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An essential measure of autonomy in assistive service robots is adaptivity to the various contexts of human-oriented tasks, which are subject to subtle variations in task parameters that determine optimal behaviour. In this work, we propose an apprenticeship learning approach to achieving context-aware action generalization on the task of robot-to-human object hand-over. The procedure combines learning from demonstration and reinforcement learning: a robot first imitates a demonstrator’s execution of the task and then learns contextualized variants of the demonstrated action through experience. We use dynamic movement primitives as compact motion representations, and a model-based C-REPS algorithm for learning policies that can specify hand-over position, conditioned on context variables. Policies are learned using simulated task executions, before transferring them to the robot and evaluating emergent behaviours. We additionally conduct a user study involving participants assuming different postures and receiving an object from a robot, which executes hand-overs by either imitating a demonstrated motion, or adapting its motion to hand-over positions suggested by the learned policy. The results confirm the hypothesized improvements in the robot’s perceived behaviour when it is context-aware and adaptive, and provide useful insights that can inform future developments.
Entrepreneurship education serves a conduit for new venture creation as it provides the knowledge and skills needed to increase the self-efficacy of individuals to start and run new businesses and to grow existing ones. This study, therefore, sought to assess the relationship between the approaches to the teaching of entrepreneur-ship and entrepreneurial intention on a cohort of 292 respondents consisting of students who have studied entrepreneurship in three selected Universities. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain data randomly from students. The canonical correlation results indicate that education for and through entrepreneurship is the best approach to promoting entrepreneurial intensity among University students, if the aim of teaching entrepreneur-ship is to promote start-up activities. The findings provide valuable insights for institutions of higher learning and policy makers in Ghana with respect to the appropriate methodologies to be adopted in the teaching of entrepreneurship in our universities.
Robust Indoor Localization Using Optimal Fusion Filter For Sensors And Map Layout Information
(2014)
This paper presents the b-it-bots RoboCup@Work team and its current hardware and functional architecture for the KUKA youBot robot.We describe the underlying software framework and the developed capabilities required for operating in industrial environments including features such as reliable and precise navigation, flexible manipulation and robust object recognition.
Despite perfect functioning of its internal components, a robot can be unsuccessful in performing its tasks because of unforeseen situations. These situations occur when the behavior of the objects in the robot’s environment deviates from its expected values. For robots, such deviations are exhibited in the form of unknown external faults which prohibit them from performing their tasks successfully. In this work we propose to use naive physics knowledge to reason about such faults in the robotics domain. We propose an approach that uses naive physics concepts to find information about the situations which result in a detected unknown fault. The naive physics knowledge is represented by the physical properties of objects which are formalized in a logical framework. The proposed approach applies a qualitative version of physical laws to these properties for reasoning about the detected fault. By interpreting the reasoning results the robot finds the information about the situations which can cause the fault. We apply the proposed approach to the scenarios in which a robot performs manipulation tasks of picking and placing objects. Results of this application show that naive physics holds great promise for reasoning about unknown ex- ternal faults in robotics.
Mergers and acquisitions take place all over the world and in many industries, typically motivated by corporate politics. While IT management is often not involved in the decision-making, it has to solve a wide range of problems in the post-merger phase. Indeed, merging two or more companies implies not only merging their core businesses, but also creating a new and efficiently integrated IT organisation from the individual ones, since persistence of the current IT organisations usually does not make sense. In addition, corporate management frequently imposes constraints, e.g., cost reductions, on the IT infrastructure. The principal critical success factor when merging IT organisations is the uninterrupted operation of the IT business, because a service gap is neither acceptable for in-house functional departments nor for external customers. Therefore, the IT rebuilding phase has to focus on IT services that facilitate the processes of functional departments, support processes, and processes of customers and suppliers, so that any transformation work is transparent to internal and external customers. In this article we describe a real-world but anonymous case study. Our goals are to highlight the points important for merging IT organisations, and to help decision-makers, particularly in the areas of IT organisation and IT personnel. We focus on the arising organisational and non-technical issues from a management perspective, i.e., the CIO's view, and provide checklists intended to help IT managers to address the most pressing issues. To assist CIOs surviving in the post merger phase, we give check lists for merging IT organisations, check lists for merging IT human resources, check lists for IT budgets and reporting, and assess activities in a merger scenario. IT hardware, software and IT infrastructure as well as running IT projects are not considered in this paper.
Sind kleinere und mittlere Unternehmen (KMU) bereits auf die Digitale Transformation vorbereitet?
