bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Capturing Tacit Knowledge within Business Simulation Games
Authors: Levy Meira , Pliskin Nava
Published: March 2012

Knowledge, in particular the tacit knowledge embedded in people and groups, is considered a strategic organizational asset. Many organizations harness knowledge to increase the quality of decision-making processes, especially in the current complex global business environment. Many organizations also harness business simulation games to support learning aimed at improving decision-making processes. Given the importance of knowledge, on the one hand, and of simulation games, on the other, this chapter presents a conceptual model for embedding knowledge management capabilities, including Web 2.0 applications, within simulation games environments for the purpose of improving the learning outcomes with regard to capturing tacit knowledge as well as to developing online communication skills.
The QUARTIC Process Model to Support Serious Games Development for Contextualized Competence-Based Learning and Assessment
Authors: Cowley Ben , Bedek Michael , Ribeiro Claudia , Heikura Tuija , Petersen Sobah Abbas
Published: March 2012

This chapter presents the QUARTIC process model for developing contextualized, competence-based educational games. Parallel streams of pedagogy and game development have been married to streamline the process of deriving appropriate educational games from client requirements. Furthermore, the authors describe two methodologies to improve the complementarity of the streams: one for building contextualised narrative, and one for describing competences applied in context. This increases the applicability of learning outcomes and allows the simultaneous assessment of learning while gaming. The work presented is a part of the European research project TARGET aimed at rapid competence development for knowledge workers.
Serious Games in Business
Authors: Balzert Silke , Pannese Lucia , Walter Marie-Therese , Loos Peter
Published: March 2012

The intention of this book chapter is to give an overview about Serious Games from a scientific as well as from a business related point of view. As a first step, several existing definitions of Serious Games are examined, and the differences and similarities of these games and common computer games are presented. In the next step, some goals of Serious Games and their dependency on the application scenario and/or the kind of business in which the game is used are analyzed. Afterwards, the focus switches to Serious Games developed for an economic context. The specific goals of such games are presented, and the influence of these goals on design and development requirements is discussed. Furthermore, how the application scenario influences Serious Game design is examined. Last but not least, some use cases are presented in order to demonstrate the possibilities of Serious Games for training and learning purposes.
Serious Games
Authors: Yu Chien , Wu Jeng-Yang , Johnson Aliesha
Published: March 2012

While the study of serious games is gradually increasing, the potential of serious games to help increase the effectiveness of training and learning has also been a subject of debate in much of the literature published in the field of teaching and training. The purpose of this chapter is to review what has been studied in the literature regarding serious games for teaching and training. By discussing the foundation of game-based learning, the study not only discusses some of challenges and impacts of serious games for teaching and training, but it also outlines some of the fundamental issues and considerations for the effective use of serious games and strategy of game-based learning.
Battle for Value
Authors: May Micah , Smith Timothy
Published: March 2012

A wargame is competitive simulation used to build and test strategy. Wargames have been used by military leaders throughout history, notably by the Persians and Napoleon (Figure 1), and more recently by the U.S. when planning its invasion of Iraq. They have also been used effectively by business executives, leaders in government agencies, and even non-profits. They can be powerful tools to generate creative ideas, surface and resolve taboo issues, anticipate competitive responses, identify and prioritize stakeholder needs, assess likely market acceptance of a product or service, or to build and test a strategic plan. In following chapter, the authors (1) define what a wargame is and briefly introduce the reader to the concept and history of wargaming, (2) explain why wargaming is valuable and when it can be used most fruitfully, and finally (3) describe how to run a wargame, spanning from the relatively simple to the more complex. As Karl Von Clausewitz so eloquently put it, “everything in war is simple; but the simplest thing is difficult...”
Geo@NET in the context of the Platform of Assisted Learning from Aveiro University, Portugal
Authors: Peixoto Elisabete , Martins Estela , Anjo António Batel , Silva Alexandre
Published: March 2012

Geo@NET is a computer game, played online, whose main purpose is to motivate students to the study of Geosciences. This is the most recent game included in the Platform of Assisted Learning of “Projecto Matemática Ensino” (PmatE), and the first geosciences online game that was developed in Portugal. Geo@NET project involves the conception, planning, and development of several Question Generator Models, for online games and competitions between students of the 3rd cycle of Portuguese Basic Instruction. The main challenge of the game is to find the correct answers (true/false) in a set of affirmations. Only solving the questions of each level of the game allows the player to go to the next level. Since 2009, the number of games played in geo@NET has increased, which encourages for further developments of this project. Thus, this chapter aims to describe QGMs, the development of the game, and the results obtained so far.
Serious Games for Exhibition Contexts
Authors: Erb Ulrike , Moura de Araújo Leonardo , Klein Luise , Königschulte Anke , Simonow Nora
Published: March 2012

