The Money of Monarchs : The Importance of Non-Tax Revenue for Autocratic Rule in Early Modern Sweden

According to a venerable argument about the formation of political regimes in historical Europe, taxation goes hand in hand with representation, as financial needs forced rulers to trade rights for revenue. In this dissertation I explore the reverse assumption, asking whether it is the case that non-taxation went hand in hand with non-representation? I argue that early modern rulers who had access to what I conceptualize as ‘proprietary revenue’—including profits from landownership, natural resource extraction, state-owned enterprise, and colonial plunder—could use such revenue to concentrate political authority in their own hands and rule as autocrats. Their fiscal independence made them politically impervious. In the empirical part of this thesis I use insights from the study of regime formation in modern oil states to guide my analysis of autocratic rule in early modern Sweden, a case that does not seem to fit existing theories of European political development. Most importantly, I find that rulers such as Gustav I (r. 1523-1560) and Karl XI (r. 1672-1697) would have been hard-pressed to set up autocratic regimes had they not been able to expand their royal domains and rule more as ‘landowner kings’ than ‘taxation kings.’ The main contributions of this dissertation are that (i) it develops our conceptual understanding of non-tax revenue; (ii) it explains why and how access to such revenue influences political arrangements; and (iii) it provides a novel explanation for regime formation in early modern Sweden

Integrated Architecture for Industrial Robot Programming and Control

As robot control systems are traditionally closed, it is difficult to add supplementary intelligence. Accordingly, as based on a new notion of user views, a layered system architecture is proposed. Bearing in mind such industrial demands as computing efficiency and simple factory-floor operation, the control layers are parameterized by means of functional operators consisting of pieces of compiled code that can be passed as parameters between the layers. The required interplay between application-specific programs and built-in motion control is thereby efficiently accomplished. The results from experimental evaluation and several case studies suggest the architecture to be very useful also in an industrial context

Flexible application development and high-performance motion control based on external sensing and reconfiguration of ABB industrial robot controllers

New robot applications increasingly require external sensing to accomplish robustness and performance despite the variations and uncertainties that come with the increasing demands on flexibility for manufacturing of customized products. The demands on productivity then require high performance, which for well known feedback-control reasons means short response times from external process event to reaction on the robot motor control. The need for high- performance sensor interfaces connected to the motion control without excessive buffering and computations has therefore gained increasing attention over the last decade. Apart from high sampling frequencies and short latencies, there are also engineering aspects to consider. Control engineering tools should be possible to utilize, additional computing power is better connected via real-time Ethernet connections, and all interfaces should check compatibility without sacrificing performance. Furthermore, all that should preferably coexist with the original system, superimposing the effects on external sensing while still maintaining safety and consistency of data. The reason is that the original control software is model based and built on millions of lines of C-code, and tested beyond the possibilities of a research lab. Such a system has been accomplished for control and application development using ABB robots. A short description of the system is given, and its use for application/control development is exemplified. User specific feedback control can be done easily with short sampling periods and less than 1ms of latency from sensing to motor reaction

Robotic Gift Wrapping or a Glance at the Present State in Santa's Workshop

This work presents a robotic implementation of Christmas gift wrapping. Handling paper is a challenging task for an industrial robot as it easily tears and folds in unexpected ways. In this application, a dual-arm industrial robot with simple two-finger grippers was used, and the robot was programmed using a standard position-based approach. The wrapping was accomplished with the help of plastic spatulas, and although the speed of the final wrapping was slower than an average human, the gift wrapper application became a success on its tour around Sweden during the Christmas commerce 2015

Garbage collector interface

The purpose of the presented garbage collector interface is to provide a universal interface for many different implementations of garbage collectors. This is to simplify the integration and exchange of garbage collectors, but also to support incremental, non-conservative, and thread safe implementations. Due to the complexity of the interface, it is aimed at code generators and preprocessors. Experiences from ongoing implementations indicate that the garbage collector interface successfully provides the necessary functionality in an efficient way

Візуально-комунікативні характеристики особистісно-професійного іміджу вчителя

У статті представлено візуально-комунікативні характеристики особистісно-професійного іміджу вчителя. Розкрито сутність понять: "візуальна привабливість", "комунікативна привабливість". Охарактеризовано складники візуальної привабливості вчителя. Наведено вимоги до одягу як важливого елемента зовнішнього вигляду вчителя. Комунікативну привабливість педагога розкрито в контексті педагогічного спілкування та засобів його реалізації. Показано роль комунікабельності та комунікативності як рис, що забезпечують ефективність професійно-педагогічної комунікації. Комунікативний імідж учителя визначено як комплекс візуально-комунікативних характеристик та професійно-педагогічних якостей

Master-Slave Coordination Using Virtual Constraints for a Redundant Dual-Arm Haptic Interface

Programming robots for tasks involving force interaction is difficult, since both the knowledge of the task and the dynamics of the robots are necessary. An immersive haptic interface for task demonstration is proposed, where theoperator can sense and act through the robot. This is achieved by coupling two robotic systems with virtual constraints such that they have the same coordinates in the operational space disregarding a fixed offset. Limitations caused by the singular configurations or the reach of the robots are naturally reflected to either side as haptic feedback

High-frequency Electrocardiogram Analysis in the Ability to Predict Reversible Perfusion Defects during Adenosine Myocardial Perfusion Imaging

Background: A previous study has shown that analysis of high-frequency QRS components (HF-QRS) is highly sensitive and reasonably specific for detecting reversible perfusion defects on myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) scans during adenosine. The purpose of the present study was to try to reproduce those findings. Methods: 12-lead high-resolution electrocardiogram recordings were obtained from 100 patients before (baseline) and during adenosine Tc-99m-tetrofosmin MPI tests. HF-QRS were analyzed regarding morphology and changes in root mean square (RMS) voltages from before the adenosine infusion to peak infusion. Results: The best area under the curve (AUC) was found in supine patients (AUC=0.736) in a combination of morphology and RMS changes. None of the measurements, however, were statistically better than tossing a coin (AUC=0.5). Conclusion: Analysis of HF-QRS was not significantly better than tossing a coin for determining reversible perfusion defects on MPI scans

Force Feedback for Assembly of Aircraft Structures

Variability in composite manufacture and the limitations in positional accuracy of common industrial robots have hampered automation of assembly tasks within aircraft manufacturing. One way to handle geometry variations and robot compliancy is to use force control. Force control technology utilizes a sensor mounted on the robot to feedback force data to the controller system so instead of being position driven, i.e. programmed to achieve a certain position with the tool, the robot can be programmed to achieve a certain force. This paper presents an experimental case where a compliant rib is aligned to multiple surfaces using force feedback and an industrial robot system from ABB. Two types of ribs where used, one full size carbon fiber rib, and one smaller metal replica for evaluation purposes. The alignment sequence consisted of several iterative steps and a search procedure was implemented within the robot control system. The technology has the potential to lessen the need for dedicated tooling, reduce the need for traditional workspace calibration and can be used in several other applications, such as pin and socket type assemblies found in pylons or landing gear or 'part to part' assemblies such as leading edge ribs to spar