The LEGO® MINDSTORMS® toolkit can be used to help students learn basic programming and engineering concepts. Software that is widely used with LEGO MINDSTORMS is ROBOLAB, developed by Professor Chris Rogers from Tufts University, Boston, United States. It has been adopted in about 10,000 schools in the United States and other countries. It is used to program LEGO MINDSTORMS robotics in its icon-based programming environment. However, this software does not provide debug features for LEGO MINDSTORMS programs. Users cannot test the program before downloading it into LEGO robotics hardware. In this project, we develop a simulator for LEGO MINDSTORMS to simulate the motions of LEGO robotics in a virtual 3D environment. We use ODE (Open Dynamic Engine) and OpenGL, combined with ROBOLAB. The simulator allows users to test their ROBOLAB program before downloading it into the LEGO MINDSTORMS hardware. For users who do not have the hardware, they may use the simulator to learn ROBOLAB programming skills which may be tested and debugged using the simulator. The simulator can track and display program execution as the simulation runs. This helps users to learn and understand basic robotics programming concepts. An introduction to the overall structure and architecture of the simulator is given and is followed by a detailed description of each component in the system. This presents the techniques that are used to implement each feature of the simulator. The discussions based on several test results are then given. This leads to the conclusion that the simulator is able to accurately represent the actions of robots under certain assumptions and conditions.

The aim of this master thesis was to develop a versatile and reliable experimentalplatform of mobile robots, solving tracking problems, for education and research.Evaluation of parallel bearings-only tracking and control algorithms on a multi-corearchitecture has been performed. The platform was implemented as a mobile wirelesssensor network using multiple mobile robots, each using a mounted camera for dataacquisition. Data processing was performed on the mobile robots and on a server,which also played the role of network communication hub. A major focus was toimplement this platform in a flexible manner to allow for education and futureresearch in the fields of signal processing, wireless sensor networks and automaticcontrol. The implemented platform was intended to act as a bridge between the idealworld of simulation and the non-ideal real world of full scale prototypes.The implemented algorithms did estimation of the positions of the robots, estimationof a non-cooperating target's position and regulating the positions of the robots. Thetracking algorithms implemented were the Gaussian particle filter, the globallydistributed particle filter and the locally distributed particle filter. The regulator triedto move the robots to give the highest possible sensor information under givenconstraints. The regulators implemented used model predictive control algorithms.Code for communicating with filters in external processes were implementedtogether with tools for data extraction and statistical analysis.Both implementation details and evaluation of different tracking algorithms arepresented. Some algorithms have been tested as examples of the platformscapabilities, among them scalability and accuracy of some particle filtering techniques.The filters performed with sufficient accuracy and showed a close to linear speedupusing up to 12 processor cores. Performance of parallel particle filtering withconstraints on network bandwidth was also studied, measuring breakpoints on filtercommunication to avoid weight starvation. Quality of the sensor readings, networklatency and hardware performance are discussed. Experiments showed that theplatform was a viable alternative for data acquisition in algorithm development and forbenchmarking to multi-core architecture. The platform was shown to be flexibleenough to be used a framework for future algorithm development and education inautomatic control.

Le terme SOI (Silicon On Insulator) identifie une structure du type «substrat silicium / film isolant / couche mince de silicium». Depuis les années 70, de nombreux travaux ont été menés afin d'élaborer ce type de structures. Le LEGO (Lateral Epitaxial Growth over Oxide) est une technique basée sur la fusion et la recristallisation de motifs épais de silicium poly-cristallin sur oxyde, et qui permet d'obtenir des motifs localisés de SOI sur un substrat de silicium. Elle a été développée en premier lieu par G. Celler et al. dans les années 80 et est désormais reconsidérée à cause d'un nouveau marché pour les structures SOI partielles à faible coût, celui de l'intégration de composants de commande et de puissance sur une même puce avec une isolation diélectrique efficace.<br />Après une présentation des différentes technologies permettant d'obtenir des substrats SOI, ce mémoire décrit plus particulièrement le procédé LEGO, et le travail d'optimisation qui a été mené sur ce procédé afin d'obtenir des motifs SOI monocristallins jusqu'à 2mm². Par la suite, nous abordons la fabrication de composants de type MOS sur SOI partiel, et nous démontrons que ce procédé permet d'accueillir des composants entièrement fonctionnels et présentant les mêmes caractéristiques électriques que sur substrat silicium massif. Enfin nous concluons sur les perspectives d'applications de ce procédé.

This study investigated effects of commercially available picture activity schedules (PAS) and system of least prompts (SLP) to teach recreation skills to four high school students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and intellectual disabilities using Lego sets. Results were evaluated through a multiple probe across participants design and indicate that a combination of PAS and SLP was effective for teaching the students to build Lego sets. All students improved their ability to build and were able to generalize the skill to novel sets after the completion of intervention. Limitations and implications for future practioners are discussed.

