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This paper presents a cooperative and distributed control law for multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) executing a mission while meeting mutual communication constraints. Virtual couplings define interaction control forces between neighbouring vehicles. Moreover, the couplings are designed to enforce a desired vehicle-vehicle and vehicle-target spacing. The whole network is modelled in the passive, energy-based, port-Hamiltonian framework. Such framework allows to prove closed-loop stability using the whole system kinetic and virtual potential energy by constructing a suitable Lyapunov function. Furthermore, the robustness to communication delays is also demonstrated. Simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Internationellt sker en utveckling mot att genomföra insatser samordnat med resurser från flera politikområden - både civila och militära. Behovet har uppstått ur insikten att hållbar utveckling i en region kräver användning av olika resurser för att uppnå synergier. Samverkan och samordning mellan civila och militära aktörer enligt syftet ovan brukar i moderna ordalag beskrivas som comprehensive approach. Det praktiska arbetet på fältnivån med samverkan för att uppnå synergier i kontexten comprehensive approach kan sägas innebära samma sak som civil-militärt samverkan. Det övergripande syftet med uppsatsen är att med fokus på det svenska PRT Mazar-e Sharif, förstå de svårigheter som finns vid samverkan mellan civila och militära aktörer, med målet att öka synergier av nationella resurser. Med utgångspunkt från tidigare forskning om militär-civil samverkan samt comprehensive approach, skapas en analysmodell med ett urval av identifierade faktorer, för att beskriva samverkan empiriskt främst utifrån intervjusvar från nyckelaktörer – chefer eller stabschefer samt civila rådgivare. Slutligen jämförs dessa faktorer med de orsaker som framkommer i den empiriska undersökningen. Resultatet i undersökningen visar att samverkan är svårt och att aktörerna på fältnivån pragmatiskt försöker samverka. De nödvändiga faktorerna inte är utformade för att underlätta samverkan vilket skapar problem. Att med dessa problem även få en effektiv synergi av Sveriges resurser i enlighet med tanken i CA, genom samverkan på fältnivån, blir därför svårt. There is an international trend towards operations coordinated with resources from several political areas – with both civilian and military components. This trend is driven from the recognition that sustainable development in a region requires the use of a variety of resources, coordinated in order to achieve synergies. Co-operation and co-ordination between civil and military actors in the context above, frequently is described as comprehensive approach. The practical work at the field level with co-operation in order to achieve co-ordination in the context of comprehensive approach can be said to be the same thing as civil-military co-operation. The overall purpose of this survey is, with focus on the Swedish PRT Mazar-e Sharif, to understand the difficulties involved in the co-operation between civilian and military actors, with the aim of achieve synergies of national resources. By using an analytical model, created by a sample of identified factors based on previous research on military-civilian co-operation and comprehensive approach, the survey describe the co-operation mainly based on interview responses from key actors – Commanding Officer or Chief of Staff and civilian advisers. Finally these factors are compared with the reasons expressed in the empirical investigation. The results of the survey show that co-operation is difficult and the actors at the field level pragmatic attempt to co-operate. The necessary factors are not designed to facilitate this, which creates problems. These problems with co-operation at field level also could have a negative impact to achieve synergy of Sweden's resources in accordance with the spirit of the CA.

Farmers’ problems and co-ordination of agricultural activities cannot be solved simply by EU and/or government support, or by private market co-ordination institutions. Emerging producer groups and co-operatives seem vital in achieving bargaining power. Theoretically, and according to Western European (Dutch, Danish etc.) and US practical experience, one of the major important private institutions that can strengthen producers and help co-ordinate (agricultural) chains is the co-operative entity. To fulfill the basic co-operative aims and to compete in a more market-oriented environment (e.g. more liberal agricultural policies, opening European and world market, etc.) they will initiate new marketing strategies. To implement such new marketing strategies, co-ops have to collect more risk capital and in Western European agricultural co-operatives this is currently precipitating some fundamental financial and organisational changes. To retain the basic co-operative character, they are undertaking internal and external organisational changes, which in a number of cases will create so-called new co-operative structures/models. In this paper the “co-operative identity” concept (meaning the aims and functions of co-operatives, as well as the so-termed co-operative principles) is proposed to serve as a general theoretical background to evaluate economically the flexibility of (agricultural) cooperation. Also proposed is a new, interdisciplinary research focus (including comprehensive theoretical overview). This new focus examines the substance of co-operation and emphasises the importance of combining insights across the social sciences. It uses the results and common findings of economics, law, marketing, financing, organisational studies, management sciences (“hard” sciences), and also some elements of philosophy, psychology, sociology etc. (“soft” disciplines). Also recommended are some suggestions for further comparative research on the “co-operative identity”. This is carried out according to each country and different branches and sectors to observe the substance and dynamics of co-operation from different economic and non-economic aspects.

