Difficulty and complexity definitions for assembly task allocation and assignment in human–robot collaborations: A review

This paper presents a literature review on the different aspects of task allocation and assignment problems in human–robot collaboration (HRC) tasks in industrial assembly environments. In future advanced industrial environments, robots and humans are expected to share the same workspace and collaborate to efficiently achieve shared goals. Difficulty- and complexity-aware HRC assembly is necessary for human-centric manufacturing, which is a goal of Industry 5.0. Therefore, the objective of this study is to clarify the definitions of difficulty and complexity used to encourage effective collaboration between humans and robots to leverage the adaptability of humans and the autonomy of robots. To achieve this goal, a systematic review of the following relevant databases for computer science was performed: IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, ACM Digital Library, and ASME Digital Collection. The results extracted from 74 peer-reviewed research articles published until July 2022 were summarized and categorized into four taxonomies for 145 difficulty and complexity definitions from the perspectives of (1) definition-use objectives, (2) evaluation objectives, (3) evaluation factors, and (4) evaluation variables. Next, existing definitions were primarily classified according to the following two criteria to identify potential future studies on the formulation of new definitions for human-centric manufacturing: (1) agent specificity and (2) common aspects in manual and robotic assemblies.     

Quantification of interacting runtime qualities in software architectures: Insights from transaction processing in client–server architectures

ContextArchitecture is fundamental for fulfilling requirements related to the non-functional behavior of a software system such as the quality requirement that response time does not degrade to a point where it is noticeable. Approaches like the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM) combine qualitative analysis heuristics (e.g. scenarios) for one or more quality metrics with quantitative analyses. A quantitative analysis evaluates a single metric such as response time. However, since quality metrics interact with each other, a change in the architecture can affect unpredictably multiple quality metrics.ObjectiveThis paper introduces a quantitative method that determines the impact of a design change on multiple metrics, thus reducing the risks in architecture design. As a proof of concept, the method is applied on a simulation model of transaction processing in client server architecture.MethodFactor analysis is used to unveil latent (i.e. not directly measurable) quality features represented by new variables that reflect architecture-specific correlations between metrics. Separate Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) are then applied to these variables, for interpreting the tradeoffs detected by factor analysis in terms of the quantified metrics.ResultsThe results for the examined transaction processing architecture show three latent quality features, the corresponding groups of strongly correlated quality metrics and the impact of architecture characteristics on the latent quality features.ConclusionThe proposed method is a systematic way for relating the variability of quality metrics and the implied tradeoffs to specific architecture characteristics.     

“Leagile” software development: An experience report analysis of the application of lean approaches in agile software development

In recent years there has been a noticeable shift in attention from those who use agile software development toward lean software development, often labelled as a shift “from agile to lean”. However, the reality may not be as simple or linear as this label implies. To provide a better understanding of lean software development approaches and how they are applied in agile software development, we have examined 30 experience reports published in past agile software conferences in which experiences of applying lean approaches in agile software development were reported. The analysis identified six types of lean application. The results of our study show that lean can be applied in agile processes in different manners for different purposes. Lean concepts, principles and practices are most often used for continuous agile process improvement, with the most recent introduction being the kanban approach, introducing a continuous, flow-based substitute to time-boxed agile processes.     

A replicated survey of software testing practices in the Canadian province of Alberta: What has changed from 2004 to 2009?

