Innovation in construction: a sociology of technology approach

An alternative approach to understanding innovation is made using two intersecting ideas. The first is that successful innovation requires consideration of the social and organizational contexts in which it is located. The complex context of construction work is characterized by inter-organizational collaboration, a project-based approach and power distributed amongst collaborating organizations. The second is that innovations can be divided into two modes: 'bounded', where the implications of innovation are restricted within a single, coherent sphere of influence, and 'unbounded', where the effects of implementation spill over beyond this. Bounded innovations are adequately explained within the construction literature. However, less discussed are unbounded innovations, where many firms' collaboration is required for successful implementation, even though many innovations can be considered unbounded within construction's inter-organizational context. It is argued that unbounded innovations require an approach to understand and facilitate the interactions both within a range of actors and between the actors and technological artefacts. The insights from a sociology of technology approach can be applied to the multiplicity of negotiations and alignments that constitute the implementation of unbounded innovation. The utility of concepts from the sociology of technology, including 'system building' and 'heterogeneous engineering', is demonstrated by applying them to an empirical study of an unbounded innovation on a major construction project (the new terminal at Heathrow Airport, London, UK). This study suggests that 'system building' contains outcomes that are not only transformations of practices, processes and systems, but also the potential transformation of technologies themselves.     

Maximally efficient dialogue mode algorithm

Collaboration is more efficient when the most capable participant for each goal has initiative in directing the problem-solving for that goal. The paper describes a method for using a probabilistic analysis to create a mode-switching mechanism that selects which participant should control the collaborative problem solving so that efficiency is maximized.     

Performance of supply chain collaboration – A simulation study

In the past few decades several supply chain management initiatives such as Vendor Managed Inventory, Continuous Replenishment and Collaborative Planning Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) have been proposed in literature to improve the performance of supply chains. But, identifying the benefits of collaboration is still a big challenge for many supply chains. Confusion around the optimum number of partners, investment in collaboration and duration of partnership are some of the barriers of healthy collaborative arrangements. To evolve competitive supply chain collaboration (SCC), all SC processes need to be assessed from time to time for evaluating the performance. In a growing field, performance measurement is highly indispensable in order to make continuous improvement; in a new field, it is equally important to check the performance to test conduciveness of SCC. In this research, collaborative performance measurement will act as a testing tool to identify conducive environment to collaborate, by the way of pinpointing areas requiring improvements before initializing collaboration. We use actual industrial data and simulation to help managerial decision-making on the number of collaborating partners, the level of investments and the involvement in supply chain processes. This approach will help the supply chains to obtain maximum benefit of collaborative relationships. The use of simulation for understanding the performance of SCC is relatively a new approach and this can be used by companies that are interested in collaboration without having to invest a huge sum of money in establishing the actual collaboration.     

企业信息系统多领域协同优化研究

企业信息化的前沿性问题是企业信息集成和优化。本文依据设计理论中的多学科协同优化的思想,将协同优化的概念引入到企业信息集成中。文中介绍了三种用于高层优化的算法,基于信息总线结构的EA I平台,提出了优化集成平台的构造方法。     

Formal verification of collaboration patterns in healthcare

We propose a computer-based framework for the formal verification of collaboration patterns in healthcare teams. In this, the patterns are constructed diagrammatically as compositions of keystones that are viewed as abstract processes. The approach provides mechanisms for ensuring that safety properties are enforced and exceptional events are handled systematically. Additionally, a fully verified, executable model is obtained as an end product, enabling a simulation of its associated collaboration scenarios.     

Sharing your view: A distributed user interface approach for reviewing emergency plans

Emergency planning is an ongoing activity in which a multidisciplinary group of experts intermittently collaborate to define the most appropriate response to risks. One of the most important tasks of emergency planning is the review of plans as a way of maintaining, refining, and improving them. This review of plans is based on exchanging knowledge and experiences in order to take into account different perspectives and generate alternative solutions. An exploratory case study carried out within municipal organizations has disclosed how the application of rigid plan reviewing practices hinders team creativity and, consequently, effective decision-making. This paper presents a computer-based collaborative environment aimed at supporting unstructured team discussion during the post-hoc review of emergency plan. This collaborative environment allows emergency planning team members to share their view in a free manner by interacting with user interface components distributed across several input and output dimensions. The usage of the environment has proved how the application of new interactive technologies can create more dynamic work settings, fostering team creativity.     

DCAM平台下的分布式方面构件模型及协同框架的研究*

由于方面化中间件平台DCAM的方面内核实现机制没有提供对分布式环境下方面构件通信的支持,扩展了DCAM中方面内核的方面调用机制,提出了分布式方面构件模型以及分布式环境下方面构件的协同框架。扩展后的DCAM平台不仅保持了原平台对POJO的支持,同时通过对分布式协同框架的引入,使平台在分布式环境下具有更好的可扩展性和容错性,满足了按需计算的需求。最后通过应用实例对DCAM的分布式模型进行了可行性验证并给出了性能分析。     

面向协作的组织结构设计的集成模拟研究

基于计算组织理论,采用了多Agent模拟和离散事件模拟的集成方法,以组织成员间的协作关系为出发点,分析了不同的协作模式对组织效率的影响,讨论了在这些协作模式下沟通机制和激励机制的作用,得到了一些对组织结构设计有意义的结论。     

基于GAED-MADDPG多智能体强化学习的协作策略研究

目前多智能体强化学习算法多采用集中学习,分散行动的框架。该框架存在算法收敛时间过长和可能无法收敛的问题。为了加快多智能体的集体学习时间,提出多智能体分组学习策略。通过使用循环神经网络预测出多智能体的分组矩阵,通过在分组内部共享智能体之间经验的机制,提高了多智能体的团队学习效率;同时,为了弥补分组带来的智能体无法共享信息的问题,提出了信息微量的概念在所有智能体之间传递部分全局信息;为了加强分组内部优秀经验的留存,提出了推迟组内优秀智能体死亡时间的生灭过程。最后,在迷宫实验中,训练时间比MADDPG减少12%;夺旗实验中,训练时间比MADDPG减少17%。     

基于信息增量的弹道目标协同跟踪方法

针对反导传感器网络中弹道目标的协同跟踪问题,提出了一种基于信息增量的弹道目标协同跟踪方法。分析了多传感器对弹道目标的协同跟踪问题,并建立了自由段弹道目标分段匀加速模型。在此基础上,对自由段弹道目标跟踪过程中,利用跟踪滤波的协方差阵信息获得每个传感器对目标的信息增量,并以信息增量最大为准则选择传感器对弹道目标进行跟踪,从而实现对弹道目标的有效跟踪。仿真结果表明：所提的方法能够及时动态地选择性能最佳的传感器对弹道目标进行跟踪,提高弹道目标整体的跟踪性能,实现对弹道目标的协同跟踪。