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1 – 10 of 48
Article
Publication date: 9 January 2024

Zhuoyu Zhang, Lijia Zhong, Mingwei Lin, Ri Lin and Dejun Li

Docking technology plays a crucial role in enabling long-duration operations of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Visual positioning solutions alone are susceptible to…

Abstract

Purpose

Docking technology plays a crucial role in enabling long-duration operations of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Visual positioning solutions alone are susceptible to abnormal drift values due to the challenging underwater optical imaging environment. When an AUV approaches the docking station, the absolute positioning method fails if the AUV captures an insufficient number of tracers. This study aims to to provide a more stable absolute position visual positioning method for underwater terminal visual docking.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a six-degree-of-freedom positioning method for AUV terminal visual docking, which uses lights and triangle codes. The authors use an extended Kalman filter to fuse the visual calculation results with inertial measurement unit data. Moreover, this paper proposes a triangle code recognition and positioning algorithm.

Findings

The authors conducted a simulation experiment to compare the underwater positioning performance of triangle codes, AprilTag and Aruco. The results demonstrate that the implemented triangular code reduces the running time by over 70% compared to the other two codes, and also exhibits a longer recognition distance in turbid environments. Subsequent experiments were carried out in Qingjiang Lake, Hubei Province, China, which further confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed positioning algorithm.

Originality/value

This fusion approach effectively mitigates abnormal drift errors stemming from visual positioning and cumulative errors resulting from inertial navigation. The authors also propose a triangle code recognition and positioning algorithm as a supplementary approach to overcome the limitations of tracer light positioning beacons.

Details

Industrial Robot: the international journal of robotics research and application, vol. 51 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 December 2023

Aviv Kruglanski

This paper aims to tentatively explore the benefits of placing art’s knowledge-building tradition, with its capacity to disrupt and reframe, at the centre of how we look at…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to tentatively explore the benefits of placing art’s knowledge-building tradition, with its capacity to disrupt and reframe, at the centre of how we look at alternative organizing and alternative economic spaces, positioning lived experience, its uncertainties intact, at the heart of researching and practicing social enterprise (SE).

Design/methodology/approach

The paper explores indeterminacy through two case-study narratives, one of an academic arts-based research project and the other of a unique organization it encountered.

Findings

The paper describes the way juxtaposition, encounter and drift value indeterminacy as central to generative processes, challenging the control central to management and its research.

Research limitations/implications

The paper proposes that adopting an arts-based approach that challenges control can create a research instrument sensitive to similar tendencies in case studies, thus highlighting what is different and alternative about them. This responds to concerns about the diminishing centrality of SE’s democratizing ethic expressed in its scholarship, about creativity in its research and about its socially transformative potential.

Practical implications

The practice, by SEs of an approach welcoming chance, encounter, meandering paths and place-making with porous boundaries, proliferates transformative possibilities and is linked to democratization and participation.

Originality/value

Though dangerously challenging to accepted notions of academic rigour, this paper proposes an unusual thought experiment tied in with lived experiences, in themselves experimental in practice.

Details

Social Enterprise Journal, vol. 20 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-8614

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 December 2023

Kirsty Lilley

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how often survivors are dismissed and unsupported in response to actively reaching out for help with distress. The author hopes the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how often survivors are dismissed and unsupported in response to actively reaching out for help with distress. The author hopes the vignettes written about in this piece will serve to support and contribute to a body of work, which will educate professionals how to better support. The author shares various experiences when opportunities to help were denied and the impact this had on recovery. It is also noted that the responses of some health professionals mirror the original trauma suffered and therefore add to distress unnecessarily.

Design/methodology/approach

The author has written about various experiences in different settings in which the support offered fell below professional standards and contributed to further unnecessary distress. The writing is evocative and rich in descriptive detail of the event and then implications of the event on recovery.

Findings

The author concludes that it is helpful to use experiences of being dismissed and unsupported by various professionals to contribute to a body of work, which will hopefully educate and support those in caring professions to support survivors better. The author notes that responses to requests for help can unintentionally and intentionally further exacerbate the distress already experienced by those living with traumatic early life experiences and relational abruptions.