Software organizations have typically de-emphasized the importance of software testing. In an earlier study in 2004, our colleagues reported the results of an Alberta-wide regional survey of software testing techniques in practice. Five years after that first study, the authors felt it is time to replicate the survey and analyze what has changed and what not from 2004 to 2009. This study was conducted during the summer of 2009 by surveying software organizations in the Canadian province of Alberta. The survey results reveal important and interesting findings about software testing practices in Alberta, and point out what has changed from 2004 to 2009 and what not. Note that although our study is conducted in the province of Alberta, we have compared the results to few international similar studies, such as the ones conducted in the US, Turkey, Hong Kong and Australia, The study should thus be of interest to all testing professionals world-wide. Among the findings are the followings: (1) almost all companies perform unit and system testing with a slight increase since 2004, (2) automation of unit, integration and systems tests has increased sharply since 2004, (3) more organization are using observations and expert opinion to conduct usability testing, (4) the choices of test-case generation mechanisms have not changed much from 2004, (5) JUnit and IBM Rational tools are the most widely used test tools, (6) Alberta companies still face approximately the same defect-related economic issues as do companies in other jurisdictions, (7) Alberta software firms have improved their test automation capability since 2004, but there is still some room for improvement, and (8) compared to 2004, more companies are spending more effort on pre-release testing.     

Learning–testing process in classroom: An empirical simulation model

This paper presents an empirical micro-simulation model of the teaching and the testing process in the classroom (Programs and sample data are available – the actual names of pupils have been hidden). It is a non-econometric micro-simulation model describing informational behaviors of the pupils, based on the observation of the pupils’ communication behavior during lessons and tests. The representation of the knowledge process is very simplified. However, we tried to study the involvements of individual motivation, capability and relationship with other pupils of each pupil, to compare them to the new-classical (and keynesian) and Austrian information and knowledge theoretical results. It is a first step and future development should concern expectation behaviors and dynamics. This paper aims too to give, we hope so, some criteria of pupils’ rationality in the classroom.     

How oppositional loyalties resulting from producer–user collaborations reduce new product entry: Examples of online games

Instead of technological lock-in effects, oppositional loyalty to a product may emerge from users’ collaborations in the product, which grant consumers emotional experiences with the brand, encourage personal relationships, and provide emotional benefits. Therefore, consumers may limit their allocations of resources to competing new products because they devalue a new offering’s relative product performance and its user and complementary networks. Prior rate of use enhances this devaluating effect, and prior experience deepens the negative effects. In contrast, users with minimal prior experience and low usage rates more easily accept new products. This study tests these predictions in a path analysis with data pertaining to an online game, collected from consumers in cybercafés; the 296 respondents across 191 cybercafés support the hypotheses.     

User experience in safety–critical domains: a survey on motivational orientations and psychological need satisfaction in acute care

Cognition, Technology & Work - The relevance of user experience in safety–critical domains has been questioned and lacks empirical investigation. Based on previous studies examining user...     

Coopetitive relationships in cross-functional software development teams: How to model and measure?

Understanding simultaneous cooperative and competitive (coopetitive) dynamics in cross-functional software development teams is fundamental to the success of software development process. The recent coopetition research is, however, hampered by a lack of conceptual focus, and the corresponding inconsistent treatment of the constructs associated with cross-functional coopetitive relationships. This study conceptualizes and operationalizes the multi-dimensional construct of cross-functional coopetition, and then presents an instrument for measuring this construct. Cross-functional coopetition is conceptualized with 5 distinct and independent constructs; 3 of them are related to cross-functional cooperation, and 2 are associated with cross-functional competition. The data collected from 115 software development project managers in Australia confirms the applicability of the constructs and their measures. This study contributes to the extant literature by providing a consensus on the conceptualization of cross-functional coopetitive behaviors, particularly in multi-party software development teams. The conceptual basis for cross-functional coopetition and its instrument will aid researchers and project managers interested in understanding coopetition in cross-functional collaborative contexts. Research and practical implications are discussed.     

Diagnosing information systems success: importance–performance maps in the health club industry

There is now a growing global leisure industry that includes health, fitness, and sports clubs. Faced with increasing competition, organizations within this sector have turned to information systems (IS) as a means of obtaining competitive advantage. However, complaining of time shortages, lack of expertise, and a shortfall of perceived benefits, management often find conducting post-implementation evaluations of their IS investments problematic.Importance-performance (I–P) maps have been successfully applied in the marketing field for many years where they have been shown to be a simple and effective management tool. However, there is little reported use of I–P maps in the IS field, and this paper puts forward a case for using them in the diagnosis of IS success. This is illustrated in conjunction with an extension of DeLone and McLean’s IS success typology for the UK health club industry.     

