1,721,006 research outputs found
Implementing a digital twin for flexible operation of agricultural robotics
No full textRobots have replaced labour in several sectors of the economy. In industrial manufacturing, digital twin systems allow to plan, schedule and optimize production by robots. In agriculture, robots have not yet reached widespread acceptance, in part because digital twin technology is rarely used. The aim of the ROBS4CROPS project is to accelerate the transition towards robotic agriculture by bringing knowledge and experience from the manufacturing domain to agriculture. The project envisions an agricultural robotic system that consists of autonomous vehicles and smart implements that are orchestrated by a Farming Controller. At the half-way mark of our 4-year project, we are able to present autonomous vehicles and smart vehicles working in four European countries, as well as an early implementation of the Farming Controller. Results so far indicate that the project’s vision is achievable and that digital twin technology will be helpful in the acceptance of robots in agriculture
Social and ethical considerations for agricultural robotics
Full text linkThe scaling of agricultural robotics could help us to achieve sustainable agricultural transitions around the world, solving production, environmental, and socio-political challenges. Yet, for all the promises, there are social and ethical aspects to consider before pursuing pathways towards development and implementation. This chapter uses a responsible innovation framework to anticipate the possible challenges involved in the scaling of agricultural robotics, as well as how to include a wide range of stakeholder views. We discuss which stakeholders should be included in setting trajectories for agri-robotics, as well as how to engage harder to reach voices in a meaningful way. We then turn to how these stakeholder views can be reflexively incorporated into responsive practices, such as standards and codes of practice, to mitigate against some of the potential negative impacts of robotics
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
development of intuitive gesture vocabularies and robust gesture recognition
Full text linkGesten sind ein Kommunikationsweg, der einem Betrachter Informationen oder Absichten übermittelt. Daher können sie effektiv in der Mensch-Roboter-Interaktion, oder in der Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion allgemein, verwendet werden. Sie stellen eine Möglichkeit für einen Roboter oder eine Maschine dar, um eine Bedeutung abzuleiten. Um Gesten intuitiv benutzen zukönnen und Gesten, die von Robotern ausgeführt werden, zu verstehen, ist es notwendig, Zuordnungen zwischen Gesten und den damit verbundenen Bedeutungen zu definieren -- ein Gestenvokabular. Ein Menschgestenvokabular definiert welche Gesten ein Personenkreis intuitiv verwendet, um Informationen zu übermitteln. Ein Robotergestenvokabular zeigt welche Robotergesten zu welcher Bedeutung passen. Ihre effektive und intuitive Benutzung hängt von Gestenerkennung ab, das heißt von der Klassifizierung der Körperbewegung in diskrete Gestenklassen durch die Verwendung von Mustererkennung und maschinellem Lernen. Die vorliegende Dissertation befasst sich mit beiden Forschungsbereichen. Als eine Voraussetzung für die intuitive Mensch-Roboter-Interaktion wird zunächst ein Aufmerksamkeitsmodell für humanoide Roboter entwickelt. Danach wird ein Verfahren für die Festlegung von Gestenvokabulare vorgelegt, das auf Beobachtungen von Benutzern und Umfragen beruht. Anschliessend werden experimentelle Ergebnisse vorgestellt. Eine Methode zur Verfeinerung der Robotergesten wird entwickelt, die auf interaktiven genetischen Algorithmen basiert. Ein robuster und performanter Gestenerkennungsalgorithmus wird entwickelt, der auf Dynamic Time Warping basiert, und sich durch die Verwendung von One-Shot-Learning auszeichnet, das heißt durch die Verwendung einer geringen Anzahl von Trainingsgesten. Der Algorithmus kann in realen Szenarien verwendet werden, womit er den Einfluss von Umweltbedingungen und Gesteneigenschaften, senkt. Schließlich wird eine Methode für das Lernen der Beziehungen zwischen Selbstbewegung und Zeigegesten vorgestellt.Gestures consist of movements of body parts and are a mean of communication that conveys information or intentions to an observer. Therefore, they can be effectively used in human-robot interaction, or in general in human-machine interaction, as a way for a robot or a machine to infer a meaning. In order for people to intuitively use gestures and understand robot gestures, it is necessary to define mappings between gestures and their associated meanings -- a gesture vocabulary. Human gesture vocabulary defines which gestures a group of people would intuitively use to convey information, while robot gesture vocabulary displays which robot gestures are deemed as fitting for a particular meaning. Effective use of vocabularies depends on techniques for gesture recognition, which considers classification of body motion into discrete gesture classes, relying on pattern recognition and machine learning. This thesis addresses both research areas, presenting development of gesture vocabularies as well as gesture recognition techniques, focusing on hand and arm gestures. Attentional models for humanoid robots were developed as a prerequisite for human-robot interaction and a precursor to gesture recognition. A method for defining gesture vocabularies for humans and robots, based on user observations and surveys, is explained and experimental results are presented. As a result of the robot gesture vocabulary experiment, an evolutionary-based approach for refinement of robot gestures is introduced, based on interactive genetic algorithms. A robust and well-performing gesture recognition algorithm based on dynamic time warping has been developed. Most importantly, it employs one-shot learning, meaning that it can be trained using a low number of training samples and employed in real-life scenarios, lowering the effect of environmental constraints and gesture features. Finally, an approach for learning a relation between self-motion and pointing gestures is presented
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Control and design of an intelligent agricultural robot
No full textThis thesis deals with the control and design of an intelligent agricultural robot. Robotic melon harvesting has been undertaken as a case study. An intelligent control structure for a robot performing in the uncertain, unknown and ill-structured agricultural domain was modeled as distributed, autonomous computing modules which communicated through a global accessible blackboard structure. The proposed control architecture was tested and verified by simulating all stages of the data flow for the robotic melon harvester: from sensory input, through transformation to information, planning of tasks, and execution of tasks and modification for dynamic conditions. A CAD workstation was used to plan, model, simulate and evaluate the robot\u27s motions based on simulated real-time sensory input. Performance of the robotic system (i.e., cycle time and percentage of successful cycles) was evaluated by developing simulation models that determined the effect of the many closely related robot design parameters (e.g., number of arms; operational mode; i.e. serial, parallel; actuator speeds and accelerations) and horticultural practices (fruit distribution). Initially design alternatives were evaluated using animated, visual simulation which provided insight into the complex interaction between the different system components. Dynamic, numerical simulation tools were then developed to quantify the many closely related design parameters for varying cultural practices. An algorithm, based on the traveling salesman problem, was developed to determine the most time efficient robot for a two dimensional task. Simulations revealed the sensitivity of the robot\u27s design parameters (operational mode, number of arms, actuator speeds, frame size, and picking time) and horticultural practices (planting distance) on the performance of the robotic melon harvester
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
- …
