Navigation Challenges Research Articles

Case for Review of Laws on Foreign Business Participation in Nigeria

In Nigeria, the question is whether laws on foreign business participation are simple, clear and coherent in relation to implementation and the ability of a foreign company to navigate the process? This article advocates the review of laws on foreign business participation in Nigeria. Foreign businesses, unless exempted, are required to be registered under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), 2020 in addition to registrations and obtaining of permits, licences and approvals under several laws and agencies of government. The paper argues that the laws pose large and unclear compliance requirements and peculiarities and thus produce administrative and bureaucratic bottlenecks. The lack of cohesion among the agencies in implementation creates a cumbersome, lengthy process and an inadequate environment resulting in navigation challenges for foreign companies. There is a need for the development of a simple and clear digitized process automation for registrations, applications and approvals. The recent development of a digital process at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) must be clear, seamless and in existence in all agencies, especially in the era of the Coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Also, coherence among the agencies and collaboration between the agencies and the foreign companies is required. advocacy, review, laws, foreign, company, business, participation, implementation, digitization, Nigeria

AIS Data Vulnerability Indicated by a Spoofing Case-Study

This paper takes a close look at the landscape of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) as a major source of information for maritime situational awareness (MSA) and identifies its vulnerabilities and challenges for safe navigation and shipping. As an important subset of cyber threats affecting many maritime systems, the AIS is subject to problems of tampering and reliability; indeed, the messages received may be inadvertently false, jammed, or intentionally spoofed. A systematic literature review was conducted for this article, complemented by a case study of a specific spoofing event near Elba in December 2019, which confirmed that the typical maritime AIS could be easily spoofed and generate erroneous position information. This intentional spoofing has affected navigation in international waters and passage through territorial waters. The maritime industry is neither immune to cyberattacks nor fully prepared for the risks associated with the use of modern digital systems. Maintaining seaworthiness in the face of the impact of digital technologies requires a robust cybersecurity framework.

811 Lessons from a Pandemic - Streamlining Sleep Apnea Care; is the future here?

IntroductionReady access to optimal care for sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBD) remains a major barrier to the vast majority of an estimated 25 million Americans with undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea. This barrier includes lack of readily available sleep medicine expert contact, health care insurance navigation challenges and difficulties with continuity of care. Chronic pervasive gaps in sleep medicine care were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. While numerous models were previously proposed to bridge SRBD care gaps, sustained and quantifiable success has been elusive.MethodsDeploying interactive technology and artificial intelligence, we designed and implemented a novel, user-friendly integrated medium named Ognomy - the Sleep Apnea App, to mitigate widespread SRBD care access gaps. Multi-faceted but unified open access was made widely available, allowing bidirectional patient-provider interaction through a Web App. Individuals or surrogates who suspect that they or dependents suffer from SRBD are able to readily establish secure access to Ognomy. Patients can independently download and interact with the application on-demand and around the clock.ResultsFrom April 2020 to date, more than seven thousand (7,726) Ognomy App downloads have been documented. Over a thousand (1,169) patient registrations have occurred on Ognomy. Five hundred seventy-four (49.1%) of Ognomy App registrants have since been provided hitherto difficult, cumbersome access to full care, by a board-certified Sleep Medicine provider. Four hundred eighty-nine (85.2%) of the 574 patients managed via Ognomy’s care provision chain proceeded to complete sleep diagnostic testing and follow up.ConclusionAvailability of a readily accessible and affordable multi-faceted platform for care of sleep-related breathing disorders will mitigate the burden of untreated SRBD in the United Sates and worldwide. Ognomy, a Sleep as a Software service, is a novel integrated tool, bridging chronic gaps in sleep apnea care. Measures that significantly alter the trajectory of Sleep Medicine care now and in the future, have the potential to systematically close existing SRBD care gaps worldwide. Innovative tools such as algorithmic scheduling, Blockchain utility for platform interoperability, facilitating insurance benefit verifications, deployed in tandem with delivery drone systems for home sleep testing, should enhance turnaround time and improve care currently available for SRBD.Support (if any):

