Behavior based control of mobile robot via voting technique

Behavior-based control employs a set of distributed, interacting modules, called behaviors that collectively achieve the desired system-level behavior. One typical issue in behavior-based control systems is the formulation of effective mechanisms for coordination of the behaviors’ activities in assuring that the mobile robot act in the correct action in accordance to its surroundings environment. This is what is known as action selection Action Selection Problem (ASP). An Action Selection Mechanism (ASM) is basically a mechanism with the main intention of solving the concerns raised in the ASP. There are basically 2 types of ASM mainly Arbitration and Command Fusion. The difference between Arbitration and Command Fusion are Arbitrary ASM allow one or one set of behaviors to take control at any one time.Command Fusion ASMs allow multiple behaviors to contribute to final control of the mobile robot.Voting technique is one of the strategies under the competitive methods used for behavior coordination in mobile robotics. Each behavior developed for a particular mobile robot shall generate a vote for a set of possible robot actions. A typical vote value of zero would normally mean the least desired action and a vote value of one shall mean that the particular action is most desired. These behaviors send votes as a possibility for each action set to achieve the objectives of the behaviors. An arbiter then performs command fusion and selects the most favoured action that is with the highest vote value. This project report will focus on the realization of a behavior based control for a mobile robot using the voting technique

Cybernetic Model of Voting Behavior

Abstract. The purpose of this research paper is to review the theories on voting behavior. Apart from providing a brief review of the theories, the main contribution of this research paper lies in drawing a parallel between customer decision-making models of Marketing Management domain in the discipline of Business Administration and invoking the same as a separate theoretical viewpoint here with reference to the voters’ decision-making. Finally, the paper gives a model of voting behavior from a cybernetics model perspective wherein the role of social factors as well as personal factors is underlined as to how they influence the individual voter in response to the broader environmental factors like the national and international policy factors.Keywords. Voting behavior, Political parties, Cybernetics.JEL. D72, P20, C70

High Studies Deanery Faculty of Commerce Business Administration Department

This study aimed to show the influence of information overload on the decision making process, using the descriptive analytical method to study the influence of information overload represented through three dimensions (email overload, information characteristics and information & communication technology). The study was applied on INGOs that work in Gaza Strip. The questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. The study population was (106) who are all managers (Top and Middle levels Management) in INGOs. A census has been used for the target population. Because of the policy of some organizations regarding confidentiality and privacy of work environment, only (86) questionnaires were collected and all were retrieved and analyzed. Results of the analysis of the questionnaire data demonstrate significant relationship of information overload with the managers ‘decision making process

Improving Robotic Decision-Making in Unmodeled Situations

Existing methods of autonomous robotic decision-making are often fragile when faced with inaccurate or incompletely modeled distributions of uncertainty, also known as ambiguity. While decision-making under ambiguity is a field of study that has been gaining interest, many existing methods tend to be computationally challenging, require many assumptions about the nature of the problem, and often require much prior knowledge. Therefore, they do not scale well to complex real-world problems where fulfilling all of these requirements is often impractical if not impossible. The research described in this dissertation investigates novel approaches to robotic decision-making strategies which are resilient to ambiguity that are not subject to as many of these requirements as most existing methods. The novel frameworks described in this research incorporate physical feedback, diversity, and swarm local interactions, three factors that are hypothesized to be key in creating resilience to ambiguity. These three factors are inspired by examples of robots which demonstrate resilience to ambiguity, ranging from simple vibrobots to decentralized robotic swarms. The proposed decision-making methods, based around a proposed framework known as Ambiguity Trial and Error (AT&E), are tested for both single robots and robotic swarms in several simulated robotic foraging case studies, and a real-world robotic foraging experiment. A novel method for transferring swarm resilience properties back to single agent decision-making is also explored. The results from the case studies show that the proposed methods demonstrate resilience to varying types of ambiguities, both stationary and non-stationary, while not requiring accurate modeling and assumptions, large amounts of prior training data, or computationally expensive decision-making policy solvers. Conclusions about these novel methods are then drawn from the simulation and experiment results and the future research directions leveraging the lessons learned from this research are discussed

