1,284 research outputs found
Lessons from Innovations
No full textJuriaan van Meel and Theo van der Voordt describe the interaction between workplace concepts and the functioning of organisations and individual employees. Although scientific evaluations are scarce, it may be concluded that innovative concepts fit better with new ways of working. Teleworking and the provision of different workspaces for different activities support the need for both communication and concentration. Non-territorial use of workspace may lead to a more efficient use of space. Most users of innovative environments like their trendy environment and don't want to return to a traditional office building. However, psychological needs such as privacy and territoriality must not be underestimated.Real Estate Managemen
Natural grasping, design and evaluation of a voluntary closing adaptive hand prosthesis
No full textReplacement of a missing hand by an artificial alternative remains one of the biggest challenges in rehabilitation. Although many different terminal devices are available, around 27% of the amputees does not actively use their device and 20% totally refrains from wearing it. There are various reasons for prosthesis abandonment, e.g. wearing discomfort (too heavy, too hot), too little added functionality, difficult or tiring to use, lack of sensory feedback. User studies identified multiple aspects of the prostheses that need improvement, in order to meet the user demands. Mass reduction was identified as the most important design priority. In general the user demands can be summarised by the three C’s: Cosmesis, Comfort, and Control. The prosthesis should be beautiful to look at, comfortable to wear, and easy to operate. The goal of this thesis was to design and test a new lightweight and efficient body-powered hand prosthesis with articulating fingers. A low mass will increase wearing comfort. Mechanical efficiency will decrease the required actuation force, which will lead to an increased control comfort. It will also enable the hand to produce a higher pinch force, which will increase the functionality of the hand. The articulating fingers of the hand will enable both power and pinch grip. This enables the grasping and holding of a broad range of different objects and enhances natural cosmesis. The first step of the study was to determine the state-of-the-art in body-powered prostheses. Chapter 2 describes the testing of voluntary closing devices and Chapter 3 the testing of voluntary opening devices. The mechanical performance of the hooks was better than that of the hands. The hands required a high actuation force and energy (1058-2292 Nmm). They dissipated a large part of the actuation energy and produced only a low pinch force (~15 N). The mass of the hands was high (~423 gram). Comparison with data of a study from 1987 showed no improvement in the mechanical performance of the terminal devices over the last decades. In order to meet the user demands, a new hand design should have a lower mass, require less actuation energy, dissipate less energy and should be able to produce a higher pinch force. Chapter 4 describes the design and testing of two underactuated finger prototypes. One finger had a pulley cable transmission, the other a hydraulic cylinder transmission. The fingers were optimized for application in a finger of a cosmetic glove of a prosthetic hand. The fingers had identical dimensions and they had a very low mass. Quantitative mechanical tests were performed to select the most efficient way of transmission. The pulley finger required 35-74% more energy for various tasks than the hydraulic finger. Based on the results the hydraulic finger was selected as the most suitable for application in a prosthetic hand, as it had a higher energy efficiency than the pulley finger. Furthermore the hydraulic transmission offers an additional improvement of efficiency of 10-40% of the entire system, when hydraulics is used to replace the Bowden-cable in the shoulder harness. Therefore the hydraulic transmission was chosen to be used in the new hand prototype. Chapter 5 describes the mechanical comparison of silicone and PVC cosmetic gloves. Both types of gloves can be used for a prosthesis. The tests were performed to select the most energy efficient cosmetic glove. The tested silicone gloves had a 2.5-4.5 lower stiffness than the PVC glove, required 1.8 to 3.8 times less actuation energy and dissipated 1.7 to 3.4 times less