Dynamic Task Allocation based on Individual Abilities - Experiences from Developing and Operating an Inclusive Assembly Line for Workers With and Without Disabilities

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (EICS) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Mario Heinz ◽  
Sebastian Büttner ◽  
Sascha Jenderny ◽  
Carsten Röcker

Digital assistive systems, enable workers with disabilities to perform complex industrial work. However, the previously presented systems considered only a single workplace and a single user. This paper presents an assembly line that enables a joint processing of complex tasks by multiple workers with and without disabilities. The aim was to investigate the use of interaction technologies such as in-situ projections and hand-tracking to enable the processing of complex assembly tasks by work teams with highly heterogeneous abilities. The developed assembly line assists users and coordinates the joint work by distributing single assembly steps to workers based on the individual workers' abilities. Besides presenting the concept and implementation of the assembly line, we report our findings after six months of operation. Our results indicate that using the assistive assembly line has positive impacts, such as increased satisfaction and independence of the workers combined with a higher productivity.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 5057
Author(s):  
Wan-Yu Yu ◽  
Xiao-Qiang Huang ◽  
Hung-Yi Luo ◽  
Von-Wun Soo ◽  
Yung-Lung Lee

The autonomous vehicle technology has recently been developed rapidly in a wide variety of applications. However, coordinating a team of autonomous vehicles to complete missions in an unknown and changing environment has been a challenging and complicated task. We modify the consensus-based auction algorithm (CBAA) so that it can dynamically reallocate tasks among autonomous vehicles that can flexibly find a path to reach multiple dynamic targets while avoiding unexpected obstacles and staying close as a group as possible simultaneously. We propose the core algorithms and simulate with many scenarios empirically to illustrate how the proposed framework works. Specifically, we show that how autonomous vehicles could reallocate the tasks among each other in finding dynamically changing paths while certain targets may appear and disappear during the movement mission. We also discuss some challenging problems as a future work.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (13) ◽  
pp. 3874
Author(s):  
Dominika Veselinyová ◽  
Jana Mašlanková ◽  
Katarina Kalinová ◽  
Helena Mičková ◽  
Mária Mareková ◽  
...  

We are experiencing rapid progress in all types of imaging techniques used in the detection of various numbers and types of mutation. In situ hybridization (ISH) is the primary technique for the discovery of mutation agents, which are presented in a variety of cells. The ability of DNA to complementary bind is one of the main principles in every method used in ISH. From the first use of in situ techniques, scientists paid attention to the improvement of the probe design and detection, to enhance the fluorescent signal intensity and inhibition of cross-hybrid presence. This article discusses the individual types and modifications, and is focused on explaining the principles and limitations of ISH division on different types of probes. The article describes a design of probes for individual types of in situ hybridization (ISH), as well as the gradual combination of several laboratory procedures to achieve the highest possible sensitivity and to prevent undesirable events accompanying hybridization. The article also informs about applications of the methodology, in practice and in research, to detect cell to cell communication and principles of gene silencing, process of oncogenesis, and many other unknown processes taking place in organisms at the DNA/RNA level.


2016 ◽  
Vol 150 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margret Scholz ◽  
Galina Pendinen

The pairing behaviour of the individual chromosome arms of Hordeum vulgare (Hv) with their homoeologous arms of H. bulbosum (Hb) at metaphase I of meiosis in tetraploid Hb × Hv hybrids and the frequencies of recombined Hv chromosome arms in selfed offspring were studied on differentially visualized chromosomes after fluorescent in situ hybridisation. The frequencies of paired Hv-Hb arms in the F2 and F3 hybrids were correlated with the frequencies of recombined Hv chromosomes in progenies. Self-generation of hybrids, the number of Hv and Hb chromosomes, and the number of recombined Hv chromosomes of the hybrids strongly influenced the Hv-Hb pairing frequency in meiosis. Within the offspring of F2 and F3 hybrids both Hv plants and hybrids were detected. In contrast, all progenies of the F4 hybrid were hybrids which exhibited centromere misdivisions. The highest frequencies of homoeologous pairing in hybrids and most recombinants were obtained for the barley chromosome 1HL. Recombinants for 4HL, 5HS, 6HS, and 7HS were rarely found. Meiotic pairing and recombinants involving chromosome 1HS were never observed. The results of this study demonstrate that fertile tetraploid interspecific hybrids with a high intergenomic pairing at meiosis are valuable basic material for introgression breeding in barley.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 6241-6255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soumendra N. Bhanja ◽  
Xiaokun Zhang ◽  
Junye Wang

