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This paper aims to introduce an efficient active-simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) approach for rover navigation, future planetary rover exploration mission requires the rover to automatically localize itself with high accuracy.

A three-dimensional (3D) feature detection method is first proposed to extract salient features from the observed point cloud, after that, the salient features are employed as the candidate destinations for re-visiting under SLAM structure, followed by a path planning algorithm integrated with SLAM, wherein the path length and map utility are leveraged to reduce the growth rate of state estimation uncertainty.

The proposed approach is able to extract distinguishable 3D landmarks for feature re-visiting, and can be naturally integrated with any SLAM algorithms in an efficient manner to improve the navigation accuracy.

This paper proposes a novel active-SLAM structure for planetary rover exploration mission, the salient feature extraction method and active revisit patch planning method are validated to improve the accuracy of pose estimation.

To investigate the innate reasons for one of the biggest business failures of a Western Multinational Corporation (WMNC) in Eastern Europe – the failure of Rover in Bulgaria. The main proposition of this study seeks to focus on the importance of gaining adequate knowledge about the prevailing economic ideology and specificity of the socio‐cultural value orientations in the host country as a critical factor to prevent a business failure in Eastern Europe.

Archival materials, including media publications, company documents, and government records (1991‐1998), along with personal interviews providing pieces of information about what actually happened with Rover in Bulgaria during the 1990s. Questionnaire‐based surveys were also used to do a cross‐cultural comparison between the UK and Bulgaria.

Recognising that the failure of Rover in Bulgaria that appeared to be caused by bad luck could be actually pointed out as a case showing that the lack of adequate knowledge of the prevailing economic ideology and cultural‐value orientations would likely lead to a fiasco in Eastern Europe.

Proactively learning from mistakes can secure successful performance of WMNC in Eastern Europe and make these companies much less vulnerable to occurrence of (unlikely) events or accidents in this part of the world.

The case study presents insights from an original investigation in the form of lessons for WMNC.

This study aims to find a feasible precise navigation model for the planed Lunar rover. Autonomous navigation is one of the most important missions in the Chinese Lunar exploration project. Machine vision is expected to be a promising option for this mission because of the dramatic development of an image processing technique. However, existing attempts are often subject to low accuracy and errors accumulation.

In this paper, a novel autonomous navigation model was developed, based on the rigid geometric and photogrammetric theory, including stereo perception, relative positioning and absolute adjustment. The first step was planned to detect accurate three-dimensional (3D) surroundings around the rover by matching stereo-paired images; the second was used to decide the local location and orientation changes of the rover by matching adjacent images; and the third was adopted to find the rover’s location in the whole scene by matching ground image with satellite image. Among them, the SURF algorithm that had been commonly believed as the best algorithm for matching images was adopted to find matched images.

Experiments indicated that the accurate 3D scene, relative positioning and absolute adjustment were easily generated and illustrated with the matching results. More importantly, the proposed algorithm is able to match images with great differences in illumination, scale and observation angle. All experiments and findings in this study proved that the proposed method could be an alternative navigation model for the planed Lunar rover.

With the matching results, an accurate 3D scene, relative positioning and absolute adjustment of rover can be easily generated. The whole test proves that the proposed method could be a feasible navigation model for the planed Lunar rover.

The movement of firms towards joint ventures and collaborative projects has been a feature of the 1990s. Such agreements allow a means of spreading the costs and risks associated with new product development, sharing costly manufacturing capacity and facilities, and may also provide access to new capabilities. However, there are examples when the relationship is not a success for one of the parties involved. If firms enter joint ventures from a position of weakness or without a concerted strategy, they can become reliant on their partner. This was the case with Rover and its links to Honda. Because of financial weakness Rover’s design and manufacturing capabilities were eroded as the majority of its products were replaced with Honda developed models. This case provides important lessons and warnings for other firms seeking strategic alliances, and gives researchers an insight into the complex interaction between firms involved in such a relationship.

Describes Rover′s setting up of a quality strategy and policy based on a process model of the company, representing an integrated set of activities and goals which Rover must achieve in order to reach its vision. Discusses the Rover Group′s quality policy. Contends that failure to achieve any one milestone may have an effect on the achievement of the goal. Asserts it is only when the processes of the daily work are consistent, in harmony, and directed at customer satisfaction that Rover will be able to make its vision a reality. Concludes that Rover has now moved away from a quality system defined in detail from the centre to a delegated system which relies totally on people wanting to do it right.