energy. Therefore for the new hand prototype a silicone glove was used. Chapter 6 describes the design and testing of a glove compensation mechanism. This mechanism, which fit inside a finger, had a negative stiffness which compensates the undesired positive stiffness of a cosmetic glove. The negative stiffness of the mechanism reduced the required input torque range by 58% for the PVC glove and by 52% for the silicone glove. A negative stiffness mechanism was applied to the new hand prototype, in order to reduce the actuation effort for the user. The final step of the study was the design, and testing of a new hand prototype, described in Chapter 7. The new hand prototype, the Delft Cylinder Hand, has underactuated articulating fingers which adapt to the grasped object. It has voluntary closing body-powered control and it has a hydraulic cylinder transmission. The hand was subjected to various mechanical and functional tests. Chapter 8 describes the comparison of the performance of the hand to current available hands. Through the application of a hydraulic transmission, the hand requires 49-162% less energy from the user when compared to commercially available body-powered hands and it has a higher maximum pinch force (30-60 N). In functional tests the hand scored similar to current myoelectric hands. Yet its mass (152 gram without glove; 217 gram with glove) is 68% lower than the lightest available articulating myoelectric hand and 55% less than the lightest body-powered hand of similar size. Functional tests showed that The ‘Delft Cylinder hand’ provides the amputee with a level of function that is at least comparably to contemporary hands, at a cost (mass and actuation effort) which is much lower than that of all currently available hands. The Delft Cylinder Hand has articulating fingers and is anthropomorphic, slender, fast, efficient and silent. The hand mass is much lower than the lightest commercially available hand. The hand therefore meets one of the most important user demands in upper limb prosthetics, which is a low hand mass. The hand can pinch harder (>30 N) at a lower user effort. Samenvatting Natuurlijk Grijpen: Ontwerp en evaluatie van een actief sluitende adaptieve hand prothese Het vervangen van een ontbrekende menselijke hand, door een kunsthand is een van de grootste uitdagingen op het gebied van de revalidatie. Hoewel er veel verschillende handprothesen beschikbaar zijn, gebruikt 27% van de handprothesedragers de prothese niet actief en draagt 20% helemaal geen prothese. Er zijn verschillende redenen waarom mensen stoppen met het dragen van de prothese, bijv. draagcomfort (te zwaar, te warm), te weinig functioneel voordeel, moeilijk of vermoeiend in het gebruik, gebrek aan sensorische feedback. Gebruikersstudies laten zien dat verschillende aspecten van de prothesen verbeterd dienen te worden, om te voldoen aan de eisen van de gebruiker. Vermindering van de massa van de prothese heeft hierbij de hoogste prioriteit. De gebruikerseisen kunnen kortweg samengevat worden door de drie C’s: Cosmetiek, Comfort en Controle. De prothese moet mooi zijn om te zien, comfortabel om te dragen en moet makkelijk te bedienen zijn. Het doel van deze studie was het ontwerpen en het testen van een lichtgewicht en mechanisch efficiënte lichaamsbekrachtigde handprothese met articulerende ofwel scharnierende vingers. Een lage prothesemassa zal het draagcomfort verbeteren. Mechanische efficiëntie zal de bedieningskracht verlagen en daarmee het bedieningscomfort verhogen. Ook zal de hand hierdoor harder kunnen knijpen, wat zal resulteren in een verbeterde functionaliteit van de hand. De articulerende vingers maken het mogelijk om zowel de pincetgreep als de cilindergreep te vormen. Hierdoor kan een breed scala aan verschillende objecten worden vastgehouden. Bovendien verbetert dit de natuurlijke cosmetiek. De eerste stap in de studie was om de state-of-the-art van de huidige lichaamsbekrachtigde prothesen te bepalen. Hoofdstuk 2 beschrijft het testen van actief sluitende prothesen en hoofdstuk 3 beschrijft het testen van actief openende prothesen. De mechanische efficiëntie van de geteste haken was beter dan die van de handen. Voor het bedienen van de handen was een hoge bedieningsinspanning en bedieningsenergie (1058-2292 Nmm) nodig. Ook dissipeerden de handen een groot gedeelte van de bedieningsenergie en leverden ze slechts een lage knijpkracht (~15 N). De massa van de handen was hoog (~423 gram). Een vergelijking met de