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The purpose of this paper is to develop a portable non‐destructive testing (NDT) robotic arm that can be carried by climbing and walking robots (CLAWAR). The arm is required to maintain, during a scanning trajectory, a desired NDT probe contact force and orientation to evaluate defects in geometrically complex industrial infrastructure and products such as turbine blades.

A seven‐axis arm transportable by CLAWAR was developed to deploy NDT probes with suitable dexterity. It was equipped with a force sensor to scan a complex shape by keeping the NDT probe normal to the surface while maintaining a constant contact force with it. Two approaches were used. One used permanent magnet adhesion to obtain secure contact while the other used position‐force‐moment (PFM) feedback to adapt the arm.

Tests were performed on turbine blades with eddy‐current inspection techniques to assess the quality of defect data using manual inspection and automated inspection. Significant improvements in the quality of inspection were observed when using robotic scanning as compared to manual inspection.

The results have practical implications for the remote inspection of very large infrastructures such as petrochemical storage tanks, bridges, pressure vessels, etc. or where the inspection is performed in hazardous environments and the test surface is not known a priori with any accuracy.

The work is a novel application of the PFM control of a seven‐axis robot arm to scan unknown contoured surfaces to ensure reliable NDT data acquisition at scanning speeds of up to 0.5 mm s⁻¹.

Structural integrity inspection of offshore wind turbine blades poses problems of gaining access to the blades, danger to human operatives and large costs of removing a blade and transporting it off‐shore for inspection. The purpose of this paper is to show that a climbing robot that can perform in situ blade inspection with micro/nano focus computed axial X‐ray tomography is a solution to find defects in the thickest blade sections and reduce the cost of inspection.

The weight of such an inspection system will be high, typically 200 kg and cross sectional scanner dimensions of 1 × 2 m to envelope a blade. The design of a climbing ring robot that completely encircles a turbine tower, typically 3 m in diameter, will provide the best means of climbing with this payload. Because of the development costs of such a huge robot, the optimal design path is to first prototype a small scale model.

First results on such a model are described and from its performance the load carrying capabilities of a full scale version computed. The robot is able to climb either straight up or down, or with a spiralling motion, or rotate around the circumference at the same height. Furthermore, the design is entirely modular thus enabling easy on‐site assembly of the robot.

A climbing robot with high payload and versatile motion capability, with adhesive forces between the robot and climbing surface provided entirely by mechanical means rather than by vacuum suction or magnetic force, making the system much safer and easier to manipulate.

Mooring chains used to stabilise offshore floating platforms are often subjected to harsh environmental conditions on a daily basis, i.e. high tidal waves, storms, etc. Therefore, the integrity assessment of chain links is vital, and regular inspection is mandatory for offshore structures. The development of chain climbing robots is still in its infancy due to the complicated climbing structure presented by mooring chains. The purpose of this paper is to establish an automated climbing technique for mooring chain inspection.

This paper presents a Cartesian legged tracked-wheel crawler robot developed for mooring chain inspection. The proposed robot addresses the misalignment condition of the mooring chains which is commonly evident in in situ conditions.

The mooring chain link misalignment is investigated mathematically and used as a design parameter for the proposed robot. The robot is validated with laboratory-based climbing experiments.

Chain breaking can lead to vessel drift and serious damage such as riser rupture, production shutdown and hydrocarbon release. Currently, structural health monitoring of chain links is conducted using either remotely operated vehicles which come at a high cost or by manual means which increase the danger to human operators. The robot can be used as a platform to convey equipment, i.e. tools for non-destructive testing/evaluation applications.

This study has upgraded a previously designed magnetic adhesion tracked-wheel mooring chain climbing robot to address the misalignment issues of operational mooring chains. As a result of this study, the idea of an orthogonally placed Cartesian legged-magnetic adhesion tracked wheel robotic platform which can eliminate concerns related to the misaligned mooring chain climbing has been established.

The paper aims to develop a robot that climbs on non‐ferrous surfaces, e.g. aircraft wings and fuselages, carrying a heavy payload up to 18 kg including scanning arm and various equipments, for non‐destructive testing (NDT).

