TY - JOUR A1 - Thoma, Andreas A1 - Thomessen, Karolin A1 - Gardi, Alessandro A1 - Fisher, A. A1 - Braun, Carsten T1 - Prioritising paths: An improved cost function for local path planning for UAV in medical applications JF - The Aeronautical Journal N2 - Even the shortest flight through unknown, cluttered environments requires reliable local path planning algorithms to avoid unforeseen obstacles. The algorithm must evaluate alternative flight paths and identify the best path if an obstacle blocks its way. Commonly, weighted sums are used here. This work shows that weighted Chebyshev distances and factorial achievement scalarising functions are suitable alternatives to weighted sums if combined with the 3DVFH* local path planning algorithm. Both methods considerably reduce the failure probability of simulated flights in various environments. The standard 3DVFH* uses a weighted sum and has a failure probability of 50% in the test environments. A factorial achievement scalarising function, which minimises the worst combination of two out of four objective functions, reaches a failure probability of 26%; A weighted Chebyshev distance, which optimises the worst objective, has a failure probability of 30%. These results show promise for further enhancements and to support broader applicability. KW - Path planning KW - Cost function KW - Multi-objective optimization Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/aer.2023.68 SN - 0001-9240 (Print) SN - 2059-6464 (Online) IS - First View SP - 1 EP - 18 PB - Cambridge University Press CY - Cambridge ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Thoma, Andreas A1 - Stiemer, Luc A1 - Braun, Carsten A1 - Fisher, Alex A1 - Gardi, Alessandro G. T1 - Potential of hybrid neural network local path planner for small UAV in urban environments T2 - AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum N2 - This work proposes a hybrid algorithm combining an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with a conventional local path planner to navigate UAVs efficiently in various unknown urban environments. The proposed method of a Hybrid Artificial Neural Network Avoidance System is called HANNAS. The ANN analyses a video stream and classifies the current environment. This information about the current Environment is used to set several control parameters of a conventional local path planner, the 3DVFH*. The local path planner then plans the path toward a specific goal point based on distance data from a depth camera. We trained and tested a state-of-the-art image segmentation algorithm, PP-LiteSeg. The proposed HANNAS method reaches a failure probability of 17%, which is less than half the failure probability of the baseline and around half the failure probability of an improved, bio-inspired version of the 3DVFH*. The proposed HANNAS method does not show any disadvantages regarding flight time or flight distance. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2023-2359 N1 - AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum, 23-27 January 2023, National Harbor, Md & Online PB - AIAA CY - Reston, Va. ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stiemer, Luc Nicolas A1 - Thoma, Andreas A1 - Braun, Carsten T1 - MBT3D: Deep learning based multi-object tracker for bumblebee 3D flight path estimation JF - PLoS ONE N2 - This work presents the Multi-Bees-Tracker (MBT3D) algorithm, a Python framework implementing a deep association tracker for Tracking-By-Detection, to address the challenging task of tracking flight paths of bumblebees in a social group. While tracking algorithms for bumblebees exist, they often come with intensive restrictions, such as the need for sufficient lighting, high contrast between the animal and background, absence of occlusion, significant user input, etc. Tracking flight paths of bumblebees in a social group is challenging. They suddenly adjust movements and change their appearance during different wing beat states while exhibiting significant similarities in their individual appearance. The MBT3D tracker, developed in this research, is an adaptation of an existing ant tracking algorithm for bumblebee tracking. It incorporates an offline trained appearance descriptor along with a Kalman Filter for appearance and motion matching. Different detector architectures for upstream detections (You Only Look Once (YOLOv5), Faster Region Proposal Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN), and RetinaNet) are investigated in a comparative study to optimize performance. The detection models were trained on a dataset containing 11359 labeled bumblebee images. YOLOv5 reaches an Average Precision of AP = 53, 8%, Faster R-CNN achieves AP = 45, 3% and RetinaNet AP = 38, 4% on the bumblebee validation dataset, which consists of 1323 labeled bumblebee images. The tracker’s appearance model is trained on 144 samples. The tracker (with Faster R-CNN detections) reaches a Multiple Object Tracking Accuracy MOTA = 93, 5% and a Multiple Object Tracking Precision MOTP = 75, 6% on a validation dataset containing 2000 images, competing with state-of-the-art computer vision methods. The framework allows reliable tracking of different bumblebees in the same video stream with rarely occurring identity switches (IDS). MBT3D has much lower IDS than other commonly used algorithms, with one of the lowest false positive rates, competing with state-of-the-art animal tracking algorithms. The developed framework reconstructs the 3-dimensional (3D) flight paths of the bumblebees by triangulation. It also handles and compares two alternative stereo camera pairs if desired. