Investigation of varying gray scale levels for remote manipulation

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of variant monitor gray scale levels and workplace illumination levels on operators' ability to discriminate between different colors on a monochrome monitor. It was determined that 8-gray scale viewing resulted in significantly worse discrimination performance compared to 16- and 32-gray scale viewing and that there was only a negligible difference found between 16 and 32 shades of gray. Therefore, it is recommended that monitors used while performing remote manipulation tasks have 16 or above shades of gray since this evaluation has found levels lower than this to be unacceptable for color discrimination task. There was no significant performance difference found between a high and a low workplace illumination condition. Further analysis was conducted to determine which specific combinations of colors can be used in conjunction with each other to ensure errorfree color coding/brightness discrimination performance while viewing a monochrome monitor. It was found that 92 three-color combination and 9 four-color combinations could be used with 100 percent accuracy. The results can help to determine which gray scale levels should be provided on monochrome monitors as well as which colors to use to ensure the maximal performance of remotely-viewed color discrimination/coding tasks

Space Station Freedom coupling tasks: An evaluation of their space operational compatibility

The development of the Space Station Freedom tasks that are compatible with both telerobotic as well as extravehicular activity is a necessary redundancy in order to insure successful day to day operation. One task to be routinely performed aboard Freedom will be the changeout of various quick disconnect fluid connectors. In an attempt to resolve these potentially contradictory issues of compatibility, mock-ups of couplings suitable to both extravehicular as well as telerobotic activity were designed and built. An evaluation performed at the Remote Operator Interaction Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center is discussed, which assessed the prototype couplings as well as three standard coupling designs. Data collected during manual and telerobotic manipulation of the couplings indicated that the custom coupling was in fact shown to be faster to operate and generally preferred over the standard coupling designs

Produção de papel e açúcares a partir de biomassa florestal.

Resumo

On agile metrics for operations management: measuring and aligning agility with operational excellence

High-quality performance in Operations Management has been measured through different Excellence frameworks, with special emphasis on Operational Excellence models. By allowing to track performance indicators, identify improvement opportunities, and tackle operational limitations, such frameworks have proven their validity throughout the years. However, and despite their history of success, these frameworks remain based on almost the same principles and criteria that were defined when they were first being established, more than three decades ago. As change becomes central to the life of organizations, the ability to reconfigure operations becomes vital for success. However, the current takes on Operational Excellence do not consider the ability to change in their assessments. In a marketplace in transformation, this is perceived as a limitation and draws criticism to Excellence frameworks. In the face of this gap, we develop, deploy and analyze the results obtained by an Organizational Agility assessment framework that is aligned with Excellence in Operations Management. This paper presents this process and highlights the main results of bringing Organizational Agility together with Operational Excellence in the measurement and pursuit of superior operational performance.This work has been supported by national funds through FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2019, as well as by PhD grant PD/BD/114149/2016