Thesis (doctoral)--Technische Universiteit Delft, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-190).

Thesis (doctoral)--Technische Universiteit Delft, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-190).

Ce travail de recherche présente des concepts généraux pour l'évaluation de la performance des environnements de réalité virtuelle qui sont pertinents pour l'activité de conception des produits manufacturés. De plus il, vise à présenter aussi le contexte de la recherche pour l'industrie automobile thaïlandaise, car cette thèse soulaite elevelopper de nouvelles connaissances au profit de l'économie thaïlandaise. Cette recherche couve plusieurs contextes concernant l'interaction homme machine mais aussi l'évaluation de la réalité virtuel pour dans les secteurs industriels et éducatifs. L'état de l'art pertinent pour cette recherche comprend les thématiques: interface utilisateur, les problèmes liés aux facteurs humains, mais aussi l'évaluation de l'utilisabilité, le souhait ici est d'aller plus loin vers l'évaluation de l'utilité des système realité virtuelle. Nous devons identifier des critères abstraits d'évaluation dont, l'affordance, l'ergonomie, l'intuitivité, la tangibilité et la fatigue qu'implique ces environnement. Cette évaluation de l'environnement de réalité virtuelle nécessite le développement el' une method adapté à ces critères. Nous sommes spécifiquement intéressé par les étapes de conception ou de préparation de la fabrication, et plus particulièrement dus les activités d'assemblage et de simulation de mouvements. La conception d'un environnement de réalité virtuelle et la mise en œuvre d'une application informatique qui soutient l'évaluation de ces activités sont présentées. L'objectif principal d'une telle application reste l'évaluation de la performance des environnements de réalité virtuelle pour soutenir les tâches des concepteurs et des ingénieurs.Cette recherche a conduit à deux expériences: la première pour valider l'évaluation et la comparaison de la performance d'un environnement de realité virtuel par l'utilisation de capteurs de base mesmont la complétude de la tâche, sa durée et l'instabilité des gestes de l'utilisateur. La tâche testée connect ne l'assemblage de vis permettant l'analyse des mouvements de base tels que la translation, la rotation, l'orientation et l'insertion dans les alésages. Nous avons mis en œuvre l'expérience sur quatre environnements et avons invité 40 participants à notre protocole expérimental. La deuxième expérience a été organisée autour d'une simulation de mécanisme de came à barillet qui fonctionne avec un seul mouvement de rotation mais qui fournit une trajectoire 3D de complexe. Les experts en conception peuvent avoir des difficultés à anticiper le comportement de ce système. Ils éprouvent généralement des difficultés lors du réglage des paramètres de conception pour s'assurer que le mécanisme fonctionne bien. On étudie donc la capacité de la réalité virtuelle à surpasser ces difficultés. Si cette capacité est démontrée, il est également prévu d'évaluer et de comparer les performances du système d'environnement de la réalité virtuelle par l'utilisation d'une technique d'évaluation abstraite de haut niveau associée aux capteurs de bas niveau. Trente participants ont été impliqués dans cette expérience où les deux capteurs de base ont été capturés et des critères de haut niveau ont été évalués via un questionnaire. Encore une fois, les quatre environnements, y compris la stéréoscopie ou le dispositif haptique, ont été utilisés pour établir des comparaisons à l'égard de cette nouvelle tâche. / The aim of this research introduces general concepts for performance assessment of virtual reality environments which are relevant to the design activity of manufactured products. Moreover, it aims to present also the context of the research respect to the Thai automotive industry, because this thesis expect to build new knowledge for the benefit of Thailand economy. This research covers several contexts of Human-Computer Interaction research as well as evolution of the VR assessment in the industrial and educational sector. The state of the art with direct relevance for the current research includes: user interface, human factor issues but also usability assessment but the wish here is to go a step further towards utility assessment. This research focuses on abstract level assessment criteria including: affordance, ergonomics, intuitiveness, tangibility, and tiredness assessments. We propose and analyse an assessment method of virtual reality for given activities. We are specifically concerned by activities involved at design stage or at manufacturing preparation stage and we have a deep focus on assembly activity and motion simulation. The design of a virtual reality environment and the implementation of a computer application that supports the evaluation of these activities are presented. The main objective of such application remains the assessment of the performance of virtual reality environments to support the tasks of designers and engineers.This research consists of two main activities: The first experience to validate the evaluation and comparison of the performance of the VRES by the use of low basic sensors consisting of docking quality, task duration, and gesture instability sensor. The experimental task is a set of simple screw assemblies allowing the analysis of the basic movements such as translation, rotation, orientation, and insertion into the holes. We have implemented the experiment on four environments and invited 40 participants to our experiment protocol. The second experience was thus organized around a barrel cam mechanism simulation which is operated with a single rotation motion but which provides a complex cam 3D trajectory. Even design experts may have some difficulties to anticipate the behaviour of this system. They usually experience difficulties when tuning design parameters to ensure that the mechanism is working well. It is thus investigated virtual reality capacity to overpass these difficulties. If this capacity is demonstrated, it is also expected to evaluate and compare the performance of the virtual reality environment system by the use of high level abstract assessment technique combined with low level sensors. Thirty participants have been involved in an experience where both basic sensors and high level assessment criteria were captured. Four virtual reality environments including either stereoscopy or haptic force-feedback device were compared respect to a given task.

