Understanding the role of behavioural integration in ISD teams: an extension of transactive memory systems concept

The transactive memory system (TMS) has been considered as one critical element for effective teamwork. However, viewing TMS as a second‐order construct that mixes cognitive (specialty and credibility) and behavioural (coordination) components leads to confusion and increases the difficulty in interpreting study results. This study follows the concept proposed by one recent study and attempts to distinguish between behavioural and cognitive components. Furthermore, drawing on the need for diverse members to be integrated behaviourally, we also attempt to extend the TMS research stream by proposing a more comprehensive behavioural component of TMS. We argue that to obtain better teamwork outcomes, information system development (ISD) team members need to integrate the expertise possessed by each individual, make decisions jointly and interlink all individual actions. In light of this, our study aims to replace coordination with team behavioural integration, a more comprehensive behavioural consequence of cognition and explore the critical role of behavioural integration in ISD teams by understanding its impact on ISD teamwork project team performance. The study result, based on data collected from 205 information system project managers, supports our hypotheses that expertise specialty, credibility and their interaction positively affect team behavioural integration. This, in turn, leads to enhanced project team performance.     

The VISTA project and its applications

In Arizona, a window of opportunity exists for using planned infrastructure expenditures to construct intelligent lanes on Interstate Highway 10 between Phoenix and Tucson for deploying intelligent vehicles (IVs). In 1998, the University of Arizona formed the Vehicles with Intelligent Systems for Transport Automation research team, which the ADOT charged with the mission of investigating new and existing technologies and concepts that address those issues. The Arizona state legislature and ADOT funded the VISTA project initially. The paper discusses the vehicle and control system.     

Mechatronics in fuel cell systems

Power generation from fuel cells (FCs) requires the integration of chemical, fluid, mechanical, thermal, electrical, and electronic subsystems. This integration presents many challenges and opportunities in the mechatronics field. This paper highlights important design issues and poses problems that require mechatronics solutions. The paper begins by describing the process of designing a toy school bus powered by hydrogen for an undergraduate student project. The project was an effective and rewarding educational activity that revealed complex systems issues associated with FC technology.     

A model of the software development process

This paper presents a model of the programming process. The model has four parts. A resources model specifies how many useful man-months of design effort are available from project team members after subtracting the time required for learning and team communications. A system design model specifies how many man-months of effort are required to derive program module specifications, as a function of the number of team members, program size, and number of modules. A coding model specifies how many man-months of effort are required for coding, as a function of team, module, and program size. Finally, a checkout model specifies how many man-months are required for checkout as a function of program size, error detection and correction rates, and a design-complete factor. The model as a whole predicts that programmer productivity will decrease as project team size is increased and that project duration will first decrease and then increase as team size is increased. It also shows that productivity and project duration vary enormously as a function of project management factors, even when project complexity and programming staff competence are held constant.     

Progress towards robotic exploration of extreme terrain

A high degree of mobility, reliability, and efficiency are needed for autonomous exploration of extreme terrain. These requirements have guided the development of the Ambler, a six-legged robot designed for planetary exploration. To address issues of efficiency and mobility, the Ambler is configured with a stacked arrangement of orthogonal legs and exhibits a unique circulating gait, where trailing legs recover directly from rear to front. The Ambler is designed to stably traverse a 30 degree slope while crossing meter sized features. The same three principles have provided many constraints on the design of a software system that autonomously navigates the Ambler through natural terrain using 3-D perception and a combined deliberative/reactive architecture. The software system has required research advances in real-time control, perception of rugged terrain, motion planning, task-level control, and system integration. This paper presents many of the factors that influenced the design of the Ambler and its software system. In particular, important assumptions regarding the mechanism, perception, planning, and control are presented and evaluated in light of experimental and theoretical research of this project.     

Toward a Service-Oriented Development Through a Case Study

The rapidly emerging technology of Web services paves a new cost-effective way of engineering software to quickly develop and deploy Web applications by dynamically integrating other independently developed Web-service components to conduct new business transactions. This paper reports our efforts on designing and developing a Web service of pass-through authentication (PTA) for 12 online electronic-payment Web applications. In accordance with how a PTA service is developed and integrated with a corresponding back-end e-payment system, our strategies can be categorized in three stages: end-to-end integration stage, Web-services-enabled stage, and Web-services-oriented stage. Derived from real-world industrial experience, this three-stage pathway can be applied to a broad range of Web-application development projects to guide smooth transformation from a specific application-oriented design and development model toward a reusable Web-services-oriented model. Furthermore, this paper contributes to an engineering process that leads to practical Web-services-oriented software development. New research issues revealed by this project are also reported.     