Wide-Area Situation Awareness based on a Secure Interconnection between Cyber-Physical Control Systems

Posteriormente, examinamos e identificamos los requisitos especiales que limitan el diseño y la operación de una arquitectura de interoperabilidad segura para los SSC (particularmente los SCCF) del smart grid. Nos enfocamos en modelar requisitos no funcionales que dan forma a esta infraestructura, siguiendo la metodología NFR para extraer requisitos esenciales, técnicas para la satisfacción de los requisitos y métricas para nuestro modelo arquitectural. Estudiamos los servicios necesarios para la interoperabilidad segura de los SSC del SG revisando en profundidad los mecanismos de seguridad, desde los servicios básicos hasta los procedimientos avanzados capaces de hacer frente a las amenazas sofisticadas contra los sistemas de control, como son los sistemas de detección, protección y respuesta ante intrusiones. Nuestro análisis se divide en diferentes áreas: prevención, consciencia y reacción, y restauración; las cuales general un modelo de seguridad robusto para la protección de los sistemas críticos. Proporcionamos el diseño para un modelo arquitectural para la interoperabilidad segura y la interconexión de los SCCF del smart grid. Este escenario contempla la interconectividad de una federación de proveedores de energía del SG, que interactúan a través de la plataforma de interoperabilidad segura para gestionar y controlar sus infraestructuras de forma cooperativa. La plataforma tiene en cuenta las características inherentes y los nuevos servicios y tecnologías que acompañan al movimiento de la Industria 4.0. Por último, presentamos una prueba de concepto de nuestro modelo arquitectural, el cual ayuda a validar el diseño propuesto a través de experimentaciones. Creamos un conjunto de casos de validación que prueban algunas de las funcionalidades principales ofrecidas por la arquitectura diseñada para la interoperabilidad segura, proporcionando información sobre su rendimiento y capacidades.Las infraestructuras críticas (IICC) modernas son vastos sistemas altamente complejos, que precisan del uso de las tecnologías de la información para gestionar, controlar y monitorizar el funcionamiento de estas infraestructuras. Debido a sus funciones esenciales, la protección y seguridad de las infraestructuras críticas y, por tanto, de sus sistemas de control, se ha convertido en una tarea prioritaria para las diversas instituciones gubernamentales y académicas a nivel mundial. La interoperabilidad de las IICC, en especial de sus sistemas de control (SSC), se convierte en una característica clave para que estos sistemas sean capaces de coordinarse y realizar tareas de control y seguridad de forma cooperativa. El objetivo de esta tesis se centra, por tanto, en proporcionar herramientas para la interoperabilidad segura de los diferentes SSC, especialmente los sistemas de control ciber-físicos (SCCF), de forma que se potencie la intercomunicación y coordinación entre ellos para crear un entorno en el que las diversas infraestructuras puedan realizar tareas de control y seguridad cooperativas, creando una plataforma de interoperabilidad segura capaz de dar servicio a diversas IICC, en un entorno de consciencia situacional (del inglés situational awareness) de alto espectro o área (wide-area). Para ello, en primer lugar, revisamos las amenazas de carácter más sofisticado que amenazan la operación de los sistemas críticos, particularmente enfocándonos en los ciberataques camuflados (del inglés stealth) que amenazan los sistemas de control de infraestructuras críticas como el smart grid. Enfocamos nuestra investigación al análisis y comprensión de este nuevo tipo de ataques que aparece contra los sistemas críticos, y a las posibles contramedidas y herramientas para mitigar los efectos de estos ataques

