1,706 research outputs found
A tutela della libertà. Il Magistrato dei Segretari nella storia della Repubblica di Lucca (1371-1799)
No full textIl saggio analizza l'importanza assunta sul lungo periodo da una particolare istituzione troppo spesso trascurata in sede storiografica, quella del Magistrato dei Segretari, che ebbe un ruolo chiave nel mantenimento della "libertà" di Lucca come capitale di una Repubblica aristocratica politicamente indipendente
A novel forklift solution for promoting occupational re-integration of disabled people22nd Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation
No full textA study on the employment of disabled people as forklift truck drivers for cargo handling operations is here presented. The work focused on the design of a customized forklift and the development of a novel lift machine as aid for people with paraplegia. Results of a market research about the usefulness of such a system is presented and a novel robotic modified forklift simulator has been realized and described. A final testing session is introduced to assess the performances of disabled and non-disabled people during typical logistic task executions
A novel control strategy for youBot arm
No full textNowadays robotics educational platforms play an important role in the development and testing of new robotic technologies. These systems offer at low cost the possibility to access and experiment basic robot functionalities. In this paper, we examined the KUKA youBot: an omnidirectional mobile platform equipped with a five DOFs (Degrees of Freedom) robotic arm. The current internal design of the control loops limits severely its performances. This paper aims to assess the existing controller limitations in order to re-design, develop and test a new controller for the youBot arm. This paper presents the architecture of the existing software, and identifies the bottlenecks of the control loops. After proposing a new interoperable architecture, we present a new hybrid motion/force decentralized control, which accounts for the system's dynamics. The new controller is evaluated by means of simulations and on the real youBot arm. The new controller solves the major limitations examined, enabling new control applications. Results show a better performance of the new controller, in particular the step response rise time of the joint position control is now 33% faster than using the old controller
An adjoint-based approach for the surgical correction of nasal septal deviations
No full textDeviations of the septal wall are widespread anatomic anomalies of the human nose; they vary significantly in shape and location, and often cause the obstruction of the nasal airways. When severe, septal deviations need to be surgically corrected by ear–nose–throat (ENT) specialists. Septoplasty, however, has a low success rate, owing to the lack of suitable standardized clinical tools for assessing type and severity of obstructions, and for surgery planning. Moreover, the restoration of a perfectly straight septal wall is often impossible and possibly unnecessary. This paper introduces a procedure, based on advanced patient-specific Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, to support ENT surgeons in septoplasty planning. The method hinges upon the theory of adjoint-based optimization, and minimizes a cost function that indirectly accounts for viscous losses. A sensitivity map is computed on the mucosal wall to provide the surgeon with a simple quantification of how much tissue removal at each location would contribute to easing the obstruction. The optimization procedure is applied to three representative nasal anatomies, reconstructed from CT scans of patients affected by complex septal deviations. The computed sensitivity consistently identifies all the anomalies correctly. Virtual surgery, i.e. morphing of the anatomies according to the computed sensitivity, confirms that the characteristics of the nasal airflow improve significantly after small anatomy changes derived from adjoint-based optimization
New interaction metaphors to control a hydraulic working machine's arm
No full textIn the last decade, teleoperated hydraulic machines have become a reality in post-disaster scenarios. Although Human Machine Interaction technologies had huge advances, these technologies are not always applied successfully, especially in fields in which automation or semi-automation have difficulties to make their way, i.e. unstructured scenarios. This paper aims to introduce new interaction metaphors to improve operation of modern teleoperated hydraulic machines. Three new prototypes of Human Machine Interfaces are presented: a wireless portable joystick, a wearable hand motion recognition system and two facing haptic interfaces. The interfaces are evaluated in a typical pick and place scenario, developed with the aid of Virtual Reality. The results are discussed from an ergonomic and task performance point of view. The wireless portable joystick and the haptic interface produced similar outcomes and they are both usable for the control, whereas the wearable hand motion control proved to be unsuitable the task
Elliptic non-Abelian Donaldson-Thomas invariants of C3
No full textWe compute the elliptic genus of the D1/D7 brane system in flat space, finding a non-trivial dependence on the number of D7 branes, and provide an F-theory interpretation of the result. We show that the JK-residues contributing to the elliptic genus are in one-to-one correspondence with coloured plane partitions and that the elliptic genus can be written as a chiral correlator of vertex operators on the torus. We also study the quantum mechanical system describing D0/D6 bound states on a circle, which leads to a plethystic exponential formula that can be connected to the M-theory graviton index on a multi-Taub-NUT background. The formula is a conjectural expression for higher-rank equivariant K-theoretic Donaldson-Thomas invariants on C3
TUTELA DEL LAVORO E LIBERTA' D'IMPRESA NEI PROCESSI DI ESTERNALIZZAZIONE
No full textL’elaborato analizza le conseguenze lavoristiche della successione fra imprenditori, muovendo da una ricognizione delle varie tipologie di esternalizzazione con le relative esigenze e principali criticità.
