Standards and Regulations for Physically Assistive Robots**Research supported by Lloyds Register Foundation, under the Assuring Antonomy International Programme

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Praminda Caleb-Solly ◽  
Chris Harper ◽  
Sanja Dogramadzi
Keyword(s):  
Assistive Robots ◽  
International Programme ◽  
Standards And Regulations

Global E-Waste Management and Second-Hand Consumption in the Third World: Substandard Context and Tokunbo Phenomenon in Nigeria

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayokunle Olumuyiwa Omobowale
Keyword(s):  
Third World ◽  
New Products ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Environmental Standards ◽  
The West ◽  
Environmental Threats ◽  
The Public ◽  
Standards And Regulations ◽  
The Third World ◽  
National Environmental

The world is technologically advancing, but the management of resultant waste, commonly known as e-waste, is also becoming very challenging. Of major concern is the incessant flow of this waste into the developing world where they assume secondhand value in spite of the associated environmental threats. This study adopts the qualitative approach to examine this phenomenon in Nigeria. The study reveals that aside from being cheaper than the new products, second-hand goods are usually preferred to the new products due to the substandard nature of most new electronics largely imported from Asia (especially China). The tag of Tokunbo or ‘imported from the West’ associated with second-hand goods imported from developed countries makes them more preferable to the public relative to new electronics imported from China, disparagingly termed Chinco. Yet both the second-hand electronics that are socially appreciated as Tokunbo and the substandard new electronics imported into Nigeria together render the country a huge recipient of goods that soon collapse and swell the e-waste heap in the country. This situation may be mitigated through strengthening the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, and also by sensitizing Nigerians on the dangers inherent in e-wastes.

The Roles of Government in Protecting and Promoting Occupational and Environmental Health

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory R. Wagner ◽  
Emily A. Spieler
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Health ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Mine Safety ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Standards And Regulations ◽  
Regulatory Interventions ◽  
The Government ◽  
The U.S

This chapter discusses the roles of government in promoting occupational and environmental health, with a focus on the U.S. federal government. Governmental interventions, as described here, can range from non-regulatory interventions, such as dissemination of information or generation and communication of information, to establishing regulatory requirements through the promulgation and enforcement of standards and regulations. The chapter describes the U.S. laws and roles of the administrative agencies responsible for occupational and environmental health, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Noting the budgetary and political constraints on these federal agencies, the chapter goes on to discuss briefly the role of the public and the states. The government also plays a role when preventive efforts fail, and the chapter provides a brief summary of programs designed to provide compensation to injured workers.

scholarly journals Circular economy in the construction sector: advancing environmental performance through systemic and holistic thinking

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Sparrevik ◽  
Luitzen de Boer ◽  
Ottar Michelsen ◽  
Christofer Skaar ◽  
Haley Knudson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
Recursive Structure ◽  
Effective Implementation ◽  
Environmental Effectiveness ◽  
Standards And Regulations ◽  
Management Schemes ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractThe construction sector is progressively becoming more circular by reducing waste, re-using building materials and adopting regenerative solutions for energy production and biodiversity protection. The implications of circularity on construction activities are complex and require the careful evaluation of impacts to select the appropriate path forward. Evaluations of circular solutions and their environmental effectiveness are often performed based on various types of life cycle-based impact assessments. This paper uses systemic thinking to map and evaluate different impact assessment methodologies and their implications for a shift to more circular solutions. The following systemic levels are used to group the methodologies: product (material life cycle declarations and building assessments), organisation (certification and management schemes) and system (policies, standards and regulations). The results confirm that circular economy is integrated at all levels. However, development and structure are not coordinated or governed unidirectionally, but rather occur simultaneously at different levels. This recursive structure is positive if the methods are applied in the correct context, thus providing both autonomy and cohesion in decision making. Methods at lower systemic levels may then improve production processes and stimulate the market to create circular and innovative building solutions, whereas methods at higher systemic levels can be used, for example, by real estate builders, trade organisations and governments to create incentives for circular development and innovation in a broader perspective. Use of the performance methods correctly within an actor network is therefore crucial for successful and effective implementation of circular economy in the construction sector.

The state of the art and operational scenarios for urban air mobility with unmanned aircraft

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
F. D. Maia ◽  
J. M. Lourenço da Saúde
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Management ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Unmanned Aircraft ◽  
Unmanned Aircraft Systems ◽  
Civil Aviation ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Urban Air ◽  
Aircraft Systems ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Standards And Regulations

ABSTRACT A state-of-the-art review of all the developments, standards and regulations associated with the use of major unmanned aircraft systems under development is presented. Requirements and constraints are identified by evaluating technologies specific to urban air mobility, considering equivalent levels of safety required by current and future civil aviation standards. Strategies, technologies and lessons learnt from remotely piloted aviation and novel unmanned traffic management systems are taken as the starting point to assess operational scenarios for autonomous urban air mobility.

scholarly journals Design and Development of Continuous Passive Motion (CPM) for Fingers and Wrist Grounded-Exoskeleton Rehabilitation System