Enablers and barriers to the use of ICT in primary schools in Turkey: A comparative study of 2005–2011

The purpose of this study was to reveal barriers encountered by Turkish primary school teachers in the integration of ICT, to propose potential enablers to overcome those barriers, and to compare the current status of ICT integration (in 2011) with the status of ICT integration in 2005. Part of the data for this comparison was gathered in 2005 as part of a doctoral study by Goktas (2006). A survey design was used to investigate the barriers and enablers. Data were collected from 1373 teachers from 52 schools in 39 provinces. The results indicate that ‘lack of hardware’, ‘lack of appropriate software materials’, ‘limitations of hardware’, ‘lack of in-service training’, and ‘lack of technical support’ were the most important barriers. The highest ranked enablers were ‘allocation of more budget’, ‘allocation of specific units for peer support’, ‘allocation of support offices and personnel for teachers’, and ‘offering higher quality pre-service training for ICT’. Other leading enablers were ‘supporting teachers to enable effective ICT use’, ‘having technology plans’, ‘offering higher quality and more quantity of in-service training’, and ‘designing appropriate course content/instructional programs’. Analysis of an independent t-test revealed that most barriers showed significant differences and most enablers showed moderate or low differences between teachers' perceptions of their situation in 2005 and in 2011.     

Strengths and barriers behind the successful agile deployment—insights from the three software intensive companies in Finland

The number of success stories being reported concerning agile software development has led to an increase in interest among industries and research communities. The purpose of this paper is to identify strengths and barriers for ‘successful agile deployment’ in the software companies. This knowledge can benefit software companies planning their current strategy for agile deployment. Analysis of 57 developers, architects, project managers, customers, quality managers, and line and product managers in three case companies identifies 71 strengths and 169 barriers of agile deployment. The analysis revealed the importance of management providing the necessary goals and support for agile development. It also indicated the significance of defining a tailored process model and giving developers the freedom to improve their own agile development process continuously during agile deployment. The identified barriers, strengths and recommendations can be used as a checklist for planning and/or monitoring the effectiveness of agile deployment in software companies. By identifying the barriers and strengths of agile deployment, the paper deepens understanding of this highly relevant but relatively under-researched phenomenon and contributes to the literature on agile deployment and software process improvement.     

Trends in vegetation NDVI from 1 km AVHRR data over Canada for the period 1985–2006

Long‐term changes in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) have been evaluated in several studies but results have not been conclusive due to differences in data processing as well as the length and time of the analysed period. In this research a newly developed 1 km Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite data record for the period 1985–2006 was used to rigorously evaluate NDVI trends over Canada. Furthermore, climate and land cover change as potential causes of observed trends were evaluated in eight sample regions. The AVHRR record was generated using improved geolocation, cloud screening, correction for sun‐sensor viewing geometry, atmospheric correction, and compositing. Results from both AVHRR and Landsat revealed an increasing NDVI trend over northern regions where comparison was possible. Overall, 22% of the vegetated area in Canada was found to have a positive NDVI trend based on the Mann–Kendal test at the 95% confidence level. Of these, 40% were in northern ecozones. The mean absolute difference of NDVI measurements between AVHRR and Landsat data was <7%. When compared with results from other studies, similar trends were found over northern areas, while in southern regions the results were less consistent. Local assessment of potential causes of trends in each region revealed a stronger influence of climate in the north compared to the south. Southern regions with strong positive trends appeared to be most influenced by land cover change.     

