Toward a Distributed Actuation and Cognition Means for a Miniature Soft Robot

This thesis presents components of an on-going research project aimed towards developing a miniature soft robot for urban search and rescue (USAR). The three significant contributions of the thesis are verifying the water hammer actuation previous work, developing an estimator of water hammer impulse direction from hose shape, and creating the infrastructure for distributed cognitive networks. There are many technical issues in designing soft robots, in terms of perception, actuation, cognition, power, physical structure and so on. We are focusing on actuation and cognition issues in this thesis. We investigated water hammer actuation as an alternative system which provides a continuously distributed form of actuation results from water hammer effect. It is special because it is a soft actuation method. We generated some comparison experiments and verified the benefits of the water hammer actuation, and also designed our soft robot to be hose-like in order to utilize the water hammer actuator. For the cognition part, we first addressed and verified that the shape of the hose-like robot has impact on impulse direction from the water hammer actuation. And then we implemented an emulated synthetic neural network (ESNN) to analyze the direction of the impulse from the water hammer actuation. Then in order to achieve the long-term goal, we distributed the emulated synthetic neural network onto many embedded system boards to achieve a distributed cognitive network. The distributed nodes in the network are using Bluetooth communication. In the comparison experiments between the active tether system and passive tether system, we can clearly see the benefits of active tether in momentum transfer and friction reduction. For example, in the drag test, with the water hammer actuation the burden that the tether can pull was increased by about 1.6 times. For the distributed cognitive network, we successfully built an emulated synthetic neural network on distributed embedded system boards. With the shape information as the inputs, the difference on outputs from the ESNN and the experimental results is less than 3%

Competitive Entry In Ontarios Deregulated Power Generation Industry

In this paper we investigate the issues involved in the deregulation of an electricity market. The paper focuses on efficiency considerations, comparing the gap between the socially efficient outcome and that achievable by a market. We model this problem with two-sided uncertainty: the uncertain market demand and the uncertain cost of production. In each case, we find the social optimum and the equilibrium outcome of the deregulated market. Conditions when deregulated industry cannot generate the socially optimal number of firms are identified. The relationship between market demand, the degree of risk-aversion of private firms, and the equilibrium number of firms is investigated

Problems and Countermeasures in Urban Greenway Construction

In terms of landscape design, urban greenway refers to the green landscape roads built for the pedestrians and the cyclists in cities. In recent years, many regions and cities in China have begun to enter the urban greenway construction boom and some urban greenway constructions have achieved periodical goals. However, many problems have emerged in the process of urban greenway construction in China, for example, lack of legal basis, biased understanding of the urban greenway of the public and weak scientific research, etc. In order to promote the development of urban greenway construction in China, the article discussed the existing problems of urban greenway construction in China and proposed corresponding solutions, based on the research of the urban greenway construction and the analysis of the characteristics of different urban developments

From sustainability reporting to integrated reporting: a New Zealand case study.

A major development in corporate reporting internationally in the past few years is the development and implementation of integrated reporting, acting as a primary tool to address increased stakeholder demand for more transparent, holistic and long-term decision-useful information. Despite the significant growth in integrated reporting research, there is little existing research into motivations for voluntary adoption and consequential changes in reporting practices, especially in New Zealand. The objective of this research was to explore why one of New Zealand’s largest commercial fishing companies, Sanford Limited, voluntarily adopted integrated reporting and how this adoption influenced its reporting practices. This study took the form of a single case study involving qualitative analysis of Sanford’s sustainability reports and integrated reports from 2013 to 2020 (i.e., before and after the adoption of the integrated reporting framework in 2014). It also involved in-depth, semi- structured interviews with the people in the company who are key to the preparation of the integrated reports. The findings were analysed through the lens of diffusion of innovation theory and stakeholder theory. The study found that the motivation for the adoption of integrated reporting is complex and multidimensional. Leadership, with a mission for the company to pursue sustainability over profitability and be the best in the world plays, an important role in initiating voluntary adoption of integrated reporting. Other main motivations for adoption include integrated reporting’s compatibility with the adopter’s existing system and seeing its relative advantages over existing practices. The findings reveal that for an innovation to be adopted, not only does it need to be resilient and robust, but internal top-down support is essential, emphasising the critical role of leadership in innovation adoption. Furthermore, the case company’s view, that integrated reports are the best communication tool to satisfy the increased stakeholders demand for more transparent information and accountability, encourages the adoption of integrated reporting. This finding indicates that stakeholder demand also plays a part in the adoption decision of innovation, particularly for public listed companies, whose success is dependent on their stakeholders. The study also found significant changes to report content and incremental changes in the process of preparing integrated reports. Although improved and more collaborative internal and external communication has evolved and continues to evolve, with a cross-departmental team established to break down silos, it appears there have been only minor changes to the existing processes of preparing sustainability reports. As pioneer research in the New Zealand context, this study provides empirical evidence that contributes to our understanding of the motivation for the voluntary adoption of an integrated reporting framework in a voluntary context and changes that prospective integrated reporting adopters could encounter or anticipate. The findings of this study bridge the existing research gaps as earlier studies of the drivers of integrated reporting adoption focused mostly on countries where integrated reporting is mandatory. It also provides some practical guidance for organisations embarking on the integrated reporting journey to ensure that their reporting practices proceed smoothly

Synthesis and optical properties of composite films from P3HT and sandwich-like Ag-C-Ag nanoparticles

This document is the Accepted Manuscript of the following article: Lingpeng Yan, Yamin Hao, Xiaoting Feng, Yongzhen Yang, Xuguang Liu, Yongkang Chen, and Bingshe Xu, ‘Synthesis and optical properties of composite films from P3HT and sandwich-like Ag–C–Ag nanoparticles’, RSC Advances, Vol. 5(97): 79860-79867, 2015, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C5RA16854F. Content in the UH Research Archive is made available for personal research, educational, and non-commercial purposes only. Unless otherwise stated, all content is protected by copyright, and in the absence of an open license, permissions for further re-use should be sought from the publisher, the author, or other copyright holder.Sandwich-like Ag-C-Ag nanoparticles (Ag-C-Ag NPs) were synthesized under mild hydrothermal conditions in a one-step method. With this approach, Ag was not only encapsulated in the centre of an individual carbon nanosphere, but was also uniformly dispersed within the carbon matrix up to the sphere's shell. Then, poly(3-hexylthiophene):Ag-C-Ag NPs (P3HT:Ag-C-Ag NPs) composite films were prepared by a spin coating method with a chlorobenzene solution of Ag-C-Ag NPs and P3HT. Both morphology and microstructure of Ag-C-Ag NPs were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. The possible formation mechanism was proposed. The results have indicated that the Ag-C-Ag NPs present many functional groups and their energy levels match with those of P3HT. It has been observed that an introduction of Ag-C-Ag NPs to P3HT can induce broad and high-absorbing spectra as well as great photoluminescence quenching of P3HT. It is evident that sandwich-like Ag-C-Ag NPs have a great potential to be a new acceptor material in photovoltaic devices.Peer reviewe