Floor determination in the operation of a lift by a mobile guide robot

Robotic assistants operating in multi-floor buildings are required to use lifts to transition between floors. To reduce the need for environments to be tailored to suit robots, and to make robot assistants more applicable, it is desirable that they should make use of existing navigational cues and interfaces designed for human users. In this paper, we examine the scenario whereby a guide robot uses a lift to transition between floors in a building. We describe an experiment into combining multiple data sources, available to a typical robot with simple sensors, to determine which floor of the building it is on. We show the robustness of this approach to realistic scenarios in a busy working environment

The quantification and characterisation of ramping firing rates and regional differences in the basal ganglia

The basal ganglia are part of the neural circuit involved in inhibitory control. Gradual, consistent changes in firing rate (ramps) have been found in the basal ganglia during 'hold' periods of different behavioural tasks involving inhibitory control. However, the properties of these ramps, such as startpoints, endpoints, amplitude, length and single-trial properties, have not yet been characterised in detail. In order to obtain these properties accurately, we tested and adapted various methods from the wind-ramp and changepoint literature. Specifically, we used pruned exact linear time (PELT) to detect changepoints for ramp detection. Compared to other algorithms, the PELT method was found to have the best performance. Utilising PELT, we then analysed a large data set of electrophysiological recordings in rats performing behavioural tasks to determine the properties of firing rate ramps during hold periods. First, we established that these ramps exist during the hold period in a stop-signal task. Second, we demonstrate that these ramp properties vary widely across the basal ganglia. Third, at the single-trial level, we show that neurons with detected ramps could have different underlying spiking patterns, for example, stepping or ramping. Finally, we investigated the entrainment of neurons in the basal ganglia and found that different waveforms can influence entrainment properties at gamma frequencies

Determinants of employee volunteer intention: An empirical study on functional motivation theory

Employee participation plays an important role in the success of corporate social responsibility programmes, but there are limited studies that understand the drivers of employee volunteerism in the Philippines. Clary and Snyder’s functional motivation theory was drawn upon in determining the six kinds of volunteer motivations in this study conducted on employees from Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation and SM Investment Corporation. The respondents were divided by gender, age group, and volunteer experience to see whether these factors would significantly affect motivation; only volunteer experience emerged as significant in the findings. Another interesting finding is that employees are more inspired to volunteer when they can learn something new, and furthermore that women are more motivated by the social motive than men and are thus more likely to volunteer when their friends do so

"Please Press Floor B": Engendering Trust in a Guide Robot

For assistive robots (in roles such as carers, guides, companions, and assistants) to be most effective, they will need to engender trust in their users. The ROBO-GUIDE (ROBOtic GUidance and Interaction DEvelopment) project is an interdisciplinary project bringing together engineers and scientists working in computational neuroscience, control systems, formal verification, natural language, and psychology, to address how such a system can be designed. This paper outlines our approach, which focuses on the key trust influencers: safety, verification, communication, and behaviour

Safety and Verification for a Mobile Guide Robot

This work presents the safety and verification arguments for the development of an autonomous robot platform capable of leading humans around a building. It uses Goal Structuring Notation (GSN) to develop a pattern, a re-usable GSN fragment, that can form part of the safety case surrounding the interaction of a mobile guide robot to: record the decisions taken during the design phase, ensure safe operation around humans, and identify where mitigation must be introduced

Assertive community treatment for high-utilizing alcohol misuse patients: a before-and-after cohort study protocol

Abstract Background The challenge posed by Alcohol-Related Frequent Attenders (ARFAs) in Emergency Departments (EDs) is growing in Singapore, marked by limited engagement with conventional addiction treatment pathways. Recognizing this gap, this study aims to explore the potential benefits of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) - an innovative, community-centered, harm-reduction strategy—in mitigating the frequency of ED visits, curbing Emergency Medical Services (EMS) calls, and uplifting health outcomes across a quartet of Singaporean healthcare institutions. Methods Employing a prospective before-and-after cohort design, this investigation targeted ARFAs aged 21 years and above, fluent in English or Mandarin. Eligibility was determined by a history of at least five ED visits in the preceding year, with no fewer than two due to alcohol-related issues. The study contrasted health outcomes of patients integrated into the ACT care model versus their experiences under the exclusive provision of standard emergency care across Hospitals A, B, C and D. Following participants for half a year post-initial assessment, the evaluation metrics encompassed socio-demographic factors, ED, and EMS engagement frequencies, along with validated health assessment tools, namely Christo Inventory for Substance-misuse Services (CISS) scores, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness scores, and Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale Revised (CESD-R-10) scores. Discussion Confronted with intricate socio-economic and medical challenges, the ARFA cohort often grapples with heightened vulnerabilities in relation to alcohol misuse. Pioneering the exploration of ACT’s efficacy with ARFAs in a Singaporean context, our research is anchored in a patient-centered approach, designed to comprehensively address these multifaceted clinical profiles. While challenges, like potential high attrition rates and sporadic data collection, are anticipated, the model’s prospective contribution towards enhancing patient well-being and driving healthcare efficiencies in Singapore is substantial. Our findings have the potential to reshape healthcare strategies and policy recommendations. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT 04447079. Initiated on 25 June 2020

Additional file 1 of Assertive community treatment for high-utilizing alcohol misuse patients: a before-and-after cohort study protocol

Supplementary Material 1: SPIRIT Checklis