Anthropocentric-based robotic and autonomous systems: assessment for new organisational options

Text based on the paper presented at the Conference "Autonomous systems: inter-relations of technical and societal issues" held at Monte de Caparica (Portugal), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, November, 5th and 6th 2009 and organized by IET-Research Centre on Enterprise and Work InnovationResearch activities at European level on the concept of new working environments offers considerable attention to the challenges of the increased competencies of people working together with automated technologies. Since the decade of 1980 the development of approaches for the humanization of work organization, and for the development of participative organizational options induced to new proposals related to the development of complex and integrated automated systems. From such parallel conceptual development emerged the concept of “anthropocentric robotic systems” and quickly it covered also other fields of automation. More recently, the debate also covers issues related to working perception of people dealing with autonomous systems (e.g. Autonomous robotics) in tasks related to production planning, to programming and to process control. In fact, today one can understand the wider use of the anthropocentrism concept of production architectures, when understanding the new quality of these systems. In this chapter the author analyses the evolution of these issues related to governance of ICT applied to manufacturing and industrial services in research programmes strengthening very much the ‘classical’ concept of anthropocentric-based systems. It is emerging a new value of the intuitive capacities and human knowledge in the optimization and flexibilization of the manufacturing processes. While this would be a pre-condition to understand the human-robot communication needs, there is also a need to take into consideration the qualitative variables in the definition and design of robotic systems, jobs and production systems.Project CRUP/DAAD on “Technology Assessment of Autonomous Robotics” of FCT-UNL and ITAS-KI

Fostering collective intelligence education

New educational models are necessary to update learning environments to the digitally shared communication and information. Collective intelligence is an emerging field that already has a significant impact in many areas and will have great implications in education, not only from the side of new methodologies but also as a challenge for education. This paper proposes an approach to a collective intelligence model of teaching using Internet to combine two strategies: idea management and real time assessment in the class. A digital tool named Fabricius has been created supporting these two elements to foster the collaboration and engagement of students in the learning process. As a result of the research we propose a list of KPI trying to measure individual and collective performance. We are conscious that this is just a first approach to define which aspects of a class following a course can be qualified and quantified.Postprint (published version

Digital Design of Intralogistics Systems: Flexible and Agile Solution to Short-Cyclic Fluctuations

In times of fast-paced, fluctuating and individual markets, intralogistics systems, such as warehouses, have to adapt to the resulting volatile performance demands dynamically. Hybrid systems, in which humans and machines work together efficiently and communicate in socio-technical networks, can be the answer to manage these high-frequency markets. Hybrid systems of the future need to adapt frequently and permanent change becomes the “new normal”. A one-time planning of warehousing systems upon first installation becomes obsolete. This results in the question of how to design and implement processes for future logistics systems in an agile way in order to exploit the flexibility potential of hybrid services, which represent an interface between man, machine and organization. As part of the Innovation Lab Hybrid Services in Logistics in Dortmund, Germany, a research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, this research proposes a new concept for digital design of intralogistics systems that is meeting the requirements of a continuous, short-cycle adjustment following the Industry 4.0 development path

The rationale of development practices for expert systems : an empirical investigation

Practices of expert system development are not widely investigated. In this paper I describe results of case studies on the inhouse deployment of small expert systems in two companies, along with a review of empirical research. The investigation focuses on the underlying rationale of the observed practices during the stages of design, field transfer and use. The examples show the importance of integrative approaches to technical and organizational aspects of development projects. The remaining potential for organizational turbulences is explained with inherent tensions of the rationale

Decisional guidance for computerised personal decision aid (ComPDA)

Recently, the existence of many computerized decision aids which support personal decision making have drawn massive attention to study how these aids really help the decision makers.Helping decision maker makes a particular decision has always been the major aim of decision aids.However, designing an effective decision aid is more than meet the eyes.Guidance portion of the interface design in decision aid cannot be taken lightly as it can influence the outcomes.This study acknowledges the needs to make sure the design of personal decision aids adhere to systematic investigation to achieve the sole goal of a ComPDA.In this paper eight ComPDAs were identified and comparedto extract the decisional guidance components for ComPDA. Accordingly, comparative analysis of the tools is further explained and illustrated

Stakeholder involvement, motivation, responsibility, communication: How to design usable security in e-Science

e-Science projects face a difficult challenge in providing access to valuable computational resources, data and software to large communities of distributed users. Oil the one hand, the raison d'etre of the projects is to encourage members of their research communities to use the resources provided. Oil the other hand, the threats to these resources from online attacks require robust and effective Security to mitigate the risks faced. This raises two issues: ensuring that (I) the security mechanisms put in place are usable by the different users of the system, and (2) the security of the overall system satisfies the security needs of all its different stakeholders. A failure to address either of these issues call seriously jeopardise the success of e-Science projects.The aim of this paper is to firstly provide a detailed understanding of how these challenges call present themselves in practice in the development of e-Science applications. Secondly, this paper examines the steps that projects can undertake to ensure that security requirements are correctly identified, and security measures are usable by the intended research community. The research presented in this paper is based Oil four case studies of c-Science projects. Security design traditionally uses expert analysis of risks to the technology and deploys appropriate countermeasures to deal with them. However, these case studies highlight the importance of involving all stakeholders in the process of identifying security needs and designing secure and usable systems.For each case study, transcripts of the security analysis and design sessions were analysed to gain insight into the issues and factors that surround the design of usable security. The analysis concludes with a model explaining the relationships between the most important factors identified. This includes a detailed examination of the roles of responsibility, motivation and communication of stakeholders in the ongoing process of designing usable secure socio-technical systems such as e-Science. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The design with intent method: A design tool for influencing user behaviour

The official published version can be found at the link below.Using product and system design to influence user behaviour offers potential for improving performance and reducing user error, yet little guidance is available at the concept generation stage for design teams briefed with influencing user behaviour. This article presents the Design with Intent Method, an innovation tool for designers working in this area, illustrated via application to an everyday human–technology interaction problem: reducing the likelihood of a customer leaving his or her card in an automatic teller machine. The example application results in a range of feasible design concepts which are comparable to existing developments in ATM design, demonstrating that the method has potential for development and application as part of a user-centred design process

Embodied Musical Interaction

Music is a natural partner to human-computer interaction, offering tasks and use cases for novel forms of interaction. The richness of the relationship between a performer and their instrument in expressive musical performance can provide valuable insight to human-computer interaction (HCI) researchers interested in applying these forms of deep interaction to other fields. Despite the longstanding connection between music and HCI, it is not an automatic one, and its history arguably points to as many differences as it does overlaps. Music research and HCI research both encompass broad issues, and utilize a wide range of methods. In this chapter I discuss how the concept of embodied interaction can be one way to think about music interaction. I propose how the three “paradigms” of HCI and three design accounts from the interaction design literature can serve as a lens through which to consider types of music HCI. I use this conceptual framework to discuss three different musical projects—Haptic Wave, Form Follows Sound, and BioMuse