Petri net-based approach for web service automation resource coordination

In industrial automation, control systems and mechatronic devices are from diverse nature, supplied by different manufacturers and made of different technologies. The adoption of web services principles in an automated production system satisfies some requirements, namely the interoperability of such heterogeneous and distributed environments and the basis for flexibility and reconfigurability. Manufacturing processes require to access resources at different precedence levels and time instances, but in the other way resources may also be shared by different processes. A major challenge is then how individual services may interact, coordinating their activities. Petri nets may be used to describe complex system behaviour and therefore also applied to coordinate such systems. The paper introduces a Petri net based approach for the design, analysis and coordination of systems developed using web services to represent individual and autonomous resources. For this purpose, it is presented a Petri nets computational tool to support the design, validation and coordination of web service based automation systems.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Engineering framework for service-oriented automation systems

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Informática. Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Engenharia. 201

Semantic interoperability in ad-hoc computing environments

This thesis introduces a novel approach in which multiple heterogeneous devices collaborate to provide useful applications in an ad-hoc network. This thesis proposes a smart home as a particular ubiquitous computing scenario considering all the requirements given by the literature for succeed in this kind of systems. To that end, we envision a horizontally integrated smart home built up from independent components that provide services. These components are described with enough syntactic, semantic and pragmatic knowledge to accomplish spontaneous collaboration. The objective of these collaboration is domestic use, that is, the provision of valuable services for home residents capable of supporting users in their daily activities. Moreover, for the system to be attractive for potential customers, it should offer high levels of trust and reliability, all of them not at an excessive price. To achieve this goal, this thesis proposes to study the synergies available when an ontological description of home device functionality is paired with a formal method. We propose an ad-hoc home network in which components are home devices modelled as processes represented as semantic services by means of the Web Service Ontology (OWL-S). In addition, such services are specified, verified and implemented by means of the Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP), a process algebra for describing concurrent systems. The utilisation of an ontology brings the desired levels of knowledge for a system to compose services in a ad-hoc environment. Services are composed by a goal based system in order to satisfy user needs. Such system is capable of understaning, both service representations and user context information. Furthermore, the inclusion of a formal method contributes with additional semantics to check that such compositions will be correctly implemented and executed, achieving the levels of reliability and costs reduction (costs derived form the design, development and implementation of the system) needed for a smart home to succeed.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Uma arquitectura de software dinâmica para a criação de ambientes de interacção social regulada na Web

Tese de Doutoramento em Informática - Área de Especialização em Tecnologia da ProgramaçãoNas últimas décadas assistimos a uma mudança paradigmática na utilização das tecnologias da informação e comunicação que potenciaram a criação de uma sociedade de informação e conhecimento, abrangendo e influenciando praticamente todos os domínios da sociedade. O tradicional uso das tecnologias de informação e comunicação no auxílio à execução de actividades de âmbito profissional, numa interacção restrita entre homem e máquina, deu lugar a ambientes virtuais de interacção social, onde pessoas interagem com pessoas, criando relações estreitas e realizando as mais diversas actividades. O crescimento da Internet e das tecnologias associadas fomentou o crescimento e difusão dos ambientes virtuais de interacção social, tornando-os acessíveis `a grande maioria da população. Actualmente estes ambientes estão espalhados por toda a Internet e abrangem um vasto leque de áreas, da educação ao entretenimento. Contudo, a imaturidade associada ao rápido crescimento destes ambientes levou a que fossem descurados factores que actualmente condicionam a interacção social, nomeadamente ao nível da sua coordenação e regulação. A regulação e coordenação da interacção social nos ambientes virtuais pode constituir uma solução possível para organização da actual interacção “ad hoc”, que persiste nestes ambientes, contribuindo inerentemente para o aumento da sua credibilidade. Nesta tese é proposto um modelo para a regulação da interacção social e controlo dos ambientes virtuais: o modelo dos Teatros Sociais. O conceito de Teatro Social resulta da aplicação da metáfora teatral a ambientes virtuais de interacção social destinados a reproduzir virtualmente situações do quotidiano. Dentro destes ambientes os utilizadores tornam-se actores, desempenhando papéis bem definidos, num cenário virtual de interacção conhecido e, idealmente, estabelecido de forma comum. O modelo dos Teatros Sociais é implementado por uma arquitectura de software dinâmica que permite a criação de ambientes de interacção regulados e assegura a adaptação dos conteúdos da interacção aos canais de comunicação dos utilizadores, embora condicionados pelas restrições tecnológicas dos dispositivos usados na interacção. Para a validação do modelo e da arquitectura de suporte foram criados dois casos de estudo que suportaram um conjunto de experiências realizadas com utilizadores reais.Throughout the last decades we have observed a paradigmatic change on the use of information and communication technologies, which have powered the creation of an information and knowledge society, covering and influencing almost every domain of society. The traditional usage of information and communication technologies as an aid to the execution of professional activities, in a restrictive man-machine interaction, has given way to social interaction virtual environments where people interact with each other, creating close relationships and doing the most different activities. The growth of the Internet and its associated technologies encouraged the expansion and diffusion of virtual environments where social interaction takes place, allowing easy access to the great majority of population. Nowadays these environments are spread all over the Internet and cover a vast rage of areas, from education to entertainment. However, immaturity together with the fast growth of these environments led to the disregard of factors, which condition interaction today, namely the coordination and regulation of interaction activities. The regulation and coordination of interaction in social, virtual interaction environments may be a possible solution to the organisation of today’s “ad hoc” interaction, which persists in these environments, inherently contributing to the increase of its credibility. In this Thesis a model to regulate social interaction and control virtual environments is proposed: the Social Theatres model. Social Theatres stand for the application of the theatrical metaphor to social virtual environments, intended to virtually reproduce some of the common and useful people’s interaction contexts. Inside these environments, users become actors, playing previously well defined roles within a well known, commonly established virtual interaction scenario. The Social Theatres model is implemented by a dynamic software architecture that allows the creation of regulated interaction environments and guarantees adaptation to users’ devices and input channels. In order to validate the model and the supporting architecture two case studies were created, which supported a group of experiments carried out with real users.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) - no âmbito do III Quadro Comunitário de Apoio, comparticipado pelo Fundo Social EuropeuMinistério da Ciência e do Ensino Superior (MCES) - Bolsa de Doutoramento com a referência SFRH/BD/10304/200