resultaten van een studie uit 1987 liet zien dat de prothesen de afgelopen decennia niet verbeterd waren. Om te voldoen aan de gebruikerseisen moet een nieuw handontwerp een lagere massa hebben, minder bedieningsenergie vragen, minder bedieningsenergie dissiperen en de hand dient een hogere knijpkracht te leveren. Hoofdstuk 4 beschrijft het ontwerp en het testen van twee ondergeactueerde vingerprototypen. Het ene vingerprototype was voorzien van een kabel-katrol transmissie, het andere van een hydraulisch transmissie. Beide vingers waren geoptimaliseerd voor toepassing in een cosmetische handschoen van een handprothese. De vingers hadden identieke afmetingen en hadden een erg lage massa. Er zijn kwantitatieve testen uitgevoerd om te bepalen welke transmissie het efficiëntst was. De vinger met de kabel-katrol transmissie had 35-74% meer energie nodig voor verschillende taken dan de hydraulische vinger. Vanwege de hogere mechanische efficiëntie van de hydraulische vinger, is deze vinger geselecteerd als meest geschikte vinger voor toepassing in een handprothese. Bovendien biedt een hydraulische transmissie een extra efficiëntieverbetering van 10-40%, wanneer de hydraulische transmissie gebruikt wordt om de Bowdenkabel te vervangen. Daarom is besloten om in het nieuwe handprototype de hydraulische transmissie toe te passen. Hoofdstuk 5 beschrijft vergelijking van mechanische eigenschappen van cosmetische handschoenen van siliconen en PVC. Beiden typen handschoen kunnen gebruikt worden op een handprothese. De testen zijn uitgevoerd om de handschoen te selecteren met de hoogste energie-efficiëntie. De stijfheid van de gemeten siliconen handschoenen was 2.5-4.5 keer lager dan die van de PVC handschoenen. De siliconen handschoen hadden een 1.8 tot 3.8 keer lagere actuatie-energie nodig en dissipeerden 1.7 tot 3.4 keer minder energie. Er is daarom gekozen om voor het nieuwe hand prototype een siliconen handschoen te gebruiken. Hoofdstuk 6 beschrijft het ontwerp en het testen van een handschoencompensatiemechanisme. Dit mechanisme, dat binnenin een vinger past, heeft een negatieve stijfheid die de ongewenste positieve stijfheid van de handschoen compenseert. De negatieve stijfheid van het mechanisme verminderde het benodigde actuatiemoment met 58% voor de PVC handschoen en met 52% voor de siliconen handschoen. In het nieuwe handprototype is ook een mechanisme met een negatieve stijfheid toegepast, om de vereiste bedieningsinspanning van de gebruiker te verlagen. De laatste stap van de studie was het ontwerpen en het testen van een nieuwe handprototype, beschreven in hoofdstuk 7. Het nieuwe handprototype, de Delft Cylinder Hand, heeft ondergeactueerde articulerende vingers die zich aanpassen aan de vorm van het object. De hand wordt bediend met een lichaamsbekrachtigde actief-sluitende bediening. De transmissie van de hand is hydraulisch. De hand is onderworpen aan verschillende mechanische en functionele testen. Hoofdstuk 8 beschrijft de vergelijking van de prestaties van de hand met die van de huidige prothesehanden. Door de toepassing van een hydraulische transmissie hoeft de gebruiker 49-162% minder energie te leveren om de hand te bedienen dan voor de huidige lichaamsbekrachtigde handen nodig is. De hand kan een hogere knijpkracht leveren (30-60 N). In de functionele testen behaalde de hand vergelijkbare scores als die van myo-elektrische handen. De massa van de hand (152 gram zonder handschoen; 217 gram met handschoen) is 68% lager dan die van de lichtste articulerende myo-elektrische hand en 55% lager dan die van de lichtste lichaamsbekrachtigde hand van vergelijkbaar formaat. De functionele testen lieten zien dat de ‘Delft Cylinder Hand’ de prothesegebruiker een functionaliteit biedt die tenminste vergelijkbaar is met die van de huidige prothesehanden, tegen een belasting (handmassa en bedieningsinspanning) die veel kleiner is dan die van alle huidig beschikbare handen. De Delft Cylinder Hand heeft articulerende vingers en is antropomorfisch, rank, snel, efficiënt en stil. De handmassa is veel lager dan die van de lichtste commercieel verkrijgbare hand. De hand beantwoord daarmee aan een van de belangrijkste gebruikerseisen, namelijk die van een lage handmassa. De hand kan harder knijpen (>30 N) met een lagere bedieningsinspanning.BioMechanical EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin
Cultural heritage discourses and Europeanisation : discursive embedding of cultural herigate in Europe of the regions
