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Six-axis force sensors play an important role in civilian and military fields because of their multifunctionality. In the context of sensor structure design, sensitivity and sensitivity isotropy are often considered. This paper aims to study the possible relationship between the sensitivity/sensitivity isotropy and structural parameters of an 8/4–4 parallel six-axis force sensor. A comprehensive evaluation index and structural optimization design scheme are suggested in the end.

Based on the conditional number of the Jacobian matrix spectral norm, the sensitivity and sensitivity isotropy of the sensor are derived. Orthogonal experiments are used to determine the degree of primary and secondary factors that have a substantial effect on the sensor characteristics. The relationship between the performance indices and the structural parameters is analyzed by the performance atlas method. The comprehensive evaluation index lays the foundation for the structural optimization design of an 8/4–4 parallel six-axis force sensor.

The variation in each performance index of the sensor for each of the structural parameters is analyzed, and the structural parameters of the sensor with the desired performance indices can be easily selected from the performance atlases. A comprehensive performance evaluation index with a target value of 1 is proposed, and the overall influence of the structural parameters on the sensor performance index is investigated. A simulation example shows the feasibility of the proposed evaluation index.

The importance of each structural parameter of the 8/4–4 parallel six-axis force sensor is determined through orthogonal experiments in this paper. Relations among the structural parameters meeting the performance indices are derived and shown in the performance atlases. A comprehensive evaluation index is proposed to analyze the overall sensor performance.

Human–robot collaboration (HRC) is on the rise in a bid for improved flexibility in production cells. In the context of overlapping workspace between a human operator and an industrial robot, the major cause for concern rests on the safety of the former.

In light of recent advances and trends, this paper proposes to implement a monitoring system for the shared workspace HRC, which supplements the robot, to locate the human operator and to ensure that at all times a minimum safe distance is respected by the robot with respect to its human partner. The monitoring system consists of four neural networks, namely, an object detector, two neural networks responsible for assessing the detections and a simple, custom speech recognizer.

It was observed that with due consideration of the production cell, it is possible to create excellent data sets which result in promising performances of the neural networks. Each neural network can be further improved by using its mistakes as examples thrown back in the data set. Thus, the whole monitoring system can achieve a reliable performance.

Success of the proposed framework may lead to any industrial robot being suitable for use in HRC.

This paper proposes a system comprising neural networks in most part, and it looks at a digital representation of the workspace from a different angle. The exclusive use of neural networks is seen as an attempt to propose a system which can be relatively easily deployed in industrial settings as neural networks can be fine-tuned for adjustments.

In the present era of Industry 4.0, the manufacturing automation is moving toward mass production and mass customization through human–robot collaboration. The purpose of this paper is to describe various human–robot collaborative (HRC) techniques and their applicability for various manufacturing methods along with key challenges.

Numerous recent relevant research literature has been analyzed, and various human–robot interaction methods have been identified, and detailed discussions are made on one- and two-way human–robot collaboration.

The challenges in implementing human–robot collaboration for various manufacturing process and the challenges in one- and two-way collaboration between human and robot are found and discussed.

The authors have attempted to classify the HRC techniques and demonstrated the challenges in different modes.

The screw extruder is applied in cement-three-dimensional (3D) printing. The cement paste flow in 3D printing is the typical Herschel–Bulkley fluid. To understand the flow in the channel, the improved lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is proposed.

For Herschel–Bulkley flow, an improved LBM is presented to avoid the poor stability and accuracy. The non-Newtonian effect is regard as a special forcing term. The Poiseuille flow is taken to discuss the detailed process of the method. With the method, the analytical solution and numerical solution are obtained and compared. Then, the effect of the initial yield stress on the numerical solution is both explored by the shear-thickening fluid and the shear-thinning fluid. Moreover, the variations of the relative errors under different lattice nodes and different power-law indexes are analyzed. Finally, the method is applied into the simulation of the flow in the extruder of cement-3D printing.

The results show that the improved method is effective for Herschel–Bulkley fluids, which can simulate the flow in the extruder stably and accurately.

The simulation can contribute to understand the cement paste flow in the screw extruder, which helps to optimize the structure of the extruder in the following periods.

The improve method provide a new way to analyze the flow in the extruder of cement-3D printing. Also, in the past research, LBM for Herschel–Bulkley fluid is ignored, whereas the study can provide the reference for the numerical simulation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of farmland renting-in on planted grain acreage.