In contrast to developing home versions of educational games, the development of games for museums and exhibitions is faced with specific limitations and requirements. Thus, the game designer has to consider restrictions concerning not only its content and learning objectives, which need to be related to the exhibition, but also the limited time available for playing and for understanding its mechanics, as well as restrictions due to the game’s location in the exhibition. Furthermore, typical problems related to serious games must be considered, such as creating both an educational and engaging experience for players. The authors’ recommendations presented in this chapter refer to experiences made in two case studies performed by Digital Media Master students of the University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven, Germany. Relevant design decisions of these two projects are illustrated and discussed, especially with respect to the limitations of exhibition environments. The chapter concludes that if digital technologies are well-balanced with the physical environment, a profitable combination between an interactive game and a traditional exhibition can enrich the overall visitor experience.
Brazilian Occupational Therapy Perspective about Digital Games as an Inclusive Resource to Disabled People in Schools
Authors: Siqueira Suzana Rocha , Rocha Eliane Cristina de Freitas , Nery Marcelo Souza
Published: March 2012

This chapter aims at contributing to serious games studies taking into consideration two aspects: “as a tool of social change” and as “applications of serious games: in health care and e-health, education, and other fields.” There have been many studies and applications of serious games in the fields of education and health; however, there is still a lack of studies on social inclusion. It is said, based on a wide review of the literature on the subject, that games can help the construction of the inclusive school, showing new applications for serious games. New guidelines for serious game applications are presented, as well as a new interface between the development of serious games and Occupational Therapy; the latter is the area of health specialised in the knowledge of human activities for clinical intervention.
21st Century Learning
Authors: Trespalacios Jesus H. , Chamberlin Barbara
Published: March 2012

Today’s students need more than just content knowledge to be able to work and excel in the 21st century workforce. Skills in problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation are essential for students to succeed. An increasing body of evidence suggests video games are powerful ways to give students these skills. This chapter includes a description of 21st century skills and provides information on generative gaming based on the generative learning theory, which requires students to generate their own learning based on their experiences in an individualized environment. It concludes with an example of a mathematics-based game development initiative at New Mexico State University that teaches content knowledge and fosters 21st century skills by enabling generative gaming.
Virtual Reality Simulations
Authors: Aebersold Michelle , Tschannen Dana
Published: March 2012

The use of simulation in the training of healthcare professionals has become an essential part of the educational experience. Students and practitioners need to learn a variety of technical, interpersonal, and clinical judgment skills to be effective healthcare practitioners. Virtual simulation can provide an effective training method to facilitate learning and can be targeted to develop specific skills. This chapter reviews the literature around simulation techniques and outlines a development process that can be used to develop virtual simulations to meet a variety of learning objectives. Specific issues and solutions will also be presented to ensure a successful educational experience.
The In-Depth Science of the Tic-Tac-Toe Game
Authors: Ramalho Mário António
Published: March 2012

In the present chapter a robotic application bringing together games, informatics, robotics, artificial intelligence, and artificial vision is described. The development of a game player, thus performing an “intelligent” activity is presented. The authors thus suggest that, more than simulation only, the development of the system could offer a serious way of developing learning and interest on the underlying sciences. The system, which only uses off the shelf components, allows for the “intelligent” behavior to be shown through the use of a simple robotic system. In particular, advanced intelligent sensors are used, and the capacities are derived from the tasks of industrial automatic visual inspection, for which the system is designed. These are applied to the recognition of hand-written symbols for accomplishment of a playful activity. The result is a demonstrator, which has proved to be good at catching attention, curiosity, and publicity.
Challenges of Serious Games for Improving Students’ Management Skills on Decision Making
Authors: Hauge Jannicke Baalsrud , Hoeborn Gabriele , Bredtmann Jennifer
Published: March 2012

Serious Games have been used in civil education since the 1950s. The first serious games were business games aiming to improve the skills required for decision making processes. In 1964, the INTOP simulation game was the first game representing a complete enterprise operating in different markets (Rohn, 1995). Management games as a subgroup of serious games are still widely in use, especially within vocational training of managers. Since that time, a variety of games have been developed and proved successful for the mediation of skills in complex systems (Windhoff, 2001). Serious games are also widely used in primary and secondary education nowadays. Children learn excellently by playing them. In contrast, learning by gaming is often seen as not serious enough within higher education and vocational training. Consequently, gaming as a teaching method is still often excluded in many curricula. Hence, students lack the experience of active knowledge acquirement during lessons and thus encounter a barrier for successful participation in serious games later.
Stalin’s Dilemma
Authors: Bever Edward
Published: March 2012