International audience; The subject of this paper is the collaborative practices used in the product development process in SME's (Small and Medium Enterprise). The starting point is an empirical study, part of industry-based fieldwork on the introduction of a PDM system. Our results highlight the need for new approaches to take into account the socio-technical complexity of the collaborative processes. A new tool named CoCa is proposed to analyse collaborative practices in situ. This tool is designed to be used by researchers, consultants or, eventually, project managers in order to track all the collaborative events and the project context. The background and industrial case study, the theoretical basis and design of the tool are described and, finally, some indication is given of its potential use in gaining understanding of complex collaborative processes.

The emergence of new forms of industrial organization has been well observed so far. Many terms appeared to designate different evolutions of the traditional boundaries of firms: inter-enterprise networking, extended enterprise, agile virtual enterprise, and so on. Amongst all these new industrial architectures, this study focuses on networks of SMEs where firms are grouping together to achieve common goals, but strongly preserving their juridical independence. These new organisations need tools helping them to find out the most efficient organisational structure to be more competitive.This study provides a methodology to characterize objectively co-operation links and to identify potential ties for enterprise networks. It is based on a theoretical approach combining complementarity of activities and similarity of competences within firms. These two parameters are used to identify the preferential coordination mode between two enterprises within the network. An organisational map is plotted describing potential relationships within a group of firms. The evolution of the network is represented by a scenario tree according to an initial position and to possible changes of competencies and activities. It offers an efficient decision-making aid to the manager. Two case studies are presented to confront the proposed methodology to the reality.; Dans le cadre de l'émergence des nouvelles formes organisationnelles (réseau d'entreprises, entreprise virtuelle, entreprise entendue, ...) ce travail s'intéresse plus particulièrement aux groupements de PME. Dans un environnement économique de plus en plus instable caractérisé par une concurrence accrue, les entreprises sont appelées à faire face et à répondre en conséquence pour rester concurrentielle. La coopération au sein d'une structure organisationnelle est devenue une option incontournable pour les PME. Cependant, cette option comporte des risques et doit être maîtrisée et pilotée pour être efficace et pertinente. Les entreprises doivent donc s'appuyer sur des outils et méthodes pour rationaliser leurs différents choix et prendre les bonnes décisions lors de situations critiques. Cette thèse vient s'inscrire dans cette problématique. L'objet de ce travail est de formaliser les liens de coopération inter-entreprises au sein de réseaux de PME, et de représenter leurs trajectoires d'évolution. Cette formalisation se traduit par la construction d'une cartographie organisationnelle des modes de coordination potentiels du réseau. L'évolution de cette cartographie est représentée par un arbre de scénarios. Cette modélisation est basée sur les caractéristiques structurelles des entreprises. Deux critères clés sont identifiés pour le choix d'un mode de coordination entre deux PME : la similarité des compétences et la complémentarité des activités. Ces deux critères sont appuyés par des paramètres explicatifs qui viennent enrichir l'approche proposée (paramètres internes, paramètres relationnels, proximités, ...). Finalement, un outil d'aide à la décision pour les managers et les divers acteurs économiques est proposé pour détecter des liens de coopération potentiels dans un réseau. Il permet de proposer des préconisations pour piloter la trajectoire organisationnelle du réseau. Deux études de cas viennent confronter la méthodologie proposée à la réalité.