La mutualisation des entrepôts est l’une des approches de la logistique collaborative récemment initiée par différents acteurs afin d’améliorer la performance des chaînes logistiques. Les exigences de la grande distribution et l’augmentation des coûts logistiques relatifs aux activités d’entreposage et de transport obligent les entreprises à revoir leurs stratégies de distribution. S’inscrivant dans un paradigme post-positiviste, cette thèse permet de répondre à deux principales questions de recherche issues d’une revue de littérature sur la logistique collaborative : quelles sont les caractéristiques des entrepôts mutualisés ? Quel est l’impact de la présence de l’entrepôt mutualisé dans la chaîne logistique ? Nous avons développé une approche mixant une méthode qualitative de type exploratoire sur sept cas situés en France, complétée par une méthode quantitative de type simulation des flux. L’étude qualitative a permis d’identifier les principales spécificités des entrepôts mutualisés et de proposer une typologie d’entrepôts mutualisés basée sur deux dimensions : le degré de collaboration et le degré de dynamique. Elle a permis également d’identifier les nouveaux indicateurs de performance, les facteurs clés de succès, les principales sources d’incertitude et les risques associés à la mise en place d’entrepôts mutualisés. L’impact de l’entrepôt mutualisé sur la performance de la chaîne logistique a été étudié plus précisément sur un des sept cas précédents, en comparant quatre configurations de flux avec deux politiques de réapprovisionnement, pour lesquelles nous avons proposé une hybridation, et deux profils de demande. Les résultats des simulations montrent que la mutualisation des entrepôts prend tout son intérêt si elle est associée à la mutualisation du transport. Il apparaît également que la politique d’approvisionnement hybride est plus avantageuse que les politiques classiques de point de commande et de recomplètement calendaire. Finalement, cette thèse montre que le contexte de l’entrepôt mutualisé offre d’intéressantes perspectives de recherche autour du lien entre pratique et recherche, de la création de connaissance en gestion des opérations, et de l’impact de la mutualisation sur la performance des chaînes logistiques. / The warehouse pooling is one of the collaborative logistics’ research field, recently introduced by various actors to improve the performance of supply chains. The mass-market retailing requirements as well as the increase logistic costs, relative to the activities of storing and transport, oblige companies to review more in detail their distribution strategies. Consisting of a post-positivist paradigm, this thesis answers two main research questions: What are the characteristics of pooled warehouses? What is the impact of the presence of a pooled warehouse in the supply chain? We have developed an approach combining a qualitative exploratory method on seven cases located in France, supplemented by a quantitative method based on flow simulation. The qualitative study allowed to identify the main specificities of pooled warehouses and proposed a typology of pooled warehouses based on two dimensions: collaboration degree and dynamics degree. Our study also allowed identifying new performance indicators, the key success factors, the main sources of uncertainty and the risks related to pooled warehouse implementation. The impact of a pooled warehouse on the supply chain performance was analyzed more specifically in one of the seven previous cases, comparing four flow configurations with two replenishment policies, for which we proposed hybridization, and two demand profiles. The simulation results show that the pooled warehouse takes all its interest if it is associated with transport pooling. Furthermore, the hybrid procurement policy seems to be more advantageous than the classical policies of traditional reorder point and calendar replenishment. Finally, this thesis shows that the context of the shared warehouse offers interesting research perspectives on the link between practice and research, the creation of knowledge in operations management, and the impact of pooling on the performance of logistics chains.

