| 1. |
- Salim, Roaa, 1990-
(författare)
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Exploring the content and process of automation decisions in manufacturing system development projects : A study in the Swedish wood products industry
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The wood industry has great potential to support the development of a more sustainable future based on a circular economy. For Sweden to be able to maintain its competitive position as a leading wood industry nation, products with increased added value are needed. To realize this development, new and efficient automated solutions supporting the manufacturing systems in place in the industry are essential. However, although automation of manufacturing can result in competitive advantages, this is far from always being the case. A number of researchers have convincingly argued that investments in automation of manufacturing are more likely to succeed if they are the expression of well-grounded decisions made during the design of a manufacturing system. It is further argued that such decisions need to be linked to a company’s manufacturing strategy. And yet despite this, automation decisions are often made ad hoc and based on gut feelings.The essential purpose of this thesis therefore is to support informed automation decisions in the context of manufacturing system development projects carried out in the wood products industry. To fulfill the purpose, multiple research studies have been conducted including literature reviews and case study method.This thesis contributes with increased knowledge on the content and process of automation decisions in manufacturing system development projects conducted in the wood products industry. Close study of automation decisions made during manufacturing system design from a manufacturing strategy perspective has produced a set of guiding suggestions. These include the identification of aspects that need consideration when automation decisions are being made during the design of manufacturing systems. Furthermore, through studying the process leading to automation decisions during manufacturing system design, potential pitfalls for the wood products industry are exemplified and tactics used to support decision-making related to automation are suggested. Last, this thesis extends the current understanding about manufacturing systems in the wood products industry by presenting the drivers and challenges for automation of manufacturing.
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| 2. |
- Blomqvist, Lars, 1962-
(författare)
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Laminated Veneer Products : Shape Stability and Effect of Enhanced Formability on Bond-Line Strength
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis concerns two aspects of the manufacture of laminated veneer products (LVPs). The first aspect is related to the possible improvement of the shape stability of LVPs, and the second has its starting point in the modification of the veneer for enhanced formability as well as the question of whether and how these modifications affect the bond-line strength.LVPs are veneers bonded with adhesive into predetermined shapes, mostly for the production of furniture and interior fittings. Since any deviation from the intended shape is a problem for both manufacturer and customer, various studies have sought to evaluate the influence of different materials and process parameters on shape stability. Parameters studied have included wood species (beech and birch), an adhesive system based on urea formaldehyde, the adhesive distribution on the veneer, climate, moisture content and fibre orientations of the veneers, as well as the orientation of the individual veneers in a multiply.Manufacturers of LVPs must consider some basic facts about wood in orders adequately to provide shape-stable LVPs to customers. Wood emits and absorbs moisture in relation to the surrounding climate, and this can lead to shrinkage and swelling. Such moisture induced movements differ in the wood’s different directions, and the magnitude is specific for the species. A thorough understanding of this is the basis for achieving shape-stable LVPs.Symmetry is defined in this thesis such that the veneer properties are balanced in the laminate. This means that opposite veneers on either side of the centre veneer have similar characteristic. An LVP will become distorted if the veneers are asymmetrically oriented before the press. Deviation from the desired shape can be small immediately after the pressing, but it may increase significantly with moisture content (MC) variations. Asymmetry may result when veneers with different fibre orientations are included in the laminate or when the veneers are placed asymmetrically. It may also occur if veneers with different MCs are bonded together asymmetrically. One aggravating factor is that the lathe checks that are introduced when the veneers are peeled or sliced from the log affect the shape stability. In 3-ply crosswise-oriented plywood, the veneer surfaces on which the lathe checks occur should be oriented in the same way for high shape stability.Based on existing knowledge, the production of shape-stable LVPs requires that the veneers are conditioned to a uniform MC and sorted with regard to fibre orientation and the side with lathe checks before bonding. End-user climates should govern the MC of the veneers and the moisture added with the adhesive during the process. Straight-grain veneers and symmetry should always be the goal.Moulding can cause stretching, i.e. strain, of the veneers depending on the curvature of the mould. To prevent the veneers from rupture, there are various ways to strengthen the veneers particularly in the transverse direction in which the veneer is weakest. However, tests have shown that these pre-treatments of veneers for enhanced formability can prevent the adhesive from penetrating the wood surface. It is therefore important to confirm that the pre-treatment does not affect the bond-line strength.
