Automation of work processes has become a central aspect of increasing business competitiveness, effectiveness and quality. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a new technology that can be used for this. It is a relatively new technology that, through a defined workflow, performs the tasks instead of a person. The RPA technology does not require little integration to interact with multiple systems through the interface, in the same way a person would. Organizations in public sector, like municipalities are today facing increasing challenges and need to change the way they are working, to keep up with the new technologies, and make the most out of scarce resources. Through a qualitative study, we have investigated what barriers and enablers small municipalities have to be ready for when considering RPA implementation. To collect empirical data, we performed nine semi-structured interviews with participants from four small municipalities, which had not implemented RPA yet and with one large municipality who is already using RPA today. The analysis of this study identifies the barriers and enablers in small municipalities that define their digital maturity to implement RPA. These barriers and enablers were categorized in to four themes: digital maturity, digital competence, time and resources and interest and strategic mandate.

Automation recently implemented for some and awaiting to be implemented for others is set to revolutionize the field of accounting, as well as the roles and responsibilities of those who work in it. This study will present and analyze the impacts of current emerging technologies on the accounting profession through first-hand interviews with current accounting professionals. Secondary data obtained will provide the reader with the proper context and background of these technologies, while the primary data acquired from the interviews will explain the implications such technologies will have or are currently having in their respective companies/firms. The results of this study are meant to further inform, educate, and provide clarity as to what current or aspiring accounting professionals can expect as they venture into a transformed accounting landscape.

Heat shrink tubing is used to insulate wire conductors, protect wires, and to create cable entry seals in wire harnessing industries. Performing this sensitive process manually is time consuming, the results are strongly dependent on the operator’s expertise, and the process presents safety concerns. Alternatively, automating the process minimizes the operators’ direct interaction, decreases the production cost over the long term, and improves quantitative and qualitative production indicators dramatically. This thesis introduces the automation of a heat shrink tubing prototype machine that benefits the wire harnessing industry. The prototype consists of an instrumented heat chamber on a linear positioning system, and is fitted with two heat guns. The chamber design allows for the directing of hot air from the heat guns onto the wire harness uniformly through radially-distributed channels. The linear positioning system is designed to move the heat chamber along the wire harness as the proper shrinkage temperature level is reached. Heat exposure time as a major factor in the heat shrink tubing process can be governed by controlling the linear speed of the heat chamber. A control unit manages the actuator position continuously by measuring the chamber’s speed and temperature. A model-based design approach is followed to design and test the controller, and MATLAB/Simulink is used as the simulation environment. A programmable logic controller is selected as the controller implementation platform. The control unit performance is examined and its responses follow the simulation results with adequate accuracy.

<p> </p> <p>This work proposes a proof of concept along with a prototype of a multi-agent autonomous drone system that can be used to detect, and capture a intruding adversarial drone. The functional Counter Unmanned Aerial System (CUAS) prototype is used to convey the feasibility of a persistent multi-agent aerial protection and apprehension system by demonstrating important features of the mission through both simulation and field testing.<br> </p> <p> </p>

This report includes research into how to automate a small scale system for hydroponics. Hydroponics is a growing technique which features a soil-less environment were the plants roots are exposed to a nutrient-enriched water solution. The research focused mainly on how to regulate the pH and the level of nutrient in the water solvent and finding a system to automate that process. In the research fully grown basil plants were used as test specimens, with the plants roots submerged in a water solvent. The water solvent had sensors that were connected to a micro controller making it possible to monitor the presence of nutrients and pH in the solvent. If the micro controller deemed that the pH and/or the nutrient level was too high or too low, the micro controller would adjust the solvent by activating pumps adding pH down buffer solution and/or nutrient solution to the solvent. The research proved that a way to automate a small scale hydroponics system is by building a computerized system consisting of: • Micro controller. • pH sensor. •EC sensor (to measure nutrient level in solvent). • Temperature sensor. • Fluid pumps connected to pH- and nutrient reservoirs / I denna rapport följer en forskning om hur ett system för hydroponics kan automatiseras. Hydroponics är en odlingsteknik som utesluter nyttjandet av jord. Istället får plantorna näring och vatten via en näringsrik vattenlösning som dess rötter är i kontakt med. Forskningen fokuserade huvudsakligen på hur man reglerar pH och nivån av näringsämnen i en vattenlösning och skapa ett system för att automatisera denna processen. I undersökningen användes fullvuxna basilikaväxter som prover med plantornas rötter nedsänkta i en vattenlösning. Vattenlösningen hade sensorer som var anslutna till en mikrostyrenhet som gjorde det möjligt att övervaka nivån av näringsämnen och pH i vattenlösningen.  Om mikrokontrollen ansåg att pH- och/eller nivån av näringsämnen var felaktig så skulle mikrostyrenheten justera vattenlösningen. Detta skedde genom att mikrostyrenheten aktiverade vätskepumpar som tilsatte pH-buffer och/eller näringslösning. Forskningen visade att ett sätt att automatisera ett hydroponicsystem är att bygga ett datoriserat system som består utav: mikrostyrenhet. pH mätare. EC mätare (används för att mäta näringsnivån i vattenlösningen). Temperaturmätare. Vätskepumpar anslutna till behållare inehållandes pH- och näringslösning.

