2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2018
This full-paper relates to research on the effectiveness of GPA thresholding as a predictor of ev... more This full-paper relates to research on the effectiveness of GPA thresholding as a predictor of eventual grade performance in engineering study. Rather than rely on High School grades as a predictor of eventual success in tertiary (ICT-related) engineering, we have adopted a more open-entry model, but require a high performance from the students over their compulsory first year courses in order to progress in engineering study. In this paper we examine whether this is a satisfactory predictor of eventual student success (based on grade performance), or is it that issues such as High-School to University transition unduly negatively influence these grades and lead to a decision not to allow an otherwise capable student to progress. To examine this, we compare student GPAs and graduation rates between a four year Bachelor of Engineering and a three year Bachelor of Science degree which share similar courses. The hypothesis to test is whether students who have been excluded from continu...
Handbook of Research on Synthetic Emotions and Sociable Robotics
The hypothesis that artificial emotion-like mechanisms can improve the adaptive performance of ro... more The hypothesis that artificial emotion-like mechanisms can improve the adaptive performance of robots and intelligent systems has gained considerable support in recent years. To test this hypothesis, a mobile robot navigation system has been developed that employs affect and emotion as adaptation mechanisms. The robot’s emotions can arise from hard-coded interpretations of local stimuli, as well as from learned associations stored in global maps. They are expressed as modulations of planning and control parameters, and also as location-specific biases to path-planning. Our focus is on affective mechanisms that have practical utility rather than aesthetic appeal, so we present an extensive quantitative analysis of the system’s performance in a range of experimental situations.
There isnt a facet of human life that has not been touched and influenced by robots and automatio... more There isnt a facet of human life that has not been touched and influenced by robots and automation. What makes robots and machines versatile is their computational intelligence. While modern intelligent sensors and powerful hardware capabilities have given a huge fillip to the growth of intelligent machines, the progress in the development of algorithms for smart interaction, collaboration and pro-activeness will result in the next quantum jump.This book deals with the recent advancements in design methodologies, algorithms and implementation techniques to incorporate intelligence in robots and automation systems. Several articles deal with navigation, localization and mapping of mobile robots, a problem that engineers and researchers are grappling with all the time. Fuzzy logic, neural networks and neuro-fuzzy based techniques for real world applications have been detailed in a few articles.This edited volume is targeted to present the latest state-of-the-art computational intelligence techniques in Robotics and Automation. It is a compilation of the extended versions of the very best papers selected from the many that were presented at the 5th International Conference on Automation, Robotics and Applications (ICARA 2011) which was held in Wellington, New Zealand from 6-8 December, 2011. Scientists and engineers who work with robots and automation systems will find this book very useful and stimulating.
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 2004
This paper describes the design of a low-cost (below US $2000) autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) in... more This paper describes the design of a low-cost (below US $2000) autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) intended for indoor security applications. The vehicle is highly manoeuvrable, allowing it to navigate around obstacles easily. To succeed in its security application, the AGV is designed to be visually significant, stable (to resist accidental or deliberate tipping), able to operate for extended periods and has the ability to notify a human supervisor should particular situations occur. The AGV possesses sufficient processing power and sensor capability to operate autonomously.
2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2019
The continuous automatic calibration of musical robots is an important step toward enabling them ... more The continuous automatic calibration of musical robots is an important step toward enabling them to create accurate, reliable, and expressive performances. Several attempts have been made to achieve this using external laptops, single-board computers and off-the-shelf hardware, but these solutions have various drawbacks that preclude their use in many musical robotics contexts. This paper presents a new, custom-built embedded DSP system that is capable of up to 32 channels of high quality audio input and output, created to carry out musical information retrieval tasks on the sonic output of musical robots in real time while they are performing. The results of these analyses are continuously fed to musical robot control hardware in order to inform their performance. The design and construction of the circuit board is described, the Musical Information Retrieval (MIR)-based algorithms carried out by the board are outlined, the system’s performance in representative applications are ev...