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| 3. |
- Hammarbäck, Jimmy, 1977-
(författare)
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Modelling intent for Manned-Unmanned Teaming : Exploring human-centric approaches for future combat aircraft systems
- 2022
-
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- What does it mean to understand intent? This question is at the core of resilient teamwork since team members must account for each other’s intent in anticipated as well as unanticipated situations to adaptively coordinate their actions. As we enter an era where humans and synthetic agents are supposed to work as teammates, this question is brought to its head. For instance, unmanned aircraft are expected to act as human-like wingmen in the near future, requiring them to account for and adapt to the lead fighter pilot’s intent in various contexts and situations with little or no communication. To this end, adequate models of fighter pilots’ intent are crucial for enabling synthetic wingmen to reason about what their partner is doing, why, and what will happen next. Unfortunately, the concept of intent is often ambiguous and approaches to model intent are rarely described. As a result, researchers and practitioners often rely on assumptions regarding what aspects and elements of intent should be modelled–and how to approach the problem of modelling intent. This thesis addresses the what and how to model intent from a human-centric perspective by defining and operationalising the concept of intent and suggesting three novel and complementary approaches. Additionally, by applying the approaches to model fighter pilot intent in the context of Manned-Unmanned Teaming, both methodological considerations when modelling intent and design implications for future applications are presented.
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| 4. |
- Jalilzadehazhari, Elaheh, 1985-
(författare)
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A decision-making framework for enhancing client well-being : When designing windows and blinds
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The current state of window and blind design moves beyond evaluating a single function, such as energy consumption, to include a human perspective in architectural design approach to create value. A current thought among architects and design professionals is that the highest value outcomes can be obtained when any architectural design contributes to enhanced well-being. Previous studies show that an individual’s well-being is determined by five main life domain factors: health, economy, personality, demographic variables and behavior variables. However, the life domain factors health and economy show stronger and more positive correlations to well-being. At this point, value creation within architectural design context, including window and blind design, can be seen as an attempt to enhance well-being by improving health and providing economic benefits for clients. Clients can represent i) owners who own a built asset, ii) investors who commit capital and expect to obtain financial return, or iii) occupants who live or work in the building every day. In the context of owner-occupied buildings, the value creation process is mainly seen as an attempt to enhance well-being for one entity by improving health and providing economic benefits. When considering investment properties or assets held for sale, the value creation process is mainly translated into an attempt to enhance well-being for several entities by improving health for occupants and providing economic benefits for owners and/or investors.Selecting a window and blind design to enhance client well-being remains a challenging task due to three main difficulties. The first difficulty relates to the contradictory effects of windows and blinds on visual and thermal comfort, energy consumption and life cycle cost. The second difficulty is the availability of a variety of window and blind designs in different sizes, positions and forms, making the selection of windows and blinds an intricate decision challenge for architects and designers. The third difficulty involves decisions about the selection of windows and blinds that should include all criteria and their interactions simultaneously.To resolve the abovementioned difficulties, this research applied the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) as a multi-criteria decision-making method to select a window and blind design based on a trade-off between visual comfort, thermal comfort, energy consumption and life cycle cost. The analyses of results show the capability of AHP in resolving difficulties, however its application is mainly limited to a small number of designs. To overcome this limitation, a decision-making framework was developed based on integration between non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II) as an optimization algorithm and AHP. The strength and limitations of the decision-making framework were later tested by employing it in window and blind design practice. To investigate further benefits from the implementation of the framework, it was expanded by evaluating additional building envelopes, i.e. windows as well as external walls, roof and floor constructions, which made it possible to select a trade-off construction solution. The analyses of results show the framework’s ability to resolve difficulties and locate a trade-off design in a relatively short period of time. However, the decision-making framework only allows the analysis of the objective criteria for evaluating visual comfort, thermal comfort, energy consumption and life cycle cost. This is because it is necessary to rely on the creativity of the architects and designers when designing windows and blinds in order to consider subjective issues. The decision-making framework can be used either by design teams or customer service experts in window manufacturing companies. A literature study was therefore conducted to extend the technology acceptance model and thereby investigate the determinants of framework user acceptance of the decision-making framework. The results showed that organizational, individual, technological and environmental characteristics were the most influential external variables when investigating determinants of framework user acceptance of the framework. Organizational characteristics included top management support, training, organizational culture, and organizational size, while individual characteristics included the users’ previous knowledge and experience. Technological characteristics embraced information quality and system quality, meanwhile environmental characteristics comprised fulfillment of regulations and competitiveness.
