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The purpose of this paper is to propose a localizability-based particle filtering localization algorithm for mobile robots to maintain localization accuracy in the high-occluded and dynamic environments with moving people.

First, the localizability of mobile robots is defined to evaluate the influences of both the dynamic obstacles and prior-map on localization. Second, based on the classical two-sensor track fusion algorithm, the odometer-based proposal distribution function (PDF) is corrected, taking account of the localizability. Then, the corrected PDF is introduced into the classical PF with “roulette” re-sampling. Finally, the robot pose is estimated according to all the particles.

The experimental results show that, first, it is necessary to consider the influence of the prior-map during the localization in the high-occluded and dynamic environments. Second, the proposed algorithm can maintain an accurate and robust robot pose in the high-occluded and dynamic environments. Third, its real timing is acceptable.

When the odometer error and occlusion caused by the dynamic obstacles are both serious, the proposed algorithm also has a probability evolving into the kidnap problem. But fortunately, such serious situations are not common in practice.

To check the ability of real application, we have implemented the proposed algorithm in the campus cafeteria and metro station using an intelligent wheelchair. To better help the elderly and disabled people during their daily lives, the proposed algorithm will be tested in a social welfare home in the future.

The localizability of mobile robots is defined to evaluate the influences of both the dynamic obstacles and prior-map on localization. Based on the localizability, the odometer-based PDF is corrected properly.

To enhance the generality and usefulness of classic communication theory, some complementary concepts and ideas have been introduced and commented against the background of General Living Systems Theory (GLS). The paper begins with an extended definition of the problem of communication and continues with a presentation of the concept of natural channels. Basic ideas like the interrelation between time, place, and channel with its four different categories of communication are presented. Also main qualities of a message like informability, detectability, and localizability are analysed. Finally some general ideas regarding coding and transmission of messages are presented. The paper ends with the conclusion that classic communication theory still is highly relevant with no serious anomalies threatening its existence. This truth is confirmed by the fact that the complementary concepts presented here fit well into its existing framework.

An important segment of the life‐saving functions of higher organisms consists of a distress‐signalling complex. Presents a hypothesis concerning the generic existence of these. Discusses the qualities, activation and function of the signals in connection with different senses and channels against the background of systems theory. Examines a complex of formalized distress signals among animals and analyses various aspects of their reception. Also examines a corresponding man‐made complex with electronic channel augmentation from a national as well as an international point of view. Finally, notes the development of electronic distress signals, incomprehensible to humans.

Citizen satisfaction with the government is a longstanding and continuous concern in public administration. However, past research did not investigate the effect on satisfaction with the government in the context of mobile government (m-government). The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how the social benefits of citizens using m-government affect their satisfaction with the government.

Grounded in the uses and gratifications theory (UGT), the authors suggest that the satisfaction in m-government should be constructed in terms of the satisfaction with m-government and the satisfaction with the government. The research model of citizen satisfaction in the context of m-government is tested through partial least squares (PLS) (SmartPLS 2.0) based on data collected from a survey study in China.

The results indicate that the three important social benefits, e.g. convenience, transparency and participation, are positively associated with process gratification, whereas only convenience is positively associated with content gratification. The results suggest that both process gratification and content gratification are positively associated with citizen satisfaction with the government. Furthermore, the research suggests that process and content gratification have a mediating role, whereas compatibility has a moderating role.

This research provides insights to practitioners on how to facilitate citizen satisfaction by increasing citizens’ social benefits and improving process and content gratification.

This study contributes to the literature by offering a framework for analyzing the impact of citizens’ use of m-government on their satisfaction with the government. The work also contributes to UGT by categorizing user gratifications into process gratifications, content gratifications and citizen satisfaction with the government.

Considers the questions asked by F. Engels (1888): “Which is primary, spirit or nature?” and by Max Delbruch (1986): “How can we construct a theory of a universe without life, and therefore without mind, and then expect life and mind to evolve, somehow, from this lifeless and mindless beginning?” Views these questions historically and interprets them with further questions and analysis. Discusses the Logos doctrine and the development of scientific methodology. Asks a further question: “Can mindless objects obey mathematical laws?”. Examines the limitations of Leibniz as a scientist and the importance of his monadology. Finally, discusses Haldane’s views on the mind of a material system. Includes an extensive appendix which elaborates on the “curious vocabulary” used by the pioneers who founded wave mechanics.

This article risks the attempt to move the discussion of culture and tourism onto a broader basis. It replaces a rigid conception of culture with a dynamic model and starts from a framing premise of empathy rather than cultural pessimism. It uses an extended explanatory model of tourism to seek answers to two central questions: what functions does travel fulfill for the travelers' culture and what effects can tourism have on hosts culture? The report demonstrates that the ritual, utopian and mythical character of travel makes a significant contribution to satisfying the basic human needs for security, activity and pluralism. In this way the holiday culture that has developed in the western countries has come to assume a vital role in strengthening cultural identity.

