This thesis is about collaborative activities in interactive spaces. These spaces are characterized by having shared, large displays in combination with private displays and software tools that facilitate a fluent sharing of information between people and their resources. The aim is to understand the collaborative activities in interactive spaces in terms of how team members are allowed to contribute to the overall work and what influence the physical qualities of space have on the collaboration. The research questions focus on the ways team members come to contribute to the work, how roles and functions are handled during collaboration, and how the physical qualities of the space influence the collaborative activities. To investigate these issues two empirical studies were conducted. The first study focused on two student teams that carried out conceptual design activities. The second study focused on geographically distributed meetings of an international research network. Data was mainly collected using video recordings, observations and questionnaires. The analyses are primarily based on detailed investigations of video recordings. The results showed in the first study that the large, touch-sensitive displays made it possible for the team members to interact and contribute to the work in several ways, which led to more equalized roles. In the second study the setting was more complex; the use of both video- and audio conferences made it difficult for the team members to overview the situation and to take part in the conversations, and their roles became more accentuated. It was further found that the physical- and the social space were intertwined: they appeared as spaces within spaces. The team members were also in a concrete sense constructing spaces within spaces: they created their own spaces in the common space and they often made transitions between shared and private, focal and peripheral work.

Mi trabajo de investigación se centra en el estudio de problemas organizacionales en situaciones de colaboración. En particular, esta tesis se compone de tres capítulos en los que analizo problemas de incentivos en la investigación interdisciplinar y en acuerdos de colaboración entre empresas y universidades. El primero capitulo de mi tesis, "Incentives for Interdisciplinary Research", es (hasta el momento y según mi conocimiento) el primero trabajo que caracteriza formalmente la investigación interdisciplinar a través de complementariedad en la producción y desventaja innata en los costes para el desarrollo de una nueva área científica. Mi trabajo demuestra que cuando los objetivos de la investigación son suficientemente exigentes, la investigación interdiciplinar es preferible a la investigación especializada. En el segundo capítulo de la tesis, "Business-Science Research Collaboration under Moral-Hazard", analizo cómo las características de acuerdos de colaboración son el resultado de un contrato óptimo entre las partes contratantes. Además, el tipo de acuerdo puede ser un importante instrumento de incentivo cuando algún (algunos) de los recursos importantes para la colaboración no son contratables. El análisis se hace en dos dimensiones: de la estructura del gobierno del acuerdo (descentralizada o centralizada), y de los problemas de información que esa estructura enfrenta. Aunque una estructura descentralizada siempre elije proyectos que están más cercanos a los intereses de la parte gobernante, las dos estructuras podrán utilizar el proyecto como mecanismo para reducir el efecto de riesgo moral. El tercero capítulo de la tesis, "Patents and Business-Science Research Partnership" (escrito en conjunto con Walter Garcia-Fontes), presenta un estudio empírico que relaciona las características de patentes con el proceso de investigación que las precedieron. Utilizando datos de patentes europeas, los resultados de este capítulo están de acuerdo con las predicciones teóricas del capítulo anterior de esta tesis: la identidad institucional de las organizaciones que hacen la investigación se hacen visibles en las características de las patentes. / The research of my PhD dissertation focuses on the study of organizational problems, in the context of collaborative relations. In particular, the dissertation is composed by three chapters, in which I analyze incentives problems in interdisciplinary research and in collaboration agreements between firms and universities. The first chapter of the thesis, "Incentives for Interdisciplinary Research", is (up to the moment and to my knowledge), the first article that formally characterizes interdisciplinary research: through the presence of complementarities in the production and through an innate cost disadvantage, when developing a new scientific area. My work shows that when the goals for the research are sufficiently demanding, interdisciplinarity is preferred to specialization. In the second chapter of the thesis, "Business-Science Research Collaboration under Moral-Hazard", I analyze on how the characteristics of a research agreement can be the optimal outcome of a contract between the parties. Furthermore, the type of project can also be an importance incentive tool when some of the resources that are important for the success are non-verifiable and non-contractibe. The analysis is developed in two dimensions: the structure of partnership governance (decentralized and centralized), and the informational constraints that such structures may face. Even if a decentralized structure chooses a type of project that is closer to the interests of the governing party, both structures may optimally use the project as a mechanism to reduce the impact of moral-hazard. In the third chapter of the thesis, "Patents and Business-Science Research Partnership" (jointly written with Walter Garcia-Fontes), I present an empirical study that relates the characteristics of the patents with the research process that lead to the inventions. Using data from the European Inventors Survey, PatVal-EU, the results of this chapter are aligned with the theoretical predictions of the previous chapter of the thesis: the institutional identity of the research organizations are associated with different basicness levels of the patens.

