bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Automatic planning and coordinated control for redundant dual‐arm space robot system
Authors: Zhou Jun , Ding Xilun , Yue Qing Yu 
Published: December 2010

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a novel automatic planning and coordinated control method of redundant dual‐arm space robot for inner space‐station operation based on multiple sensors information by stages.Design/methodology/approachIn order to improve the coordinated control capability of dual‐arm robot system, a four‐layer hierarchical control structure is designed based on the theory of centralization and decentralization. At the high‐level planning of dual‐arm system, a task decomposition strategy based on task knowledge and a task allocation strategy in terms of the robotic capability are proposed, respectively. Moreover, a control method by stages based on the information of multiple sensors is introduced to object recognition, task planning, path planning and trajectory planning. Finally, a 3D simulation and experiment of screwing nut and bolt are implemented on a dual‐arm robot system, and the feasibility and applicability of this control strategy are verified.FindingsThe automatic planning can be accomplished by means of sensors information by stages, and by this method, the autonomy and intelligence of dual‐arm space robot system can be further improved.Practical implicationsA new automatic planning strategy integrated with multiple sensors information by stages is proposed, and can be implemented on a dual‐arm robot system for inner space‐station operations. This method specializes in heterogeneous dual‐arm robot system.Originality/valueA task decomposition strategy based on task knowledge and a task allocation strategy in terms of the robotic capability are proposed, respectively. Moreover, a control method by stages based on the information of multiple sensors is introduced to object recognition, task planning, path planning and trajectory planning of dual‐arm robot system.
Robotic edge profiling of complex components
Authors: Jayaweera Nirosh , Webb Phil 
Published: December 2010

PurposeThis paper aims to describe the development and testing of a system for the automated deburring of aero‐engine components.Design/methodology/approachThe system described in this paper uses an in‐process measurement sensor to determine the component's exact location prior to the deburring operation. The core of the system is a set of algorithms capable of fitting and generating the required robot path relative to the feature to be profiled.FindingsThe paper demonstrates that with a combination of non‐contact metrology and mathematical processing standard industrial robot can be used to deburr aero engine components.Originality/valueThe paper introduces an efficient robotic deburring method, which is developed based on generating real‐time robotic deburring path. Reducing the reliance on part holding fixtures and the use of a laser‐guided robot ensures the developed deburring system is highly flexible and re‐configurable.
Implementation of a single motor driven manipulator with multiple joints
Authors: Li Shiqi , Liu Yang , Xie Ming 
Published: December 2010

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present the design and implementation of a new manipulator with six joints driven by a single DC motor.Design/methodology/approachThe manipulator consists of several modules, each of which has the twisting and pivoting degrees of freedom. Two clutches and one brake are mounted to control each joint. A clutch model based on PWM control is built to compute the average velocity of each clutch. Two parameters are involved in the model: PWM frequency and duty ratio. PWM frequency is limited by the natural frequencies of structure with all postures. The theoretical duty ratio should be adjusted according to the clutch model. Two experiments – line tracking and arc tracking – are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the control system.FindingsThe study has designed a manipulator with six joints driven by a single DC motor which powers all the modules through a main shaft and several clutches. In the manipulator, all the modules are supplied with a constant speed input and provide a bi‐directional variable output. Experimental results show the clutch model built for the manipulator can be applied to the joint control of all multi‐joint manipulators.Originality/valueThe paper describes a dexterous and light‐weight manipulator driven by a single motor and designed with bi‐directional joints.
Application of service robots for building NDT inspection tasks
Authors: Liu K.P. , Luk B.L. , Tong F. , Chan Y.T. 
Published: December 2010

PurposeBuilding inspection tasks usually involve working at life‐threatening height, especially for high‐rise buildings. The purpose of this paper is to introduce two service robots which are designed for high‐rise building inspection applications.Design/methodology/approachThe first service robot, equipped with independent‐climbing capability, is applied to gas pipe inspection. The robot requires very little setup time and is suitable for some small inspection tasks. The second, which shares some similarities of industrial gondolas, is applied to check the health conditions of tile‐walls of high‐rise buildings. This robot requires more initial setup time but can provide faster inspection operations. In addition, it can be programmed to carry out the inspection task automatically. So, it is more suitable for large‐scale inspection tasks.FindingsFor tile‐wall inspection, a fast, low‐cost and effective non‐destructive testing technique based on impact acoustic method has been developed for the robot.Originality/valueBoth prototypes have been applied to housing estates for evaluation purposes.
Feature‐fusion based object tracking for robot platforms
Authors: Zhang Xuguang , Liu Honghai , Wang Yanjie 
Published: December 2010

