Creating a global vision for sustainable fashion

Textiles, the fastest growing sector in household waste, have created an exponential rise in the export of second hand clothes (SHC) to overseas markets such as Kenya and Tanzania. Despite the few advantages for the destination markets (eg, enterprise opportunities), this has exasperated a difficult situation for domestic production. Increased cheap imports from Asia have also led to decline in SHC markets, resulting in increased land filling and the associated environmental impacts. Our research proposes remanufacturing fashion from the unwanted SHC, embellishing using local (destination market) craft/design. From literature review conducted, reuse and remanufacture of clothing causes the least impact on energy use and appears to be the most environmentally and socially friendly approach to sustainability efforts. Remanufacture of clothing is currently practiced at niche market levels, for it to have a broader impact; it needs to gain entry into the mass-market retail arena. In the mass market arena, the apparel value chain is organized around several parts with a marketing network at the retail level. Lead firms predominantly construct these value chains, are predominantly located in developed countries, and may be large retailers and brand-name firms, playing a significant role in specifying what is to be produced, how, and by whom. Our goal is to understand how designers, manufacturers and retailers may work together in a remanufacturing process. We present findings from interviews with Tanzanian second hand clothes retailers and artisans, UK fashion remanufacturers and retailers. We discuss the implications on the fashion design process and propose a new product development method for sustainable consumption of fashion. We conclude by reflecting on potential mechanisms of the supply chain integration and how the large multinationals may become engaged. Key words: remanufacturing, design process, supply chain, second hand clothe

The Mediating Mechanism of Consumer Ethical Beliefs in Determining the Influence of Cynicism and Empathy on Green Buying Intention

Green buying intention can help society and companies to achieve sustainability while balancing their marketing objectives. Although there have been many studies done in relation to green buying intention, there are still calls for research to specifically study the impact of individual factors and the impact of ethical beliefs on green buying intention. The objective of this research is to examine the influence of empathy and cynicism on green buying intention and the mediating mechanism of consumer ethical beliefs. A structured questionnaire was administered using the online platform, and 345 valid responses were collected. Partial least squares-Structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was performed to test the hypotheses using the SmartPLS 3.0 program. The results reveal that empathy and cynicism predict consumer intention to buy green products directly and indirectly through ethical beliefs. This study contributes to both literature and business practice, and may be the first research study to investigate the relationship between empathy and cynicism and green buying intention. In addition, the study helps managers to articulate marketing strategies such as empathetic and ethical focused advertising to promote green buying intentions of customers. This research will be particularly important for developing countries like Sri Lanka in promoting sustainable consumption which enhances environmental, social and future generations’ well-being. Sri Lankan business firms can improve their global presence by focusing on green consumerism as now many global firms have already begun sustainable business practices. Keywords: Green buying intention, Empathy, Cynicism, Consumer ethical beliefs, Green consumerism&nbsp

Optimum Land Allocation for Species Protection and Military Training on DoD Installations

Replaced with revised version of poster 8/11/10.Environmental Economics and Policy, Health Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Bridge maintenance robotic arm: Capacitive sensor for obstacle ranging in particle laden air

This paper describes an Adaptive Capacitive Sensor Network for Obstacle Ranging (ACSOR) that is intended to provide entire arm encompassing obstacle range data for a robotic arm conducting the task of sandblasting a bridge. A multi-channel capacitive sensor capable of dynamic obstacle ranging in air heavily laden with lead contaminated sandblasting refuse has been developed. Experimental results have shown the ACSOR's working range to be 50cm, that it is relatively immune from airborne lead contaminated sandblasting refuse and that it is capable of ranging an obstacle 21cm away whilst fitted to a robotic arm moving at 2cm/s with an obstacle range error of less than 1cm

THE INFLUENCE OF URBAN LAND USE ON PEDESTRIANS CASUALTIES

This study investigates how urban land use affects pedestrian and bicyclist casualties in children, adults, and elderly, and takes into account both people killed or seriously injured (KSI) and minor casualties. The study took into account ages of pedestrians and urban land use patterns, not traffic flow. The study used governmental United Kingdom land use classifications and separate models for different times of day, as pedestrian traffic varies during working and non-working hours. Land use data, casualty data, and population density data were taken from Newcastle upon Tyne and analyzed. The study found that most causalities involved adult pedestrians during non-working hours, and suggests that attention be paid to the number, location, and open hours of retail outlets in order to reduce the incidence of traffic accidents. Document type: Articl

Design and development of ReCOPTER: An open source ros-based multi-rotor platform for research

Selection of multi-rotor aircraft systems for robotics research is a trade-off between competing objectives. While Commercial Off The Shelf systems are fast to set up and provide a ready-made platform, they often lack complete documentation and have limited extensibility for allowing researchers to modify them for scientific work. Conversely, developing an aircraft from the ground up is labour intensive and time consuming, and requires substantial experience to ensure a satisfactory result. This paper ranks common robotic multi-rotor air- craft used in research against several criteria for openness, extensibility and performance. We propose a standard platform using open components and an open-source design, specifically geared to the needs of the research community

A virtual odometer for a Quadrotor Micro Aerial Vehicle

This paper describes the synthesis and evaluation of a "virtual odometer" for a Quadrotor Micro Aerial Vehicle. Availability of a velocity estimate has the potential to enhance the accuracy of mapping, estimation and control algorithms used with quadrotors, increasing the effectiveness of their applications. As a result of the unique dynamic characteristics of the quadrotor, a dual axis accelerometer mounted parallel to the propeller plane provides measurements that are directly proportional to vehicle velocities in that plane. Exploiting this insight, we encapsulate quadrotor dynamic equations which relate acceleration, attitude and the aerodynamic propeller drag in an extended Kalman filter framework for the purpose of state estimation. The result is a drift free estimation of lateral and longitudinal components of translational velocity and roll and pitch components of attitude of the quadrotor. Real world data sets gathered from two different quadrotor platforms, together with ground truth data from a Vicon system, are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and demonstrate that drift free estimates for the velocity and attitude can be obtained

Task oriented area partitioning and allocation for optimal operation of multiple industrial robots in unstructured environments

© 2014 IEEE. When multiple industrial robots are deployed in field applications such as grit blasting and spray painting of steel bridges, the environments are unstructured for robot operation and the robot positions may not be arranged accurately. Coordination of these multiple robots to maximize productivity through area partitioning and allocation is crucial. This paper presents a novel approach to area partitioning and allocation by utilizing multiobjective optimization and voronoi partitioning. Multiobjective optimization is used to minimize: (1) completion time, (2) proximity of the allocated area to the robot, and (3) the torque experienced by each joint of the robot during task execution. Seed points of the voronoi graph for voronoi partitioning are designed to be the design variables of the multiobjective optimization algorithm. Results of three different simulation scenarios are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and the advantage of incorporating robots' torque capacity

Autonomous robot manipulator-based exploration and mapping system for bridge maintenance

This paper presents a system for Autonomous eXploration to Build A Map (AXBAM) of an unknown, 3D complex steel bridge structure using a 6 degree-of-freedom anthropomorphic robot manipulator instrumented with a laser range scanner. The proposed algorithm considers the trade-off between the predicted environment information gain available from a sensing viewpoint and the manipulator joint angle changes required to position a sensor at that viewpoint, and then obtains collision-free paths through safe, previously explored regions. Information gathered from multiple viewpoints is fused to achieve a detailed 3D map. Experimental results show that the AXBAM system explores and builds quality maps of complex unknown regions in a consistent and timely manner. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved