scholarly journals Multiple manipulators path planning using double A*

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 657-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Tavares ◽  
José Lima ◽  
Pedro Costa ◽  
A. Paulo Moreira
Keyword(s):  
Path Planning ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Robotic Manipulators ◽  
Optimization Methods ◽  
Robotic Manipulator ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Simulation Engine ◽  
Automated Processes ◽  
New System

Purpose Streamlining automated processes is currently undertaken by developing optimization methods and algorithms for robotic manipulators. This paper aims to present a new approach to improve streamlining of automatic processes. This new approach allows for multiple robotic manipulators commonly found in the industrial environment to handle different scenarios, thus providing a high-flexibility solution to automated processes. Design/methodology/approach The developed system is based on a spatial discretization methodology capable of describing the surrounding environment of the robot, followed by a novel path-planning algorithm. Gazebo was the simulation engine chosen, and the robotic manipulator used was the Universal Robot 5 (UR5). The proposed system was tested using the premises of two robotic challenges: EuRoC and Amazon Picking Challenge. Findings The developed system was able to identify and describe the influence of each joint in the Cartesian space, and it was possible to control multiple robotic manipulators safely regardless of any obstacles in a given scene. Practical implications This new system was tested in both real and simulated environments, and data collected showed that this new system performed well in real-life scenarios, such as EuRoC and Amazon Picking Challenge. Originality/value The new proposed approach can be valuable in the robotics field with applications in various industrial scenarios, as it provides a flexible solution for multiple robotic manipulator path and motion planning.

scholarly journals A New Approach for Semi-Automatic Building and Extending a Multilingual Terminology Thesaurus

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (02) ◽  
pp. 1950008
Author(s):  
Aleš Horák ◽  
Vít Baisa ◽  
Adam Rambousek ◽  
Vít Suchomel
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Real Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Automatic Extraction ◽  
Web Based ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Land Surveying ◽  
Processing Techniques ◽  
Current Terminology ◽  
New System

This paper describes a new system for semi-automatically building, extending and managing a terminological thesaurus — a multilingual terminology dictionary enriched with relationships between the terms themselves to form a thesaurus. The system allows to radically enhance the workow of current terminology expert groups, where most of the editing decisions still come from introspection. The presented system supplements the lexicographic process with natural language processing techniques, which are seamlessly integrated to the thesaurus editing environment. The system’s methodology and the resulting thesaurus are closely connected to new domain corpora in the six languages involved. They are used for term usage examples as well as for the automatic extraction of new candidate terms. The terminological thesaurus is now accessible via a web-based application, which (a) presents rich detailed information on each term, (b) visualizes term relations, and (c) displays real-life usage examples of the term in the domain-related documents and in the context-based similar terms. Furthermore, the specialized corpora are used to detect candidate translations of terms from the central language (Czech) to the other languages (English, French, German, Russian and Slovak) as well as to detect broader Czech terms, which help to place new terms in the actual thesaurus hierarchy. This project has been realized as a terminological thesaurus of land surveying, but the presented tools and methodology are reusable for other terminology domains.

scholarly journals A Bat Algorithm with Mutation for UCAV Path Planning

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaige Wang ◽  
Lihong Guo ◽  
Hong Duan ◽  
Luo Liu ◽  
Heqi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Path Planning ◽  
Optimization Problem ◽  
Bat Algorithm ◽  
Optimization Methods ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Planning Problem ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Air Vehicle ◽  
Flight Route ◽  
Path Planning Problem

Path planning for uninhabited combat air vehicle (UCAV) is a complicated high dimension optimization problem, which mainly centralizes on optimizing the flight route considering the different kinds of constrains under complicated battle field environments. Original bat algorithm (BA) is used to solve the UCAV path planning problem. Furthermore, a new bat algorithm with mutation (BAM) is proposed to solve the UCAV path planning problem, and a modification is applied to mutate between bats during the process of the new solutions updating. Then, the UCAV can find the safe path by connecting the chosen nodes of the coordinates while avoiding the threat areas and costing minimum fuel. This new approach can accelerate the global convergence speed while preserving the strong robustness of the basic BA. The realization procedure for original BA and this improved metaheuristic approach BAM is also presented. To prove the performance of this proposed metaheuristic method, BAM is compared with BA and other population-based optimization methods, such as ACO, BBO, DE, ES, GA, PBIL, PSO, and SGA. The experiment shows that the proposed approach is more effective and feasible in UCAV path planning than the other models.