PurposeObject tracking has been a challenging problem of robot vision over the decades, which plays a key role in a wide spectrum of visual tracking‐related applications such as surveillance, visual servoing, sensing and navigation in robotics, video compression. The purpose of this paper is to present a novel intensity, orientation codes and geometry (IOCG) histogram variant of the mean‐shift algorithm for object tracking.Design/methodology/approachFeature cues of intensity, orientation codes and geometric information are fused together to form an IOCG histogram in combination with a conventional mean‐shift‐based tracking algorithm.FindingsExperimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method. Not only do fusing orientation codes features allow the proposed algorithm to conduct tracking in a cluttered background, but partial occlusion is also solved in the tracker in that spatial information usually lost in a conventional histogram is compensated by the introduced geometric relations between tracked pixels and the center of a tracker template.Originality/valueThe paper presents a novel vision tracking method for robots.
Modeling of self‐tilt‐up motion for a two‐wheeled inverted pendulum
Authors: Miao Shouhong , Cao Qixin 
Published: December 2010

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a two‐wheeled inverted pendulum with self‐tilt‐up motion ability. With this ability, the two‐wheeled inverted pendulum can erect without assistance, and then the vehicle can be autonomously deployed. The paper proposes an approach to achieve this self‐tilt‐up motion, which involves precessional motion.Design/methodology/approachA flywheel is mounted inside the vehicle to perform high‐speed spinning. The flywheel and body of the vehicle are forced to move around a fixed point and precessional motion occurs. As a result of the precessional motion, a moment is synchronously generated to tilt the body up to the upright position. Since no external force is applied on this two‐wheeled inverted pendulum, it is called self‐tilt‐up motion. A 3D model and a prototype are built to validate this approach.FindingsThe simulation and experimental results show that the self‐tilting‐up motion is successful.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper presents a self‐tilt‐up motion for a two‐wheeled inverted pendulum. With the analysis of the dynamics, simulation demonstrations and prototype development, the results show that the vehicle could perform self‐tilt‐up motion without any assistance. The principle of this self‐tilt‐up motion involves processional motion of rigid body. We also pointed out the factors that play important roles in influencing the performance of self‐tilt‐up motion and then define the switching time for the motion to switch to dynamic balance movement.Originality/valueTraditional multi‐wheel robots cannot work when they overturn. However, the two‐wheeled inverted pendulums with self‐tilt‐up ability do not have this shortcoming. They can stand up to keep working even if they fall down. A two‐wheeled inverted pendulum with self‐tilt‐up ability can be applied to many places. Equipped with solar battery, it can be used as an independent explorer. This type of vehicle can be deployed in swarms for planetary detection. For example, many small two‐wheeled inverted pendulums assist a lunar rover for exploration, samples gathering, etc.
Case‐based automatic programming in robotic assembly production
Authors: Wang Lei , Tian Yajie , Sawaragi Tetsuo 
Published: December 2010

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a case‐based system for offline automatic programming in robotic assembly production. This system can reuse past learned robot programs to generate programs for new assembly tasks.Design/methodology/approachThe approach used in this paper is case‐based reasoning. The assembly knowledge acquired from the robot program for an assembly task is retained in a case, which is composed of the primitive task description and the corresponding robot program schema. The retained cases are retrieved by matching features of their primitive task descriptions, and are reused to automatically program for new tasks by instantiating their robot program schemata.FindingsA case not only can be reused as a whole, but also can be reused partly by synthesizing different parts of several cases to generate a program for a new task in a variant environment.Practical implicationsThe teaching time of robots can be greatly reduced. This helps to introduce robots into small and medium enterprises.Originality/valueThis paper proposes a novel system that can automatically program for assembly tasks in various environments by flexibly reusing past robot programs.
Employment situation of women in Pakistan
Authors: Begum Sadaquat Mahpara , Sheikh Qurra‐tul‐ain Ali 
Published: December 2010