abstract: Universities have been increasingly engaged in international collaborations with peer institutions overseas. In recent years, Confucius Institutes have emerged as a new model of collaboration between American universities and Chinese universities. In an attempt to identify factors contributing to successful international university collaborations, this study used the case study method and focused on one Confucius Institute between MMU, an American University, and ZZU, a Chinese university, and intended to identify factors leading to the success of the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration. The study investigated the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration within the framework of the MMU-ZZU institutional partnership. Based on data collected from the institutional documents, interviews, site visits and news reports, this study examined the experiences and perceptions of the university's stakeholders involved in creating and sustaining this particular Confucius Institute, including stakeholders at the program level, at the college level, and at the institutional level both at MMU and ZZU. Using the glonacal agency heuristics framework, the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration was a result of joint forces of stakeholders at the program level, at the college level, and at the institutional level from ZZU and MMU. Stakeholders, no matter what level they are and which institution they are affiliated with, had to navigate through the significant differences between them to develop synergy to be successful. Synergy, including vertical synergy developed among stakeholders within each institution and horizontal synergy developed among stakeholders between institutions, turned out to be critical to the success of the MMU-ZZU CI. The study concluded that synergy in leadership, organizational contexts, stakeholders' resources, and the synergy in the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration and the MMU-ZZU institutional partnership, led to the success of the MMU-ZZU Confucius Institute collaboration. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2012

abstract: In a collaborative environment where multiple robots and human beings are expected to collaborate to perform a task, it becomes essential for a robot to be aware of multiple agents working in its work environment. A robot must also learn to adapt to different agents in the workspace and conduct its interaction based on the presence of these agents. A theoretical framework was introduced which performs interaction learning from demonstrations in a two-agent work environment, and it is called Interaction Primitives. This document is an in-depth description of the new state of the art Python Framework for Interaction Primitives between two agents in a single as well as multiple task work environment and extension of the original framework in a work environment with multiple agents doing a single task. The original theory of Interaction Primitives has been extended to create a framework which will capture correlation between more than two agents while performing a single task. The new state of the art Python framework is an intuitive, generic, easy to install and easy to use python library which can be applied to use the Interaction Primitives framework in a work environment. This library was tested in simulated environments and controlled laboratory environment. The results and benchmarks of this library are available in the related sections of this document. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2017

With increased globalization and change in the educational structure, university internationalization has increased with the aim to better serve the society and connect institutions. Collaborations between universities and businesses have also become more common due to globalization and the shift in educational structure to serve society not only on an academic level. However, as internationalization is mostly regarded as an activities’ based approach, apparently there has been no theoretical or empirically explored propositions about the possibility of university internationalization through collaboration with industry. Therefore, this thesis’ purpose is to identify the set of factors that differentiate a regular internationalization approach from the one through collaboration with industry and thereby showing the relationship between university internationalization and university-business collaboration. A qualitative and inductive research approach was used through adopting a single case study of Linköping University’s internationalization in Brazil through its collaboration with Saab as an industry, which was done through collecting data from semi-structured interviews. The empirical findings confirmed that university internationalization through collaboration with industry is possible. Consequently, a model was developed that identified the differences between the two approaches and concludes by showing how university internationalization and university-business collaboration are linked.

