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How to ensure control of cooperative vehicle and truck platoons using Meaningful Human Control
Get PDFVehicle cooperation, not vehicle automation, will yield the greatest benefits on road traffic. However, satisfactory human control over platoons of cooperative vehicles still has a large number of uncertainties and issues to be addressed. This paper aims to address these broader issues of control over a cooperative vehicle platoon by focussing on a truck platooning system as a case example, and taking the perspective of Meaningful Human Control (MHC) as control concept. MHC goes further than mere operational control as it addresses issues that exist in current system designs, and proposes improvements based on a novel and more encompassing set of conditions for control. These issues are addressed in regard to the vehicles and their Operational Design Domains (ODD), the role and ability of the drivers (both leading and following) and how these exist in regard to their road environment. We conclude that current advances are making progress, but that from a MHC perspective, issues still remain for the operational and tactical implementation of truck platoons and cooperative driving that need to be addressed in regard to ODDs and drivers. Furthermore, consideration of responsibility and liability aspects is required that stretches beyond nominal appointment thereof, as this does not satisfy important ethical and societal standards. This is demonstrated in the paper through two hypothetical cases focussing on issues on a system level and one further analysis which is focussed on the role of the driver in the platooning system
A Viability Study of Waterborne Platooning on the Lower Rhine
Get PDFTo achieve a modal shift towards waterborne transport and to deal with the shortage of crewmembers, a platooning concept called the “Vessel Train” is explored for the inland navigation sector. A Vessel Train consists of a lead and various follower vessels. The lead vessel is fully manned and takes over the navigational and situational awareness responsibilities for the follower vessels. This leading action benefits the followers through increasing the vessels’ productivity and enabling crew cost savings.
This article investigates the viability of the concept for the lower Rhine region, by presenting a cost model that compares the Vessel Train conditions to the current sailing conditions. This model is used to assess a case study where lead vessels operate on a liner service between Antwerp and Duisburg. Economically viable cases for the concepts’ early-stage application and fully matured implementation are identified, and boundary conditions are presented. The viable conditions vary depending on the vessel type and the operating regime of the reference vessel. A fully matured VT implementation requires a minimum of 26 participants, whereas an early-stage implementation requires 40 participants. The early-stage implementation additionally includes a minimum distance of 200 km to be spent sailing in the VT and the distance sailed in the VT has to amount to a minimum of 50% of the entire trip
Timelines of Transportation Infrastructure Delivery 2000 to 2018 in Toronto, Canada and London, UK
Get PDFThis paper explores the timelines of large transportation infrastructure delivery, from first proposal to construction and opening in London, UK and Toronto, Canada. The goal of the paper is to identify both how long it takes projects to go from idea to delivery, the relative time of different stages in the delivery process, and if projects with long timelines see physical or technological changes in their design. This work contributes to two ongoing discussions around the speed of infrastructure delivery, one that argues infrastructure moves too slowly and major efforts are needed to speed delivery and another that argues that good infrastructure thinking requires time to breathe and care should be taken in rushing through the delivery process. Detailed delivery timelines from initial proposal to construction or operation are developed for 26 transportation projects (16 in Toronto and 10 in London) between the years 2000 and 2018. For each project the timelines of inception, approval, planning, procurement, environmental assessment, construction and operational phases are identified and compared. Long informal gestation periods are identified for many projects, particularly for linear projects. In many instances the informal gestation period dwarfs the time projects spent in formal planning. This research highlights the need to expand the conception of timeliness of infrastructure delivery to include the lengthy periods of informal debate and planning that can span years and build up community expectations about the imminence of a project, even before it has received formal assessment or approval. Detailed delivery timelines from initial proposal to construction or operation are developed for 26 transportation projects (16 in Toronto and 10 in London) between the years 2000 and 2018. For each project the timelines of inception, approval, planning, procurement, environmental assessment, construction and operational phases are identified and compared. Long informal gestational periods are identified for many projects, particularly for linear projects. In many instances the informal gestation period dwarfs the time projects spent in formal planning. This research highlights the need to expand the conception of timeliness of infrastructure delivery to include the lengthy periods of informal debate and planning that can span years and build up community expectations about the imminence of a project, even before it has received formal assessment or approval.
