24,705 research outputs found
Fast algorithms for handling diagonal constraints in timed automata
A popular method for solving reachability in timed automata proceeds by
enumerating reachable sets of valuations represented as zones. A na\"ive
enumeration of zones does not terminate. Various termination mechanisms have
been studied over the years. Coming up with efficient termination mechanisms
has been remarkably more challenging when the automaton has diagonal
constraints in guards.
In this paper, we propose a new termination mechanism for timed automata with
diagonal constraints based on a new simulation relation between zones.
Experiments with an implementation of this simulation show significant gains
over existing methods.Comment: Shorter version of this article to appear in CAV 201
Physics-based Motion Planning with Temporal Logic Specifications
One of the main foci of robotics is nowadays centered in providing a great
degree of autonomy to robots. A fundamental step in this direction is to give
them the ability to plan in discrete and continuous spaces to find the required
motions to complete a complex task. In this line, some recent approaches
describe tasks with Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) and reason on discrete actions
to guide sampling-based motion planning, with the aim of finding
dynamically-feasible motions that satisfy the temporal-logic task
specifications. The present paper proposes an LTL planning approach enhanced
with the use of ontologies to describe and reason about the task, on the one
hand, and that includes physics-based motion planning to allow the purposeful
manipulation of objects, on the other hand. The proposal has been implemented
and is illustrated with didactic examples with a mobile robot in simple
scenarios where some of the goals are occupied with objects that must be
removed in order to fulfill the task.Comment: The 20th World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic
Control, 9-14 July 201
Explicit Model Checking of Very Large MDP using Partitioning and Secondary Storage
The applicability of model checking is hindered by the state space explosion
problem in combination with limited amounts of main memory. To extend its
reach, the large available capacities of secondary storage such as hard disks
can be exploited. Due to the specific performance characteristics of secondary
storage technologies, specialised algorithms are required. In this paper, we
present a technique to use secondary storage for probabilistic model checking
of Markov decision processes. It combines state space exploration based on
partitioning with a block-iterative variant of value iteration over the same
partitions for the analysis of probabilistic reachability and expected-reward
properties. A sparse matrix-like representation is used to store partitions on
secondary storage in a compact format. All file accesses are sequential, and
compression can be used without affecting runtime. The technique has been
implemented within the Modest Toolset. We evaluate its performance on several
benchmark models of up to 3.5 billion states. In the analysis of time-bounded
properties on real-time models, our method neutralises the state space
explosion induced by the time bound in its entirety.Comment: The final publication is available at Springer via
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24953-7_1
A Personalized System for Conversational Recommendations
Searching for and making decisions about information is becoming increasingly
difficult as the amount of information and number of choices increases.
Recommendation systems help users find items of interest of a particular type,
such as movies or restaurants, but are still somewhat awkward to use. Our
solution is to take advantage of the complementary strengths of personalized
recommendation systems and dialogue systems, creating personalized aides. We
present a system -- the Adaptive Place Advisor -- that treats item selection as
an interactive, conversational process, with the program inquiring about item
attributes and the user responding. Individual, long-term user preferences are
unobtrusively obtained in the course of normal recommendation dialogues and
used to direct future conversations with the same user. We present a novel user
model that influences both item search and the questions asked during a
conversation. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our system in significantly
reducing the time and number of interactions required to find a satisfactory
item, as compared to a control group of users interacting with a non-adaptive
version of the system
Reputation Management and Social Media: How People Monitor Their Identity and Search for Others Online
Based on a survey, analyzes trends in how adults maintain online reputations, including monitoring via search engines and customizing privacy settings on profiles by age group. Examines the role of online information in employment and social interactions
Development and demonstration of an on-board mission planner for helicopters
Mission management tasks can be distributed within a planning hierarchy, where each level of the hierarchy addresses a scope of action, and associated time scale or planning horizon, and requirements for plan generation response time. The current work is focused on the far-field planning subproblem, with a scope and planning horizon encompassing the entire mission and with a response time required to be about two minutes. The far-feld planning problem is posed as a constrained optimization problem and algorithms and structural organizations are proposed for the solution. Algorithms are implemented in a developmental environment, and performance is assessed with respect to optimality and feasibility for the intended application and in comparison with alternative algorithms. This is done for the three major components of far-field planning: goal planning, waypoint path planning, and timeline management. It appears feasible to meet performance requirements on a 10 Mips flyable processor (dedicated to far-field planning) using a heuristically-guided simulated annealing technique for the goal planner, a modified A* search for the waypoint path planner, and a speed scheduling technique developed for this project
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