R esearch Proposal

1.1 RESEARCH BACKGROUND

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1.4 RESEARCH LIMITATION

1.5 RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION

1.6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1.7 DOCUMENT ORGANIZATION

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1.1 Research Background

Virtual reality (VR) equipment simulators have been gaining acceptance since they
were introduced in military, aerospace, automobile and ship industries as tools not only
for reducing high cost of product design and training, but also for real-time decision
making and process evaluation of equipment operation (Millheim 1986). One of the most
distinctive reasons for their popularity is that they are capable of transferring 3D high-
quality graphical machine-operating information to users in real-time and an intuitive
way. The more significant reason is their implication of being extended to represent not
only a physical machine itself but the interaction of the machine with the surrounding
environment in mathematical or computational format (i.e., models) so that physically
meaningful responses of the simulated system are provided to users.

The construction industry is now trying to harness the successful applications of

simulators in other industries into its own. Companies and research organizations have
initiated the development of their own versions of excavating machine simulator.
Previous efforts, however, showed unbalanced development. Some developers focused
only on the visual presentation capability of simulator systems. Graphical simulators
(Anonymous 1996; Phair 1996; Lipman and Reed 2000; NIST Computer-Integrated
Construction Group Yr Unknown; NIST Information Technology Laboratory Yr
Unknown) and a realism-enhanced graphical simulator (Li and Moshell 1994) are
examples of this graphics-oriented development, whose main concern was to deliver
visually convincing graphics images for enhancing users’ perception. Other development
such as a hybrid simulator (Ballantyne and Wong 1998) and a physics-based simulator
(Wakefield and O'Brien 1994; Wakefield, O'Brien and Perng 1996) attempted to include
physics into their graphical components. Even though these efforts accounted for the
interaction between excavating tool and soil, they were not complete and convincing
simulator systems since they used either actual measuring data or unrefined soil model,
respectively. Detailed description of each simulator type and their pros and cons are
presented in Section 2.3.

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 One of the requirements for VR excavating machine simulators to be a convincing
engineering tool is that the interaction between excavating tools and soil should be
understood clearly and represented as a mathematical model so that the knowledge can be
used to calculate proper responses of a machine interacting with soil. Some analytical
models (Perumpral, Grisso and Desai 1983; Grisso and Perumpral 1985; McKyes 1985)
and theories (Farrell and Greacen 1966; Greacen, Farrell and Cockroft 1968; Ladanyi and
Johnston 1974; Yu and Houlsby 1991; Berg 1994; Yu and Mitchell 1998; Das 1999) have
been developed to provide the explanation of excavating tool interaction with soil.
Although recognized as useful instruments, the models and the theories exhibit limited
capabilities to be used in construction excavator digging cases mainly because they can
not consider the complications inherent in the process of excavator digging. Their
applicability and limitation with respect to construction excavator digging are discussed
in detail in Section 2.4 and 2.5. The reason construction excavators present complexity
in terms of their interaction with soil media is that excavator digging mainly relies on
different excavating mechanisms, i.e., a penetration mechanism as well as a separation
mechanism, which is not the case in one-mechanism-dependent excavating machines
such as dozers (separation mechanism only) and drills (penetration mechanism only).
Moreover, what makes excavator digging more complex is that the digging mechanisms
are constantly changing from one type to another and oftentimes coupled together during
an excavation process. The distinctive characteristics of construction hydraulic excavator
digging are explained in Section 2.4 through Section 2.7.

The other essential requirement in VR simulator systems is to support real-time

interactivity. This requirement can only be achieved by presenting systematic calculation
schemes among different constitutional components in the simulator system. General
description of these VR simulator components and calculation flow is presented and
discussed in Section 2.2.

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1.2 Problem Statement

In order to ensure that a VR construction excavator simulator provides convincing

operation results and physically meaningful information to users, the focus of the
simulator development needs to be shifted to the notion of how to include physically
valid reactions from soil induced by excavating activities into the machine. At the same
time, the corresponding possible calculation overloads should be alleviated to the extent
that real-time interactivity can be achieved.

Therefore, answers should be made to the following fundamental questions. Firstly,

“How do we explain tool-soil interactions in an excavator digging process in terms of soil
resistance?” Secondly, “How do we incorporate the knowledge (the answer to the
question above) into the development of a VR excavator simulator in a way to achieve
real-time interactivity by improving calculation speed while maintaining the high quality
of visual representation?”