The aim of this paper is to understand how large and apparently successful organizations enter spirals of decline that are very difficult to reverse. The paper examines the case of Rover, once one of the largest car producers in the world, which collapsed in 2005. An analysis of strategic and operational choices made over a period of 40 years investigates the reasons for, and consequences of, a growing mismatch between the context faced by the company (industry dynamics, market conditions) and its operational capabilities, a mismatch that ultimately brought about the company's demise.

The paper is based on interviews with 32 people, including senior managers (including four chief executives), government ministers and union officials who were key decision makers within, or close to, the company during the period 1968 and 2005. Secondary sources and documentary evidence (e.g. production and sales data) are used to build up a historical picture of the company and to depict its deteriorating financial and market position from 1968 onwards.

The company was formed from a multitude of previously independent firms as part of a government‐sponsored agenda to build a UK National Champion in the car industry. The merged company failed due to several factors including poor product development processes, poor manufacturing performance, difficult labour relations, a very wide product portfolio and a lack of financial control. Although strenuous efforts were made to address those issues, including periods of whole or part ownership by British Aerospace, Honda and BMW, the company's position deteriorated until eventually production volumes were too low for viable operation.

The case of Rover highlights the importance of what has been termed “the management unit” in complex systems. The management unit comprises processes and routines to deal with challenges such as managing product portfolios, connecting strategic and operational choices, and scanning and responding to the environment. In the case of Rover, a number of factors taken together generated excessive load on a management unit frequently operating under conditions of resource scarcity. We conclude that viewing corporate failure from a systems perspective, rather than in terms of shortcomings in specific subsystems, such as manufacturing or product development, yields insights often absent in the operations management literature.

The paper is of value by showing corporate failure from a systems perspective, rather than in terms of shortcomings in specific subsystems, such as manufacturing or product development; and yields insights often absent in the operations management literature. The Rover case featured in the paper demonstrates the usefulness of systems ideas to understanding at least some types of failure, not as an alterative to capability‐based approaches, but in addition to them.

This paper aims to address some of the needs of present and upcoming rover designs, and introduces novel concepts incorporated in a planetary surface exploration rover design that is currently under development.

The Multitasking Rover (MTR) is a highly re‐configurable system that aims to demonstrate functionality that will cover many of the current and future needs such as rough‐terrain mobility, modularity and upgradeability. lt comprises a surface mobility platform which is highly re‐configurable, which offers centre of mass re‐allocation and rough terrain stability, and also a set of science/tool packs – individual sub‐systems encapsulated in packs which the rover picks up, transports and deploys.

Early testing of the suspension system suggests exceptional performance characteristics.

Principles employed in the design of the MTR can be used in future rover systems to reduce associated mission costs and at the same time provide multiples the functionality.

Sets out the process used by Land Rover to change from a company which was losing market share into the world leader once again in four – wheel drive vehicles. The company has enhanced the philosophy of Total Quality Improvement, being management led and democratic and thus accepted by the work force. Outlines the methods, tools and techniques used by Land Rover. Suggests that some of these are applicable to the hospitality industry.

A new manufacturing plant has been installed in Solihull, UK, to manufacture the new Range Rover sports utility vehicle. An important aspect of the £80 million investment at the site is a body‐in‐white assembly shop containing 123 robots, many of which are employed in multi‐tasking roles.

Posits that quality circles (QCs) are a form of employee involvement (EI) which failed due to inconsistent support from management and because they were unable to cope with the realities of organizational power. The QC programme in Land‐Rover flourished during most of the 1990s and is atypical of the national trend where programmes have tended to be short‐lived. States, theoretically, that QCs in Land‐Rover are similar to other programmes in so far as they depend on management support and do not fundamentally challenge the managerial prerogative. Most QC programmes in the UK commenced as an EI initiative, but soon raised issues of participative management which contributed to the brevity of their popularity. The comparative longevity of QCs in Land‐Rover suggests a greater capacity in the company for participative management, although this was unexploited over the long‐term because of the prevailing managerial ideology and its overriding emphasis on economic rationality. Investigates the evidence from the employee perspective.