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 815
Author(s):  
Husam Almusawi ◽  
Géza Husi
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Testing ◽  
Hand Movement ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Continuous Passive Motion ◽  
Wrist Flexion ◽  
Design And Development ◽  
Passive Motion ◽  
Assistive Robots ◽  
Flexion Extension ◽  
Design Characteristics

Impairments of fingers, wrist, and hand forearm result in significant hand movement deficiencies and daily task performance. Most of the existing rehabilitation assistive robots mainly focus on either the wrist training or fingers, and they are limiting the natural motion; many mechanical parts associated with the patient’s arms, heavy and expensive. This paper presented the design and development of a new, cost-efficient Finger and wrist rehabilitation mechatronics system (FWRMS) suitable for either hand right or left. The proposed machine aimed to present a solution to guide individuals with severe difficulties in their everyday routines for people suffering from a stroke or other motor diseases by actuating seven joints motions and providing them repeatable Continuous Passive Motion (CPM). FWRMS approach uses a combination of; grounded-exoskeleton structure to provide the desired displacement to the hand’s four fingers flexion/extension (F/E) driven by an indirect feed drive mechanism by adopting a leading screw and nut transmission; and an end-effector structure to provide angular velocity to the wrist flexion/ extension (F/E), wrist radial/ulnar deviation (R/U), and forearm supination/pronation (S/P) driven by a rotational motion mechanism. We employed a single dual-sided actuator to power both mechanisms. Additionally, this article presents the implementation of a portable embedded controller. Moreover, this paper addressed preliminary experimental testing and evaluation process. The conducted test results of the FWRMS robot achieved the required design characteristics and executed the motion needed for the continuous passive motion rehabilitation and provide stable trajectories guidance by following the natural range of motion (ROM) and a functional workspace of the targeted joints comfortably for all trainable movements by FWRMS.

scholarly journals Security assurance cases—state of the art of an emerging approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mazen Mohamad ◽  
Jan-Philipp Steghöfer ◽  
Riccardo Scandariato
Keyword(s):  
State Of The Art ◽  
Tool Support ◽  
Security Assurance ◽  
The Past ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Structured Argumentation ◽  
Security Properties ◽  
Standards And Regulations ◽  
Assurance Cases ◽  
Security Standards

AbstractSecurity Assurance Cases (SAC) are a form of structured argumentation used to reason about the security properties of a system. After the successful adoption of assurance cases for safety, SAC are getting significant traction in recent years, especially in safety-critical industries (e.g., automotive), where there is an increasing pressure to be compliant with several security standards and regulations. Accordingly, research in the field of SAC has flourished in the past decade, with different approaches being investigated. In an effort to systematize this active field of research, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) of the existing academic studies on SAC. Our review resulted in an in-depth analysis and comparison of 51 papers. Our results indicate that, while there are numerous papers discussing the importance of SAC and their usage scenarios, the literature is still immature with respect to concrete support for practitioners on how to build and maintain a SAC. More importantly, even though some methodologies are available, their validation and tool support is still lacking.

scholarly journals Can a humanoid social robot stimulate the interactivity of cognitively impaired elderly? A thorough study based on computer vision methods

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gauri Tulsulkar ◽  
Nidhi Mishra ◽  
Nadia Magnenat Thalmann ◽  
Hwee Er Lim ◽  
Mei Ping Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Computer Vision ◽  
Psychosocial Support ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Assistive Robotics ◽  
Cognitively Impaired ◽  
Assistive Robots ◽  
Institutional Review ◽  
Human Need

AbstractSocial Assistive Robotics is increasingly being used in care settings to provide psychosocial support and interventions for the elderly with cognitive impairments. Most of these social robots have provided timely stimuli to the elderly at home and in care centres, including keeping them active and boosting their mood. However, previous investigations have registered shortcomings in these robots, particularly in their ability to satisfy an essential human need: the need for companionship. Reports show that the elderly tend to lose interests in these social robots after the initial excitement as the novelty wears out and the monotonous familiarity becomes all too familiar. This paper presents our research facilitating conversations between a social humanoid robot, Nadine, and cognitively impaired elderly at a nursing home. We analysed the effectiveness of human–humanoid interactions between our robot and 14 elderly over 29 sessions. We used both objective tools (based on computer vision methods) and subjective tools (based on observational scales) to evaluate the recorded videos. Our findings showed that our subjects engaged positively with Nadine, suggesting that their interaction with the robot could improve their well-being by compensating for some of their emotional, cognitive, and psychosocial deficiencies. We detected emotions associated with cognitively impaired elderly during these interactions. This study could help understand the expectations of the elderly and the current limitations of Social Assistive Robots. Our research is aligned with all the ethical recommendations by the NTU Institutional Review Board.

Information and communications security, privacy and trust: Standards and regulations

2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 229
Author(s):  
Bhavani Thuraisingham ◽  
Stefanos Gritzalis
Keyword(s):  
Standards And Regulations
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