No full textIn dit onderzoek wordt erfgoed gezien als objecten waar een zekere betekenis aan wordt toegekend. Die betekenissen staan hier centraal en niet de objecten zelf. Sommige objecten krijgen die Europese relevantie, omdat ze vaak als Europees erfgoed worden bestempeld, voor andere objecten is dat bijvoorbeeld minder duidelijk en hebben de betekenis van nationaal of regionaal erfgoed. Dit proces van betekenisgeving staat centraal in dit proefschrift. Een drietal INTERREG projecten is geselecteerd als case studies (uit Litouwen, Griekenland en Nederland
Terminalconcept Maasvlakte 2
No full textEurope Combined Terminals is a container transhipment company in the port of Rotterdam. Since the establishment in 1966, ECT grew fast. In the mean time ECT became the biggest and most advanced container transhipment company in Europe. ECT has two locations of transhipment in the port of Rotterdam. The first location is in the 'Eemhaven', the 'Home Terminal'. The second location of transhipment is the 'Maasvlakte', the 'Delta Terminal'. In the 'Eemshaven' the container transhipment takes place in a conventional way with manned equipment. The 'Delta Terminal' contains four terminals. The Delta Multi User terminal is a conventional terminal. The remaining three terminals (the Delta Dedicated North terminal, the Delta Dedicated East terminal and the Delta Dedicated West terminal) use a mainly automatic system. The quay transport and the stack are fully automatic. The landside still uses manned equipment. The partly automatic system that is described above does not always perform at the required level. The performance is expressed in terms like port time of vessels, the quay crane productivity, the waiting time of the truck drivers etcetera. Alternative terminal concepts have to be designed in order to be able to reach te desired level. The setting during this research is the second 'Maasvlakte'. The improved terminal concept design is studied here from a stacking system point of view. The various stacking systems used in the container transhipment and also new concepts of stacking systems are studied. By means of a multi criteria analysis, three stacking systems are selected. These systems are: the Autmatic Stacking (ASC) Crane System, the Overhead Bridge Crane (OHBC) System and the high bay warehouse. After this a comparison has been made between the ASC-system and the OHBC-system with use of the criteria use of space, transfer capacity, flexibility, reliability and costs. The comparison not only contains the two systems, but also the various lay-outs (particulary the placing of the transferpoints) of the systems. Because of the variety of concepts and the superficial research of these concepts, it was not possible to compare the high bay warehouse with the ASC- and OHBC-system on the same level. A quick scan has been made of the various concepts of the high stacking system. The comparison between the ASC-system and the OHBC-system shows that there is no obvious preference for one of the systems above. Higher cost of ground shows an increasive attractiviness of the OHBC-system. The comparison does show clearly that a stack lay-out with the transferpoints as a transport lane in the stack, offers great benefits in relation to the present lay-out with the transferpoints on top of the stackarea's. The lay-out with the transferpoints in the stacking area, stacks more containers per substack than the present lay-out. The waterside and landside transport takes place with the Automatic Lifting Vehicle (self unloading Automatic Guided Vehicle). Rough it was found that the all the concepts of the high bay warehouse are much more space effective than the ASC- and OHBC-system. If the cost of ground is high, a comprehensive study of the high bay warehouse is strongly recommendedCivil Engineering and Geoscience
Stimulating Public-Private Cooperation for the Strategic Replacement of Infrastructure in the Netherlands: The Role and Formulation of Public-Private Arrangements