Depuis quelques années, nous assistons à de profondes mutations économiques qui impliquent un changement de frontières organisationnelles. On constate que le mode de fonctionnement inter-organisationnel est de plus en plus pertinent, il est ainsi présenté comme le périmètre adéquat de mise en œuvre des nouvelles formes de gouvernance au service de l'innovation. Les travaux de recherche effectués dans le cadre de cette thèse de doctorat s'inscrivent dans ce contexte et concernent les pôles de compétitivité, ainsi que les projets collaboratifs s'y rattachant. Travailler en mode collaboratif implique la multiplicité et la découverte de nouveaux modes de fonctionnement des uns et des autres. La collaboration inter-organisationnelle engage une multitude d'acteurs différents, ayant des rythmes de travail aussi divers que variés, des cultures d'entreprises différentes, des compétences différentes et complémentaires, etc. Les pôles de compétitivité supposent que les adhérents soient dans une posture de collaboration. La mise en réseau des entreprises et organisations adhérentes aux pôles nécessite de travailler ensemble et collaborer sur des missions et projets communs. Or, la gestion des ressources humaines au sein d'un pôle de compétitivité n'est pas simple : nous l'avons énoncé plus haut, les populations en présence ont des statuts et des cultures très différents (chercheurs, entrepreneurs, salariés, etc.), la plupart des personnes associées aux pôles ne sont ni dirigées, ni rémunérées par celui-ci, l'organisation du travail sur des projets de Recherche & Développement collaboratif est spécifique. Chaque structure adhérente a des spécificités et enjeux différents. Qu'en est-il alors de la collaboration au sein d'un pôle de compétitivité ? Quelle GRH y observe-t-on ? Celle-ci favorise-t-elle la collaboration entre adhérents ? / During those recent years, we have witnessed profound economic changes that involved a change in organizational boundaries. It is found that the mode of inter-organizational functioning is increasingly relevant, it is presented as the appropriate scope of implementation of new forms of governance for innovation. The research conducted as part of this thesis are part of that context and relate to clusters, as well as collaborative projects related thereto. Working in collaborative mode involves the multiplicity and the discovery of new modes of operation of each other. The inter-organizational collaboration engages a multitude of different actors, working with rhythms as diverse and varied, different corporate cultures, of different and complementary skills, etc.. The clusters assume that members are in a posture of cooperation. The networking of companies and organizations adhering to the poles requires to work together and collaborate on assignments and projects. However, the human resource management within a cluster is not simple: we stated above, the populations in the presence of status and have very different cultures (researchers, entrepreneurs, employees, etc.. ), most people on the poles are neither technically nor paid by the latter, the organization of work on projects of collaborative R & D is specific. Each structure has specific adherent and different challenges. What then of collaboration in a cluster? HRM can observe how does one? It promotes Does collaboration between members?

Cette recherche, menée dans le cadre d'un doctorat de sociologie sous la direction de Philippe Combessie, repose principalement sur une enquête de 24 mois dans des ateliers de création artistique installés dans la maison d’arrêt pour hommes du centre pénitentiaire de Marseille, que nous avons conjuguée à une enquête de 13 mois dans le centre éducatif fermé de Montfavet. Le travail engagé a surtout reposé sur la volonté d'examiner le maillage entre art, prison et société, considérant finalement que l'enfermement le plus visible pouvait, quand il devenait le point central d'une expérience artistique de collaboration entre le dedans et le dehors, permettre de mener une réflexion sur d'autres types de cloisonnements à l’oeuvre dans la société. Prenant appui sur un dispositif de création collaborative, développé avec des groupes de participants incarcérés et de la société civile, nous nous sommes questionnée sur son sens, ses fonctions, ses effets, à trois niveaux : individuel, institutionnel et sociétal. Nous avons envisagé cette action artistique comme un terrain d’expérimentation de transformations multiples et avons élaboré comme point d’appui conceptuel la notion de triple inertie. Il nous fallait alors tenter une analyse qui ne compartimente pas les impacts en fonction des différents champs de répercussion, s'appuyant sur une perspective d'analyse des agencements préexistants et des réagencements produits. C'est ainsi qu'a émergé une problématique centrale, constituant une armature pour structurer l'ensemble des questions que nous souhaitions abordées dans ce travail, et qui peut ainsi se formuler : en quoi l'expérience artistique collaborative en prison, dans une dynamique transformative, constitue une mise en mouvement et un dépassement des inerties et frontières carcérales à trois niveaux indissociables, individuel, institutionnel et sociétal? / This research, led for the purpose of a PhD in sociology under the supervision of Philippe Combessie, is based on a 24 months long study in the artistic experience workshops set up inside the Marseille correctional institution, combined with a 13 months study in Montfavet’s closed educative center. The work that has been undertaken rested upon the ability to examine the links between, art, prison and society, arguing that the most visible imprisonment can, when it becomes the central point of an artistic experience of collaboration between the inside and the outside, give the possibility to think of new forms of confinement at work in society. This project was developed according to an apparatus of collaborative creation established with various groups of participants that were either in custody or coming from civil society. Its meaning, its functions, and its effects, were questioned on three levels: individual, institutional, and societal. This artistic action came about as a space of experimentation for various transformations and gave the possibility to coin the notion of triple inertia, hereby used as conceptual tool. It was important to bring about an analysis that did not divide the impacts in terms of the various fields of repercussion, and instead, relied on an analysis of both pre-existing layouts, and the new forms of layouts produced. That is how the central issue emerged, becoming the framework that would structure the totality of the questions that were to be discussed in this work, and that can be stipulated as such: How does the collaborative artistic experience in prison, through a transformative dynamic, constitute a movement as well as an overcoming of inertias and prison frontiers on three inseparable levels, individual, institutional and societal.

