7,347 research outputs found

    Integrated modeling tool for performance engineering of complex computer systems

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    This report summarizes Advanced System Technologies' accomplishments on the Phase 2 SBIR contract NAS7-995. The technical objectives of the report are: (1) to develop an evaluation version of a graphical, integrated modeling language according to the specification resulting from the Phase 2 research; and (2) to determine the degree to which the language meets its objectives by evaluating ease of use, utility of two sets of performance predictions, and the power of the language constructs. The technical approach followed to meet these objectives was to design, develop, and test an evaluation prototype of a graphical, performance prediction tool. The utility of the prototype was then evaluated by applying it to a variety of test cases found in the literature and in AST case histories. Numerous models were constructed and successfully tested. The major conclusion of this Phase 2 SBIR research and development effort is that complex, real-time computer systems can be specified in a non-procedural manner using combinations of icons, windows, menus, and dialogs. Such a specification technique provides an interface that system designers and architects find natural and easy to use. In addition, PEDESTAL's multiview approach provides system engineers with the capability to perform the trade-offs necessary to produce a design that meets timing performance requirements. Sample system designs analyzed during the development effort showed that models could be constructed in a fraction of the time required by non-visual system design capture tools

    Capacity-building activities related to climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment and economic valuation for Fiji

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    The Terms of Reference for this work specified three objectives to the Fiji component: Objective 1a: to provide a prototype FIJICLIM model (covered under PICCAP funding) Objective 1b: to provide training and transfer of FIJICLIM Objective 1c: to present and evaluate World Bank study findings and to identify future directions for development and use of FIJICLIM (2-day workshop) Proceedings of the training course and workshop were prepared by the Fiji Department of Environment. The summaries from these proceedings reflect a very high degree of success with the contracted activities

    Semi-autonomous Wind Blade Inspection by a RPAS

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    Over many requirements that population growth brought, electric energy is one of them. Energy is present on our everyday life needs. It is becoming common for machinery to be powered by electric energy. This is a positive aspect regarding environment, once this is a green energy. In order to keep the demand required, it is a must to share the most of every electric source available, once that it is impossible for one to fulfill all the supply needs. One of the most suitable solutions to obtain this energy, is through renewable energy. Between them, wind provides great benefits, being expressed through the air, providing uncalculated power at our disposition. The most efficient way known to transfer this energy into electricity, is by Wind Turbines. These machines, due to their height and layout, are able to use the wind to spin their blades, converting kinetic energy into mechanical power. This technology, granting notable incomes, being this an industry rising in the recent years. Although, being these structures exposed to fatigue, by the extreme conditions such as sun, rain, between others, drastically limits the material life endurance and their efficiency. Being this a wide combination of factors, the industry that produces these components, lacks the capacity of predicting accurately the time that the parts should be replaced. Thus, it is a must to provide maintenance over them. Furthermore, due to their dimensions, these structures constitute a hindrance to provide proper inspection without much pecuniary aspects involved. Quadrotors are a type of RPAS which possess great maneuverability, stability and simplicity. Owing to this, becomes possible to perform surveillance on different types of structures, presenting a comfortable way to execute it on dangerous and difficult access spaces. The current work presents a solution to this problem statement, combining the RPAS, Phantom 4 of DJI, with the programming language Java, providing an application. With this, every user is allowed to produce a trajectory where the requirements can adapt to his needs, incorporating essential parameters to define a path over the Waypoints established, relying on geographic localization, producing a path through them. Improving this work to a completely autonomous inspection would bring total independency from the technician executing the maintenance, providing a viable and repeatable process, increasing the income of energy from Wind Turbines.Entre muitas necessidades que o crescimento populacional acartou, energia elétrica é uma delas. Esta é um bem presente em todas as necessidades associadas com o nosso dia-à-dia. Cada vez é mais comum a maquinaria presente na nossa vida ser alimentada através de eletricidade. Este é um aspeto positivo relativamente ao ambiente, uma vez que esta é uma energia ecológica. De forma a manter a quantidade necessária, é preciso aproveitar o maximo de cada fonte de energia disponível, uma vez que, atualmente, uma só não consegue responder a todas as necessidades existentes. Uma das formas mais viáveis de obter energia, é através das energias renováveis. Entre as quais, esta presente a energia eólica, sendo manifestada através do ar, fornecendo uma incalculável quantidade de energia à nossa disposição. A forma mais eficiente de transferir esta energia para eletricidade, é através dos Geradores Eólicos. Estas maquinas, tirando proveito da sua dimensão e configuração, permitem utilizar o vento para girar as suas pás, de forma a converter energia cinética em mecânica. Esta tecnologia permite obter uma quantidade significante de energia, sendo uma industria em ascensão nos últimos anos. No entanto, estando estas estruturas exposta à fadiga, devido às condições extremas suportadas diariamente, devido ao sol, chuva, entre outras, limita drasticamente a duração de estes materiais, bem como a sua eficiência. Sendo este um grande número de fatores a ter em conta, a industria que as produz não consegue prever com precisão a data em que as mesmas devem ser reparadas, sendo necessário executar manutenção. No entanto, o tamanho destas estruturas constitui um entrave quando requisitada uma supervisão sem que seja necessário grande financiamento associado. Quadcopteros são um tipo de RPAS que possuem uma fantástica manobrabilidade, estabilidade e simplicidade. Devido a isto, é possível efetuar manutenção em diferentes tipos de estruturas, de uma forma comoda, mesmo em espaços perigosos e por vezes de difícil acesso. O trabalho atual apresenta uma solução face a esta adversidade, combinando as vantagens de um RPAS, Phantom 4 da DJI, com a linguagem de programação Java, fornecendo assim uma aplicação. Com esta, é permitido a todos os usuários produzir um percurso sobre Waypoints estabelecidos, através de localização geográfica, baseando-se em parâmetros definidos, de forma a adaptar-se às necessidades de cada utilizador. Ao melhorar o trabalho aqui apresentado, será possível obter uma trajetória autónoma, que ao não depender do técnico que a executa, aporta uma maior fiabilidade e repetibilidade ao processo, aumentando assim a eficiência dos Geradores Eólicos

