Modeling and Control of the Automated Radiator Inspection Device

Many of the operations performed at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) are dangerous and repetitive tasks which make them ideal candidates for robotic applications. For one specific application, KSC is currently in the process of designing and constructing a robot called the Automated Radiator Inspection Device (ARID), to inspect the radiator panels on the orbiter. The following aspects of the ARID project are discussed: modeling of the ARID; design of control algorithms; and nonlinear based simulation of the ARID. Recommendations to assist KSC personnel in the successful completion of the ARID project are given

Euclidean position estimation of static features using a moving uncalibrated camera

In this paper, a novel Euclidean position estimation technique using a single uncalibrated camera mounted on amoving platform is developed to asymptotically recover the 3-D Euclidean position of static object features. The position of the moving platform is assumed to be measurable, and a second object with known 3-D Euclidean coordinates relative to theworld frame is considered to be available a priori. To account for the unknown camera calibration parameters and to estimate the unknown 3-D Euclidean coordinates, an adaptive least squares estimation strategy is employed based on prediction error formulations and a Lyapunovtype stability analysis. The developed estimator is shown to recover the 3-D Euclidean position of the unknown object features despite the lack of knowledge of the camera calibration parameters. Numerical simulation results along with experimental results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. © 2011 IEEE.DOE and Honda Corporatio

Case study: evaluating the use of an electronic messaging system in business.

This experience report outlines problems encountered whilst monitoring employees communication and how they were overcome. Ethical issues were raised in the recording of individual email messages. To overcome the Hawthorne effect but also to take into account the ethical considerations of monitoring employees a set of guidelines for electronic monitoring is suggested. The value of measuring the communication processes through electronic monitoring has been shown at the Danwood Group. The analysis of email has enabled the effect on employee time to be quantified and has given some surprising results. This has lead to a series of recommendations that will enable companies to make better use of email communication and increase employee productivity

The cost of email interruption.

The use of email by employees at the Danwood Group was studied and it was found that the interrupt effect from emails is more than generally believed. Employees allowed themselves to be interrupted almost as frequently as telephone calls and the common reaction to the arrival of an email is to react almost as quickly as they would respond to telephone calls. This means the interrupt effect is comparable with that of a telephone call. The recovery time from an email interruption was found to be significantly less than the published recovery time for telephone calls. It is to be concluded, therefore, that while Email is still less disruptive than the telephone, the way the majority of users handle their incoming email has been shown to give far more interruption than expected. By analysing the data captured the authors have been able to create recommendations for a set of guidelines for email usage within the workplace that will increase employee efficiency by reducing the prominence of interruptions, restricting the use of email-to-all messages, setting-up the email application to display three lines of the email and to check for email less frequently. It is recommended that training should be given to staff on how to use email more effectively to increase employee productivity

E-communication analysis: the cost of an internal email messaging system within organisations

A cost-benefit analysis of the use of internal email was carried out at the Danwood Group at Lincoln in the UK. This was a pilot exercise forming part of a larger exercise to evaluate the costs and benefits of using computers to help further communications throughout the company. The times taken to read, write and carry out other functions with email were measured for a sample of employees. The email content was also monitored to determine which emails were business related. It was found that nearly two thirds of all emails dealt with were non-business related at the start of the research, but this figure decreased exponentially to a consistent 43% towards the end of study. Overall the findings indicate that despite the fact that only one third of email use was business orientated, the time taken is still worthwhile compared with other traditional communication methods. However, it was not possible to fully quantify the benefits of email over these other methods, as the data for the alternatives has not yet been collected. The study showed that further research is necessary in this respect. The paper concludes that the analysis has been a useful learning experience for the company showing the value of cost-benefit research and highlighting the difficulties involved. It has also identified the possible benefits that could be obtained by monitoring the email system

Case study: evaluating the effect of email interruptions within the workplace

This experience report outlines the value of measuring the communication processes through electronic monitoring and is a follow up to the paper presented at the EASE 2001 conference last year. The use of email by employees at the Danwood Group was studied and it was found that the interrupt effect from emails was non-trivial. The common reaction to the arrival of an email is to react almost as quickly as responding to telephone calls. This means the interrupt effect is comparable with that of a telephone call. The recovery time from an email interruption was found to be significantly less than the published recovery time for telephone calls. It is to be concluded, therefore, that while email is still less disruptive than the telephone, the way the majority of users handle their incoming email has been shown to give far more interruption than expected. Through analysing the data captured, the authors have been able to create a set of recommended guidelines for email usage. The guidelines will increase employee efficiency by reducing the prominence of interruptions, restricting the use of email-to-all messages, setting up the email application to display three lines of the email and to check for email less frequently. It is recommended that training should be given to staff on how to use email more effectively to increase employee effectiveness

Improving the communications process: the costs and effectiveness of email compared with traditional media

A cost-benefit analysis of the use of email was carried out at the Danwood Group at Lincoln in the UK. This was a pilot exercise forming part of a larger exercise to evaluate the costs and benefits of the whole IT infrastructure at the company. The times taken to read, write and carry out other functions with the email were measured for a sample of employees. The email content was also monitored to determine which emails were business related. It was found that nearly two thirds of all emails sent were non business related and the pattern of behaviour when sending and receiving these emails was quite different to that for the business emails. Overall the findings indicate that despite the fact that only one third of email use was productive, the time taken is still worthwhile compared with other, traditional communication methods. However, it was not possible to fully quantify the benefits of email over these other methods, as the data for the alternatives has not yet been collected. The study showed that further research is necessary in this respect. The paper concludes that the analysis has been a useful learning experience for the company showing the value of cost-benefit research and highlighting the difficulties involved. It has also identified the possible benefits that could be obtained by educating employees in the best practice for the use of email

Understanding email interaction increases organizational productivity.

Understanding email interaction increases organizational productivity

Extending document models to incorporate semantic information for complex standards

This paper presents the concept of hybrid semantic-document models to aid information management when using standards for complex technical domains such as military data communication. These standards are traditionally text based documents for human interpretation, but prose sections can often be ambiguous and can lead to discrepancies and subsequent implementation problems. Many organisations will produce semantic representations of the material to ensure common understanding and to exploit computer aided development. In developing these semantic representations, no relationship is maintained to the original prose. Maintaining relationships between the original prose and the semantic model has key benefits, including assessing conformance at a semantic level rather than prose, and enabling original content authors to explicitly define their intentions, thus reducing ambiguity and facilitating computer aided functionality. A framework of relationships is proposed which can integrate with common document modeling techniques and provide the necessary functionality to allow semantic content to be mapped into document views. These relationships are then generalised for applicability to a wider context

Reducing the effect of email interuption on employees

It is generally assumed that because it is not necessary to react to email messages when they arrive, employees will read their messages in their own time with minimum interruption to their work. This research has shown that email messages do have some disruptive effect by interrupting the user. Employees at the Danwood Group in the UK were monitored to see how they used email. It was found that most employees had their email software check for incoming messages every 5 minutes and responded to the arrival of a message within 6 seconds. A recovery time between finishing reading the email and returning to normal work also existed though it was shorter than published recovery times for a telephone interrupt. This analysis has suggested that a number of methods can be employed to reduce this interrupt effect. Employee training, changing the settings and modes of using the email software and the introduction of a one line email facility are all shown to have beneficial effects. This has led to a series of recommendations that will enable the Danwood Group to make better use of email communication and increase employee effectiveness