RB
R.M.A. Bruens
info
Please Note
<p>This page displays the records of the person named above and is not linked to a unique person identifier. This record may need to be merged to a profile.</p>
2 records found
1
Analysing Interdependent Decision-Makers
A Petri Net Simulation of Policy Coordination
Factors in organisational processes form a convoluted ecosystem: concurrent activities, delayed information and interdependent decisions make anticipating and implementing policy changes difficult. This thesis investigates whether modelling techniques used for discrete-event systems, commonly used in the field of embedded systems and computer science, can expose design trade-offs of a human-centred process. A case-inspired policy-negotiation problem is presented as a coloured Petri net simulation, in which a central leader iteratively proposes policies on which agents provide feedback. The configurable model takes into account organisational scale, agent preference heterogeneity, change in agent preference, policy budget constraints, unequally weighted feedback, stochastic delays and leader-imposed deadlines. A replicated two-level factorial experiment estimates the main and two-factor interaction effects on agent response-time spread, completion time, response rate and policy satisfaction. The simulation results indicate that delay parameters dominate timing outcomes, deadline leniency increases participation at the cost of completion time, and greater agent-preference dynamics are associated with substantially lower satisfaction. The resulting model functions as a proof of concept for using Petri nets to characterise coordination dynamics. It is not an empirical representation and cannot be used to predict organisational outcomes without validation in practice.
...
Factors in organisational processes form a convoluted ecosystem: concurrent activities, delayed information and interdependent decisions make anticipating and implementing policy changes difficult. This thesis investigates whether modelling techniques used for discrete-event systems, commonly used in the field of embedded systems and computer science, can expose design trade-offs of a human-centred process. A case-inspired policy-negotiation problem is presented as a coloured Petri net simulation, in which a central leader iteratively proposes policies on which agents provide feedback. The configurable model takes into account organisational scale, agent preference heterogeneity, change in agent preference, policy budget constraints, unequally weighted feedback, stochastic delays and leader-imposed deadlines. A replicated two-level factorial experiment estimates the main and two-factor interaction effects on agent response-time spread, completion time, response rate and policy satisfaction. The simulation results indicate that delay parameters dominate timing outcomes, deadline leniency increases participation at the cost of completion time, and greater agent-preference dynamics are associated with substantially lower satisfaction. The resulting model functions as a proof of concept for using Petri nets to characterise coordination dynamics. It is not an empirical representation and cannot be used to predict organisational outcomes without validation in practice.
Bachelor thesis
(2019)
-
Maxim Liefaard, Raoul Bruens, Dana van Hassel, Sterre Noorthoek, Thomas Abeel, Maneesh Verma, Chris Verhoeven, Otto Visser, Huijuan Wang
With the steady increase in space missions, enabled through technological advances and increase of commercialisation within the space flight industry, both more and increasingly complex missions can be designed for space. To this end, the Lunar Zebro project competes within this field through its small lunar rover design, drastically decreasing deployment costs and risk of the mission. The road map of Lunar Zebro aims to have a multitude of rovers deployed on the Moon, being able to complete several tasks like exploring, observing, and mapping. Since this concept of rover cooperation adds a novel level of complexity to the mission, a feasibility study is required to look into the difficulties of navigating the Moon with a larger group of rovers. LunarSim is the software package developed during this project. LunarSim aims to facilitate a simulation environment in which Lunar Zebro rovers and space mission designs can be tested and validated. To legitimise the workings of the simulation, a few scenarios have been developed to test the core functionalities of the software product. These scenarios are based on phases in a practical mission plan that consists out of navigating to and observing a crater location. The scenarios is evaluated through examination of a set of defined fitness criteria. In this report, the reader will find documentation on the development process of LunarSim: the simulation in Unity, the ROS back-end, and the bridge between these two systems. Additionally, the report elaborates how the developed software was used to aid in the feasibility study of LUFAR. First, initial research and requirements are formulated to define the scope of the simulation, after which the software architecture is introduced. Then, the systems implemented for the simulation are explained. Subsequently, the implemented rover behaviour algorithm that was used for testing is explained, with additional resources on how to develop a new custom rover behaviour. After this, an evaluation is given of the simulation based on the initial requirements and research with future research and concluding remarks. At the end of the report, the technical specifications in terms of software architecture, simulation environment, and rover behaviour are defined to give an in-depth view of LunarSim.
...
With the steady increase in space missions, enabled through technological advances and increase of commercialisation within the space flight industry, both more and increasingly complex missions can be designed for space. To this end, the Lunar Zebro project competes within this field through its small lunar rover design, drastically decreasing deployment costs and risk of the mission. The road map of Lunar Zebro aims to have a multitude of rovers deployed on the Moon, being able to complete several tasks like exploring, observing, and mapping. Since this concept of rover cooperation adds a novel level of complexity to the mission, a feasibility study is required to look into the difficulties of navigating the Moon with a larger group of rovers. LunarSim is the software package developed during this project. LunarSim aims to facilitate a simulation environment in which Lunar Zebro rovers and space mission designs can be tested and validated. To legitimise the workings of the simulation, a few scenarios have been developed to test the core functionalities of the software product. These scenarios are based on phases in a practical mission plan that consists out of navigating to and observing a crater location. The scenarios is evaluated through examination of a set of defined fitness criteria. In this report, the reader will find documentation on the development process of LunarSim: the simulation in Unity, the ROS back-end, and the bridge between these two systems. Additionally, the report elaborates how the developed software was used to aid in the feasibility study of LUFAR. First, initial research and requirements are formulated to define the scope of the simulation, after which the software architecture is introduced. Then, the systems implemented for the simulation are explained. Subsequently, the implemented rover behaviour algorithm that was used for testing is explained, with additional resources on how to develop a new custom rover behaviour. After this, an evaluation is given of the simulation based on the initial requirements and research with future research and concluding remarks. At the end of the report, the technical specifications in terms of software architecture, simulation environment, and rover behaviour are defined to give an in-depth view of LunarSim.