Abstract: Eyes are an essential and conspicuous organ of the human body. Human eyes are outward and inward portals of the body that allows to see the outside world and provides glimpses into ones inner thoughts and feelings. Inevitable blindness and visual impairments may results from eye-related disease, trauma, or congenital or degenerative conditions that cannot be corrected by conventional means. The study emphasizes innovative tools that will serve as an aid to the blind and visually impaired (VI) individuals. The researchers fabricated a prototype that utilizes the Microsoft Kinect for Windows and Arduino microcontroller board. The prototype facilitates advanced gesture recognition, voice recognition, obstacle detection and indoor environment navigation. Open Computer Vision (OpenCV) performs image analysis, and gesture tracking to transform Kinect data to the desired output. A computer vision technology device provides greater accessibility for those with vision impairments.
Abstract: An efficient reintegration of the disabled people in the
family and society should be fulfilled; hence it is strongly needful to assist their diminished functions or to replace the totally lost
functions. Assistive technology helps in neutralizing the impairment.
Recent advancements in embedded systems have opened up a vast
area of research and development for affordable and portable assistive devices for the visually impaired. Granted there are many assistive devices on the market that are able to detect obstacles, and numerous research and development currently in process to
alleviate the cause, unfortunately the cost of devices, size of
devices, intrusiveness and higher learning curve prevents the visually impaired from taking advantage of available devices. This
project aims at the design and implementation of a detachable unit
which is robust, low cost and user friendly, thus, trying to
aggrandize the functionality of the existing white cane, to concede above-knee obstacle detection. The designed obstruction detector
uses ultrasound sensors for detecting the obstructions before direct contact. It bestows haptic feedback to the user in accordance with the position of the obstacle.
Abstract: Although women have merit in their jobs, they still
are located very few in the top management in many sectors. There
are many causes of such situation. Such a situation creates obstacles;
especially invisible ones are called “glass ceiling syndrome”. Also,
studies which handle this subject in academic community are very
few. The aim of this research is to reach the results about glass
ceiling obstacles in terms of female teaching staff (academics)
working in higher education institutions. To this end, our study was
performed on female academics working at Selcuk University, Konya
/ Turkey. Our study's main aim can be expressed as to determine
whether there are glass ceiling obstacles for female academics
working at the higher education institution in question, to measure
their glass ceiling perceptions and, thus, to identify what the glass
ceiling barrier components for them to promotion to senior
management positions are.
Abstract: In this paper, an overview of the radio over fiber (RoF) technology is provided. Obstacles for reducing the capital and operational expenses in the existing systems are discussed in various perspectives. Some possible RoF deployment scenarios for WiMAX
data transmission are proposed as a means for capital and operational
expenses reduction. IEEE 802.16a standard based end-to-end physical layer model is simulated including intensity modulated direct detection RoF technology. Finally the feasibility of RoF
technology to carry WiMAX signals between the base station and the
remote antenna units is demonstrated using the simulation results.
Abstract: This study aims to assess the potential of solar energy technology for improving access to water and hence the livelihood strategies of rural communities in Baja California Sur, Mexico. It focuses on livestock ranches and photovoltaic water-pumptechnology as well as other water extraction methods. The methodology used are the Sustainable Livelihoods and the Appropriate Technology approaches. A household survey was applied in June of 2006 to 32 ranches in the municipality, of which 22 used PV pumps; and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Findings indicate that solar pumps have in fact helped people improve their quality of life by allowing them to pursue a different livelihood strategy and that improved access to water -not necessarily as more water but as less effort to extract and collect it- does not automatically imply overexploitation of the resource; consumption is based on basic needs as well as on storage and pumping capacity. Justification for such systems lies in the avoidance of logistical problems associated to fossil fuels, PV pumps proved to be the most beneficial when substituting gasoline or diesel equipment but of dubious advantage if intended to replace wind or gravity systems. Solar water pumping technology-s main obstacle to dissemination are high investment and repairs costs and it is therefore not suitable for all cases even when insolation rates and water availability are adequate. In cases where affordability is not an obstacle it has become an important asset that contributes –by means of reduced expenses, less effort and saved time- to the improvement of livestock, the main livelihood provider for these ranches.
