Search results for: collaborative business strategy
1062 Enumerative Search for Crane Schedule in Anodizing Operations
Authors: Kanate Pantusavase, Jaramporn Hassamontr
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This research aims to develop an algorithm to generate a schedule of multiple cranes that will maximize load throughputs in anodizing operation. The algorithm proposed utilizes an enumerative strategy to search for constant time between successive loads and crane covering range over baths. The computer program developed is able to generate a near-optimal crane schedule within reasonable times, i.e. within 10 minutes. Its results are compared with existing solutions from an aluminum extrusion industry. The program can be used to generate crane schedules for mixed products, thus allowing mixed-model line balancing to improve overall cycle times.Keywords: Crane scheduling, anodizing operations, cycle time minimization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14971061 Experimental Studies of Position Control of Linkage based Robotic Finger
Authors: N. Z. Azlan, H. Yamaura
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The experimental study of position control of a light weight and small size robotic finger during non-contact motion is presented in this paper. The finger possesses fingertip pinching and self adaptive grasping capabilities, and is made of a seven bar linkage mechanism with a slider in the middle phalanx. The control system is tested under the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) control algorithm and Recursive Least Square (RLS) based Feedback Error Learning (FEL) control scheme to overcome the uncertainties present in the plant. The experiments conducted in Matlab Simulink and xPC Target environments show that the overall control strategy is efficient in controlling the finger movement.Keywords: Anthropomorphic finger, position control, feedback error learning, experimental study
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15641060 Detection of Leaks in Water Mains Using Ground Penetrating Radar
Authors: Alaa Al Hawari, Mohammad Khader, Tarek Zayed, Osama Moselhi
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Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is one of the most effective electromagnetic techniques for non-destructive non-invasive subsurface features investigation. Water leak from pipelines is the most common undesirable reason of potable water losses. Rapid detection of such losses is going to enhance the use of the Water Distribution Networks (WDN) and decrease threatens associated with water mains leaks. In this study, GPR approach was developed to detect leaks by implementing an appropriate imaging analyzing strategy based on image refinement, reflection polarity and reflection amplitude that would ease the process of interpreting the collected raw radargram image.Keywords: Water Networks, Leakage, Water pipelines, Ground Penetrating Radar.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22961059 Barriers and Conflicts in Relationships of Small Firms – Insights from Central Europe
Authors: Maciej Mitręga
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This paper contributes to our knowledge about buyerseller relations by identifying barriers and conflict situations associated with maintaining and developing durable business relationships by small companies. The contribution of prior studies with regard to negative aspects of marketing relationships is presented in the first section. The international research results are discussed with regard to the existing conceptualizations and main research implications identified at the end.Keywords: Relationship marketing, barriers, conflict, SME, international research.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13001058 A Strategy of Direct Power Control for PWM Rectifier Reducing Ripple in Instantaneous Power
Authors: T. Mohammed Chikouche, K. Hartani
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In order to solve the instantaneous power ripple and achieve better performance of direct power control (DPC) for a three-phase PWM rectifier, a control method is proposed in this paper. This control method is applied to overcome the instantaneous power ripple, to eliminate line current harmonics and therefore reduce the total harmonic distortion and to improve the power factor. A switching table is based on the analysis on the change of instantaneous active and reactive power, to select the optimum switching state of the three-phase PWM rectifier. The simulation result shows feasibility of this control method.
