19,382 research outputs found

    Pneumatic PID with Ultrasonic Distance Feedback

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    Indiana University Purdue University IndianapolisIndiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) is initiating a new course to the Electrical & Computer Engineering Technology (ECET) Curriculum in the spring of 2019, this course is Advanced Process Controls. The lab curriculum for this course needed a functional application to demonstrate the use of a proportional–integral–derivative controller (PID). The lab location for this course has one important limitation, specifically no use of water; therefore, our design integrates the use of pneumatics. Using the lab’s existing Rockwell Automation PLC and software package, this design uses the PLC’s PID instruction to maintain an extension length on a pneumatic single acting cylinder. This closed control loop consists of the PLC and analog I/O card, an ultrasonic distance sensor, one pneumatic cylinder for the controlled variable, one pneumatic cylinder as a disturbance, and two Proportion-Air QB1X analog controlled pneumatic solenoids. The final design in summary, uses the ultrasonic sensor to provide feedback to the PID with the current extended length of the pneumatic cylinder. This establishes any error, and the properly tuned PID uses this feedback to respond accordingly to ensure the desired extension length of the cylinder is maintained.Electrical Engineering Technolog

    B2B or Not to Be: Does B2B E-Commerce Increase Labour Productivity?

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    We implement an endogeneous switching-regression model for labour productivity and firms' decision to use business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce. Our approach allows B2B usage to affect any parameter of the labour productivity equation and to properly take account of strategic complementarities between the input factors and B2B usage. Empirical evidence from 1,394 German firms shows that firms using B2B e-commerce have a significantly higher output elasticity with respect to ICT-investment and produce significantly more efficiently than firms that do not use B2B. Firms' labour productivity is enhanced by using B2B. --Business-to-business e-commerce,labour productivity,endogenous switching regression model,survey data

    Standard-Setting and Knowledge Dynamics in Innovation Clusters

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    Extensive research has been conducted on how firms and regions take advantage of spatially concentrated assets, and also why history matters to regional specialisation patterns. In brief, it seems that innovation clusters as a distinctive regional entity in international business and the geography of innovation are of increasing importance in STI policy, innovation systems and competitiveness studies. Recently, more and more research has contributed to an evolutionary perspective on collaboration in clusters. Nonetheless, the field of cluster or regional innovation systems remains a multidisciplinary field where the state of the art is determined by the individual perspective (key concepts could, for example, be industrial districts, innovative clusters with reference to OECD, regional knowledge production, milieus & sticky knowledge, regional lock-ins & path dependencies, learning regions or sectoral innovation systems). According to our analysis, the research gap lies in both quantitative, comparative surveys and in-depth concepts of knowledge dynamics and cluster evolution. Therefore this paper emphasises the unchallenged in-depth characteristics of knowledge utilisation within a cluster's collaborative innovation activities. More precisely, it deals with knowledge dynamics in terms of matching different agentsÂŽ knowledge stocks via knowledge flows, common technology specification (standard-setting), and knowledge spillovers. The means of open innovation and system boundaries for spatially concentrated agents in terms of knowledge opportunities and the capabilities of each agent await clarification. Therefore, our study conceptualises the interplay between firm- and cluster-level activities and externalities for knowledge accumulation but also for the specification of technology. It remains particularly unclear how, why and by whom knowledge is aligned and ascribed to a specific sectoral innovation system. Empirically, this study contributes with several descriptive calculations of indices, e.g. knowledge stocks, GINI coefficients, Herfindahl indices, and Revealed Patent Advantage (RPA), which clearly underline a high spatial concentration of both mechanical engineering and biotechnology within a European NUTS2 sample for the last two decades. Conceptually, our paper matches the geography of innovation literature, innovation system theory, and new ideas related to the economics of standards. Therefore, it sheds light on the interplay between knowledge flows and externalities of cluster-specific populations and the agents' use of such knowledge, which is concentrated in space. We find that knowledge creation and standard-setting are cross-fertilising each other: although the spatial concentration of assets and high-skilled labour provides new opportunities to the firm, each firm's knowledge stocks need to be contextualised. The context in terms of 'use case' and 'knowledge biography' makes technologies (as represented in knowledge stocks) available for collaboration, but also clarifies relevance and ownership, in particular intellectual property concerns. Owing to this approach we propose a conceptualisation which contains both areas with inter- and intra-cluster focus. This proposal additionally concludes that spatial and technological proximity benefits standard-setting in high-tech and low-tech industries in very different ways. More precisely, the versatile tension between knowledge stocks, their evolution, and technical specification & implementation requires the conceptualisation and analysis of a non-linear process of standard-setting. Particularly, the use case of technologies is essential. Related to this approach, clusters strongly support the establishment of technology use cases in embryonic high-tech industries. Low-tech industries in contrast rather depend on approved knowledge stocks, whose dynamics provide better and fast accessible knowledge inputs within low-tech clusters.innovation clusters, standard-setting, knowledge externalities and flows, knowledge alignment, mechanical engineering, biotechnology