Models over time: Waterloopbos and Mississippi River Basin
Get PDFThe development of knowledge about the mechanism in the delta has had a high dependency on projects and techniques available. During the period from 1930 to 1939, there is a consolidation of the achievements and further development of hydraulic engineering techniques, based on model-based and mathematical analyses and prognoses (Schot et al., 1998). In this time two of the physical models were built, the Waterloopbos in the Netherlands and the Mississippi River basin in the USA. Both models have been used extensively to expand knowledge and build projects, but both became out of use when computers appeared in the 1980s. Then the calculation models were favoured, as they can be done faster, and are also capable of handling complex problems. Computer technology became increasingly dominated by measurement, prognosis, calibration, verification and validation. For this project section, the current state of the two models is brought forth as a new technique in which maybe the Longue Duree of the relation between humans and nature can become evident. 
Structural Optimisation and Behaviour of the Breakwater Integrated Oscillating Water Column Device: A combined 3D CFD and Structural FEM Analysis
Get PDFThe Oscillating Water Column (OWC) device is a relatively young and underdeveloped technology for generating electricity from wave energy. Compared to other common renewable sources such as solar and wind energy, the costs for bottom-standing OWC’s are too high for the technology to be economically competitive. A first step in lowering the cost was the integration of OWC devices into breakwaters. Often, OWC are built quite robustly due to insufficient confidence in the magnitude of the extreme loads. This leaves room for optimisation, which so far has not been looked into in detail.
In an attempt to lower the costs further, the possibilities for structural optimisation are investigated in this research. The U-OWC device in Civitavecchia, an OWC with an additional vertical duct, is used as a case study and is modelled in 3D in a one-way coupled hydraulic-structural numerical model. The model contained both a fluid domain, i.e. the wave tank, and a solid domain, i.e. the OWC structure. Coupling the two gives direct feedback on the wave impact in terms of a stress state in the structure. By converting the stresses to sectional forces, a new minimally required wall thickness can be found. Comparing these to the original thicknesses of the three main walls gives the optimisation potential of the OWC structure. Numerical simulations were carried out in operational and design conditions for varying geometries. Based on this, it was found the OWC walls could have been built using 35% less concrete on average.
The results also led to a new insight on the structural behaviour. Clear trends were found in where and when to expect critical loads. It was also found that the geometrical changes barely had any influence on these properties. These findings were used to develop a new and simple design method, making a full structural analysis redundant. Removing the structural domain and making use of the found property that water pressures are constant over the transverse width, imply that a 2D model would be sufficient, reducing the model size drastically.
Optimum Layouts of a Cluster of Heaving Point Absorbers in front of Wall-type Coastal Structures under Regular Wave Attack
Get PDFThe present paper aims at determining optimum layouts for a cluster of identical semi-immersed oblate spheroidal heaving Point Absorbers (PAs) in front of a bottom-mounted wall-type structure under the action of regular waves. Optimum layouts correspond to those that for a given incident wave frequency and direction maximize the power absorbed by the cluster and satisfy predefined spatial constraints. The corresponding optimization problem is solved by developing and coupling a Genetic Algorithm (GA) solver with a frequency-based hydrodynamic analysis numerical model. Initially, the efficiency of the developed optimization process is verified by comparing results with the parametric ones of other investigators. Next, various optimization cases for a cluster of five devices under the action of perpendicular to the wall waves are formed and solved. Focus is given on the effect of the incident wave frequency, the available for deploying the devices wall length and of symmetrical layout considerations, on the formation of the optimum layouts and on the power absorbed by the cluster.
When optimization is performed at a frequency smaller than the heave natural frequency of the devices, the PAs within the optimum layouts are placed close to the wall and they form sub-clusters of closely-positioned bodies. Contrary to the above, maximization of the absorbed power at a frequency equal to the devices’ heave natural frequency is realized by placing the PAs at a large perpendicular distance from the wall and without forming any sub-clusters. In the latter case, the optimally-arranged devices show also a much better power absorption ability. The deployment of part of the whole wall length for placing the PAs reduces the power absorbed by the optimally-arranged clusters, compared to the cases, where no wall-length restrictions are taken into account. Finally, the consideration of symmetrical features in the formation of the optimum layouts affects at a small degree the power absorption ability of the PAs clusters
Media Ecologies of the ‘Extractive View’: Image Operations of Material Exchange
Get PDFAbstract
Extraction displaces materials and reorganises habitats by accumulating resources – a process that renders populations and natural reserves as extractable data to be mobilised in systems of metabolic exchange. In contemporary practice, collecting, sorting, and processing this data require a complex interoperability between sensors, computing platforms, and databases before they are made into earth observation images. Following the scholarly research on the instrumentality of aerial survey in histories of extractive colonialism, this essay sheds light on the extractive capacity of remote sensing technologies in contemporary mining industries. Engaging with the media infrastructures of resource exploration, the inquiry revisits Heidi Scott’s theory of ‘colonialism’s vertical third dimension’ and extends it from the physical to the sensory, numerical, and temporal domains of extractivism. After Sean Cubitt’s classification of mediated earth observation, the three geomedia, the discussion is organised in three parts: electromagnetic sensing, numerical translations, and financial futures. A media-archaeological analysis of earth observation systems brings forth the extractive codes of the remote view by revealing its selective, vectoral, and speculative capacities in tapping the earth and ordering its resources into materials of exchange.