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1.3 Research Objectives

The research aims to contribute to the development of a VR construction excavator

simulator system by proposing a mathematical model of excavator digging and a
calculation methodology. The mathematical model of excavator digging provides
physically meaningful soil-bucket interaction information to a simulator. The calculation
methodology provides systematic and efficient computation methods to ensure the
seamless integration of the excavator digging model with a VR simulator system as well
as adequate system speed. As a result, the simulator is realized as an engineering process
tool equipped with real-time interactivity.

The specific objectives to achieve this main goal are identified as follows:

• Firstly, the research will generalize a partially-competent separation model and

complement a general purpose penetration theory in such a way that they can serve as
fundamental devices to account for soil resistance encountered in basic excavator
digging actions. These models will be conjoined to form a mathematical model of
excavator digging that can estimate soil resistance in various digging cases.

• Secondly, the research will propose a computational methodology to address issues

involved in the use of the proposed mathematical model of excavator digging in a VR
simulator development, and lessen calculation burden to ensure the real-time
interactivity of the system. The research will propose a complete computation flow to
support the computational methodology and graphical display.

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1.4 Research Limitation

The intent of the research is not to copy reality into virtual reality but to improve the
current VR excavator development practice, which may not satisfy quantitative criteria
for calculation accuracy.

1.5 Research Contribution

• The research exposes the limitations of the existing tool-induced soil resistance
models and theories in construction excavator digging cases.

• The research deals with the inherent complexities of an excavator digging process by
proposing a mathematical model of excavator digging.

• The research creates new knowledge in representing an excavation operation for a

virtual environment by developing an effective and systematic calculation
methodology.

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1.6 Research Methodology

The following steps outline the methodology employed by the research. The first two
steps (A and B) are performed in parallel as the preceding work for the last step (C).

A.1) Identification of a VR simulator system architecture/ pipeline to understand the

general system requirements such as essential elements, their functionalities and
interactions with others (Section 2.2);

A.2) Review of VR excavating machine simulators to determine the present level of

development and to identify the scope of the research (Section 2.3);

A.3) Refinement of the VR type simulator architecture/ pipeline to serve specifically

for an excavator type machine (Section 3.3);

B.1) Qualitative experiment and motion analysis of an excavator to recognize

distinctive characteristics of an excavator digging process (Section 2.4 through
Section 2.7);

B.2) Examination of existing tool-soil interaction researches to determine their

applicability to an excavator digging operation (Section 2.4 and 2.5);

B.3) Development of a new mathematical model of excavator digging by expanding

an existing model and theory and by proposing a novel way of dealing with the
complexity of bucket-soil interaction (Section 3.2 for its framework and Chapter
5); and

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C) Development of an effective and systematic calculation methodology for the
development of a VR excavator simulation system (Chapter 6).

1.7 Document Organization

This dissertation is organized into six chapters. Chapter 2 describes a typical VR

simulator system in terms of its essential components and the roles of these components,
and reviews different types of VR excavating machine simulators based upon the
identified system requirements. Additionally, various excavating mechanisms of a typical
excavator are identified, the complexities of excavator digging are discussed, and various
models and theories are reviewed for their capabilities and limitations of explaining the
soil-tool interaction (i.e., resistance) in an excavator digging process.

The research framework is proposed in Chapter 3 to provide a basis to effectively

analyze the complex soil-tool interaction in an excavation process. The architecture and
calculation pipeline of a VR simulator are refined in this chapter specifically for a
construction excavator. The framework and the VR excavator simulator architecture
together are at the core in the developments of later chapters.

A physics-based excavator model (or excavator computational model) is described in

Chapter 4. The fundamentals of a typical hydraulic excavator are described, and how the
machine is represented in an abstracted format so that it can be used for the generation of
spatial locations of the machine parts and the prediction of physically credible forces at a
bucket.

Chapter 5 is devoted to the description of one of the essential simulator components, a

mathematical model of excavator digging (or physics-based soil model of excavator
digging). It describes the development of two soil models to predict resistance forces for

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a separation and a penetration digging mechanisms. A novel idea, excavator digging
modes, are also proposed in this chapter as a way of making those proposed soil
resistance models complete in a way that the interaction between soil and an excavator
bucket is fully explained in the form of soil resistance.

Chapter 6 firstly provides detailed description on how calculations inside a VR

simulator are performed from the perspective of the application of the models (proposed
in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5) in VR simulator development. It also addresses issues that
are encountered when the models are utilized in a VR simulator development. Lastly,
methods are described to enhance the calculation speed to achieve real-time interactivity
of a VR simulator system.