This robot in the study uses vacuum suction cups for adhesion, and two pairs of pneumatic cylinders to drive itself, moving in two directions in stepping gait. A rotation mechanism in the centre is used to correct the off‐course deviations by ± 5 degrees. Multiple universal joints are used to make every single suction cup, every robot foot and the whole structure flexible to negotiate with varying surface curvatures presented in different parts of aircraft. This flexible structure is also rigid once the robot is stuck on the surface to enable the NDT inspection being carried out reliably.

The paper finds that the walking speed is limited by the cylinder stroke, time for generating vacuum and changing legs. Although most NDT inspection is time‐consumable, it is still desirable to increase the robot speed.

The application of this robotic NDT can significantly reduce the cost of aircraft inspection, eliminate labour‐intensive and monotonous inspection tasks and eliminate the need for an operator to work in confined and dangerous spaces.

The paper introduces the structure that combines flexibility and rigidity for a robot climbing on non‐ferrous curvatures.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a wireless positioning system. The automation of non-destructive testing (NDT) of large and complex geometry structures such as aircraft wings and fuselage is prohibitively expensive, though automation promises to improve on manual ultrasound testing. One inexpensive way to achieve automation is by using a small wall-climbing mobile robot to move a single ultrasound probe over the surface through a scanning trajectory defined by a qualified procedure. However, the problem is to guide the robot though the trajectory and know whether it has followed it accurately to confirm that the qualified procedure has been carried out.

The approach is to use sophisticated bulk electronics developed for game playing in combination with MATLAB to develop a wireless positioning system.

The paper describes the development of an inexpensive wireless system comprising an optical spatial positioning system and inertial measurement unit that relates the 3D location of an NDT probe carried by a mobile robot to a computer-aided drawing (CAD) representation of the test structure in a MATLAB environment. The probe is located to an accuracy of ± 2 mm at distances of 5 m.

Positioning range is limited to 5 m. Further development is required to increase this range.

The wireless system is used to develop tools to guide the robot remotely to follow a desired scanning trajectory, obtain feedback about the actual trajectory executed by the robot, know exactly where an ultrasound pulse echo was captured, map identified defects on the CAD and relate them to the real test object.

An inexpensive spatial positioning system with sufficient accuracy for automated NDT purposes.

The project Climbing Robot Cell for Fast and Flexible Manufacture of Large Scale Structures seeks to modernise and take into the future the technology of the manufacture of large fixed welded structures. It creates a transportable manufacturing cell consisting of a team of cooperating climbing robot work tools whose activities are coordinated and integrated through a central intelligence. The purpose of this paper is to present a wheeled robot, called NDT robot, designed for the real time inspection of long weld lines simultaneously with the welding process.

Neodymium permanent magnets are used for adhesion, which are capable of producing a maximum adhesion pressure of 4 × 104 Nm⁻² at a 20 mm air gap. The strong neodymium magnets give the robot a high payload carrying capability. The arrangement of the magnet array increases its performance at large air gaps so that the robot has excellent capability to overcome obstacles, such as weld caps. The design of the wheeled robot with two sections jointed by a hinge joint has the advantage of high speed and good manoeuvrability, as well as working on curved surfaces and transferring between angled adjoining surfaces.

The NDT robot has been developed with the capability of climbing on steel walls carrying the specified payload and the ability to overcome the obstacles. The robot is also able to climb on curved surfaces with excellent manoeuvrability, and transfer between angled adjoining surfaces.

The arrangement of the magnet array enables the robot to retain a strong holding force at big air gap, so that the ability of the robot to overcome obstacles and work on curvatures is strengthened. The two‐section design improves the robot's performance on curvatures and enables it to transfer between angled adjoining surfaces.

Because employees’ positive attitudes and behaviors are important to ensure organizational performance, organizations attempt to carry out human resource practices to shape these attitudes and behaviors. This paper aims to examine this issue by focusing on the effects of training and development (TD) on employee engagement (EE), satisfaction (ES) and retention (ER).

For empirical analysis, the authors use structural equation modeling and data collected from employees in a developing economy.

TD is positively and directly associated with EE, ES and ER. In addition, EE is found to mediate the indirect effects of TD on ES and ER.