Keywords: Power quality, direct power control, power ripple, switching table, unity power factor.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11361057 Combined Fuzzy and Predictive Controller for Unity Power Factor Converter
Authors: Abdelhalim Kessal
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This paper treats a design of combined control of a single phase power factor correction (PFC). The strategy of the proposed control is based on two parts, the first, for the outer loop (DC output regulated voltage), and the second govern the input current of the converter in order to achieve a sinusoidal form in phase with the grid voltage. Two kinds of regulators are used, Fuzzy controller for the outer loop and predictive controller for the inner loop. The controllers are verified and discussed through simulation under MATLAB/Simulink platform. Also an experimental confirmation is applied. Results present a high dynamic performance under various parameters changes.Keywords: Boost converter, harmonic distortion, Fuzzy, prediction, unity power factor.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11451056 A Quantum-Inspired Evolutionary Algorithm forMultiobjective Image Segmentation
Authors: Hichem Talbi, Mohamed Batouche, Amer Draa
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In this paper we present a new approach to deal with image segmentation. The fact that a single segmentation result do not generally allow a higher level process to take into account all the elements included in the image has motivated the consideration of image segmentation as a multiobjective optimization problem. The proposed algorithm adopts a split/merge strategy that uses the result of the k-means algorithm as input for a quantum evolutionary algorithm to establish a set of non-dominated solutions. The evaluation is made simultaneously according to two distinct features: intra-region homogeneity and inter-region heterogeneity. The experimentation of the new approach on natural images has proved its efficiency and usefulness.Keywords: Image segmentation, multiobjective optimization, quantum computing, evolutionary algorithms.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23421055 Digital filters for Hot-Mix Asphalt Complex Modulus Test Data Using Genetic Algorithm Strategies
Authors: Madhav V. Chitturi, Anshu Manik, Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan
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The dynamic or complex modulus test is considered to be a mechanistically based laboratory test to reliably characterize the strength and load-resistance of Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA) mixes used in the construction of roads. The most common observation is that the data collected from these tests are often noisy and somewhat non-sinusoidal. This hampers accurate analysis of the data to obtain engineering insight. The goal of the work presented in this paper is to develop and compare automated evolutionary computational techniques to filter test noise in the collection of data for the HMA complex modulus test. The results showed that the Covariance Matrix Adaptation-Evolutionary Strategy (CMA-ES) approach is computationally efficient for filtering data obtained from the HMA complex modulus test.Keywords: HMA, dynamic modulus, GA, evolutionarycomputation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15611054 How Can We Carry Out Green Incentives Most Efficiently?
Authors: Peter Yang
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Green incentives are included in the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" (ARRA). It is, however, unclear how these government incentives can be carried out most effectively according to market-based principles and if they can serve as a catalyst for an accelerated green transformation and an ultimate solution to the current U.S. and global economic and financial crisis. The article will compare the existing U.S. green economic policies with those in Germany, identify problems, and suggest improvements to allow the green stimulus incentives to achieve the best results in the process of an accelerated green transformation. The author argues that the current U.S. green stimulus incentives can only be most successful if they are carried out as part of a visionary, comprehensive, long-term, and consistent strategy of the green economic transformation.Keywords: Green incentives, financial crisis, green economy, renewable energy sources, energy efficiency.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16011053 Designing an Editorialization Environment for Repeatable Self-Correcting Exercises
Authors: M. Kobylanski, D. Buskulic, P.-H. Duron, D. Revuz, F. Ruggieri, E. Sandier, C. Tijus
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In order to design a cooperative e-learning platform, we observed teams of Teacher [T], Computer Scientist [CS] and exerciser's programmer-designer [ED] cooperating for the conception of a self-correcting exercise, but without the use of such a device in order to catch the kind of interactions a useful platform might provide. To do so, we first run a task analysis on how T, CS and ED should be cooperating in order to achieve, at best, the task of creating and implementing self-directed, self-paced, repeatable self-correcting exercises (RSE) in the context of open educational resources. The formalization of the whole process was based on the “objectives, activities and evaluations” theory of educational task analysis. Second, using the resulting frame as a “how-to-do it” guide, we run a series of three contrasted Hackathon of RSE-production to collect data about the cooperative process that could be later used to design the collaborative e-learning platform. Third, we used two complementary methods to collect, to code and to analyze the adequate survey data: the directional flow of interaction among T-CS-ED experts holding a functional role, and the Means-End Problem Solving analysis. Fourth, we listed the set of derived recommendations useful for the design of the exerciser as a cooperative e-learning platform. Final recommendations underline the necessity of building (i) an ecosystem that allows to sustain teams of T-CS-ED experts, (ii) a data safety platform although offering accessibility and open discussion about the production of exercises with their resources and (iii) a good architecture allowing the inheritance of parts of the coding of any exercise already in the data base as well as fast implementation of new kinds of exercises along with their associated learning activities.