The emergence of new forms of industrial organization has been well observed so far. Many terms appeared to designate different evolutions of the traditional boundaries of firms: inter-enterprise networking, extended enterprise, agile virtual enterprise, and so on. Amongst all these new industrial architectures, this study focuses on networks of SMEs where firms are grouping together to achieve common goals, but strongly preserving their juridical independence. These new organisations need tools helping them to find out the most efficient organisational structure to be more competitive.This study provides a methodology to characterize objectively co-operation links and to identify potential ties for enterprise networks. It is based on a theoretical approach combining complementarity of activities and similarity of competences within firms. These two parameters are used to identify the preferential coordination mode between two enterprises within the network. An organisational map is plotted describing potential relationships within a group of firms. The evolution of the network is represented by a scenario tree according to an initial position and to possible changes of competencies and activities. It offers an efficient decision-making aid to the manager. Two case studies are presented to confront the proposed methodology to the reality., Dans le cadre de l'émergence des nouvelles formes organisationnelles (réseau d'entreprises, entreprise virtuelle, entreprise entendue, ...) ce travail s'intéresse plus particulièrement aux groupements de PME. Dans un environnement économique de plus en plus instable caractérisé par une concurrence accrue, les entreprises sont appelées à faire face et à répondre en conséquence pour rester concurrentielle. La coopération au sein d'une structure organisationnelle est devenue une option incontournable pour les PME. Cependant, cette option comporte des risques et doit être maîtrisée et pilotée pour être efficace et pertinente. Les entreprises doivent donc s'appuyer sur des outils et méthodes pour rationaliser leurs différents choix et prendre les bonnes décisions lors de situations critiques. Cette thèse vient s'inscrire dans cette problématique. L'objet de ce travail est de formaliser les liens de coopération inter-entreprises au sein de réseaux de PME, et de représenter leurs trajectoires d'évolution. Cette formalisation se traduit par la construction d'une cartographie organisationnelle des modes de coordination potentiels du réseau. L'évolution de cette cartographie est représentée par un arbre de scénarios. Cette modélisation est basée sur les caractéristiques structurelles des entreprises. Deux critères clés sont identifiés pour le choix d'un mode de coordination entre deux PME : la similarité des compétences et la complémentarité des activités. Ces deux critères sont appuyés par des paramètres explicatifs qui viennent enrichir l'approche proposée (paramètres internes, paramètres relationnels, proximités, ...). Finalement, un outil d'aide à la décision pour les managers et les divers acteurs économiques est proposé pour détecter des liens de coopération potentiels dans un réseau. Il permet de proposer des préconisations pour piloter la trajectoire organisationnelle du réseau. Deux études de cas viennent confronter la méthodologie proposée à la réalité.

The leadership of musicians by the conductor of an orchestra is a combination of authority and charisma. It is a special case of directive-charismatic leadership that needs to be explained because it involves substantive restriction of freedom for the led, whereas in other creative fields (e.g. research and development) a non-directive style of leadership is considered functional to success. Current theory on leadership (e.g. contingency theory) is not able to explain this phenomenon. We develop a model of leadership in the orchestra, from which a specific (directive-charismatic) leader behavior is to be derived from the singularities of this leadership goal and the behavior required of followers. On the basis of a sample of n = 334 musicians from thirty German orchestras, we show empirically that directive-charismatic leadership in the orchestra has a positive impact on the quality of ensemble playing, thus promoting artistic quality as leadership success. Conclusions are drawn both for leadership theory and for the selection and training of orchestral musicians and conductors.

International audience; We present a model of the MAS (Multi-Agent System) devoted to collaborative teleoperation architectures. The proposed MAS formalism is based on a new approach combining astutely two research area: MAS and CSCW (Computer Supported Collaborative Work). In the first area, a formal model of the MAS (Ferber approach) is used to give us features of the agent. The second area provides us a useful approach of collaboration based on the communication, coordination and production theories.A formal model of the collaboration is proposed. This formalism is combined astutely with the Ferber model to provide new collaborative features of the agent. The result formalism is used to achieve the conceptual architecture of the MAS supporting full collaborative teleoperation on the Internet. Finally the system is evaluated and some results are discussed.