How do you architect your robots?:State of the practice and guidelines for ros-based systems

The Robot Operating System (ROS) is the de-facto standard for robotic software. If on one hand ROS is helping roboticists, e.g., by providing a standardized communication platform, on the other hand ROS-based systems are getting larger and more complex and could benefit from good software architecture practices. This paper presents an observational study aimed at (i) unveiling the state-ofthe- practice for architecting ROS-based systems and (ii) providing guidance to roboticists about how to properly architect ROS-based systems. To achieve these goals, we (i) build a dataset of 335 GitHub repositories containing real open-source ROS-based systems, (ii) mine the repositories for extracting the state of the practice about how roboticists are architecting them, and (iii) synthesize a catalog of 49 evidence-based guidelines for architecting ROS-based systems. The guidelines have been validated by 77 roboticists working on real-world open-source ROS-based systems

An Introduction to Software Ecosystems

This chapter defines and presents different kinds of software ecosystems. The focus is on the development, tooling and analytics aspects of software ecosystems, i.e., communities of software developers and the interconnected software components (e.g., projects, libraries, packages, repositories, plug-ins, apps) they are developing and maintaining. The technical and social dependencies between these developers and software components form a socio-technical dependency network, and the dynamics of this network change over time. We classify and provide several examples of such ecosystems. The chapter also introduces and clarifies the relevant terms needed to understand and analyse these ecosystems, as well as the techniques and research methods that can be used to analyse different aspects of these ecosystems.Comment: Preprint of chapter "An Introduction to Software Ecosystems" by Tom Mens and Coen De Roover, published in the book "Software Ecosystems: Tooling and Analytics" (eds. T. Mens, C. De Roover, A. Cleve), 2023, ISBN 978-3-031-36059-6, reproduced with permission of Springer. The final authenticated version of the book and this chapter is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36060-

Robot Cybersecurity, a Review

Robots are often shipped insecure and in some cases fully unprotected. The rationale behind is threefold: first, defensive security mechanisms for robots are still in their early stages, not covering the complete threat landscape. Second, the inherent complexity of robotic systems makes their protection costly, both technically and economically. Third, vendors do not generally take responsibility in a timely manner, extending the zero-day exposure window (time until mitigation of a zero-day) to several years on average. Worse, several manufacturers keep forwarding the problem to the end-users of these machines or discarding it. In this article we review the status of robot cybersecurity considering three sources of data: 1) recent literature, 2) questionnaires performed in top robotics forums and 3) recent research results in robot cybersecurity. Building upon a decade of experience in robotics, this article reviews the current status of cybersecurity in robotics and argues about the current challenges to secure robotic systems. Ultimately, based on the empirical results collected over a period of three years performing security assessments in robots, the present text advocates for a complementary offensive approach methodology to protect robots in a feasible and timely manner

Robot Cybersecurity, a Review

Robots are often shipped insecure and in some cases fully unprotected. The rationale behind is threefold: first, defensive security mechanisms for robots are still in their early stages, not covering the complete threat landscape. Second, the inherent complexity of robotic systems makes their protection costly, both technically and economically. Third, vendors do not generally take responsibility in a timely manner, extending the zero-day exposure window (time until mitigation of a zero-day) to several years on average. Worse, several manufacturers keep forwarding the problem to the end-users of these machines or discarding it. In this article we review the status of robot cybersecurity considering three sources of data: 1) recent literature, 2) questionnaires performed in top robotics forums and 3) recent research results in robot cybersecurity. Building upon a decade of experience in robotics, this article reviews the current status of cybersecurity in robotics and argues about the current challenges to secure robotic systems. Ultimately, based on the empirical results collected over a period of three years performing security assessments in robots, the present text advocates for a complementary offensive approach methodology to protect robots in a feasible and timely manner

Utilizing static and dynamic software analysis to aid cost estimation, software visualization, and test quality management

The main results presented in the thesis are related to the semi- or fully-automated analysis of the software and its development processes. My overall research goal is to provide meaningful insights, methods, and practical tools to help the work of stakeholders during various phases of software development. The thesis statements have been grouped into three major thesis points, namely "Measuring, predicting, and comparing the productivity of developer teams"; "Providing immersive methods for software and unit test visualization"; and "Spotting the structures in the package hierarchy that required attention using test coverage data"

Building information modeling – A game changer for interoperability and a chance for digital preservation of architectural data?

Digital data associated with the architectural design-andconstruction process is an essential resource alongside -and even past- the lifecycle of the construction object it describes. Despite this, digital architectural data remains to be largely neglected in digital preservation research – and vice versa, digital preservation is so far neglected in the design-and-construction process. In the last 5 years, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has seen a growing adoption in the architecture and construction domains, marking a large step towards much needed interoperability. The open standard IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) is one way in which data is exchanged in BIM processes. This paper presents a first digital preservation based look at BIM processes, highlighting the history and adoption of the methods as well as the open file format standard IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) as one way to store and preserve BIM data

Integrated assessment and valuation of ecosystem services - Guidelines and experiences

EU FP7 OpenNESS project deliverable D33 & D4

Wildfire Hazard and Risk Assessment

Wildfire risk can be perceived as the combination of wildfire hazards (often described by likelihood and intensity) with the susceptibility of people, property, or other valued resources to that hazard. Reflecting the seriousness of wildfire risk to communities around the world, substantial resources are devoted to assessing wildfire hazards and risks. Wildfire hazard and risk assessments are conducted at a wide range of scales, from localized to nationwide, and are often intended to communicate and support decision making about risks, including the prioritization of scarce resources. Improvements in the underlying science of wildfire hazard and risk assessment and in the development, communication, and application of these assessments support effective decisions made on all aspects of societal adaptations to wildfire, including decisions about the prevention, mitigation, and suppression of wildfire risks. To support such efforts, this Special Issue of the journal Fire compiles articles on the understanding, modeling, and addressing of wildfire risks to homes, water resources, firefighters, and landscapes