Keywords: Distance open educational resources, pedagogical alignment, self-correcting exercises, teacher’s involvement, team roles.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4961052 Factorial Design Analysis for Quality of Video on MANET
Authors: Hyoup-Sang Yoon
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The quality of video transmitted by mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) can be influenced by several factors, including protocol layers; parameter settings of each protocol. In this paper, we are concerned with understanding the functional relationship between these influential factors and objective video quality in MANETs. We illustrate a systematic statistical design of experiments (DOE) strategy can be used to analyze MANET parameters and performance. Using a 2k factorial design, we quantify the main and interactive effects of 7 factors on a response metric (i.e., mean opinion score (MOS) calculated by PSNR with Evalvid package) we then develop a first-order linear regression model between the influential factors and the performance metric.
Keywords: Evalvid, full factorial design, mobile ad hoc networks, ns-2.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20781051 An Augmented Beam-search Based Algorithm for the Strip Packing Problem
Authors: Hakim Akeb, Mhand Hifi
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In this paper, the use of beam search and look-ahead strategies for solving the strip packing problem (SPP) is investigated. Given a strip of fixed width W, unlimited length L, and a set of n circular pieces of known radii, the objective is to determine the minimum length of the initial strip that packs all the pieces. An augmented algorithm which combines beam search and a look-ahead strategies is proposed. The look-ahead is used in order to evaluate the nodes at each level of the tree search. The best nodes are then retained for branching. The computational investigation showed that the proposed augmented algorithm is able to improve the best known solutions of the literature on most instances used.
Keywords: Combinatorial optimization, cutting and packing, beam search, heuristic, look-ahead strategy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13461050 An Exploratory Study for Seamless Overland Logistics Information Flows and Connection: An In-Depth Case Study of Korea
Authors: Jae Un Jung, Hyun Soo Kim, Doo Hwan Kim
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Quick and qualitative services are not new issues anymore in Logistics but those are still important problems along with cost-cutting. Related to the issues, though advanced information technologies are introduced unceasingly from laboratories, yet there is long way to go for smooth and seamless information flows on physical distribution processes in the industrial field. For the reason, the study aims to seek an advanced information delivery and management strategy through an in-depth case study of a Korea intermodal transportation company. It provides an industrial reference and a way to improve the endemic problems of logistics information systems.
Keywords: Exploratory Study, Overland Logistics, Information Flows, Seamless Connectivity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19551049 An E-Retailing System Architecture Based on Cloud Computing
Authors: Chanchai Supaartagorn
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E-retailing is the sale of goods online that takes place over the Internet. The Internet has shrunk the entire World. World eretailing is growing at an exponential rate in the Americas, Europe and Asia. However, e-retailing costs require expensive investment, such as hardware, software, and security systems. Cloud computing technology is internet-based computing for the management and delivery of applications and services. Cloud-based e-retailing application models allow enterprises to lower their costs with their effective implementation of e-retailing activities. In this paper, we describe the concept of cloud computing and present the architecture of cloud computing, combining the features of e-retailing. In addition, we propose a strategy for implementing cloud computing with e-retailing. Finally, we explain the benefits from the architecture.Keywords: Architecture, cloud computing, e-retailing, internet-based.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31501048 Optimal Switching Strategies for Tracking of Currents of Voltage Source Converters
Authors: R. Oloomi, M. A. Sadrnia
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This paper proposes a new optimal feedback controller for voltage source converters VSC's, for current regulated voltage source converters, which allows compensate the harmonics of current produced by nonlinear loads and load reactive power. The aim of the present paper is to describe a novel switching signal generation technique called optimal controller which guarantees that the injected currents follow the reference currents determined by the compensation strategy, with the smallest possible tracking error and fixed switching frequency. It is compared with well-known hysteresis current controller HCC. The validity of presented method and its comparison with HCC is studied through simulation results.Keywords: Hysteresis Current Controller, Optimal Controller, Switching pattern, Voltage Source Converter.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14701047 Portfolio Simulation in GSM Cellular Telecommunication Industry for Company's Decision and Policies Making
Authors: M. Dachyar, Yudavedito
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The rising growth of the GSM cellular phone industry has tightening competition level between providers in making strategies enhancing the market shares in Indonesia. Tsel, as one of those companies, has to determine the proper strategy to sustain as well as improve the market share without reducing its operational income level. Portfolio simulation model is designed with a dynamic system approach. The result of this research is a recommendation to the company by optimizing its technological policies, services, and promotions. The tariff policies and the signal quality should not be the main focus because this company has had a large number of customers and a good infrastructural condition.
