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This study aims to enhance the understanding of the current research landscape regarding the utilisation of telepresence robots (TPRs) in education.

The bibliometric and thematic analysis of research publications on TPRs was conducted using papers in the Scopus database up to 2023. The final analysis focused on 53 papers that adhered to the selection criteria. A qualitative analysis was performed on this set of papers.

The analysis found a rising trend in TPR publications, mostly from the USA as conference papers and journal articles. However, these publications lacked technology integration frameworks, acceptance models and specific learning design models. TPRs have proven effective in various learning environments, fostering accessible education, better communication, engagement and social presence. TPRs can bridge geographical gaps, facilitate knowledge sharing and promote collaboration. Obstacles to implementation include technical, physical, social and emotional challenges. Publications were grouped into four thematic categories: didactic methods of using TPRs, TPRs for educational inclusivity, TPR as a teacher mediator and challenges in using TPRs. Despite the significant potential of TPRs, their broader adoption in education is still facing challenges.

This research solely analysed research papers in the Scopus database, limiting TPR publications with the keywords “telepresence robots”, “learning”, “teaching” and “education”, excluding studies with different other keywords.

This study enhances understanding of TPR research in education, highlighting its pedagogical implications. It identifies a gap in the inclusion of technology integration frameworks, acceptance models and learning design models, indicating a need for further research and development.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the barriers halting the usage of sustainable modes of transportation in a university campus.

Two large-scale universities, namely, Quaid-i-Azam University and the National University of Sciences and Technology, in Islamabad have been taken as case studies with a sample population of 421. The questionnaire data, comprising 30 different barriers, were analysed by principal component analysis and mean value method.

The findings indicate that safety and infrastructural factors are the most influential ones affecting sustainable mobility within the campus. The provision of user-friendly and safe infrastructure and more frequent shuttle buses are recommended to promote the culture of sustainable transportation.

Inclusion of other large-scale universities of the country might give more generalized results. The sustainability of other areas associating with transportation can also be evaluated to explore other unfamiliar dimensions.

The outcome of this research expects to highlight important policy recommendations for the promotion of sustainable mobility inside the campus and also serves as a guiding principle for campus developers and policymakers for planning new campuses in other parts of the country.

This research can be considered as a starting point for achieving sustainability in the universities of Pakistan. The same research methodology can be opted in other campuses with the possibility of the addition of other related factors with different statistical analysis techniques as well.

This paper aims to present a new method to analyze the robot’s obstacle negotiation based on the terramechanics, where the terrain physical parameters, the sinkage and the slippage of the robot are taken into account, to enhance the robot’s trafficability.

In this paper, terramechanics is used in motion planning for all-terrain obstacle negotiation. First, wheel/track-terrain interaction models are established and used to analyze traction performances in different locomotion modes of the reconfigurable robot. Next, several key steps of obstacle-climbing are reanalyzed and the sinkage, the slippage and the drawbar pull are obtained by the models in these steps. In addition, an obstacle negotiation analysis method on loose soil is proposed. Finally, experiments in different locomotion modes are conducted and the results demonstrate that the model is more suitable for practical applications than the center of gravity (CoG) kinematic model.

Using the traction performance experimental platform, the relationships between the drawbar pull and the slippage in different locomotion modes are obtained, and then the traction performances are obtained. The experimental results show that the relationships obtained by the models are in good agreement with the measured. The obstacle-climbing experiments are carried out to confirm the availability of the method, and the experimental results demonstrate that the model is more suitable for practical applications than the CoG kinematic model.

Comparing with the results without considering Terramechanics, obstacle-negotiation analysis based on the proposed track-terrain interaction model considering Terramechanics is much more accurate than without considering Terramechanics.

The purpose of this study is to propose a method for vulnerable pedestrians to visualize potential obstacles on sidewalks. In recent years, the number of vulnerable pedestrians has been increasing as Japanese society has aged. The number of wheelchair users is also expected to increase in the future. Currently, barrier-free maps and street-view applications can be used by wheelchair users to check possible routes and the surroundings of their destinations in advance. However, identifying physical barriers that pose a threat to vulnerable pedestrians en route is often difficult.

