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A new type of pneumatic parts feeding systems has been developed comprising a drum hopper, a jet inducer and a cyclone. A key feature of the system is the cyclone which, by means of the circulating streams, can correctly orientate parts.

This paper describes the design of a scalable bio‐mimetic framework that addresses several key issues of autonomous agents in the functional management domain of complex Ubiquitous Service‐Oriented Networks.We propose an autonomous network service management platform ‐ SwarmingNet, which is motivated by observations of the swarm intelligence in biological systems (e.g., Termite, Ant/Bees colonies, or Locusts ). In this SwarmingNet architecture, the required network service processes are implemented by a group of highly diverse and autonomic objects. These objects are called TeleService Solons (TSSs) as elements of TeleService Holons (TSHs), analoguous to individual insects as members of the whole colony. A single TSS is only able to pursue simple behaviors and interactions with local neighbors, on the contrary, a group of TSSs have the capabilities of fulfilling the complex tasks relating to service discovery and service activation.We simulate a service configuration process for a Multimedia Messaging Service, and a performance comparison between the bio‐agents and normal agents is analyzed. Finally, we conclude that through bio‐swarming intelligence behaviors, this infrastructure develops the enhanced self‐X capabilities which give IP networks advantages of instinctive compatibility, efficiency and scalability.

Sensors considerably increase the new applications of industrial robots. Assembly utilizations exist in the fields of part loading, the supervision of the gripping and part mating process, and tolerance compensation as well as the testing and checking of the assembly job. A couple of years ago sensor applications in assembly with industrial robots existed only in research laboratories and development institutions. Nowadays, industry cannot refuse to use them. Improvements on sensorics such as faster data processing and lower costs, as well as higher accuracies in measuring and a more favourable rate to price and efficiency, allow sensor guided robots in assembly with technical and economical significance. Assembly systems with industrial robots demand high flexibility, process supervision and control to increase output quality, and require manifold sensor utilizations.

OVER the past twenty years, industrial robots have become increasingly task‐specific, moving away from the original concept of ‘steel collar’ worker, or ‘universal automation’. In terms of tasks or applications, robots can be divided into three broad groups, which also approximate to their chronological development:

The problems of pattern cutting as applied to flexible elastic mesh fabrics (lace) are described within the context of the total manufacturing process. While the design and knitting stages of lace manufacture are highly computerised, providing associated benefits, the cutting room operates with conventional, slow, labour intensive machinery, leading to substantial processing bottlenecks and dependent costs. A new system is presented which uses machine vision to determine the required cutting path on the lace fabric in real‐time via sophisticated, yet high speed, image processing algorithms. The determined cutting path data are used to direct a high speed CO₂ laser beam to the correct cutting point with beam velocities of typically 6 m/sec. Simultaneous dual edge cutting is now possible using this new system, leading to lace throughput being increased by a factor of ten typically, with the possibility of processing more sophisticated designs and achieving higher cut edge quality.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical historical analysis of the business (mis)behaviors and influencing factors that discourage enduring cooperation between principals and agents, to introduce strategies that embrace the social values, economic motivation and institutional designs historically adopted to curtail dishonest acts in international business and to inform an improved principal–agent theory that reflects principal–agent reciprocity as shaped by social, political, cultural, economic, strategic and ideological forces

The critical historical research method is used to analyze Chinese compradors and the foreign companies they served in pre-1949 China.

Business practitioners can extend orthodox principal–agent theory by scrutinizing the complex interactions between local agents and foreign companies. Instead of agents pursuing their economic interests exclusively, as posited by principal–agent theory, they also may pursue principal-shared interests (as suggested by stewardship theory) because of social norms and cultural values that can affect business-related choices and the social bonds built between principals and agents.

The behaviors of compradors and foreign companies in pre-1949 China suggest international business practices for shaping social bonds between principals and agents and foreign principals’ creative efforts to enhance shared interests with local agents.

Understanding principal–agent theory’s limitations can help international management scholars and practitioners mitigate transaction partners’ dishonest acts.

A critical historical analysis of intermediary businesspeople’s (mis)behavior in pre-1949 (1840–1949) China can inform the generalizability of principal–agent theory and contemporary business strategies for minimizing agents’ dishonest acts.