Path Planning Strategy For Line Follower Computer Science Essay

Path Planning Strategy For Line Follower Computer Science Essay This paper presents the development of a line follower wheeled mobile robot. In this project, ARM cortex-3 based microcontroller is chosen as the main controller to react towards the data received from infrared line sensors to give fast, smooth, accurate and safe movement in partially structured environment. A dynamic PID control algorithm has been proposed to improve the navigation reliability of the wheeled mobile robot which uses differential drive locomotion system. The experimental results show that the dynamic PID algorithm can be performed under the system real-time requirements. Keywords embedded system, wheeled mobile robot, PID control algorithm. Introduction Embedded system includes many areas of knowledge, microcontroller hardware and software, interfacing technologies, automatic control theory, and sensor technologies etc. To speed up the learning process and motivate students to learn actively, the project-based learning approach may be applied in the embedded system design laboratory [1-4]. The low-cost wheeled mobile robot building, which is proposed in this paper, serves as a good example on which students can learn embedded system design skills. It covers not only common embedded system peripherals, but also energy control and real-time control firmware implementation. The process of the construction of wheeled mobile robot can give students the idea that hardware circuits and software algorithms are both mandatory for a successful embedded system design. The competition between student groups in the racing contest can also encourage them to explore in depth the skills acquired in this laboratory as well as give them lots of fun [ 5-7]. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: The line follower robot structure and architecture issues and challenges along with their technical issues and problems are discussed in section 2. Programming details will be explained in section 3. Section 4 describes the integration of the complete system. LÄ ±ne follower wheeled MobÄ ±le Robot structure Generally, the line follower robot is one of the self-acting wheeled mobile mechanisms that follow a line drawn on the floor. The route can be a visible black line on a white surface or vice versa. The simple operations of the wheeled mobile line follower robot are shown below. Taking the line position data with optical sensors attached at the front end of the mobile robot. Most are using more than a few numbers of IR photo-reflectors. Therefore, the line sensing procedure needs high resolution and high robustness. Steering the wheeled mobile robot to track the line with any direction-finding mechanism. This is just a servo maneuver; actually, any phase recompense will be required to become stable following motion by applying digital PID filter or any similar servo algorithm. Monitoring the speed according to the path complaint. The speed is restricted during passing a turn due to the friction of the tire with the floor. From actually building the robot platform, to setting up, programming, and hardware or software fine tuning, everything needs to be taken into account when building a differential wheeled mobile robot. A mobile robot can be considered fundamentally as a combination of five main portions and subsystems. Chassis and body. Sensors and signal processing circuits. Microcontroller and interface circuits. Motor drivers Actuators (Motors and wheels) The Chassis and Body The Chassis would be the first part of a robots body. It is designed to handle all of the other components, transmission mechanisms, electronics and battery. It needs to be sufficiently large and provide adequate fixtures to furnish all necessary parts, as well as sturdy enough to cope with the weight of the parts along with additional loads which can appear in dynamic conditions such as vibrations, shocks or chassis torsion and actuators torque. There are some good materials for designing robots such as plastic, aluminum and carbon-composites. We must pay attention to the resistance, weight and mechanical ability for choosing one of them. In the designed robot, printed circuit board (PCB) has been used for chassis because of its lightweight and being strong enough for robot project. All components can be installed on the PCB to minimize the weight. It is noted that the performance is much more valuable than other issues. Sensors and Signal Processing Circuit Line follower robot uses Infrared Ray (IR) sensors to find the path and direction. IR sensors include an infrared transmitter and infrared receiver pair. IR sensors are often used to identify white and black surfaces. White surfaces effectively reflect well, but black surfaces reflect poorly. Hence, the distance between sensors and ground surface is important, and it is more valuable that how we put sensors near to each other. The distance between sensors and ground surface must be 2 to 10 mm, and the distance between each sensor is dependent on the line width. In the designed robot, we have used eight sensors, and they have a suitable distance between each other. If the line width is narrow, the distance between sensors must be reduced; otherwise, while curving the line, the robot will not be turned on time. Generally, the received signals from the sensors are analog and must be converted to the digital form. Therefore, the designed signal processing circuit can send the sensors signals to the microcontroller directly. Microcontroller