Multi-vehicle systems offer many advantages in engineering applications such as increased efficiency and robustness. However, the disadvantage of multi-vehicle systems is that they require a high level of organization and coordination in order to successfully complete a task. Formation control is a field of engineering that addresses this issue, and provides coordination schemes to successfully implement multi-vehicle systems. Two approaches to group coordination were proposed in this work: geometric and self-organizing formations. A geometric reconfiguring formation was developed using the leader-follower method, and the self-organizing formation was developed using the velocity potential equations from fluid flow theory. Both formation controllers were first tested in simulation in MATLAB, and then implemented on the X80 mobile robot units. Various experiments were conducted to test the formations under difficult obstacle scenarios. The robots successfully navigated through the obstacles as a coordinated as a team using the self-organizing and geometric formation control approaches.

Multi-vehicle systems offer many advantages in engineering applications such as increased efficiency and robustness. However, the disadvantage of multi-vehicle systems is that they require a high level of organization and coordination in order to successfully complete a task. Formation control is a field of engineering that addresses this issue, and provides coordination schemes to successfully implement multi-vehicle systems. Two approaches to group coordination were proposed in this work: geometric and self-organizing formations. A geometric reconfiguring formation was developed using the leader-follower method, and the self-organizing formation was developed using the velocity potential equations from fluid flow theory. Both formation controllers were first tested in simulation in MATLAB, and then implemented on the X80 mobile robot units. Various experiments were conducted to test the formations under difficult obstacle scenarios. The robots successfully navigated through the obstacles as a coordinated as a team using the self-organizing and geometric formation control approaches.

This essay analyses the development of field and discipline formation in Sweden. A specific case is presented regarding the differentiation of the history of ideas, idéhistoria, and the delineation of the history of knowledge, kunskapshistoria, between 2015 and 2020. The distinction and differentiation between these disciplines has been contested by academics in related fields, who have questioned whether and what is new or distinct in the study of the history of knowledge and what prior disciplines and fields of study it draws on.  The aim of this study is to examine how the relationship between the two research fields is undertood by the academics that work in these fields themselves. The research question is: How is the interaction between the history of ideas and the history of knowledge described by Swedish scientists in papers published between 2015 and 2020? The study is based on scientific papers, anthologies, and book reviews written by Swedish scientists and mainly published in Swedish academic journals. The study shows that both research fields are developing towards eclecticism and internationalisation, both striving to participate in a broader international academic discourse. In both fields more publications are now written in English and fewer in Swedish. However, the predomination of English-language publications is more apparent in the new field of the history of knowledge. With respect to the history of ideas, the formative effects of institutionalisation as well as the importance of academic due due diligence i.e. engaging with the research in near-adjacent fields of study such as the study of the history of science, the history of medicine, and environmental history is apparent in the academic literature. The study indicates that Sweden has a potential of becoming a new research arena of some significance for generative and cooperatiion in humanistic science and thus of a general interest. / I studien analyseras samspelet mellan idéhistoria och kunskapshistoria i Sverige 2015 - 2010. Undersökningen berör generella frågeställningar om hur forskningsfält och discipliner skapas och påverkar varandra. Medan idéhistoria funnits i Sverige i snart ett hundra år har kunskapshistoria etablerats i Sverige först under de senaste fem åren. Detta ämne har av sina företrädare förklarats vara ett nytt oberoende forskningsfält med långt gående ambitioner ambitioner som sträcker sig över disciplingränserna. Dessa uttalanden ifrågasattes av forskare inom idé- och vetenskapshistoria om vad som var nytt inom det nya forskningsfältet och på vems axlar detta stod på. Syftet med denna studie var att analysera hur forskare från de två forskningsfälten upplevt påverkan mellan dem. Forskningsfrågan var hur påverkan mellan idéhistoria och kunskapshistoria framgått och beskrivits i publikationer skrivna av svenska forskare inom ämnena under perioden. Materialet som använts var uppsatser, antologier, recensioner och institutionernas utbildningsmaterial från denna tid, huvudsakligen publicerade i svenska tidskrifter. Studien visade att bägge forskningsfälten breddat sig och visat ökad ambition att delta i det internationella vetenskapliga samtalet. Här fanns dock en gradskillnad mellan ämnena. En möjlig inlåsningseffekt av att använda sig av svenska som språk diskuteras som en konsekvens av den äldre svenska forskningstraditionen. Fler publikationer inom idéhistoria skrivs dock numera på engelska och färre på svenska medan kunskapshistoria redan från början haft ett utpräglat internationellt fokus. Betydelsen av institutionalisering och de förmåner detta medför understryks. Studiens resultat visar att påverkan mellan kunskapsfälten under den studerade perioden generellt var liten. Ett undantag har varit den ovan nämnda kritiken från forskare inom idé- och vetenskapshistoria mot de anspråk som framförts av företrädarna för kunskapshistoria på att nu presentera ett verkligt nytt forskningsfält. Enligt kritikerna har man därvid bortsett från den utveckling som skett inom närliggande områden under de senaste åren. Vikten av akademisk due diligence har lyfts fram som en viktig princip inom forskning. / <p>By distance (Zoom)</p>