Chapter 7 presents a summary of the research, and concludes with a discussion on

some possible research extensions.

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Research Methodology
1. Type of Research
2. Sources of Data
3. Instruments for Data Collection
4. Research Methods
5. Sampling
6. Limitations of the Study

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 Research Methodology

Research methodology process includes a number of activities to be performed. These are

arranged in proper sequence of timing for conducting research. One activity after another is
performed to complete the research work. Research methodology includes the following
steps:

1. Type of Research

The topic for the research study is sales promotion strategy and the nature of the topic is
theoretical and descriptive. So the conduct the research study the type of research suitable is
descriptive research only. The data are collected from sales records, dealers, customers and
salesmen of the companies performing in FMCG sector. The descriptive research has met
the requirement of research study.

2. Sources of Data

For the study purpose both primary and secondary data are used. The primary data collected
from sales men of the companies, customers and dealers dealing in the products of the
company. The secondary data collected from records of the company, retailers and dealers.
The data of past sales also have been collected. The primary and secondary data have been
collected to cover every aspect of the study. The primary data are related to behaviour and
response of employees, dealers and customers. The secondary data shows the sales of the
company product wise. These data used in combination as per need of the study. These data
having different merits and demerits and have serves our purpose of the research study.
These are explained below:

(a) Primary Data

Primary data are information collected by a researcher specifically for a research
assignment. In other words, primary data are information that a company must gather
because no one has compiled and published the information in a forum accessible to the
public. Companies generally take the time and allocate the resources required to gather

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primary data only when a question, issue or problem presents itself that is sufficiently
important or unique that it warrants the expenditure necessary to gather the primary data.
Primary data are original in nature and directly related to the issue or problem and current
data. Primary data are the data which the researcher collects through various methods like
interviews, surveys, questionnaires etc. The primary data have own advantages and
disadvantages:

(i) Advantages of primary data:

Advantages of primary data are as follows:

• The primary data are original and relevant to the topic of the research study so the
degree of accuracy is very high.
• Primary data is that it can be collected from a number of ways like interviews, telephone
surveys, focus groups etc. It can be also collected across the national borders through
emails and posts. It can include a large population and wide geographical coverage.
• Moreover, primary data is current and it can better give a realistic view to the researcher
about the topic under consideration.
• Reliability of primary data is very high because these are collected by the concerned and
reliable party.

(ii) Disadvantages of primary data:

Following are the disadvantages of primary data:

• For collection of primary data where interview is to be conducted the coverage is limited
and for wider coverage a more number of researchers are required.
• A lot of time and efforts are required for data collection. By the time the data collected,
analysed and report is ready the problem of the research becomes very serious or out
dated. So the purpose of the research may be defeated.
• It has design problems like how to design the surveys. The questions must be simple to
understand and respond.
• Some respondents do not give timely responses. Sometimes, the respondents may give
fake, socially acceptable and sweet answers and try to cover up the realities.

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• With more people, time and efforts involvement the cost of the data collection goes
high. The importance of the research may go down.
• In some primary data collection methods there is no control over the data collection.
Incomplete questionnaire always give a negative impact on research.
• Trained persons are required for data collection. In experienced person in data collection
may give inadequate data of the research.

(b) Secondary Data

Secondary data are the data collected by a party not related to the research study but
collected these data for some other purpose and at different time in the past. If the researcher
uses these data then these become secondary data for the current users. These may be
available in written, typed or in electronic forms. A variety of secondary information
sources is available to the researcher gathering data on an industry, potential product
applications and the market place. Secondary data is also used to gain initial insight into the
research problem. Secondary data is classified in terms of its source – either internal or
external. Internal, or in-house data, is secondary information acquired within the
organization where research is being carried out. External secondary data is obtained from
outside sources. There are various advantages and disadvantages of using secondary data.

(i) Advantages of Secondary Data:

Advantages of secondary data are following:

• The primary advantage of secondary data is that it is cheaper and faster to access.
• Secondly, it provides a way to access the work of the best scholars all over the world.
• Thirdly, secondary data gives a frame of mind to the researcher that in which direction
he/she should go for the specific research.
• Fourthly secondary data save time, efforts and money and add to the value of the
research study.