Human-Piloted Drone Racing: Visual Processing and Control

Humans race drones faster than algorithms, despite being limited to a fixed camera angle, body rate control, and response latencies in the order of hundreds of milliseconds. A better understanding of the ability of human pilots of selecting appropriate motor commands from highly dynamic visual information may provide key insights for solving current challenges in vision-based autonomous navigation. This paper investigates the relationship between human eye movements, control behavior, and flight performance in a drone racing task. We collected a multimodal dataset from 21 experienced drone pilots using a highly realistic drone racing simulator, also used to recruit professional pilots. Our results show task-specific improvements in drone racing performance over time. In particular, we found that eye gaze tracks future waypoints (i.e., gates), with first fixations occurring on average 1.5 seconds and 16 meters before reaching the gate. Moreover, human pilots consistently looked at the inside of the future flight path for lateral (i.e., left and right turns) and vertical maneuvers (i.e., ascending and descending). Finally, we found a strong correlation between pilots eye movements and the commanded direction of quadrotor flight, with an average visual-motor response latency of 220 ms. These results highlight the importance of coordinated eye movements in human-piloted drone racing. We make our dataset publicly available.

Relative Heading Estimation for Pedestrians Based on the Gravity Vector

Inertial navigation of pedestrians carrying a smart device is a core component of many indoor positioning systems. While infrastructure-based solutions typically depend on an installation of dedicated hardware, inertial navigation depends only on sensors embedded in the device itself. A single solution can thus be applied to a large range of use cases. This work focuses on one of the main challenges in inertial navigation: user heading estimation. We describe a complete statistical model for heading estimation based on the IMU and magnetometer, assuming a fixed device pose on the pedestrian. Our aim is to provide a stand-alone solution, suitable for direct implementation into a larger positioning framework. The method consists of two consecutive parts. The first focuses on gravity vector estimation based on IMU data. We describe a method for obtaining independent estimates under dynamic conditions, thereby removing the quasi-static initialization phase required by conventional methods. The second part combines the gravity vector with gyro and magnetic measurements to estimate user heading. The proposed method is tested against a motion capture system, and against an alternative method based on attitude. We find that both methods produce similar results in terms of accuracy.

Remotely delivered environmental enrichment intervention for traumatic brain injury: Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

IntroductionIndividuals with moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (m-sTBI) experience progressive brain and behavioural declines in the chronic stages of injury. Longitudinal studies found that a majority of patients with m-sTBI exhibit...

Ice-Breaking Fleets of the United States and Canada: Assessing the Current State of Affairs and Future Plans

In recent years, a continuous decline of ice-coverage in the Arctic has been recorded, but these high latitudes are still dominated by earth’s polar ice cap. Therefore, safe and sustainable shipping operations in this still frozen region have as a precondition the availability of ice-breaking support. The analysis in hand provides an assessment of the United States’ and Canada’s polar ice-breaking program with the purpose of examining to what extent these countries’ relevant resources are able to meet the facilitated growth of industrial interests in the High North. This assessment will specifically focus on the maritime transportation sector along the Northwest Passage and consists of four main sections. The first provides a very brief description of the main Arctic passages. The second section specifically explores the current situation of the Northwest Passage, including the relevant navigational challenges, lack of infrastructure, available routes that may be used for transit, potential choke points, and current state of vessel activity along these routes. The third one examines the economic viability of the Northwest Passage compared to that of the Panama Canal; the fourth and final section is investigating the current and future capabilities of the United States’ and Canada’s ice-breaking fleet. Unfortunately, both countries were found to be lacking the necessary assets with ice-breaking capabilities and will need to accelerate their efforts in order to effectively respond to the growing needs of the Arctic. The total number of available ice-breaking assets is impacting negatively the level of support by the marine transportation system of both the United States and Canada; these two countries are facing the possibility to be unable to effectively meet the expected future needs because of the lengthy acquisition and production process required for new ice-breaking fleets.

Autonomous Surface Vessel with Remote Human on the Loop: System Design for STCW Compliance

Autonomous surface vessels comprise complex automated systems with advanced onboard sensors. These help establish situation awareness and perform many of the complex tasks required for safe navigation. However, situations occur that require assistance by a human proxy. If not physically present on board, information digestion and sharing between human and machine become crucial to maintain safe operation. This paper addresses the co-design of on-board systems and a Remote Control Centre (RCC). Using the international regulations on watch-keeping (STCW) as a basis, the paper discuss how an autonomous system is designed to meet the STCW requirements. It is discussed how the autonomous system is made aware of the state of the vessel, its surroundings, on-board defects or navigational challenges and shared with the RCC in a collaborating system perspective.