Abstract: This paper features the trajectory planning design of a indigenously developed 4-Axis SCARA robot which is used for doing successful robotic manipulation task in the laboratory. Once, a trajectory is being designed and given as input to the robot, the robot's gripper tip moves along that specified trajectory. Trajectories have to be designed in the work space only. The main idea of this paper is to design a continuous path trajectory model for the indigenously developed SCARA robot arm during its maneuvering from one point to another point (during pick and place operations) in a workspace avoiding all the obstacles in its path of motion.
Abstract: A multi-agent type robot for disaster response in calamity scene is proposed in this paper. The proposed grouped rescue robots can perform cooperative reconnaissance and surveillance to achieve a given rescue mission. The multi-agent rescue of dual set robot consists of one master set and three slave units. The research for this rescue robot system is going to detect at harmful environment where human is unreachable, such as the building is infected with virus or the factory has hazardous liquid in effluent. As a dual set robot, with Bluetooth and communication network, the master set can connect with slave units and send information back to computer by wireless and monitor. Therefore, rescuer can be informed the real-time information in a calamity area. Furthermore, each slave robot is able to obstacle avoidance by ultrasonic sensors, and encodes distance and location by compass. The master robot can integrate every devices information to increase the efficiency of prospected and research unknown area.
Abstract: Recent fifteen years witnessed fast improvements in the field of humanoid robotics. The human-like robot structure is
more suitable to human environment with its supreme obstacle avoidance properties when compared with wheeled service robots.
However, the walking control for bipedal robots is a challenging task
due to their complex dynamics. Stable reference generation plays a very important role in control.
Linear Inverted Pendulum Model (LIPM) and the Zero Moment Point (ZMP) criterion are applied in a number of studies for stable
walking reference generation of biped walking robots. This paper follows this main approach too. We propose a natural and continuous ZMP reference trajectory for a stable and human-like walk. The ZMP reference trajectories move forward under the sole of the support foot when the robot body is supported by a single leg. Robot center of mass trajectory is obtained
from predefined ZMP reference trajectories by a Fourier series
approximation method. The Gibbs phenomenon problem common with Fourier approximations of discontinuous functions is avoided by employing continuous ZMP references. Also, these ZMP reference
trajectories possess pre-assigned single and double support phases,
which are very useful in experimental tuning work.
The ZMP based reference generation strategy is tested via threedimensional
full-dynamics simulations of a 12-degrees-of-freedom
biped robot model. Simulation results indicate that the proposed reference trajectory generation technique is successful.
Abstract: This paper considers the design of a motion planner
that will simultaneously accomplish control and motion planning of a
n-link nonholonomic mobile manipulator, wherein, a n-link
holonomic manipulator is coupled with a nonholonomic mobile
platform, within an obstacle-ridden environment. This planner,
derived from the Lyapunov-based control scheme, generates
collision-free trajectories from an initial configuration to a final
configuration in a constrained environment cluttered with stationary
solid objects of different shapes and sizes. We demonstrate the
efficiency of the control scheme and the resulting acceleration
controllers of the mobile manipulator with results through computer
simulations of an interesting scenario.
Abstract: In this paper, we introduce an mobile agent framework
with proactive load balancing for ambient intelligence (AmI) environments.
One of the main obstacles of AmI is the scalability in
which the openness of AmI environment introduces dynamic resource
requirements on agencies. To mediate this scalability problem, our
framework proposes a load balancing module to proactively analyze
the resource consumption of network bandwidth and preferred agencies
to suggest the optimal communication method to its user. The
framework generally formulates an AmI environment that consists
of three main components: (1) mobile devices, (2) hosts or agencies,
and (3) directory service center (DSC). A preliminary implementation
was conducted with NetLogo and the experimental results show that
the proposed approach provides enhanced system performance by
minimizing the network utilization to provide users with responsive
services.