This study uses photogrammetry to create a digital twin of the three-dimensional (3D) geometry of the existing walking space by collecting photographic images taken on sidewalks. This approach allows for the creation of high-resolution digital elevation models of the entire physical sidewalk surface from which physical barriers such as local gradients and height differences can be detected by uniform image filtering. The method can be used with a Web-based data visualization tool in a geographical information system, permitting first-person views of the ground and accurate geolocation of the barriers on the map.

The findings of this study showed that capturing the road surface with a small wide-angle camera while walking is sufficient for recording subtle 3D undulations in the road surface. The method used for capturing data and the precision of the 3D restoration results are described.

The proposed approach demonstrates the significant benefits of creating a digital twin of walking space using photogrammetry as a cost-effective means of balancing the acquisition of 3D data that is sufficiently accurate to show the detailed geometric features needed to navigate a walking space safely. Further, the findings showed how information can be provided directly to users through two-dimensional (2D) and 3D Web-based visualizations.

The passion of Canadians for ice hockey is well documented; however, university teams in Canada are routinely ignored by consumers and the media. The authors’ goal was to better understand the context in which Ontario university hockey struggles and to address the theoretical question of how best to examine and evaluate the problems of sport‐specific organizations. Using the Value Dynamics Framework (VDF), the purpose of this paper was to examine whether or not this framework fits well with the realities facing not‐for‐profit OUA hockey teams, and if not, to create a framework specific to these teams.

Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were conducted with 15 of the 19 (77 percent) OUA hockey coaches during the 2010/2011 hockey season. The interview guide was drawn from the VDF elements and enabled the researchers to understand not‐for‐profit organizational assets, including physical, financial, employee/supplier, customer, and organizational.

This paper offers empirical insights about the assets and obstacles facing the OUA hockey league and its teams. For example, players, coaches, affiliation with universities, and the hockey product are noted assets. Obstacles for strategic growth include arenas, suppliers, media attention, financial sustainability, parity with other leagues in Canada, and leadership. The VDF proved a useful foil to suggest that something is needed that more accurately represents sport management‐specific situations.

The main limitation of this study is that it lacks generalizability. Although motivated to better understand not‐for‐profit sport in general, the authors’ model is specific to OUA men's hockey teams. However, their OUA hockey team‐specific revised VDF does provide insights into the assets available to coaches, and also acknowledges the corresponding challenges or obstacles surrounding the asset classes in the context of OUA hockey.

This paper provides an approach towards making a more generalizable not‐for‐profit sport model that could help explain the success (or lack of success) of such organizations.

This study addresses a need to develop a framework to examine and evaluate not‐for‐profit sport‐specific organizations, such as the teams in the OUA.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a computationally efficient and generally applicable measure for a pipe routing problem which decides the pipe paths and affects the pipe assembly feasibility. By imitating human thinking in pipe assembly planning, human's experience and intuition are quantified and applied in the pipe routing algorithm.

Human's imaginal thinking is simulated with procedures of knowledge representation, pattern recognition, and logical deduction; the algorithm transforms the physical obstacles and constraints into 3D pipe routing space and then into 2D planar projection, by using convex hull algorithm onto the projection, the shortest pipe route is found efficiently.

A novel pipe assembly planning algorithm by imitating human imaginal thinking is presented, which effectively solved the problem of conceiving the shortest pipe route in 3D space with obstacles and constraints.

The application of the algorithm in assembly planning of an aircraft engine pipe system is demonstrated. The algorithm can also be used in similar pipe planning problems such as industrial plant pipe planning and submarine pipe system design.

Human's imaginal thinking is introduced into pipe routing algorithm for the first time. By using graphics as the media to transfer the pipe routing information, human's experience and intuition in pipe assembly planning are quantified and computationally applicable.

The purpose of this paper is to survey and analyse the literature emanating from less developed countries (LDCs) and international agencies and dealing with their perception of the needs of LDCs for scientific and technical information (STI) in relation to social and economic development.

Learning from demonstration (LfD) provides an intuitive way for non-expert persons to teach robots new skills. However, the learned motion is typically fixed for a given scenario, which brings serious adaptiveness problem for robots operating in the unstructured environment, such as avoiding an obstacle which is not presented during original demonstrations. Therefore, the robot should be able to learn and execute new behaviors to accommodate the changing environment. To achieve this goal, this paper aims to propose an improved LfD method which is enhanced by an adaptive motion planning technique.

