to identify an innovation management framework/assessment tool suitable for small & medium enterprises (SMEs) in the service industry, this researcher critically reviewed existing innovation management frameworks and assessment models/tools and discovered a number of literature gaps. It is established that existing literature lacks generally agreed innovation management dimensions, commonly accepted knowledge creation through empirical studies on innovation management in SMEs, effective innovation management performance measurements, and studies on innovation management in the service industry, in particular in retail SMEs. As such, there is a dire need to develop an appropriate firm-level innovation management framework suitable for SMEs in the service industry for a future research project and further study. In addition, this researcher also discussed the significance of establishing such an innovation management framework.

Keywords: innovation management, innovation management framework, innovation management assessment tools, SMEs, service industry

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Authors: Catherine McWhorter

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Robotics is a fast-evolving field lacking comprehensive and harm-mitigating regulation; it also lacks critical data on how human-robot interaction (HRI) may affect human psychology. As most anthropomorphic robots are intended as substitutes for humans, this paper asserts that the commercial robotics industry should be preemptively regulated at the federal level such that robots capable of embodying a victim role in criminal scenarios (“vicbots”) are prohibited until clinical studies determine their effects on the user and society. The results of these studies should then inform more permanent legislation that strives to mitigate risks of harm without infringing upon fundamental rights or stifling innovation. This paper explores these concepts through the lens of the sex robot industry. The sexbot industry offers some of the most realistic, interactive, and customizable robots for sale today. From approximately 2010 until 2017, some sex robot producers, such as True Companion, actively promoted ‘vicbot’ culture with personalities like “Frigid Farrah” and “Young Yoko” but received significant public backlash for fetishizing rape and pedophilia. Today, “Frigid Farrah” and “Young Yoko” appear to have vanished. Sexbot producers have replaced preprogrammed vicbot personalities in favor of one generic, customizable personality. According to the manufacturer ainidoll.com, when asked, there is only one thing the user won’t be able to program the sexbot to do – “…give you drama”. The ability to customize vicbot personas is possible with today’s generic personality sexbots and may undermine the intent of some current legislative efforts. Current debate on the effects of vicbots indicates a lack of consensus. Some scholars suggest vicbots may reduce the rate of actual sex crimes, and some suggest that vicbots will, in fact, create sex criminals, while others cite their potential for rehabilitation. Vicbots may have value in some instances when prescribed by medical professionals, but the overall uncertainty and lack of data further underscore the need for preemptive regulation and clinical research. Existing literature on exposure to media violence and its effects on prosocial behavior, human aggression, and addiction may serve as launch points for specific studies into the hyperrealism of vicbots. Of course, the customization, anthropomorphism and artificial intelligence of sexbots, and therefore more mainstream robots, will continue to evolve. The existing sexbot industry offers an opportunity to preemptively regulate and to research answers to these and many more questions before this type of technology becomes even more advanced and mainstream. Robots pose complicated moral, ethical, and legal challenges, most of which are beyond the scope of this paper. By examining the possibility for custom vicbots via the sexbots industry, reviewing existing literature on regulation, media violence, and vicbot user effects, this paper strives to underscore the need for preemptive federal regulation prohibiting vicbot capabilities in robots while advocating for further research into the potential for the user and societal harm by the same.

Keywords: human-robot interaction effects, regulation, research, robots

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Authors: Jason R. King, Hugh H. T. Liu

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This research presents simulation and experimental work in the visual servoing of a quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to stabilize overtop of a moving target. Most previous work in the field assumes static or slow-moving, unpredictable targets. In this experiment, the target is assumed to be a friendly ground robot moving freely on a horizontal plane, which shares information with the UAV. This information includes velocity and acceleration information of the ground target to aid the quadrotor in its tracking task. The quadrotor is assumed to have a downward-facing camera which is fixed to the frame of the quadrotor. Only onboard sensing for the quadrotor is utilized for the experiment, with a VICON motion capture system in place used only to measure ground truth and evaluate the performance of the controller. The experimental platform consists of an ArDrone 2.0 and a Create Roomba, communicating using Robot Operating System (ROS). The addition of the target’s information is demonstrated to help the quadrotor in its tracking task using simulations of the dynamic model of a quadrotor in Matlab Simulink. A nested PID control loop is utilized for inner-loop control the quadrotor, similar to previous works at the Flight Systems and Controls Laboratory (FSC) at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS). Experiments are performed with ground truth provided by an indoor motion capture system, and the results are analyzed. It is demonstrated that a velocity controller which incorporates the additional information is able to perform better than the controllers which do not have access to the target’s information.

Keywords: quadrotor, target tracking, unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV, UAS, visual servoing

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Authors: M. Jafari Toosy, A. Zamani

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This article, considering the result of pandemics at the international level and all activities and projects performed virtually and the need for resource management and virtual teams in this period identifies the components of virtual management after searching the available resources. Exploration of virtual management in the pandemic era is explored in 10 international articles. The results of research with this method and according to the tasks and topics related to management knowledge and definition of virtual teams can be divided into topics such as planning, decision making, control, organization, leadership, attention to growth and capability, resources and facilities, Communication, creativity, innovation and security. In order to explain the nature of virtual management, a definition of virtual management was provided.