Abstract: This paper presents a sensor-based motion planning algorithm for 3-DOF car-like robots with a nonholonomic constraint. Similar to the classic Bug family algorithms, the proposed algorithm enables the car-like robot to navigate in a completely unknown environment using only the range sensor information. The car-like robot uses the local range sensor view to determine the local path so that it moves towards the goal. To guarantee that the robot can approach the goal, the two modes of motion are repeated, termed motion-to-goal and wall-following. The motion-to-goal behavior lets the robot directly move toward the goal, and the wall-following behavior makes the robot circumnavigate the obstacle boundary until it meets the leaving condition. For each behavior, the nonholonomic motion for the car-like robot is planned in terms of the instantaneous turning radius. The proposed algorithm is implemented to the real robot and the experimental results show the performance of proposed algorithm.
Abstract: This paper deals with motion planning of multiple
mobile robots. Mobile robots working together to achieve several
objectives have many advantages over single robot system. However,
the planning and coordination between the mobile robots is
extremely difficult. In the present investigation rule-based and rulebased-
neuro-fuzzy techniques are analyzed for multiple mobile
robots navigation in an unknown or partially known environment.
The final aims of the robots are to reach some pre-defined goals.
Based upon a reference motion, direction; distances between the
robots and obstacles; and distances between the robots and targets;
different types of rules are taken heuristically and refined later to find
the steering angle. The control system combines a repelling influence
related to the distance between robots and nearby obstacles and with
an attracting influence between the robots and targets. Then a hybrid
rule-based-neuro-fuzzy technique is analysed to find the steering
angle of the robots. Simulation results show that the proposed rulebased-
neuro-fuzzy technique can improve navigation performance in
complex and unknown environments compared to this simple rulebased
technique.
Abstract: Postgraduate education is generally aimed at providing in-depth knowledge and understanding that include general philosophy in the world sciences, management, technologies, applications and other elements closely related to specific areas. In most universities, besides core and non-core subjects, a thesis is one of the requirements for the postgraduate student to accomplish before graduating. This paper reports on the empirical investigation into attributes that are associated with the obstacles to thesis accomplishment among postgraduate students. Using the quantitative approach the experiences of postgraduate students were tapped. Findings clearly revealed that information seeking, writing skills and other factors which refer to supervisor and time management, in particular, are recognized as contributory factors which positively or negatively influence postgraduates’ thesis accomplishment. Among these, writing skills dimensions were found to be the most difficult process in thesis accomplishment compared to information seeking and other factors. This pessimistic indication has provided some implications not only for the students but supervisors and institutions as a whole.
Abstract: This paper presents a solution for the behavioural
animation of autonomous virtual agent navigation in virtual environments.
We focus on using Dempster-Shafer-s Theory of Evidence
in developing visual sensor for virtual agent. The role of the visual
sensor is to capture the information about the virtual environment
or identifie which part of an obstacle can be seen from the position
of the virtual agent. This information is require for vitual agent to
coordinate navigation in virtual environment. The virual agent uses
fuzzy controller as a navigation system and Fuzzy α - level for
the action selection method. The result clearly demonstrates the path
produced is reasonably smooth even though there is some sharp turn
and also still not diverted too far from the potential shortest path.
This had indicated the benefit of our method, where more reliable
and accurate paths produced during navigation task.
Abstract: An exact algorithm for a n-link manipulator movement amidst arbitrary unknown static obstacles is presented.
The algorithm guarantees the reaching of a target configuration of the manipulator in a finite number of steps. The algorithm is
reduced to a finite number of calls of a subroutine for planning a trajectory in the presence of known forbidden states. The polynomial approximation algorithm which is used as the subroutine is presented. The results of the exact algorithm
implementation for the control of a seven link (7 degrees of
freedom, 7DOF) manipulator are given.
