Encoding the Enforcement of Safety Standards into Smart Robots to Harness Their Computing Sophistication and Collaborative Potential:A Legal Risk Assessment for European Union Policymakers

Until robots and humans mostly worked in fast-paced and yet separate environments, occupational health and safety (OHS) rules could address workers’ safety largely independently from robotic conduct. This is no longer the case: collaborative robots (cobots) working alongside humans warrant the design of policies ensuring the safety of both humans and robots at once, within shared spaces and upon delivery of cooperative workflows. Within the European Union (EU), the applicable regulatory framework stands at the intersection between international industry standards and legislation at the EU as well as Member State level. Not only do current standards and laws fail to satisfactorily attend to the physical and mental health challenges prompted by human–robot interaction (HRI), but they exhibit important gaps in relation to smart cobots (“SmaCobs”) more specifically. In fact, SmaCobs combine the black-box unforeseeability afforded by machine learning with more general HRI-associated risks, towards increasingly complex, mobile and interconnected operational interfaces and production chains. Against this backdrop, based on productivity and health motivations, we urge the encoding of the enforcement of OHS policies directly into SmaCobs. First, SmaCobs could harness the sophistication of quantum computing to adapt a tangled normative architecture in a responsive manner to the contingent needs of each situation. Second, entrusting them with OHS enforcement vis-à-vis both themselves and humans may paradoxically prove safer as well as more cost-effective than for humans to do so. This scenario raises profound legal, ethical and somewhat philosophical concerns around SmaCobs’ legal personality, the apportionment of liability and algorithmic explainability. The first systematic proposal to tackle such questions is henceforth formulated. For the EU, we propose that this is achieved through a new binding OHS Regulation aimed at the SmaCobs age.<br/

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes, supplement 128, May 1974

This special bibliography lists 282 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in April 1974

Six Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Grand Challenges

Widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is substantially affecting the human condition in ways that are not yet well understood. Negative unintended consequences abound including the perpetuation and exacerbation of societal inequalities and divisions via algorithmic decision making. We present six grand challenges for the scientific community to create AI technologies that are human-centered, that is, ethical, fair, and enhance the human condition. These grand challenges are the result of an international collaboration across academia, industry and government and represent the consensus views of a group of 26 experts in the field of human-centered artificial intelligence (HCAI). In essence, these challenges advocate for a human-centered approach to AI that (1) is centered in human well-being, (2) is designed responsibly, (3) respects privacy, (4) follows human-centered design principles, (5) is subject to appropriate governance and oversight, and (6) interacts with individuals while respecting human’s cognitive capacities. We hope that these challenges and their associated research directions serve as a call for action to conduct research and development in AI that serves as a force multiplier towards more fair, equitable and sustainable societies

Total Productive Maintenance and Industry 4.0 in a Sustainability Context: Exploring the Mediating Effect of Circular Economy

The purpose of this research is to establish a conceptual model to understand the impact of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) on the transition of a Circular Economy (CE). Also, the paper explores the combined impact of TPM, I4.0, and CE on the sustainability performance (SP) of manufacturing firms. The conceptual model is proposed using the dynamic capability view (DCV) and empirically validated by partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using 304 responses from Indian manufacturing firms. The results suggest that I4.0 positively impacts TPM, CE, and SP, also showing TPM's positive impact on CE and SP. In addition, CE has a positive influence on the SP of manufacturing firms. Furthermore, CE partially mediates the relationship between I4.0 and SP with TPM and SP. The study also identifies TPM, I4.0, and CE as a new bundle of dynamic capabilities to deliver SP in manufacturing firms. The present research adds to the knowledge and literature on DCV by identifying the importance of CE in the settings of I4.0 and TPM, especially in the context of sustainability. Also, the current study offers a new set of dynamic capabilities and provides some significant future recommendations for researchers and practitioners

A reference model for information specification for metalworking SMEs

The work reported in this thesis offers a novel basis for the realisation of specifications for information requirements to meet the distinct operational requirements of metalworking SMEs. This has been achieved through the development of a reference SME enterprise model based on fundamental ideas of the holon and fractal factory concepts. The novel concept of a node holon is introduced, which allows the representation of the human dominated interactions in a company based on the fundamental concepts of the holon. This offers a competitive alternative to the methods for enterprise modelling and information specification which are based solely around business processes and procedural rules. A new representation for the organisation of the SME has been based on identifying the major zones of activity within the enterprise, which is seen to provide a more appropriate representation for companies whose basis for operation is informally structured. Two classes of zones have been identified, these are the business support zone and manufacturing zone. The relationship between a top down description of the enterprise as zones and the complementary bottoms up modelling of the enterprise based on concepts of the node holon are described in detail. A critical study of two candidate modelling architectures, namely CIN40SA and ARIS will show the applicability of the individual architectures for the task information specification. The constituents of the SMEE enterprise reference model is placed within the context of contemporary enterprise modelling practice by mapping against one of the architectures. This will demonstrate how the architectures can readily accommodate new modelling approaches whilst retaining their major advantages, thereby increasing their applicability and potential uptake. The reference SME enterprise model has been readily applied in the study of an SME, where a representation of the company has been achieved solely on the current organisation of its business support and manufacturing activities. The holonic aspects of the enterprise have also been successfully modelled. This process is supported by a CASE tool which has it constructs underpinned by the reference SME enterprise model

