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Excellent obstacle surmounting performance is essential for the robotic vehicles in uneven terrain. However, existing robotic vehicles depend on complex mechanisms or control algorithms to surmount an obstacle. Therefore, this paper aims to propose a new simple configuration of an all-terrain robotic vehicle with eight wheels including four-swing arms.

This vehicle is driven by distributed hydraulic motors which provide high mobility. It possesses the ability to change the posture by means of cooperation of the four-swing arms. This ensures that the vehicle can adapt to complex terrain. In this paper, the bionic mechanism, control design and steering method of the vehicle are introduced. Then, the kinematic model of the center of gravity is studied. Afterward, the obstacle surmounting performance based on a static model is analyzed. Finally, the simulation based on ADAMS and the prototype experiment is carried out.

The experiment results demonstrate that the robotic vehicle can surmount an obstacle 2.29 times the height of the wheel radius, which verifies the feasibility of this new configuration. Therefore, this vehicle has excellent uneven terrain adaptability.

This paper proposes a new configuration of an all-terrain robotic vehicle with four-swing arms. With simple mechanism and control algorithms, the vehicle has a high efficiency of surmounting an obstacle. It can surmount a vertical obstacle 2.29 times the height of the wheel radius.

By introducing the basic concepts and theories of the philosophy of information created by Kun Wu, and making some comparisons of the philosophy of information and related information theories between Wu and other scholars, this paper aims to have Chinese philosophy of information widely known and understood by more people in the world, thus promoting the international exchanges between Chinese and Western scholars on the topic of philosophy of information.

The main research methods used in this paper are the literature review and the comparative study. On the one hand, it reviews some related concepts and theories in Kun Wu's academic works of philosophy of information. On the other hand, it compares the thoughts and viewpoints of Kun Wu with those of other scholars.

First, Kun Wu is the first person who has established a complete and comprehensive theoretical system of philosophy of information in China; second, Kun Wu's philosophy of information is significant in originality and value, which could be thought as the intellectual quintessence of information age, thus worth learning. Third, with more international exchanges, Chinese philosophy of information created by Wu will surely be more and more influential in philosophical circles at home and abroad.

It is a very valuable first-hand material for Western scholars to know and understand Chinese philosophy of information.

The purpose of this paper is to offer novel insights into: knowledge of proto-feminism through description and analysis of the rule of the seventh century female Emperor Wu Zetian; postcolonial theory by revealing the existence and proto-feminist activities of a non-western female leader; and the literature on gender and invisibility through a study of a leading figure that is relatively unknown to western feminists and is even, in feminist terms, something of a neglected figure.

In order to examine Wu’s proto-feminist practices as recorded in historical materials, we use critical hermeneutics as a tool for textual interpretation, through the following four stages: choosing texts from historical records and writings of Wu; analyzing the historical sociocultural context; analyzing the relationship between the text and the context; and offering a conceptual framework as a richer explanation.

Wu’s life activities demonstrate proto-feminism in late seventh century China in at least four aspects: gender equality in sexuality, in social status, in politics, and women’s pursuit of power and leadership.

Future research may dig into the paradox of Wu’s proto-feminist practices, the relationship between organizational power and feminism/proto-feminism, and the ways in which Wu’s activities differ from other powerful women across cultures, etc.

The study encourages a rethink of women and leadership style in non-western thought.

The study supports Calás and Smircich’s 2005 call for greater understanding of feminist thought outside of western thought and a move to transglobal feminism.

This study recovers long lost stories of women leadership that are “invisible” in many ways in the historical narratives, and contributes to postcolonial feminism by revealing the existence of indigenous proto-feminist practice in China long before western-based feminism and postcolonial feminism emerged.

Purpose – The author introduces the Eastern philosophy of wisdom, especially its epistemology of Yin-Yang Balancing as the Eastern cognitive frame, to shed light on the debates over the distinction and integration between research and practice as well as between qualitative and quantitative methods so as to solve the problems of relevance-rigor gap as well as complexity-simplicity gap. The author also applies the frame of Yin-Yang Balancing to the development of a novel method of case study.