PurposeThis paper is an attempt to analyze the study of low female work participation rate in Pakistan due to the religious, traditional, cultural values, the colonial ideology and the evolution of social institution that restrain women entry into the labour market.Design/methodology/approachIn order to explore the objectives, the paper develops the classification of male and female age groups into three main categories, and analyze with the help of descriptive and mean methodology.FindingsThe findings of this paper show that the women are suffering from market discrimination and hence are pushed to separate low‐paid and low‐status jobs. Majority of women are employed in the unorganized sectors. Mostly, women are concentrated in sector known for low level of productivity, less income stability and low security of employment due to their dual role at home and workplace. Organized services sector is mostly government services, and provides employment to a small proportion of women. The rate of unemployment among women is consistently higher than that of men, both in rural and urban areas.Research limitations/implicationsThe statistics are reflective of two hard‐core realities. The first factor is that women with no education or with some basic education are allowed to work due to intensive poverty and high rate of inflation; and the second factor is that the existing socio‐cultural norms continues to strengthen gender discrimination and are a source of a massive wastage of the human capital available in the country.Practical implicationsAn analysis of structure of women employment reveals some qualitative improvement in the employment, due to high literacy rate and educational levels.Social implicationsIncreasing levels of female labour force participation rate is a poverty‐induced phenomenon; a larger part is to be traced by improvement in literacy and education levels of women. There is some qualitative improvement in the employment, as women's share in secure and better paid jobs in the organized sector appears to be higher. With the increase in educational levels of women, faster growth of women's employment is observed in modern sectors and white‐collar jobs. Government machinery, non‐governmental organizations and progressive political parties should focus on the education of women if they want to enhance the status of women in Pakistan by implementing special schemes and programmes for absorbing them into different occupations, particularly in organized sector so as to improve their structures of employment as well as status of jobs.Originality/valueClassification of male and female age groups is done into three main categories, i.e. age ten to 14, 25‐29 and 55‐59 for young, adult and old groups, respectively. This paper provides the clear picture of women problems and causes.
A socio‐economic view on management control
Authors: Verstegen Bernard H.J. 
Published: December 2010

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce a framework of management control that accommodates phenomena found in literature, like the importance of social factors for coordinating behavior, rule‐following behavior and the evolutionary nature of control. Phenomena that the dominant economic view, based on self‐interested actors and financial incentives, cannot easily absorb.Design/methodology/approachThe framework characterizes control as the coordination of behavior in organizations. It is based on two‐stage rationality in which rule‐following behavior gives meaning to self‐interest, and in doing so, coordinates behavior.FindingsManagement control of two‐stage rational behavior involves managing the various elements of the framework in combination. The evolution of the coordinating rules in an organization will be partly autonomous and partly formed within the organization. Therefore, management control entails influencing the development path of the organization. Although it is concerned with the formation of controls in an organization, it is not exclusively concerned with the design of controls.Practical implicationsThe framework provides broader opportunities for managing an organization than the theory based on simple rational choice.Social implicationsIn this socio‐economic approach, management will not consider controlling the “economic man” to be its core activity; instead, management will be coordinating the behavior of authentic human beings.Originality/valueThese aspects of management remain undervalued in mainstream literature on management control. The non‐mainstream literature does pay attention to these aspects; however, they are seldom integrated in one theoretical structure that is based explicitly on a broad conception of human behavior. The socio‐economic view can offer valuable insight into management and organization.
Counter hegemony, newspapers and the origins of anti‐colonialism in French India
Authors: Chapman Jane 
Published: December 2010

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reveal the contribution of counter‐hegemonic communications towards the origins of anti‐colonialism in French India during the years 1935‐1937 and thereby to illuminate the relationship between press, economics and ideology in a colonial context.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a qualitative study of local archives in Tamil and French, including indigenous print communications such as the workers' paperSwandanthiram. These are used as a prism for analysis of the development of a workers' public voice during major textile strikes, and assessed in the light of John Downing's definitions of advocacy journalism.FindingsCommunications were directly connected to disempowerment and lack of civil, political and economic rights. The formation of legal worker organisations for the first time and a new political party provided the context in which activist leaders adopted a twofold vertical and lateral strategy in their publications, to promote their formative anti‐colonial ideas.Research limitations/implicationsThis research illuminates the relationship between press, economics and ideology in a colonial context, demonstrating the importance of economic factors in rise of nationalist movements and the way press usage is connected to basic civil, political and economic rights.Originality/valueThe paper traces a forgotten episode in the history of a neglected corner of French empire, significant for the emergence of the indigenous population – including peasant women – for the first time from the private to the public sphere as an organised force – a factor that has previously been ignored by historians.
Technology and economic fluctuations in the US food sector (1958‐2006)
Authors: Papageorgiou Theofanis , Michaelides Panayotis G. , Milios John G. 
Published: December 2010