Stalin’s Dilemma is an educational game that simulates the industrialization of the Soviet Union during the three Five Year Plans between 1928 and 1942 (Bever, 2000). The goal of the game is to reach or exceed the historical levels of industrial capacity, military effectiveness, and political stability in order to prepare the country to repel an attack by Nazi Germany, but with less human cost than was inflicted by Josef Stalin. This chapter describes the game and discusses its design, development, and use in various educational settings and structures. Its goal is to convey insights and lessons that can be applied to future development and employment of other instructional simulation games. The primary conclusions are the need to support a complex design with extensive player aids and to harness students’ competitiveness and ambition by directly connecting performance in the game to performance in the course.
A Taxonomy and a Proposal for a Classification of Serious Games
Authors: Barca Stefania , Botte Brunella , Marinensi Giada , Matera Claudia , Medaglia Carlo Maria
Published: March 2012

The usage of Serious Game with educational aim has been studied for several years; however, this is still an experimental field. The concept of Serious Game has different spheres being used with different aims, and, in accordance with the disciplinary area it belongs, it refers to many other meanings and concepts, so it is necessary to discuss on the general concept, analyzing its characteristics to have a clearer vision of the theme. To understand better and categorize Serious Games, the authors considered that the concept of game could be a basilar element of definition to give a systematic order to the numerous typologies of Serious Game. The chapter starts from Joan Huizinga’s research and Roger Caillois’ studies in games and human approach and effects of games. The authors define what a simulation is and combine it with the concept of simulation to formulate a taxonomy to someday become an acknowledged instrument of research on Serious Games and the contexts and fields of application.
Using an Agent-Based Behavior Modeling for Finding Humanitarian Relief Center Location in an Earthquake Zone
Authors: Celebi Numan
Published: March 2012

Every year many different disasters occur in the world. The numbers of disasters has increased, especially in recent years. Emergency management of contingency has attracted by many researchers, who used analytical methods to find the optimal locations of humanitarian relief distribution center(s). This study sets up a model for humanitarian relief center facility location problem. This model considers some characteristics such as earthquake risk index, population density index, and transportation index to determine the optimal facility location center to respond the victims when an earthquake or disaster occurs. The method is based on a mathematical model for locating facility center. The author applies this model in a city in Turkey, and then the model is solved as an agent based behavior modeling according to the particle swarm optimization. Finally, the results are presented.
Quantification of Game AI Performance for Junior Leadership Training in the Defence Domain
Authors: Barlow Michael , Rowlands Edward
Published: March 2012

This chapter describes an academic and rigorous evaluation of the utility and current short-comings of state-of-the-art game AI to support junior leadership training outcomes in the defence domain. The chapter describes the design and implementation of a number of section-level (9 soldiers, one of which is the junior leader – typically a corporal) scenarios in the serious-game/military-simulation known as VBS (Virtual Battlespace 2). A number of objective experiments are conducted to quantify the utility of AI for junior leadership training. A suite of performance metrics were implemented using VBS2’s scripting capabilities. These metrics included such scorings as loss-exchange-ratios, number of rounds expended, time to complete mission, distribution (by role) of casualties within the section, et cetera.
Games Improving Disorders of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity
Authors: Santo Andreia Espírito , Rijo Rui , Monteiro João , Henriques Inês , Matos Ana , Rito Carina , Costa Paulo , Marcelino Luís
Published: March 2012

In Portugal, there are between 35 000 to 75 000 children suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The need to act prominently in children with these disorders suggests the creation of various serious games that can be executed with a computer, aiding affected children and assisting health professionals. This chapter presents two games that intend to help children to improve their capacity to speed information processing, enhance executive functions, and enhance use of working memory by performing a set of exercises presented in the form of educational games. It also enables the assisting physician to monitor the execution of these exercises. With the completion of the tasks of the games, children may, in an appealing way, improve their skills and thereby overcome their difficulties. This chapter presents the research methodology followed to the creation of the games, and the preliminary promising tests. Future research directions are also discussed.
An Overview on the Use of Serious Games in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation
Authors: Martins Tiago , Carvalho Vítor , Soares Filomena
Published: March 2012

