Ray M Kekwaletswe. Department of Informatics. Tshwane University of Technology. South Africa.

An environmental uncertainty challenges today’s bus iness managers since higher environmental uncertainty is likely to drive Small, Micro and Med ium Enterprises (SMMEs) to change business processes. This paper argues that paying more atten tion to strategic information systems planning (SIS P) may increase survival rates of SMMEs, thus supporti ng the contention that SISP is of significant importance if SMMEs are to remain competitive. This reduces the environmental uncertainty influence on those managing SMMEs. In a postal survey to asse ss SISP and environmental uncertainty, a questionnaire measuring three constructs namely str ategic information systems planning process (SISPP), strategic information systems planning suc cess (SISPS) and environmental uncertainty, was used. Empirical evidence was collected from109 head s of information systems and IT executives. From 15 sub-hypotheses, 9 were supported and 6 not suppo rted. The results suggest that some SISPP phases are more effective in different environment and the se phases can lead to the SISPS under environmental uncertainty. Based on the empirical evidence, the pa per concludes that the South African SMMEs sector is generally not out of environmental uncertainty influence.

Yixing Shan . School of Business, Economics Researcher, Loughborough University, Leicestershire Researcher, UK Researcher, LE 3TU.

Along with the increasing of new equipment based ca pabilities, the physiological burden on the dismounted soldier keeps on growing, which leads to the limitation in the quantity and types of missio ns that can be carried out. In this research, a method ology is developed to solve the burden problem from the system assessment point of view. Comparing with other relevant research, the new methodology not only provides quantitative performance estimate of the soldier with the capability of handling fragmentary and incomplete data with hybrid format in nature (qualitative and quantitative), but also restrains the assessment complexity to an acceptable level.

Martin T. Press . PCSE, Christopher Newport University. 1 University Place, Newport News, Virginia Researcher

We present a framework supporting the design of gen eric and flexible conversation protocols for multi- agent systems. This framework uses a social commitm ents approach in which descriptions are transformed into finite state machines for subseque nt embedding in software agents. As part of this process, it provides a tool to verify the correctne ss of protocols in terms of their completeness and resolution of social commitments. The framework inc ludes object-oriented concepts such as extension and aggregation to aid users reuse protocols during their design.

Andrés Gómez . Depto. Ingeniería de Sistemas y Computación, Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá, Colombia. Fernando De la Rosa . Depto. Ingeniería de Sistemas y Computación, Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá, Colombia. Researcher

In Robotics, one of the core problems is motion plan ning towards a specified goal. Today, there are different solutions; however, most of them require complex models of the environment, which are not intuitive at all, and force the programmer to under stand the operating mode in detail of the robot she /he is working with. Furthermore, most algorithms use i naccurate information which cannot be relied upon. This paper presents a robot motion imitation approa ch, using Bayes networks and machine learning, which does not require much knowledge, neither an e nvironment model. The proposed method defines a Bayes network based on the distance detections near the robot. A learning phase provides the robot with a path for solving a motion planning problem and fo r processing the distance detections and velocities in order to learn how to control the robot. Finally, t he robot can reproduce the learned path by using a probabilistic inference algorithm. The proposed met hod was tested both in simulated and experimental environments with a differential mobile robot.

Erqiang Zhou . School of Computing, Dublin Institute of Technology, Kevin St. Dublin, Ireland. Researcher

A modelling approach COmplex INformation Specification (COINS) equipped with a recording and replying mechanism is proposed to facilitate the pr ocess of providing a live interactive record of information that can then be queried and replayed. The COINS model consists of three components: 1) an Entity Relationship (ER) model; 2) a rule mechanis m which deals with logic constraints among attributes, entities and relationships and; 3) a re corder component which provides support for the ide a of replaying complex information. The main function of such a recording and replying mechanism is to record a sequence of information scenes so that thi s sequence, as a history of the evolving informatio n for the recorder, can be queried and replayed. The puzzle game Sudoku is used as an example in this paper for illustrating the COINS modelling approach.

Hidetoshi Nakayasu . Konan University, 8–9-1 Okamoto Higashinada-ku, Kobe 658-, Japan Researcher

A simulation model of evacuation strategies in airc raft accidents is proposed as an aid to improve pol icy planning. In the simulation passengers select their exit route to minimize escape time. Finding the be st way to support evacuations, within the minimum requ ired time in such chaotic situations, is difficult to solve optimally using analytical methods. To addres s this problem, virtual simulations were repeated under conditions of changing exit location and soci al choice mechanism to select a route to an exit un til the best evacuation strategy was found. The efficie ncy for each exit was evaluated by using the cumulative number of evacuating agents. Using the B777–300 airframe as a case study, the location of an emergency exit was determined by an agent attemptin g to exit. Using our approach, the total evacuation time was reduced from 119.39 seconds to 83.27seconds, less than the 90 seconds requirement. The social choice mechanism used smoothed out imbalances in exit capacity, improving passenger strategies during emergency aircraft evacuations.

Pedro Isaías

Editorial preface for Volume 6, Issue 3 of the IADIS International Journal on Computer Science and Information Systems (IJCSIS). This issue brings together peer-reviewed original research contributions covering the wide spectrum of Information Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, and Digital Transformation.