Bayesian Heuristics for Group Decisions

We propose a model of inference and heuristic decision-making in groups that is rooted in the Bayes rule but avoids the complexities of rational inference in partially observed environments with incomplete information, which are characteristic of group interactions. Our model is also consistent with a dual-process psychological theory of thinking: the group members behave rationally at the initiation of their interactions with each other (the slow and deliberative mode); however, in the ensuing decision epochs, they rely on a heuristic that replicates their experiences from the first stage (the fast automatic mode). We specialize this model to a group decision scenario where private observations are received at the beginning, and agents aim to take the best action given the aggregate observations of all group members. We study the implications of the information structure together with the properties of the probability distributions which determine the structure of the so-called "Bayesian heuristics" that the agents follow in our model. We also analyze the group decision outcomes in two classes of linear action updates and log-linear belief updates and show that many inefficiencies arise in group decisions as a result of repeated interactions between individuals, leading to overconfident beliefs as well as choice-shifts toward extremes. Nevertheless, balanced regular structures demonstrate a measure of efficiency in terms of aggregating the initial information of individuals. These results not only verify some well-known insights about group decision-making but also complement these insights by revealing additional mechanistic interpretations for the group declension-process, as well as psychological and cognitive intuitions about the group interaction model

Consumer Media Choice: Towards a comprehensive model

Kuluttajien mediavalintaprosessin ja siihen liittyvien psykologisten ja osin alitajuisten elementtien ymmärtämisestä on hyötyä media-alan yrityksille tuotekehityksessä ja markkinoinnissa. Koska suurin osa median käyttämisen kustannuksista on muita kuin rahallisia kustannuksia, voidaan kysyntää ja asiakastyytyväisyyttä parantaa helposti näitä kustannuksia pienentämällä. Kuluttajien harkintajoukon muodostamisprosessin ymmärtäminen auttaa yrityksiä terävöittämään markkinointiviestintäänsä ja kohdentamaan sen paremmin. Tämän väitöskirjan tavoitteena on käsitteellistää ja mallintaa laaja-alaisesti kuluttajien päätöksentekoprosessia sekä auttaa kuluttajia ja yrityksiä ymmärtämään paremmin kuluttajien päätöksentekoprosessin vaiheita ja eri elementtien roolia päätöksenteossa. Tässä tutkimuksessa pääpaino on valintaprosessin selvittämisessä, eikä niinkään sen selvittämisessä mitä ihmiset valitsevat missäkin tilanteessa. Lähtökohtana tutkimuksessa oli mediatalouden tutkimusala, mikä on kokoelma mediaan ja media-alan yrityksiin liittyviä teemoja. Koska mediatalouden tutkimusala ei kuitenkaan kata kaikkia kuluttajien valintaprosessin kannalta olennaisia elementtejä, on tässä tutkimuksessa hyödynnetty myös monia muita tieteenaloja. Tutkimuksessa käytetään aiheeseen liittyviä teoreettisia viitekehyksiä ja käsitteistöä taloustieteen, viestinnän, kulutustutkimuksen, päätöksentekoteorian, filosofian, psykologian, sosiologian ja markkinoinnin aloilta. Tutkimuksessa kehitellään ehdotettavaa mallia sekä teorian että pienen esimerkinomaisen empiirisen aineiston pohjalta. Empiirinen aineisto on kerätty verkkopohjaisilla kyselyillä vuosina 2014– 2016. Vastaajia oli 336 eri puolilta Suomea. Väitöskirjassa ehdotettu laaja-alainen kuluttajan medianvalintaprosessin malli käsitteellistää valinnan vaiheita ja niiden välisiä suhteita. Median käyttäminen vaatii niukkojen henkilökohtaisten resurssien, kuten ajan ja energian käyttöä. Johtuen resurssien niukkuudesta niiden käyttäminen aiheuttaa kustannuksia ja rajoittaa mediakäyttöä. Tämä tutkimus mallintaa perusteellisesti, miten kuluttajan eirahallisten resurssien niukkuus vaikuttaa hänen mediavalintoihinsa. Väitöskirjassa ehdotettu malli laajentaa perinteistä ajattelutapaa kuluttajavalinnoista (esimerkiksi kustannus-hyötyanalyysin avulla) lisäämällä ja tarkastelemalla empirian avulla edellä mainittujen kuluttajien niukkojen resurssien lisäksi myös ja muita alitajuisesti vaikuttavia elementtejä, kuten brändisuhteita, subjektiivisia kustannuksia, päätöksentekotehtävää, päätöksentekotavoitteita ja päätöksentekostrategioita. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan, miten kuluttajien odotukset ja preferenssit voisivat toimia yhdistävinä linkkeinä kuluttajan ja valintamahdollisuuksien joukon välillä. Ehdotettu malli laajentaa ymmärrystä median valintaprosessista. Empiiriset tulokset tukevat teoreettista päättelyä. Tutkimuksessa pohditaan mahdollisuuksia käyttää mallia myös muihin tarkoituksiin (esimerkiksi äänestäjien päätöksenteon tutkimiseen). Tutkimuksen tärkein havainto on kuitenkin se, miten tärkeää on kiinnittää huomiota päätöksentekotavoitteisiin ja -strategioihin, koska lopulta ne määräävät sen mikä vaihtoehto valitaan.Understanding the deeper psychological decision-making process and the wide range of media choice-related concepts will help media companies develop their products, position them better, and build more attractive brands. Since the costs of media usage are mainly non-monetary, paying attention to these costs has the potential of improving demand and getting more satisfied customers. Understanding the consideration set composition process and the decision-making process will help the companies sharpen their marketing messages and target them better. The purpose of this dissertation is to suggest a comprehensive conceptual model of the consumer decision-making process. Moreover, the aim is to provide tools for consumers and companies in order to make the consumer choice process more understandable and manageable. The main interest is in how the choice is made rather than what is chosen. The starting point has been media economics, which is a collection of themes involving the media industry, economics, and financial issues of media companies. Since media economics does not cover all the essential topics relevant to the choicemaking process, attention in this study was turned to other related theories. Therefore, the approach used is multidisciplinary. Several theoretical frames are examined; for example, economics, communication, consumption studies, decision theory, and also some concepts of philosophy, psychology, sociology, and marketing are discussed. The research is developmental, including theoretical considerations and testing of a small sample of empirical data as an example. The data was collected with web-based questionnaires from 2014–2016. There were 336 respondents from all over Finland. The suggested comprehensive media choice process discusses the steps of the choice and their interrelations. Using media requires the usage of scarce personal resources such as time and energy; their availability and the required amount of them set the limits and costs of the choices. Nevertheless, there is no conceptualization of how the scarcity of consumer resources affects media choices. This study fulfills these shortcomings and combines the elements into a comprehensive model. The suggested model widens the traditional way of thinking about consumer choices (for example, with cost-benefit analysis) by adding and empirically examining the pre-mentioned elements of consumer resources and other subconsciously influencing elements, such as brand relationship, subjective costs, decision task, decision goals, and decision strategies. Furthermore, it is proposed how consumers’ expectations can function as a missing link between consumer and opportunity set. The suggested model develops an understanding of media choice. The empirical results confirm the relevance of these variables. Many implications and other uses for the model (for example, examining voters’ decision-making) are proposed, but the main message is the importance of paying attention to the decision goals and decision strategies since they ultimately dictate what will be chosen

Foundations of Human-Aware Planning -- A Tale of Three Models

abstract: A critical challenge in the design of AI systems that operate with humans in the loop is to be able to model the intentions and capabilities of the humans, as well as their beliefs and expectations of the AI system itself. This allows the AI system to be "human- aware" -- i.e. the human task model enables it to envisage desired roles of the human in joint action, while the human mental model allows it to anticipate how its own actions are perceived from the point of view of the human. In my research, I explore how these concepts of human-awareness manifest themselves in the scope of planning or sequential decision making with humans in the loop. To this end, I will show (1) how the AI agent can leverage the human task model to generate symbiotic behavior; and (2) how the introduction of the human mental model in the deliberative process of the AI agent allows it to generate explanations for a plan or resort to explicable plans when explanations are not desired. The latter is in addition to traditional notions of human-aware planning which typically use the human task model alone and thus enables a new suite of capabilities of a human-aware AI agent. Finally, I will explore how the AI agent can leverage emerging mixed-reality interfaces to realize effective channels of communication with the human in the loop.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Computer Science 201