Keywords: management, virtual, virtual team management, pandemic, team

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Authors: Hamidreza Hoshyarmanesh, Hosein Madieh, Sanju Lama, Yaser Maddahi, Garnette R. Sutherland, Kourosh Zareinia

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This paper illustrates the concept of an algorithm to register specified markers on the neuroArm surgical manipulators, an image-guided MR-compatible tele-operated robot for microsurgery and stereotaxy. Two range-finding algorithms, namely time-of-flight and phase-shift, are evaluated for registration and supervisory control. The time-of-flight approach is implemented in a semi-field experiment to determine the precise position of a tiny retro-reflective moving object. The moving object simulates a surgical tool tip. The tool is a target that would be connected to the neuroArm end-effector during surgery inside the magnet bore of the MR imaging system. In order to apply flight approach, a 905-nm pulsed laser diode and an avalanche photodiode are utilized as the transmitter and receiver, respectively. For the experiment, a high frequency time to digital converter was designed using a field-programmable gate arrays. In the phase-shift approach, a continuous green laser beam with a wavelength of 530 nm was used as the transmitter. Results showed that a positioning error of 0.1 mm occurred when the scanner-target point distance was set in the range of 2.5 to 3 meters. The effectiveness of this non-contact approach exhibited that the method could be employed as an alternative for conventional mechanical registration arm. Furthermore, the approach is not limited by physical contact and extension of joint angles.

Keywords: 3D laser scanner, intraoperative MR imaging, neuroArm, real time registration, robot-assisted surgery, supervisory control

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Authors: Naghmeh Zamani, Ashkan Pourkand, David Grow

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This paper presents the design and mechanical model of a hybrid impedance/admittance haptic device optimized for applications, like bone drilling, spinal awl probe use, and other surgical techniques were high force is required in the tool-axial direction, and low impedance is needed in all other directions. The performance levels required cannot be satisfied by existing, off-the-shelf haptic devices. This design may allow critical improvements in simulator fidelity for surgery training. The device consists primarily of two low-mass (carbon fiber) plates with a rod passing through them. Collectively, the device provides 6 DOF. The rod slides through a bushing in the top plate and it is connected to the bottom plate with a universal joint, constrained to move in only 2 DOF, allowing axial torque display the user’s hand. The two parallel plates are actuated and located by means of four cables pulled by motors. The forward kinematic equations are derived to ensure that the plates orientation remains constant. The corresponding equations are solved using the Newton-Raphson method. The static force/torque equations are also presented. Finally, we present the predicted distribution of location error, cables velocity, cable tension, force and torque for the device. These results and preliminary hardware fabrication indicate that this design may provide a revolutionary approach for haptic display of many surgical procedures by means of an architecture that allows arbitrary workspace scaling. Scaling of the height and width can be scaled arbitrarily.

Keywords: cable direct driven robot, haptics, parallel plates, bone drilling

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Authors: Hotlan Siagian, Han Tae Hee

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This study aims to examine the effect of supplier trust and top management involvement on the supply chain risk management through buyer-supplier relationship. The population of the research is 44 Korean companies domiciled in East and Central Java of Indonesia. The respondent consists of a top management level from each company. Data collection used a questionnaire designed with five-item Likert scale. Collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) technique with SmartPLS software version 3.0 to examine the hypotheses. The result revealed that supplier trust has an effect on supply chain risk management, top management involvement affects supply chain risk management, supplier trust influences buyer-supplier relationship, top management involvement affects the buyer-supplier relationship, and buyer-supplier relationship affects supply chain risk management. The last finding is that buyer-supplier relationship empirically mediates the effect of supplier trust and top management involvement.

Keywords: buyer supplier relationship, supplier trust, supply chain risk management, top management involvement

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Authors: Evgeniya Ivanova

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Nowadays, in the literature, there is still no fixed definition of knowledge management that often remains only as an academic discipline. The current market situation is changing very quickly, the need of new technologies is high, and knowledge management is the area that ensures that the know-how has not been lost during market development and adoption. The study examines how knowledge management is being leveraged and practiced in the management consultancy companies and provides not only the tips and best practices of applied knowledge management approaches but also the validation matrix for its successful or unsuccessful implementation. Different knowledge management approaches are explored on the basis of their practical implementation, including related challenges, knowledge sharing process, and barriers that are typical for consulting firms mostly driven by the agile working culture. The relevance of proposed topic is confirmed by the finding that corporate working culture and the exponentially developing technologies have a direct impact on the success of practical implementation of knowledge management.

Keywords: knowledge management, knowledge management in practice, consulting firm, knowledge management success

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Authors: David Blaine, George Raschbaum

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The evaluation of DHCP has synthesized SCSI disks, and current trends suggest that the exploration of e-business that would allow for further study into robots will soon emerge. Given the current status of embedded algorithms, hackers worldwide obviously desire the exploration of replication, which embodies the confusing principles of programming languages. In our research we concentrate our efforts on arguing that erasure coding can be made "fuzzy", encrypted, and game-theoretic.