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| 5. |
- Johansson Fernstad, Sara, 1980-
(författare)
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Algorithmically Guided Information Visualization : Explorative Approaches for High Dimensional, Mixed and Categorical Data
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Facilitated by the technological advances of the last decades, increasing amounts of complex data are being collected within fields such as biology, chemistry and social sciences. The major challenge today is not to gather data, but to extract useful information and gain insights from it. Information visualization provides methods for visual analysis of complex data but, as the amounts of gathered data increase, the challenges of visual analysis become more complex.This thesis presents work utilizing algorithmically extracted patterns as guidance during interactive data exploration processes, employing information visualization techniques. It provides efficient analysis by taking advantage of fast pattern identification techniques as well as making use of the domain expertise of the analyst. In particular, the presented research is concerned with the issues of analysing categorical data, where the values are names without any inherent order or distance; mixed data, including a combination of categorical and numerical data; and high dimensional data, including hundreds or even thousands of variables.The contributions of the thesis include a quantification method, assigning numerical values to categorical data, which utilizes an automated method to define category similarities based on underlying data structures, and integrates relationships within numerical variables into the quantification when dealing with mixed data sets. The quantification is incorporated in an interactive analysis pipeline where it provides suggestions for numerical representations, which may interactively be adjusted by the analyst. The interactive quantification enables exploration using commonly available visualization methods for numerical data. Within the context of categorical data analysis, this thesis also contributes the first user study evaluating the performance of what are currently the two main visualization approaches for categorical data analysis.Furthermore, this thesis contributes two dimensionality reduction approaches, which aim at preserving structure while reducing dimensionality, and provide flexible and user-controlled dimensionality reduction. Through algorithmic quality metric analysis, where each metric represents a structure of interest, potentially interesting variables are extracted from the high dimensional data. The automatically identified structures are visually displayed, using various visualization methods, and act as guidance in the selection of interesting variable subsets for further analysis. The visual representations furthermore provide overview of structures within the high dimensional data set and may, through this, aid in focusing subsequent analysis, as well as enabling interactive exploration of the full high dimensional data set and selected variable subsets. The thesis also contributes the application of algorithmically guided approaches for high dimensional data exploration in the rapidly growing field of microbiology, through the design and development of a quality-guided interactive system in collaboration with microbiologists.
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| 6. |
- Jalilzadehazhari, Elaheh, 1985-
(författare)
-
Windows and blinds selection for enhancing subjective well-being
- 2017
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Earlier studies in the context of windows and blinds selection have mostly tried to increase the awareness regarding various effects of windows and blinds selection on subjective well-being, including their effect on visual comfort, thermal comfort, energy consumption and life cycle cost. However, the main problem is the potential conflicts between visual comfort, thermal comfort, energy consumption and life cycle cost. Increased awareness about the contradictory effect of windows and blinds selection on subjective well-being on one hand and lack of a feasible method in managing the conflicts on the other hand may bind individuals, as decision-makers, in a situation where they follow the immediate economic benefits rather than the long-term visual and thermal benefits. To solve the mentioned problem, this study analysed first the degree of the conflicts between average daylight illuminance and total energy consumption in Sweden. This decision was made due to large variation in solar elevation angle and solar intensity between summer and winter in Sweden, which has significant effects on daylight illuminance and total energy consumption. Analysing the conflicts was accomplished by developing two multivariate linear regression models for calculating average daylight illuminance and total energy consumption. Comparison and analysis of the multivariate linear regression models showed the existence of a high degree of conflicts, which makes window and blind selection a rather complex multidimensional problem. Specifying the degree of the conflicts formed a hypothesis as: “A multi criteria decision-making method increases the controllability and manages the conflicts in selecting windows and blinds”. The developed hypothesis was later tested by employing analytical hierarchy process, as widely used multi criteria decisionmaking method. The analytical hierarchy process prioritizes decision-maker’ preferences and introduces a desired trade-off solution. The results of employing analytical hierarchy process showed the capability of it in managing the conflicts among visual comfort, thermal comfort, energy consumption and life cycle cost. Finally, the application of the analytical hierarchy process was expanded by integrating it with nondominated sorting genetic algorithm-II, as an optimization algorithm. Through this integration, optimization algorithm combines windows’ and blinds’ design variables and analyses a large number of solutions, while analytical hierarchy process ranks the solutions based on decision-makers’ preferences and introduces a desired trade-off solution. The integration between analytical hierarchy process and the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm-II was presented later as a conceptual framework. The developed conceptual framework can be used for selecting windows and blinds II in both residential and commercial buildings. In selecting windows and blinds, the conceptual framework is a novel solution to the lack of a feasible method for increasing the controllability for decision-makers and obtaining a desired trade-off solution.