Visual and Visual‐Inertial SLAM: State of the Art, Classification, and Experimental Benchmarking

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping is now widely adopted by many applications, and researchers have produced very dense literature on this topic. With the advent of smart devices, embedding cameras, inertial measurement units, visual SLAM (vSLAM), and visual‐inertial SLAM (viSLAM) are enabling novel general public applications. In this context, this paper conducts a review of popular SLAM approaches with a focus on vSLAM/viSLAM, both at fundamental and experimental levels. It starts with a structured overview of existing vSLAM and viSLAM designs and continues with a new classification of a dozen main state‐of‐the‐art methods. A chronological survey of viSLAM’s development highlights the historical milestones and presents more recent methods into a classification. Finally, the performance of vSLAM is experimentally assessed for the use case of pedestrian pose estimation with a handheld device in urban environments. The performance of five open‐source methods Vins‐Mono, ROVIO, ORB‐SLAM2, DSO, and LSD‐SLAM is compared using the EuRoC MAV dataset and a new visual‐inertial dataset corresponding to urban pedestrian navigation. A detailed analysis of the computation results identifies the strengths and weaknesses for each method. Globally, ORB‐SLAM2 appears to be the most promising algorithm to address the challenges of urban pedestrian navigation, tested with two datasets.

Overreliance on ECDIS Technology: A Challenge for Safe Navigation

Overreliance on ECDIS Technology: A Challenge for Safe Navigation

Relative navigation control of articulated vehicle based on LTV-MPC

The automation of the articulated vehicle is an important trend of the intelligent transportation system in the mining industry. And the relative navigation is a key technology to automatic vehicles. One of the challenges in the relative navigation of the articulated vehicle is that the system constraints may cause the actuator saturation and other problems. In order to solve these problems, this paper presents a relative navigation control method based on linear time varying model predictive control (LTV-MPC). This control method can explicitly take the system constraints into account. The performance of the controller is verified by simulation and experiment. The results show that the articulated vehicle with the LTV-MPC controller can track the target heading direction, the steady-state error is less than 0.3 rad. The relative navigation controller based on LTV-MPC can be used to improve the automatic driving performance of the articulated vehicle.

Usability and Feature Evaluation of the Amazfit Bips Smart Watch in the Precision START Lab

Interventions utilizing consumer-grade wearable and mobile devices may support older adult health and wellness. However, rapid technology change and short industry product release cycles limit timely incorporation of these devices. We developed a novel, multi-stage process to rapidly move from within-team evaluations to lab- and field-based participants studies based on small-sample technology testing methods from Human-Computer Interaction. We present findings from a first-stage evaluation of the Amazfit Bips smart watch for potential use in studies with older adults as part of the methodology validation. A four-person research team conducted evaluations using: 1) a wearables framework for user experience and feature availability; and 2) the System Usability Scale (SUS). Evaluators wore the watch seven days straight from the box. User experience checklists indicated high usability. However, corresponding comments identified challenges with downloading the mobile app, pairing the watch and phone, navigating watch and mobile interfaces, and privacy controls. Average SUS score was 65.6 indicating marginal usability (C grade). While meeting study goals, divergence in usability perceptions suggest the process could be improved by completing each set of instruments separately for the watch and mobile app rather than all at once. Given failures in pairing, app navigation challenges, and small screen size, the Amazfit Bips may be best suited for studies among older adults with a high degree of technical proficiency. For those with little technical experience or high disease burden, training materials and dedicated training with support may be required. Future steps are lab- and field-based tests with older adult participants.

Improving Navigation in GNSS-Challenging Environments: Multi-UAS Cooperation and Generalized Dilution of Precision

This article presents an approach to tackle navigation challenges for unmanned aircraft systems flying under non-nominal GNSS coverage. The concept used to improve navigation performance in these environments consists of using one or more cooperative platforms and relative sensing measurements (based on vision and/or ranging) to the navigation aid. The article details the cooperative navigation filter, which can exploit multiple cooperative platforms and multiple relative measurements while also using the partial GNSS information. The achievable navigation accuracy can be predicted using the concept of “generalized dilution of precision,” which derives from applying the idea of the dilution of precision to the mathematical structure of the cooperative navigation filter. The values and trends of generalized dilution of precision are discussed as a function of the relative geometry in common GNSS-challenging scenarios. Finally, navigation performance is assessed based on simulations and multidrone flight tests.

