Constrained Autonomy for a Better Human–Automation Interface

The concept of autonomous or uncrewed ships is not new. Japan investigated remote control of ships in the “Highly reliable intelligent ship” project from 1982 to 1988 (Hasegawa 2004). The rocket launching platform L/P Odyssey, classified as a mobile offshore unit (MOU), was remotely controlled during the launch phase. Thus, it operated as a de facto uncrewed ship in international waters from 1999 to 2014 (Tass 2018). The first large-scale study on uncrewed and autonomous merchant ships was the EU project MUNIN, running from 2012 to 2015 (Rødseth & Burmeister 2012). Since then, there has been a steady increase in new investigations and concept studies. M/S Yara Birkeland is probably the best known and is at the time of writing planned to operate autonomously and uncrewed from 2022 (Yara 2018). A major benefit of ship autonomy is that the ship can be uncrewed, although uncrewed operation can also be achieved through remote control as for L/P Odyssey. Uncrewed ships save capital cost when removing the living quarters and life support systems from the ship; it can save crew cost and it allows new and innovative designs of the ship (Rødseth 2018).publishedVersio

Behandling av uønskede biprodukter i produksjonsanalyse : ønskede modelleringsstrategier og anvendelser

The thesis consists of an introduction and four related papers. Their common topic is production analysis when undesirable outputs are accounted for. The introduction establishes the research platform on which the following papers are built by reviewing existing literature, proposing a new way of modeling environmentally regulated firms, and introducing some new areas of model application. The first article evaluates one of the most commonly applied axioms when some outputs are undesirable, namely weak disposability. The axiom is discussed in relation to the materials balance condition. It is shown that the two cannot hold simultaneously except when introducing abatement activities. Second, since abatement is not explicitly accounted for when applying the weak disposability axiom, the potential for reducing emissions may be overstated. This has important implications for efficiency measurement and estimation of marginal abatement costs. The second article builds on the conclusions from the first article by explicitly accounting for both the ways undesirable outputs are generated and how they may be reduced. Profit maximization under environmental regulation is evaluated and it is shown how regulations increase the costs of polluting inputs and lead to forgone profits. Consequently, allocative efficiency may be underestimated if regulatory constraints are not accounted for. Using U.S. electricity data, I find empirical support for this proposal. This is contrary to the established literature that has mainly focused on undesirable outputs’ influence on technical efficiency. The third article’s purpose is to extend an established method for abatement cost estimation to account for more flexible producer responses to environmental regulation than is currently being done. By applying the directional distance function, marginal abatement costs are derived that reflect the least cost way of reducing undesirable outputs. The fourth article develops one of the new areas of model application proposed in the introduction, namely evaluating how efforts directed at reducing some undesirable output may influence other undesirable outputs due to jointness. The emphasis is on how different strategies for reducing undesirable outputs influence the occurrence of reductions in secondary undesirable outputs

A taxonomy for autonomy in industrial autonomous mobile robots including autonomous merchant ships

The concept of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) has gained much popularity in recent years, particularly in commercial settings where the name industrial autonomous mobile robot (IAMR) is proposed. In addition to automatic guided vehicles and automated mining trucks, IAMR also includes autonomous merchant ships. AMR is an old concept which was first introduced in the 1980s. Although the concept of AMRs is old and broadly used, there is still no common definition of autonomy when mobile robots are concerned. This paper will review some of the most known definitions and develop a taxonomy for autonomy in mobile autonomous robots. This will be used to compare the different definitions of robotic autonomy. This paper will mainly look at industrial autonomous mobile robots, i.e. systems that are designed to operate with a clear commercial objective in mind and which are normally supported by a remote control centre. This means that the robot is not fully autonomous, but to varying degrees dependent on humans in some control and monitoring functions.publishedVersio

Konjunkturutvikling og annonseinntekter i redaksjonelle medier : en økonometrisk analyse av tidsseriedata