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| 7. |
- Nilsson, Josefin A., 1985-
(författare)
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Juvenile birch in Sweden : Selected stem characteristics for interior and furniture applications
- 2019
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In response to the furniture industry’s growing demand for raw material, large volumes of juvenile silver birch and downy birch stems available from pre-commercial thinning operations in Sweden’s forests could offer solutions. However, such stems are not currently used on an industrial scale, and most research conducted on birch stems in general has neither focussed on young trees nor the potential use of the central stem part around the tree pith. The resulting lack of knowledge about the juvenile part of birch wood thus requires additional information about the material properties of birch, which could encourage its use for various purposes in the furniture and other industries.The initial literature review performed for this thesis has highlighted some properties of juvenile birch required for its use as a furniture material, as well as identified topics concerning the physical characteristics of juvenile birch about which knowledge is currently limited. Consequently, the objectives of this thesis were to explore some characteristics of juvenile birch—bark thickness, wood-to-bark bonding ratio after drying, variations in the density and width of growth rings, and anatomical growth response to fertilisation—in order to increase the knowledge.The material studied came from mixed birch and Norway spruce stands at two sites in southern Sweden, namely Asa and Toftaholm. The birch stems were naturally regenerated silver birch and downy birch, with breast height diameters between 30 and 83 mm. Fertilised and unfertilised silver birch trees were sampled at Toftaholm, whereas unfertilised stems of silver birch and downy birch were sampled at Asa. The characteristics of stems from the pith to bark (radial direction) and along the stem (longitudinal direction) were measured. The wood-to-bark bonding ratio on downy birch after drying was calculated as the percentage of the stem circumference with full contact between the wood and bark, while oven-dry density and basic wood density for silver birch were determined by using the water displacement method. The impact of ring width on wood density was statistically analysed, and an image analysis of the wood anatomy was conducted to elucidate their relationship.Amongst the results, bark thickness along the stem had the highest deviation in the section closest to the stump. Moreover, the wood-to-bark bonding ratio after drying measured for juvenile downy birch seemed to depend more on the stem’s diameter than the sampling height along the stem. Such results are relevant for processors seeking to estimate the volume of wood under the bark. The wood-to-bark bonding ratio was highest for diameters between 30 and 39 mm, and neither did that relationship correlate with the sampling height along the stem.Variation in wood density in the radial and longitudinal directions in juvenile silver birch suggested that such density negatively correlated with growth rate (ring width). That relationship held true for stems at each site and between the sites, irrespective of management or growing conditions. As expected, mean wood density was lower in fertilised trees than in unfertilised ones, and towards the bark, radial density increased more in trees that grew more slowly. At the same time, variation in longitudinal density in young silver birch trees was low. Quantitative wood anatomy studies confirmed that the fertilised juvenile birch had younger cambia, thinner cell walls, and fewer vessels per mm2 than unfertilised trees in the same diameter class.Overall, the knowledge generated in the study may facilitate the industrial use of juvenile birch stems and wood in interior and furniture applications. The role of wood anatomy in determining the mechanical performance of juvenile birch stems should be further examined, however, to possibly reveal new opportunities for the use of juvenile birch.
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| 8. |
- Salim, Roaa, 1990-
(författare)
-
Exploring aspects of automation decisions : A study in the Swedish wood products industry
- 2017
-
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The wood products industry is important to Sweden's prosperity, and is currently facing several challenges by increased global competition. To avoid the gradual decline of the industry’s contribution to the country’s revenues and employment opportunities, the Swedish wood products industry needs to increase the proportion of the raw material that is refined. New and efficient manufacturing technologies are essential to support this development. The implementation of automation in manufacturing needs to be supported by conscious and well-defined strategies. However, currently, there is a lack of knowledge regarding automation decisions in this industry. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to increase knowledge regarding which aspects should be taken into account when automation decisions are considered in the wood products industry. Three research questions are addressed: (1) What is the current state of manufacturing operations in the wood products industry? (2) What are the potential opportunities for automation in the wood products industry? And (3) What challenges can arise from automation in the wood products industry?The results presented in this thesis are based on four research papers. The first paper provides an overview of the current state of manufacturing operations in the wood products industry. The second paper examined the impact of the raw material on manufacturing operations in the wood products industry. The third paper assessed how the levels of automation in manufacturing impact operational performance. The fourth paper examined automation opportunities and challenges to gain a better understanding of the reasoning behind automation decisions in the industry.In general, it is concluded that automation decisions in the wood products industry tend to be based on “gut feeling” and previous experience with automation rather than well-defined decisions and strategies. This is due to inadequate knowledge and familiarity with automation technologies in manufacturing. Furthermore, the findings showed that different aspects of manufacturing interact and impact each other. For this reason, it is essential to take into account other aspects of manufacturing when considering automation decisions.