Methodology/Approach – This is a conceptual article.

Central theme – The Eastern philosophy of wisdom is better at an open-minded exploration of open-ended issues by emphasizing relevance and complexity, while the Western philosophy of science is better at a closed-minded exploitation of close-ended issues by emphasizing rigor and simplicity. A geocentric integration of both Eastern and Western philosophies is needed.

Research and practical implications – Management research is far behind the need for theoretical insights into practical solutions largely due to the increasing gaps between relevance and rigor as well as between complex problems and simple solutions. The root cause of the two gaps lies in the overreliance on the Western philosophy of science, so a new light can be found in the Eastern philosophy of wisdom, and the ultimate solution is a geocentric integration of Eastern and Western philosophies. A novel method of case study can be built by applying the Eastern philosophy.

Originality/Value – The author highlights the urgent needs for the Eastern philosophy of wisdom and its integration with the Western philosophy of science toward a geocentric meta-paradigm. As a specific application of the geocentric meta-paradigm, the author proposes a novel method of case study called Yin-Yang Method.

This study aims to propose a consensus model that considers dynamic trust and the hesitation degree of the expert's evaluation, and the model can provide personalized adjustment advice to inconsistent experts.

The trust degree between experts will be affected by the decision-making environment or the behavior of other experts. Therefore, based on the psychological “similarity-attraction paradigm”, an adjustment method for the trust degree between experts is proposed. In addition, we proposed a method to measure the hesitation degree of the expert's evaluation under the multi-granular probabilistic linguistic environment. Based on the hesitation degree of evaluation and trust degree, a method for determining the importance degree of experts is proposed. In the feedback mechanism, we presented a personalized adjustment mechanism that can provide the personalized adjustment advice for inconsistent experts. The personalized adjustment advice is accepted readily by inconsistent experts and ensures that the collective consensus degree will increase after the adjustment.

The results show that the consensus model in this paper can solve the social network group decision-making problem, in which the trust degree among experts is dynamic changing. An illustrative example demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed model in this paper. Simulation experiments have confirmed the effectiveness of the model in promoting consensus.

The authors presented a novel dynamic trust consensus model based on the expert's hesitation degree and a personalized adjustment mechanism under the multi-granular probabilistic linguistic environment. The model can solve a variety of social network group decision-making problems.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the dimensions of service quality and examining the interrelationships among behavioral intentions, customer satisfaction, perceived value, corporate image and service quality in the gaming industry. A multi-level and hierarchical model is used as a framework to synthesize the effects of customer satisfaction, perceived value, corporate image and service quality on behavioral intentions of customers in the gaming industry.

The data used in this study were based on a sample of 470 at a newly built casino in Macau. Data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis.

The findings support using a multi-level model consisting of three primary dimensions and ten sub-dimensions to conceptualize and measure perceived service quality. Perceived service quality significantly influences perceived value and corporate image, respectively. In addition, perceived value and corporate image are main determinants of customer satisfaction. Also, customer satisfaction and corporate image significantly affect behavioral intentions.

This is the first study synthesizing behavioral intentions, customer satisfaction, perceived value, corporate image and perceived service quality in a Macau casino setting.

Virtual product design has become a key technology in reducing costly design errors that are often difficult to detect manually. In order to evaluate product assembly in a virtual environment, it is important to link a product's design in CAD with the constrained complexity of assembly operations in CAM so that the design can be evaluated and modified in a virtual environment before production begins. The paper aims to focus on this.

The proposed virtual system includes the following components: a product assembly coding model, named Open Structured Assembly Coding System (OSACS), that codes part‐mating operations for assembling any two parts in CAM; a rule‐based code extractor that identifies OSACS codes for assembling product from the part‐mating information encoded in Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data AP‐203 CAD data; and an assembly‐sequence generator that generates a binary assembly‐tree for the designed product coded with OSACS assembly codes, representing assembly operations in CAM for product assembly.