As a significant number of individuals have severe motor disabilities due to neurological and musculoskeletal conditions, it is important to provide them with an appropriate rehabilitation program in order to improve their quality of life. Several study results suggest that many elements of the interactive games have tremendous potential as rehabilitation tools. Serious games can entertain the players, while rewarding and reinforcing healthy movements. As these technologies create a pleasant environment, they motivate the patients to perform the necessary exercises with satisfaction and total relaxation, even forgetting that they are conducting therapy. In this sense, various serious games are being applied in healthcare settings, namely in many physical therapy and rehabilitation situations. This chapter discusses the different potentialities of several serious games when used in physical therapy and rehabilitation of patients with problems in motor skills.
Information Sharing Strategies in Business-to-Business E-Hubs
Authors: Zhang Yifeng , Bhattacharyya Siddhartha
Published: March 2012

Studies show that supply chain structure is a key factor affecting information sharing. Business-to-business (B2B) e-hubs have fundamentally changed many companies’ supply chain structure, from a one-to-many to a many-to-many configuration. Traditional supply chains typically center around one company, which interacts with multiple suppliers or customers, forming a one-to-many structure. B2B e-hubs, on the contrary, usually connect many buyers and sellers together, without being dominated by a single company, thus forming a many-to-many configuration. Information sharing in traditional supply chains has been studied extensively, but little attention has been paid to the same in B2B e-hubs. In this study, the authors identified and examined five information sharing strategies in B2B e-hubs. Agent performances under different information sharing strategies were measured and analyzed using an agent-based e-hub model and practical implications were discussed.
A New Behavior Management Architecture for Language Faculty of an Agent for Task Delegation
Authors: Kuppuswami S. , Chithralekha T.
Published: March 2012

In this paper, the authors describe a new architecture for the language faculty of an agent that fulfills the interaction requirements of task delegation. The architecture of the language faculty is based on a conceptualization of the language faculty of an agent and a definition of its internal state paradigm. The new architecture is behavior-management based and possesses self-management properties. This architecture is compared with existing abstract self-management architectures, which examines how the new architecture solves unresolved issues of older models. The architecture description is followed by a case study - Multilingual Natural Language Agent Interface for Mail Service, which illustrates its application.
A Semantic-Enabled Middleware for Citizen-Centric E-Government Services
Authors: Garcia dos Santos Ivo José , Madeira Edmundo Roberto Mauro
Published: March 2012

Research efforts toward effective e-Government infrastructures have gained momentum, motivated mainly by increasing demands to improve citizen participation in public processes, promote social e-Inclusion, and reduce bureaucracy. One of the biggest challenges is providing effective techniques to handle the inherent heterogeneity of the systems and processes involved, making them interoperable. This paper presents a semantically enriched middleware for citizen-oriented e-Government services (CoGPlat), which facilitates the development and operation of new e-Government applications with higher levels of dynamism. It introduces the use of composition techniques based on semantic descriptions and ontologies. Requirements like autonomy, privacy and traceability are handled by applying policies that govern the interactions among services.
Facilitating Decision Making and Maintenance for Power Systems Operators through the Use of Agents and Distributed Embedded Systems
Authors: Carrasco A. , Romero-Ternero M. C. , Sivianes F. , Hernández M. D. , Oviedo D. I. , Escudero J.
Published: March 2012

This article examines the improvements provided when multimedia information in traditional SCADAS are included in electric facility management and maintenance. Telecontrol use in the electric sector, with the fundamental objective of providing increased and improved service to the operators who manage these systems, is also described. One of the most important contributions is the use of an agent network that is distributed around the electric facility. Through the use of multi-agent technology and its placement in embedded systems, to the authors design a system with a degree of intelligence and independence to optimize data collection and provide reaction proposals for the operator. The proposed agent-based architecture is also reviewed in this article, as are the design of an example agent and the results obtained in a pilot experience using the proposed hardware platform.
Portable Haptic Arm Exoskeleton
Authors: Letier Pierre , Preumont André
Published: March 2012

This chapter describes a seven degree of freedom force-reflective device able to produce haptic rendering on the human arm, either as master for teleoperation of a slave robot, or in interaction with a virtual reality. This project was conducted on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) as a prototype of the master device used for teleoperation of future anthropomorphic space robotic arms on the International Space Station (ISS). The motivation is to decrease the number of extravehicular activities of the astronauts, even for complex situations. The structure of portable anthropomorphic exoskeleton of 7 degrees of freedom has been selected by ESA because it allows a more intuitive control of anthropomorphic slave arms; it also allows multiple contact points, offers a larger workspace (comparable to the human arm). Besides, being attached on the astronaut, the system involves only internal forces (it is self-equilibrated) and can be used in zero-gravity.
LMF Dictionary-Based Approach for Domain Ontology Generation
Authors: Ben Amar Feten Baccar , Gargouri Bilel , Ben Hamadou Abdelmajid
Published: March 2012

