Ryo Kohsaka, Yoshinori Fujihira and Yuta Uchiyama
Biomimetics are expected to contribute to sustainable environmental management; however, there has been no exploration of industry perceptions by using empirical data. This study…
Abstract
Purpose
Biomimetics are expected to contribute to sustainable environmental management; however, there has been no exploration of industry perceptions by using empirical data. This study aims to identify the trends and perceptions of biomimetics. The industrial sectors in Japan and international patent application trends are analyzed.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey to identify the perceptions of staff members in Japanese private companies (n = 276) was conducted. Japan is an emerging country in terms of the social implementation of biomimetics, and this paper can provide insights into other such countries.
Findings
It is identified that the strength of connections to biomimetics differs across industrial sectors. The respondents from companies that use nanoscale biomimetics tend to have the knowledge of, and experience in, biomimetics. Regarding the overall understanding of patent applications, Japanese private company employees require knowledge of patent application trends and country rankings as potential factors influencing the development of biomimetics.
Social implications
Knowledge transfer and sharing of experience among engineers and researchers of nanoscale technologies and urban scales are necessary to facilitate biomimetic advancement.
Originality/value
The results of the first survey and an analysis of the perceptions of staff members in private companies in Japan are provided to show the challenges in the social implementation of biomimetics. The results can be referred to for the social implementation of biomimetics in emerging countries. The method of this study can be applied to an international comparative analysis in future research.
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Thanasis Kizos, Ryo Kohsaka, Marianne Penker, Cinzia Piatti, Christian Reinhard Vogl and Yuta Uchiyama
Place-based foodstuffs have gained salience in markets worldwide and geographical indication (GI) products are prominent examples. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the…
Abstract
Purpose
Place-based foodstuffs have gained salience in markets worldwide and geographical indication (GI) products are prominent examples. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the governance (formal and informal institutions) of the European and Japanese GI schemes, discuss the variety of procedures of implementing the features of the governance system (inclusion and exclusion of actors) for six GI cases and reflect on future GI governance.
Design/methodology/approach
The criteria for assessing the six cases were descriptive and analytical and the information and data come from official documents, literature (scientific and “grey”), interviews, observations and personal communications with key-informants of the GI systems. Three of the cases are categorized as “failures” and are included to provide more insights on the diverse dynamics of GI systems.
Findings
Registration of GIs seems to be a process rather than a single step, requesting coordination and consensus and an interplay between internal and external actors. “Success” and “failure” are relative and related to self-governance processes and the openness of the social system of the GI to establish transparency on inclusion and exclusion. GI systems require constant management and re-definition of production quality or geographical boundaries to adapt to market, climate or technological change.
Originality/value
The paper introduces GI systems categorized as “failures” (either products that did not register as GIs in the end or did register but failed to keep the registration) which provides more insights on how to design and manage complex GI systems.
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Weina Chen, Qinghua Zeng, Jianye Liu and Huizhe Wang
The purpose of this paper is to propose a seamless autonomous navigation method based on the motion constraint of the mobile robot, which is able to meet the practical need of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a seamless autonomous navigation method based on the motion constraint of the mobile robot, which is able to meet the practical need of maintaining the navigation accuracy during global positioning system (GPS) outages.
Design/methodology/approach
The seamless method uses the motion constraint of the mobile robot to establish the filter model of the system, in which the virtual observation about the speed is used to overcome the shortage of the navigation accuracy during GPS outages. The corresponding motion constraint model of the mobile robot is established. The proposed seamless navigation scheme includes two parts: the micro inertial navigation system (MINS)/GPS-integrated filter model and the motion constraint filter model. When the satellite signals are good, the system works on the MINS/GPS-integrated mode. If some obstacles block the GPS signals, the motion constraint measurement equation will be effective so as to improve the navigation accuracy of the mobile robot.
Findings
Three different vehicle tests of the mobile robot show that the seamless navigation method can overcome the shortage of the navigation accuracy during GPS outages, so as to improve the navigation performance in practical applications.
Originality/value
A seamless navigation system based on the motion constraint of the mobile robot is proposed to overcome the shortage of the navigation accuracy during GPS outages, thus improving the adaptability of the robot navigation.
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Jing Bai, Yuchang Zhang, Xiansheng Qin, Zhanxi Wang and Chen Zheng
The purpose of this paper is to present a visual detection approach to predict the poses of target objects placed in arbitrary positions before completing the corresponding tasks…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a visual detection approach to predict the poses of target objects placed in arbitrary positions before completing the corresponding tasks in mobile robotic manufacturing systems.
Design/methodology/approach
A hybrid visual detection approach that combines monocular vision and laser ranging is proposed based on an eye-in-hand vision system. The laser displacement sensor is adopted to achieve normal alignment for an arbitrary plane and obtain depth information. The monocular camera measures the two-dimensional image information. In addition, a robot hand-eye relationship calibration method is presented in this paper.
Findings
First, a hybrid visual detection approach for mobile robotic manufacturing systems is proposed. This detection approach is based on an eye-in-hand vision system consisting of one monocular camera and three laser displacement sensors and it can achieve normal alignment for an arbitrary plane and spatial positioning of the workpiece. Second, based on this vision system, a robot hand-eye relationship calibration method is presented and it was successfully applied to a mobile robotic manufacturing system designed by the authors’ team. As a result, the relationship between the workpiece coordinate system and the end-effector coordinate system could be established accurately.
Practical implications
This approach can quickly and accurately establish the relationship between the coordinate system of the workpiece and that of the end-effector. The normal alignment accuracy of the hand-eye vision system was less than 0.5° and the spatial positioning accuracy could reach 0.5 mm.
Originality/value
This approach can achieve normal alignment for arbitrary planes and spatial positioning of the workpiece and it can quickly establish the pose relationship between the workpiece and end-effector coordinate systems. Moreover, the proposed approach can significantly improve the work efficiency, flexibility and intelligence of mobile robotic manufacturing systems.