Keywords: Telecommunication industry, simulation, dynamic system, portfolio, quality services.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16031046 Joint Design of MIMO Relay Networks Based on MMSE Criterion
Authors: Seungwon Choi, Seungri Jin, Ayoung Heo, Jung-Hyun Park, Dong-Jo Park
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This paper deals with wireless relay communication systems in which multiple sources transmit information to the destination node by the help of multiple relays. We consider a signal forwarding technique based on the minimum mean-square error (MMSE) approach with multiple antennas for each relay. A source-relay-destination joint design strategy is proposed with power constraints at the destination and the source nodes. Simulation results confirm that the proposed joint design method improves the average MSE performance compared with that of conventional MMSE relaying schemes.Keywords: minimum mean squre error (MMSE), multiple relay, MIMO.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17051045 Using Partnerships to Achieve National Goals
Authors: Pamela L. Eddy
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Ireland developed a National Strategy 2030 that argued for the creation of a new form of higher education institution, a Technological University. The research reported here reviews the first stage of this partnership development. The study found that national policy can create system capacity and change, but that individual partners may have more to gain or lose in collaborating. When presented as a zero-sum activity, fear among partners is high. The level of knowledge and networking within the higher education system possessed by each partner contributed to decisions to participate or not in a joint proposal for collaboration. Greater success resulted when there were gains for all partners. This research concludes that policy mandates can provide motivation to collaborate, but that the partnership needs to be built more on shared values versus coercion by mandates.Keywords: Leadership, Partnerships, Policy, Strategic Planning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15361044 Big Data Strategy for Telco: Network Transformation
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Big data has the potential to improve the quality of services; enable infrastructure that businesses depend on to adapt continually and efficiently; improve the performance of employees; help organizations better understand customers; and reduce liability risks. Analytics and marketing models of fixed and mobile operators are falling short in combating churn and declining revenue per user. Big Data presents new method to reverse the way and improve profitability. The benefits of Big Data and next-generation network, however, are more exorbitant than improved customer relationship management. Next generation of networks are in a prime position to monetize rich supplies of customer information—while being mindful of legal and privacy issues. As data assets are transformed into new revenue streams will become integral to high performance.
Keywords: Big Data, Next Generation Networks, Network Transformation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25031043 Multi-board Run-time Reconfigurable Implementation of Intrinsic Evolvable Hardware
Authors: Cyrille Lambert, Tatiana Kalganova, Emanuele Stomeo, Manissa Wilson
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A multi-board run-time reconfigurable (MRTR) system for evolvable hardware (EHW) is introduced with the aim to implement on hardware the bidirectional incremental evolution (BIE) method. The main features of this digital intrinsic EHW solution rely on the multi-board approach, the variable chromosome length management and the partial configuration of the reconfigurable circuit. These three features provide a high scalability to the solution. The design has been written in VHDL with the concern of not being platform dependant in order to keep a flexibility factor as high as possible. This solution helps tackling the problem of evolving complex task on digital configurable support.Keywords: Evolvable Hardware, Evolutionary Strategy, multiboardFPGA system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15571042 On the Move to Semantic Web Services
Authors: Jorge Cardoso
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Semantic Web services will enable the semiautomatic and automatic annotation, advertisement, discovery, selection, composition, and execution of inter-organization business logic, making the Internet become a common global platform where organizations and individuals communicate with each other to carry out various commercial activities and to provide value-added services. There is a growing consensus that Web services alone will not be sufficient to develop valuable solutions due the degree of heterogeneity, autonomy, and distribution of the Web. This paper deals with two of the hottest R&D and technology areas currently associated with the Web – Web services and the Semantic Web. It presents the synergies that can be created between Web Services and Semantic Web technologies to provide a new generation of eservices.Keywords: Semantic Web, Web service, Web process, WWW.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12791041 An Engineering Approach to Forecast Volatility of Financial Indices
Authors: Irwin Ma, Tony Wong, Thiagas Sankar