We have used the TI Stellaris microcontroller LM3S811 in robot project. The LM3S811 microcontroller has a Reduced Instruction Set Coding (RISC) core. Internal oscillators, timers, UART, USB, SPI, pull-up resistors, pulse width modulation, ADC, analog comparator and watch-dog timers are some of the features [8]. With on-chip in-system programmable Flash and SRAM, the LM3S811 is a perfect choice in order to optimize cost. Motor Drivers A well-known and suitable motor driver is IC L298 which can be used to control two motors. It is a high voltage, high-current dual full-bridge driver designed to accept standard TTL logic levels and drive inductive loads such as DC and stepping motors [9]. Two enable inputs are provided to enable or disable the device independently of the input signals. L298 has 2 amperes per channel current capacity and it can support up to 45 volts for outputting. Moreover, L298 works well up to 16 volts without any heat sink. The Actuators (Motors and Wheels) There are many kinds of motors and wheels. Our choice depends on the robot function, power, speed, and precision. Actually, it is better to use gearbox motors instead of common DC motors because it has gears and an axle and its speed does not change towards the top of a hill or downhill. Motors are rated to operate at 1700 rpm at 7 volt nominal voltage. It is better to use wheels for line follower robots, instead of a tank system. We can use three wheels. Two of them are joined to the motors and installed at the rear of the robot and the other wheel is free and installed in front of the robot as a passive caster. To get better maneuver, robot uses two motors and two wheels on the rear and a free wheel on the front. The power supply is 7.6 V with a regulator. The designed robot has eight infrared sensors on the front bottom for detecting the line. Arm based microcontroller Stellaris and driver L298 were used to control direction and speed of motors. General view of the line follower robot that we built is shown in Fig. 1. The robot is controlled by the microcontroller. It performs the change in the motor direction by sending an appropriate signal to the driver IC according to the received signals from the sensors. Real Time Task Scheduling We built a light-weighted and high-speed robot because points are awarded based upon the distance covered and the speed of the overall robot. Therefore, we used two high speed motors and a highly sensitive signal conditioning circuit. The body weight and wheels radius have effects on the speed, too. The weight of the designed robot is around 300 gr. and it could be lighter. The photograph of the top and bottom views of the designed robot is shown in Fig. 1. The microcontroller sends instructions to the driver after processing the data received from sensors. The driver powers the motors according to the inputs. Actually the driver supplies positive voltage to one of the motor pins and negative voltage to the other. There are five states of movement: To move forward; both of the motors are turned on and rotate forward simultaneously. To move left; the right motor is turned on and the left motor is turned off. To move right; the left motor is turned on and the right motor is turned off. To move left fast; the right motor rotates forward and the left motor rotates backward. To move right fast; the left motor rotates forward and the right motor rotates backward. Most embedded system applications need to react to the inputs or environment changes in real time, which means that the accuracy of computations is as important as their timelines. Furthermore, digital control algorithms need a fixed sampling time interval for measuring inputs and delivering output commands. Therefore, the idea of applying interrupts for task scheduling is introduced in this work. IMAG0388 (a) IMAG0392 (b) Figure 1 Images show (a) top, (b) bottom views of the built line follower robot. The Quadratic Line-Detection Algorithm A better way of detecting the line position, compared to the other simple line-following robots, by using a quadratic interpolation technique is introduced. Eight reflective optical sensors were used, and the coordinate of the leftmost sensor was 0. To find out the correct position of the black line, we had to locate three consecutive sensors with higher output readings than the other five sensors as shown in Fig. 2. Assume that the coordinates of these 3 sensors are x1, x1+1, and x1+2, and the true shape of the sensor output values are in the range of [x1, x1+2] which can be approximated by a quadratic curve. One can then find the following relationships between the coordinates of the sensors and the output values: (1) (2) (3) The coordinate value, at which the output value of the quadratic curve is the maximum, is considered as the true position of the line. By using the basic calculus, one would know that the coordinate value is: (4) (5) (6) It is assumed that the coordinate for the center position of the line-following robot is 0. Therefore, the error e between the line position and the center position of the robot is e â‚ ¬Ã‚ ½Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  0â‚ ¬Ã‚ ­Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  x â‚ ¬Ã‚ ½Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ­x (7) Figure 2 The line detection algorithm via quadratic interpolation. PID Tracking Control Algorithm The popular proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller was introduced in this project to make the robot follow the racing track. The error between the center