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| 9. |
- Blomqvist, Lars, 1962-
(författare)
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Shape stability of laminated veneer products
- 2013
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is about the shape stability of laminated veneer products.Laminated veneer products consist of veneers bonded together with adhesive into a predetermined shape. Such products are used in several contexts but especially in furniture manufacture. Deviation from the intended shape is a problem for both manufacturers and customers of the final products. The shape stability of laminated veneer products depends on a variety of material and process parameters, and this thesis identifies several important factors that influence shape stability. The purpose of this thesis is to find ways to decrease distortion and improve shape stability so that product quality can be improved.Different ways of measuring shape stability, both in an industrial environment and in a more research-based context, are presented in this thesis. Various studies have been conducted to evaluate the influence of different material and process parameters on shape stability. The parameters studied were species (beech and birch), adhesive system (bio-based adhesives, adhesive systems based on urea formaldehyde), adhesive distribution on the veneer, climate, moisture content and fibre orientations of the veneers, as well as orientation of the individual veneers in an assembly.The results clearly show that the fibre orientation of the veneer strongly influences the shape stability of a laminated veneer product. This means that products can show considerable distortion (particularly twist) if the fibre orientation of the veneer is orientated in an unsuitable way in the assembly before moulding. The effect of fibre orientation on shape stability can be very small directly after moulding, but it increases considerably when the moulded product is subjected to a change in moisture content. In general, a change in moisture content leads to distortion. Moisture change alone, however, results in a controlled distortion.An asymmetrical construction coupled with different moisture contents of the veneers in an assembly before moulding will result in poor shape stability of the product. Other studied parameters had a low impact on shape stability, although beech resulted in more distortion and poorer shape stability than birch.In order to produce shape-stable laminated veneer products, the veneers should be conditioned to a uniform moisture content and sorted with regard to fibre orientation before bonding. The orientation of the veneers is highly important regarding both fibre orientation and the loose or tight side of the veneer. If shape stability is the main target, the loose sides of peeled and sliced veneers should be oriented in the same manner.
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| 10. |
- Hammarbäck, Jimmy, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Modelling situated intent for human-autonomy teaming: a human-centric approach
- 2024
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Ingår i: Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science. - : TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD. - 1463-922X .- 1464-536X. ; , s. 1-22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- entering an era where humans and synthetic agents are supposed to collaborate and cooperate, adequate models of human intent are cru-cial for coordinated teamwork. Unfortunately, although there is a need for such models, the concept of intent is ambiguous and approaches to model intent from a human-centric perspective are scarce. Building upon theoretical and methodological foundations, this study aims to address these gaps by presenting a conceptualisation of intent along-side an approach. specifically, leveraging the six levels of cognitive control outlined in the Joint control Framework, a provisional model of human intent alongside a defined and operationalised concept is presented. Building on these foundations, a novel approach is pro-posed. Utilising seven scenario-based interviews, the value of these contributions is demonstrated through an example case in the context of Manned-Unmanned teaming. it is concluded that intent should be understood as a multi-faceted concept shaped by situated constraints, where intent is formed through a commitment to choices by context-sit-uation and means-end reasoning. it is also concluded that the approach is useful, particularly since it can glean insights from choices considered and committed, both being essential in the design of synthetic team-mates’ capability to adapt to their human partner’s agency.