Automatic disassembly navigation for accurate virtual assembly path planning

2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 244-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanbin Pan ◽  
Yigang Wang ◽  
Peng Du
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Path Planning ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Virtual Assembly ◽  
New Method ◽  
Virtual Reality System ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Human Interactions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an automatic disassembly navigation approach for human interactions in the virtual environment to achieve accurate and effective virtual assembly path planning (VAPP). Design/methodology/approach – First, to avoid the error-prone human interactions, a constraint-based disassembly method is presented. Second, to automatically provide the next operable part(s), a disassembly navigation mechanism is adopted. Finally, the accurate assembly path planning can be obtained effectively and automatically by inversing the ordered accurate disassembly paths, which are obtained interactively in the virtual environment aided with the disassembly navigation matrix. Findings – The applications present that our approach can effectively avoid the error-prone interactive results and generate accurate and effective VAPP. Research limitations/implications – There are several works that could be conducted to make our approach more general in the future: to further study the basic disassembly direction deducing rules to make the process of determining disassembly direction totally automatic, to consider the hierarchy of the parts in virtual reality system and to consider the space for assembly/disassembly tools or operators. Originality/value – The approach has the following characteristics: a new approach to avoid the error-prone human interactions for accurate assembly path planning obtaining, a new constraint deducing method for determining the disassembly semantics automatically or semi-automatically is put forward and a new method for automatically identifying operable parts in VAPP is set forward.

Intuitive gesture-based control system with collision avoidance for robotic manipulators

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-251
Author(s):  
Grant Rudd ◽  
Liam Daly ◽  
Filip Cuckov
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Robotic Manipulators ◽  
Robotic Manipulator ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
Simulation Software ◽  
Degree Of Freedom ◽  
Leap Motion ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Six Degree Of Freedom

Purpose This paper aims to present an intuitive control system for robotic manipulators that pairs a Leap Motion, a low-cost optical tracking and gesture recognition device, with the ability to record and replay trajectories and operation to create an intuitive method of controlling and programming a robotic manipulator. This system was designed to be extensible and includes modules and methods for obstacle detection and dynamic trajectory modification for obstacle avoidance. Design/methodology/approach The presented control architecture, while portable to any robotic platform, was designed to actuate a six degree-of-freedom robotic manipulator of our own design. From the data collected by the Leap Motion, the manipulator was controlled by mapping the position and orientation of the human hand to values in the joint space of the robot. Additional recording and playback functionality was implemented to allow for the robot to repeat the desired tasks once the task had been demonstrated and recorded. Findings Experiments were conducted on our custom-built robotic manipulator by first using a simulation model to characterize and quantify the robot’s tracking of the Leap Motion generated trajectory. Tests were conducted in the Gazebo simulation software in conjunction with Robot Operating System, where results were collected by recording both the real-time input from the Leap Motion sensor, and the corresponding pose data. The results of these experiments show that the goal of accurate and real-time control of the robot was achieved and validated our methods of transcribing, recording and repeating six degree-of-freedom trajectories from the Leap Motion camera. Originality/value As robots evolve in complexity, the methods of programming them need to evolve to become more intuitive. Humans instinctively teach by demonstrating the task to a given subject, who then observes the various poses and tries to replicate the motions. This work aims to integrate the natural human teaching methods into robotics programming through an intuitive, demonstration-based programming method.

Strategic vehicle fleet management–a joint solution of make-or-buy, composition and replacement problems

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Redmer
Keyword(s):  
Management Strategy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Optimization Methods ◽  
Solution Procedure ◽  
Fleet Management ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fleet Size ◽  
Real Life Data ◽  
Management Problems

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop an original model and a solution procedure for solving jointly three main strategic fleet management problems (fleet composition, replacement and make-or-buy), taking into account interdependencies between them.Design/methodology/approachThe three main strategic fleet management problems were analyzed in detail to identify interdependencies between them, mathematically modeled in terms of integer nonlinear programing (INLP) and solved using evolutionary based method of a solver compatible with a spreadsheet.FindingsThere are no optimization methods combining the analyzed problems, but it is possible to mathematically model them jointly and solve together using a solver compatible with a spreadsheet obtaining a solution/fleet management strategy answering the questions: Keep currently exploited vehicles in a fleet or remove them? If keep, how often to replace them? If remove then when? How many perspective/new vehicles, of what types, brand new or used ones and when should be put into a fleet? The relatively large scale instance of problem (50 vehicles) was solved based on a real-life data. The obtained results occurred to be better/cheaper by 10% than the two reference solutions – random and do-nothing ones.Originality/valueThe methodology of developing optimal fleet management strategy by solving jointly three main strategic fleet management problems is proposed allowing for the reduction of the fleet exploitation costs by adjusting fleet size, types of exploited vehicles and their exploitation periods.

scholarly journals Implementing change in physiotherapy: professions, contexts and interventions

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Sanders ◽  
Bie Nio Ong ◽  
Gail Sowden ◽  
Nadine Foster
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Clinical Work ◽  
Observational Research ◽  
Normalisation Process Theory ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Physiotherapy Practice ◽  
Implementing Change ◽  
New System