of the sensors and the track to be followed was then processed by the PID controller to generate velocity commands for the right and left wheels. First, the controller calculates the current position and then calculates the error established on the current situation. It will then send commands the motors to give a rigid turn, if the error is extraordinary or a minor turn, if the error is small. Basically, the amount of the turn given will be proportional to the error. Of course this is a consequence of the proportional control. Even after this, if the error does not decline approximately to zero, the controller will then growth the degree of the turn further and further over time till the robot centers over the line. This is the result of the integral control. In the process of centering over the line, the robot may overshoot the target position and move to the other side of the line where the above process is followed again. Thus, the robot may keep oscillating about the line in order to center over the line. To reduce the oscillating effect over time, the derivative control is used. The proportional term is only a gain ampli fier, and the derivative term is applied in order to improve the response to disturbance, and also to compensate for phase lag at the controlled object. Pseudo Code for the PID Controller; Kp = 10 Ki = 1 Kd = 100 offset = 45 ! Initialize the variables Tp = 50 integral = 0 ! the place where integral value will be stored lastError = 0 ! place where last error value will be stored derivative = 0 ! place where derivative value will be stored Loop forever LightValue = read sensors ! read sensors. error = -x ! calculate the error using equation (7). integral = integral + error ! calculate the integral derivative = error lastError ! calculate the derivative Turn = Kp*error + Ki*integral + Kd*derivative powerA = Tp + Turn ! power level for motor A powerB = Tp Turn ! power level for motor B MOTOR A direction=forward power=PowerA MOTOR B direction=forward power=PowerB lastError = error ! save the current error end loop forever ! do it again. PID controller requires the Kp, Ki and Kd factors to be set to match wheeled line follower robots characteristics and these values depends on robot structures, actuators, sensors and other electronic components characteristics. There is no equation given in the literature to calculate Kp, Ki and Kd factors. It requires experimental trial and error technique until you get the favorite behavior. We defined these factors according to following guidelines; Start with low speed and setting values of Kp, Ki and Kd to 0. Then, try setting Kp to a value of 1 and observe the robot. The goal is to get the robot to follow the line even if it is extremely wobbly. If the robot overshoots and misses the line, decrease the value of Kp. If the robot cannot navigate a turn or seems listless, increment the Kp value with small steps. Once the mobile robot is able to follow the path, set Kd value to 1 and then try growing this value until you see less shake. Once the robot is fairly stable at following the line, assign a value of .5 to 1.0 to Ki. If the Ki value is extraordinary, the robot will shake left and right rapidly. If it is too low, you wont see any perceivable alteration. Since integral is increasing, the Ki value has a substantial impact. You may continue to retuning process with adjusting Ki by .01 increments. Once the mobile robot is tracking the line with reasonable accuracy, you can increase the speed and see if it is still able to track the line. Speed disturbs the PID controller and will require rearranging as the speed fluctuations. Results And Discusion A line following robot is programed with simple (on/off) control as a comparison purpose in evaluating the performance of the dynamic algorithm controlled robot. The results of the experiment are summarized in Table-1. From the data in the table, it can be observed that dynamic PID algorithm controlled robot has better performance in every criteria listed in the table compared to simple (on/off) control robot. The dynamic algorithm controlled robot has higher velocity, consumes less time to complete one whole circuit, tracks the line smoother and has lower tendency to astray from line compared to uncontrolled robot. Therefore this system can be used in training undergraduate students on dynamic PID algorithm control system, its application and implementation in the real world and the advantages that it offers. Fig. 3 shows the designed robot during race pits test. Figure 3 The designed robot on the race pits. Table 1- Experimental result for Line Following Robot. Criteria Dynamic PID algorithm Simple (on/off) Time to complete one whole circuit 47.6s 71.4s Line tracking Smooth Not so smooth Velocity 0.2m/s 0.14m/s Tendency to astray from line Low High Conclusion The designed wheeled line follower mobile robot has eight infrared sensors on the bottom for detecting the line. The controller board includes Stellaris LM3S811 micro-controller and the motor driver L298 which were used to control the direction and the speed of motors. The proposed dynamic PID algorithm derives the line follower locomotion by adequately combining the information from sensor module. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can successfully achieve target following in various scenarios, including straight line and circular motion, sharp-turn motion and S-shape line tracking. We are working currently to develop a more sophisticated algorithm which can perform faster line tracking with less energy consumption.