L’indagine si concentra in primo luogo sul trasferimento d’azienda, esaminando la normativa e la giurisprudenza europee per passare poi alla disciplina di diritto interno, alle procedure sindacali e a uno specifico focus sul trasferimento delle aziende in crisi.
Successivamente l’autore si sofferma sull’appalto, prendendone in particolare considerazione gli indici di genuinità, i criteri di distinzione dalla somministrazione illecita di manodopera e la tutela delle maestranze in caso di avvicendamento fra imprese.
Da ultimo, la ricerca approfondisce le c.d. “clausole sociali”, sia di prima che di seconda generazione, valutandone la compatibilità con il diritto eurounitario e con la costituzione nonché riflettendo sui possibili rimedi in caso di loro violazione.The author analyzes the labour consequences of the succession between entrepreneurs, starting from a recognition of the various types of outsourcing with the related needs and main critical issues.
The survey focuses primarily on the transfer of businesses, examining European legislation and case-law and then moving on to internal legislation, trade union procedures and a specific focus on the transfer of companies in crisis.
The author then dwells on the contract, taking into account in particular the indications of authenticity, the criteria of distinction from the illicit administration of labour and the protection of workers in the event of turnover between companies.
Finally, the research deepens the "social clauses", both first and second generation, assessing their compatibility with European law and with the constitution and reflecting on possible remedies in case of their violation
Ultra Low Carbon Vehicles: New Parameters for Automotive Design
No full textAs the influence of vehicle emissions on our environment has become better understood, the UK government has recently placed urgent emphasis on the implementation of low carbon
technologies in the automotive industry through: the UK Low Carbon Industrial Strategy. The overall objective is to offer big incentives to consumers and support for the development of infrastructure and engineering solutions. This scheme however does not consider how the development of functional and experiential user value might drive consumer demand, contributing to the adoption of low carbon vehicles (LCVs) in the mass market.
With the emergence of the North East of England as the UK’s first specialised region for the development of ultra-low carbon vehicles (ULCVs), ONE North East, as a development agency for the region's economic and business development, and Northumbria University Ideas-lab have supported a project to facilitate innovation through the collaboration of technology, research and development (R&D) and business. The High Value Low Carbon (HVLC) project aims to envisage
new user value made possible by the integration of low carbon vehicle platforms with new process and network technologies. The HVLC consortium represents vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers as well as technology based companies and through an ongoing process of design concept generation the project offers a hub for innovation led enterprise.
Whilst new technological developments in areas such as power generation, nano materials, hydrogen fuel cells, printed electronics and networked communications will all impact on future automotive design, the mass adoption of low carbon technologies represents a paradigm shift for the motorist. This paper aims to describe how the mapping of new parameters will lead to new transport scenarios that will create the space for new collaborative research on user experiences supported by innovative technologies and related services
Embedded Architecture of a Hydraulic Demolition Machine for Robotic Teleoperation in the Construction Sector
No full textIn the last decade, teleoperated machines have become a reality in modern construction yards. Although these machines represent a step forward in terms of flexibility and safety, they still rely on a traditional control pad. Usually, the operators move the machine's end-effector driving each joint sequentially following a predefined order which depends on the operator's skill. This paper describes the design choices, the architecture of the system and the closed-loop control structure proposed to improve the human-machine interaction on a working machine for the construction field. The proposed solution has been implemented on a remote-controlled demolition platform exploiting a hybrid LabVIEW-Matlab software architecture. The work also proposed a closed-loop position control for the hydraulic manipulator. The feasibility of the proposed embedded architecture is assessed through experimental tests where the end-effector (EE) has to track a predefined trajectory
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