Keywords: SCHI disks, robot, algorithm, hacking, programming language

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Authors: Asif Iqbal

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Working capital management has its effect on liquidity as well as on profitability of a firm. In this research we have selected a sample of 100 respondents whose firms are listed on Karachi stock exchange. We have studied the effect of different variable s of working capital management. We find that organizations throughout the world as well as in Pakistan have to give immense recognition to the working capital management as it is an effective thing from their long term perspective especially to their shareholders to have a firm confidence over the companies for investment purpose.

Keywords: working capital management, Karachi stock exchange, shareholders, capital management

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Authors: Amalia Zuhra

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Indonesia is very rich with its natural resources. Natural resource management becomes a challenge for Indonesia. Improper management will make the natural resources run out and future generations will not be able to enjoy the natural wealth. A good rule of law and proper implementation determines the success of the management of a country's natural resources. This paper examines the need to redefine problems and challenges in the management of natural resources in Indonesia in the context of law. The purpose of this article is to overview the latest issues and challenges in natural resource management and to redefine legal provisions related to environmental management and human rights protection so that the management of natural resources in the present and future will be more sustainable. This paper finds that sustainable management of natural resources is absolutely essential. The aspect of environmental protection and human rights must be elaborated more deeply so that the management of natural resources can be done maximally without harming not only people but also the environment.

Keywords: international environmental law, human rights law, natural resource management, sustainable development

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Authors: Kassem Saleh

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An alarming number of software projects fail to deliver the required functionalities within the provided budget and timeframe and with the required qualities. Some of the main reasons for this problem include bad stakeholder management, poor communications and informal change management. Informal processes to identify, engage and control stakeholders lead to these reasons. Recently, to emphasize its importance, the Project Management Institute (PMI) updated the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) to explicitly include the stakeholder management knowledge area. This knowledge area consists of four processes to identify stakeholders, plan stakeholder management, and manage and control stakeholder engagement. The use of appropriate techniques for stakeholder management in software projects will definitely lead to higher quality and successful software. In this paper, we describe some of the proven techniques that can be used during the execution of the four processes for stakeholder management. Development of collaboration tools for automating these processes are recommended and need to be integrated in available software project management tools.

Keywords: project management, stakeholder management, software development, project management body of knowledge

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Authors: Alexandros Lioulemes, Michail Theofanidis, Varun Kanal, Konstantinos Tsiakas, Maher Abujelala, Chris Collander, William B. Townsend, Angie Boisselle, Fillia Makedon

Abstract:

This paper presents a home-based robot-rehabilitation instrument, called ”MAGNI Dynamics”, that utilized a vision-based kinematic/dynamic module and an adaptive haptic feedback controller. The system is expected to provide personalized rehabilitation by adjusting its resistive and supportive behavior according to a fuzzy intelligence controller that acts as an inference system, which correlates the user’s performance to different stiffness factors. The vision module uses the Kinect’s skeletal tracking to monitor the user’s effort in an unobtrusive and safe way, by estimating the torque that affects the user’s arm. The system’s torque estimations are justified by capturing electromyographic data from primitive hand motions (Shoulder Abduction and Shoulder Forward Flexion). Moreover, we present and analyze how the Barrett WAM generates a force-field with a haptic controller to support or challenge the users. Experiments show that by shifting the proportional value, that corresponds to different stiffness factors of the haptic path, can potentially help the user to improve his/her motor skills. Finally, potential areas for future research are discussed, that address how a rehabilitation robotic framework may include multisensing data, to improve the user’s recovery process.

Keywords: human-robot interaction, kinect, kinematics, dynamics, haptic control, rehabilitation robotics, artificial intelligence

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Authors: Eakarat Boonreang

Abstract:

The past two decades, Thailand faced the natural disasters, for instance, Gay typhoon in 1989, tsunami in 2004, and huge flood in 2011. The disaster management in Thailand was improved both structure and mechanism for cope with the natural disaster since 2007. However, the natural disaster management in Thailand has various problems, for examples, cooperation between related an organizations have not unity, inadequate resources, the natural disaster management of public sectors not proactive, people has not awareness the risk of the natural disaster, and communities did not participate in the natural disaster management. Objective of this study is to find the methods for capacity building in the natural disaster management of Thailand. The concept and information about the capacity building and the natural disaster management of Thailand were reviewed and analyzed by classifying and organizing data. The result found that the methods for capacity building in the natural disaster management of Thailand should be consist of 1)link operation and information in the natural disaster management between nation, province, local and community levels, 2)enhance competency and resources of public sectors which relate to the natural disaster management, 3)establish proactive natural disaster management both planning and implementation, 4)decentralize the natural disaster management to local government organizations, 5)construct public awareness in the natural disaster management to community, 6)support Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) seriously, and 7)emphasis on participation in the natural disaster management of all stakeholders.

Keywords: capacity building, Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM), Natural Disaster Management, Thailand

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