The Encyclopedia of Neutrosophic Researchers - vol. 3

This is the third volume of the Encyclopedia of Neutrosophic Researchers, edited from materials offered by the authors who responded to the editor’s invitation. The authors are listed alphabetically. The introduction contains a short history of neutrosophics, together with links to the main papers and books. Neutrosophic set, neutrosophic logic, neutrosophic probability, neutrosophic statistics, neutrosophic measure, neutrosophic precalculus, neutrosophic calculus and so on are gaining significant attention in solving many real life problems that involve uncertainty, impreciseness, vagueness, incompleteness, inconsistent, and indeterminacy. In the past years the fields of neutrosophics have been extended and applied in various fields, such as: artificial intelligence, data mining, soft computing, decision making in incomplete / indeterminate / inconsistent information systems, image processing, computational modelling, robotics, medical diagnosis, biomedical engineering, investment problems, economic forecasting, social science, humanistic and practical achievements

Comprehensive review on controller for leader-follower robotic system

985-1007This paper presents a comprehensive review of the leader-follower robotics system. The aim of this paper is to find and elaborate on the current trends in the swarm robotic system, leader-follower, and multi-agent system. Another part of this review will focus on finding the trend of controller utilized by previous researchers in the leader-follower system. The controller that is commonly applied by the researchers is mostly adaptive and non-linear controllers. The paper also explores the subject of study or system used during the research which normally employs multi-robot, multi-agent, space flying, reconfigurable system, multi-legs system or unmanned system. Another aspect of this paper concentrates on the topology employed by the researchers when they conducted simulation or experimental studies

Social Robots in Hospitals: A Systematic Review

Hospital environments are facing new challenges this century. One of the most important is the quality of services to patients. Social robots are gaining prominence due to the advantages they offer; in particular, several of their main uses have proven beneficial during the pandemic. This study aims to shed light on the current status of the design of social robots and their interaction with patients. To this end, a systematic review was conducted using WoS and MEDLINE, and the results were exhaustive analyzed. The authors found that most of the initiatives and projects serve the el- derly and children, and specifically, that they helped these groups fight diseases such as dementia, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), cancer, and diabetes

Metodología para la síntesis de autómatas en la planificación de movimientos en sistemas autónomos con múltiples agentes

Objective: To develop a methodology for motion planning in autonomous systems with multiple agents.   Methodology: In the first place, a parametric definition of the behavior of a team of autonomous navigation systems is established. Then, the control policies are interpreted by a synthesis algorithm by converting the task description into LTL formulas and therefore generating a model that allows for automatic abstractions.  Starting from configurations of generic solutions, we derive the case of multiple robots with a unique task, assuming an environment with stationary obstacles. The methodology is validated in all the aforementioned scenarios, and results are then analyzed and discussed.   Results: Our proposed methodology, for motion planning in autonomous systems with multiple agents, combines two state-of-the-art techniques, mitigating the combinatorial explosion of states in traditional approaches.   Conclusions: Our proposed methodology solves the automaton synthesis for multiple agents with high-level control, and even with task changes during the execution. The problem of combinatorial explosion of states is mitigated. The solution is optimized vis-a-vis the number of transactions performed by the team members.   Financing: Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira  Objetivo: Presentar una metodología para la planificación de movimientos de sistemas autónomos con múltiples agentes.   Metodología: Se define y parametriza el comportamiento físico de un equipo de sistemas de navegación autónoma, luego se describe e implementa un algoritmo de síntesis de políticas de control que interpreta estas descripciones convertidas a fórmulas LTL y se genera un modelo que permite hacer abstracciones automáticas. A partir de configuraciones genéricas de solución, se deriva en el caso de múltiples robots con una única tarea en un entorno con obstáculos fijos. La metodología se valida en diferentes escenarios y se analizan los resultados.   Resultados: La metodología propuesta para planificación de movimientos en sistemas con múltiples agentes, combina dos técnicas del estado del arte, permitiendo mitigar la explosión combinacional de estados presente en los enfoques tradicionales.   Conclusiones: La metodología que se presenta resuelve el problema de síntesis de autómatas para el control de alto nivel, con cambio de tareas durante la ejecución. Bajo ciertos criterios, se mitiga el problema de explosión combinacional de estados asociado a estos sistemas. La solución es óptima respecto al número de transiciones seguidas por los miembros del equipo.   Financiamiento: Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira

Counteracting UDP flooding attacks in SDN

Software-defined networking (SDN) is a new networking architecture with a centralized control mechanism. SDN has proven to be successful in improving not only the network performance, but also security. However, centralized control in the SDN architecture is associated with new security vulnerabilities. In particular, user-datagram-protocol (UDP) flooding attacks can be easily launched and cause serious packet-transmission delays, controller-performance loss, and even network shutdown. In response to applications in the Internet of Things (IoT) field, this study considers UDP flooding attacks in SDN and proposes two lightweight countermeasures. The first method sometimes sacrifices address-resolution-protocol (ARP) requests to achieve a high level of security. In the second method, although packets must sometimes be sacrificed when undergoing an attack before starting to defend, the detection of the network state can prevent normal packets from being sacrificed. When blocking a network attack, attacks from the affected port are directly blocked without affecting normal ports. The performance and security of the proposed methods were confirmed by means of extensive experiments. Compared with the situation where no defense is implemented, or similar defense methods are implemented, after simulating a UDP flooding attack, our proposed method performed better in terms of the available bandwidth, centralprocessing-unit (CPU) consumption, and network delay time

Blockchain technology to improve supply chain management - a systematic literature review

This study followed the systematic literature review approach to analyse how blockchain technology can improve supply chain management and to promote a future research agenda. The search was carried out at Web of Science Core Collection between September 2019 and February 2020 by using the keywords “blockchain” AND “supply chain” OR “blockchain” AND “logistics” in the title. In this review 127 studies were identified for screening and a final sample of 67 studies met the inclusion criteria and were analysed to answer the research questions. After examining the selected studies, our findings uncover a range of approaches showing how blockchain can enhance the supply chain management and point out which sectors are most likely to benefit from its implementation. This study contributes to the existing literature by systematising the most relevant information on blockchain implementation in supply chains. In addition, the findings of this study also provide managers and researchers with insights about the likely consequences of blockchain adoption in various sectors. Although there are already some literature reviews on blockchain technology in the supply chain management, this is one of the first studies that brings together the main issues focused on the consequences of blockchain adoption in the supply chain management.A gestão da cadeia de abastecimento está a passar por um processo de digitalização das suas operações justificada pela Quarta Revolução Industrial (Indústria 4.0) que prevê a adoção de novas tecnologias com o objetivo de reduzir custos operacionais, aumentar a eficiência da cadeia de abastecimento e agregar valor aos produtos e serviços. Ferramentas tecnológicas como a internet das coisas (IoT), identificação por radiofrequência (RFID) e Big Data, estão a ser utilizadas na melhoria dos controlos de produção, compra, procura, na tomadas de decisões dos gestores, entretanto, a recente tecnologia blockchain tem chamado atenção de pesquisadores e especialistas devido ao seu potencial transformador nos negócios e principalmente na gestão da cadeia de abastecimento. Por este motivo, este estudo propõe uma revisão sistemática de literatura com o objetivo de analisar como a tecnologia blockchain pode melhorar a gestão da cadeia de abastecimento e propor uma agenda de investigação para o futuro. A pesquisa foi realizada na base de dados Web of Science Core Collection entre setembro de 2019 e fevereiro de 2020 usando as palavras-chave "blockchain" E "supply chain" OU "blockchain" E "logistics" no título. O critério de seleção dos artigos considerou apenas estudos revistos por pares, anais de conferência e livros nos idiomas inglês, espanhol, francês e português. A seleção dos estudos ocorreu em duas etapas. Na primeira etapa, foram analisados títulos e resumos. Na segunda etapa, foi realizada a leitura integral dos estudos que não foram excluídos na primeira fase. Os critérios de exclusão foram: artigos de revisão de literatura, relatórios, estudos focados em informações técnicas, estudos que enfatizaram outras tecnologias (IoT, RFID), gestão financeira da cadeia de abastecimento e/ou estudos relacionados com bitcoins. Os artigos que preencheram um desses critérios foram excluídos com justificativa. Embora tenhamos excluído artigos de revisão de literatura, esses documentos