Denne utredningen studerer om det finnes systematiske forskjeller i hvordan konjunktursvingninger påvirker annonseinntekter i de redaksjonelle mediene dagsavis, tidsskrift, TV, radio og Internett, samt undergrupper av disse, i det svenske mediemarkedet i perioden 1994-2009. Gjennom empiriske analyser av tidsserie- og paneldata finner forfatterne at oppgangskonjunkturer og nedgangskonjunkturer ikke har symmetrisk effekt på annonseinntektene i enkeltmediene. De finner at annonseinntektene i trykte medier (dagsavis og tidsskrift) er mer følsomme overfor negative konjunktursjokk enn positive konjunkturer, mens kringkastingsmedier (TV og radio) er mer følsomme overfor positive enn negative konjunktursjokk. Forfatterne finner også enkelte forskjeller i konjunkturfølsomhet mellom mediene. Annonseinntektene i radiomediet er mer følsom for positive konjunkturer enn samtlige medier, tidsskrift er mer utsatt for nedgangskonjunkturer enn TV og radio, og dagsavis mer utsatt for nedgangskonjunkturer enn radio. For internettmediet finner forfatterne ingen klare konjunkturmønstre i annonseinntektene. Endringer i omsetning for Internett ser imidlertid ut til å være nært relatert til oppslutningsendringer. Funnene samsvarer med, men nyanserer etablerte oppfatninger om konjunkturfølsomhet i annonsemarkedet. Utredningen utvider tidligere studier ved å analysere effekten av høy- og lavkonjunkturer separat, justere for endringer i enkeltmediers oppslutning, analysere tall for internettannonsering og benytte kvartals- fremfor årsdata. Utredningen skiller seg også fra tidligere studier ved å fokusere på ett enkelt land: Sverige. Resultatene drøftes opp mot svenske markedsmessige og politiske forhold. Generaliserbarheten av konklusjonene utover det svenske markedet drøftes opp mot resultater fra tverrnasjonale studier. Gyldigheten av konklusjonene valideres blant annet gjennom å benytte ulike mål for økonomisk aktivitet og medieoppslutning. For noen medier er enkelte resultater mindre robust, men hovedkonklusjonene synes å være holdbare. Utredningen bør være av interesse for akademikere og praktikere interessert i makroøkonomiske svingningers betydning for medienes evne til å realisere kommersielle og samfunnsmessige mål

Efficient supply of cultural landscape in a CGE framework

It is widely recognized that the agricultural sector, in addition to private goods, produces public goods that benefit the domestic consumers. The prime example is cultural landscape which is produced jointly with private agricultural goods. In order for policy to be optimal it should be directed towards resolving market failures caused by the existence of public goods. Using a public good modeling framework, we develop supply- and willingness to pay functions for cultural landscape. Governmental agricultural support is adjusted to achieve efficient supply of the public good. Thereafter we illustrate how this can be achieved in a computable general equilibrium model. We show that efficient supply of cultural landscape can be achieved even with a tremendous reduction in overall support of agricultural production

Dialogisk praksis og samskapte muligheter

I denne masteroppgaven har jeg vært nysgjerrig på hva terapeuter tenker skal til for å skape en god dialog med familiene de møter i en tverrfaglig hjelpekontekst. Den ”gode dialog” er ikke et klart definert begrep og har følgelig mange definisjoner, alt etter hvem en spør. Jeg har forsket på terapeuters tanker om god dialog innenfor rammen av det som kalles dialogisk praksis. Dette er et kvalitativt forskningsprosjekt der analysemetoden er inspirert av Kirsti Malteruds modifiserte utgave av Giorgis fenomenologiske analyse. Studien gir et innblikk i terapeuters ideer, holdninger og opplevelser knyttet til den gode dialog, basert på deres refleksjoner knyttet til erfaringer fra egen dialogisk praksis

Dialogisk praksis og samskapte muligheter

I denne masteroppgaven har jeg vært nysgjerrig på hva terapeuter tenker skal til for å skape en god dialog med familiene de møter i en tverrfaglig hjelpekontekst. Den ”gode dialog” er ikke et klart definert begrep og har følgelig mange definisjoner, alt etter hvem en spør. Jeg har forsket på terapeuters tanker om god dialog innenfor rammen av det som kalles dialogisk praksis. Dette er et kvalitativt forskningsprosjekt der analysemetoden er inspirert av Kirsti Malteruds modifiserte utgave av Giorgis fenomenologiske analyse. Studien gir et innblikk i terapeuters ideer, holdninger og opplevelser knyttet til den gode dialog, basert på deres refleksjoner knyttet til erfaringer fra egen dialogisk praksis