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| 11. |
- Hammarbäck, Jimmy, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
-
My synthetic wingman must understand me: modelling intent for future manned–unmanned teaming
- 2024
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Ingår i: Cognition, Technology & Work. - : Springer. - 1435-5558 .- 1435-5566. ; 26, s. 107-126
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cognitive modelling, unmanned aircraft are expected to actas human-like wingmen in the near future. For fluent and effective manned–unmanned teaming, synthetic wingmen must beable to account for and adapt to their partners’ intent with little or no communication. To enable such abilities, it becomescrucial to identify the requirements that makes intent explainable to synthetic wingmen, necessitating approaches to describeand analyse intent from a human-centric perspective. To address this issue, this paper reports on findings from using WorkDomain Analysis to design and analyse models of situated intent with six levels of cognitive control (frames, effects, values,generic, implementations, and physical). Through a literature review and seven subject matter expert interviews, a synthesizedmodel was designed to represent fighter pilots’ intent in a manned–unmanned teaming scenario. Using the synthesized modelas the context, a transfer of control and a link loss situation were further described and analysed. Experiences show that WorkDomain Analysis can provide a practical and applicable means to model situated intent, particularly since designed modelscan be re-utilised to model intent in similar situations. Furthermore, the model analyses show the importance of accountingfor fighter pilots’ adopted frames since small variations of the framing of the situations can propagate throughout the modelresulting in conflicting or inconsistent intent. The paper concludes that synthetic wingmen must be able to reason about all six levels of cognitive control, requiring a more holistic approach to make intent explainable.
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| 12. |
- Jalilzadehazhari, Elaheh, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Applying a decision-making framework for resolving conflicts when selecting windows and blinds
- 2019
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Ingår i: Architectural Engineering and Design Management. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1745-2007 .- 1752-7589. ; 15:5, s. 382-401
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The selection of the most appropriate window and blind design is a challenging task due to the existence of potential conflicts between visual comfort, thermal comfort, energy consumption and life cycle cost. Resolving these conflicts relies on a trade-off window and blind design. This research applied a decision-making framework to select a trade-off window and blind design for an office room in Sweden. The decision-making framework was developed based on integrating the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II and the analytical hierarchy process. The first step in the application of the framework was to generate a model of the office room using EnergyPlus. Six types of window and four types of blind; an internal venetian blind, an internal roller curtain, an external venetian blind and an external overhang panel, were modelled in EnergyPlus. The second step was to run an optimisation using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II. For this purpose, various window and blind design variables were specified in modeFRONTIER platform. The third and last step in the application of the decision-making framework was to select a trade-off window and blind design using analytical hierarchy process. The results show the strength of the decision-making framework in selecting a trade-off design, and thereby the ability to resolve conflicts through intelligent use of simulation in analyzing big-data in built environment, energy and cost sectors. Since, the computation and processing power for performing simulations is constantly increasing, architects and designers can exploit the decision-making framework and locate a trade-off design in a relatively short period of time.
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| 13. |
- Jalilzadehazhari, Elaheh, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Comparing the profitability of various renovation packages in Swedish residential building sector : case study
- 2019
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Ingår i: Sustainable built environment conference (SBE 2019). 6-7 August, Tokyo, Japan.
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Swedish government adopted national targets to reduce total energy consumption and mitigate environmental impacts. At this point, detached houses play an important role, since they account for a large share of dwelling stock in this country. The majority of these buildings are affected by technical deteriorations in building envelopes and heating, ventilation and air condition systems. Accordingly, there is a need for a deep renovation strategy, which covers both energy efficiency measures and economic issues. Additionally, a deep renovation can improve indoor climate, which contributes to the enhanced health and wellbeing. Thus, the aim of this study is to compare the efficiency of eight different renovation packages in reducing energy consumption and providing economic benefits in a detached house in Sweden. The renovation packages include 1) improving the U-value of building envelopes; 2) adding a heat recovery for ventilation system; 3) installing a ground source heat pomp for supporting heat demand and domestic hot water; 4) combination of renovation package 1 and 2; 5) combination of renovation package 1 and 3; 6) combination of renovation package 2 and 3; 7) combination of renovation package 1, 2 and 3; and 8) combination of renovation package 1, 2, 3 along with installing photovoltaic cells for producing electricity. The reduction in energy consumption was calculated in kWh/m². year for each renovation package, while the economic benefit was obtained by calculating the payback period during a lifespan of 50 years and internal rate of return with interest rates of 1%, 3% and 6%. The results indicate that renovation package 8 has the highest potential in reducing total energy consumption, while renovation package 3 is the most profitable solution since it provides the shortest payback period with the highest internal rate of return. The results help to define and project efficient energy policies in Sweden.