No full textAt the dawn of a large infrastructure replacement program in the Netherlands the question rises whether current forms of public-private partnerships in infrastructure projects are sufficient to deal with the complexities involved in large scale replacement of water infrastructure objects. It is stated that the concept of public private cooperation is expected to be able to provide innovative and cost efficient solutions by means of smartly bundling expertise knowledge. Examination of case Stuwen Maas revealed that full cooperation, in the sense of client and contractors becoming equal partners, is not most efficient, however the relationship between public and private parties is strongly moving towards cooperation. In order to further develop public-private cooperation in the Netherlands four recommendations are formulated. First, Rijkswaterstaat (public client) should make performance based governance their core business. Second, Rijkswaterstaat should develop a clear perspective on the future; both with regard to it's own role in infrastructure management, as the development of the infrastructure network itself. Third, both market parties and Rijkswaterstaat should built institutional capacity in order to facilitate cooperative arrangements. Special attention need to be paid to joint development of knowledge, design of clear responsibilities and the creation of a public-private trust relationship in which the cooperative arrangements can thrive. Fourth, further research need to be done into the specification of long-term oriented, flexible and general arrangements, since these arrangements are considered to have the most potential value for strategic replacement of infrastructure.SEPAMPOLGTechnology, Policy and Managemen
The performance of landscape concepts in spatial planning : branding, bonding and bringing about
No full textSpatial planners are expressive people. They often use landscape concepts, being metaphors that refer to landscape ideas and planning principles. Examples are Green Heart, Nature Pearls and the Camelisation of landscapes. Such landscape concepts seem ‘innocent’ but are ‘guilty’ of powerful effects. The power of a landscape concept is rooted in its colourful, rhetorical and multiple nature, in combination with the drives and political practice of its users. Accordingly, the first part of this study provides a theoretical or philosophical reflection on the use of landscape concepts in spatial planning, including views of Foucault, Deleuze and Latour. The effect of a landscape concept can be subtle and unexpected. For example, media indirectly couple assumptions about 'good planning' to the concept of National Landscape, i.e. the limited ideal of open landscapes. Using a concept also provides opportunities: it can be used for bonding people and promoting landscapes. For example, the concept Waterpark in a vision for the Dutch IJmeer region was a flexible and informal concept. This allowed the organisations involved to identify with the concept and bundle interests, although it was a temporarily success. The second part of this study provides more insight into Dutch regional planning practice and the use of landscape concepts. Finally, this study discusses the benefit of a 'will to connect' by planners in contrast to a 'will to control'
Carbon nanoparticles in lateral flow methods to detect genes encoding virulence factors of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli
No full textThe use of carbon nanoparticles is shown for the detection and identification of different Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli virulence factors (vt1, vt2, eae and ehxA) and a 16S control (specific for E. coli) based on the use of lateral flow strips (nucleic acid lateral flow immunoassay, NALFIA). Prior to the detection with NALFIA, a rapid amplification method with tagged primers was applied. In the evaluation of the optimised NALFIA strips, no cross-reactivity was found for any of the antibodies used. The limit of detection was higher than for quantitative PCR (q-PCR), in most cases between 10 4 and 10 5 colony forming units/mL or 0.1-0.9 ng/¿L DNA. NALFIA strips were applied to 48 isolates from cattle faeces, and results were compared to those achieved by q-PCR. E. coli virulence factors identified by NALFIA were in very good agreement with those observed in q-PCR, showing in most cases sensitivity and specificity values of 1.0 and an almost perfect agreement between both methods (kappa coefficient larger than 0.9). The results demonstrate that the screening method developed is reliable, cost-effective and user-friendly, and that the procedure is fast as the total time required is <1 h, which includes amplification. © 2010 The Author(s).This work was partially supported by the Generalitat Valenciana (BEST/2009/026), the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (PAID-00-09-2837), and by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (KennisBasis 6 programme). The authors would like to thank Dr. Eva Moller Nielsen at the Danish Veterinary Institute (Copenhagen, Denmark) for providing E. coli control strains and Dr. Lutz Geue (Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Wusterhausen, Germany) and Dr. Dorte Dopfer (School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA) for field isolates.Noguera Murray, PS.; Posthuma-Trumpie, G.; Van Tuil, M.; Van Der Wal, F.; De Boer, A.; Moers, A.; Van Amerongen, A. (2011). Carbon nanoparticles in lateral flow methods to detect genes encoding virulence factors of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli. 