Roboter ante portas? About the deployment of a humanoid robot into a library

Robots are common practice in industrial production, where they already control production processes. In many hospitals they support medical staff during complicated operations. There are robots in some libraries, that support the time-consuming process of inventory. However, in general libraries have been a rather unusual place for introducing robot applications so far and especially humanoid robots are still more than unusual in public nowadays. Can humanoid robots be useful in daily life? What makes sense and what is just technical gimmick? For almost two years, the Technical University of Applied Sciences in Wildau has owned two so called Pepper robots1. Pepper is a human-shape robot. It is about 1.20 meters tall and weighs 28 kilograms (60 lb). Pepper is well equipped, highly versatile and can be programmed for specific needs. The model Pepper was launched in 2014 by the French- Japanese company Softbank Robotics Corporate as a genuine day-to-day companion for human beings. It has been available in Europe since September 2016. In Wildau, the RoboticLab Telematics, together with the library team, is experimenting with Pepper to be used as a self-employed library assistant to help visitors and to support the staff of the library. How does the printer work? Where do I find my book? Can you explain the facilities of the library to me? Pepper helps out as a charming new attraction of the university library in Wildau. In this paper, the steps necessary to transform a brand-new Pepper robot into a library assistant for the library at TH Wildau are discussed2. Furthermore, first experiences are provided. Some of them were very unexpected

An indoor localization system using active RFID technology

Im Jahr 2009 wurde das "iCampus Wildau" Projekt an der Technischen Hochschule Wildau [FH] initiiert, ein Projekt, das vorrangig durch die Mitarbeit von Studierenden des Studiengangs Telematik geprägt ist und der Leitung von Frau Prof. Dr. Mohnke unterliegt. Das große Ziel liegt in der Schaffung eines mobilen und multilingualen Campus-Informationssystems, das es Besuchern, Studierenden und Mitarbeitern der TH Wildau [FH] ermöglicht, einen schnellen und übersichtlichen Einblick in alle Domänen des Campus zu erhalten. Neben Höhepunkten in der Softwareentwicklung, darunter die Programmierung von Smartphone- und "Rich Internet"-Applikationen, beschäftigen sich die Projektmitarbeiter auch mit der Entwicklung und Evaluation eines Indoor-Ortungs-Systems in der Hochschulbibliothek, das seitens der Hardware auf aktiver RFID-Technik, die im lizenzfreien 2,4 Ghz ISM-Band arbeitet, aufbaut und seitens der Software auf einem open-source Projekt mit dem Namen "OpenBeacon" basiert. ICampus’ Ziel ist es, das System durch Anpassung der Firmware der OpenBeacon-RFID-Tags und (Weiter-)entwicklung von Ortungsalgorithmen so zu stabilisieren, dass es auch in kritischen baulichen Gegebenheiten zuverlässige Ergebnisse liefert und universell einsetzbar wird.In 2009 the „icampus Wildau“ project started at the Technical university of applied sciences in Wildau. It is a project mainly driven by students of the Telematics course under the guidance of prof. Dr. Janett mohnke. The main goal is to set up a mobile and multilingual on-campus-information system, providing visitors, students and employees a quick and clear overview of the facilities of the different university domains as well as information about special events. Besides highlights in the field of software development such as programming smartphone and rich internet applications, the icampus project team develops and evaluates an indoor localization system in the university’s library that is based on active RFID technology, working in the 2.4GHz ISM-band and opensource software, namely “openbeacon”. Reaching the main target, which is stabilization of localization results and universal usage in almost every critical constructional area, is achieved by the adaptation of the RFID tag’s firmware and the further development of localization algorithms. Detailed descriptions from the hardware and software side as well as a discussion of the perspective of this technology will be made in this paper

iCampus Goes Library - Advantages of Using a Multimedia Guide in a Library

At University of Applied Sciences Wildau in Germany students have developed and evaluated a mobile and multilingual on-campus-information system, called iCampus Wildau. With the help of maps, audio tracks, and360°-pictures a user is guided across campus and provided with current information about visible and invisible services and options. Because of its modular and general approach, the guide has been used for several, quite different purposes. One very successful application case has been a multimedia guide for the university library. This has been used for introducing new library users into using the library services, providing information about the special architecture of the library building, or even as a multimedia guide for one of the many exhibitions that find their place in the library. In this paper, we will explain the features of this application, provide some practical experiences, and show how it can easily be adapted to any library(or campus)

iLIBRARY - AN INTERACTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF VIRTUAL LIBRARY SERVICES

In this paper, the iLibrary system is introduced, which has been integrated and tested at the library of the Technical University of Applied Sciences in Wildau. The goal of this project is to develop an interactive information system for the improvement of virtual library services within the university’s library and in this manner make users more aware of all the benefits the library provides. The system concentrates mainly on the development and implementation of new software applications for devices such as smartphones, tablets and a multi-touch screen, as well as introducing new back-end applications for the improvement of existing services and processes. We will explain the features of this system, provide some practical experiences, and show how it can easily be adapted to any library

Limits of using Signatures for Permutation Independent Boolean Comparison

This paper addresses problems that arise while checking the equivalence of two Boolean functions under arbitrary input permutations. The permutation problem has several applications in the synthesis and verification of combinational logic: It arises in the technology mapping stage of logic synthesis in finding a match from the cell library for parts of the technology independent circui

Limits of using Signatures for Permutation Independent Boolean Comparison

This paper addresses problems that arise while checking the equivalence of two Boolean functions under arbitrary input permutations. The permutation problem has several applications in the synthesis and verification of combinational logic: It arises in the technology mapping stage of logic synthesis and in logic verification. A popular method to solve it is to compute a signature for each variable that helps to establish a correspondence between the variables. Several researchers have suggested a wide range of signatures that have been used for this purpose. However, for each choice of signature, there remain variables that cannot be uniquely identified. Our research has shown that, for a given example, this set of problematic variables tends to be the same -- regardless of the choice of signatures. The paper investigates this problem