This paper explores the aesthetic and social values of the noises of modern urban soundscapes and... more This paper explores the aesthetic and social values of the noises of modern urban soundscapes and discusses some strategies for boosting the accessibility and appreciation of works of sound art and experimental music that employ them. A proposed audiovisual installation––entitled complex––is outlined as a practical application of techniques designed to reveal the sonic aesthetics of urban technological noise, primarily through resonification and visualization. This will be achieved sonically and physically, by mapping sonic data collected from New York City soundscape (using the Citygram project) onto customdesigned mechatronic soundsculptures.
Student honesty is a universal issue, however the reasons behind dishonest behaviour are complex ... more Student honesty is a universal issue, however the reasons behind dishonest behaviour are complex and varied. This work in progress presents the development of a culturally focussed, online learning course designed to make students aware of issues surrounding academic integrity. This system has been designed to operate in a Muslim education environment, and attempts to take into account the specific needs, pressures and motivations of the students in this culture. A main, theme centres on the context of how personal academic integrity relates to being a good Muslim in an educational environment. This system is implemented on the university’s learning management system and will be completed as part of a mandatory first year English course.
Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) is a new provider of Engineering in New Zealand and faces... more Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) is a new provider of Engineering in New Zealand and faces numerous challenges. These include a general ignorance of engineering amongst our secondary school students and very strong competition from established providers. Traditional marketing strategies have been unsuccessful in achieving the level of growth our programme requires. In collaboration with the regional polytechnic, Wellington Institute of Technology (WelTec), VUW undertook a major exercise to identify issues relevant to recruitment and retention in the “digital” engineering specializations. This paper considers the recruitment aspect of this project. Demographic studies indicate that our target audience strongly identify with being “geeks”, something that no New Zealand tertiary training institute incorporates into its marketing strategy. In response, a novel website, hard-copy “geek hero” publication and clothing range was created. The publications have been extremely well rece...
Interactivity is a fundamental element of music performance, whether it is amongst performers, th... more Interactivity is a fundamental element of music performance, whether it is amongst performers, the performers and the audience, or the performers and the work itself. Since the era of The League of Automatic Music Composers and The Hub (Gresham-Lancaster 1998), composers, musicians and music technologists have explored the paradigm of computer networks as the medium of interactivity in music systems (Barbosa 2003; Traub 2005; Mills 2010).
Electric motors based on conventional conductive materials such as copper and aluminium are limit... more Electric motors based on conventional conductive materials such as copper and aluminium are limited in efficiency and power density by the resistive losses of these materials. Lighter and more efficient motors are possible when High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) materials are used as there are no resistive losses. Additionally, the high current density that may be supported by these materials enables alternative motor designs which leverage high magnetic fields to remove the requirement for iron components and reduce the overall motor volume. Despite HTS materials exhibiting superconductivity at much higher temperatures than other superconductive materials, cryogenic cooling to below 90 K is still required. Suitable cryocoolers typically have efficiencies below 20%. This unfavorably alters both the specific power and efficiency of HTS based motors when considering the motor as including all the associated hardware required for operation. Previously it has been shown that energizing the superconducting components of a motor wirelessly using a HTS dynamo can reduce the required mass of both the cryogenic refrigeration equipment, and the motor drive electronics. The work presented here investigates the reduction in total fuel burn of a 737 sized turboelectric aircraft that may be achieved when replacing a conventional DC power supply for the HTS motor field coils with a HTS Dynamo DC power supply.
2016 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 2016
This paper outlines and discusses the use of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA), a qualitative ... more This paper outlines and discusses the use of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA), a qualitative approach to investigating discourse. FDA offers a theoretical method which reveals, from the discourse, the various power structures affecting engineering students in their first year. This method has been unexplored in the STEM educational research field, but has been used successfully in psychology, humanities and educational research.