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291415 SN - 1932-6203 N1 - Corresponding author: Luc Nicolas Stiemer VL - 18 IS - 9 PB - PLOS CY - San Fancisco ER - TY - GEN A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Bernhard, Sebastian A1 - Langolf, Jessica A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen T1 - About the paradox of sustainable production and what we can do about it! T2 - Joint SCORAI-ERSCP-WUR conference on transforming consumption-production systems toward just and sustainable futures (SCP23) N2 - Sustainability is playing an increasingly important role. Not least due to the definition of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the framework of the agenda 2030 by the United Nations (UN) in 2015 (United Nations, n.d.), it has become clear that the cooperation of different actors is needed to achieve the defined 17 goals. Industry, as a global actor, has a special role to play in this. In the course of sustainable production processes and chains, the industry is confronted with the responsibility of reflecting on the consequences of its own trade on an ecological, economic, and also social level and deriving measures that, according to the definition of sustainability (Hauff, 1987), will also enable future generations to satisfy their needs. While the ecological pillar of sustainability is already being addressed by different industrial initiatives (Deloitte, 2021), it is questionable to what extent the economic and, above all, the social pillars of sustainability also play a decisive role. Accordingly, it is questionable to what extent sustainability in its triad of social, ecological, and economic aspects is taken into account holistically at all, and thus to what extent the industry contributes to achieving the 17 goals defined by the UN. This paper presents a qualitative study that explores these questions. Interviewing 31 representatives from the manufacturing industry in Germany, results indicate a Paradox of Sustainable Production expressed by a theoretical reflection of the need for focusing on people in production processes on the one hand and a lack of addressing the social pillar of sustainability in concepts on the other hand. However, while it is a troublesome finding given the striking need for sustainable development (The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2022; Kropp 2019; von Hauff 2021; Roy and Singh 2017), the paradox directly lays out a path of resolving it. This is because, given its nature, we can see that we could resolve it via the implementation of strong educational efforts trying to help the respective people of the manufacturing industry to understand the holistic and interdependent character of sustainable development (The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2022). Y1 - 2023 N1 - Volltext auf dem Opus-Server verfügbar ER - TY - GEN A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda A1 - Berg-Postweiler, Julia A1 - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen T1 - One does not fit all: applying anti-bias trainings in academia T2 - Twenty-third international conference on diversity in organizations, communities & nations June 22 - 23, 2023 Toronto Metropolitan University, Rogers Communication Centre Toronto, Canada N2 - Anti-bias trainings are increasingly demanded and practiced in academia and industry to increase employees’ sensitivity to discrimination, racism, and diversity. Under the heading of “Diversity Management”, anti-bias trainings are mainly offered as one-off workshops intending to raise awareness of unconscious biases, create a diversity-affirming corporate culture, awake awareness of the potential of diversity, and ultimately enable the reflection of diversity in development processes. However, coming from childhood education, research and scientific articles on the sustainable effectiveness of anti-bias in adulthood, especially in academia, are very scarce. In order to fill this research gap, the paper explores how sustainable the effects of individual anti-bias trainings on the behavior of participants are. In order to investigate this, participant observation in a qualitative pre-post setting was conducted, analyzing anti-bias trainings in an academic context. Two observers actively participated in the training sessions and documented the activities and reflection processes of the participants. Overall, the results question the effectiveness of single anti-bias trainings and show that a target-group adaptive approach is mandatory due to the background of the approach in early childhood education. Therefore, it can be concluded that anti-bias work needs to be adapted to the target group’s needs and reality of life. Furthermore, the study reveals that single anti-bias trainings must be embedded in a holistic diversity management approach to stimulate sustainable reflection processes among the target group. This paper is one of the first to scientifically evaluate anti-bias training effectiveness, especially in engineering sciences and the university context. KW - Academia KW - Engineering Habitus KW - Organizational Culture KW - Diversity Management KW - Anti-Bias Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda T1 - Training future skills - sustainability, interculturality & innovation in a digital design thinking format T2 - Proceedings of the 19th International CDIO Conference N2 - The complex questions of today for a world of tomorrow are characterized by their global impact. Solutions must therefore not only be sustainable in the sense of the three pillars of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social) but must also function globally. This goes hand in hand with the need for intercultural acceptance of developed services and products. To achieve this, engineers, as the problem solvers of the future, must be able to work in intercultural teams on appropriate solutions, and be sensitive to intercultural perspectives. To equip the engineers of the future with the so-called future skills, teaching concepts are needed in which students can acquire these methods and competencies in application-oriented formats. The presented course "Applying Design Thinking - Sustainability, Innovation and Interculturality" was developed to teach future skills from the competency areas Digital Key Competencies, Classical Competencies and Transformative