The findings suggest some practical implications for TD activities to enhance employees’ positive attitudes and behaviors.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the early attempts to examine the direct and indirect effects of TD on EE, ES and ER in a developing economy. The findings add to the growing literature suggesting that TD can contribute to the improvement of employees’ positive attitudes and behaviors.

This study is designed to investigate a critical association between social media addiction and employee sleep while considering its implications for employee well-being and performance in the hospitality industry.

Based on adapted measures for the study variables, an electronic questionnaire was designed and used for the survey administered in the chain-restaurants of Pakistan. Through a non-probability convenient sampling survey, a total of 347 usable responses were obtained and analyzed for testing the hypothesized research model.

Results reveal negative associations between social media addiction, sleep quality, employee performance and well-being. The results have further shown sleep quality as an underlying mediating reason that explains the associations between social media addiction, employee performance and well-being.

The study addresses a gap in the literature by examining rarely explored factors such as social media addiction and sleep quality at the same time investigating its impact on performance and well-being of service employees. Significant implications for scholars and practitioners of the hospitality industry have been discussed while highlighting limitations and directions for future research.

Corona viruses have spiked structure and enveloped glycoproteins in their structure, along with specific proteins in membranes. The mode of action of COVID-19 consists of three phases, i.e. viral replication, immune hyperactivity and pulmonary destruction. However, angiotensin-converting enzyme is an essential receptor that causes COVID-19. After infecting any individual, COVID-19 develops in specific pattern with the following stages: replication stage and adaptive immunity stage. After adaptive immunity stage, the clinical symptoms of patient include cough, fever, runny nose, shortness of breath and many more. To cope with this COVID-19, food and nutrition played an important role. The purpose of this review article is to emphasize the significance of food and immunity to reduce COVID-19 attack among susceptibles.

In the present era, corona virus, a member of crown-shaped type, created a pandemic situation around the globe owing to its capability to move from human to animals and vice versa. This virus can transfer its 35% infection to the individuals. Contemporarily, this outbreak was observed in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and affected a huge number of communities by spreading like common flu. However, after investigation, it was revealed that COVID-19 is different from common flu regarding respiratory illness created by this novel coronavirus along with its taxonomy.

Over and above to all the aforementioned food safety concerns, it is suggested to use sufficient supply of green leafy vegetables along with fiber-rich foods such as legumes, beans, whole grains and vegetables. It is further good for health to get all these varieties whole and organic. The individuals should use probiotics (lactobacillus) on daily basis as a source of diary probiotic that can further bind to the virus directly and then can inhibit the viral attachment with body cells; also the probiotics are claimed to enhance the immune system of the body.

In the case of fruits and vegetables purchased, it must be thoroughly washed with water and then disinfected; after pat drying, these fruits and vegetables can be moved to the refrigerator and stored along with other foods. During the outbreak of COVID-19, the partially cooked or ready-to-eat foods should be avoided, especially eggs, meat, meat products, milk and milk-related products. On the other side, nuts should not be consumed; if required, then it must be properly roasted at home before consumption.

The baked product right after coming out of oven is completely safe; however, these are contaminated during handling such as crumb in case of bread and with knives; so in the breakout of any viral attack, the individuals should avoid slicing of the bread. Moreover, it is recommended to place the baked products in personal bags instead of bulk quantity. Before the consumption, the baked products should be toasted, microwaved or heated with the help of pan (traditional) to reduce the amount of viral load.

Dietary supplements are taken by most of the people on daily basis or sporadically especially when they are suffering from inflammation or cold. They have options while selecting these types of supplements such as probiotics, Echinacea, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins D and E, calcium glucosamine, garlic and iron. These supplements are beneficial for the group of population who do not eat diversity of food as sufficient amount of essential nutrients is provided through this pathway.

This work is original in its novelty.

Computer technology in libraries has revolutionised the concept of rapid and accurate information services. In Pakistan, though, computer technology is new and is being successfully introduced in all types of libraries and information centres. This article reviews the literature on the use of computers in Pakistan’s libraries. The literature includes monographs, journal articles, reports, etc. published inside and outside Pakistan, discussing information technology, specific library applications, the activities of individual libraries and automation education. The need for library automation and the problems faced by Pakistani professionals in this respect are also discussed.