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(ii) Disadvantages of Secondary data:

Following are the disadvantage of secondary data:

• The data collected by the third party may not be a reliable party so the reliability and
accuracy of data go down.
• Data collected in one location may not be suitable for the other one due variable
environmental factor.
• With the passage of time the data becomes obsolete and very old
• Secondary data collected can distort the results of the research. For using secondary
data a special care is required to amend or modify for use.
• Secondary data can also raise issues of authenticity and copyright.

Keeping in view the advantages and disadvantages of sources of data requirement of the
research study and time factor, both sources of data i.e. primary and secondary data have
been selected. These are used in combination to give proper coverage to the topic.

3. Instruments for Data Collection

For collection of data the following instruments have been used:

(a) Questionnaire
Questionnaire is a set of questions has been prepared to ask a number of questions and
collect answers from respondents relating to the research topic. A number of questions
usually in printed or electronic form are to be answered by the individuals. The forms often
have blank spaces in which the answers can be written. Sets of such forms are distributed to
groups and the answers are collected relating to research topic. A questionnaire is a series of
questions asked to individuals to obtain statistically useful information about a given topic.
When properly constructed and responsibly administered, questionnaires become a vital
instrument by which statements can be made about specific groups or people or entire
populations. Inappropriate questions, incorrect ordering of questions, incorrect scaling, or
bad questionnaire format can make the survey valueless, as it may not accurately reflect the

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views and opinions of the participants. A useful method for checking a questionnaire and
making sure it is accurately capturing the intended information is to pretest among a smaller
subset of target respondents. In a research or survey questions asked to respondents, and
designed to extract specific information. It serves four basic purposes: to (1) collect the
appropriate data, (2) make data comparable and amenable to analysis, (3) minimize bias in
formulating and asking question, and (4) to make questions engaging and varied. For our
study purpose a set of questions has been prepared to collect information relating to the
topic of the study. In this study a structured questionnaire has been used with different types
of questions such as closed ended and open ended. Special case has been taken to select the
scales for the questions for collection of responses very effectively.

(b) Telephone, Mobile Phone and Facsimile

Telephone and other devices can be used for collecting data verbally and written on fax
from respondents located away from the researcher and having these facilities plus the
researcher having their contact numbers. Use of interviewers encourages sample persons to
respond, leading to higher response rates. Interviewers can increase comprehension of
questions by answering respondents' questions. It is fairly cost efficient, depending on local
call charge structure. It is good for large national or international respondents and gives
wider coverage. It cannot be used for non-audio information (graphics, demonstrations,
taste/smell samples) this instrument is not suitable for the respondents where the telephone
facility is not available.

(c) Mail
For collection of data from the respondents who are located at a long distance and do not
have any communication facility. They can be contacted through mailed questionnaire. Only
thing is required that the researcher should have the postal addresses of the respondents. The
questionnaire may be handed to the respondents or mailed to them, but in all cases they are
returned to the researcher via mail. The cost involved is very less but no clarification can be
given to the respondents if required. Respondents can answer at their own convenience. The
respondents cannot be biased by the researchers and the detail information can be collected

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for the research purpose. Only one disadvantage this instrument gives is that the response
rate is very less due to lack of interest in the topic of respondents and low literacy rate.

(d) Interview
In this method the interviewer personally meets the informants and asks necessary
questions to them regarding the subject of enquiry. Usually a set of questions or a
questionnaire is carried by him and questions are also asked according to that. The
interviewer efficiently collects the data from the informants by cross examining them. The
interviewer must be very efficient and tactful to get the accurate and relevant data from the
informants. Interviews like personal interview/depth interview or telephone interview can be
conducted as per the need of the study.

(i) Advantages:

Advantages of interview are following:

• In this method information can be gathered from illiterate people too.

• There are no chances of non-response as the interviewer personally collects data.
• The collected data is very reliable since the interviewer tactfully collects the data by cross
examining the responders.

(ii) Disadvantages:

• The major disadvantages of interview are:

• There is a chance of bias.
• The informants may not answer some personal questions.
• It is a time-consuming process.
• Money and manpower requirements are very high.
• Some time the interviewers are involved in pressurising respondents to share their
personal information.
To study the topic of the research out of available instruments for research mainly
questionnaire, interview and telephone/mobile phones have been used because these

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instruments were found suitable for data collection purpose. Mailed questionnaire has not
been used because the need has not been felt during the study.