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The Apostolus Christinopolitanus and the Text of the Old Slavic Apostolus: The Lessons for Saturday and Sunday of Weeks 10-20 after Pentecost
No full textAuthor Institution: University of AmsterdamSee also: The Old Slavic Apostolos: The Lessons of the Short Lectionary from Pentecost to Great Lent and the Abstracts of the Epistles / academisch proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam [...] door Johannes G. van der Tak (Amsterdam: s.n., 1999).This paper offers the critical text of the ‘Lectionary core’ of the Old Slavic Apostolus. It is established on the basis of a critical recension of some twenty manuscripts of various dates and origins. The publication aims at several goals, the most important being to clarify the position of the Apostolus Christinopolitanus in the textual tradition of the Slavic Apostolus. The second goal is to show how, by the use of modern technology as well as proven scientific methods from adjacent disciplines, like Classics and Theology, a scientifically sound and yet accessible text of the Slavic Version of the New Testament can be produced. The third is to shift the accent in the treatment of manuscripts by Slavists from the ‘monument’ they constitute towards the text they contain. My last goal is to provoke reactions from the scientific communities of Slavists as well as Bible scholars on such an approach to the Slavic Version of the New Testament
Franckeite as a naturally occurring van der Waals heterostructure
No full textThe fabrication of van der Waals heterostructures, artificial materials assembled by individual stacking of 2D layers, is among the most promising directions in 2D materials research. Until now, the most widespread approach to stack 2D layers relies on deterministic placement methods, which are cumbersome and tend to suffer from poor control over the lattice orientations and the presence of unwanted interlayer adsorbates. Here, we present a different approach to fabricate ultrathin heterostructures by exfoliation of bulk franckeite which is a naturally occurring and air stable van der Waals heterostructure (composed of alternating SnS 2-like and PbS-like layers stacked on top of each other). Presenting both an attractive narrow bandgap (<0.7 eV) and p-type doping, we find that the material can be exfoliated both mechanically and chemically down to few-layer thicknesses. We present extensive theoretical and experimental characterizations of the material's electronic properties and crystal structure, and explore applications for near-infrared photodetectorsA.C.-G. acknowledges financial support from the BBVA Foundation through the fellowship ‘I Convocatoria de Ayudas Fundacion BBVA a Investigadores, Innovadores y Creadores Culturales’ (‘Semiconductores ultradelgados: hacia la optpelectronica flexible’), from the MINECO (Ramón y Cajal 2014 program, RYC-2014-01406), from the MICINN (MAT2014-58399-JIN) and from European Commission under the Graphene Flagship, contract CNECTICT-604391. E.M.P. acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council (MINT, ERC-StG-307609) and from the MINECO of Spain (CTQ2014-60541-P). E.G. gratefully acknowledges the AMAROUT II fellowship program for receiving a grant for transnational mobility (Marie Curie Action, FP7-PEOPLE- 2011-COFUND (291803)). A.J.M.-M., G.R.-B. and N.A. acknowledge the support of the MICCINN/MINECO (Spain) through the programmes MAT2014-57915-R, BES-2012-057346 and FIS2011-23488 and Comunidad de Madrid (Spain) through the programme S2013/MIT-3007 (MAD2D). J.O.I. and H.S.J.v.d.Z. acknowledge the support of the Dutch organization for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) and by the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science (OCW). M.A.N. acknowledeges the support of the MICCINN/MINECO (Spain) through the programmes MAT2013-49893-EXP and MAT2014-59315-R. Authors M.A.N., A.J.M.