Safety-aware Adversarial Inverse Reinforcement Learning (S-AIRL) for Highway Autonomous Driving

Inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) has been successfully applied in many robotics and autonomous driving studies without the need for hand-tuning a reward function. However, it suffers from safety issues. Compared to the reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms, IRL is even more vulnerable to unsafe situations as it can only infer the importance of safety based on expert demonstrations. In this paper, we propose a safety-aware adversarial inverse reinforcement learning algorithm (S-AIRL). First, the control barrier function (CBF) is used to guide the training of a safety critic, which leverages the knowledge of system dynamics in the sampling process without training an additional guiding policy. The trained safety critic is then integrated into the discriminator to help discern the generated data and expert demonstrations from the standpoint of safety. Finally, to further improve the safety awareness, a regulator is introduced in the loss function of the discriminator training to prevent the recovered reward function from assigning high rewards to the risky behaviors. We tested our S-AIRL in the highway autonomous driving scenario. Comparing to the original AIRL algorithm, with the same level of imitation learning (IL) performance, the proposed S-AIRL can reduce the collision rate by 32.6%.

Innovation Through Diversity and Inclusion

IT leadership involves technology, but it is mostly about people. This chapter discusses how organizational diversity has a critical impact on innovation and the role of leaders to create an environment where everybody feels a sense of belonging and where all kinds of people can flourish through safety, awareness, hiring, mindsets, and listening. Leaders are sometimes unsure how to achieve a more inclusive culture. This chapter provides research, definitions, details, and actionable recommendations for change so that leaders can create an organization where diverse employees can thrive and innovate for the benefit of the university and its community.

The Impact of Organizational Culture on Safety-conscious Considering the Mediating Role of Employees' Job Satisfaction: A Case Study

Background: Employees' awareness about safety is a required element to develop a safe behavior so that it allows designing programs to improve safety performance at work. Therefore, the present study attempts to examine the effects of organizational culture on personal safety level with employees' satisfaction as a mediation variable. Methods: This descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study was conducted with 229 steel industry workers using a standard questionnaire. The questionnaire had 47 items arranged in two sections, including demographics and job information as section one and organizational culture, personnel safety awareness, and employees' satisfaction as section two. Data analyses were done using SPSS and LISREL, and the relationships between the variables were determined using a structural equations model. Results: The mean score of satisfaction and personnel safety awareness was equal to 54.58 and 8.65, respectively. The highest mean score of organizational culture dimensions was obtained for patriarchy vs. matriarchy (33.2), and the lowest mean score was obtained for individualism vs. collectivism (16.08). Organizational culture was notably and positively affected by individualism vs. collectivism, avoiding uncertainty, and distance from power. In addition, there was a significant relationship between the total mean score of the dimensions of the organizational culture questionnaire and work wards (P<0.001). Conclusion: The study showed that organizational culture has a direct relationship with personnel safety awareness and job satisfaction. These results point out that the human factor has the most important role in preventing occupational accidents. Accordingly, businesses and employers should establish and disseminate organizational culture in their organizations.

Operating Safety Evaluation of Battery-Electric Taxi Based on Spatio-Temporal Speed Parameters

The battery-electric taxis have the features of larger mass, low operating noise, and great speed, and the drivers of battery-electric taxis have various driving behaviors and low safety awareness, which leads to higher safety risks. In the paper, the driving and speed characteristics of battery-electric taxis, conventional taxis, and private cars are compared and analyzed through conducting a GPS trajectory survey and a cross-section traffic flow parameter survey. An evaluation index system that is based on the spatio-temporal speed parameters is proposed, and a MEW-VIKOR method is developed for the operatiing safety evaluation of the battery-electric taxi. The results show that the operating speed of battery-electric taxis is significantly higher than that of conventional taxis on weekdays and weekends, and there is a relatively common speeding phenomenon on urban local roads. The proposed safety evaluation index system that is based on the spatio-temporal speed parameters and the MEW-VIKOR evaluation method can effectively evaluate the operatiing safety of battery-electric taxis. In addition, the ranking results show that, according to the spatio-temporal speed parameters, the operating safety of battery-electric taxis is lower than that of conventional taxis and private cars. The research provides theoretical insights for strategies and policies making to reduce the unsafe driving behaviors of battery-electric taxis.

Safety Awareness at Sea: Perspectives from Marine Unit, Royal Malaysian Custom Department

Law enforcement officers face many dangerous and stressful situations in the line of duty. Some, such as gun violence, are obvious; other dangers (e.g., fatalities while working at sea) are hidden but common and can hinder officer performance. Officer performance is also affected by training and other factors. This article uses best-practice research to examine the relationship between safety culture, safety training, employee involvement, and safety awareness at the workplace, specifically to law enforcement employees working at sea. Safety awareness considered a vital element in every organization to enhance their employees’ performance. Quantitative research methodology was applied to examine the relationship between independent variables and dependent variable. The questionnaire are divided into five sections, covering demographic factors, safety culture, marine safety training, employee involvement, and safety awareness at the workplace. A total of 30% of 550 employees from the Marine Unit of the Royal Malaysian Customs Department were selected randomly as respondents. This study indicates that safety culture, safety at sea training, and employee involvement have a significant positive relationship to safety awareness at the workplace. A recommendation is then offered for law-enforcement safety management that can apply to the Marine Enforcement Unit of Royal Malaysian Customs to eliminate accidents, injuries, and fatalities at sea in the marine enforcement profession. The Marine Customs law enforcement professionals may benefit from studying the safety practices and safety management systems implemented in other high-risk professions to develop more effective programs that prioritize safety and mitigate risk in the workplace, especially safety at sea. The high-risk environment and nature of work conducted by Marine Customs law enforcement officers demand a holistic and dedicated approach to safety to reduce fatalities and injuries throughout the profession.