The LfD is based on GMM/GMR method, which can transform original off-line demonstrations into a compressed probabilistic model and recover robot motion based on the distributions. The central idea of this paper is to reshape the probabilistic model according to on-line observation, which is realized by the process of re-sampling, data partition, data reorganization and motion re-planning. The re-planned motions are not unique. A criterion is proposed to evaluate the fitness of each motion and optimize among the candidates.

The proposed method is implemented in a robotic rope disentangling task. The results show that the robot is able to complete its task while avoiding randomly distributed obstacles and thereby verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The main contributions of the proposed method are avoiding unforeseen obstacles in the unstructured environment and maintaining crucial aspects of the motion which guarantee to accomplish a skill/task successfully.

Traditional methods are intrinsically based on motion planning technique and treat the off-line training data as a priori probability. The paper proposes a novel data-driven solution to achieve motion planning for LfD. When the environment changes, the off-line training data are revised according to external constraints and reorganized to generate new motion. Compared to traditional methods, the novel data-driven solution is concise and efficient.

Planning and design of university campuses is as important as the instructional philosophy of universities for determining academic and social development of university students. However, mainstream university campuses have often been designed with typical “normal” or “abled” users in mind and have neglected the needs of students with physical, sensory, and developmental disabilities. Universal design perspective with its equality, social inclusion and social justice agenda can be helpful in giving insights for inclusive educational environments. This study presents a research based design process conducted at a university campus in Turkey to create an inclusive educational environment for the students with disabilities, and to improve their participation in campus' academic and social life. For this purpose, existing campus spaces were evaluated for their inclusiveness both objectively through a checklist and subjectively through participatory workshops and meetings. The findings from both studies were used to identify the needs of the users with disabilities in the campus' settings. The results obtained from these studies were used to inform the implementations, and a holistic plan for creating an inclusive campus environment was developed. This study provides the implications for architectural and urban needs of users with physical, sensory, and vision disabilities or restraints in campus environments, develops methodology for future studies with similar context, and informs about the challenges and opportunities present in the process of creating inclusive university campus environments. .

It is important to design accessible destinations for disabled tourists. However, to attract this market segment, it is also important to efficiently communicate online the accessibility provided. This paper aims to analyse the online communication of physical accessibility conditions designed for disabled tourists, to discuss the existence or non-existence of a design–communication gap in tourist destinations.

The authors analysed the physical accessibility of a selection of touristic spots in Porto, Portugal. The online communication regarding the physical accessibility of these spots’ informative websites was also analysed. Subsequently, a content analysis of these same websites was conducted to ascertain whether accessibility conditions for disabled tourists are disclosed in line with the physical and online facilities observed.

The destination websites’ online contents targeting disabled tourists are generic and do not inform about all the accessible facilities provided by the touristic spots analysed.

The authors found a gap between the accessible destination design and its communication in destination websites. This situation creates a barrier for people with physical disabilities and it is particularly concerning, considering that this market segment seeks for information in online sources to plan trips and does not find on the internet all the information about the accessible facilities provided. This fact may hinder the positioning of destinations as inclusive places and impair accessible tourism competitiveness. A better online communication of the accessible destination design is recommended.

为残疾游客设计出无障碍旅游地是非常重要的。然而, 为了吸引这部分游客市场, 有效地在线宣传提供的无障碍条件也是非常重要的。本论文分析为残疾游客提供的无障碍设施的在线宣传, 以讨论旅游地是否存在设计-宣传差异。

本论文分析了葡萄牙波尔图城市游客景点的无障碍设施。本论文还分析了这些景点网站对于无障碍设施的描述。本论文采用文本分析方法, 对这些网站内容进行分析, 验证是否为残疾游客提供的无障碍设施如网上宣传介绍一直。

研究结果表明, 景点网站针对残疾游客的内容太过笼统, 并没有介绍景区提供的全部无障碍设施。

本论文展示了无障碍旅游地设计与其网站宣传之间的差异。这将对残疾人造成障碍, 尤其是那些通过在线信息来确立旅游计划的游客, 他们无法在网络上找到全部关于提供的无障碍设施的信息。这将阻碍景点定位为全包容性旅游目的地, 影响其无障碍旅游竞争力。本论文推荐无障碍景点设计应该有一个更好的在线宣传。