Optimisation of construction site layout using a hybrid simulation-based system

The layout of temporary facilities for a construction project greatly impacts project performance as demonstrated in many prior studies. This paper demonstrates how the site layout process can be automated for specific types of construction. Utility tunnel construction was selected as the specialty area, for which a partially automated site layout application was built. This approach integrates general purpose simulation for modelling space, logistics and resource dynamics with genetic algorithms for optimizing the layout based on various constraints and rules. We achieve this by implementing a site layout optimisation system within a simulation environment which already models tunnel construction processes. The new modelling strategy provides a medium for seamless integration between the resulting site layout and the discrete event production simulation models. The paper describes the approach taken and the system developed, presenting a practical case study from a tunnelling project in Edmonton, Canada to illustrate the system’s performance and its validation.     

TUM autonomous motorsport: An autonomous racing software for the Indy Autonomous Challenge

For decades, motorsport has been an incubator for innovations in the automotive sector and brought forth systems, like, disk brakes or rearview mirrors. Autonomous racing series such as Roborace, F1Tenth, or the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) are envisioned as playing a similar role within the autonomous vehicle sector, serving as a proving ground for new technology at the limits of the autonomous systems capabilities. This paper outlines the software stack and approach of the TUM Autonomous Motorsport team for their participation in the IAC, which holds two competitions: A single-vehicle competition on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and a passing competition at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Nine university teams used an identical vehicle platform: A modified Indy Lights chassis equipped with sensors, a computing platform, and actuators. All the teams developed different algorithms for object detection, localization, planning, prediction, and control of the race cars. The team from Technical University of Munich (TUM) placed first in Indianapolis and secured second place in Las Vegas. During the final of the passing competition, the TUM team reached speeds and accelerations close to the limit of the vehicle, peaking at around $270\text{km h}{}^{-1}$ and $28ms{}^{-2}$. This paper will present details of the vehicle hardware platform, the developed algorithms, and the workflow to test and enhance the software applied during the 2-year project. We derive deep insights into the autonomous vehicle's behavior at high speed and high acceleration by providing a detailed competition analysis. On the basis of this, we deduce a list of lessons learned and provide insights on promising areas of future work based on the real-world evaluation of the displayed concepts.     

移动机器人THMR-V的组合定位系统

定位系统是室外移动机器人中不可缺少的组成部分,是车辆定位与导航的基础。文章介绍了清华移动机器人THMR－V的定位系统,它是由GPS、磁罗盘、光码盘组成的。GPS能够提供比较精确的绝对位置,但是采集数据较慢,而且可能由于遮挡等原因而失效或跳变。磁罗盘－光码盘系统（CEPS）通过航位推算计算车体位置,在短期内定位效果较好,但是存在积累误差。通过GPS／CEPS组合定位,取长补短,从而整体上达到良好的性能。在THMR－V上经过一年多试验证明,该系统具有较高的准确性和稳定性,满足移动机器人的定位与导航的需要。     

Action research in user-centred product development

Technological development and increased international competition have imposed a significant burden on the product development function of many companies. The growing complexity of products demands a larger product development team with people having various competencies. Simultaneously the importance of good quality, usability and customisation of products is growing, and many companies want to involve customers and users directly in the development work. Both the complexity and quality demand new ways of working that support collaboration between people with various competencies, interests and responsibilities both inside and outside the company. This paper reports experiences from using action research to introduce new user-centred work practices in two commercial product development projects. The interventions varied. In the first project it was found rewarding to engage customers and users in workshops based on participatory inquiry and collaborative design. The design process was iterative and the workshops took place several times involving concept through detailed design. In the second project, new design representations are introduced. The experiences highlight the importance of creating and reifying insights in design representations and using these to both support collaboration, and create continuity in the project. The paper ends with a discussion of scientific rigor in action research and what the new work practices imply for the development team.