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| 14. |
- Johansson, Jimmy
(författare)
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Efficient Information Visualization of Multivariate and Time-Varying Data
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Data can be found everywhere, for example in the form of price, size, weight and colour of all products sold by a company, or as time series of daily observations of temperature, precipitation, wind and visibility from thousands of stations. Due to their size and complexity it is intrinsically hard to form a global overview and understanding of them. Information visualization aims at overcoming these difficulties by transforming data into representations that can be more easily interpreted.This thesis presents work on the development of methods to enable efficient information visualization of multivariate and time-varying data sets by conveying information in a clear and interpretable way, and in a reasonable time. The work presented is primarily based on a popular multivariate visualization technique called parallel coordinates but many of the methods can be generalized to apply to other information visualization techniques.A three-dimensional, multi-relational version of parallel coordinates is presented that enables a simultaneous analysis of all pairwise relationships between a single focus variable and all other variables included in the display. This approach permits a more rapid analysis of highly multivariate data sets. Through a number of user studies the multi-relational parallel coordinates technique has been evaluated against standard, two-dimensional parallel coordinates and been found to better support a number of different types of task.High precision density maps and transfer functions are presented as a means to reveal structure in large data displayed in parallel coordinates. These two approaches make it possible to interactively analyse arbitrary regions in a parallel coordinates display without risking the loss of significant structure.Another focus of this thesis relates to the visualization of time-varying, multivariate data. This has been studied both in the specific application area of system identification using volumetric representations, as well as in the general case by the introduction of temporal parallel coordinates.The methods described in this thesis have all been implemented using modern computer graphics hardware which enables the display and manipulation of very large data sets in real time. A wide range of data sets, both synthetically generated and taken from real applications, have been used to test these methods. It is expected that, as long as the data have multivariate properties, they could be employed efficiently.
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| 15. |
- Johansson, Jimmy, 1978-
(författare)
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Mechanical processing for improved products made from Swedish hardwood
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Swedish hardwood is today used in the energy, pulp and mechanical hardwood industries. Only very small volumes of Swedish hardwood are, however, consumed by the mechanical industry that normally pays the highest timber price. The smallness of the volumes used for mechanical refinement is a result both of forestry not focusing on the production of hardwood for these uses, and of the fact that the mechanical hardwood industry, particularly the sawing industry, is not designed to process the existing raw material in an optimal manner. This thesis discusses the possibilities of improving the conditions for the mechanical refinement of hardwood. The aim of the work has been to investigate the possibilities of developing products and methods for processing of Swedish hardwood. The thesis proposes a new manufacturing system for Swedish hardwood to better utilize the inherent properties of the wood material. The system is based on the so-called PrimWood Method and the star-sawing concept. Compared to normally sawn wood, the sawing concept utilizes the raw material more efficiently with regard to volume yield, and increases the distance between knots in the sawn wood. The material produced has vertical annual rings which give the wood smaller movements as a result of moisture variations and a different textural appearance. Using the PrimWood Method for hardwood would make it possible to more closely match customer requirements regarding hardwood products. Since Swedish hardwood is nowadays mainly used indoors, a possible way of expanding the market would be to increase the outdoor use of the material. Here the durability is of great importance, and one important factor is then the capillary characteristics of the material. The thesis therefore focuses on the characterisation of the capillarity in wood for the future improvement of its durability. It is shown that with the material produced by the proposed manufacturing system, i.e. wood with vertical annual rings, the possibility of using hardwood outdoors increases, because the susceptibility to cracking decreases.
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| 16. |
- Muthumanickam, Prithiviraj, 1987-
(författare)
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Data Abstraction and Pattern Identification in Time-series Data
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Data sources such as simulations, sensor networks across many application domains generate large volumes of time-series data which exhibit characteristics that evolve over time. Visual data analysis methods can help us in exploring and understanding the underlying patterns present in time-series data but, due to their ever-increasing size, the visual data analysis process can become complex. Large data sets can be handled using data abstraction techniques by transforming the raw data into a simpler format while, at the same time, preserving significant features that are important for the user. When dealing with time-series data, abstraction techniques should also take into account the underlying temporal characteristics. This thesis focuses on different data abstraction and pattern identification methods particularly in the cases of large 1D time-series and 2D spatio-temporal time-series data which exhibit spatiotemporal discontinuity. Based on the dimensionality and characteristics of the data, this thesis proposes a variety of efficient data-adaptive and user-controlled data abstraction methods that transform the raw data into a symbol sequence. The transformation of raw time-series into a symbol sequence can act as input to different sequence analysis methods from data mining and machine learning communities to identify interesting patterns of user behavior. In the case of very long duration 1D time-series, locally adaptive and user-controlled data approximation methods were presented to simplify the data, while at the same time retaining the perceptually important features. The simplified data were converted into a symbol sequence and a sketch-based pattern identification was then used to identify patterns in the symbolic data using regular expression based pattern matching. The method was applied to financial time-series and patterns such as head-and-shoulders, double and triple-top patterns were identified using hand drawn sketches in an interactive manner. Through data smoothing, the data approximation step also enables visualization of inherent patterns in the time-series representation while at the same time retaining perceptually important points. Very long duration 2D spatio-temporal eye tracking data sets that exhibit spatio-temporal discontinuity was transformed into symbolic data using scalable clustering and hierarchical cluster merging processes, each of which can be parallelized. The raw data is transformed into a symbol sequence with each symbol representing a region of interest in the eye gaze data. The identified regions of interest can also be displayed in a Space-Time Cube (STC) that captures both the temporal and contextual information. Through interactive filtering, zooming and geometric transformation, the STC representation along with linked views enables interactive data exploration. Using different sequence analysis methods, the symbol sequences are analyzed further to identify temporal patterns in the data set. Data collected from air traffic control officers from the domain of Air traffic control were used as application examples to demonstrate the results.