Competencies. The CDIO Standard 3.0, in particular the standards 5, 6, 7 and 8, was used as a guideline. The course aims to prepare engineering students from different disciplines and cultures for their future work in an international environment by combining a digital teaching format with an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and intercultural setting for solving sustainability challenges. The innovative moment lies in the digital application of design thinking and the inclusion of intercultural as well as trans- and interdisciplinary perspectives in innovation development processes. In this paper, the concept of the course will be presented in detail and the particularities of a digital implementation of design thinking will be addressed. Subsequently, the potentials and challenges will be reflected and practical advice for integrating design thinking in engineering education will be given. KW - Design Thinking KW - Sustainability KW - Future Skills KW - Interculturality KW - Interdisciplinarity Y1 - 2023 N1 - 19th International CDIO Conference, hosted by NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, June 26-29, 2023 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Steuer-Dankert, Linda T1 - A crazy little thing called sustainability T2 - 51st Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) N2 - Achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations (UN) in 2015 requires global collaboration between different stakeholders. Industry, and in particular engineers who shape industrial developments, have a special role to play as they are confronted with the responsibility to holistically reflect sustainability in industrial processes. This means that, in addition to the technical specifications, engineers must also question the effects of their own actions on an ecological, economic and social level in order to ensure sustainable action and contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. However, this requires competencies that enable engineers to apply all three pillars of sustainability to their own field of activity and to understand the global impact of industrial processes. In this context, it is relevant to understand how industry already reflects sustainability and to identify competences needed for sustainable development. KW - Transformative Competencies KW - Future Skills KW - Transdisciplinarity KW - Interdisciplinarity KW - Sustainability Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.21427/9CQR-VC94 N1 - 51st Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education, Technological University Dublin, 10th-14th September, 2023 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Stark, Ralf A1 - Rieping, Carla A1 - Esch, Thomas T1 - The impact of guide tubes on flow separation in rocket nozzles T2 - Aerospace Europe Conference 2023 - 10th EUCASS - 9th CEAS N2 - Rocket engine test facilities and launch pads are typically equipped with a guide tube. Its purpose is to ensure the controlled and safe routing of the hot exhaust gases. In addition, the guide tube induces a suction that effects the nozzle flow, namely the flow separation during transient start-up and shut-down of the engine. A cold flow subscale nozzle in combination with a set of guide tubes was studied experimentally to determine the main influencing parameters. KW - Guide Tube KW - TICTOP KW - Nozzle KW - Suction Y1 - 2023 N1 - Lausanne, July 9-13, 2023 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Stark, Ralf A1 - Bartel, Sebastian A1 - Ditsche, Florian A1 - Esch, Thomas T1 - Design study of a 30kN LOX/LCH4 aerospike rocket engine for lunar lander application T2 - Aerospace Europe Conference 2023 - 10th EUCASS - 9th CEAS N2 - Based on lunar lander concept EL3, various LOX/CH4 aerospike engines were studied. A distinction was made between single and cluster configurations as well as ideal and non-ideal contour concepts. It could be shown that non-ideal aerospike engines promise a significant payload gain. Y1 - 2023 N1 - Lausanne, July 9-13, 2023 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sildatke, Michael A1 - Karwanni, Hendrik A1 - Kraft, Bodo A1 - Zündorf, Albert T1 - A distributed microservice architecture pattern for the automated generation of information extraction pipelines JF - SN Computer Science N2 - Companies often build their businesses based on product information and therefore try to automate the process of information extraction (IE). Since the information source is usually heterogeneous and non-standardized, classic extract, transform, load techniques reach their limits. Hence, companies must implement the newest findings from research to tackle the challenges of process automation. They require a flexible and robust system that is extendable and ensures the optimal processing of the different document types. This paper provides a distributed microservice architecture pattern that enables the automated generation of IE pipelines. Since their optimal design is individual for each input document, the system ensures the ad-hoc generation of pipelines depending on specific document characteristics at runtime. Furthermore, it introduces the automated quality determination of each available pipeline and controls the integration of new microservices based on their impact on the business value. The introduced system enables fast prototyping of the newest approaches from research and supports companies in automating their IE processes. Based on the automated quality determination, it ensures that the generated pipelines always meet defined business requirements when they come into productive use. KW - Architectural design KW - Model-driven software engineering KW - Software and systems modeling KW - Enterprise information systems KW - Information extraction Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-023-02256-4 SN - 2661-8907 N1 - Corresponding authors: Michael Sildatke, Hendrik Karwanni IS - 4, Article number: 833 PB - Springer Singapore CY - Singapore ER -