Drawing on the work of Niklas Luhmann, the paper argues that technology can be viewed as a self-referential system which is autonomous from both human beings and other function systems of society. The paper aims to develop a philosophy of technology from the work of Niklas Luhmann. To achieve this aim, it draws upon the systems-theory work of Jacques Ellul, a philosopher of technology who focuses on the autonomous potential of technological evolution.

The paper draws on the work of Niklas Luhmann and Jacques Ellul to explore the theme of autonomous technology and what this means for our thinking about technological issues in the twenty-first century. Insights from these two thinkers and researchers working in the Luhmannian sociological tradition are applied to remote work.

The sociological approach of Luhmann, coupled with Ellul's insights into the autonomous nature of technology, can help us develop a systems theory of technology which takes seriously its irreducibility to human functions.

The paper contributes to the growing sociological literature that thematizes the Luhmannian approach to technology, helping us better understand this phenomenon and think in new ways about what technological autonomy means.

The paper brings together the work of Luhmann, Ellul and contemporary researchers to advance a new understanding of technology and technological communication.

This paper aims to introduce an imitation learning framework for a wheeled mobile manipulator based on dynamical movement primitives (DMPs). A novel mobile manipulator with the capability to learn from demonstration is introduced. Then, this study explains the whole process for a wheeled mobile manipulator to learn a demonstrated task and generalize to new situations. Two visual tracking controllers are designed for recording human demonstrations and monitoring robot operations. The study clarifies how human demonstrations can be learned and generalized to new situations by a wheel mobile manipulator.

The kinematic model of a mobile manipulator is analyzed. An RGB-D camera is applied to record the demonstration trajectories and observe robot operations. To avoid human demonstration behaviors going out of sight of the camera, a visual tracking controller is designed based on the kinematic model of the mobile manipulator. The demonstration trajectories are then represented by DMPs and learned by the mobile manipulator with corresponding models. Another tracking controller is designed based on the kinematic model of the mobile manipulator to monitor and modify the robot operations.

To verify the effectiveness of the imitation learning framework, several daily tasks are demonstrated and learned by the mobile manipulator. The results indicate that the presented approach shows good performance for a wheeled mobile manipulator to learn tasks through human demonstrations. The only thing a robot-user needs to do is to provide demonstrations, which highly facilitates the application of mobile manipulators.

The research fulfills the need for a wheeled mobile manipulator to learn tasks via demonstrations instead of manual planning. Similar approaches can be applied to mobile manipulators with different architecture.

The ideas of information theory which underlie cybernetics and its information‐processing aspects still has a solid reputation to be both extremely abstract and highly mathematical. Furthermore, the tract has been accused of a slow development and not accentuating the difference between information and communication theories. In this paper an attempt is made to demonstrate that principles and concepts used in information theory can be both understood and used from a psychological basis ‐ without the use of complicated mathematics. The difference between information and communication theory is considered as well as some new and revolutionary concepts. The study shows that the influences of the investigated area have grown considerably with the contributions from information physics.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the implementation process on the ERP’s success in the post-adoption stage, measured as system’s acceptance, reliability and utility perceived by users, inside the organizations.

The authors adopted a multiple case study research design. The data collected, provided by IT managers and 120 key-users from four companies, has been used to investigate the impact of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation phases on selected constructs of the Task-Technology Fit (TTF) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The empirical evidences highlight a direct relation between the effectiveness of the implementation phases and the ERP’s success.

The research results emphasize the importance of the quality of the software, but especially the importance of the implementation phases’ management, which require technical and managerial ability of the team made up of people from the system integrator and the company’s key-users. Evidences suggest that the higher will be the organizational diffusion of an ERP implemented during a successful implementation project, the higher will be the perception of ERP success in the post-adoption stage. Moreover, the users’ perception of ERP quality will be maintained over time.

The research has some limits due to its exploratory nature and to the chosen research approach, so the results may lack generalizability; consequently future research will concern with enlargement of the sample that will allow a better generalization of the results.

This exploratory study suggest that companies’ managers should be aware that a correct methodology of implementation, strongly influenced by the team, impacts on the technology consistency and therefore, on the ERP system success. So an appropriate choice is to invest more in the creation and development of internal and external project team than in the ERP’s brand.

This paper fulfils an identified need to clarify the explicit relationship between the quality of implementation phases and the subsequent ERP success in the post-adoption stage measured in terms of users’ perception of information system quality.