4. Research Methods

For collection of primary data for this research work survey and observation methods have
been used. Experimental method is not found suitable for this study because the topic is a
theoretical topic and there is no need to have experiments. These two methods are explained
below:

(a) Survey Method

Survey is used to collect quantitative information about items in a population. Surveys are
used in different areas for collecting the data even in public and private sectors. A survey
may be conducted in the field by the researcher. The respondents are contacted by the
research person personally, telephonically or through mail. This method takes a lot of time,
efforts and money but the data collected are of high accuracy, current and relevant to the
topic. When the questions are administered by a researcher, the survey is called a structured
interview or a researcher-administered survey. When the questions are administered by the
respondent, the survey is referred to as a questionnaire or a self-administered survey. It is
an efficient way of collecting information from a large number of respondents. Very large
samples are possible. Statistical techniques can be used to determine validity, reliability, and
statistical significance. Surveys are flexible in the sense that a wide range of information can
be collected. They can be used to study attitudes, values, beliefs, and past behaviors.
Because they are standardized, they are relatively free from several types of errors. There is
an economy in data collection due to the focus provided by standardized questions. Only
questions of interest to the researcher are asked, recorded, codified, and analyzed.

(b) Observation Method

Observation is a complex research method because it often requires the researcher to play a
number of roles and to use a number of techniques; including her/his five senses, to collect
data. The observer puts himself in the actual situation and watch carefully. On the basis of

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his knowledge, skills and experience he collects the data without contacting the respondents.
The results of observation entirely depend on the talents of the researcher. This method can
be used only by expert persons in the research. Observation methods have been developed
with the objective of 'observing people in their natural setting - as they go about their
everyday lives. Observation methods can overcome some of the criticisms of quantitative
research methods (Validity, bias etc.) and can be useful when its subject can't provide
information, or can only provide inaccurate information. Out of available methods for
collecting primary data, survey and observation methods have been found suitable for the
topic study. These have fulfilled the requirements for data collection properly.

5. Sampling
(a) Introduction

The research is a systematic study to examine or investigate the issue or problem and find
out the relevant information for solution. For study data are to be collected from the
respondents. It is not possible to collect data from everyone of the population. Population is
a very large number of persons or objects or items which is not feasible to manage. A
population is a group of individuals, persons, objects, or items from which samples are
taken for measurement. For research purpose a part of the population is to be selected.
Sampling is the process in which a representative part of a population for the purpose of
determining parameters or characteristics of the whole population is selected. This is called
a sample. It is easier to contact a smaller part of the population for data collection. It can be
done within a limited time, efforts and with minimum cost. For selection of a sample
special care should be taken that the sample is proper representative of the whole
population. Every segment of the population should be included but the number should not
be very large which may become difficult to manage within time and cost limits. For this
research study purpose out of different sampling methods the stratified random sampling has
been selected. The universe includes salesmen, wholesalers, retailers and customers of
selected companies located in different parts of Gujarat region. Out of Gujarat region main
cities like Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot and Bhavnagar have been selected. The
salesmen are selected from branches of companies and further on the basis of availability
during visits. Cities are divided into areas and from each area the dealers, retailers and

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customers have been selected from urban and rural areas of these cities. They have been
selected randomly. So stratified random sampling has been used for the study. Keeping in
view the proper representation of every segment of population and manageable size of the
sample, the sample size selected is 400.

(b) Time Duration

The permitted time by the university for completion of research study for Ph.D degree is
two years. Continuous efforts have been put to work on this research. It has been completed
and submitted within the permitted time period.

(c) Statistical Tools for Data Analysis

For data analysis measures of central tendency, standard deviation, variance will be used.
For testing of hypothesis F Test and T test will be used.

(d) Hypothesis
The following hypotheses have been tested with the help of statistical tools:

(i) Null Hypotheses: There is significant difference amongst sales promotion strategies of
the selected companies.

• There is significant impact of sales promotion strategies on sales, number of customers,

overall profitability and business performance of selected companies

(ii) Alternative Hypotheses: There is no significant difference amongst sales promotion

strategies of the selected companies.

• There is no significant impact of sales promotion strategies on sales, number of

customers, overall profitability and business performance of selected companies

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6. Limitations of the Study

To carry out the research study the following limitations were expected and faced during the
research study:

(a) Availability of secondary data from sales records of the companies were difficult.
(b) Salesmen, customers, dealers and retailers were reluctant or hesitant to share data.
(c) Management may not like to share their views on the topic.
(d) Time, cost and location factors become major difficulties in completion of research.
(e) Sample size may not be exact representative of the universe. There is possibility of some
error to a limited extent.

However, to overcome the limitations and maintain the effectiveness of research work
sincere efforts were put.

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