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This paper aims to provide a simple and cheap calibration method to improve the odometry accuracy and to present an alternative method for the control of the path produced by an already existed path planning method.

Through the integration of systematic odometry errors the robot's odometry parameters are estimated and through the replacement of a caster with an omniwheel the unmodeled sources of odometry errors are removed. The control of the paths shape is achieved through the definition of intermediate points and robots velocity at these points.

The paper finds that the odometry calibration method improves significantly odometry accuracy. Caster and omniwheel performance depends on the paths characteristics and on their quality. The use of intermediate points offers a very good control on the paths' shape.

The paper encourages the manufacturers of casters and omniwheels to improve their quality. The described path planning method inevitably halts the robot at certain points. Further research must be done to avoid this drawback.

Odometry calibration has become a simple procedure and can be easily implemented by robot manufacturers or researchers to improve odometry accuracy.

The odometry calibration method significantly reduces systematic odometry errors and makes odometry reliable apart from cheap. The influence of caster and omniwheel to odometry is examined along with the influence of better controlled path shape.

This paper aims to clarify that the link between Michael Polanyi’s tacit knowledge theory and the field of knowledge management research does not withstand in-depth analysis. Second, the paper suggests a way to emerge from the ambiguity that unavoidably results from using the tacit knowledge concept in knowledge management studies.

The paper begins with an analysis of the tacit knowledge theories developed by Polanyi, by cognitive psychologists and by knowledge management scholars. It goes on to formulate a new conceptual framework of tacit knowledge.

This proposal consists in assuming that the terms “unconscious” and “tacit” are not interchangeable and, consequently, redefining the epistemological profile of knowledge management theory so as to acknowledge the existence of two planes of analysis. One is occupied by the process through which individuals gain knowledge, or the knowing process, which may be unconscious or conscious. The other contains the dichotomy between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge, where the two terms indicate two alternative states that only consciously developed knowledge can adopt.

The paper provides support for the two-planes idea by referring to contributions from various disciplines, and particularly from cognitive psychology studies concerned with unconscious knowledge; a more thorough and extensive review would be needed, however, to fully demonstrate the proposal.

Distinguishing between two planes of analysis makes it possible to unveil the mystery of tacit knowledge.