ainda foram utilizados para identificar estudos-chave que não haviam sido capturados da base de dados Web of Science. Por fim, nesta revisão foram identificados 127 estudos para triagem e uma amostra final de 67 estudos atendeu aos critérios de inclusão e foram analisados para responder às perguntas da pesquisa. As perguntas a que a pesquisa teve por objetivo responder foram: quais os benefícios e riscos da tecnologia blockchain; quais os setores que já adotaram a tecnologia blockchain na gestão da cadeia de abastecimento e sua fase de implementação; quais as características das empresas que utilizam a tecnologia; quais são os fatores facilitadores e barreiras para a adoção da tecnologia blockchain nas empresas; qual a influência da tecnologia blockchain na garantia da sustentabilidade da cadeia de abastecimento dentro da estratégia organizacional e dos níveis operacionais; como avaliar o desempenho da tecnologia blockchain na gestão da cadeia de abastecimento. Os estudos selecionados apontam que a partir de 2017 houve um aumento expressivo de estudos relacionados ao uso da tecnologia blockchain na cadeia de abastecimento. Os Estados Unidos, China e Índia são os países com a maior percentagem de publicações sobre o tema e representam aproximadamente 44% do total. Os estudos foram publicados em jornais especializados em sistema de produção e processos, engenharia industrial, tecnologia, gestão, logística, cadeia de abastecimento e sustentabilidade. Quanto aos benefícios e riscos da adoção da tecnologia blockchain, os estudos indicam que a transparência dos dados, rastreabilidade e a redução dos custos operacionais são um dos maiores benefícios da adoção da tecnologia blockchain na cadeia de abastecimento, enquanto a escalabilidade e interoperabilidade foram identificados com os maiores riscos/limitações da implantação da tecnologia. No que tange aos fatores facilitadores da adoção da tecnologia blockchain, a gestão de topo apresenta-se como agente principal no incentivo à adoção do blockchain nas organizações, além disso, a perceção de utilização da tecnologia pelos funcionários também influencia o sucesso de implantação da tecnologia blockchain. Outras características que afetam a adoção da tecnologia são a infraestrutura das empresas, políticas governamentais e a cultura do país, entretanto esses fatores tendem a ter níveis diferentes de acordo com o país onde a empresa está instalada. No que diz respeito aos fatores que dificultam a implantação do blockchain nas organizações, são apontados a falta de conhecimento da tecnologia blockchain e dos seus potenciais benefícios, a existência de um número reduzido de aplicações do blockchain nas empresas, a coordenação e comprometimento dos parceiros de negócios na resolução de problemas e no tratamento de dados, fatores externos, como a legislação e incentivos governamentais. Após examinar os estudos selecionados, a nossa análise revela uma série de abordagens que mostram como a blockchain pode melhorar a gestão da cadeia de abastecimento e identifica os setores mais propensos a retirar benefícios de sua implementação. A indústria de alimentos e a indústria farmacêutica são apontados como os setores com maior vantagem na adoção do blockchain devido a criticidade dos seus produtos, a procura crescente por informações referente a proveniência dos bens e seu alto valor agregado. O perfil das organizações que adotaram a tecnologia blockchain são geralmente multinacionais de grande e médio porte, com capilaridade de parceiros de negócios, grande volume de produção e alto valor agregado aos seus bens. Quanto a sustentabilidade, a tecnologia blockchain pode influenciar, através da transparência e rastreabilidade dos produtos, na redução da produção de lixo e das emissões de carbono no meio ambiente, no controlo das leis e práticas laborais, evitando-se trabalho escravo e, relacionado com as questões económicas, redução dos custos com auditorias, controlo de pedidos de compra, produção e procura. Os indicadores de performance, de acordo com os estudos revistos, podem ser melhorados com a utilização da tecnologia blockchain, promovendo novas métricas sustentáveis baseadas na rastreabilidade e na transparência dos dados. Apesar da fase inicial da tecnologia blockchain, alguns estudos propõem indicadores que avaliam a eficiência da cadeia de abastecimento após a adoção do blockchain, como o tempo de processamento das transações, a utilização de recursos (água, energia elétrica) e níveis de emissão de carbono. Embora já existam algumas revisões de literatura sobre a tecnologia blockchain na gestão da cadeia de abastecimento, este é um dos primeiros estudos que reúne questões importantes focadas nas consequências da adoção do blockchain na gestão. Além disso, os resultados deste estudo fornecem implicações para a gestão e para a teoria sobre as prováveis consequências da adoção de blockchain em vários setores da economia