Keywords: extractive view, mining industries, remote sensing, geomedia, digital image, aerial surveillance, urbanisation, dataficatio
Five Points Towards an Architecture In-Formation
Get PDFWhile there have been significant discussions about the relevance of cybernetics within architectural and urban studies, the focus has mainly been on computing and digital practices. Since its emergence in the post-war period, cybernetics – in both its first and second-order versions – has introduced to architectural discourse systematic design methods and practices, while also tackling issues of reflexivity and complex problems. In this introduction, we examine the relation between cybernetics and architecture by focusing on a problem they both share. To this end, we approach cybernetics as the study of the production, consumption and flow of information, an account that has little to do with digital logics, unless one wants to pursue that special case. Therefore, cyberneticisation can set the foundations for a relational account that examines how signs are communicated and how meaning is produced and experienced within systems. This third-order cybernetics extends beyond the original scope of living organisms and their environments in order to include ecologies of ideas, power, institutions, media and so on. In this sense, cyberneticisation is radically environmental, positing the primacy of relations over fixed terms, binary oppositions and linear logics, making it high time for architectural and urban studies to take into consideration its ground-breaking potentials. By introducing five short points on the relation between architecture and cybernetics, we aim to assist in this endeavour
Spatial Planning and Design for Resilience: The Case of Pearl River Delta
Get PDFFaced with the highly overlapping factors of the external disturbances -- natural disasters caused by extreme climate change, and internal interactions -- the contradiction between natural conditions and rapid urbanization, traditional spatial planning and design used to pursue economic development could not be flexible enough to respond to the dynamic and uncertain future of the Pearl River Delta (PRD). Therefore, spatial planning and design should pay great attention to the fragile natural base layer and unexpected external disturbances that will negatively impact the PRD caused by increasing natural disasters, such as flooding and land subsidence situation. Based on the idea of spatial resilience, this doctoral dissertation aims to give an answer to the research question: What are the theories and methods of spatial planning and design for resilience? How is it possible to apply the theory and method of spatial planning and design for resilience to the PRD? Five major research contents are conducted. First of all, literatures on exploring the physical context, the crucial stages of spatial transformation, as well as spatial planning and design practices of the PRD are reviewed. Secondly, the theory of spatial planning and design for resilience is systematically researched. Thirdly, implementation method for spatial planning and design for resilience is provided. Fourthly, the empirical research of the theory and method of spatial planning and design for resilient PRD is conducted and possible new schemes are produced. Fifthly, the corresponding principles and strategies of resilient flood control and drainage on Hengli Island are proposed. The research outcomes obtained from this doctoral dissertation can be possibly applied to the further spatial planning and design practice for establishing a resilient PRD
Hybrid Intelligence in Architectural Robotic Materialization (HI-ARM): Computational, Fabrication and Material Intelligence for Multi-Mode Robotic Production of Multi-Scale and Multi-Material Systems
Get PDFWith increasing advancements in information and manufacturing technologies, there is an ever‑growing need for innovative integration and application of computational design and robotic fabrication in architecture. Hybrid Intelligence in Architectural Robotic Materialization (HI-ARM) provides methods and frameworks that target this need. HI-ARM introduces methodologies and technologies that incorporate computational, fabrication and material intelligence in integrated design-to-robotic-production workflows. The intelligence is explored at multiple architectural scales (Macro, Meso, Micro) through hybridization of building processes or multi-mode robotic production and multi-materiality. Porosity, Hybridity, and Assembly are introduced as main constituents for materialization frameworks relying on computational design and robotic production. These are tested in a series of original experiments that are presented in this thesis together with four peer-reviewed published papers discussing the process of developing integrated design-to-production methodologies in detail. The contributions show how both architectural materialization processes and building products can be customized in different phases and scales. Moreover, the developed discourse and definitions address the impacts of this research through the lenses of computation and automation in research, education, and practice in the fields of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction
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