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report findings from qualitative interviews with physiotherapists to demonstrate why even minor changes to clinical work resulting from the introduction of new interventions, are often difficult to implement. The paper seeks to illustrate how some of the obstacles to implementing change were managed by physiotherapists. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 32 qualitative interviews with participating physiotherapists were conducted, 12 interviews prior to the introduction of the new system, and 20 afterwards. The interviews were coded and analysed thematically. Findings – The findings reveal a number of perceived limitations of current management of low back pain and identify key themes around convergence with the new approach, such as willingness by physiotherapists to adopt the new approach, the perception of benefits to adopting the new approach, as well as some difficulty in adjusting to it. The authors refer to the positive and negative elements as “soft” and “hard” disruption. The adoption of the new approach is explored with reference to the “situated” dimensions of physiotherapy practice and normalisation process theory. Research limitations/implications – The study raises the need to conduct future observational research to support the interview findings. Originality/value – The study describes the “situated” components of physiotherapy work, which have received limited research attention. The value of the study lies less in its ability to explain specifically why physiotherapists adopted or rejected the new system, but in describing the conditions and consequences of change that might be translated to other professions, contexts and interventions.

Do e-commerce customers change their preferred last-mile delivery based on its sustainability impact?

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 521-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bianca Ignat ◽  
Stanislav Chankov
Keyword(s):  
Information Sharing ◽  
Stated Preference ◽  
Real Life ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Last Mile ◽  
Making Choices ◽  
Delivery Options ◽  
Last Mile Delivery

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore if e-commerce customers change their preferred last-mile delivery, when they are provided with additional information on the environmental and social sustainability impact of the available last-mile delivery options.Design/methodology/approachWe conduct a stated-preference survey and apply McNemar test on the collected data.FindingsThe results show that displaying the environmental and social impacts of last-mile deliveries influences E-commerce customers, and generally makes them more likely to choose a more sustainable last-mile delivery.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitations are (1) the possible inconsistency between participants' intentions stated in the survey and their actual behaviour in real life and (2) the possibility of participants denying socially undesirable behaviours. Further research can study e-commerce customers' real behaviour.Practical implicationsE-retailers and logistics companies could implement transparent information sharing on the delivery sustainability impact on all three sustainability pillars.Social implicationsThe suggested transparent information sharing has the potential to change customers' behaviours towards more sustainable deliveries.Originality/valueWe provide a new approach in investigating customers' preferences on last-mile deliveries, by giving E-customers the chance of making choices between different deliveries, not only based on the economic factors (as in common practice nowadays) but also based on the environmental and social factors.

ON COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION METHODS OF MULTI-PUMP UNITS

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-28
Author(s):  
A.I. Glushchenko ◽  
M.Yu. Serov
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Control System ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Performance Optimization ◽  
Optimization Methods ◽  
Online Optimization ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Analysis Of Performance

В статье рассматривается вопрос совершенствования системы управления параллельно-работающими насосными агрегатами с целью повышения энергоэффективности их работы. Проведено сравнение и выявление недостатков существующих методов решения рассматриваемой проблемы. Предложена идея нового подхода на базе онлайн оптимизации. The problem under consideration is improvement of the energy efficiency of a control system of parallel-running pump units. Known methods used to solve this problem are considered. Their advantages and disadvantages are shown. Finally, the idea of a new approach, which is based on online optimization, is proposed.

scholarly journals The concept of neutrality: a new approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Macdonald ◽  
Briony Birdi
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Normative Framework ◽  
Contextual Awareness

Purpose Neutrality is a much debated value in library and information science (LIS). The “neutrality debate” is characterised by opinionated discussions in contrasting contexts. The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature by bringing these conceptions together holistically, with potential to deepen understanding of LIS neutrality. Design/methodology/approach First, a literature review identified conceptions of neutrality reported in the LIS literature. Second, seven phenomenographic interviews with LIS professionals were conducted across three professional sectors. To maximise variation, each sector comprised at least one interview with a professional of five or fewer years’ experience and one with ten or more years’ experience. Third, conceptions from the literature and interviews were compared for similarities and disparities. Findings In four conceptions, each were found in the literature and interviews. In the literature, these were labelled: “favourable”, “tacit value”, “social institutions” and “value-laden profession”, whilst in interviews they were labelled: “core value”, “subservient”, “ambivalent”, and “hidden values”. The study’s main finding notes the “ambivalent” conception in interviews is not captured by a largely polarised literature, which oversimplifies neutrality’s complexity. To accommodate this complexity, it is suggested that future research should look to reconcile perceptions from either side of the “neutral non-neutral divide” through an inclusive normative framework. Originality/value This study’s value lies in its descriptive methodology, which brings LIS neutrality together in a holistic framework. This framework brings a contextual awareness to LIS neutrality lacking in previous research. This awareness has the potential to change the tone of the LIS neutrality debate.

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