À medida que a inovação se torna um ponto fundamental para a agregação de valor das empresas, o seu gerenciamento torna-se uma ferramenta essencial para garantir a competitividade das organizações no mercado. Neste contexto, a cooperação universidade-empresa surge como uma alternativa externa às empresas para o desenvolvimento de suas aptidões inovadoras. Considerando a importância destas cooperações para o desenvolvimento econômico, a presente pesquisa teve como objetivo o mapeamento das redes de relacionamentos a partir dos projetos de desenvolvimento tecnológico desenvolvidos entre as empresas multinacionais brasileiras, suas subsidiárias e universidades ou institutos de pesquisas, por meio das concessões de patentes, que abrangem os modelos de invenção, de modelo de utilidade, depositados em bancos nacional e internacional. O estudo é uma pesquisa qualitativa, com abordagem descritiva, utilizando o método de levantamento de dados secundários dos bancos de pedidos de patentes nacional (Instituto Nacional de Propriedade Industrial - INPI) e internacional (Escritório Europeu de Patentes - EPO). O universo da pesquisa abrange quatro empresas multinacionais brasileiras, do setor de extração ou de transformação de recursos naturais, que desenvolvem atividades de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento em processos de cooperação tecnológica. As patentes concedidas para estas empresas foram analisadas com o intuito de se verificar quais destes documentos envolviam projetos de cooperação tecnológica; e a partir do uso da análise de redes sociais examinou-se e mapeou-se as estruturas das redes de relacionamentos, destas organizações com suas subsidiarias e universidades ou institutos de pesquisa. Esta pesquisa demonstra o processo de cooperação tecnológica no Brasil e sua dinâmica, enfatizando a importância do envolvimento em redes de cooperação para o fortalecimento da inovação tecnológica nas organizações. / As innovation becomes a fundamental issue to aggregate value to companies, its management is an essential tool to guarantee market competitiveness among organizations. In this context, university-industry collaboration appears as an external alternative for companies to develop their innovation aptitudes. Considering the importance of these collaborations for economic growth, the present research aims at mapping relationships networks among Brazilian multinational companies, their subsidiaries and research institutes or universities through patent concessions, registered in national and international databases. This is a descriptive qualitative study based on secondary data methodology research from national and international patent databases (INPI National Institute for Industrial Property and EPO European Patent Office). The research includes four Brazilian multinational companies from the natural resource extraction and transformation industry involved in research and development collaboration with other organizations. Their patents have been analyzed in order to verify which documents are involved in technology cooperation projects; thereafter, the social network analysis has been used to study relationship structures and map their collaboration networks. This research demonstrates the collaboration process and its dynamics in Brazil and shows the importance of being involved in collaboration networks that will strengthen technological innovation in organizations.