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In this study, we propose a novel controller architecture and design for the automatic control of agricultural mobile robots to be used in farms and greenhouses. There are two novelties of this study. The first novelty is a completely new type of controller architecture proposed in which reference inputs and measured outputs are fed separately independent from each other to the controller. The controller architecture currently used in the literature uses only the difference between reference and measurement which is the error signal. The proposed architecture in this study is completely novel in the sense that not only the error information is used in the controller but also the information in reference inputs and information in measured outputs are used separately. This means a completely new type of look to control system by utilizing the information maximally in order to achieve superior performance. This performance boost is shown in the paper where the proposed architecture achieves up to 2000% better performance compared with state-of-the-art controllers. Second, controller architecture is grown to a complex structure from an initially simple PID structure. Using the maximal information comes with the cost of computational complexity to design the controller. The second novelty of growing the controller from initially simple PID equivalent controller tackles this difficulty by making the problem tractable and efficient to compute. This way the proposed novel controller can be designed within minutes in a commercially available laptop computer. The proposed controller is tested on a simulated agricultural mobile robot and results are compared with a previous state-of-the-art optimal controller. It is believed that the proposed architecture will be dominant in future automatic controllers and make current state-of-the-art controllers obsolete. This is because of the full utilization of information in controller design which results in robust disturbance rejection performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global discourse around architecture education emphasizes rethinking curricula for engaging more with social issues. The shift from creating star architects to socially responsive professionals necessitates examining different approaches to build skills, especially in the design studio, for encouraging a comprehensive system of inquiry for developing design solutions. In Jhenaidah, a secondary city in Bangladesh, fourth-year students participated in a design studio that tried to address critical urban issues and to generate design ideas using field research and community participation. This paper shares the experience of facilitating the design studio. The learning process and studio structure included exploration, examination, consultations, mapping, vision development and strategic planning for arriving at specific design proposals. The experience of working with a local government institution was an added learning of the studio. Pedagogical exploration from the studio reiterates the arguments for balancing rationalism and social responsiveness with creativity in architecture design studios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents two study cases, one related to loose or falling tiles at shower stall enclosures, the other to surface mold and odors. Both of these housing studies illustrate how the performance failures were caused by a lack of a holistic approach to the environmental control of buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An interior thermal insulation system based on hydrophilic mineral wool is presented in this paper. Basic thermal and hygric parameters of the applied materials are given. The design and development of the thermal insulation system including its verification in semiscale experiments are described. Finally, an example of the application of the designed system in the reconstruction of a historical building in Prague is shown, and the results of in situ experiments are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important challenge in computer vision is the implementation of fast and accurate feature detectors, as they are the basis for high-level image processing analysis and understanding. However, image feature detectors cannot be easily applied in embedded scenarios, mainly due to the fact that they are time consuming and require a significant amount of processing power. Although some feature detectors have been implemented in hardware, most implementations target a single detector under very specific constraints. This paper proposes a flexible hardware implementation approach for computing interest point extraction from grey-level images based on two different detectors, Harris and SUSAN, suitable for robotic applications. The design is based on parallel and configurable processing elements for window operators and a buffering strategy to support a coarse-grain pipeline scheme for operator sequencing. When targeted to a Virtex-6 FPGA, a throughput of 49.45 Mpixel/s (processing rate of 161 frames per second of VGA image resolution) is achieved at a clock frequency of 50 MHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use a detailed study of the knowledge work around visual representations to draw attention to the multidimensional nature of 'objects'. Objects are variously described in the literatures as relatively stable or in flux; as abstract or concrete; and as used within or across practices. We clarify these dimensions, drawing on and extending the literature on boundary objects, and connecting it with work on epistemic and technical objects. In particular, we highlight the epistemic role of objects, using our observations of knowledge work on an architectural design project to show how, in this setting, visual representations are characterized by a 'lack' or incompleteness that precipitates unfolding. The conceptual design of a building involves a wide range of technical, social and aesthetic forms of knowledge that need to be developed and aligned. We explore how visual representations are used, and how these are meaningful to different stakeholders, eliciting their distinct contributions. As the project evolves and the drawings change, new issues and needs for knowledge work arise. These objects have an 'unfolding ontology' and are constantly in flux, rather than fully formed. We discuss the implications for wider understandings of objects in organizations and for how knowledge work is achieved in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a software architecture to optimize the process of prototyping and deploying robot controllers that are synthesized using model-based design methodologies. The architecture is composed of a framework and a pipeline. Therefore, the contribution of the article is twofold. First, we introduce an open-source actor-oriented framework that abstracts the common robotic uses of middlewares, optimizers, and simulators. Using this framework, we then present a pipeline that implements the model-based design methodology. The components of the proposed framework are generic, and they can be interfaced with any tool supporting model-based design. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach describing the application of the resulting synchronous dataflow architecture to the design of a balancing controller for the YARP-based humanoid robot iCub. This example exploits the interfacing with Simulink® and Simulink® Coder™. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the highlights of meeting of the Royal Society of Medicine's Open Section on May 17, 1993. The meeting focused on how to make hospitals into well-designed environments with the use of arts as a complementary part of health care. Richard Burton of Ahrenda Burton and Koralek discussed the experiences of his firm in producing a healing environment in hospitals. Peter Senior of the Manchester Metropolitan University discussed the artistic design of the hospital.