Insights from surgeons’ eye-movement data in a virtual simulation surgical training environment: effect of experience level and hand conditions

Today, with the advancements in the eye-tracking technology, it has become possible to follow surgeons’ eye movements while performing surgical tasks. Despite the availability of studies providing a better understanding of surgeons’ eye movements, research in the particular field of endoneurosurgery is very limited. Analysing surgeons’ eye-movement data can provide general insights into how to improve surgical education programmes. In this study, four simulation-based task-oriented endoscopic surgery training scenarios were developed and implemented by 23 surgical residents using three different hand conditions; dominant, non-dominant, and both. The participants’ recorded eye data comprised fixation number, fixation duration, saccade number, saccade duration, pursuit number, pursuit duration, and pupil size. This study has two main contributions: First, it reports on the eye-movement behaviours of surgical residents, demonstrating that novice residents tended to make more fixations and saccades than intermediate residents. They also had a higher fixation duration and followed the objects more frequently compared to the intermediates. Furthermore, hand conditions significantly affected the eye movements of the participants. Based on these results, it can be concluded that eye-movement data can be used to assess the skill levels of surgical residents and would be an important measure to better guide trainees in surgical education programmes. The second contribution of this study is the eye-movement event classifications of 10 different algorithms. Although the algorithms mostly provided similar results, there were a few conflicted values for some classifications, which offers a clue as to how researchers can utilise these algorithms with low sampling frequency eye trackers.     

Universal access in the information Society (2001–2021): knowledge,experience, challenges and new perspectives

Universal Access in the Information Society -     

Development and evaluation of an ergonomic software package for predicting multiple-task human performance and mental workload in human–machine interface design and evaluation

Predicting human performance and mental workload in multiple task situations at an early stage of system design can save a significant amount of time and cost. However, existing modeling tools either can only predict human performance or require users of tools to learn a new programming language. Queueing Network-Model Human Processor (QN-MHP) is a new cognitive architecture for modeling both human performance and mental workload in multiple tasks. This paper describes the development of a Visual Basic Application in Excel (VBA) software package and an illustrative case study to evaluate its effectiveness. The software package has an easy-to-use user interface for QN-MHP that assists users of the modeling tool to simulate a dual task including definition of the tasks and interfaces by clicking buttons to select options and filling texts in a table, with no need to learn a simulation language. It allows the model user to intuitively observe the information processing state of the model during simulation, and conveniently compare the simulated human performance and mental workload for different designs. The illustrative case study showed that naïve users without prior simulation language programming experience can model human performance and mental workload in a complex multitask situation within 3 min; and this software package can save 71% of modeling time and reduce 30% of modeling errors. Further developments of the VBA software package of QN-MHP are also discussed on how to make it a comprehensive proactive ergonomic design and analysis tool.     

Users’ viewpoint of usability and user experience testing procedure - gaining methodological insights in a case of an interactive HbbTV application

We present a novel meta-methodological approach for the user experience and usability methodology procedure evaluation, shown in an example of the user experience and usability study of an interactive HbbTV application. The idea behind this research is not only to evaluate and improve the TV-WEB service but also to gain insights how the participants perceived the whole Ux evaluation procedure itself. The research questions focused mainly on the time complexity (temporal demand) and the frustration level of the TV-WEB evaluation procedure. Additionally the appropriateness of the selected content used, interface and interaction design, and the service impressions and satisfaction/payment related questions was sought. A special questionnaire based on the NASA TLX standard test is presented. The concept has been successfully implemented in several live field trials in three countries (BiH, Serbia and Montenegro). In the user experience and usability study of the service itself more than 150 participants were involved, of those 35 took part in the meta-methodology study. The feedback was quantitatively evaluated on a 7-point Likert scale, with “1” indicating the best positive feedback, “4” neutral/undecided feedback and “7” the most negative feedback. The quantitative average summary results obtained in the three evaluation studies were 1.30 for both the BiH and Serbia test study cases and the score of 1.22 for the test study case in Montenegro. These results show that a great majority of the participants found the whole evaluation procedure time-wise and frustration-wise undemanding, with appropriate content, presentation style and overall attitude towards them. By using this approach it was possible to improve the user experience and usability methodology used, producing more reliable results and providing better user experience in the final version of the product as well as providing a pleasant experience during the testing of the product.