2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2018
This full-paper relates to research on the effectiveness of GPA thresholding as a predictor of ev... more This full-paper relates to research on the effectiveness of GPA thresholding as a predictor of eventual grade performance in engineering study. Rather than rely on High School grades as a predictor of eventual success in tertiary (ICT-related) engineering, we have adopted a more open-entry model, but require a high performance from the students over their compulsory first year courses in order to progress in engineering study. In this paper we examine whether this is a satisfactory predictor of eventual student success (based on grade performance), or is it that issues such as High-School to University transition unduly negatively influence these grades and lead to a decision not to allow an otherwise capable student to progress. To examine this, we compare student GPAs and graduation rates between a four year Bachelor of Engineering and a three year Bachelor of Science degree which share similar courses. The hypothesis to test is whether students who have been excluded from continu...
Handbook of Research on Synthetic Emotions and Sociable Robotics
The hypothesis that artificial emotion-like mechanisms can improve the adaptive performance of ro... more The hypothesis that artificial emotion-like mechanisms can improve the adaptive performance of robots and intelligent systems has gained considerable support in recent years. To test this hypothesis, a mobile robot navigation system has been developed that employs affect and emotion as adaptation mechanisms. The robot’s emotions can arise from hard-coded interpretations of local stimuli, as well as from learned associations stored in global maps. They are expressed as modulations of planning and control parameters, and also as location-specific biases to path-planning. Our focus is on affective mechanisms that have practical utility rather than aesthetic appeal, so we present an extensive quantitative analysis of the system’s performance in a range of experimental situations.
There isnt a facet of human life that has not been touched and influenced by robots and automatio... more There isnt a facet of human life that has not been touched and influenced by robots and automation. What makes robots and machines versatile is their computational intelligence. While modern intelligent sensors and powerful hardware capabilities have given a huge fillip to the growth of intelligent machines, the progress in the development of algorithms for smart interaction, collaboration and pro-activeness will result in the next quantum jump.This book deals with the recent advancements in design methodologies, algorithms and implementation techniques to incorporate intelligence in robots and automation systems. Several articles deal with navigation, localization and mapping of mobile robots, a problem that engineers and researchers are grappling with all the time. Fuzzy logic, neural networks and neuro-fuzzy based techniques for real world applications have been detailed in a few articles.This edited volume is targeted to present the latest state-of-the-art computational intelligence techniques in Robotics and Automation. It is a compilation of the extended versions of the very best papers selected from the many that were presented at the 5th International Conference on Automation, Robotics and Applications (ICARA 2011) which was held in Wellington, New Zealand from 6-8 December, 2011. Scientists and engineers who work with robots and automation systems will find this book very useful and stimulating.
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 2004
This paper describes the design of a low-cost (below US $2000) autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) in... more This paper describes the design of a low-cost (below US $2000) autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) intended for indoor security applications. The vehicle is highly manoeuvrable, allowing it to navigate around obstacles easily. To succeed in its security application, the AGV is designed to be visually significant, stable (to resist accidental or deliberate tipping), able to operate for extended periods and has the ability to notify a human supervisor should particular situations occur. The AGV possesses sufficient processing power and sensor capability to operate autonomously.
2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2019
The continuous automatic calibration of musical robots is an important step toward enabling them ... more The continuous automatic calibration of musical robots is an important step toward enabling them to create accurate, reliable, and expressive performances. Several attempts have been made to achieve this using external laptops, single-board computers and off-the-shelf hardware, but these solutions have various drawbacks that preclude their use in many musical robotics contexts. This paper presents a new, custom-built embedded DSP system that is capable of up to 32 channels of high quality audio input and output, created to carry out musical information retrieval tasks on the sonic output of musical robots in real time while they are performing. The results of these analyses are continuously fed to musical robot control hardware in order to inform their performance. The design and construction of the circuit board is described, the Musical Information Retrieval (MIR)-based algorithms carried out by the board are outlined, the system’s performance in representative applications are ev...