Originality/value

This is the author’s unique and first-hand lived experience of reaching out for help in relation to the distress experienced as a result of early life traumatic and adversarial experiences. The author notes that it is helpful to write about these difficult experiences with the hope that they will inform educational programmes to support health professionals in how they respond to people experiencing trauma. This has helped the author regain a sense of agency in contributing to the prevention of further unhelpful responses from various health professionals to those in distress. The vignettes are rich, deeply evocative and moving. The writing process also helped the author make sense of these further difficulties and how they impacted the recovery process.

Details

Mental Health and Social Inclusion, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-8308

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Obsessive Measurement Disorder or Pragmatic Bureaucracy?
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-377-3

Article
Publication date: 26 April 2024

Yansen Wu, Dongsheng Wen, Anmin Zhao, Haobo Liu and Ke Li

This study aims to study the thermal identification issue by harvesting both solar energy and atmospheric thermal updraft for a solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) and…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to study the thermal identification issue by harvesting both solar energy and atmospheric thermal updraft for a solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) and its electric energy performance under continuous soaring conditions.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors develop a specific dynamic model for SUAVs in both soaring and cruise modes. The support vector machine regression (SVMR) is adopted to estimate the thermal position, and it is combined with feedback control to implement the SUAV soaring in the updraft. Then, the optimal path model is built based on the graph theory considering the existence of several thermals distributed in the environment. The procedure is proposed to estimate the electricity cost of SUAV during flight as well as soaring, and making use of dynamic programming to maximize electric energy.

Findings

The simulation results present the integrated control method could allow SUAV to soar with the updraft. In addition, the proposed approach allows the SUAV to fly to the destination using distributed thermals while reducing the electric energy use.

Originality/value

Two simplified dynamic models are constructed for simulation considering there are different flight mode. Besides, the data-driven-based SVMR method is proposed to support SUAV soaring. Furthermore, instead of using length, the energy cost coefficient in optimization problem is set as electric power, which is more suitable for SUAV because its advantage is to transfer the three-dimensional path planning problem into the two-dimensional.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1748-8842

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 April 2024

Benjian Wu, Linyi Niu, Ruiqi Tan and Haibo Zhu

This study explores whether targeted microcredit can effectively alleviate households’ multidimensional relative poverty (MdRP) in rural China in the new era following the poverty…

Abstract

Purpose

This study explores whether targeted microcredit can effectively alleviate households’ multidimensional relative poverty (MdRP) in rural China in the new era following the poverty elimination campaign and discusses it from a gendered perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

This study applies a fixed-effects model, propensity score matching (PSM) and two-stage instrumental variable method to two-period panel data collected from 611 households in rural western China in 2018 and 2021 to explore the effects, mechanisms and heterogenous performance of targeted microcredit on households’ MdRP in the new era.

Findings

(i) Targeted microcredit can alleviate MdRP among rural households in the new era, mainly by reducing income and opportunity inequality. (ii) Targeted microcredit can promote women’s empowerment, mainly by enhancing their social participation, thereby helping alleviate households’ MdRP. The effect of the targeted microcredit on MdRP is more significant in medium-educated women households and non-left-behind women households. (iii) The MdRP alleviation effect is stronger in villages with a high degree of digitalization.

Research limitations/implications

Learn from the experience of targeted microcredit. Accurately identify poor groups and integrate loan design into financial health and women empowerment. Particularly, pay attention to less-educated and left-behind women households and strengthen coordination between targeted microcredit and digital village strategies.

Originality/value

This study clarifies the effect of targeted microcredit on women’s empowerment and households’ MdRP alleviation in the new era. It also explores its various effects on households with different female characteristics and regional digitalization levels, providing ideas for optimizing microcredit.

Details

China Agricultural Economic Review, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-137X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 March 2024

Jianjun Yao and Yingzhao Li

Weak repeatability is observed in handcrafted keypoints, leading to tracking failures in visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) systems under challenging scenarios…

Abstract

Purpose

Weak repeatability is observed in handcrafted keypoints, leading to tracking failures in visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) systems under challenging scenarios such as illumination change, rapid rotation and large angle of view variation. In contrast, learning-based keypoints exhibit higher repetition but entail considerable computational costs. This paper proposes an innovative algorithm for keypoint extraction, aiming to strike an equilibrium between precision and efficiency. This paper aims to attain accurate, robust and versatile visual localization in scenes of formidable complexity.