La génesis ibérica del moderno poder naval

At the end of the 15th century, a revolutionary approach to the use of the sea for its own benefit emerged from the two Atlantic Iberian peoples, characterized by having to face the challenge of ocean navigation and the exploration of new lands, something never even conceived previously. As happened in the previous historical stages with other protagonists, the main motivation to jump into the sea was economic. However, the geographic scale of the endeavor on this occasion ushered in a new era, characterized both by accelerated scientific development and by a globalization of commerce, politics, technology and culture (language, education and Christianity). Portugal conquered the oceans with the aim of establishing a network of commercial enclaves, creating the mold of what has since been considered the logical procedure for maritime powers in order to move freely through the seas that link the colonies with the metropolis. Accordingly, what for just over a century has been called sea (naval) power was nothing but the part of maritime power that was responsible for protecting its own trade from the ambition of others. Spain, however, undertook a similar epic with a more territorial (and patrimonial) mentality, due to which the oceans themselves came to be considered an integral part of the crown possessions as a link that united the different parts of the kingdom. That assumption created a new concept of naval power, by which in time of peace it complemented maritime power, which became at the same time a tributary of the former in the event of war. What the classic Anglo-Saxon writers (Alfred T. Mahan and Julian S. Corbett, in particular) described as maritime and sea power when studying the new history in British documentary sources is nothing more than the transposition of the principles that governed the constitution of Renaissance Portugal in a thalassocracy of planetary scope. The Spanish case is much more complex, since it was not only equally ignored in late-nineteenth-century and later historical-strategic studies (not only Anglo-Saxon, which is even more inexplicable), but it remains in the mist of the unexplored by not having had recognized historical continuity, which has contributed to preventing an adequate understanding of the historical dimension of the success (due to its resilience, durability, prosperity…) of the “empire” of the Hispanic Monarchy.

RETRACTED: Collection and Application of Ship Energy Consumption Data Based on Image Recognition Technology

Navigation challenge corresponding development strategies to overcome the collection and application of the shipbuilding industry due to the control of various data-based energy efficiency measures. Ship performance data collection and navigation of ships navigate this energy efficiency strategy, an integral part of the management plan. The provisions of various navigation strategies in CNNs (Convolutional Neural Network) are believed to play an important role in ship performance in modern integrated bridge systems. Therefore, it realizes a large amount of onboard data to process the process. In general, navigation systems can provide guidance for the transmission in exercise, and provide effective guidance for the navigation information and direction of the ship. It can provide effective information and convenience for the exercise of the ship during the voyage of the ship. This paper mainly studies the methods and ways to provide some solutions through big data. The author suggests using the data flow chart recorded for the ship engine. This can easily monitor the main performance and some data of the ship during navigation, thus improving the guiding effect of navigation. Database image recognition is to monitor possible accidents through sensors, and classify and compress the monitored data. The classified ship dataset is then compressed to reduce the number of parameters passed to the coastal data center. A compressed dataset of ship performance and navigation information is expanded to its original size in the first step of the process. The two steps of data compression and expansion are done with another CNN technology (i.e., deep learning) of the autoencoder. The new dataset contains estimated ship performance parameters and navigation information, even if the compressed dataset has been expanded to its original size. Therefore, comparisons between actual and presumed datasets are made to change.

An Analysis of the Benefits and Difficulties of Aerial Magnetic Vector Navigation

Recent successful flight tests have demonstrated scalar magnetic anomaly navigation to be a viable GPS-alternative navigation system. These flight tests matched magnetic field measurements to maps of the Earth's crustal magnetic field in order to navigate. Scalar magnetic navigation uses only the magnetic field intensity, not direction, in order to navigate. While it appears obvious to extend aerial magnetic navigation to use the full vector field, in practice there are substantial obstacles to doing so. This article explores the key challenges of magnetic vector navigation including current sensor limitations, lack of high frequency magnetic vector maps of the Earth's crust, and proper integration of the magnetic data with an inertial navigation system. In overcoming these challenges several key benefits of magnetic vector navigation over scalar magnetic navigation become apparent, including modestly improved navigation accuracy and greatly improved platform attitude.

