A comprehensive introduction to the mathematical foundations of movement and actuation that apply equally to animals and machines. This textbook offers a computational framework for the sensorimotor stage of development as applied to robotics. Much work in developmental robotics is based on ad hoc examples, without a full computational basis. This book's comprehensive and complete treatment fills the gap, drawing on the principal mechanisms of development in the first year of life to introduce what is essentially an operating system for developing robots. The goal is to apply principles of development to robot systems that not only achieve new levels of performance but also provide evidence for scientific theories of human development.

To remain competitive in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must increase their innovation capacity and close the gap between qualification requirements and demands. Human capital is the most important resource for increasing productivity and innovation. As a result, the "Knowledge Alliance for Human Resources and Organizational Development" project was launched and ran from 2017 to 2021. The project of eleven partners from four countries placed a high value on increased collaboration between universities and businesses in order to promote education and innovation. The most important findings are included in this publication. First, through R&D work at universities, SME-specific methods, instruments, and projects are developed, tested, and implemented, resulting in workplace innovations in areas such as employee recruitment, motivation, and digitization, a more innovative working environment, and more efficient use of human capital. Second, through qualifications, small and medium-sized enterprises in the Baltic Sea Region's awareness and competencies in this new area of innovation promotion was strengthened.

A comprehensive survey of artificial intelligence algorithms and programming organization for robot systems, combining theoretical rigor and practical applications. This textbook offers a comprehensive survey of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and programming organization for robot systems. Readers who master the topics covered will be able to design and evaluate an artificially intelligent robot for applications involving sensing, acting, planning, and learning. A background in AI is not required; the book introduces key AI topics from all AI subdisciplines throughout the book and explains how they contribute to autonomous capabilities. This second edition is a major expansion and reorganization of the first edition, reflecting the dramatic advances made in AI over the past fifteen years. An introductory overview provides a framework for thinking about AI for robotics, distinguishing between the fundamentally different design paradigms of automation and autonomy. The book then discusses the reactive functionality of sensing and acting in AI robotics; introduces the deliberative functions most often associated with intelligence and the capability of autonomous initiative; surveys multi-robot systems and (in a new chapter) human-robot interaction; and offers a “metaview” of how to design and evaluate autonomous systems and the ethical considerations in doing so. New material covers locomotion, simultaneous localization and mapping, human-robot interaction, machine learning, and ethics. Each chapter includes exercises, and many chapters provide case studies. Endnotes point to additional reading, highlight advanced topics, and offer robot trivia.

Organization Development (OD) is key to ensuring that organizations and their people can adapt to and engage in ongoing change in today's fast-paced and competitive world. How can those responsible for managing change determine the most appropriate course of action for their organization's needs and maximize capability? Written by two of the leading experts in the field, Organization Development is an essential guide to the theories, practices, tools and techniques for achieving success. It explores the role of HR in relation to OD, and connected areas such as organization design, building organizational agility and resilience, and culture change. Alongside international case studies from organizations including Ernst & Young, Nationwide, Lockheed Martin and the University of Sheffield, UK, this revised third edition of Organization Development contains new chapters on building an adaptive culture of learning and innovation and organization health and 'use of self'. With fresh material on digitization, OD in SMEs, and competence profiles, this is an indispensable handbook to understanding, communicating and implementing organization development approaches for both experienced practitioners and students.

What are the best practices for leading a workforce in which human employees have merged cognitively and physically with electronic information systems and work alongside social robots, artificial life-forms, and self-aware networks that are ‘colleagues’ rather than simply ‘tools’? How does one manage organizational structures and activities that span actual and virtual worlds? How are the forces of technological posthumanization transforming the theory and practice of management? This volume explores the reality that an organization’s workers, managers, customers, and other stakeholders increasingly comprise a complex network of human agents, artificial agents, and hybrid human-synthetic entities. The first part of the book develops the theoretical foundations of an emerging ‘organizational posthumanism’ and presents frameworks for understanding and managing the evolving workplace relationship between human and synthetic beings. Other chapters investigate topics such as the likelihood that social robots might utilize charismatic authority to lead human workers; potential roles of AIs as managers of cross-cultural virtual teams; the ethics and legality of entrusting organizational decision-making to spatially diffuse robots that have no discernible physical form; quantitative approaches to comparing managerial capabilities of human and artificial agents; the creation of artificial life-forms that function as autonomous enterprises competing against human businesses; neural implants as gateways that allow human users to participate in new forms of organizational life; and the implications of advanced neuroprosthetics for information security and business model design. As the first comprehensive application of posthumanist methodologies to management, this volume will interest management scholars and management practitioners who must understand and guide the forces of technologization that are rapidly reshaping organizations’ form, dynamics, and societal roles.

This volume explores the ways in which knowledge and innovation impact business and economic sustainability, offering a wide-ranging and richly illustrated study of knowledge, innovation and sustainability of organizations from a dynamic capabilities perspective. In organizational theory, dynamic capability is defined as an organization’s ability to react and adapt adequately and rapidly to external change. In today’s global economy, pursuing sustainable strategies and practices is critical to organizational success. Complying with externally and internally imposed sustainability targets might initially appear as a restriction for organizations; however, they can be transformed into a new set of opportunities. This means that the classic ways in which management absorbs the experiences associated with evolving conditions, organizational frameworks and markets must be reconsidered in light of the preservation of the technological, environmental and social ecosystems. Featuring research and case studies from sectors such as NGOs, SMEs, education and agriculture, this book offers students, academics, practitioners and policymakers a multi-faceted understanding of how and why knowledge, innovation and sustainability are intricately linked—and offers insight into best practices that balance organizational and societal needs.

This book explores the role of HRD professionals in ethical and legal decision making in the workplace. While previous books have described the need for ethics in HRD, this book presents ways that HRD scholars and professionals can influence, through collaborative relationships, effective implementation of ethical policies and legal standards in the workplace. The ethical policies of an organization provide a key insight into its values, and this book shows the relationship between those values and HRD practices, such as training and development, career development, and organization development. Exploring such topics as protected classes, diversity intelligence, employee rights, and employee privacy, this book will inform HRD scholars and professionals on researching and enhancing ethical and legal decision making in the workplace.