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By systematically applying different engineering methods, difficult financial problems become approachable. Using a combination of theory and techniques such as wavelet transform, time series data mining, Markov chain based discrete stochastic optimization, and evolutionary algorithms, this work formulated a strategy to characterize and forecast non-linear time series. It attempted to extract typical features from the volatility data sets of S&P100 and S&P500 indices that include abrupt drops, jumps and other non-linearity. As a result, accuracy of forecasting has reached an average of over 75% surpassing any other publicly available results on the forecast of any financial index.Keywords: Discrete stochastic optimization, genetic algorithms, genetic programming, volatility forecast
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16201040 Convergence and Divergence in Telephone Conversations: A Case of Persian
Authors: Anna Mirzaiyan, Vahid Parvaresh, Mahmoud Hashemian, Masoud Saeedi
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People usually have a telephone voice, which means they adjust their speech to fit particular situations and to blend in with other interlocutors. The question is: Do we speak differently to different people? This possibility has been suggested by social psychologists within Accommodation Theory [1]. Converging toward the speech of another person can be regarded as a polite speech strategy while choosing a language not used by the other interlocutor can be considered as the clearest example of speech divergence [2]. The present study sets out to investigate such processes in the course of everyday telephone conversations. Using Joos-s [3] model of formality in spoken English, the researchers try to explore convergence to or divergence from the addressee. The results propound the actuality that lexical choice, and subsequently, patterns of style vary intriguingly in concordance with the person being addressed.Keywords: Convergence, divergence, lexical formality, speechaccommodation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 35061039 Searching for an Effective Marketing in the Food Supplement Industry in Japan
Authors: Michiko Miyamoto
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The market for "functional foods" and "foods with functional claims" that are effective in maintaining and improving health, has expanded year by year due to the entry of major food and beverage manufacturers following the introduction of the specified health food system in 1991 in Japan. To bring health claims related products or services to the market, it is necessary to let consumers to learn about these products or services; an effective marketing through advertising are important. This research proposes a framework for an effective advertisement medium for the food supplement industry by using survey data of 2,500 people.Keywords: Functional foods, dietary supplements, marketing strategy, structural equation modeling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7801038 Identification of Arglecins B and C and Actinofuranosin A from a Termite Gut-Associated Streptomyces Species
Authors: Christian A. Romero, Tanja Grkovic, John. R. J. French, D. İpek. Kurtböke, Ronald J. Quinn
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A high-throughput and automated 1H NMR metabolic fingerprinting dereplication approach was used to accelerate the discovery of unknown bioactive secondary metabolites. The applied dereplication strategy accelerated the discovery of new natural products, provided rapid and competent identification and quantification of the known secondary metabolites and avoided time-consuming isolation procedures. The effectiveness of the technique was demonstrated by the isolation and elucidation of arglecins B (1), C (2) and actinofuranosin A (3) from a termite-gut associated Streptomyces sp. (USC 597) grown under solid state fermentation. The structures of these compounds were elucidated by extensive interpretation of 1H, 13C and 2D NMR spectroscopic data. These represent the first report of arglecin analogues isolated from a termite gut-associated Streptomyces species.
Keywords: Actinomycetes, actinofuranosin, antibiotics, arglecins, NMR spectroscopy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1711037 LQG Flight Control of VTAV for Enhanced Situational Awareness
Authors: Igor Astrov, Mikhail Pikkov, Rein Paluoja
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This paper focuses on a critical component of the situational awareness (SA), the control of autonomous vertical flight for vectored thrust aerial vehicle (VTAV). With the SA strategy, we proposed a linear-quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) flight control procedure for an unmanned helicopter model with vectored thrust configuration. This LQG control for chosen model of VTAV has been verified by simulation of take-off and landing maneuvers using software package Simulink and demonstrated good performance for fast flight stabilization of model, consequently, fast SA with economy in energy can be asserted during search-and-rescue operations.
Keywords: Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) controller, situational awareness, vectored thrust aerial vehicle.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18191036 The Alignment of Information Systems and Environmental Organizations Model in Perspective Capability
Authors: Wartika, Kridanto Surendro, Husni Sastramiharja, Iping Supriana S.
