Guangbing Zhou, Jing Luo, Shugong Xu, Shunqing Zhang, Shige Meng and Kui Xiang
Indoor localization is a key tool for robot navigation in indoor environments. Traditionally, robot navigation depends on one sensor to perform autonomous localization. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Indoor localization is a key tool for robot navigation in indoor environments. Traditionally, robot navigation depends on one sensor to perform autonomous localization. This paper aims to enhance the navigation performance of mobile robots, a multiple data fusion (MDF) method is proposed for indoor environments.
Design/methodology/approach
Here, multiple sensor data i.e. collected information of inertial measurement unit, odometer and laser radar, are used. Then, an extended Kalman filter (EKF) is used to incorporate these multiple data and the mobile robot can perform autonomous localization according to the proposed EKF-based MDF method in complex indoor environments.
Findings
The proposed method has experimentally been verified in the different indoor environments, i.e. office, passageway and exhibition hall. Experimental results show that the EKF-based MDF method can achieve the best localization performance and robustness in the process of navigation.
Originality/value
Indoor localization precision is mostly related to the collected data from multiple sensors. The proposed method can incorporate these collected data reasonably and can guide the mobile robot to perform autonomous navigation (AN) in indoor environments. Therefore, the output of this paper would be used for AN in complex and unknown indoor environments.
Details
Keywords
Arshad Ahmad, Chong Feng, Shi Ge and Abdallah Yousif
Software developers extensively use stack overflow (SO) for knowledge sharing on software development. Thus, software engineering researchers have started mining the…
Abstract
Purpose
Software developers extensively use stack overflow (SO) for knowledge sharing on software development. Thus, software engineering researchers have started mining the structured/unstructured data present in certain software repositories including the Q&A software developer community SO, with the aim to improve software development. The purpose of this paper is show that how academics/practitioners can get benefit from the valuable user-generated content shared on various online social networks, specifically from Q&A community SO for software development.
Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive literature review was conducted and 166 research papers on SO were categorized about software development from the inception of SO till June 2016.
Findings
Most of the studies revolve around a limited number of software development tasks; approximately 70 percent of the papers used millions of posts data, applied basic machine learning methods, and conducted investigations semi-automatically and quantitative studies. Thus, future research should focus on the overcoming existing identified challenges and gaps.
Practical implications
The work on SO is classified into two main categories; “SO design and usage” and “SO content applications.” These categories not only give insights to Q&A forum providers about the shortcomings in design and usage of such forums but also provide ways to overcome them in future. It also enables software developers to exploit such forums for the identified under-utilized tasks of software development.
Originality/value
The study is the first of its kind to explore the work on SO about software development and makes an original contribution by presenting a comprehensive review, design/usage shortcomings of Q&A sites, and future research challenges.
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Examines the determinants of International Joint Venture marketing performance in Thailand. Uses the results from a survey of 1047 Thai‐foreign IJVs in Thailand from firms that…
Abstract
Examines the determinants of International Joint Venture marketing performance in Thailand. Uses the results from a survey of 1047 Thai‐foreign IJVs in Thailand from firms that were mainly engaged in agriculture, metal working, electrical and chemical industries. Applies exploratory factor analysis and discriminant analysis to identify these critical determinants as market characteristics, conflict, commitment, marketing orientation and organisational control.
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Qi Wei and Chris Rowley
Pay for performance has been studied in Western nations, but much less so in China and its non‐public enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current…
Abstract
Purpose
Pay for performance has been studied in Western nations, but much less so in China and its non‐public enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current situation of pay for performance in China's non‐public firms, specifically the importance of pay for performance in the current pay system and reasons for adopting pay for performance plans by the management.
Design/methodology/approach
A multi‐case study of non‐public sector, knowledge intensive firms based in Shanghai, China is presented. In total, 12 private‐owned, joint ventures and multinational companies from pharmaceutical, information technology and investment industries are included.
Findings
This paper explores that pay for performance has been widely used in non‐public sector as an important component of the employee pay mix. Performance also plays a role as a key norm in employee pay determinant plans. Three major factors are identified as reasons for management to apply pay for performance plans. The first concerns external factors – market practices/best practices; while the other two factors are internal reasons – the need to attract and retain good performers as well as the need to improve employee performance.
Originality/value
This paper discusses the content and context changes of pay for performance practices in China after the economic reforms in 1978 to present. It is now evident that Chinese firms are becoming much more receptive to performance‐oriented rewards.