Systematic reviews as a tool for planning and interpreting trials

Background Systematic reviews followed by ameta-analysis are carried out in medical research to combine the results of two or more related studies. Stroke trials have struggled to show beneficial effects and meta-analysis should be used more widely throughout the research process to either speed up the development of useful interventions, or halt more quickly research with hazardous or ineffective interventions. Summary of review. This review summarises the clinical research process and illustrates how and when systematic reviews may be used throughout the development programme. Meta-analyses should be performed after observational studies, preclinical studies in experimental stroke, and after phase I, II, and III clinical trials and phase IV clinical surveillance studies. Although meta-analyses most commonly work with summary data, they may be performed to assess relationships between variables (meta-regression) and, ideally, should utilise individual patient data. Meta-analysis techniques may alsoworkwith ordered categorical outcome data (ordinal meta-analysis) and be used to perform indirect comparisons where original trial data do not exist. Conclusion Systematic review/meta-analyses are powerful tools in medical research and should be used throughout the development of all stroke and other interventions

Motion Planning and Controls with Safety and Temporal Constraints

Motion planning, or trajectory planning, commonly refers to a process of converting high-level task specifications into low-level control commands that can be executed on the system of interest. For different applications, the system will be different. It can be an autonomous vehicle, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV), a humanoid robot, or an industrial robotic arm. As human machine interaction is essential in many of these systems, safety is fundamental and crucial. Many of the applications also involve performing a task in an optimal manner within a given time constraint. Therefore, in this thesis, we focus on two aspects of the motion planning problem. One is the verification and synthesis of the safe controls for autonomous ground and air vehicles in collision avoidance scenarios. The other part focuses on the high-level planning for the autonomous vehicles with the timed temporal constraints. In the first aspect of our work, we first propose a verification method to prove the safety and robustness of a path planner and the path following controls based on reachable sets. We demonstrate the method on quadrotor and automobile applications. Secondly, we propose a reachable set based collision avoidance algorithm for UAVs. Instead of the traditional approaches of collision avoidance between trajectories, we propose a collision avoidance scheme based on reachable sets and tubes. We then formulate the problem as a convex optimization problem seeking control set design for the aircraft to avoid collision. We apply our approach to collision avoidance scenarios of quadrotors and fixed-wing aircraft. In the second aspect of our work, we address the high level planning problems with timed temporal logic constraints. Firstly, we present an optimization based method for path planning of a mobile robot subject to timed temporal constraints, in a dynamic environment. Temporal logic (TL) can address very complex task specifications such as safety, coverage, motion sequencing etc. We use metric temporal logic (MTL) to encode the task specifications with timing constraints. We then translate the MTL formulae into mixed integer linear constraints and solve the associated optimization problem using a mixed integer linear program solver. We have applied our approach on several case studies in complex dynamical environments subjected to timed temporal specifications. Secondly, we also present a timed automaton based method for planning under the given timed temporal logic specifications. We use metric interval temporal logic (MITL), a member of the MTL family, to represent the task specification, and provide a constructive way to generate a timed automaton and methods to look for accepting runs on the automaton to find an optimal motion (or path) sequence for the robot to complete the task.

Collaborative Web-Based Simulation Platform for Construction Project Planning

Part 13: Virtual Reality and Simulation

Virtual Learning Factory on VR-Supported Factory Planning

Part 13: Virtual Reality and Simulation

Mission and Scenario Planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Path Planning and Collision Avoidance Systems)

As unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs) are being widely utilized in military and civil applications, concerns are growing about mission safety and how to integrate dierent phases of mission design. One important barrier to a coste ective and timely safety certication process for UAVs is the lack of a systematic approach for bridging the gap between understanding high-level commander/pilot intent and implementation of intent through low-level UAV behaviors. In this thesis we demonstrate an entire systems design process for a representative UAV mission, beginning from an operational concept and requirements and ending with a simulation framework for segments of the mission design, such as path planning and decision making in collision avoidance. In this thesis, we divided this complex system into sub-systems; path planning, collision detection and collision avoidance. We then developed software modules for each sub-system

Kinematics and Local Motion Planning for Quasi-static Whole-body Mobile Manipulation

This thesis studies mobile robotic manipulators, where one or more robot manipulator arms are integrated with a mobile robotic base. The base could be a wheeled or tracked vehicle, or it might be a multi-limbed locomotor. As robots are increasingly deployed in complex and unstructured environments, the need for mobile manipulation increases. Mobile robotic assistants have the potential to revolutionize human lives in a large variety of settings including home, industrial and outdoor environments.

Mobile Manipulation is the use or study of such mobile robots as they interact with physical objects in their environment. As compared to fixed base manipulators, mobile manipulators can take advantage of the base mechanism’s added degrees of freedom in the task planning and execution process. But their use also poses new problems in the analysis and control of base system stability, and the planning of coordinated base and arm motions. For mobile manipulators to be successfully and efficiently used, a thorough understanding of their kinematics, stability, and capabilities is required. Moreover, because mobile manipulators typically possess a large number of actuators, new and efficient methods to coordinate their large numbers of degrees of freedom are needed to make them practically deployable. This thesis develops new kinematic and stability analyses of mobile manipulation, and new algorithms to efficiently plan their motions.

I first develop detailed and novel descriptions of the kinematics governing the operation of multi- limbed legged robots working in the presence of gravity, and whose limbs may also be simultaneously used for manipulation. The fundamental stance constraint that arises from simple assumptions about friction and the ground contact and feasible motions is derived. Thereafter, a local relationship between joint motions and motions of the robot abdomen and reaching limbs is developed. Baseeon these relationships, one can define and analyze local kinematic qualities including limberness, wrench resistance and local dexterity. While previous researchers have noted the similarity between multi- fingered grasping and quasi-static manipulation, this thesis makes explicit connections between these two problems.