This paper explores the aesthetic and social values of the noises of modern urban soundscapes and... more This paper explores the aesthetic and social values of the noises of modern urban soundscapes and discusses some strategies for boosting the accessibility and appreciation of works of sound art and experimental music that employ them. A proposed audiovisual installation––entitled complex––is outlined as a practical application of techniques designed to reveal the sonic aesthetics of urban technological noise, primarily through resonification and visualization. This will be achieved sonically and physically, by mapping sonic data collected from New York City soundscape (using the Citygram project) onto customdesigned mechatronic soundsculptures.
Student honesty is a universal issue, however the reasons behind dishonest behaviour are complex ... more Student honesty is a universal issue, however the reasons behind dishonest behaviour are complex and varied. This work in progress presents the development of a culturally focussed, online learning course designed to make students aware of issues surrounding academic integrity. This system has been designed to operate in a Muslim education environment, and attempts to take into account the specific needs, pressures and motivations of the students in this culture. A main, theme centres on the context of how personal academic integrity relates to being a good Muslim in an educational environment. This system is implemented on the university’s learning management system and will be completed as part of a mandatory first year English course.
Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) is a new provider of Engineering in New Zealand and faces... more Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) is a new provider of Engineering in New Zealand and faces numerous challenges. These include a general ignorance of engineering amongst our secondary school students and very strong competition from established providers. Traditional marketing strategies have been unsuccessful in achieving the level of growth our programme requires. In collaboration with the regional polytechnic, Wellington Institute of Technology (WelTec), VUW undertook a major exercise to identify issues relevant to recruitment and retention in the “digital” engineering specializations. This paper considers the recruitment aspect of this project. Demographic studies indicate that our target audience strongly identify with being “geeks”, something that no New Zealand tertiary training institute incorporates into its marketing strategy. In response, a novel website, hard-copy “geek hero” publication and clothing range was created. The publications have been extremely well rece...
Interactivity is a fundamental element of music performance, whether it is amongst performers, th... more Interactivity is a fundamental element of music performance, whether it is amongst performers, the performers and the audience, or the performers and the work itself. Since the era of The League of Automatic Music Composers and The Hub (Gresham-Lancaster 1998), composers, musicians and music technologists have explored the paradigm of computer networks as the medium of interactivity in music systems (Barbosa 2003; Traub 2005; Mills 2010).
Electric motors based on conventional conductive materials such as copper and aluminium are limit... more Electric motors based on conventional conductive materials such as copper and aluminium are limited in efficiency and power density by the resistive losses of these materials. Lighter and more efficient motors are possible when High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) materials are used as there are no resistive losses. Additionally, the high current density that may be supported by these materials enables alternative motor designs which leverage high magnetic fields to remove the requirement for iron components and reduce the overall motor volume. Despite HTS materials exhibiting superconductivity at much higher temperatures than other superconductive materials, cryogenic cooling to below 90 K is still required. Suitable cryocoolers typically have efficiencies below 20%. This unfavorably alters both the specific power and efficiency of HTS based motors when considering the motor as including all the associated hardware required for operation. Previously it has been shown that energizing the superconducting components of a motor wirelessly using a HTS dynamo can reduce the required mass of both the cryogenic refrigeration equipment, and the motor drive electronics. The work presented here investigates the reduction in total fuel burn of a 737 sized turboelectric aircraft that may be achieved when replacing a conventional DC power supply for the HTS motor field coils with a HTS Dynamo DC power supply.
2016 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 2016
This paper outlines and discusses the use of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA), a qualitative ... more This paper outlines and discusses the use of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA), a qualitative approach to investigating discourse. FDA offers a theoretical method which reveals, from the discourse, the various power structures affecting engineering students in their first year. This method has been unexplored in the STEM educational research field, but has been used successfully in psychology, humanities and educational research.
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