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 376)

This bibliography lists 265 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during Jun. 1993. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and physiology, life support systems and man/system technology, protective clothing, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, planetary biology, and flight crew behavior and performance

Distributed Control for Collective Behaviour in Micro-unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Full version unavailable due to 3rd party copyright restrictions.The work presented herein focuses on the design of distributed autonomous controllers for collective behaviour of Micro-unmanned Aerial Vehicles (MAVs). Two alternative approaches to this topic are introduced: one based upon the Evolutionary Robotics (ER) paradigm, the other one upon flocking principles. Three computer simulators have been developed in order to carry out the required experiments, all of them having their focus on the modelling of fixed-wing aircraft flight dynamics. The employment of fixed-wing aircraft rather than the omni-directional robots typically employed in collective robotics significantly increases the complexity of the challenges that an autonomous controller has to face. This is mostly due to the strict motion constraints associated with fixed-wing platforms, that require a high degree of accuracy by the controller. Concerning the ER approach, the experimental setups elaborated have resulted in controllers that have been evolved in simulation with the following capabilities: (1) navigation across unknown environments, (2) obstacle avoidance, (3) tracking of a moving target, and (4) execution of cooperative and coordinated behaviours based on implicit communication strategies. The design methodology based upon flocking principles has involved tests on computer simulations and subsequent experimentation on real-world robotic platforms. A customised implementation of Reynolds’ flocking algorithm has been developed and successfully validated through flight tests performed with the swinglet MAV. It has been notably demonstrated how the Evolutionary Robotics approach could be successfully extended to the domain of fixed-wing aerial robotics, which has never received a great deal of attention in the past. The investigations performed have also shown that complex and real physics-based computer simulators are not a compulsory requirement when approaching the domain of aerial robotics, as long as proper autopilot systems (taking care of the ”reality gap” issue) are used on the real robots.EOARD (European Office of Aerospace Research & Development), euCognitio

Linking high throughput cell culture, multivariate analysis and economics for more effective process integration

As the antibody sector has matured, it has seen significant increases in cell culture titres. However, it is hard to predict the consequences of titre increase on impurity levels and downstream processing (DSP) performance. Hence it is critical to have systematic methods to explore such interactions. This project explored the potential of high throughput cell culture linked to multivariate analysis, uncertainty analysis and bioprocess economics to characterise cell culture processes, not only in terms of growth and productivity but also host cell protein (HCP) levels, robustness and costs. A Quality by Design (QbD) approach to cell culture process development is presented. Using this QbD framework it was shown that there is scope for cell culture processes in which the ratio of mAb to HCP can be increased and the association of mAb titre to HCP reduced. It is therefore feasible to identify conditions whereby it is possible to increase antibody titre with little impact on HCP levels and hence subsequent DSP operations. (36.5 oC, 313 mOsm kg-1 media osmolality, 1 × 106 cells mL-1 seeding density, pH 6.8 and low cell generation number in this case). The impact of cell culture factors on protease activity (problematic HCP species) was assessed. Culture temperature was found to have a significant impact on protease activity, with a decrease in temperature resulting in lower protease activity. The relationship between HCP levels and protease activity was also examined and it was shown that an increase in total HCP levels at harvest did not result in a concomitant increase in protease activity. Multivariate data analysis based on regression was used to derive statistical cause-and-effect correlations able to link mAb titre and HCP levels to key cell culture factors. The resulting cell culture predictive correlations were then integrated into a whole bioprocess economics and optimisation framework. This allowed the identification of the most cost effective cell culture strategies as well as the impact of uncertainty in cell culture parameters on outputs (product output (kg) and HCP final (ng/mg)) and the likelihood of these falling out of specification. The work in this thesis highlights the benefits of a systematic approach to providing enhanced process understanding of the impact of cell culture strategies on downstream processes. This can be used to facilitate effective process integration and enable continuous improvements

A Forward-Looking Conceptualization of Information Privacy

Privacy is a fluid and ever-evolving concept, studied across multiple fields and with numerous definitions. Privacy research in information systems (IS) is extensive yet has not traveled far beyond the IS realm and fully engaged in the broader conversations being had with regards to privacy. This research seeks to define a larger sense of privacy that integrates the many working definitions across fields, along with related concepts, and to develop an alternative framework that can account for the constant technological and socio-technical changes through which to engage in privacy research. One such framework is developed and tested, grounded in the idea of the relative distribution of digital information decision rights across groups within a society, demonstrating the utility for future-oriented research that allows for active theorization that can adapt to rates of technological progress and resulting socio-technical changes