Metric-Cauchy sequence for wheeled mobile robot navigation

In this paper, the path planning approach for the wheeled mobile robot has been presented using Metric-Cauchy Sequence for static environment. The Euclidean metric associated with the distance measurement and the Cauchy sequence optimizes the navigational decisions. This dual approach applies to study navigational challenges such as path complexity, path safety, path optimization, obstacle avoidance, map generation, and goal tracking. The developed navigational model has been tested in a simulation environment using MATLAB software, and real-time environment using the Khepera robot and in-house developed robot on a defined arena for single-robot and multi-robot system. The observations made from both the platforms are compared in terms of navigational time and path length, and obtained results are found to be in close proximity to each other. Furthermore, the developed controller is also compared with the other existing work for validating the performance.

Patient-reported outcomes and experiences in the transition of undocumented patients from emergency to scheduled hemodialysis

Undocumented immigrants with kidney failure can only access dialysis after presenting critically ill to an emergency department in most states within the United States. How access to scheduled dialysis might improve or harm patient experience is currently unknown. To clarify this, we assessed patient reported outcomes and experiences of undocumented patients who transitioned from emergency to scheduled dialysis. Pre-post intervention interviews were conducted using a mixed-methods study (questionnaires and interviews) in a Colorado hospital. Measures included the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form-36 (KDQOL SF-36), Edmonton Symptom Assessment System, Trust in Physician Scale, and CHOICE Satisfaction Scale. Interviews were evaluated using thematic analysis. Thirty patients participated, and 26 completed the post-transition interview (two participants died, two did not transition to scheduled dialysis). Following transition, patients significantly improved on all five KDQOL SF-36 subscales including 116% for burden of kidney disease, 42% for kidney disease effects, 27% for symptoms/problems, 23% for physical and 13% for mental health composite. Patients reported significant improvement in seven symptoms consisting of 100% for nausea, 57% for pain, 94% for appetite and shortness of breath, 87% for anxiety, 86% for depression, 65% for tiredness, and 60% for drowsiness. Trust and satisfaction with care were unchanged. Five identified themes corroborated patient-reported outcomes but indicated continuing challenges associated with anxiety about navigating changes in care, increased burden on family and employers, relief in receiving consistent care, immediate and remarkable health gains, and restoring hope and humanity. Thus, providing healthcare access to standard dialysis for undocumented immigrants improved quality of life and mitigated debilitating symptoms but brought new challenges in healthcare navigation as well as family burden and work.

Scientific Challenges and Present Capabilities in Underwater Robotic Vehicle Design and Navigation for Oceanographic Exploration Under-Ice

This paper reviews the scientific motivation and challenges, development, and use of underwater robotic vehicles designed for use in ice-covered waters, with special attention paid to the navigation systems employed for under-ice deployments. Scientific needs for routine access under fixed and moving ice by underwater robotic vehicles are reviewed in the contexts of geology and geophysics, biology, sea ice and climate, ice shelves, and seafloor mapping. The challenges of under-ice vehicle design and navigation are summarized. The paper reviews all known under-ice robotic vehicles and their associated navigation systems, categorizing them by vehicle type (tethered, untethered, hybrid, and glider) and by the type of ice they were designed for (fixed glacial or sea ice and moving sea ice).

How anxiety and growth mindset are linked to navigation ability: Impacts of exploration and GPS use

There are large individual differences in navigation ability, but we know little about the causes of these differences. Here, we examine how motivational and emotional dispositions affect every-day navigation and in turn influence navigation ability. We developed three new self-report surveys, measuring growth mindset in regard to navigation ability, tendency to explore new places, and tendency to rely on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) during navigation. In Study 1 (N = 123) we developed initial measures and in Study 2 (N = 150) we refined these measures and developed mediation models to test how motivational and emotional dispositions affect human navigation. Findings indicated that people with low spatial anxiety tend to explore their environments more and rely less on GPS during navigation. Moreover, these navigation behaviors partially mediate the relationship between anxiety and self-reported navigation ability. Growth mindset in navigation ability (a belief that one's navigation ability can be improved) explains a unique portion of variance in self-reported navigation ability, suggesting that growth mindset may motivate people to seek out navigation challenges and train themselves to be more effective navigators in daily life. This study paves a new path for understanding how motivational and emotional dispositions affect the development of navigation ability and provides insights for future navigation training programs. The new self-report surveys and a revised Spatial Anxiety Survey are available on the Open Science Framework website.