Deep Learning Based Methods for Outdoor Robot Localization and Navigation

The number of elderly people is increasing around the globe. In order to support the growing of ageing society, mobile robot is one of viable choices for assisting the elders in their daily activities. These activities happen in any places, either indoor or outdoor. Although outdoor activities benefit the elders in many ways, outdoor environments contain difficulties from their unpredictable natures. Mobile robots for supporting humans in outdoor environments must automatically traverse through various difficulties in the environments using suitable navigation systems.Core components of mobile robots always include the navigation segments. Navigation system helps guiding the robot to its destination where it can perform its designated tasks. There are various tools to be chosen for navigation systems. Outdoor environments are mostly open for conventional navigation tools such as Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. In this thesis three systems for localization and navigation of mobile robots based on visual data and deep learning algorithms are proposed. The first localization system is based on landmark detection. The Faster Regional-Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN) detects landmarks and signs in the captured image. A Feed-Forward Neural Network (FFNN) is trained to determine robot location coordinates and compass orientation from detected landmarks. The dataset consists of images, geolocation data and labeled bounding boxes to train and test two proposed localization methods. Results are illustrated with absolute errors from the comparisons between localization results and reference geolocation data in the dataset. The second system is the navigation system based on visual data and a deep reinforcement learning algorithm called Deep Q Network (DQN). The employed DQN automatically guides the mobile robot with visual data in the form of images, which received from the only Universal Serial Bus (USB) camera that attached to the robot. DQN consists of a deep neural network called convolutional neural network (CNN), and a reinforcement learning algorithm named Q-Learning. It can make decisions with visual data as input, using experiences from consequences of trial-and-error attempts. Our DQN agents are trained in the simulation environments provided by a platform based on a First-Person Shooter (FPS) game named ViZDoom. Simulation is implemented for training to avoid any possible damage on the real robot during trial-and-error process. Perspective from the simulation is the same as if a camera is attached to the front of the mobile robot. There are many differences between the simulation and the real world. We applied a markerbased Augmented Reality (AR) algorithm to reduce differences between the simulation and the world by altering visual data from the camera with resources from the simulation.The second system is assigned the task of simple navigation to the robot, in which the starting location is fixed but the goal location is random in the designated zone. The robot must be able to detect and track the goal object using a USB camera as its only sensor. Once started, the robot must move from its starting location to the designated goal object. Our DQN navigation method is tested in the simulation and on the real robot. Performances of our DQN are measured quantitatively via average total scores and the number of success navigation attempts. The results show that our DQN can effectively guide a mobile robot to the goal object of the simple navigation tasks, for both the simulation and the real world.The third system employs a Transfer Learning (TL) strategy to reduce training time and resources required for the training of newly added tasks of DQN agents. The new task is the task of reaching the goal while also avoiding obstacles at the same time. Additionally, the starting and the goal locations are all random within the specified areas. The employed transfer learning strategy uses the whole network of the DQN agent trained for the first simple navigation task as the base for training the DQN agent for the second task. The training in our TL strategy decrease the exploration factor, which cause the agent to rely on the existing knowledge from the base network more than randomly selecting actions during the training. It results in the decreased training time, in which optimal solutions can be found faster than training from scratch.We evaluate performances of our TL strategy by comparing the DQN agents trained with our TL at different exploration factor values and the DQN agent trained from scratch. Additionally, agents trained from our TL are trained with the decreased number of episodes to extensively display performances of our TL agents. All DQN agents for the second navigation task are tested in the simulation to avoid any possible and uncontrollable damages from the obstacles. Performances are measured through success attempts and average total scores, same as in the first navigation task. Results show that DQN agents trained via the TL strategy can greatly outperform the agent trained from scratch, despite the lower number of training episodes.博士(工学)法政大学 (Hosei University

Turin Augmented Metropolis

Chapter reporting in summary form The Metropolitan Strategic Plan (2021-2023), applied research commissioned by the Metropolitan City of Turin and developed by a large multidisciplinary team. Nicola Russi was responsible for the PTGM Metropolitan General Territorial Plan, preparatory for development of the Strategic Plan. / Capitolo che riporta in forma sintetica Il Piano Strategico della Città Metropolitana di Torino (2021-2023), ricerca applicata commissionata dalla Città Metropolitana di Torino e svilppata da un ampio team multidisciplinare. In particolare Nicola Russi è stato responsabile del PTGM Piano Territoriale Generale Metropolitano, propedeutico allo sviluppo del Piano Strategico

Use of Quality Management Methods and Tools - a Systematic Review of the Literature

Bakalářská práce se skládá ze dvou částí: teoretické a praktické. V teoretické části práce popisujeme a charakterizujeme metody a nástroje managementu kvality. V praktické části jsme se zaměřili na shromáždění a analýzu publikací zabývajících se možnostmi využívání metod a nástrojů managementu kvality v různých ekonomických a sociálních oblastech. Pro rychlejší vyhledávání sledovaných publikací jsme využili dvě databáze: (www.webofscience.com) a IEE Xplore (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org).The Bachelor thesis consists of two parts: theoretical and practical. In the theoretical part of the work, we describe and characterize the methods and tools of quality management. In the practical part, we focused on gathering and analysing publications dealing with the possibilities of using quality management methods and tools in various economic and social areas. We used two databases for faster searches of monitored publications: (www.webofscience.com) and IEE Xplore(https://ieeexplore.ieee.org).639 - Katedra managementu kvalitydobř