    A scalability analysis of grid allocation mechanisms

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    This article examines the broker's behavior with regard to a varying number of participating nodes and shows that incremental losses have to be accepted in central resource allocation when introducing new nodes. --Grid Computing

    Enterprise systems and labor productivity: disentangling combination effects

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    This study analyzes the relationship between the three main enterprise systems (Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM)) and labor productivity. It reveals the performance gains due to different combinations of these systems. It also tests for complementarity among the enterprise systems with respect to their interacting nature. Using German firm-level data the results show that the highest productivity gains due to enterprise system usage are realized through use of the three main enterprise systems together. In addition, SCM and CRM function as complements, especially if ERP is also in use. --Labor productivity,enterprise systems,complementarity,Enterprise Resource Planning,Supply Chain Management,Customer Relationship Management

    Market fields structure & dynamics in industrial automation

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    There is a research tradition in the economics of standards which addresses standards wars, antitrust concerns or positive externalities from standards. Recent research has also dealt with the process characteristics of standardisation, de facto standard-setting consortia and intellectual property concerns in the technology specification or implementation phase. Nonetheless, there are no studies which analyse capabilities, comparative industry dynamics or incentive structures sufficiently in the context of standard-setting. In my study, I address the characteristics of collaborative research and standard-setting as a new mode of deploying assets beyond motivations well-known from R&D consortia or market alliances. On the basis of a case study of a leading user organisation in the market for industrial automation technology, but also a descriptive network analysis of cross-community affiliations, I demonstrate that there must be a paradoxical relationship between cooperation and competition. More precisely, I explain how there can be a dual relationship between value creation and value capture respecting exploration and exploitation. My case study emphasises the dynamics between knowledge stocks (knowledge alignment, narrowing and deepening) produced by collaborative standard setting and innovation; it also sheds light on an evolutional relationship between the exploration of assets and use cases and each firm's exploitation activities in the market. I derive standard-setting capabilities from an empirical analysis of membership structures, policies and incumbent firm characteristics in selected, but leading, user organisations. The results are as follows: the market for industrial automation technology is characterised by collaboration on standards, high technology influences of other industries and network effects on standards. Further, system integrators play a decisive role in value creation in the customer-specific business case. Standard-setting activities appear to be loosely coupled to the products offered on the market. Core leaders in world standards in industrial automation own a variety of assets and they are affiliated to many standard-setting communities rather than exclusively committed to a few standards. Furthermore, their R&D ratios outperform those of peripheral members and experience in standard-setting processes can be assumed. Standard-setting communities specify common core concepts as the basis for the development of each member's proprietary products, complementary technologies and industrial services. From a knowledge-based perspective, the targeted disclosure of certain knowledge can be used to achieve high innovation returns through systemic products which add proprietary features to open standards. Finally, the interplay between exploitation and exploration respecting the deployment of standard-setting capabilities linked to cooperative, pre-competitive processes leads to an evolution in common technology owned and exploited by the standard-setting community as a particular kind of innovation ecosystem. --standard-setting,innovation,industry dynamics and context,industrial automation

    cii Student Papers - 2022

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    In this collection of papers, we, the Research Group Critical Information Infrastructures (cii) from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, present eight selected student research articles contributing to the design, development, and evaluation of critical information infrastructures. During our courses, students mostly work in groups and deal with problems and issues related to sociotechnical challenges in the realm of (critical) information systems. Student papers came from five different cii courses, namely Emerging Trends in Internet Technologies, Emerging Trends in Digital Health, Digital Health, Critical Information Infrastructures, and Selected Issues on Critical Information Infrastructures: Collaborative Development of Innovative Teaching Concepts in summer term of 2021 and the winter term of 2021/2022
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