How The Web :: essays research papers

The internet is a great invention because it makes things a great deal easier for us nowadays. It is also helpful in many ways, especially, in the way of convenience. Rather than go somewhere to pay your bills, you can just do it online with a credit card. You can also check your bank statements and find out where you stand financially. These are example of good ways that the internet helps out in the world. I would have to agree with David Rothenberg when he says that the web is ruining student’s research papers. If I was a collage professor and I were to see that all of my student’s papers seemed so fake, I would be devastated. When the internet is abused to the point where it is used for just anything will affect the loss of originality, laziness, and students reading less.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While students are in collage, they do many research papers on certain topics. Most of them dread doing these kinds of papers because the numbers of pages are high. They are also time consuming and that is a big issue to a student because we all have our own lives, most of us, as we know, never have much time to spend on just a paper. So, most of the students in college try to do the easiest thing, like resort to just the internet. There is a very important term that is used in college a lot, that term is called Plagiarism. If any student turns in a paper that is plagiarized, they are kicked out of that college and given a large fine. The internet plays a big role on this word. So many people are victims of plagiarism because they only use the internet and forget about using other sources like encyclopedias, books, and newspapers. Back then, it wasn’t a problem, but nowadays people just what to do things the easy way.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Secondly, since the internet is revolved around everything we do, students have now become lazy. Most of the world advertises that school assignments must be revolved around computers; even librarians say this as well. The more our technology develops in this world, the easier everything becomes. Nowadays, it’s about what makes your life easier and more convenient and I think there should be a change. On the internet there are so many short-cuts. Instead of reading carefully, and synthesizing, we do cut and paste, change the font size, and readjust the margins.

History of Animation Essay

The zoetrope is a device which creates the image of a moving picture. The earliest elementary zoetrope was created in China around 180 AD by the prolific inventor Ting Huan Made from translucent paper or mica panels, Huan hung the device over a lamp. The rising air turned vanes at the top from which hung the pictures painted on the panels would appear to move if the device is spun at the right speed. Magic Lantern (1600) The magic lantern is the predecessor of the modern day projector. It consisted of a translucent oil painting and a simple lamp. When put together in a darkened room, the image would appear larger on a flat surface. Athanasius Kircher spoke about this originating from China in the 16th century but it was developed in the late 1650’s by Christian Huygens. Some slides for the lanterns contained parts that could be mechanically actuated to present limited movement on the screen. Thaumatrope (1824) A thaumatrope was a simple toy used in the Victorian era. A thaumatrope is a small circular disk or card with two different pictures on each side that was attached to a piece of string or a pair of strings running through the centre. When the string is twirled quickly between the fingers, the two pictures appear to combine into a single image. The thaumatrope demonstrates the Phi phenomenon, the brain’s ability to persistently perceive an image. Its invention is variously credited to Charles Babbage, Peter Roget, or John Ayrton Paris, but Paris is known to have used one to illustrate the Phi phenomenon in 1824 to the Royal College of Physicians. Flip book (1868) The first flip book was patented in 1868 by John Barnes Linnet. Flip books were yet another development that brought us closer to modern animation. Like the Zoetrope, the Flip Book creates the illusion of motion. A set of sequential pictures flipped at a high speed creates this effect. The Mutoscope (1894) is basically a flip book in a box with a crank handle to flip the pages. Praxinoscope (1877) The Praxinoscope, invented by French scientist Charles-Émile Reynaud, was a more sophisticated version of the zoetrope. It used the same basic mechanism of a strip of images placed on the inside of a spinning cylinder, but instead of viewing it through slits, it was viewed in a series of small, stationary mirrors around the inside of the cylinder, so that the animation would stay in place, and provide a clearer image and better quality. Reynaud also developed a larger version of the Praxinoscope that could be projected onto a screen, called the Theater Optique. Information on the Present Traditional Animation Are the oldest and historically the most popular form of animation. In a traditionally-animated cartoon, each frame is drawn by hand. Timing is important for the animators drawing these frames; each frame must match exactly what is going on in the soundtrack at the moment the frame will appear, or else the discrepancy between sound and visual will be distracting to the audience. For example, in high-budget productions, extensive effort is given in making sure a speaking character’s mouth matches in shape the sound that character’s actor is producing as he or she speaks. Feature-length films The first animated feature film was El Apà ³stol, made in 1917 by Quirino Cristiani from Argentina. He also directed two other animated feature films, including 1931’s Peludopolis, the first to use synchronized sound. None of these, however, survive to the present day. The earliest-surviving animated feature, which used colour-tinted scenes, is the silhouette-animated Adventures of Prince Achmed directed by German Lotte Reiniger and French/Hungarian Berthold Bartosch. Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are often considered to be the first animated feature when in fact at least eight were previously released. However, Snow White was the first to become successful and well-known within the English-speaking world and the first to use cell animation. Stop Motion Stop motion is used for many animation productions using physical objects rather than images of people, as with traditional animation. An object will be photographed, moved slightly, and then photographed again. When the pictures are played back in normal speed the object will appear to move by itself. The first example of object manipulation and stop-motion animation was the 1899 short film by Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton called The Humpty Dumpty Circus. A European stop motion pioneer was Wladyslaw Starewicz who animated The Beautiful Lukanida .The Battle of the Stag Beetles and The Ant and the Grasshopper. CGI animation Computer-generated imagery (CGI) revolutionized animation. The first film done completely in CGI was Toy Story, produced by Pixar. The process of CGI animation is still very tedious and similar in that sense to traditional animation and it still adheres to many of the same principles. A principal difference of CGI Animation compared to traditional animation is that drawing is replaced by 3D modelling, almost like a virtual version of stop-motion, though a form of animation that combines the two worlds can be considered to be computer aided animation but on 2D computer drawing (which can be considered close to traditional drawing and sometimes based on it). Cell-shaded animation A type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make computer graphics appear to be hand-drawn. Cell-shading is often used to mimic the style of a comic book or cartoon. It is a somewhat recent addition to computer graphics, most commonly turning up in console video games. Though the end result of cell-shading has a very simplistic feel like that of hand-drawn animation, the process is complex. The name comes from the clear sheets of acetate, called cells, which are painted on for use in traditional 2D animation. It may be considered a 2.5D form of animation. True real-time cell-shading was first introduced in 2000 by Sega’s Jet Set Radio for their Dreamcast console. Besides video games, a number of anime have also used this style of animation, such as Freedom Project in 2006. CGI Animated humans Most CGI created films are based on animal characters, monsters, machines or cartoon-like humans. Animation studios are now trying to develop ways of creating realistic-looking humans. Films that have attempted this include Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in 2001, Final Fantasy: Advent Children in 2005, The Polar Express in 2004, Beowulf in 2007 and Resident Evil: Degeneration in 2009. However, due to the complexity of human body functions, emotions and interactions, this method of animation is rarely used. The more realistic a CG character becomes, the more difficult it is to create the nuances and details of a living person. The creation of hair and clothing that move convincingly with the animated human character is another area of difficulty. The Incredibles and Up both have humans as protagonists, while films like Avatar combine animation with live action to create humanoid creatures.

Infinite Light Essay

Infinite Light Essay Infinite Light Essay Chandler Meyer Mr.Robel English 2 Honors January 30,2013 Infinite Light What keeps a group of English boys calm and collected on a deserted island with the absence of adults, shelter, or recollection of what happened? In the novel Lord of The Flies by William Golding, the main character Ralph and his wise sidekick Piggy claim a conch shell as their anchor on to civilization. From the beginning Ralph uses the conch to gather and unite all the boys that were on the island. Throughout the story the conch plays a symbolic role representing not only a tie to civilization, but also Ralph’s role as a righteous and justified chief. Towards the end, the conch is thrown into a continuous struggle to preserve civilized manner, or let the savage behavior of Jack’s hunting group dominate the goodness, of which is slipping. From the beginning of the story, the conch plays the role of being the safety net for the boys, as well as a constant reminder that they maintain order and discipline on the island. The importance of the conch is represented right at the start as Ralph and Piggy use it to summon the scattered boys. â€Å"Ralph grasped the idea and hit the shell with air from in his diaphragm. Immediately the thing sounded. A deep, harsh note boomed under the palms, spread through the intricacies of the forest and echoed back from the pink granite of the mountain†(14). Right after the conch is blown boys immediately start to leak in from the lush forest. Once everyone is together and acquainted, there is a meeting held where there is talk among the boys about needing a â€Å"chief†. After comparisons between Jack and Ralph, the more favorable selection points to not only Ralph himself but for the fact that it is he who possesses the conch. As reasons are tossed back and forth there fo r the selection of chief there are some specific ones that were noted about Ralph starting with â€Å"†¦there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch. The being that had blown that†¦was