Master thesis is dedicated to path planning in uncertain environment focusing on AO* methods. In practical part it focuses on designing and implementation of own solving method for searching And/Or graph. To perform comparative experiments it was created a simulation program, which allows to test implemented algorithms.

This diploma´s thesis analyzes methods for robot path planning by means of algorithms AO*. The practical part focuses on the implementation of selected methods AO*, which are designed for planning under uncertainty environment. There was created the simulation program in this work. Simulation program enables testing the methods, that were implemented.

The availability and management of water resources is a global issue, this is particularly true in countries with limited water resources, such as Palestine, which falls under the Water Stress Line (1000 m3/person/year)1. Palestine has operated under an -unstable political, economic and social conditions for more than six decades. This uncertainty has resulted in mismanagement, inefficient institutions and the over-xploitation of water resources. The main aim of this study was to produce socioeconomic indicators based on the water tariff structure in order to be pro-poor and to enable water utilities to cope with uncertainties. The study s recommendation is for a flexible, pro-poor and socially acceptable tariff structure have been based on empirical work and socio-economic data which has been collected by rigorous research and reinforced with case studies. Initial results based on a pilot survey showed that there was a 33% increase in the revenue of the water supplier equivalent to 13% of the total water costs and an increase in the number of beneficiaries that paid their bills ranging from 10.5% to 38.6%. If applied at national level, the model application based on current socioeconomic data would have a wide positive socio-economic impact in reducing poverty, financial equality, social security and reduction of the effect of uncertainties. The reform of the existing legal and institution framework are a prerequisite for the application of this kind of model. Institutional and legal reforms coupled with the application of this model, would produce a dynamic water pricing policy as part of the efforts to have an integrated water management and would serve as a tool for the national goal of poverty alleviation and food security.

Au cours de cette thèse, le problème général de la conception de méthodes couplées de contrôle et d'estimation pour des systèmes dynamiques non linéaires a été étudié. La cible principale était la navigation par corrélation de terrain (TAN en anglais), où le problème était de guider et d’estimer la position 3D d’un drone survolant une zone connue. Dans cette application, on suppose que les seules données disponibles sont la vitesse du système, une mesure de la différence entre l'altitude absolue du drone et l'altitude du sol survolé et une carte du sol. La TAN est un bon exemple d'application non linéaire dans laquelle le principe de séparation ne peut pas être appliqué. En réalité, la qualité des observations dépend du contrôle et plus précisément de la zone survolée par le drone. Par conséquent, il existe un besoin de méthodes couplées d'estimation et de contrôle. Il est à noter que le problème d'estimation créé par TAN est en soi difficile à analyser et à résoudre. En particulier, les sujets suivants ont été traités:• Conception d'observateur non linéaire et commande en retour de sortie pour la TAN avec des cartes au terrain analytiquesdans un cadre déterministe à temps continu.• La modélisation conjointe du filtrage optimal non linéaire et du contrôle optimal stochastique en temps discretavec des informations imparfaites.• la conception de schémas de contrôle prédictif stochastique duaux associés à un filtre particulaire et leur implémentation numérique pour la TAN. / During this PhD, the general problem of designing coupled control and estimation methods for nonlinear dynamical systems has been investigated. The main target application was terrain-aided navigation (TAN), where the problem is to guide and estimate the 3D position of a drone flying over a known area. In this application, it is assumed that the only available data are the speed of the system, a measurement of the difference between the absolute altitude of the drone and the altitude of the ground flied over and a map of the ground. TAN is a good example of a nonlinear application where the separation principle cannot be applied. Actually, the quality of the observations depends on the control and more precisely on the area that is flied over by the drone. Therefore, there is a need for coupled estimation and control methods. It is to be noted that the estimation problem created by TAN is in itself difficult to analyse and solve. In particular, the following topics have been treated:• Nonlinear observer design and outputfeedback control for TAN with analytical ground mapsin a deterministic continuous-time framework.• The joint modelling of nonlinear optimal filtering and discrete-time stochastic optimal controlwith imperfect information.• The design of output-feedback Explicit dual stochastic MPC schemes coupled with a particlefilter and their numerical implementation to TAN.

L’étude du développement de la performance ESG dans les PME libanaises prouve son importance dans le fait que ces entreprises cherchent des solutions durables pour faire face aux différentes crises politiques et leurs répercussions non négligeables sur l’économie du pays. Notre recherche s’est engagée de souligner à l’aide d’une étude qualitative exploratoire sur quatre PME libanaises, si ces entreprises sont sensibilisées aux critères ESG de la performance en particulier voir le rôle du dirigeant, des parties prenantes et de l’adoption des normes ESG dans la promotion des pratiques responsables pour une meilleure performance globale durable. Les PME libanaises constituent des terrains souvent néophytes en RSE. Leurs défis principaux sont notamment l’amélioration de leur performance économique et financière et surtout leur survie. L’engagement ESG des PME libanaises est justifié par les convictions du dirigeant et ses valeurs, l’amélioration de la performance économique et financière et parfois l’adoption des normes ESG. Des freins sont à signaler notamment le manque des ressources financières dû principalement aux crises économiques et politiques. / The study of the development of ESG performance in Lebanese SMEs proves its importance in the fact that these companies are looking for sustainable solutions to deal with the different political crises and their significant repercussions on the country’s economy. Our research is committed to highlight via a qualitative exploratory study of four Lebanese SMEs if these companies are aware of the ESG performance criteria, underline the role of managers, stakeholders, and the adoption of ESG standards in promoting responsible practices. Lebanese SMEs are often neophytes’ grounds for CSR. Their main challenges include improving their economic and financial performance and especially their survival. The ESG commitment of Lebanese SMEs is mainly justified by the manager’s beliefs and values, the improvement of economic and financial performance and sometimes by the adoption of ESG standards. There are many brakes especially the lack of financial resources mainly due to economic and political crisis.