A survey data of five counties were analyzed with the two-stage ordinary least squares model.

Households renting-in land trended to plant more maize, and the more land was rented by a household the more maize was planted, while wheat acreage showed non-response to farmland renting-in.

Overall, the analysis suggests that policy makers should be prepared for different changing trends of grain crop acreage across the nation as farmland transfer continues. Future research should pay attention to the effect of farmland transfer on agricultural productivity and rural household income growth.

As the Chinese Government is promoting larger-scale and more mechanized farms as a way of protecting grain security, it is important to understand whether farmland renting-in will reduce planted grain acreage. This study provides empirical evidence showing the answer to that question may differ across different regions and depend on the particular grain crop in question.

This research examined the impacts of diversified income from trading caterpillar fungus on pastoral households' livestock production and income. The specific objectives were to identify the main factors underlying participation in caterpillar fungus trade and to explore the impacts of a diversified income from trading fungus on livestock production activities and income.

Data were collected from a pastoral household survey (n = 503) in five Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures. The authors employed propensity score matching (PSM) procedures to estimate the effects of participation in trading caterpillar fungus.

Pastoral households participating in caterpillar fungus activities maintain smaller herds, sell fewer animals for profit, slaughter more livestock for family consumption and experience fewer livestock deaths compared to nonparticipants. There is also some evidence that pastoral households participating in caterpillar fungus activities have a higher annual income compared to nonparticipants.

A direct measure of grassland degradation was not included due to the data limitation. The estimated average treatment effects could differ under different observed households' characteristics.

This study fills a gap in the literature on the impacts of diversified income on livestock production activities. The authors provide a new perspective on the controversy over the extraction of caterpillar fungus. This study contributes to exploring the dual role of income diversification in addressing poverty and grassland resource degradation for Tibetan pastoral communities.

Drawing on job demands and resources theory and the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, this study aims to investigate the effect of team knowledge complexity on team information sharing and information searching and examine whether team learning goal orientation mediates these effects.

The authors conducted two studies. Study 1 used a field survey study conducted among 374 employees positioned in 68 new product teams. Study 2 used a three-wave online survey study conducted among 208 leaders to investigate the teams they managed.

The findings of the two studies reveal that team knowledge complexity has a positive direct effect on team information sharing and information searching. Furthermore, team learning goal orientation mediates these two relationships.

The findings indicate that team knowledge complexity is generally beneficial for the team information process. Therefore, instead of fearing an increase in the knowledge complexity of the projects, organizations should dare to present challenge demands to team members to enhance their engagement in information processing. Organizations could also pay attention to team member selection during team composition processes. For example, selecting team members with a high level of learning goal orientation is helpful in facilitating team information processing.

Although previous studies have found that knowledge complexity is beneficial for team output, less is known about how knowledge complexity influences team processes. This study clarifies the relationships between team knowledge complexity, information sharing and information searching and examines team learning goal orientation as a vital mediator.

Visitor center plays an important role in the normal operation and sustainable development of scenic spots, especially as a portal image of its management. This paper presents resilience theory for visitor centers to identify some common issues in designing visitor centers in China scenic spots, including the lack of function, loss of architectural characteristics, and difficultly in adapting to changes in the number of visitors with periodic variations. The framework of resilience theory was set from four dimensions, namely, resilience and match in the composition of ontology function, the extended function, integration of buildings into the surrounding environment, and alternative construction technologies and materials. This theory was explained and analyzed with the application of the theory in practice in combination with the design of Mount Hua visitor center. Results showed that resilience theory yields good application effect.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between migration, remittances and agricultural productivity by applying the new economics of labor migration model in the context of north‐west China. The specific objectives are to examine the impacts of rural out‐migration on agricultural productivity in various farming systems, and whether remittances have been reinvested in agriculture.

Cross‐sectional household survey data from three townships were analyzed with the three‐stage least squares (3SLS) regression model.

In multi‐cropping small farming systems, at least in the short run, the loss resulting from losing family labour on lower‐return grain crop production is likely to be offset by the gain from investing in capital‐intensive and profitable cash crop production.

This study provides empirical evidence for the MELM theory. It expands Taylor et al.'s studies by comparing investment behavior and production choices among multiple farm activities, and enriches previous studies by showing that the relation between remittances and agricultural investment depends on the farm activities' profitability.