The proposed system links the design phase in CAD with the manufacturing phase in CAM. Simulation studies were made using CAD Ap‐203 data files from an actual mobile phone housing assembly. A binary assembly‐tree assigned with OSACS assembly codes was generated for assembling the product. The assembling complexity between any two parts was coded with the unique OSACS assembly codes. The final binary assembly tree represents how the product is going to be assembled in CAM with the mating complexity encoded in the assigned OSACS codes.

The advantage of this virtual product assembly system is that a design can be validated first in a virtual environment without building the expensive physical production system. Moreover, additional design iterations can be performed in the same amount of time to improve product quality.

Linking product design in CAD with assembly operations in CAM can help realize significant cost savings by preventing future manufacturing problems. With the proposed virtual system, a company can prevent a potential problematic design from reaching production.

This paper introduces the conceptual design of a virtual system that links product design in CAD with assembly operations in CAM. This system provides a designer with a virtual product assembly process to evaluate a designed product.

Scholars have called for diversity in methods and multi-method research to enhance relevance to practice. However, many of the calls have only gone so far as to suggest the use of multiple methods within the positivism paradigm, which dominates the discipline and may constrain the ability to develop middle-range theory and propose workable solutions to today’s supply chain challenges. The purpose of this paper is to present a rationale for expanding the methodological toolbox of the field to include interpretive research methods.

This research conceptually illustrates how positivist and interpretive philosophies translate into different research approaches by reviewing an extant positivist qualitative study that uses grounded theory and then detailing how an interpretive researcher would approach the same phenomenon using the hermeneutic method.

This research expands the boundaries and impact of the field by broadening the set of questions research can address. It contributes a detailed illustration of the interpretive research process, as well as applications for the interpretive approach in future research, particularly theory elaboration, middle-range theorizing, and emerging domains such as the farm-to-fork supply chain and the consumer-based supply chain.

The development of alternative ways of seeking knowledge enhances the potential for creativity, expansion, and progress in the field.

Practical implications of this research include enabling researchers to elaborate theory and develop middle-range theories through an alternative philosophical paradigm. This paradigm facilitates practical insights that are directly relevant to particular domains and move beyond general theories seeking generalizability.

Social implications of this research are much more indirect in nature. This research encourages supply chain management (SCM) scholars to look at phenomena (including those with social implications) from a different philosophical perspective, which can reveal new insights.

This research contributes a rationale for expanding the methodological toolbox of the field to include interpretive research methods and also contributes a methodological operationalization of the interpretive approach. By reflecting on the nature of science and method in SCM, the study opens the door for creativity and progress to expand the boundaries and impact of the field.

To develop an overview of generalized scales based on pansystems‐relative quantification.

This is a discussion paper exploring the key issues surrounding generalized measures.

The concrete contents of the study include generalized measure views, dimension theory, concepts, logic, theories, Einstein's relativity, quality‐quantity‐degree, methodology of physics, theorems in pansystems mathematics and physics explained within the framework of pan‐scale transformations.

Provides an overview of generalized scales based on pansystems‐relative quantification.

The aim of this paper is to propose a design idea for an infinite journal bearing with the optimized slip zone on the bearing sleeve surface.

The approach is to use finite element analysis and the quadratic programming algorithm to study the performance of the journal bearing with a slip zone on the sleeve surface. The fluid film pressure and slip velocity can be obtained in one solution step.

A journal bearing with a slip zone on the sleeve surface produces many different advantages over the traditional journal bearing. Even in a parallel sliding gap there is still a considerable large load support, but a very low friction drag. The effect of the enhancement of such a slip wedge on the journal bearing performance is much greater at a small eccentricity ratio than at a large eccentricity ratio. Numerical analyses indicate that the location and size of the slip zone greatly affect the journal performance. When the eccentricity ratio ϵ=0.8, the maximum load support is increased by ∼19 per cent and surface friction coefficients reduced by ∼35 per cent and ∼42 per cent at shaft and sleeve surfaces, respectively.

The paper shows how the present concept can be used to design not only a journal bearing but also a thrust bearing with a slip wedge.