Posts tagged 'Carl Davidson'

High Design and Reducing the Working Day Toward Zero:

by Editors @ Friday, June 22nd, 2012. Tags:
Filed under High Design, Technology

Ant Behavior Inspires More Efficient Warehouse Robots

By Ben Coxworth
Gizmag

March 23, 2012 -When it comes to groups that work together to get a job done, ants have pretty much got the process perfected.

That’s why computer scientist Marco Dorigo studied the creatures’ behavior, and created his Ant Colony Optimization model – an algorithmic technique that can be applied to human endeavors, when efficiency is the order of the day. Scientists from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics have now applied these algorithms to a swarm of 50 autonomous shuttle robots working in a parts warehouse, in an effort to create a new and better type of materials-handling system.

The warehouse is actually a 1,000 square-meter (10,764 sq-ft) research facility, equipped to simulate a distribution center. It incorporates 600 small-parts bins located on storage shelves, and eight picking stations. The wheeled Multishuttle Moves robots are responsible for getting requested parts from the shelves, and delivering them to one of those stations as fast as possible.

Besides having microprocessors running software based on the ant algorithms, the robots are also equipped with distance sensors, accelerometers, and laser scanners. All of the robots are informed when an order comes in, and proceed to check in with each other via a wireless local area network, to find out which one is closest to the bin containing that part. The task is then assigned to that robot (assuming it’s available), which uses a combination of its onboard navigation software and sensory input to determine the quickest route to and from the bin, and to avoid running into other robots.

Traditionally, many distribution warehouses utilize roller tracks in the floors for the transportation of goods. According to Fraunhofer, one of the advantages of its system is the fact that it’s more scalable – the floor can be left unaltered, with whatever number of robots being deployed as needed. The robots should also be quicker, as they can determine the fastest route for each situation, instead of being limited to following the rollers every time.

Source: Fraunhofer



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How Can You Build A Smart City?

by Editors @ Thursday, February 9th, 2012. Tags: , , ,
Filed under Environment, High Design, High Road Economics, Urban Problems, Youth

Step one: Make your city appealing to young innovators.

Step two: Make your city a major investor in the technologies they build.

By Boyd Cohen
SolidarityEconomy.net via Fast Company

In prior discussions about smart cities, including the global rankings I published on Co.Exist a few weeks ago, I believe many of us have under-emphasized the importance of cities in creating an enabling environment for emerging technology companies.

This was a key issue addressed at the first-ever Cities Summit held in Vancouver earlier this month. Mayors of 35 cities around the world joined with executives and consultants in an intense day and a half of panels discussing open cities, digital cities, urban laboratories, smart-city financing, and startup cities. Editor’s Note

Vancouver didn’t quite make it into Co.Exist’s list of the 10 smartest cities in the world, and San Jose was nowhere to be found. But given their current paths, perhaps we’ll see them next year.

One of the most interesting conversations was about "Startup Cities." Nanci Klein of San Jose spoke about the five different industrial areas that the city is promoting, as well as the role of the city in supporting the local startup community. One of San Jose’s early insights was addressing the bureaucratic hurdles in their procurement process by creating a demonstration program that bypasses some of the traditional constraints that usually prevent the government from innovating.

In 2008, San Jose created a “Framework for Establishing Demonstration Partnerships” which allows the city to work towards a more sustainable future--including the creation of 25,000 new green jobs--by enabling local companies to use municipal facilities as urban laboratories to test out new clean tech, sustainability, and mobility technologies. Rather than having to jump through the typical arduous and bureaucratic hoops, the demonstration allows the fast-tracking of pilot projects from local companies. "Rather than having to jump through the typical arduous and bureaucratic hoops, the city fast-tracks pilot projects."

San Jose’s website explains: “The City may consider partnerships that temporarily utilize City owned land, facilities, equipment, rights-of-way and data, provide financial assistance and/or absorb some costs for project implementation, require agreement to non-disclosure statements and request City Council to exempt the project from certain City Policies.”

Throughout the two-day summit, I reflected on how smart cities not only use technology in ways that improve the quality of life and reduce the ecological and carbon footprint of their citizens, but also how they can leverage their procurement dollars to serve as urban laboratories and incubation engines.

(more...)

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21st Century Socialism: Eleven Talking Points

by Editors @ Thursday, April 30th, 2009. Tags:
Filed under Economy, Socialism

May Day

Eleven Talking Points

On 21st Century Socialism

 

By Carl Davidson

SolidarityEconomy.net

May 1, 2009

The current discussion around socialism in left and progressive circles in the U.S. needs to be placed in a more substantive arena. This is an effort to do so. I take note in advance of the criticism that the following eleven working hypotheses are rather dry and formal. But in light of the faux ‘socialisms’ bandied about in the headlines and sound bytes of the mass media in the wake of the financial crisis, especially the absurd claim in the media of rightwing populism that the Obama administration is Marxist and socialist, I felt something a little more rigorous might be helpful. Obviously, criticism and commentary is invited.

1. Socialism’s fundamental building blocks are already present in US society. The means of production, for the most part, are fully developed and in fact are stagnating under the political domination of finance capital. The US labor force, again for the most part, is highly skilled at all levels of production, management, marketing, and finance. The kernels of socialist organization are also scattered across the landscape in cooperatives, socially organized human services, and centralized and widespread mass means of many-to-many communication and supply/demand data management. Many earlier attempts at socialism did not have these advantages. (more...)



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