In this chapter, the authors propose an approach for generating domain ontologies from LMF standardized dictionaries (ISO-24613). It consists, firstly, of deriving the target ontology core systematically from the explicit information of the LMF dictionary structure. Secondly, it aims at enriching such a core, taking advantage of textual sources with guided semantic fields available in the definitions and the examples of lexical entries. The originality of this work lies not only in the use of a unique and finely-structured source containing multi-domain and lexical knowledge of morphological, syntactic, and semantic levels, lending itself to ontological interpretations, but also in providing ontological elements with linguistic grounding. In addition, the proposed approach has addressed the quality issue that is of a major importance in ontology engineering. They have integrated a validation stage along with the extraction modules in order to maintain the consistency of the generated ontologies. Furthermore, the proposed approach was applied to a case study in the field of astronomy and the experiment has been carried out on the Arabic language. This choice is explained both by the great deficiency of work on Arabic ontology development and the availability within the research team of an LMF standardized Arabic dictionary.
Perspectives on Cognitive Computing and Applications
Authors: Wang Yingxu , Pedrycz Witold , Baciu George , Chen Ping , Wang Guoyin , Yao Yiyu
Published: March 2012

Cognitive Computing (CC) is an emerging paradigm of intelligent computing theories and technologies based on cognitive informatics, which implements computational intelligence by autonomous inferences and perceptions mimicking the mechanisms of the brain. The development of Cognitive Computers (cC) is centric in cognitive computing methodologies. A cC is an intelligent computer for knowledge processing as that of a conventional von Neumann computer for data processing. This paper summarizes the presentations of a set of 6 position papers presented in the ICCI’10 Plenary Panel on Cognitive Computing and Applications contributed from invited panelists who are part of the world’s renowned researchers and scholars in the field of cognitive informatics and cognitive computing.
Granular Computing and Human-Centricity in Computational Intelligence
Authors: Pedrycz Witold
Published: March 2012

Information granules and ensuing Granular Computing offer interesting opportunities to endow processing with an important facet of human-centricity. This facet implies that the underlying processing supports non-numeric data inherently associated with the variable perception of humans. Systems that commonly become distributed and hierarchical, managing granular information in hierarchical and distributed architectures, is of growing interest, especially when invoking mechanisms of knowledge generation and knowledge sharing. The outstanding feature of human centricity of Granular Computing along with essential fuzzy set-based constructs constitutes the crux of this study. The author elaborates on some new directions of knowledge elicitation and quantification realized in the setting of fuzzy sets. With this regard, the paper concentrates on knowledge-based clustering. It is also emphasized that collaboration and reconciliation of locally available knowledge give rise to the concept of higher type information granules. Other interesting directions enhancing human centricity of computing with fuzzy sets deals with non-numeric semi-qualitative characterization of information granules, as well as inherent evolving capabilities of associated human-centric systems. The author discusses a suite of algorithms facilitating a qualitative assessment of fuzzy sets, formulates a series of associated optimization tasks guided by well-formulated performance indexes, and discusses the underlying essence of resulting solutions.
Agent-Based Middleware for Advanced Communication Services in a Ubiquitous Computing Environment
Authors: Suganuma Takuo , Takahashi Hideyuki , Shiratori Norio
Published: March 2012

In a ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) environment, system components of different types, including hardware elements, software components, and network connections, must cooperate mutually to provide services that fulfill user requirements. Consequently, advanced and flexible characteristics of software that are specialized for a ubicomp environment are needed. This paper presents a proposal of an agent-based middleware for a ubicomp environment comprising computers and home electric appliances. The middleware, called AMUSE, can take quality of service (QoS) in a ubicomp environment into consideration by coping not only with user context but also with the resource context, using agent-based computing technology. Herein, we describe the concept, design, and initial implementation of AMUSE. Simulation results of an experimental ubiquitous service using AMUSE demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme. Additionally, to confirm our scheme’s feasibility and effectiveness, we describe the initial implementation of a multimedia communication application based on AMUSE.
The Formal Design Model of an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM)
Authors: Wang Yingxu , Zhang Yanan , Sheu Philip C.-Y. , Li Xuhui , Guo Hong
Published: March 2012

An Automated Teller Machine (ATM) is a safety-critical and real-time system that is highly complicated in design and implementation. This paper presents the formal design, specification, and modeling of the ATM system using a denotational mathematics known as Real-Time Process Algebra (RTPA). The conceptual model of the ATM system is introduced as the initial requirements for the system. The architectural model of the ATM system is created using RTPA architectural modeling methodologies and refined by a set of Unified Data Models (UDMs), which share a generic mathematical model of tuples. The static behaviors of the ATM system are specified and refined by a set of Unified Process Models (UPMs) for the ATM transition processing and system supporting processes. The dynamic behaviors of the ATM system are specified and refined by process priority allocation, process deployment, and process dispatch models. Based on the formal design models of the ATM system, code can be automatically generated using the RTPA Code Generator (RTPA-CG), or be seamlessly transformed into programs by programmers. The formal models of ATM may not only serve as a formal design paradigm of real-time software systems, but also a test bench for the expressive power and modeling capability of exiting formal methods in software engineering.
Estimating which Object Type a Sensor Node is Attached to in Ubiquitous Sensor Environment
Authors: Maekawa Takuya , Yanagisawa Yutaka , Okadome Takeshi
Published: March 2012

