Cognitive analysis of locomotive control automation in different countries of the world

Automation of freight train management will help reduce the number of employees involved in traffic management, reduce the costs of railway companies associated with paying wages to employees, increase profits and increase competitive advantages over other modes of transport.Within the framework of technical progress for the development of railway technology, the automation of rolling stock control systems in the current period is one of the essential tasks. In the transport sector of the national economy, the development of unmanned movement technology is observed due to the introduction of an automatic control system, which should ensure the safety, conduct and control of the train, monitor the free path, identify and handle emergency situations. It is of great importance to create modern digital platforms that improve the safety and efficiency of transportation.The article discusses the maximum levels of automation of control of main-line freight trains and shunting locomotives, which some countries of the world have managed to achieve.

Advances in Cable Yarding: A Review of Recent Developments in Skyline Carriage Technology

Purpose of Review Carriages are an integral component of cable yarding systems that are used to harvest timber on steep terrain. They provide the mobility component by allowing a payload to be pulled along a skyline that spans a harvest setting, as opposed to a brute force pulling a load along a slope. While yarder machinery and cable yarding systems are extensively studied and reported, this paper provides a first detailed review of recent developments in carriage technology. Recent Findings There has been significant development in carriage technology in the last decade. In addition to step changes in functionality, they are now also used as technology platforms. This includes integration of geospatial and camera technology to provide for higher levels of automation. There are clear regional drivers that have differentiated carriage development. The need for low mass, versatility, and energy efficiency has generated a demand for electric carriages in the central European market. A focus on safety has driven New Zealand designers to work almost exclusively grapple carriages that no longer need choker setters on the ground being exposed to danger. North American developments include carriages capable of larger payloads to increase productivity and off-set high operation cost. Summary Carriages have developed over time to become complex systems and provide additional capabilities instead of just providing a mobility and transfer mechanism within the yarding systems. By integrating new technologies that provide for greater efficiency and/or automation, carriage developments will help cable yarding systems remain cost-competitive, with high safety standard and environmentally sound.

Towards a Standard Taxonomy for Levels of Automation in Heavy-Duty Mobile Machinery

Automated and autonomous systems change the nature of human interactions and their respective role within the systems. To characterize such changes, several domain specific levels of automation (LOA) taxonomies have been proposed over the years. The SAE J3016 levels for driving automation have been adopted as the de-facto standard in the automotive industry and the broader society. However, the heavy-duty mobile machinery (HDMM) industry does not have a commonly accepted LOA taxonomy, thereby relying on organizational specific LOA taxonomies adapted from SAE J3016. Moreover, HDMM handle and transport external materials in addition to driving tasks. Thus, SAE J3016 inadequately captures the manipulation operations of HDMM. This paper proposes a new LOA taxonomy for HDMM, to accommodate both, the manipulation and driving operations of HDMM. Building on the SAE J3016 taxonomy, the LOA in this paper is proposed as a two-dimensional 6 × 6 matrix, with machine manipulation operations on one dimension, and driving operations on the other. Thus, the LOA matrix could be generalized for HDMM in different application areas. The proposed LOA matrix could also serve as a guide and starting point for future standardized and collaborative discourse in HDMM research, development, and subsequent deployments.

Challenges and Opportunities Related to Use of Models in Drilling Operations

Automation of managed pressure drilling (MPD) has a big potential for improving consistency, efficiency, and safety of operations, and is therefore pursued by many actors. While this development mitigates many risk elements, it also adds some related to for example mathematical algorithms and remote access. This work is based on document reviews, interviews, and working sessions with the industry, and adds insight on how risks associated with moving to higher levels of automation of MPD can be mitigated to a level where benefits are significantly larger than the sum of added risks. The work has resulted in many recommendations for the industry, where most were related to testing, verification, and validation of the models and data inputs, as well as meaningful human control and employing a holistic approach when introducing new models. Recommendations were also given to the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway. These were related to missing or inadequate use of standards by the industry, lack of ICT knowledge, and encouraging increased experience sharing. Future work should address how to enable meaningful human control as models become more complex or to a larger extent is based on empirical data and artificial intelligence as opposed to models based on first principles. Human control is important in unexpected situations in which the system fails to act safely. There is also a need to address ICT security issues arising when remote operation becomes more common.

