Experimental capabilities and limitations of a position-based control algorithm for swarm robotics

Achieving efficient and reliable self-organization in groups of autonomous robots is a fundamental challenge in swarm robotics. Even simple states of collective motion, such as group translation or rotation, require nontrivial algorithms, sensors, and actuators to be achieved in real-world scenarios. We study here the capabilities and limitations in controlling experimental robot swarms of a decentralized control algorithm that only requires information on the positions of neighboring agents, and not on their headings. Using swarms of e-Puck robots, we implement this algorithm in experiments and show its ability to converge to self-organized collective translation or rotation, starting from a state with random orientations. Through a simple analytical calculation, we also unveil an essential limitation of the algorithm that produces small persistent oscillations of the aligned state, related to its marginal stability. By comparing predictions and measurements, we compute the experimental noise distributions of the linear and angular robot speeds, showing that they are well described by Gaussian functions. We then implement simulations that model this noise by adding Gaussian random variables with the experimentally measured standard deviations. These simulations are performed for multiple parameter combinations and compared to experiments, showing that they provide good predictions for the expected speed and robustness of the self-organizing dynamics.

Reviving pedagogical translation

The aim of this study was to determine to what extent translation may be an effective pedagogical tool for use by UK GCSE language students. It is offered as a contribution to the ongoing debate regarding the use of pedagogical translation. In March 2015, 41 students preparing for their GCSE Spanish exams were presented with a variety of translation-based activities, including a discussion about professional translation, a mistranslations exercise and a group translation task. The research design combined both translation as a means (explicative and process-oriented) and translation as an end (communicative and product-oriented), and was based upon a realistic, student-centred, socio-constructivist pedagogical foundation. Qualitative data, and a small amount of quantitative data, were collected via a post-session questionnaire and semi-structured group interview, through which students were asked about their experience of the translation sessions in order to answer the following questions: (1) According to students, does translation have a place in UK secondary school foreign language education? (2) If it does, what do students feel are its main benefits? (3) What form should translation activities take, according to students? Students felt that translation could add to their language classes in a variety of ways, including building their confidence, making their language learning more engaging, giving their learning a more ‘real-world’, practical focus and increasing their general language competency. They also felt that it was best delivered in the form of task-based group work. Students’ responses to the translation sessions were overwhelmingly positive, providing compelling support for further use of both explicative and communicative translation tasks in UK secondary school language education.

What Were They Thinking?! Students’ Decision Making in L1 and L2 Translation Processes

In spite of the ‘Golden Rule’ that translators should only work into their first language, translation into the second language (L2 translation) is a fact of life in settings involving languages of ‘limited diffusion’. Even in countries that use one of the traditionally ‘major’ languages, research into L2 translation and its training is becoming increasingly topical with the emergence of global translation markets and the worldwide dominance of English. This paper examines novice translators’ decision-making in video- and audio-recorded collaborative (group) translation processes in two directions: into the students’ first language (Croatian) and from that language into their second language (English). The study aims to identify and classify the different arguments the subjects use in deciding which of the tentative solutions to translation problems to use in the final version of their translation. It is hypothesised that similar arguments are used in both directions but with a different distribution. Only the former hypothesis is fully corroborated by the evidence from the verbal protocols.

The adaptation of mobile phone addiction scale into turkish: Validity and reliability studyCep telefonu bağımlılığı ölçeği (CBÖ)’nin Türkçe’ ye uyarlanması: Geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışması

The aim of this study is to adapt the Mobile Phone Addiction Scale developed by Chóliz (2012) for Turkish culture and investigate its validity and reliability. A total of 412 participants including 253 female and 159 male students who study in various high schools of Amasya province consists of the research sample. Within the context of the adaptation studies of the scale, group translation and back translation techniques were used. Item analysis, validity and reliability analyses of the research were realized following the linguistic equivalence study. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to test the construct validity and the analysis results proved that the compliance indices were at acceptable level (RMSEA = .094, CFI = .96, TLI = .96). As a result of these analyses, it was understood that the Mobile Phone Addiction Scale repeated the original factor structure in the sample of Turkish students and had sufficient validity. In addition, the Cronbach α values of the whole scale and its subscales were calculated to test the reliability of the scale. Cronbach α values were specified as .92 for the whole of the scale, and .77 and .87 for subscales. In addition, split half correlation analyzes were conducted and the Spearmann Brown correlation value was found to be .85. Consequently, these values show that the Mobile Phone Addiction Scale is a valid and reliable scaleforhigh school students in Turkey to measure mobile phone addiction. Extended English abstract is in the end of PDF (TURKISH) file.ÖzetBu çalışmada, Chóliz (2012) tarafından geliştirilen Cep Telefonu Bağımlılığı Ölçeği (CBÖ)’ni Türk Kültürüne uyarlamak, geçerlik ve güvenirliğini incelemek amaçlanmıştır. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu Amasya ilinde farklı liselerde öğrenim gören 253 kız ve 159 erkek öğrenciden oluşan 412 katılımcı oluşturmaktadır. Ölçeğin uyarlama çalışmaları kapsamında grup çevirisi ve geri çeviri teknikleri kullanılmıştır. Dilsel eşdeğerlik çalışmasının ardından madde analizi, geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışmaları gerçekleştirilmiştir. Yapı geçerliğini test etmek üzere doğrulayıcı faktör analizi yapılmış ve uyum indekslerinin kabul edilebilir bir düzeyde olduğu bulunmuştur (RMSEA=.094, CFI=.96, TLI=.96). Bu analizler sonucunda Cep Telefonu Bağımlılığı Ölçeği’nin orijinal faktör yapısının Türk lise öğrencilerinden oluşan örneklemde tekrar ettiği ve yeterli düzeyde geçerliliğe sahip olduğu anlaşılmıştır. Ayrıca ölçeğin güvenirliğini test etmek için ölçeğin bütününün ve alt boyutlarının Cronbach α değeri hesaplanmıştır. Cronbach α değerleri; ölçeğin bütünü için .92, alt boyutlar için ise .77 ile .87 olarak saptanmıştır. Ayrıca iki yarı güvenirlik analiz yapılmış ve Spearmann Brown korelasyon değeri .85 olarak bulunmuştur. Sonuç olarak, elde edilen bu değerler Cep Telefonu Bağımlılığı Ölçeği’nin Türkiye’deki lise öğrencilerinin cep telefonu bağımlılıklarını ölçmede kullanılabilecek geçerli ve güvenilir bir ölçek olduğunu göstermektedir.