By simply attaching sensor nodes to physical objects with no information about the objects, the method proposed in this paper infers the type of the physical indoor objects and the states they are in. Assuming that an object has its own states that have transitions represented by a state transition diagram, we prepare the state transition diagrams for such indoor objects as a door, a drawer, a chair, and a locker. The method determines the presumed state transition diagram from prepared diagrams that matches sensor data collected from people’s daily living for a certain period. A 2 week experiment shows that the method achieves high accuracy of inferring objects to which sensor nodes are attached. The method allows us to introduce ubiquitous sensor environments by simply attaching sensor nodes to physical objects around us.
Kinematics Design for Structures and Algorithms
Authors: Xilun Ding , Hao Chen , Kun Xu
Published: March 2012

The purpose of this chapter is to present the kinematic analysis of service robots using the Product of Exponential (PoE) formula. The forward kinematics problem and inverse kinematics problem are discussed and the Jacobian is obtained too. A model of quadruped robot will be used as an example in corresponding sections in order to facilitate understanding.
Mission Planning of Mobile Robots and Manipulators for Service Applications
Authors: Xidias Elias K. , Aspragathos Nikos A. , Azariadis Philip N.
Published: March 2012

The purpose of this chapter is to present a mission planning approach for a service robot, which is moving and manipulating objects in semi-structured and partly known indoor environments such as stores, hospitals, and libraries. The recent advances and trends in motion planning and scheduling of mobile robots carrying manipulators are presented. This chapter adds to the existing body of knowledge of motion planning for Service Robots (SRs), an approach that is based on the Bump-Surface concept. The Bump-Surface concept is used to represent the entire robot’s environment through a single mathematical entity. Criteria and constraints for the mission planning are adapted to the service robots. Simulation examples are presented to show the effectiveness of the presented approach.
Lagrangian Dynamics of Manipulators
Authors: Bandyopadhyay Sandipan
Published: March 2012

Service robots can be thought of as having two types of motion: (a) locomotion of the entire robot, which can be either legged or wheeled, and (b) motion of the manipulator limbs, e.g., object manipulation by the “hands” etc. While the first type is very specialised, in particular in the case of legged motion, the second is fairly generic and can be discussed in detail without making a very heavy demand on the mathematical background of the reader. With that in mind, in the following, the author considers the dynamics of two types of systems, which are known as serial or open-loop, and parallel or closed-loop manipulators. The examples of these would be the hands of a humanoid robot, when considered in isolation, and when clasped together or holding an object with both hands, respectively. The examples considered here would be planar in order to keep them simple; however, the formulation presented would be general, so that the reader can, very easily, use it to model and simulate spatial manipulators.
Human-Friendly Robots for Entertainment and Education
Authors: Solis Jorge , Takanishi Atsuo
Published: March 2012

Even though the market size is still small at this moment, applications of robots are gradually spreading out from the manufacturing industrial environment to face other important challenges, like the support of an aging society and to educate the new generations. The development of human-friendly robots drives research that aims at autonomous or semi-autonomous robots that are natural and intuitive for the average consumer to interact with, communicate with, and work with as partners, besides learning new capabilities. In this chapter, an overview of research done on the mechanism design and intelligent control strategies implementation on different platforms and their application to entertainment and education domains will be stressed. In particular, the development of an anthropomorphic saxophonist robot (designed to mechanically reproduce the organs involved during saxophone playing) and the development of a two-wheeled inverted pendulum (designed to introduce the principles of mechanics, electronics, control, and programming at different education levels) will be presented.
Robot Modeling for Physical Rehabilitation
Authors: Gonçalves Rogério Sales , Carvalho João Carlos Mendes
Published: March 2012