Adaptiva styrprinciper har framhållits som potentiell lösning till en rad strategiskt kostsamma nackdelar kopplade till den traditionella årsbudgeten. Denna studie syftar till att studerasambandet mellan dessa adaptiva styrprinciper och osäker miljö. Teoribildningen som ligger till grund för det analytiska ramverket har tematiserats i fyra kategorier av adaptiva styrprinciper som visats återkommande i den tidigare forskningen rörande beyond budgeting och dess besläktade hybrider: decentralisering, adaptiv planering och resursallokering, adaptiv målsättning och prestationsmätning samt adaptiva incitamentspraktiker. Denna tidigare forskning har emellertid inte undersökt mindre företags benägenhet att implementera dessa praktiker, och hur detta förhåller sig under perioder av generell osäkerhet. Covid-19-pandemin utgör en unik möjlighet på så sätt att andra typer av osäkerhet tidigare har tagit formen av specifika attribut (exempelvis konkurrensutsättning), medan pandemin får anses vara generellt utan motstycke under de i övrigt rådande omständigheterna. Forskningsfrågan definieras därmed som: Har mindre svenska tillverkningsföretag anammat adaptiva styrprinciper i större utsträckning under pandemin? För att undersöka huruvida dessa styrprinciper har ett samband med osäker miljö på det sätt som antyds utifrån teori användes en kvantitativ metod. En enkät skickades till 616 svenska tillverkningsföretag med 10-199 anställda, varav 88 användbara svar samlades in. Även om respondenterna uppvisade bred tendens till anammande (såsom teorin skulle förutse) var inte denna förändringsgrad under pandemin statistiskt signifikant utifrån linjär sannolikhetsmodell. / Adaptive management practices have been touted as being the solution to a number of strategically costly problems connected to the traditional yearly budget. The purpose of this study is to examine the relation between adaptive management practices and an uncertain environment. The underlying theory of the analytical framework specifically concerns four adaptive management practices that have proven to be recurring in the beyond budgeting literature and its adjacent hybrids: decentralization, adaptive planning and resource allocation, adaptive goal and performance measurements and adaptive incentives. Prior research has overlooked the aspect of smaller companies and their willingness to change and adapt their management practices during times of general uncertainty. The Covid-19 pandemic during 2020-2021 constituted a rare opportunity in the sense that other types of uncertainty have tended to be specific (e.g. increased competition), whereas the pandemic is taken to be generally unprecedented in relation to all other aspects of the current business environment. The research question was therefore formulated as: Have Swedish small scale manufacturing companies adopted adaptive management practices to a larger extent during the pandemic? To examine whether the adoption of these tools relate to uncertain environments, in the manner in which the theory suggests, a quantitative approach was utilized. A survey was sent to 616 Swedish manufacturing companies with 10-199 employees, out of which 88 useful answers were gathered. Although the respondents showed tendencies of adoption across the board (as the theory would predict) the changes made during the pandemic did not reach statistical significance in the linear probability model.

La globalidad de la problemática a través de diferentes niveles jerárquicos, funciones y roles del conjunto de empleados lleva al análisis de un conjunto limitado de factores relacionados con la retribución enmarcado en el ámbito de empresas españolas cotizadas y directamente en el papel de la retribución y de las diferencias retributivas a nivel del equipo de alta dirección. Este trabajo estudia factores contextuales que mayor influencia tienen sobre la fijación del nivel retribución del equipo de alta dirección, considerando las características del trabajo de esos mismos –posición jerárquica, discrecionalidad, interdependencia de tareas, e incertidumbre– y cómo dichas características pueden influir en las diferencias salariales entre los propios miembros del equipo de alta dirección. Completado por la verificación del efecto del gobierno corporativo y el papel de los mecanismos de supervisión para controlar a los directivos (el marco de la teoría de la agencia) se enriquece este trabajo sobre el contexto de dispersión retributiva y resultados de la empresa. / The globality of the problem through different hierarchical levels, functions and roles of all employees takes to the analysis of a limited set of factors related to compensation in the context of listed Spanish companies and directly on the role of pay and the pay differences at the top management team. This paper examines the contextual factors of main influence on establishing remuneration levels of top management team, considering the nature of their working activities- hierarchical position, discretion, task interdependence, and uncertainty-and how these characteristics may influence pay differences between the members of the top management team. Completed by the exploration of effects of corporate governance and the role of supervision mechanisms to control managers in the agency theory context this paper is enriched in the topic concerning pay differences and operating results.