Smooth Cubic Polynomial Trajectories for Human-Robot Interactions

International audienceWith the growing importance of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), the movement of the robots requires more and more attention to address the issues related to safety, efficiency and ergonomics. Trajectories are excellent candidates in the making of desirable motions designed for collaborative robots, because they allow to simply and precisely describe the motions. Despite the large number of works available for Online Trajectory Generation (OTG), there was, to our knowledge, no complete solution capable to simultaneously meet all the requirements of these new applications.In this paper we present the first complete trajectory generation algorithm that build trajectories from arbitrary initial and final conditions, subject to general asymmetric bounds on jerk, acceleration and velocity. A review of the state of the art exposes the limits of the previous OTG works and reveals the difficult problem of non-linearity related with short motions. We explain how these non-linearities introduce discontinuities and we propose a solution based on sequences of segment of third degree polynomial functions.Avec l'importance croissante de l'interaction humain-robot (HRI), le mouvement des robots nécessite de plus en plus d'attention pour résoudre les problèmes liés à la sécurité, l'efficacité et l'ergonomie. Les trajectoires définissent une excellente solution pour la réalisation de mouvements destinés à des robots collaboratifs, car ils permettent de décrire simplement et précisément les mouvements. Malgré la grande quantité de travaux disponibles sur la génération de trajectoires en ligne (OTG), il n'y avait pas, à notre connaissance, de solution complète capable de répondre simultanément à toutes les exigences de ces nouvelles applications.Dans cet article, nous présentons le premier algorithme complet de génération de trajectoire qui construit des trajectoires à partir de conditions initiales et finales arbitraires, soumises à des limites asymétriques générales sur le jerk, l'accélération et la vitesse. Une revue de l'état de l'art expose les limites des travaux OTG précédents et révèle le problème difficile de la non-linéarité liée aux mouvements courts. Nous expliquons comment ces non-linéarités introduisent des discontinuités et proposons une solution basée sur des séquences de segments de fonctions polynomiales du troisième degré

Authentic CSR

The “missing link” between the theory and practice of CSR and sustainability in the daily life of companies can be attributed to the lack of coherent and authentic leadership models and styles which should be consistent to a sustainability orientation and based on a moral and ethical construct. Adhering to these lines of thought, authentic CSR orientation can be considered a step in the business strategy (Schmidpeter 2014) that rests on a coherent leadership model. The latter incorporates transformational, charismatic, servant, spiritual, or other forms of positive leadership (Avolio and Gardner 2005). Proactive entrepreneurial and managerial behaviors nurtured by authenticity contribute to orient businesses’ strategies and actions toward effective stakeholder orientation, transparency, and sustainable growth (Walker and Salt 2006). Running a company that is genuinely oriented toward CSR and sustainability requires a consistent leadership model based on values (such as justice and integrity), in directing the corporation so as to ensure its prosperity based on transparency, accountability, and responsibility (Von Ahsen 2015; Oreg and Berson 2011). A common trait of authentic CSR rests on the moral construct of entrepreneurs and managers, which generates the capacity to communicate the vision and strengthen a cohesive organizational culture, thus inspiring in others the will to emulate their choices (Hoivik von Weltzien 2014). Accordingly, a challenging approach Visser (2011) rests on the notion that business survival depends on a continuous striving for sustainability and that moral leadership is a key driver to implementing authentically CSR and sustainability-driven strategies

The determination of earthquake location and magnitude from macroseismic data in Europe

This paper describes how the earthquake parameters of historical earthquakes have been determined in Europe from macroseismic data by means of the so-called \u201cBoxer\u201d method, in the frame of the European Commission 2009\u20132012 Project SHARE (Seismic Hazard Harmonization in Europe). The problems related to the assessment of magnitude are described with more detail; the methodological issues are developed with special reference to the \u201cstable continental region\u201d. The paper first describes how the coefficients of the Boxer method are determined in five tectonic regions of the European area from the relevant calibration data sets, and discusses the problems dealt with while performing this task. Then it describes how the results have been checked against data different from those used in the previous phase. Finally, the application of the new coefficients to nearly a thousand of European earthquakes before 1900 is described. Stressing that, for the first time in Europe, homogeneous results have been obtained at such a large scale, the final part of the paper is devoted to analyse such results, with special reference to the general trends and to some case-histories

Proceedings of the IADA Workshop "Word meaning in argumentative dialogue". Homage to Sorin Stati. Milan 2008, 15-17 May.

Editors\u2019 Introduction.The publication of the Proceedings of the I.A.D.A. Workshop 2008 Word Meaning in Argumentative Dialogue aims at contributing in a relevant way to the understanding of lexical phenomena from an interactional and textual point of view. In fact the conference topic covers an important crossing between three research lines at least, first of all dialogue as the specific interest of the Association. Dialogue is meant in a polysemic way for referring to effective interaction analysis but also to its representations in literature and in the media, including polyphony effects in any communicative event, even in written ones. As Luisa Camaiora highlighted in her Foreword to these Proceedings, dialogue is a key-word in our multicultural social context, while \u201cdialogue\u201d analysis as a practice comes out to be more and more meaningful in nowadays professional, public and institutional contexts. Therefore it is also especially meaningful in the context of a modern languages Faculty as ours.The second research line mentioned in the conference title is argumentation. The intersection between dialogue and argumentation selects specific practices of dialogue as a reasonable and shared application of communicative activities. As outlined by the model of critical discussion in recent years, these practices obey to general inferential rules, in spite of relevant context-boundedness. In this perspective, a considerable number of participants developed various aspects of emotional and emotive argumentation. Third and last, the workshop title pointed to word meaning as the specific linguistic structure to be analyzed. This hint has been variously interpreted in the papers, as attention to be devoted to discourse markers, to specific lexical items or to translation aspects. The perspective adopted cannot be but a pragmatic and functionalist one. Nonetheless, each scholar contributed to the conference topic with peculiar methodological and theoretical sensitivity, as is a longstanding tradition in the history of our International Association. That is the cause of great variety and so to say heterogeneity in approach and in focusing. [...]Giovanni GobberSibilla CantariniSara CigadaMaria Cristina Gatti& Silvia Gilardon