The science of rehabilitation shows that repeated movements of human limbs can help the patient regain function in the injured limb. There are three types of mechanical systems used for movement rehabilitation: robots, cable-based manipulators, and exoskeletons. Industrial robots can be used because they provide a three-dimensional workspace with a wide range of flexibility to execute different trajectories, which are useful for motion rehabilitation. The cable-based manipulators consist of a movable platform and a base, which are connected by multiple cables that can extend or retract. The exoskeleton is fixed around the patient’s limb to provide the physiotherapy movements. This chapter presents a summary of the principal human limb movements, a review of several mechanical systems used for rehabilitation, as well as common mathematical models of such systems.
Design and Operation of Two Service Robot Arms
Authors: Gazeau Jean-Pierre , Zeghloul Saïd
Published: March 2012

The aim of this chapter is to propose original applications and development in the field of robotics. Also the focus is made on the design and operation of two service robot arms. These robots have been developed in the ROBIOSS team of the PPRIME Institute (UPR 3346 CNRS) from Poitiers University, in the context of two different collaborations with industrial partners. The design procedures for these two innovative applications are detailed: industrial and entertainment. The first application concerns a wide printing application; an international patent (Gazeau, Lallemand, Ramirez Torres, & Zeghloul, 2007) was deposited for this device in 2007. The second application was installed in 2006 in the Futuroscope Park: the “artist robot” draws portraits of the visitors every day by using a camera and a pen attached to end-effector.
Agile Wheeled Mobile Robots for Service in Natural Environment
Authors: Fauroux Jean-Christophe , Bouzgarrou Belhassen-Chedli , Bouton Nicolas , Vaslin Philippe , Lenain Roland , Chapelle Frédéric
Published: March 2012

Other advances deal with high-speed motion. Section 4 describes a new device dedicated to vehicle dynamic stability, which improves lateral stability on fast mobile robots during turns and contributes to rollover prevention. Finally, Section 5 introduces innovative suspensions with two DOF for fast obstacle crossing. They damp vertical shocks, such as ordinary suspensions, but also horizontal ones, contributing to tip-over prevention on irregular grounds that feature many steep obstacles.
Widening Participation in Higher Education through Open Educational Resources
Authors: Lane Andy
Published: March 2012

This chapter examines the role that open educational resources might play in widening participation in higher education. It begins by highlighting the perceived importance of widening participation in higher education throughout the world and how that is defined, followed by the role that openness plays more generally in higher education, and then discusses the many ways in which open educational resources may help in opening up higher education by widening the audiences for them. It goes on to set out a conceptual framework for analysing both widening participation activities and open educational resources. It concludes that openness, as exemplified by open educational resources, is beginning to influence educational opportunities around the world, but that care is needed in setting out the contexts in which such activity is taking place.
Open Educators and Colearners as DJs
Authors: Okada Alexandra , Leslie Scott
Published: March 2012

The aim of this chapter is to examine key factors for facilitating the development of reusable learning content (RLC) from the perspective of open educators and collaborative learners (colearners). Reusability is an essential feature of online resources for users having the facility and flexibility for adopting and/or adapting them. Authors then investigate the benefits and challenges that educators and learners may face when producing RLC collaboratively through an open and flexible framework called “the Flow,” using the knowledge mapping software Compendium. Results indicate there is good evidence that the OER Flow becomes a clear and flexible approach for users being aware of key steps to reuse and recreate new OER having reusability in their mind. With an easy-to-use visual technology, such as Compendium, which can be applied in several steps to adapt OER in order to represent different styles of learning paths, reusability might be more widely promoted in different and more diverse communities and institutions.
I Search Therefore I Learn - Active and Collaborative Learning in Language Teaching
Authors: Marenzi Ivana , Nejdl Wolfgang
Published: March 2012

In Content and Language Integrated Learning the context is to explicitly teach a subject through a foreign or second language, and therefore, implicitly to teach the language through this subject. Adding the activity of collaborative search is part of constructing the context, and hence making language learning real. With these goals in mind, collaborative and active learning is supported by the LearnWeb2.0 infrastructure, which helps students in collaborative searching and organization of resources. In LearnWeb2.0, searching is focused on a specific subject providing materials from Web 2.0 platforms; ratings and comments are directly linked to the resources and shared within the learning group. The authors present two CLIL courses, one in Germany and one in Italy, for which LearnWeb2.0 was used. For both courses, the authors present the tasks they designed to foster students’ active and creative learning, and discuss how these tasks were supported by our infrastructure. They present the evaluation design and results for both courses. Based on this, they discuss commonalities and differences in both scenarios, from the educational and cultural point of view, and how these influence students’ performance and satisfaction. Finally, the authors discuss lessons learned and ideas for improving educational setup and functionalities for future LearnWeb2.0 based courses.
Adapting OER for Professional Communities
Authors: Wolfenden Freda , Buckler Alison
Published: March 2012