Abstract: This research aims to study value-creation process of
producing monk-s bowls, Thai traditional handicrafts, which is facing problems in adapting to the changing society. It also aims to identify
problems and obstacles to value creation. This research is based on a case study of monk-s bowl manufactures from Ban-Baat Village,
Bangkok. The conceptual framework is based on the model of value
chain to analyze the process.
The research methodology is qualitative. This research found that the value-creation process of monk-s bowls consists of eight
activities contributing to adding value to the products and increasing
profits to the producers in return. Five major problems and obstacles
are found.
The research suggests that these problems and obstacles limit the manufacturers- potential for creating more valued product and lead to business stagnation. These problems should be addressed and solved with collaboration among the government, the private sector and the
manufacturers.
Abstract: This paper proposes a solution to the motion planning
and control problem of a point-mass robot which is required to move
safely to a designated target in a priori known workspace cluttered
with fixed elliptical obstacles of arbitrary position and sizes. A
tailored and unique algorithm for target convergence and obstacle
avoidance is proposed that will work for any number of fixed
obstacles. The control laws proposed in this paper also ensures that
the equilibrium point of the given system is asymptotically stable.
Computer simulations with the proposed technique and applications
to a planar (RP) manipulator will be presented.
Abstract: In this paper, the trajectory tracking problem for carlike mobile robots have been studied. The system comprises of a leader and a follower robot. The purpose is to control the follower so that the leader-s trajectory is tracked with arbitrary desired clearance to avoid inter-robot collision while navigating in a terrain with obstacles. A set of artificial potential field functions is proposed using the Direct Method of Lyapunov for the avoidance of obstacles and attraction to their designated targets. Simulation results prove the efficiency of our control technique.
Abstract: The interactions between input/output variables are a very common phenomenon encountered in the design of multi-loop controllers for interacting multivariable processes, which can be a serious obstacle for achieving a good overall performance of multiloop control system. To overcome this impediment, the decomposed dynamic interaction analysis is proposed by decomposing the multiloop control system into a set of n independent SISO systems with the corresponding effective open-loop transfer function (EOTF) within the dynamic interactions embedded explicitly. For each EOTF, the reduced model is independently formulated by using the proposed reduction design strategy, and then the paired multi-loop proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is derived quite simply and straightforwardly by using internal model control (IMC) theory. This design method can easily be implemented for various industrial processes because of its effectiveness. Several case studies are considered to demonstrate the superior of the proposed method.
Abstract: This paper deals with condition monitoring of electric switch machine for railway points. Point machine, as a complex electro-mechanical device, switch the track between two alternative routes. There has been an increasing interest in railway safety and the optimal management of railway equipments maintenance, e.g. point machine, in order to enhance railway service quality and reduce system failure. This paper explores the development of Kolmogorov- Smirnov (K-S) test to detect some point failures (external to the machine, slide chairs, fixing, stretchers, etc), while the point machine (inside the machine) is in its proper condition. Time-domain stator Current signatures of normal (healthy) and faulty points are taken by 3 Hall Effect sensors and are analyzed by K-S test. The test is simulated by creating three types of such failures, namely putting a hard stone and a soft stone between stock rail and switch blades as obstacles and also slide chairs- friction. The test has been applied for those three faults which the results show that K-S test can effectively be developed for the aim of other point failures detection, which their current signatures deviate parametrically from the healthy current signature. K-S test as an analysis technique, assuming that any defect has a specific probability distribution. Empirical cumulative distribution functions (ECDF) are used to differentiate these probability distributions. This test works based on the null hypothesis that ECDF of target distribution is statistically similar to ECDF of reference distribution. Therefore by comparing a given current signature (as target signal) from unknown switch state to a number of template signatures (as reference signal) from known switch states, it is possible to identify which is the most likely state of the point machine under analysis.