This study explores the role of absences in making organizing possible. By engaging with Lefebvre’s spatial triad as the interconnections between conceived (planned), perceived (experienced through practice) and lived (felt and imagined) spaces, we challenge the so-called metaphysics of presence in organization studies. We draw on the insights offered by the project of construction of Siena Cathedral during the period 1259–1357 and we examine how it provided a space for the actors involved to explore their different (civic, architectural and religious) intentions. We show that, as the contested conceived spaces of the cathedral were connected to architectural practices, religious powers and civic symbols, they revealed the impossibility for these intentions to be fully represented. It was this impossibility that provoked an ongoing search for solutions and guaranteed a combination of dynamism and persistence of both the material architecture of the cathedral and the project of construction. The case of Siena Cathedral therefore highlights the role of absence in producing organizing effects not because absence eventually takes form but because of the impossibility to fully represent it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional theorists focus on practices that spread because they conform with and build on established cultural assumptions and resources. Novel practices, however, not only fail to conform to, but also challenge the dominant institutional order. We seek to understand the process by which novel practices move from entrepreneurial anomaly to consecrated exemplar within a field. We contrast Unity Temple by Frank Lloyd Wright—a building that challenged the accepted practices of ecclesiastical design in the architectural profession—with the most prominent churches during the same period. We find two distinct legitimation processes—institutional evangelism where creators express their identity and generate novel practices versus adaptive emulation where adopters focus on prestigious others and emulate their established practices. We reveal that actors engaged in institutional evangelism and adaptive emulation, employing institutional work and leveraging ideas, materials and identities to effect, transform, and maintain institutions. Our comparative cases show the key role of materiality, particularly collective identity markers, in institutional work and institutional processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Community Climate System Model (CCSM) has been developed over the last decade, and it is used to understand past, present, and future climates. The latest versions of the model, CCSM4 and CESM1, contain totally new coupling capabilities in the CPL7 coupler that permit additional flexibility and extensibility to address the challenges involved in earth system modeling. The CPL7 coupling architecture takes a completely new approach with respect to the high-level design of the system. CCSM4 now contains a top-level driver that calls model component initialize, run, and finalize methods through specified interfaces. The top-level driver allows the model components to be placed on relatively arbitrary hardware processor layouts and run sequentially, concurrently, or mixed. Improvements have been made to the memory and performance scaling of the coupler to support much higher resolution configurations. CCSM4 scales better to higher processor counts, and has the ability to handle global resolutions up to one-tenth of a degree. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports on a survey of visual preferences for suburban office buildings. The participants comprised members of the professions involved in the speculative development of these buildings and building users. The survey method used paired comparisons of photographs representing eight different design types for suburban office buildings. The data were processed using a form of conjoint analysis. Differences in the preferences of architects and users were revealed, confirming previous surveys. Analysis of the preferences showed a different weighting of design attributes. Despite these differences, a design type could be identified that would combine the preferences of both architects and users. This finding is generalized in the proposal for an "ordered preference model" to generate designs which reconcile the preferences of both architects and laypersons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the relationship between the appearance of medical building exteriors and judgments of the perceived care that would be delivered in and the expected comfort level that would be felt in those facilities. In all, 188 college students viewed 34 slides of the exteriors of medical facilities. Using visual analogue scales, participants rated the perceived quality of care and expected comfort level for each facility and provided brief written comments to explain their ratings. Factor analyses yielded 3 parallel Care and Expected Comfort factors, labeled Traditional House type, Brick Office type, and Large Medical type, and a fourth Expected Comfort factor, labeled Low Budget Emphasis. Respondents rated facilities of the Large Medical type to be highest in both quality of care and expected comfort. Results are discussed in terms of current trends in the architecture of health care facilities and recommendations for practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]