No description available.

Cathedrals today are no longer sites of just religious worship, they must be many things to many people such as tourist attractions, heritage centres, and meeting places. Today, Durham Cathedral in the north-east of England is home to almost 900 people engaged on site, of which almost 700 are volunteers. Add to that number over 700,000 visitors and about 1,700 religious services annually, and a complex image of life within Durham Cathedral begins to take shape. Drawing on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork between August 2013 and September 2014, this thesis takes a phenomenological approach in exploring the dynamic relationships that exist between a 900-year-old building and those who regularly come into contact with that building. It will consider the complex negotiations that take place between the many parts of the community and the building in a constantly changing environment, and will focus on the role sound, light, time, and space play in the constant challenge of change and negotiation. Finally, it will consider how buildings are not only constructed but are also cultivated through being built and rebuilt, spaces negotiated and improvised, as well as filled with stories and memories. The importance of this research is not just in observing and understanding the types of change and negotiation that occur between a building and those who inhabit it, but also in understanding the altering roles of religious buildings as they cope with the changing demands of running a site of both historical and continuing social, religious, and financial pressures, Durham Cathedral is a place that gives space to differing communities, allowing people to find in the building what they need from the building and as a result of this, Durham Cathedral is not a place in which life happens, it is a place with which life happens.

Submitted by Izabel Franco (izabel-franco@ufscar.br) on 2016-09-06T18:00:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissMHP.pdf: 3604162 bytes, checksum: 5844b74d634a30ad629fc36c26706ee1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-09-12T13:56:27Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissMHP.pdf: 3604162 bytes, checksum: 5844b74d634a30ad629fc36c26706ee1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-09-12T13:56:40Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissMHP.pdf: 3604162 bytes, checksum: 5844b74d634a30ad629fc36c26706ee1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-12T13:57:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissMHP.pdf: 3604162 bytes, checksum: 5844b74d634a30ad629fc36c26706ee1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-08 / Não recebi financiamento / Autonomous mobile robots are a special category of robots designed for performing tasks without the intervention of human beings. Some robots are designed to perform tasks in completely inhospitable environments such as the earth´s subsurface, the ocean depths or spatial exploration. In order to consider a robot as autonomous, a fundamental premise is to have self-adaptation capabilities. Over the last years, the advances in technology allow the development of self-adaptive systems, which are able to manage themselves to recuperate from faults or even change their behavior and structure in order to improve the quality of the delivered service. A critical point when building any software is its architecture, i.e., its structural organization in a set of interacting components. In this context, reference architecture is a technique that is well known for combining the best practices, patterns and strategies for building and standardizing domain specific software. Nowadays, there is a lack of studies presenting reference architectures for structuring self-adaptive software of mobile robots in order to decrease maintenance efforts. A number of studies claim that self-adaptive systems are based on the control theory and, more specifically, on the use of control loops in their architecture to perform adaptations. Therefore, this master thesis proposes SARAMR, a control loop-based reference architecture whose goal is to make maintenance activities a more productive task. The employment of the architecture divides the whole system in two modules; base application and adaptation module. The adaptation module encompasses the control loops and the base application is further divided into three other components: environment, behaviors and the electromechanical part. SARAMR was qualitatively evaluated by means of the development of two applications: a self-adaptive wall follower mobile robot and another conventional one to performing monitoring in in-door environments. Next, some maintenance activities were created to investigate the effort of applying them. We have observed that the separation of concerns of our architecture allows new components to be added causing less impacts than in systems developed in an adhoc way. / Robôs móveis autônomos fazem parte de uma categoria especial de robôs projetados para realizar tarefas sem a intervenção de seres humanos. Alguns robôs são projetados para realizar tarefas em ambientes completamente inóspitos à vida humana como no subsolo terrestre, nas profundezas de oceanos ou na exploração espacial. Para que um robô seja considerado autônomo, uma premissa fundamental é possuir capacidades de autoadaptação. Nos últimos anos, os avanços da tecnologia possibilitaram o desenvolvimento de sistemas robóticos autoadaptativos, que são capazes de gerenciarem a si próprios, se recuperarem de falhas e também de alterarem seu comportamento e estrutura com o objetivo de otimizar e/ou manter a qualidade do serviço (QoS) oferecido. Uma questão crítica para a concepção e construção de qualquer sistema de software é sua arquitetura, isto é, sua organização estrutural em um conjunto de componentes que interagem. Nesse contexto, a utilização de arquiteturas de referência é uma abordagem conhecida atualmente por combinar as melhores práticas, padrões e estratégias para a construção e padronização de sistemas de software para um determinado domínio. Atualmente, nota-se uma carência de estudos que apresentem arquiteturas de referência para estruturar o software de robôs móveis autoadaptativos de forma a facilitar atividades de manutenção nesses sistemas. Muitos estudos apontam que sistemas autoadaptativos são baseados na teoria do controle e mais especificamente na utilização de loops de controle em sua arquitetura para realizar as adaptações. Diante disso, este trabalho propõe a arquitetura de referência SARAMR, uma arquitetura de referência baseada em loops de controle cujo objetivo é facilitar atividades de manutenção no software desses sistemas. A utilização da arquitetura divide o sistema em dois módulos: aplicação base e módulo de adaptação. O módulo de adaptação envolve os loops de controle e a aplicação base ainda é subdividida em três componentes: ambiente, comportamentos e a parte eletromecânica. SARAMR foi avaliada de forma qualitativa mediante o desenvolvimento duas aplicações: um robô autoadaptativo seguidor de paredes e um outro convencional de patrulhamento. Depois disso, algumas manutenções evolutivas foram idealizadas no sentido de averiguar o esforço de aplicá-las. Constatou-se que a separação de interesses existente na arquitetura permite que novos componentes possam ser adicionados com impacto menor do que em sistemas que não usam essa arquitetura.