(2018)
Eine von den Autoren durchgeführte Untersuchung konnte deutliche Indizien dafür ausmachen, dass viele kleinere und mittlere Unternehmen (KMU) aktuell noch keine ausreichende Reife zur Digitalen Transformation haben. Zur Lösung des Problems wird vorgeschlagen, ein agiles IT-Management-Konzept zu entwickeln, um den IT-Bereich dynamisch und ohne formalen Ballast des klassischen IT-Managements zu steuern.
Während sich die unternehmerische Arbeitswelt immer mehr in Richtung Agilität verschiebt, verharrt das IT-Controlling noch in alten, klassischen Strukturen. Diese Arbeit untersucht die Fragestellung, ob und inwieweit agile Ansätze im IT-Controlling eingesetzt werden können. Dieser Beitrag ist eine modifizierte Version des in der Zeitschrift „HMD Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik“ (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1365/s40702-022-00837-0) erschienenen Artikels „Agiles IT-Controlling“.
IT performance measurement is often associated by chief executive officers with IT cost cutting although IT protects business processes from increasing IT costs. IT cost cutting only endangers the company’s efficiency. This opinion discriminates those who do IT performance measurement in companies as a bean-counter. The present paper describes an integrated reference model for IT performance measurement based on a life cycle model and a performance oriented framework. The presented model was created from a practical point of view. It is designed lank compared with other known concepts and is very appropriate for small and medium enterprises (SME).
A plethora of architectural patterns and elements for developing service-oriented applications can be gathered from the state-of-the-art. Most of these approaches are merely applicable for single-tenant applications. However, less methodical support is provided for scenarios, in which multiple different tenants with varying requirements access the same application stack concurrently. In order to fill this gap, both novel and existing architectural patterns, architectural elements, as well as fundamental design decisions must be considered and integrated into a framework that leverages the devel- opment of multi-tenant application. This paper addresses this demand and presents the SOAdapt framework. It promotes the development of adaptable multi-tenant applications based on a service-oriented architecture that is capable of incorporating specific requirements of new tenants in a flexible manner.
Die digitale Transformation verändert die internationale Kooperation der Hochschulen massiv. Über die Möglichkeiten der virtuellen Mobilität hinaus entstehen neue Themenfelder, die internationale Lern- und Lehrerlebnisse mit digitaler Unterstützung verändern, ergänzen oder neu ermöglichen. Dazu sind im Bereich der Förderung der Internationalisierung (DAAD, Erasmus+, BMBF u.a.) Projekte und Förderformate entstanden, die Digitalisierung und Internationalisierung kombinieren und die neuen Themenstellungen adressieren, z.B. didaktische Formate, administrative Prozesse (auch im Kontext OZG und DSGVO), virtuelle und hybride Mobilität, internationale Projekt- und Teamformate sowie schlussendlich auch Inhalte, die internationale, interkulturelle und interdisziplinäre Kompetenzen mit digitalen Kompetenzen verbinden. Der vorgeschlagene Workshop soll entsprechende Projekte zusammenbringen und die Themen strukturieren, um einen Überblick der Entwicklungen zu schaffen und somit einen Beitrag zur Definition des Themenfelds „Digitalisierung & Internationalisierung“ zu leisten.
The need for innovation around the control functions of inverters is great. PV inverters were initially expected to be passive followers of the grid and to disconnect as soon as abnormal conditions happened. Since future power systems will be dominated by generation and storage resources interfaced through inverters these converters must move from following to forming and sustaining the grid. As “digital natives” PV inverters can also play an important role in the digitalisation of distribution networks. In this short review we identified a large potential to make the PV inverter the smart local hub in a distributed energy system. At the micro level, costs and coordination can be improved with bidirectional inverters between the AC grid and PV production, stationary storage, car chargers and DC loads. At the macro level the distributed nature of PV generation means that the same devices will support both to the local distribution network and to the global stability of the grid. Much success has been obtained in the former. The later remains a challenge, in particular in terms of scaling. Yet there is some urgency in researching and demonstrating such solutions. And while digitalisation offers promise in all control aspects it also raises significant cybersecurity concerns.
