AMPLE: an anytime planning and execution framework for dynamic and uncertain problems in robotics

Acting in robotics is driven by reactive and deliberative reasonings which take place in the competition between execution and planning processes. Properly balancing reactivity and deliberation is still an open question for harmonious execution of deliberative plans in complex robotic applications. We propose a flexible algorithmic framework to allow continuous real-time planning of complex tasks in parallel of their executions. Our framework, named AMPLE, is oriented towards robotic modular architectures in the sense that it turns planning algorithms into services that must be generic, reactive, and valuable. Services are optimized actions that are delivered at precise time points following requests from other modules that include states and dates at which actions are needed. To this end, our framework is divided in two concurrent processes: a planning thread which receives planning requests and delegates action selection to embedded planning softwares in compliance with the queue of internal requests, and an execution thread which orchestrates these planning requests as well as action execution and state monitoring. We show how the behavior of the execution thread can be parametrized to achieve various strategies which can differ, for instance, depending on the distribution of internal planning requests over possible future execution states in anticipation of the uncertain evolution of the system, or over different underlying planners to take several levels into account. We demonstrate the flexibility and the relevance of our framework on various robotic benchmarks and real experiments that involve complex planning problems of different natures which could not be properly tackled by existing dedicated planning approaches which rely on the standard plan-then-execute loop

The Changing Waves of Migration from the Balkans to Turkey: A Historical Account

Ahmet İçduygu and Deniz Sert tell the history of migration from the Balkans to Turkey from the end of the nineteenth century to the present. They relate this history to nation-building, but also to economic conditions and specific Turkish concerns, such as the perceived need for immigration to compensate for a declining population at that time. They also demonstrate that after 1990, ethnic migration decreased and irregular labour migration became more important

The Effects of Large-Scale Public Investment on Cities and Regions in Turkey

Large-scale government investments have crucial impacts on the economy as well as social, environmental, and cultural realms in Turkey. These investments, targeting the building of a nation state once, turned into economic-oriented profit-seeking projects after the 1980s. The large-scale projects, also named as megaprojects in the literature, have been successful to a certain extent, while their negative repercussions have been evident due to prioritizing economic gains over social and environmental benefits, and accounting for limited participation. The large-scale projects discussed in this section are; The Southeastern Anatolia Project which aimed to support socio-economic development via agriculture and industry in the most disadvantaged region of the country; tourism investments after the enactment of the "Law for the Encouragement of Tourism" which favored economic growth primarily in coastal zones; critical infrastructure projects such as highway projects, the High Speed Train, and the Izmir suburban rail which focused on improved connections. These projects are discussed with regard to their initial intentions, scopes, performances, and consequences. Most of them are criticized for disrupting social and natural values while economic benefits have also been limited, except for some successful projects such as Izmir suburban rail (IZBAN) which supports networking while amalgamating technical know-how and local experience