Using the DiaSpec design language and compiler to develop robotics systems

A Sense/Compute/Control (SCC) application is one that interacts with the physical environment. Such applications are pervasive in domains such as building automation, assisted living, and autonomic computing. Developing an SCC application is complex because: (1) the implementation must address both the interaction with the environment and the application logic; (2) any evolution in the environment must be reflected in the implementation of the application; (3) correctness is essential, as effects on the physical environment can have irreversible consequences. The SCC architectural pattern and the DiaSpec domain-specific design language propose a framework to guide the design of such applications. From a design description in DiaSpec, the DiaSpec compiler is capable of generating a programming framework that guides the developer in implementing the design and that provides runtime support. In this paper, we report on an experiment using DiaSpec (both the design language and compiler) to develop a standard robotics application. We discuss the benefits and problems of using DiaSpec in a robotics setting and present some changes that would make DiaSpec a better framework in this setting.Comment: DSLRob'11: Domain-Specific Languages and models for ROBotic systems (2011

Transfer Learning for Improving Model Predictions in Highly Configurable Software

Modern software systems are built to be used in dynamic environments using configuration capabilities to adapt to changes and external uncertainties. In a self-adaptation context, we are often interested in reasoning about the performance of the systems under different configurations. Usually, we learn a black-box model based on real measurements to predict the performance of the system given a specific configuration. However, as modern systems become more complex, there are many configuration parameters that may interact and we end up learning an exponentially large configuration space. Naturally, this does not scale when relying on real measurements in the actual changing environment. We propose a different solution: Instead of taking the measurements from the real system, we learn the model using samples from other sources, such as simulators that approximate performance of the real system at low cost. We define a cost model that transform the traditional view of model learning into a multi-objective problem that not only takes into account model accuracy but also measurements effort as well. We evaluate our cost-aware transfer learning solution using real-world configurable software including (i) a robotic system, (ii) 3 different stream processing applications, and (iii) a NoSQL database system. The experimental results demonstrate that our approach can achieve (a) a high prediction accuracy, as well as (b) a high model reliability.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Software Engineering for Adaptive and Self-Managing Systems (SEAMS'17

MROS: Runtime Adaptation For Robot Control Architectures

Known attempts to build autonomous robots rely on complex control architectures, often implemented with the Robot Operating System platform (ROS). Runtime adaptation is needed in these systems, to cope with component failures and with contingencies arising from dynamic environments-otherwise, these affect the reliability and quality of the mission execution. Existing proposals on how to build self-adaptive systems in robotics usually require a major re-design of the control architecture and rely on complex tools unfamiliar to the robotics community. Moreover, they are hard to reuse across applications. This paper presents MROS: a model-based framework for run-time adaptation of robot control architectures based on ROS. MROS uses a combination of domain-specific languages to model architectural variants and captures mission quality concerns, and an ontology-based implementation of the MAPE-K and meta-control visions for run-time adaptation. The experiment results obtained applying MROS in two realistic ROS-based robotic demonstrators show the benefits of our approach in terms of the quality of the mission execution, and MROS' extensibility and re-usability across robotic applications

Microservices and Machine Learning Algorithms for Adaptive Green Buildings

In recent years, the use of services for Open Systems development has consolidated and strengthened. Advances in the Service Science and Engineering (SSE) community, promoted by the reinforcement of Web Services and Semantic Web technologies and the presence of new Cloud computing techniques, such as the proliferation of microservices solutions, have allowed software architects to experiment and develop new ways of building open and adaptable computer systems at runtime. Home automation, intelligent buildings, robotics, graphical user interfaces are some of the social atmosphere environments suitable in which to apply certain innovative trends. This paper presents a schema for the adaptation of Dynamic Computer Systems (DCS) using interdisciplinary techniques on model-driven engineering, service engineering and soft computing. The proposal manages an orchestrated microservices schema for adapting component-based software architectural systems at runtime. This schema has been developed as a three-layer adaptive transformation process that is supported on a rule-based decision-making service implemented by means of Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. The experimental development was implemented in the Solar Energy Research Center (CIESOL) applying the proposed microservices schema for adapting home architectural atmosphere systems on Green Buildings

Towards adaptive multi-robot systems: self-organization and self-adaptation

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.The development of complex systems ensembles that operate in uncertain environments is a major challenge. The reason for this is that system designers are not able to fully specify the system during specification and development and before it is being deployed. Natural swarm systems enjoy similar characteristics, yet, being self-adaptive and being able to self-organize, these systems show beneficial emergent behaviour. Similar concepts can be extremely helpful for artificial systems, especially when it comes to multi-robot scenarios, which require such solution in order to be applicable to highly uncertain real world application. In this article, we present a comprehensive overview over state-of-the-art solutions in emergent systems, self-organization, self-adaptation, and robotics. We discuss these approaches in the light of a framework for multi-robot systems and identify similarities, differences missing links and open gaps that have to be addressed in order to make this framework possible

Self-Learning Cloud Controllers: Fuzzy Q-Learning for Knowledge Evolution

Cloud controllers aim at responding to application demands by automatically scaling the compute resources at runtime to meet performance guarantees and minimize resource costs. Existing cloud controllers often resort to scaling strategies that are codified as a set of adaptation rules. However, for a cloud provider, applications running on top of the cloud infrastructure are more or less black-boxes, making it difficult at design time to define optimal or pre-emptive adaptation rules. Thus, the burden of taking adaptation decisions often is delegated to the cloud application. Yet, in most cases, application developers in turn have limited knowledge of the cloud infrastructure. In this paper, we propose learning adaptation rules during runtime. To this end, we introduce FQL4KE, a self-learning fuzzy cloud controller. In particular, FQL4KE learns and modifies fuzzy rules at runtime. The benefit is that for designing cloud controllers, we do not have to rely solely on precise design-time knowledge, which may be difficult to acquire. FQL4KE empowers users to specify cloud controllers by simply adjusting weights representing priorities in system goals instead of specifying complex adaptation rules. The applicability of FQL4KE has been experimentally assessed as part of the cloud application framework ElasticBench. The experimental results indicate that FQL4KE outperforms our previously developed fuzzy controller without learning mechanisms and the native Azure auto-scaling

mRUBiS: An Exemplar for Model-Based Architectural Self-Healing and Self-Optimization

Self-adaptive software systems are often structured into an adaptation engine that manages an adaptable software by operating on a runtime model that represents the architecture of the software (model-based architectural self-adaptation). Despite the popularity of such approaches, existing exemplars provide application programming interfaces but no runtime model to develop adaptation engines. Consequently, there does not exist any exemplar that supports developing, evaluating, and comparing model-based self-adaptation off the shelf. Therefore, we present mRUBiS, an extensible exemplar for model-based architectural self-healing and self-optimization. mRUBiS simulates the adaptable software and therefore provides and maintains an architectural runtime model of the software, which can be directly used by adaptation engines to realize and perform self-adaptation. Particularly, mRUBiS supports injecting issues into the model, which should be handled by self-adaptation, and validating the model to assess the self-adaptation. Finally, mRUBiS allows developers to explore variants of adaptation engines (e.g., event-driven self-adaptation) and to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and scalability of the engines