This paper analyzes how the Lego Group discourse portrays children, education, play, themselves and attempts to reveal corresponding ideologies surrounding the brick. The LEGO Group claim equality, honesty and transparency in their communications, and within their business ecosystem, at their core are their traditional family values, creating an intriguing and multi-layered discourse. This thesis explores the construction of representations, from a constructionist approach using discourse analysis and language coding, aiming to uncover what is revealed and ignored. The Lego Group positions themselves as one of the future solutions to the widening gap between current educational systems and the needs of future young adults in the workforce of our rapidly changing society. They continuously portray the ‘other’ actors as bad - whether in education, technology or activities. They define every subject they cover in their own terms, creating a LEGO language and microworld philosophy. There is an imbalance between their time promoting children’s agency and time spent discussing 21st century education; the latter concerns appear to far outweigh their portrayal of children, leading to conclusions that marketing logic and aspired educational market share has a stronger influence on LEGO discourse. Children are constructed as agentic, competent and commodified when selling them new products and services, as adults-in-training when discussing education and as vulnerable or innocent when highlighting child safety concerns online. Education is viewed in terms of failure, power and change, and their versions of play and creativity as the solution to all of society's ills. Their discourse reflects The LEGO Group’s position and hegemony as one of the most powerful and influential toy companies in the world. This study contributes towards the current gap in research surrounding The LEGO Group discourse, and attempts to reveal the competing ideologies of neoliberal business values versus social good and incorporates concerns of childhood studies exploring whether this company rather represents or uses children within the context of its educational - business ecosystem.

The aim of this master thesis is to make research of Open Source software, which are used for simulation autonomous robots. At the begining is performed research of selected robotic simulators. In the first part of this work is to get familiar with robotic simulator Gazebo and robotic framework ROS. The second part of this work deals with simulating and subsequent implementation of choosen robotic tasks through the simulator Gazebo and the ROS framework.

The purpose of the dissertation is to study, describe and analyses which comparative measurement activities preschool children construct and use, and how they solve problems and communicate when they use the comparative measurement activities whilst playing with Lego (“the Lego play”). The measurement activities chosen are length/height, quantity and time. The empirical material is based on data from two preschool classes with children aged 2 – 5 year, It was collected through participant observation (video captures) of the children’s Lego play. The theoretical starting points in this study are grounded in childhood sociology and the sociocultural perspective. The study assumes the childhood sociology perspective by viewing the children as competent and active in creating meaning as well as controlling and influencing their own and others’ social environment. The sociocultural perspective gives prominence to development and learning, and its related tools and concepts are used to analyses the results of the study. That is, the Lego play is studied in a social context from the child’s perspective, and the sociocultural perspective describes and analyses the child’s use of mathematics and the acquisition of knowledge in the Lego play in a sociocultural context. The results show that children measuring length/height and quantity explored a store of measurement tools in order to make comparisons, and adapted these to the context in question. These were own body, other body, artefacts, numbers and counting. The measurements were used individually and with others, and the solving of the own or shared problems constituted a large share of the time spent constructing models during Lego play. By contrast, the time concept was used mainly as a tool when the children played with their finished Lego models. Thus, a time perspective was added to the child’s finished model, which inspired thoughts and reflections about time used in the Lego play. The children used the time concepts of the present, the past and the future, and also considered the concept of velocity in the context of the timescale. The children’s communication had a large impact on the Lego play, and they expressed their ideas verbally, physically and through action. The children’s use of mathematics was prominent and meaningful during the Lego play.