    Concurrent Image Processing Executive (CIPE)

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    The design and implementation of a Concurrent Image Processing Executive (CIPE), which is intended to become the support system software for a prototype high performance science analysis workstation are discussed. The target machine for this software is a JPL/Caltech Mark IIIfp Hypercube hosted by either a MASSCOMP 5600 or a Sun-3, Sun-4 workstation; however, the design will accommodate other concurrent machines of similar architecture, i.e., local memory, multiple-instruction-multiple-data (MIMD) machines. The CIPE system provides both a multimode user interface and an applications programmer interface, and has been designed around four loosely coupled modules; (1) user interface, (2) host-resident executive, (3) hypercube-resident executive, and (4) application functions. The loose coupling between modules allows modification of a particular module without significantly affecting the other modules in the system. In order to enhance hypercube memory utilization and to allow expansion of image processing capabilities, a specialized program management method, incremental loading, was devised. To minimize data transfer between host and hypercube a data management method which distributes, redistributes, and tracks data set information was implemented

    ENergy and Power Evaluation Program

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    Evaluation of a method and a computer tool for generating concept designs

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    The authors have developed a method/computer tool to assist (student) engineering designers in generating concept designs. The method is based on the chaining of physical laws and complementary basic schemata (BS). The tool generates chains which serve as an aid in the development of concept designs. In this paper, the authors compare concept designs generated by a control group (which used functional structure and morphological matrix) with those from an experimental group that used computer-generated chains. The experimental group was found to have generated a greater number of different solutions than the control group; the generation of different solutions indicates a high level of variety and a better chance to find potentially innovative solutions. The established difference in the number of different solutions is statistically significant and the results indicate that the BS facilitate greater variety of concept designs

    The algorithm designer project : a visual programming environment for data structure demonstration