In 1991 the researchers at the center for the Learning Sciences of Carnegie Mellon University were confronted with the confusing question of “where is AI” from the users, who were interacting with AI but did not realize it. Three decades of research and we are still facing the same issue with the AItechnology users. In the lack of users’ awareness and mutual understanding of AI-enabled systems between designers and users, informal theories of the users about how a system works (“Folk theories”) become inevitable but can lead to misconceptions and ineffective interactions. To shape appropriate mental models of AI-based systems, explainable AI has been suggested by AI practitioners. However, a profound understanding of the current users’ perception of AI is still missing. In this study, we introduce the term “Perceived AI” as “AI defined from the perspective of its users”. We then present our preliminary results from deep-interviews with 50 AItechnology users, which provide a framework for our future research approach towards a better understanding of PAI and users’ folk theories.
For most people, using their body to authenticate their identity is an integral part of daily life. From our fingerprints to our facial features, our physical characteristics store the information that identifies us as "us." This biometric information is becoming increasingly vital to the way we access and use technology. As more and more platform operators struggle with traffic from malicious bots on their servers, the burden of proof is on users, only this time they have to prove their very humanity and there is no court or jury to judge, but an invisible algorithmic system. In this paper, we critique the invisibilization of artificial intelligence policing. We argue that this practice obfuscates the underlying process of biometric verification. As a result, the new "invisible" tests leave no room for the user to question whether the process of questioning is even fair or ethical. We challenge this thesis by offering a juxtaposition with the science fiction imagining of the Turing test in Blade Runner to reevaluate the ethical grounds for reverse Turing tests, and we urge the research community to pursue alternative routes of bot identification that are more transparent and responsive.
Technological objects present themselves as necessary, only to become obsolete faster than ever before. This phenomenon has led to a population that experiences a plethora of technological objects and interfaces as they age, which become associated with certain stages of life and disappear thereafter. Noting the expanding body of literature within HCI about appropriation, our work pinpoints an area that needs more attention, “outdated technologies.” In other words, we assert that design practices can profit as much from imaginaries of the future as they can from reassessing artefacts from the past in a critical way. In a two-week fieldwork with 37 HCI students, we gathered an international collection of nostalgic devices from 14 different countries to investigate what memories people still have of older technologies and the ways in which these memories reveal normative and accidental use of technological objects. We found that participants primarily remembered older technologies with positive connotations and shared memories of how they had adapted and appropriated these technologies, rather than normative uses. We refer to this phenomenon as nostalgic reminiscence. In the future, we would like to develop this concept further by discussing how nostalgic reminiscence can be operationalized to stimulate speculative design in the present.
When dialogues with voice assistants (VAs) fall apart, users often become confused or even frustrated. To address these issues and related privacy concerns, Amazon recently introduced a feature allowing Alexa users to inquire about why it behaved in a certain way. But how do users perceive this new feature? In this paper, we present preliminary results from research conducted as part of a three-year project involving 33 German households. This project utilized interviews, fieldwork, and co-design workshops to identify common unexpected behaviors of VAs, as well as users’ needs and expectations for explanations. Our findings show that, contrary to its intended purpose, the new feature actually exacerbates user confusion and frustration instead of clarifying Alexa's behavior. We argue that such voice interactions should be characterized as explanatory dialogs that account for VA’s unexpected behavior by providing interpretable information and prompting users to take action to improve their current and future interactions.
In the fermentation process sugars are transformed into lactic acid. pH meters have traditionally been used for fermentation process monitoring based on acidity. More recently, near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has proven to provide an accurate and non-invasive method to detect when the transformation of sugars into lactic acid is finished. The fermentation process when sugars are transformed into lactic acid. This research proposes the use of simplified NIR spectroscopy using multispectral optical sensors as a simpler and less expensive measure to end the fermentation process. The NIR spectrum of milk and yogurt is compared to find and extract features that can be used to design a simple sensor to monitor the yogurt fermentation process. Multispectral images in four selected wavebands within the NIR spectrum are captured and show different spectral remission characteristics for milk, yogurt and water, which support the selection of these wavebands for milk and yogurt classification.
Introduction: After cellulose, lignin represents the most abundant biopolymer on earth that accounts for up to 18-35 % by weight of lignocellulose biomass. Today, it is a by-product of the paper and pulping industry. Although lignin is available in huge amounts, mainly in form of so called black liquor produced via Kraft-pulping, processes for the valorization of lignin are still limited [1]. Due to its hyperbranched polyphenol-like structure, lignin gained increasing interest as biobased building block for polymer synthesis [2]. The present work is focused on extraction and purification of lignin from industrial black liquor and synthesis of lignin-based polyurethanes.
