Simulation modelling and visualisation: toolkits for building artificial worlds

Simulations users at all levels make heavy use of compute resources to drive computational simulations for greatly varying applications areas of research using different simulation paradigms. Simulations are implemented in many software forms, ranging from highly standardised and general models that run in proprietary software packages to ad hoc hand-crafted simulations codes for very specific applications. Visualisation of the workings or results of a simulation is another highly valuable capability for simulation developers and practitioners. There are many different software libraries and methods available for creating a visualisation layer for simulations, and it is often a difficult and time-consuming process to assemble a toolkit of these libraries and other resources that best suits a particular simulation model. We present here a break-down of the main simulation paradigms, and discuss differing toolkits and approaches that different researchers have taken to tackle coupled simulation and visualisation in each paradigm

A Constrained Object Model for Configuration Based Workflow Composition

Automatic or assisted workflow composition is a field of intense research for applications to the world wide web or to business process modeling. Workflow composition is traditionally addressed in various ways, generally via theorem proving techniques. Recent research observed that building a composite workflow bears strong relationships with finite model search, and that some workflow languages can be defined as constrained object metamodels . This lead to consider the viability of applying configuration techniques to this problem, which was proven feasible. Constrained based configuration expects a constrained object model as input. The purpose of this document is to formally specify the constrained object model involved in ongoing experiments and research using the Z specification language.Comment: This is an extended version of the article published at BPM'05, Third International Conference on Business Process Management, Nancy Franc

Second CLIPS Conference Proceedings, volume 1

Topics covered at the 2nd CLIPS Conference held at the Johnson Space Center, September 23-25, 1991 are given. Topics include rule groupings, fault detection using expert systems, decision making using expert systems, knowledge representation, computer aided design and debugging expert systems

Domain specific software design for decision aiding

McDonnell Aircraft Company (MCAIR) is involved in many large multi-discipline design and development efforts of tactical aircraft. These involve a number of design disciplines that must be coordinated to produce an integrated design and a successful product. Our interpretation of a domain specific software design (DSSD) is that of a representation or framework that is specialized to support a limited problem domain. A DSSD is an abstract software design that is shaped by the problem characteristics. This parallels the theme of object-oriented analysis and design of letting the problem model directly drive the design. The DSSD concept extends the notion of software reusability to include representations or frameworks. It supports the entire software life cycle and specifically leads to improved prototyping capability, supports system integration, and promotes reuse of software designs and supporting frameworks. The example presented in this paper is the task network architecture or design which was developed for the MCAIR Pilot's Associate program. The task network concept supported both module development and system integration within the domain of operator decision aiding. It is presented as an instance where a software design exhibited many of the attributes associated with DSSD concept

NASA space station automation: AI-based technology review

Research and Development projects in automation for the Space Station are discussed. Artificial Intelligence (AI) based automation technologies are planned to enhance crew safety through reduced need for EVA, increase crew productivity through the reduction of routine operations, increase space station autonomy, and augment space station capability through the use of teleoperation and robotics. AI technology will also be developed for the servicing of satellites at the Space Station, system monitoring and diagnosis, space manufacturing, and the assembly of large space structures

Knowledge From Pictures (KFP)

The old maxim goes: 'A picture is worth a thousand words'. The objective of the research reported in this paper is to demonstrate this idea as it relates to the knowledge acquisition process and the automated development of an expert system's rule base. A prototype tool, the Knowledge From Pictures (KFP) tool, has been developed which configures an expert system's rule base by an automated analysis of and reasoning about a 'picture', i.e., a graphical representation of some target system to be supported by the diagnostic capabilities of the expert system under development. This rule base, when refined, could then be used by the expert system for target system monitoring and fault analysis in an operational setting. Most people, when faced with the problem of understanding the behavior of a complicated system, resort to the use of some picture or graphical representation of the system as an aid in thinking about it. This depiction provides a means of helping the individual to visualize the bahavior and dynamics of the system under study. An analysis of the picture augmented with the individual's background information, allows the problem solver to codify knowledge about the system. This knowledge can, in turn, be used to develop computer programs to automatically monitor the system's performance. The approach taken is this research was to mimic this knowledge acquisition paradigm. A prototype tool was developed which provides the user: (1) a mechanism for graphically representing sample system-configurations appropriate for the domain, and (2) a linguistic device for annotating the graphical representation with the behaviors and mutual influences of the components depicted in the graphic. The KFP tool, reasoning from the graphical depiction along with user-supplied annotations of component behaviors and inter-component influences, generates a rule base that could be used in automating the fault detection, isolation, and repair of the system

ModeL4CEP: Graphical domain-specific modeling languages for CEP domains and event patterns

Complex event processing (CEP) is a cutting-edge technology that allows the analysis and correlation of large volumes of data with the aim of detecting complex and meaningful events through the use of event patterns, as well as permitting the inference of valuable knowledge for end users. Despite the great advantages that CEP can bring to expert or intelligent business systems, it poses a substantial challenge to their users, who are business experts but do not have the necessary knowledge and experience using this technology. The main problem these users have to face is precisely hand-writing the code for event pattern definition, which requires them to implement the conditions to be met to detect relevant situations for the domain in question by using a particular event processing language (EPL). In order to respond to this need, in this paper we propose both a graphical domain-specific modeling language (DSML) for facilitating CEP domain definitions by domain experts, and a graphical DSML for event pattern definition by non-technological users. The proposed languages provide high expressiveness and flexibility and are independent of event patterns and actions’ implementation code. This way, domain experts can define the relevant event types and patterns within their business domain, without having to be experts on EPL programming, nor on other complicated computer science technological issues, beyond an understandable and intuitive graphical definition. Furthermore, with these DSMLs, users will also be able to define the actions to be automatically taken once a pattern is detected in the system. Further benefits of these DSMLs are evaluated and discussed in depth in this paper

Agents for educational games and simulations

This book consists mainly of revised papers that were presented at the Agents for Educational Games and Simulation (AEGS) workshop held on May 2, 2011, as part of the Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS) conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized topical sections on middleware applications, dialogues and learning, adaption and convergence, and agent applications