Much is written of the potential of Open Educational Resources (OERs) to contribute to improvements in the quality of and access to education, particularly in environments such as Sub-Saharan Africa. But some of the greatest challenges lie in the processes of adaptation and re-use, and as of yet, little has been reported on how best to support user communities to harness and integrate OERs for their own systems and cultures. This chapter describes an empirically based approach to understanding and representing the OER adaptation processes as it occurred across the TESSA (Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa) consortium. The authors draw on a range of investigations to make explicit the kinds of knowledge, skills, and support employed in the adaptation process, the role of the structured template in supporting this process and the problems encountered. The chapter suggests that OERs will only fulfil their promise if greater attention is given to understanding the conditions of access, motivations, and relevant skills of users, particularly in the challenging context of Sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, the chapter offers suggestions for guidance to support other users in adapting OERs for their own context, whilst maintaining the quality of the OERs and working towards self-sustaining communities of users.
Managing Assessment Resources in the Open ICOPER Content Space
Authors: Rojas Israel Gutiérrez , Crespo Raquel M. , Totschnig Michael , Leony Derick , Kloos Carlos Delgado
Published: March 2012

With the introduction of the Web 2.0 philosophy in the learning arena, the way learning actors interact has changed substantially. From a collaborative perspective, all the actors in the learning landscape could make use of a variety of tools for collaboration, making up what it is called: “collaborative learning 2.0.” In this chapter, the discussion is focused on the open educational resources (OER), concretely open assessment resources, i.e., open resources used in the assessment process (formative and/or summative). The authors explore the way to create, share, search, manage, and access to these resources; all these actions are described from the context of collaboration inherited from the Web 2.0 paradigms: collaboration among teachers and course designers, teachers and learners, and any other factors that could arise in the assessment process. On the other hand, the approach to managing the open assessment resources is based on an outcome-based assessment process because of the great importance of the outcome-based learning.
Connected
Authors: McCarthy Josh
Published: March 2012

This study explores the efficacy of open educational resources and online social network sites in linking digital media students with industry through an e-mentoring scheme, to enhance employment prospects and promote professional networking. It reports on the progress made from 2009 to 2010, within a postgraduate program at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Over one semester, eighteen students in 2009 and sixteen students in 2010 engaged with their peers and a group of mentors through an online forum within Facebook. Students were required to submit work-in-progress imagery online, after which, industry representatives would provide feedback and critiques, allowing students to generate embryonic professional connections with industry. Over the two years, students responded positively to the experience, citing professional networking and peer feedback as key outcomes. Industry representatives noted the interactive platform of the online group, and the ability to engage with potential employees as benefits of the scheme. The project expanded in 2011, through international collaboration with Penn State University in the United States.
Blogospheric Learning in a Continuing Professional Development Context
Authors: McGuigan Aileen
Published: March 2012

Since 2006, the Teaching Qualification (Further Education) – a professional teaching qualification for in service college lecturers – has been delivered online by University of Dundee, via a virtual learning environment (VLE) on the Blackboard platform. This chapter charts developments in the programme over the period 2006 to 2010, during which time the teaching team have endeavoured to foster an interactive learning environment that actively promotes collaboration, in keeping with the social constructivist epistemology upon which the programme is modelled. The chapter explores the ways in which the programme has encouraged (recently very successfully) collaboration – participant-with-participant and participant-with-tutor –and concludes with discussion of a blog, piloted in 2009 and rolled out to all programme participants in 2010, which enabled them to initialise online discussion topics and through direct interaction with one another and teaching staff, create and disseminate user-generated knowledge. The author asserts that the closed VLE has not lived up to its promise in the TQ(FE) context in terms of collaborative learning and participant interactivity generally and suggests reasons for this and a way forward: constructing Open Educational Resources (OERs) to supplement and in time supersede the closed VLE.
Supporting Collaborative Learning in the Architectural Domain
Authors: Wolpers Martin , Memmel Martin , Giretti Alberto , Casals Miquel , Niemann Katja , Specht Marcus
Published: March 2012

This chapter discusses the use of technology in supporting the study of architecture and design in Higher Education. Digital (often open) educational architecture resources are widely spread throughout a number of repositories that do not interoperate with each other. This means that no single point of access or support for potential collaborative learning exists. The potential impact of these barriers on education in architecture, in terms of its availability as a series of digital objects through the Web, is strongly limited. The authors introduce Metadata for Architecture in Europe (MACE), a Web based support system for architecture education that has been designed as a means of creating a collective external memory of architecture content that reduces those barriers to knowledge-sharing in architecture. After introducing MACE, the chapter presents the results of an evaluation of the MACE system that was carried out in architectural design courses in four European universities by a total of around 200 students. Much of the analysis focuses on the collaborative learning aspects of the architectural design courses.