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The condition of the market is currently very dynamic, demanding organizations which is use system information to support the achievement of objectives should be necessarily improve the ability of information systems in accordance with the changes. Improved information systems capabilities need to align with the resource capabilities in internal environment of the organization, and vice versa. Alignment model between information systems and environment organizational in this capability perspective is expected can assist management in making the strategy for enhance the capability of information systems in accordance with resources internally within the organization, efficiency in the process of development, and optimization of contributions information systems in achieving organizational goals.
Keywords: Capability, alignment, information system, environmental organizations.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16641035 Adaptive Impedance Control for Unknown Non-Flat Environment
Authors: Norsinnira Zainul Azlan, Hiroshi Yamaura
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This paper presents a new adaptive impedance control strategy, based on Function Approximation Technique (FAT) to compensate for unknown non-flat environment shape or time-varying environment location. The target impedance in the force controllable direction is modified by incorporating adaptive compensators and the uncertainties are represented by FAT, allowing the update law to be derived easily. The force error feedback is utilized in the estimation and the accurate knowledge of the environment parameters are not required by the algorithm. It is shown mathematically that the stability of the controller is guaranteed based on Lyapunov theory. Simulation results presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed controller.Keywords: Adaptive impedance control, Function Approximation Technique (FAT), impedance control, unknown environment position.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15681034 Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility: Research on the Interconnection of Both Concepts and Its Impact on Non-Profit Organizations
Authors: Helene Eller
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The aim of non-profit organizations (NPO) is to provide services and goods for its clientele, with profit being a minor objective. By having this definition as the basic purpose of doing business, it is obvious that the goal of an organisation is to serve several bottom lines and not only the financial one. This approach is underpinned by the non-distribution constraint which means that NPO are allowed to make profits to a certain extent, but not to distribute them. The advantage is that there are no single shareholders who might have an interest in the prosperity of the organisation: there is no pie to divide. The gained profits remain within the organisation and will be reinvested in purposeful projects. Good governance is mandatory to support the aim of NPOs. Looking for a measure of good governance the principals of corporate governance (CG) will come in mind. The purpose of CG is direction and control, and in the field of NPO, CG is enlarged to consider the relationship to all important stakeholders who have an impact on the organisation. The recognition of more relevant parties than the shareholder is the link to corporate social responsibility (CSR). It supports a broader view of the bottom line: It is no longer enough to know how profits are used but rather how they are made. Besides, CSR addresses the responsibility of organisations for their impact on society. When transferring the concept of CSR to the non-profit area it will become obvious that CSR with its distinctive features will match the aims of NPOs. As a consequence, NPOs who apply CG apply also CSR to a certain extent. The research is designed as a comprehensive theoretical and empirical analysis. First, the investigation focuses on the theoretical basis of both concepts. Second, the similarities and differences are outlined and as a result the interconnection of both concepts will show up. The contribution of this research is manifold: The interconnection of both concepts when applied to NPOs has not got any attention in science yet. CSR and governance as integrated concept provides a lot of advantages for NPOs compared to for-profit organisations which are in a steady justification to show the impact they might have on the society. NPOs, however, integrate economic and social aspects as starting point. For NPOs CG is not a mere concept of compliance but rather an enhanced concept integrating a lot of aspects of CSR. There is no “either-nor” between the concepts for NPOs.
Keywords: Business ethics, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, non-profit organisations, stakeholder theory.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19371033 Optimization of the Structures of the Electric Feeder Systems of the Oil Pumping Plants in Algeria
Authors: M. Bouguerra, F. Laaouad, I. Habi, R. Azaizia
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In Algeria, now, the oil pumping plants are fed with electric power by independent local sources. This type of feeding has many advantages (little climatic influence, independent operation). However it requires a qualified maintenance staff, a rather high frequency of maintenance and repair and additional fuel costs. Taking into account the increasing development of the national electric supply network (Sonelgaz), a real possibility of transfer of the local sources towards centralized sources appears.These latter cannot only be more economic but more reliable than the independent local sources as well. In order to carry out this transfer, it is necessary to work out an optimal strategy to rebuilding these networks taking in account the economic parameters and the indices of reliability.
Keywords: Optimization, reliability, electric network.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1265