The number of people working together in repositories grows every day. With increasing activity and interaction in a repository the amount of work required to maintain high quality and productivity is a problem. Automating workflows is a solution many developers lean towards in order to handle the problem but the effects of workflow automation is not yet determined enough to say that it actually helps. Based on GitHub’s workflow automation tool, GitHub Actions, this study looks at the effects of workflow automation by analysing the amount and speed of work in repositories on GitHub. To further understand the effects this study looks at the impact of the number of people interacting with a repository on the speed in which developers work. This study performs a statistical analysis on the difference between repositories that use workflow automation and those that do not to further increase knowledge of developers so that they can make informed decisions. Analysis on the effects of workflow automation shows that repositories that use it have an increased amount of committed code, more pull requests, uses issues more, faster pull request closure, and faster issue closure rates. In general repositories using workflow automation have more stars and contributors than those without. Analysis of the impact of the number of contributors show that usage of workflow automation increases with contributors. The study concludes that further research is required to determine if workflow automation is the causing factor of this or the implementation of workflow automation is an effect of increased activity in repositories.

Quality control is a necessity when it comes to automating a biological lab with the help of robotics. Two major quality control objectives are targeted by the research group PharmBio at Uppsala University: (1) barcode recognition and decoding, and (2) determining the position and orientation of microplates relative the gripper at the end of an industrial robot arm. In order to achieve these objectives, a hardware package with a camera and microcomputer has been designed and built, which can be attached next to the gripper. In addition to the hardware solution, a software stack has been developed and implemented which utilizes the camera and microcomputer to capture digital images. These images are enhanced and processed using machine vision software on the microcomputer, after which the final generated data is sent to an external system for further handling. The final system consisting of integrated hardware and software is capable of achieving both goals: barcode recognition and plate pose determination. However, due to changes in the group’s project plan during the current Master’s project, final implementation of the plate pose determination software remains as future work for a later version. / Kvalitetskontroll är en nödvändighet när det gäller automatiseringen av ett biologiskt lab med hjälp av robotik. Forskargruppen PharmBio vid Uppsala universitet har två huvudsakliga mål gällande kvalitetskontroll: (1) igenkänning och avläsning av streckkoder, och (2) fastställandet av position och riktning av en mikrotiterplatta relativt en gripklo på änden av en robotarm. För att uppnå dessa mål har en enhet innehållandes en kamera och enkortsdator designats och byggts, tänkt att fästas intill gripklon. Utöver denna enhet har ett mjukvarusystem som använder kameran och datorn för att ta bilder utvecklats och implementerats. Dessa bilder behandlas med hjälp av machine vision-mjukvara på enkortsdatorn innan framtagen data skickas vidare till ett externt datorsystem för ytterligare hantering. Det slutgiltiga systemet bestående av integrerad hård- och mjukvara är kapabel att uppnå båda projektmål: streckkodsavläsning och avgöra position/riktning hos en mikrotiterplatta. På grund av ändrad planering hos forskargruppen under arbetets gång kommer dock implementation av mjukvaran framtagen för positions- och riktningsigenkänning dröja till en senare version av projektet.

The role of job automation technology within the financial services sector has gained prominence recent years. Decision-makers are faced with questions from the external and internal environment relating to the future of work and career outlook of human capital. While the benefits of job automation are undoubtedly a key driver towards adopting this technology, ethical questions on responsible and ethical leadership have been put under a lens so as to understand what this means for employees within the financial sector. The study explores the ethical considerations made by decision-makers within the financial services sector in South Africa in relation to the employees disrupted by job automation adoption. The findings of this qualitative study were obtained through eighteen semi-structured interviews with decision-makers from the financial services sector and consulting firms with exposure to the financial services industry. The study found that the intent of job automation technology adoption goals coupled with the predominant mindset of decision makers was influenced the nature of considerations made decision makers. These consideration categories were largely aligned to the extant literature and the study contributed to the business ethics domain by sharing specific considerations made by decision makers in industry. Communication, transitions services, change management, shared value framing, empowerment through custodianship, an analysis of transferable skills and skills profiling were the main emergent findings found in the study. / Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

This work proposed a new automated hazard identification (AHI) approach for Pluge&amp;Produce systems. After going through related standards and research works, the required inputs for automated hazard identification were determined. Then, software was presented to demonstrate using these inputs to perform AHI. This software can identify the resource and the emergent hazards. A new approach for identifying the emerging hazards was proposed.This approach uses the concepts of skill types and lookup tables to cover the wide variety of possible hazards when resources work together. Then display all identified hazards in a Hazard Identification Table (HIT). The proposed HIT is designed to support the persons working in risk reduction by drastically reducing the time needed for hazard identification and preparing them to proceed to the next steps in risk analyses.

With the continuously growing importance of technological development and automation, it is vital to separate the wheat from the chaff and distinguish the effective automation from the lesser. Previous economic research typically investigates automation on a sector or national level. I instead focus on the micro-level effects of a specific setting by investigating the effects of introducing Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the financial aid operation in the Swedish municipality Ronneby, initiated in 2019. Using a Synthetic Control Method (SCM) with yearly municipal level data, I find a reduction in Ronneby’s application duration for financial aid. The application duration estimates are noisy but robust, unanimous, and economically significant. I also investigate Ronneby's financial aid effects, finding no significant results. The share of households receiving aid in Ronneby displays an initial increase, followed by an equally sized fall at the end of the observation window. I conjecture that this movement could stem from the digitalized applications and a delay caused by the pandemic.