set apart†(19). As the reader can see the conch has displayed already an almost illuminating presence of power from the shell. Right from the moment Ralph claims the position of chief and bearer of the conch, there is a never-ending stab at power and control by Jack as he tries to undermine Ralph, which is present until the very end. Towards the middle of the novel is when Ralph’s authority gets questioned. Along with the organization of the boys little society seeming to slowly evaporate into a regressed state of savagery of which Ralph, Piggy, Simon, and SamnEric seem to avoid. At this point Jack has established a group known as the â€Å"hunters† and is as thirsty for control as ever as he demonstrates when he announces to a group of boys â€Å"We’ll hunt. I’m going to be chief†(123). As events start to fold out and the story continues, the only thing that keeps Ralph holding on to a any link to authority is the conch, but even that seems to be growing less and less of importance in the eyes of Jack’s tribe. In addition to this the reader can also notice that between the two tribes only one is in possession of the conch, which is Ralph's tribe. The symbolization of possessing the conch is that they maintain a civilized structure as well as being able to do things such as maintain a fire and also be able to calmly talk about practical issues that must be addressed at the meetings. In contrast Jack’s tribe, which lacks the conch, is always acting foolish and savage, this could be because they lack the anchor to civilization. Furthermore a great example that shows the crumbling of their society is when Jack leads a plot to steal the fire as he explains to the hunters. â€Å"We’ll raid them and take fire†¦Roger can snatch a branch while I say what I want†(128).This represented really a moral turn for the worst for jack’s group because they had to â€Å"steal† the fire which is an indication of delinquent

Free Essays on Eight Amendment

MY CONSTITUTION PAPER The Constitution is considered the law of the land in the United States of America. It is made up of rules and regulations for the people of the United States to live by. The purpose of the Constitution is to guarantee life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. The first draft of the Constitution was written in 1787. There have been a few changes and additions made to it, which are called Amendments, since then. I will be focusing on the Eight Amendment which states, "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted" (Constitution of the United States, 1971). In the article I chose from the State News, it told of the ongoing debate about capital punishment. Human rights activists argue with advocates of capital punishment over whether or not the death penalty is cruel and unusual. Is capital punishment breaking the Eighth Amendment? In recent history, the pickax murderer, Karla Faye Tucker, was executed. Human rights activists outside shouted, "Let her live". They believed that every person had a right to live, as stated in the Constitution. They felt that the death penalty was cruel and unusual after Karla had spent 14 years in prison "rehabilitating". Thus, her human rights were violated. In the same manner, supporters of capital punishment shouted, "Kill her, kill her". They believed that the punishment for a violent crime, such as killing two people with a pickax, should be death. In addition, "Advocates hail the death penalty as a factor in falling U. S. crime rates" (The State News). Karla had been given "the right to a speedy and public trial" and the right to appeal, as promised by the U. S. Constitution in the Sixth Amendment. These were her human rights. Up until her death sentence, the Constitution had worked in her favor by keeping her alive. But, the time finally came when she had to accept he... Free Essays on Eight Amendment Free Essays on Eight Amendment MY CONSTITUTION PAPER The Constitution is considered the law of the land in the United States of America. It is made up of rules and regulations for the people of the United States to live by. The purpose of the Constitution is to guarantee life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. The first draft of the Constitution was written in 1787. There have been a few changes and additions made to it, which are called Amendments, since then. I will be focusing on the Eight Amendment which states, "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted" (Constitution of the United States, 1971). In the article I chose from the State News, it told of the ongoing debate about capital punishment. Human rights activists argue with advocates of capital punishment over whether or not the death penalty is cruel and unusual. Is capital punishment breaking the Eighth Amendment? In recent history, the pickax murderer, Karla Faye Tucker, was executed. Human rights activists outside shouted, "Let her live". They believed that every person had a right to live, as stated in the Constitution. They felt that the death penalty was cruel and unusual after Karla had spent 14 years in prison "rehabilitating". Thus, her human rights were violated. In the same manner, supporters of capital punishment shouted, "Kill her, kill her". They believed that the punishment for a violent crime, such as killing two people with a pickax, should be death. In addition, "Advocates hail the death penalty as a factor in falling U. S. crime rates" (The State News). Karla had been given "the right to a speedy and public trial" and the right to appeal, as promised by the U. S. Constitution in the Sixth Amendment. These were her human rights. Up until her death sentence, the Constitution had worked in her favor by keeping her alive. But, the time finally came when she had to accept he...