In today’s business, culture plays a vital role or to a high degree influences the attitude, perception and decision making process of an individual. Culture is an unavoidable state of rules and regulations that defines people’s daily life in a particular environment or society. There are plenty examples of business failures or stagnation or failure of joint ventures, on account of the management's inability to recognize cross-cultural challenges and tackle them appropriately.
LiDAR-based Indoor Localization with Optimal Particle Filters using Surface Normal Constraints
(2023)
The transport of carbon dioxide through pipelines is one of the important components of Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) systems that are currently being developed. If high flow rates are desired a transportation in the liquid or supercritical phase is to be preferred. For technical reasons, the transport must stay in that phase, without transitioning to the gaseous state. In this paper, a numerical simulation of the stationary process of carbon dioxide transport with impurities and phase transitions is considered. We use the Homogeneous Equilibrium Model (HEM) and the GERG-2008 thermodynamic equation of state to describe the transport parameters. The algorithms used allow to solve scenarios of carbon dioxide transport in the liquid or supercritical phase, with the detection of approaching the phase transition region. Convergence of the solution algorithms is analyzed in connection with fast and abrupt changes of the equation of state and the enthalpy function in the region of phase transitions.
Nowadays, we input text not only on stationary devices, but also on handheld devices while walking, driving, or commuting. Text entry on the move, which we term as nomadic text entry, is generally slower. This is partially due to the need for users to move their visual focus from the device to their surroundings for navigational purposes and back. To investigate if better feedback about users' surroundings on the device can improve performance, we present a number of new and existing feedback systems: textual, visual, textual & visual, and textual & visual via translucent keyboard. Experimental comparisons between the conventional and these techniques established that increased ambient awareness for mobile users enhances nomadic text entry performance. Results showed that the textual and the textual & visual via translucent keyboard conditions increased text entry speed by 14% and 11%, respectively, and reduced the error rate by 13% compared to the regular technique. The two methods also significantly reduced the number of collisions with obstacles.
Emotion and gender recognition from facial features are important properties of human empathy. Robots should also have these capabilities. For this purpose we have designed special convolutional modules that allow a model to recognize emotions and gender with a considerable lower number of parameters, enabling real-time evaluation on a constrained platform. We report accuracies of 96% in the IMDB gender dataset and 66% in the FER-2013 emotion dataset, while requiring a computation time of less than 0.008 seconds on a Core i7 CPU. All our code, demos and pre-trained architectures have been released under an open-source license in our repository at https://github.com/oarriaga/face classification.
The goal of this work is to develop an integration framework for a robotic software system which enables robotic learning by experimentation within a distributed and heterogeneous setting. To meet this challenge, the authors specified, defined, developed, implemented and tested a component-based architecture called XPERSIF. The architecture comprises loosely-coupled, autonomous components that offer services through their well-defined interfaces and form a service-oriented architecture. The Ice middleware is used in the communication layer. Additionally, the successful integration of the XPERSim simulator into the system has enabled simultaneous quasi-realtime observation of the simulation by numerous, distributed users.
Adapting plans to changes in the environment by finding alternatives and taking advantage of opportunities is a common human behavior. The need for such behavior is often rooted in the uncertainty produced by our incomplete knowledge of the environment. While several existing planning approaches deal with such issues, artificial agents still lack the robustness that humans display in accomplishing their tasks. In this work, we address this brittleness by combining Hierarchical Task Network planning, Description Logics, and the notions of affordances and conceptual similarity. The approach allows a domestic service robot to find ways to get a job done by making substitutions. We show how knowledge is modeled, how the reasoning process is used to create a constrained planning problem, and how the system handles cases where plan generation fails due to missing/unavailable objects. The results of the evaluation for two tasks in a domestic service domain show the viability of the approach in finding and making the appropriate goal transformations.
In this paper, we present XPERSim, a 3D simulator built on top of open source components that enables users to quickly and easily construct an accurate and photo-realistic simulation for robots of arbitrary morphology and their environments. While many existing robot simulators provide a good dynamics simulation, they often lack the high quality visualization that is now possible with general-purpose hardware. XPERSim achieves such visualization by using the Object-Oriented Graphics Rendering Engine 3D (Ogre) engine to render the simulation whose dynamics are calculated using the Open Dynamics Engine (ODE). Through XPERSim’s integration into a component-based software integration framework used for robotic learning by experimentation, XPERSIF, and the use of the scene-oriented nature of the Ogre engine, the simulation is distributed to numerous users that include researchers and robotic components, thus enabling simultaneous, quasi-realtime observation of the multiple-camera simulations.