Design/methodology/approach

SiLK-SLAM initially refines the cutting-edge learning-based extractor, SiLK, and introduces an innovative postprocessing algorithm for keypoint homogenization and operational efficiency. Furthermore, SiLK-SLAM devises a reliable relocalization strategy called PCPnP, leveraging progressive and consistent sampling, thereby bolstering its robustness.

Findings

Empirical evaluations conducted on TUM, KITTI and EuRoC data sets substantiate SiLK-SLAM’s superior localization accuracy compared to ORB-SLAM3 and other methods. Compared to ORB-SLAM3, SiLK-SLAM demonstrates an enhancement in localization accuracy even by 70.99%, 87.20% and 85.27% across the three data sets. The relocalization experiments demonstrate SiLK-SLAM’s capability in producing precise and repeatable keypoints, showcasing its robustness in challenging environments.

Originality/value

The SiLK-SLAM achieves exceedingly elevated localization accuracy and resilience in formidable scenarios, holding paramount importance in enhancing the autonomy of robots navigating intricate environments. Code is available at https://github.com/Pepper-FlavoredChewingGum/SiLK-SLAM.

Details

Industrial Robot: the international journal of robotics research and application, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Abstract

Details

The Skills Advantage
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-265-4

Book part
Publication date: 30 April 2024

Lilith Green and Carol Rambo

Gender-diverse people experience unique cultural and interpersonal stigma in mainstream society and sometimes within their own communities; they face allegations of inauthenticity…

Abstract

Gender-diverse people experience unique cultural and interpersonal stigma in mainstream society and sometimes within their own communities; they face allegations of inauthenticity based on their nonconformity to either cisnormative or transnormative gender regimes. Based on 21 in-depth life history interviews, we unveil the intricate interactional process of negotiating identity and authenticity in the biographical work of gender-diverse individuals. In this study, gender-diverse people engaged in a “gender audit” with their gender-diverse interviewer. Gender audits yield verbal performances of gender with oneself and others. Ambiguity was “accounted for” or “embraced and created” in their biographical work to organize their life stories and undermine binary essentialism – a discourse that was “discursively constraining.” Gender audits took place in participants' day-to-day lives, either through self-audits, questioning from others, or both. In the final analysis, we assert that we all engage in gender auditing. Gender audits are intersubjective sites of domination, subordination, resistance, and social change. Gender diversity, then, can be viewed as a product of gender in flux.

Details

Symbolic Interaction and Inequality
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-689-8

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 February 2024

Lise Justesen and Ursula Plesner

The purpose of this paper is to inspire a different way of thinking about digitalization and organizational change by theorizing simultaneity as an alternative to the otherwise…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to inspire a different way of thinking about digitalization and organizational change by theorizing simultaneity as an alternative to the otherwise dominant root metaphor of sequence in the literature on digitalization and organizational change.

Design/methodology/approach

The theoretical argument is based on a reading of central contributions to the literature on digital technology and organizational change, and particularly inspired by the work positing a constitutive entanglement of technology and organization. We argue for an extension of this line of thinking with a reading of Latour’s notion tonalities. The relevance of the theoretical argument is demonstrated through an illustrative empirical example of the phenomenon digital-ready legislation.

Findings

The paper identifies sequence as a root metaphor in the organization and digital change literature. It develops a simultaneity view and illustrates its relevance through the example of digital-ready legislation, pinpointing how technological, organizational and legal elements are attuned to one another at the same time rather than in sequence.

Practical implications

The sequentiality view has dominated the change management research, which has travelled from research into practice. The simultaneity view has the potential to offer a new approach to planning change, with a focus on the simultaneous alignment of, e.g. legal, organizational and technological elements.

Originality/value

The paper offers an alternative to dominant views on digitalization and organizational change, drawing on an overlooked notion in Latour’s scholarship, namely tonalities. This has potential to qualify the entanglement thesis and develop simultaneity as a new metaphor for understanding digital change.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 37 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

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