Abstract. Groundwater is one of the most important natural resources for economic development and environmental sustainability. In this study, we estimated groundwater storage in 11 major river basins across Alberta, Canada, using a combination of remote sensing (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, GRACE), in situ surface water data, and land surface modeling estimates (GWSAsat). We applied separate calculations for unconfined and confined aquifers, for the first time, to represent their hydrogeological differences. Storage coefficients for the individual wells were incorporated to compute the monthly in situ groundwater storage (GWSAobs). The GWSAsat values from the two satellite-based products were compared with GWSAobs estimates. The estimates of GWSAsat were in good agreement with the GWSAobs in terms of pattern and magnitude (e.g., RMSE ranged from 2 to 14 cm). While comparing GWSAsat with GWSAobs, most of the statistical analyses provide mixed responses; however the Hodrick–Prescott trend analysis clearly showed a better performance of the GRACE-mascon estimate. The results showed trends of GWSAobs depletion in 5 of the 11 basins. Our results indicate that precipitation played an important role in influencing the GWSAobs variation in 4 of the 11 basins studied. A combination of rainfall and snowmelt positively influences the GWSAobs in six basins. Water budget analysis showed an availability of comparatively lower terrestrial water in 9 of the 11 basins in the study period. Historical groundwater recharge estimates indicate a reduction of groundwater recharge in eight basins during 1960–2009. The output of this study could be used to develop sustainable water withdrawal strategies in Alberta, Canada.


CORROSION ◽  
10.5006/2581 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 312-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Man ◽  
Chaofang Dong ◽  
Kui Xiao ◽  
Qiang Yu ◽  
Xiaogang Li

In situ atomic force microscopy, scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy, and potential pulse technology were used to study the pitting behavior induced by inclusions in AM355 martensitic stainless steel. The MnS-(Cr, Mn, Al)O duplex inclusion exhibited the highest sensitivity to the pitting corrosion with respect to the individual MnS and (Cr, Mn, Al)O inclusions. When exposed to a solution containing Cl−, the selective dissolution occurred on the sulfide segment of the duplex inclusion, leading to trenching along the oxide part. The dissolution mechanism of MnS segment in the duplex inclusion is similar to the individual MnS inclusion. The Cr depletion in the boundary layer at the inclusion/metal interface promoted the transition from metastable to stable pitting corrosion in the duplex inclusion.


2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (4Supl1) ◽  
pp. 2589
Author(s):  
Marjorrie Augusto de Souza ◽  
Edenio Detmann ◽  
Gabriel Cipriano Rocha ◽  
Marcia De Oliveira Franco ◽  
Erick Darlisson Batista ◽  
...  

The objective of this collaborative study was to evaluate the indigestible neutral detergent fiber (iNDF) and indigestible acid detergent fiber (iADF) content in feeds in six laboratories from institutions linked to the National Institute of Science and Technology in Animal Science (INCT-CA). Six feeds were evaluated: signal grass hay, sugarcane, corn silage, soybean meal, corn and citrus pulp. Estimated levels of iNDF and iADF proved to be dependent on the laboratory in which the analysis was performed. It was found that differences between laboratories ranged from 2.40 percentage points for soybean meal to 8.05 percentage points for sugarcane for iNDF analysis and from 1.79 percentage points for corn to 10.06 percentage points for hay for iADF analysis. It was observed that the individual evaluation of each material, the total random variation of the results between laboratories ranged from 88.75 to 96.77% and 88.75 to 98.40% for iNDF and iADF analysis, respectively. The iNDF and iADF levels are dependent on the interaction effect between the evaluated material and laboratory and have low reproducibility; this may be a consequence of the differences between the methods practiced by each laboratory, demonstrating lack of standardization of procedures used by the laboratories.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 172988141881303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bing Xie ◽  
Xueqiang Gu ◽  
Jing Chen ◽  
LinCheng Shen

In this article, we study a problem of dynamic task allocation with multiple agent responsibilities in distributed multi-agent systems. Agents in the research have two responsibilities, communication and task execution. Movements in agent task execution bring changes to the system network structure, which will affect the communication. Thus, agents need to be autonomous on communication network reconstruction for good performance on task execution. First, we analyze the relationships between the two responsibilities of agents. Then, we design a multi-responsibility–oriented coalition formation framework for dynamic task allocation with two parts, namely, task execution and self-adaptation communication. For the former part, we integrate our formerly proposed algorithm in the framework for task execution coalition formation. For the latter part, we develop a constrained Bayesian overlapping coalition game model to formulate the communication network. A task-allocation efficiency–oriented communication coalition utility function is defined to optimize a coalition structure for the constrained Bayesian overlapping coalition game model. Considering the geographical location dependence between the two responsibilities, we define constrained agent strategies to map agent strategies to potential location choices. Based on the abovementioned design, we propose a distributed location pruning self-adaptive algorithm for the constrained Bayesian overlapping coalition formation. Finally, we test the performance of our framework, multi-responsibility–oriented coalition formation framework, with simulation experiments. Experimental results demonstrate that the multi-responsibility oriented coalition formation framework performs better than the other two distributed algorithms on task completion rate (by over 9.4% and over 65% on average, respectively).


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