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    Previous work on pedagogical tools for teaching students algorithms has focused on high level animations of the algorithms. This dissertation describes a tool that gives instructors the ability to pictorially demonstrate the implementation of algorithms at the data structure level.The Algorithm Designer Project explores the use of a computer as an electronic whiteboard for instruction of computer science. It improves upon the traditional physical blackboardenvironment by providing syntactic and semantic support for data structure design and algorithm demonstration. The ultimate goal of this project is to provide an attractive, easy to use, system through which users can demonstrate simple algorithms and data structures,such as those presented in data structures textbooks. The project consists of three components: Data Structure Designer, Algorithm Designer, and Rule Designer. DataStructure Designer allows users to design and customize the appearance of data structures that they intend to use to create visual programs. Concrete examples of these data structures can be placed into Algorithm Designer and directly manipulated to demonstrate algorithms.Visual programs are programs written using pictures instead of, or in conjunction with,text. Rule Designer allows the creation and manipulation of transition rules to define visual program scripts to act upon Algorithm Designer objects. The project was implemented using the Amulet toolkit and runs on Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX platforms.A key insight discovered during development of the Algorithm Designer Project was that although textbooks employ a wide variety of data structure visualizations, the differences between these visualizations can be grouped into a small number of categories. Two unique interface items were developed during the course of the research: 1) a color mapping widget interface item that provides an easy way for the user to associate a set of colors with a range of values in a data structure visualization and 2) seeds\u27\u27 and holes, a mechanism for visually identifying and supporting type-specific semantic behavior for edge-based data structures. Finally, this dissertation describes a novel use of imperative programming constructs within a pictorial rewrite rule-based scripting system and a novel use of these rules for teaching conventional imperative programming

    makeSense: Simplifying the Integration of Wireless Sensor Networks into Business Processes

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    A wide gap exists between the state of the art in developing Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) software and current practices concerning the design, execution, and maintenance of business processes. WSN software is most often developed based on low-level OS abstractions, whereas business process development leverages high-level languages and tools. This state of affairs places WSNs at the fringe of industry. The makeSense system addresses this problem by simplifying the integration of WSNs into business processes. Developers use BPMN models extended with WSN-specific constructs to specify the application behavior across both traditional business process execution environments and the WSN itself, which is to be equipped with application-specific software. We compile these models into a high-level intermediate language—also directly usable by WSN developers—and then into OS-specific deployment-ready binaries. Key to this process is the notion of meta-abstraction, which we define to capture fundamental patterns of interaction with and within the WSN. The concrete realization of meta-abstractions is application-specific; developers tailor the system configuration by selecting concrete abstractions out of the existing codebase or by providing their own. Our evaluation of makeSense shows that i) users perceive our approach as a significant advance over the state of the art, providing evidence of the increased developer productivity when using makeSense; ii) in large-scale simulations, our prototype exhibits an acceptable system overhead and good scaling properties, demonstrating the general applicability of makeSense; and, iii) our prototype—including the complete tool-chain and underlying system support—sustains a real-world deployment where estimates by domain specialists indicate the potential for drastic reductions in the total cost of ownership compared to wired and conventional WSN-based solutions

    A new approach to the development and maintenance of industrial sequence logic

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    This thesis is concerned with sequence logic as found in industrial control systems, with the focus being on process and manufacturing control systems. At its core is the assertion that there is a need for a better approach to the development of industrial sequence logic to satisfy the life-cycle requirements, and that many of the ingredients required to deliver such an approach are now available. The needs are discussed by considering the business case for automation and deficiencies with traditional approaches. A set of requirements is then derived for an integrated development environment to address the business needs throughout the control system life-cycle. The strengths and weaknesses of relevant control system technology and standards are reviewed and their bias towards implementation described. Mathematical models, graphical methods and software tools are then assessed with respect to the requirements for an integrated development environment. A solution to the requirements, called Synect is then introduced. Synect combines a methodology using familiar graphical notations with Petri net modelling supported by a set of software tools. Its key features are justified with reference to the requirements. A set of case studies forms the basis of an evaluation against business needs by comparing the Synect methodology with current approaches. The industrial relevance and exploitation are then briefly described. The thesis ends with a review of the key conclusions along with contributions to knowledge and suggestions for further research

    Basics of man-machine communication for the design of educational systems : NATO Advanced Study Institute, August 16-26, 1993, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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