Attributing Blame in Human-Robot Teams with Robots of Differing Appearance

As automation becomes increasingly common in daily life the importance of understanding how we interact with automated systems increases, especially attribution of blame for accidents involving a human-automation team. The current research project looks at how humans attribute blame in an accident involving a human operator and a robot worker and is based on a previous study (Furlough et al., 2019). Participants will read two scenarios detailing an accident while being shown both the operator and robot. The robot’s appearance is manipulated to imply varying levels of automation, ranging from a simple robot to one with a human appearance. Results showed no significant effects, however, this research still has the potential to contribute to the understanding of interactions between humans and automated systems and could inform design in the future to facilitate a positive working environment with robots and humans.

Driver Confidence and Level of Automation Influencing Trust in Automated Driving Features

The goal of this study was to empirically examine the relationship between individuals’ reported trust in automated driving features and their level of self-confidence when driving. This study utilized a series of vignettes to depict three different levels of automation in accordance with the SAE International levels of Automation. The three levels portrayed low (level 1), moderate (level3), and high (level 5) functioning autonomous driving features. A driving self-efficacy scale and trust in automation scale were utilized to collect data about individuals attitudes towards the automation. It was hypothesized that self-confidence and level of automation would be significantly related to operator’s trust. In addition to this, it was also hypothesized that the level of automation would significantly affect the amount of trust placed in the autonomous features. Results indicated that there are significant relationships between self-confidence and trust, as well as level of automation and trust.

Evaluating Levels of Automation in Human–Robot Collaboration at Different Workload Levels

This study explored how levels of automation (LOA) influence human robot collaboration when operating at different levels of workload. Two LOA modes were designed, implemented, and evaluated in an experimental collaborative assembly task setup for four levels of workload composed of a secondary task and task complexity. A user study conducted involving 80 participants was assessed through two constructs especially designed for the evaluation (quality of task execution and usability) and user preferences regarding the LOA modes. Results revealed that the quality of task execution and usability was better at high LOA for low workload. Most of participants also preferred high LOA when the workload increases. However, when complexity existed within the workload, most of the participants preferred the low LOA. The results reveal the benefits of high and low LOA in different workload situations. This study provides insights related to shared control designs and reveals the importance of considering different levels of workload as influenced by secondary tasks and task complexity when designing LOA in human–robot collaborations.

Pros and Cons of Self Driving Vans - A Real Life Motorway Case Study Analysis from Great Britain

Given the speculations that autonomous vehicles are sure to take over the transport sectors in the near future, this study micro-simulates the impacts of automating the vehicle VAN using the micro-simulation software AIMSUN in a hypothetical condition. This study analyses the impacts of automation of vans in different levels of automation penetrations with heterogeneous traffic conditions on traffic parameters such as speed and different environmental factors and should only be considered as a case approach with minimal application in the real-world scenario. In this study, the impacts of automation of van in different road characteristics were also analyzed in detail. The study highlights that with an increase in van automation penetrations, traffic parameters speed is positively impacted while negative impacts on environmental conditions are observed. This is mostly because multiple analysis should have been carried out to have a complete understanding of the network.

ADIYAMAN İLİNDEKİ BESİ BARINAKLARININ TEKNİK VE YAPISAL YÖNDEN İNCELENMESİ

In this study, it was aimed to determine the current status and problems in terms of technical and structural conditions of beef cattle barns structures in Adıyaman city center and its districts, in the T.C. İpekyolu Development Agency (İKA) in TRC1 Region. The construction materials used in beef cattles, the dimensions of the structural elements, the levels of automation and mechanization, the product design and the problems faced by the manufacturers were determined. For this purpose, in line with the data obtained from Adıyaman provincial and district Agricultural Directorates, observations and measurements were made by going to all beef cattle enterprises and surveys were applied to each of the business owners to determine the technical and structural problems of the enterprises. According to the results of the survey, measurement, and observation, it was determined that all of the enterprises belong to the owners of the enterprises and all the shelters were planned as Open Beef Cattle Barns. 22.5% of the barns were built with the own money of the business owners, 5% by using loans, and 72.5% by getting both support and grant aid from the state. It was determined that 7,5% of beef cattle shelters had no roughage storage, 5% had no concentrated feed storage and 70% had no silage feed storage. As a result of the statistical analysis on beef cattle enterprises, a significant relationship was found between the construction years of cattle barns and needs to the renewal of barns or not (p<0.01). In addition between the number of animals in shelters and utilization status from government supporting programs such as credit, support and grants of business owners, and between the number of animals in farms and the presence or not of manure storage in the farms, a significant relationship was determined (p<0.01).