Although robotics is well established as a research field, there has been relatively little work on human-robot collaboration. This type of collaboration is going to become an increasingly important issue as robots work ever more closely with humans. Clearly, there is a growing need for research on human-robot collaboration and communication between humans and robotic systems. Research into human-human communication can be used as a starting point in developing a robust human-robot collaboration system. Previous research into collaborative efforts with humans has shown that grounding, situational awareness, a common frame of reference and spatial referencing are vital in effective communication. Therefore, these items comprise a list of required attributes of an effective human-robot collaborative system. Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology for overlaying three-dimensional virtual graphics onto the user's view of the real world. It also allows for real time interaction with these virtual graphics, enabling a user to reach into the augmented world and manipulate it directly. The internal state of a robot and its intended actions can be displayed through the virtual imagery in the AR environment. Therefore, AR can bridge the divide between human and robotic systems and enable effective human-robot collaboration. This thesis describes the work involved in developing the Augmented Reality Human-Robot Collaboration (AR-HRC) System. It first garners design criteria for the system from a review of communication and collaboration in human-human interaction, the current state of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) and related work in AR. A review of research in multimodal interfaces is then provided highlighting the benefits of using such an interface design. Therefore, an AR multimodal interface was developed to determine if this type of design improved performance over a single modality design. Indeed, the multimodal interface was found to improve performance, thereby providing the impetus to use a multimodal design approach for the AR-HRC system. The architectural design of the system is then presented. A user study conducted to determine what kind of interaction people would use when collaborating with a mobile robot is discussed and then the integration of a mobile robot is described. Finally, an evaluation of the AR-HRC system is presented.

The distribution of real-time GIS (Geographic Information System) data among users is now more important than ever as it becomes increasingly affordable and important for scientific and government agencies to monitor environmental phenomena in real-time. A growing number of sensor networks are being deployed all over the world, but there is a lack of solutions for their effective monitoring. Increasingly, GIS users need access to real-time sensor data from a variety of sources, and the data must be represented in a visually-pleasing way and be easily accessible. In addition, users need to be able to collaborate with each other to share and discuss specific sensor data. The real-time acquisition, analysis, and sharing of sensor data from a large variety of heterogeneous sensor sources is currently difficult due to the lack of a standard architecture to properly represent the dynamic properties of the data and make it readily accessible for collaboration between users. This thesis will present a JEE-based publisher/subscriber architecture that allows real-time sensor data to be displayed collaboratively on the web, requiring users to have nothing more than a web browser and Internet connectivity to gain access to that data. The proposed architecture is evaluated by showing how an AJAX-based and a Flash-based web application are able to represent the real-time sensor data within novel collaborative environments. By using the latest web-based technology and relevant open standards, this thesis shows how map data and GIS data can be made more accessible, more collaborative and generally more useful.

This thesis presents an application-oriented theoretical framework for generalised and specific collaborative contexts with a special focus on Internet-based mass collaboration. The proposed framework is informed by the author’s many years of collaborative arts practice and the design, building and moderation of a number of online collaborative environments across a wide range of contexts and applications. The thesis provides transdisciplinary architecture for describing the underlying mechanisms that have enabled the emergence of mass collaboration and other activities associated with ‘Web 2.0’ by incorporating a collaboratively developed definition and general framework for collaboration and collective activity, as well as theories of swarm intelligence, stigmergy, and distributed cognition. (For complete abstract open document)

The nature and function of Task Complexity, in the context of senior secondary mathematics, has been identified through: a search of the research literature; interviews with experts that focused on the nature of task complexity; expert use of the Williams/Clarke Framework of Complexity (1997) as a tool to categorise the complexity of a task, and observation and analysis of the responses of senior secondary mathematics students as they worked in collaborative groups to solve an unfamiliar challenging problem. Although frequently used in the literature to describe tasks, ‘complexity’ has often lacked definition. Expert opinion about the nature of mathematical complexity was ascertained by seeking the opinions of experts in the areas of mathematics, mathematics education, and gifted education. Expert opinion about task complexity was stimulated by questions about the relative complexity of two tasks. The experts then categorised the complexities within each of these tasks using the Williams/Clarke Framework of Complexity. This framework identifies the dimensions of task complexity and was found by experts to be both useful and adequate for this purpose. A theoretical framework was developed to assess student ability to solve challenging problems. This theoretical framework was used to design a test to assess student ability to solve challenging problems. The information this test provided about the problem solving ability of the students in this study informed my analysis of student response to complexity.

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.