The kinematic expressions form the basis for a local motion planning problem that that determines the joint motions to achieve several simultaneous objectives while maintaining stance stability in the presence of gravity. This problem is translated into a convex quadratic program entitled the balanced priority solution, whose existence and uniqueness properties are developed. This problem is related in spirit to the classical redundancy resoxlution and task-priority approaches. With some simple modifications, this local planning and optimization problem can be extended to handle a large variety of goals and constraints that arise in mobile-manipulation. This local planning problem applies readily to other mobile bases including wheeled and articulated bases. This thesis describes the use of the local planning techniques to generate global plans, as well as for use within a feedback loop. The work in this thesis is motivated in part by many practical tasks involving the Surrogate and RoboSimian robots at NASA/JPL, and a large number of examples involving the two robots, both real and simulated, are provided.

Finally, this thesis provides an analysis of simultaneous force and motion control for multi- limbed legged robots. Starting with a classical linear stiffness relationship, an analysis of this problem for multiple point contacts is described. The local velocity planning problem is extended to include generation of forces, as well as to maintain stability using force-feedback. This thesis also provides a concise, novel definition of static stability, and proves some conditions under which it is satisfied.

Being on the edge of a shipwreck in planning decision-making: design as an anchor and future maker

This paper investigates recent attempts to Masterplan tourism planning and landscape development of the town of Port Campbell based on the concept of community-driven tourism planning. The Masterplan process generally sought to upgrade tourism facilities and to re-plan a core part of the Great Ocean Road corridor the proposed scheme little engendered community confidence nor encouraged the use of local community public resources of the Masterplan proposed outcomes. While analyzing broad range of aspects of the township and the national park, this design thesis attempted to identify the possible initiatives and landscape development models and also applied landscape narrative theory to focus on tourism experience making and landscape with layers of content embedded such as local history, environmental stories that would enrich the experience. The need for this paper is to articulate an alternate and more robust approach to designing on the fragile coastal edge whilst engendering community engagement and ensuring their aspirations are addressed. It is main contribution is both offering an alternate process but also demonstrating the use of design as a vehicle to reach this outcome. The research gap addressed is to challenge a conventional planning practice that was very much constrained by upper-level Melbourne-based parochial and managerial imperatives than lower-level community aspirations and perspectives.

Developing a primary care patient measure of safety (PC PMOS): a modified Delphi process and face validity testing

BACKGROUND: Patients are a valuable source of information about ways to prevent harm in primary care and are in a unique position to provide feedback about the factors that contribute to safety incidents. Unlike in the hospital setting, there are currently no tools that allow the systematic capture of this information from patients. The aim of this study was to develop a quantitative primary care patient measure of safety (PC PMOS). METHODS: A two-stage approach was undertaken to develop questionnaire domains and items. Stage 1 involved a modified Delphi process. An expert panel reached consensus on domains and items based on three sources of information (validated hospital PMOS, previous research conducted by our study team and literature on threats to patient safety). Stage 2 involved testing the face validity of the questionnaire developed during stage 1 with patients and primary care staff using the 'think aloud' method. Following this process, the questionnaire was revised accordingly. RESULTS: The PC PMOS was received positively by both patients and staff during face validity testing. Barriers to completion included the length, relevance and clarity of questions. The final PC PMOS consisted of 50 items across 15 domains. The contributory factors to safety incidents centred on communication, access to care, patient-related factors, organisation and care planning, task performance and information flow. DISCUSSION: This is the first tool specifically designed for primary care settings, which allows patients to provide feedback about factors contributing to potential safety incidents. The PC PMOS provides a way for primary care organisations to learn about safety from the patient perspective and make service improvements with the aim of reducing harm in this setting. Future research will explore the reliability and construct validity of the PC PMOS.

Using business intelligence to support the process of organizational sensemaking

Making sense of an organization overwhelmed with data becomes a problem for decision makers at all levels of business planning and operation. Although scholars have suggested several technological solutions such as business intelligence as being useful in helping busy executives to make decisions, we still know little about assisting business stakeholders in the process of understanding their organizational complexity before such decisions could even be formulated. In this paper, we investigate the opportunities in using BI technologies to make sense of a business environment. We analyze the views and opinions of developers, analysts, consultants, and users of business intelligence, who are experienced in using the technology beyond decision making to support organizational sensemaking. Our results highlight the need for creating and maintaining individual; and organizational identity and enacting this identity on the business and its environment.

GIS-based dynamic modelling and analysis of flash floods considering land-use planning

Flood inundation is a common natural disaster and a growing development challenge for many cities and thousands of small towns around the world. Soil features have frequently altered with the rapid development of urbanised regions, which has led to more frequent and longer duration of flooding in urban flood-prone regions. Thus, this paper presents a geographic information system (GIS)-based methodology for measuring and visualising the effects on urban flash floods generated by land-use changes over time. The measurement is formulated with a time series in order to perform a dynamic analysis. A catchment mesh is introduced into a hydrological model for reflecting the spatial layouts of infrastructure and structures over different construction periods. The Geelong Waurn Ponds campus of Deakin University is then selected as a case study. Based on GIS simulation and mapping technologies, this research illustrates the evolutionary process of flash floods. The paper then describes flood inundation for different built environments and presents a comparison by quantifying the flooding extents for infrastructure and structures. The results reveal that the GIS-based estimation model can examine urban flash floods in different development phases and identify the change of flooding extents in terms of land-use planning. This study will bring benefits to urban planners in raising awareness of flood impact and the approach proposed here could be used for flood mitigation through future urban planning.