Japanese cooperative R&D projects in software technology

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-55).Michael A. Cusumano

A reusable iterative optimization software library to solve combinatorial problems with approximate reasoning

Real world combinatorial optimization problems such as scheduling are typically too complex to solve with exact methods. Additionally, the problems often have to observe vaguely specified constraints of different importance, the available data may be uncertain, and compromises between antagonistic criteria may be necessary. We present a combination of approximate reasoning based constraints and iterative optimization based heuristics that help to model and solve such problems in a framework of C++ software libraries called StarFLIP++. While initially developed to schedule continuous caster units in steel plants, we present in this paper results from reusing the library components in a shift scheduling system for the workforce of an industrial production plant.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures; for a project overview see http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/proj/StarFLIP

Revisiting Actor Programming in C++

The actor model of computation has gained significant popularity over the last decade. Its high level of abstraction makes it appealing for concurrent applications in parallel and distributed systems. However, designing a real-world actor framework that subsumes full scalability, strong reliability, and high resource efficiency requires many conceptual and algorithmic additives to the original model. In this paper, we report on designing and building CAF, the "C++ Actor Framework". CAF targets at providing a concurrent and distributed native environment for scaling up to very large, high-performance applications, and equally well down to small constrained systems. We present the key specifications and design concepts---in particular a message-transparent architecture, type-safe message interfaces, and pattern matching facilities---that make native actors a viable approach for many robust, elastic, and highly distributed developments. We demonstrate the feasibility of CAF in three scenarios: first for elastic, upscaling environments, second for including heterogeneous hardware like GPGPUs, and third for distributed runtime systems. Extensive performance evaluations indicate ideal runtime behaviour for up to 64 cores at very low memory footprint, or in the presence of GPUs. In these tests, CAF continuously outperforms the competing actor environments Erlang, Charm++, SalsaLite, Scala, ActorFoundry, and even the OpenMPI.Comment: 33 page

Flight Test Data System for Strain Measurement

This thesis describes the design and evaluation of two devices to be included in the next generation of the family of devices called the Boundary Layer Data System (BLDS). The first device, called the Quasi-Static Strain Data Acquisition System, is a continuation of the BLDS-M series of devices to be known as the Flight Test Data System (FTDS) that uses a modular approach to acquire non-flow, quasi-static mechanical strain measurements. Various breakout boards and development boards were used to synthesize the device, which were housed by a custom PCB board. The system is controlled by the SimbleeTM System on a Chip (SOC), and strain measurements are acquired using the HX711 analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and acceleration measurements are acquired with the ADXL345 accelerometer. The Arduino IDE was used to program and troubleshoot the device. The second device, called the Dynamic Strain Data Acquisition System, is a laboratory proof-of-concept device that evaluates various methods of acquiring dynamic strain measurements that may be used in future FTDS designs. A custom PCB board was designed that houses the microcontroller and the various passive components and ICs used to acquire and store strain measurements. The system is controlled by the Atxmega128A4U microcontroller, and measurements are acquired using the AD7708 external ADC and the on-board ADC of the microcontroller. Atmel StudioTM was used to program the microcontroller in C/C++ and to troubleshoot the device. Both devices were tested extensively under room temperature and low temperature conditions to prove the reliability and survivability of each device. The quasi-static data acquisition system was validated to acquire and store measurements to a microSD card at 10 Hz, with a peak operating current under 60 mA. The dynamic data acquisition system was proven to acquire a thousand measurements at 1 kHz and store the data to a microSD card, with a peak operating current under 60 mA

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