Real Estate Competive Corporate Strategy Research Paper

Real Estate Competive Corporate Strategy - Research Paper Example This gives a more comprehensive analysis of how real estate is getting used organization wide. Successful leading organizations put goals and targets, and measure their performance from these tools to ensure continuous improvements. Workplace Business Intelligence gives the organization an ability to compare progress against the set targets by monitoring vital metrics to remove existing organizational inefficiencies. They get used to compare the performance of different locations within the organization (Peoplecube, 2010). Workplace Business Intelligence is not only a real estate management tool, but a service designed to help recognize and remove inefficiencies in little small organizations to global enterprises. Every Workplace Business Intelligence engagement includes professional services not only to help with the installation of the solution, but to help in analyzing and improving the visualizations for the consumers’ different real estate business intelligence data, and develop new visualization required by every organization (Peoplecube, 2010). Porter’s five forces model theory Real estate is a leading is a leading industry in the United States national economy. Porter’s five model analysis tries to reveal the real estate industry and the reasons behind these phenomena. According to the analysis of the relevant state departments, there should be quick development of property management, a real estate industry that is growth oriented from quantity to quality and the growth and upgrading of consumption structure in order to give a high speed real estate industry development (Childress, 2004). Porter developed a structure and on the competitive environment and introduced the five forces model of competition, that is, the five forces model (Porter, 2000). According to Porter, the five forces determine the attractiveness of an industry. These forces include; threat of those who enter the market, threat of the substitute product, buyers ba rgaining power, suppliers bargaining power and the intensity of rivalry. Of The five forces, model determines the degree of competition in an industry; its basic assumption is the profitability of the industry, not only by the attributes of the product but the market structure decision of the industry. The five forces determine the real estate’s competitive strength and profitability. United States Real Estate Five Forces Model The threat of new entrants, buyers bargaining power, threat of substitutes and the intense competition among rivals directly affect the real estate industry and its competitive nature. The different interactions between the five forces determine the levels of industries profits. Threat of new entrants Foreign investors who have access to the to America’s Real Estate industry pose a significant threat. Foreign real estate enterprises and their related constructions and installation will create unprecedented pressure on the domestic enterprises. F or a number, of these industries, the lack of ability to compete will force them to withdraw from the industry, and a large market share of the real industry market will be foreign owned. For most developers in America, this is not a challenge but rather a serious crisis of survival. The new entrants use a lot of resources to eliminate the original product; they provide their product at low prices reducing corporate profits of other real estate firms. Nevertheless, enterprise

Effective Public Speaking Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Effective Public Speaking - Research Paper Example Public speaking has been misunderstood to mean to present an official speech before a broad audience. Having such a notion makes us fail to perfect on our daily conversations that will reflect on a bigger audience and fret when we are requested to carry out a presentation. The expectations we have on people as they present their speech makes us criticize every simple mistake they make. The reason we have such expectations is that of the positions they hold and the influence they have on us. Having the information on such expectations, most known public speakers engage in some form of training and mentorship. They have experts who advise them on how to present a flawless speech. The experts are always available when they are giving the speech and analyze it for the purpose of perfecting their skills (OHair, Friedrich & Dixon, 2007). Most people believe that they will only have to go to such mentorship programs when they are preparing for a major speech, or when their social status has risen and required them to speak frequently to people. However, public speaking is something that we can personally build on and perfect, as we engage in our daily conversations. The fact is, the call to speak to the public may come when least expected and the kind of presentation we make will determine how many more doors will be opened to us. Irrespective of how small or irrelevant the audience may appear to be, a person should always desire to be the best or above others (Grice & Skinner, 2000). On the other hand, it is necessary for a person not to focus on the audience at the expense of what they are presenting it is easier to speak to people comfortably if one understands what they are presenting, rather than when they know whom they are talking to. Surprisingly, people appear comfortable when they are speaking to a particular group and lose themselves when the audience changes.