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to deal with questions of instability and economic crises, deriving theoretical arguments from Marx's and Schumpeter's works and presenting relevant empirical evidence for the case of the US food manufacturing sector.Design/methodology/approachThe paper attempts to interpret the economic fluctuations in the US food sector and find causal relationships between the crucial variables dictated by Schumpeterian and Marxian theory, such as technological change, output and profitability. In this context, a number of relevant techniques have been used, such as de‐trending, cointegration analysis, white noise tests, periodograms, cross‐correlations and Granger causality tests.FindingsMost economic variables in the food manufacturing sector exhibit a similar pattern characterized by periodicities exhibiting a short‐term cycle, a mid‐term cycle and a long‐term cycle. Also, the economic variables investigated follow patterns which are consistent with the total economy. Furthermore, a relatively rapid transmission of technology in the economy takes place along with bidirectional causality between technology and output/profitability, which can be interpreted as indicating an ambivalent relationship in the flow of cause and effect. These findings give credit to certain aspects of the Schumpeterian and Marxist theories of economic crises, respectively.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature in the following ways: first, it introduces a relevant methodological framework building on Schumpeterian and Marxist insights. Second, it uses several variables to study the economic fluctuations instead of delimiting its analysis, for instance, to industrial output. Third, the results are discussed in a broader political economy context, related to the US economy, as a whole.
Perceptions of healthcare practitioners in Saudi Arabia regarding their training in oral cancer prevention, and early detection
Authors: Jaber Louay , Shaban Sami , Hariri Deema , Smith Stephanus 
Published: December 2010

PurposeHealthcare practitioners (HCPs) have a major responsibility in the prevention and early detection of oral cancer (OC). Accordingly, adequate training in this area will positively enhance healthcare practitioners' accountability towards their patients. The present study was conducted in Saudi Arabia with the objective of assessing HCPs' opinion vis‐à‐vis OC prevention and early detection.Design/methodology/approachA cross‐sectional survey was distributed among HCPs in six different settings in Saudi Arabia.FindingsTotals of 41.2 per cent and 63.4 per cent of HCPs thought that they are adequately trained to perform an OC examination and to palpate the lymph nodes, respectively. Similarly, 33.2 per cent and 25.8 per cent thought that they are adequately trained to provide tobacco and alcohol cessation education for their patients, respectively. Of HCPs, 45.1 per cent thought they had a low level of knowledge and training in OC prevention and the early detection thereof, 53.6 per cent agreed that their knowledge about OC was not current, and 82 per cent were comfortable with referring suspicious lesions to specialists.Originality/valueIt appears that the current knowledge and training in OC prevention and early detection among HCPs in Saudi Arabia is not up to the desired level. Accordingly, it is suggested that OC prevention and early detection should be given the necessary attention when establishing new continuous education strategies in Saudi Arabia.
Quality‐assuring intervention for technical medical staff at medical committees
Authors: Chaiter Yoram , Palma Elio , Machluf Yossy , Yona Avi , Cohen Avi , Pirogovsky Avinoam , Shohat Tamar , Ytzhak Amir , Ash Nachman 
Published: December 2010

PurposeThis paper seeks to examine an intervention program which was developed in order to improve the performance and skills of technical medical personnel at the military recruitment medical committees.Design/methodology/approachEvaluation of the technician soldiers' performance was carried out by the usage of a specifically farmed survey, comprising a designed questionnaire, and direct observation of their work, including appraisal of their measurements and interpretation skills.FindingsPrior to intervention, analysis revealed: insufficient knowledge of normal range of blood pressure and pulse values, visual acuity of color vision, urinalysis and their relation to the classification process at medical committees; and inadequate technicalities such as incorrect weight and height measurements.Originality/valueThe model of the intervention program could be modified and adopted by medical committees, sports medicine examinations, periodic screening procedures, and primary care medicine in order to improve the quality of medical records and medical care.
Do patients' perceptions exceed their expectations in private healthcare settings?
Authors: Mohd Suki Norazah , Chiam Chwee Lian Jennifer , Mohd Suki Norbayah 
Published: December 2010

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether patients' perceptions exceed expectations when seeking treatment in private healthcare settings in the Klang Valley Region of Malaysia.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted among 191 patients in the Klang Valley Region of Malaysia to measure service quality of the private healthcare setting in Malaysia using SERVQUAL 5 dimensions model by Parasuraman et al. and three additional dimensions of the human element, when it comes to rendering good healthcare services, i.e. courtesy, communication and understanding of customers.FindingsThe results revealed that the customers' perceptions did not exceed their expectations, as they were dissatisfied with the level of healthcare services rendered by private healthcare settings in that they felt that the waiting time of more than an hour to receive the service was excessive and, when there was a problem, the healthcare provider did not provide a response fast enough.Research limitations/implicationsOnly eight service quality dimensions were studied. The sample investigated is relatively small, where three private healthcare settings were selected.Practical implicationsIt is recommended that hospital management should look into highlighted areas for which patients have high expectations.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the existing body of research on healthcare service quality, particularly on patients' perceptions and expectations. Survey results should be useful for continuous quality improvement.