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| 17. |
- Nylin, Magnus, 1978-
(författare)
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Flexible Automation in Air Traffic Control Through Adaptation of Human-Automation Collaboration
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Many domains currently experience an increase in level of automation of their technical systems. However, the increased level of automation must be accompanied with the development of well-functioning human-automation collaboration to avoid undesirable phenomena such as automation surprises or reduced situational awareness. In safety critical domains like air traffic control, this may be more than an inconvenience or loss of efficiency: in the worst case, it can jeopardize flight safety. Although these issues and risks related to increased automation are well-known, they continue to appear in new systems. This indicates that they are not sufficiently addressed in the design of new automation, and that better methods and ideas for this must be developed. This dissertation explores how the concept of flexible automation can be used to increase the understanding of how to design for better human-automation collaboration. The fundamental idea of the flexible automation concept is to provide the automation with knowledge about the human’s situation and let the automation combine that with its understanding of the overall situation, including mutual work- and control processes. At a conceptual level, this also widens the view on automation as merely a way to replace human labor, to a view on automation where it enhances the joint performance of the human-automation team. It also emphasizes the human as an essential piece of a successful automation. Though being important and applicable to many areas and domains, this dissertation is mainly focused on the air traffic control domain, but also includes elements from the domains of vessel traffic service and train traffic management. The approach for the dissertation has been to use the known problems and issues with automation as a starting point, and then decompose that complex of problems and explore them to find possible solutions. Initiation of communication between automation and human, how and when it is performed, were identified as one critical point in the human-automation collaboration. This insight formed the basis for the two main concepts presented in this dissertation. The first concept is the Reduced Autonomy Workspace (RAW), a design approach that describes the process of when a highly autonomous automation needs to consult the human working together with the automation. Focus is on the temporal aspects, but it also includes transformation of the information content to reduce the cognitive effort on the human receiving the information. A visualization for future automation using glyphs based on the same principles was developed to support the RAW design approach. The glyphs were evaluated in workshops with operators from air traffic control, vessel traffic service, and train traffic management, respectively. The second main concept is a new type of attention support, Soft Visual Cues (SVC). The SVC complements other types of attention support which may, due to the automation’s lack of knowledge of the overall situation, draw the operator’s attention away from something potentially more important. Different designs were evaluated in operator workshops and tested by other air traffic controllers in a series of real-time simulations. In addition to these concepts, studies have also been performed to explore and gain a deeper knowledge of how the involved control processes can be understood, the effect of entangled control processes, and how domain specific prerequisites are reflected in the control processes. The studies have involved subject matter experts, such as air traffic controllers, to understand the processes that underlies human-automation team-work. However, data collection through workshops and simulations has been challenging because of the pandemic, even though most activities were possible to perform. The results have contributed to a better understanding of the design for human-automation collaboration, the importance of temporal aspects in this, and how it can be visualized. While the RAW and the glyph visualizations aims at future automations, the SVC is a concept that could be implemented in a near future. The problems and proposed solutions in this dissertation are mainly focused on applications in air traffic control. However, the problems and issues addressed here are similar in many other areas focused on control of real-time processes. Therefore, the presented ideas and concepts should be of value for those as well, and the results are a good starting point for the development of tomorrow’s flexible automation, where the human is still a major asset.
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