-M. and A.C.-G. acknowledge the support from ALBA Synchrotron for the experiments performed at Circe beamline (BL24-CIRCE) at ALBA Synchrotron with the collaboration of ALBA staff (proposal ID 2015091399). W.S.P. acknowledges CAPES Foundation, Ministry of Education of Brazil, under grant BEX 9476/13-0. W.S.P. and J.J.P. acknowledge MICCINN/MINECO (Spain) for financial support under grant FIS2013-47328-C02-1; the European Union structural funds and the Comunidad de Madrid MAD2D-CM programme under grant nos. P2013/MIT-3007 and P2013/MIT-2850; the Generalitat Valenciana under grant no. PROMETEO/2012/01
Constructing performance requirements for Home Energy Management Systems compliant with household values
No full textCurrently our energy supply system is experiencing a transition towards more sustainable energy generation with an increased amount of renewable energy. However, the high fluctuations in renewable energy generation make balancing demand and supply more complex. One solution to cope with high production fluctuations is to improve the energy system on the demand side (Siano, 2014). The introduction of Home Energy Management Systems (HEMSs) to the electricity infrastructure should contribute to the demand side management of our energy system. HEMSs have the potential to intelligently integrate the behaviour and actions of all connected users, improving demand forecasting and scheduling of electricity generation (Galli & Scaglione, 2011). However, currently there is a large uncertainty about the extent to which households in the Netherlands are willing to purchase HEMSs due to ethical dilemmas. When intelligent and connected systems are designed, it is important to adequately safeguard ethical values that are affected by the application of the technology in design engineering (de Greef, Mohabir, van der Poel, & Neerincx, 2013). The introduction of the smart meter among others revealed that failing to take conflicts with human ethical values into account in the development of technology leads to technological artefacts violating ethical values and consequently the predicted benefits may not be realised.The purpose of this work is to construct performance requirements for HEMSs compliant with household values. The construction of performance requirements is done by translating values into performance requirements using a value-oriented approach. We have reviewed literature concerning value-oriented approaches, finding multiple studies attempting to translate values into design requirements (Bresciani et al., 2004; Friedman, Kahn Jr., & Borning, 2008; van de Poel, 2013). However, none of these works provided explicit and concrete steps for the translation of values into design requirements. Hence, we constructed our approach based on the values hierarchy by van de Poel (2013), enriching the values hierarchy with explicit and transparent steps specifying the information gathering process. Our value-oriented approach to translate values into performance requirements is our theoretical contribution. The input for the translation of values into performance requirements are the values privacy, autonomy, reliability, usability and economic development, which were identified by Ligtvoet (2015) as to most critical values for the development of HEMSs. In the translation of these values to performance requirements we pay explicit attention to concerns and norms existing around HEMSs. Besides, we present two formats that have proven to be helpful in constructing the norms and performance requirements in a consistent and repeatable way. The outcome of our value-oriented approach is a list of performance requirements, which is used to evaluate the hardware requirements of two HEMSs: the Toon and Smile P1. In order to assess whether the technical properties of these systems satisfy the established performance requirements, we technically investigated both these HEMSs in terms of data and control flow. Based on this assessment we concluded that for every value there were performance requirements not compliant with the two HEMS designs. Therefore, we can conclude that these five values are indeed critical and that HEMSs require improvements on both a technical level and institutional level to avoid moral issues with values.Technology, Policy and ManagementManagement of Technolog
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