5,333 research outputs found
A Model-Driven Engineering Approach for ROS using Ontological Semantics
This paper presents a novel ontology-driven software engineering approach for
the development of industrial robotics control software. It introduces the
ReApp architecture that synthesizes model-driven engineering with semantic
technologies to facilitate the development and reuse of ROS-based components
and applications. In ReApp, we show how different ontological classification
systems for hardware, software, and capabilities help developers in discovering
suitable software components for their tasks and in applying them correctly.
The proposed model-driven tooling enables developers to work at higher
abstraction levels and fosters automatic code generation. It is underpinned by
ontologies to minimize discontinuities in the development workflow, with an
integrated development environment presenting a seamless interface to the user.
First results show the viability and synergy of the selected approach when
searching for or developing software with reuse in mind.Comment: Presented at DSLRob 2015 (arXiv:1601.00877), Stefan Zander, Georg
Heppner, Georg Neugschwandtner, Ramez Awad, Marc Essinger and Nadia Ahmed: A
Model-Driven Engineering Approach for ROS using Ontological Semantic
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Towards an aspect weaving BPEL engine
This position paper proposes the use of dynamic aspects and
the visitor design pattern to obtain a highly configurable and
extensible BPEL engine. Using these two techniques, the
core of this infrastructural software can be customised to
meet new requirements and add features such as debugging,
execution monitoring, or changing to another Web Service
selection policy. Additionally, it can easily be extended to
cope with customer-specific BPEL extensions. We propose
the use of dynamic aspects not only on the engine itself
but also on the workflow in order to tackle the problems of
Web Service hot deployment and hot fixes to long running
processes. In this way, composing aWeb Service "on-the-fly"
means weaving its choreography interface into the workflow
PluralisMAC: a generic multi-MAC framework for heterogeneous, multiservice wireless networks, applied to smart containers
Developing energy-efficient MAC protocols for lightweight wireless systems has been a challenging task for decades because of the specific requirements of various applications and the varying environments in which wireless systems are deployed. Many MAC protocols for wireless networks have been proposed, often custom-made for a specific application. It is clear that one MAC does not fit all the requirements. So, how should a MAC layer deal with an application that has several modes (each with different requirements) or with the deployment of another application during the lifetime of the system? Especially in a mobile wireless system, like Smart Monitoring of Containers, we cannot know in advance the application state (empty container versus stuffed container). Dynamic switching between different energy-efficient MAC strategies is needed. Our architecture, called PluralisMAC, contains a generic multi-MAC framework and a generic neighbour monitoring and filtering framework. To validate the real-world feasibility of our architecture, we have implemented it in TinyOS and have done experiments on the TMote Sky nodes in the w-iLab.t testbed. Experimental results show that dynamic switching between MAC strategies is possible with minimal receive chain overhead, while meeting the various application requirements (reliability and low-energy consumption)
Generalizing production testing operations for IoT devices
Abstract. A rapidly increasing number of new IoT products entering the market puts strain on the testing effort required to manufacture them. Every device needs to be tested at the manufacturing site before it can be shipped to the customer. This testing process during manufacturing is called Production Testing. If test automation systems running these tests are developed with a single system engineering approach, the number of test automation systems becomes unmaintainable. In addition to this, the development cost of such test automation system has to be covered by each product. Reusability of test automation and test assets is low when resources cannot be efficiently shared between products.
Existing solutions for generalizing testing effort from a single system approach to support multiple products were reviewed from the literature. Software Product Line Engineering is recognized as a possible solution, but its adoption requires organizational, economical, and technical changes. This thesis studied technical solutions for how test automation system could be developed to support the testing of multiple products.
Test automation system was designed based on existing literature, and two example products were used to mimic realistic IoT products. Work followed to define test requirements for two example products, implement tests, and execute them for the first example product. After tests passed for the first example product, they were executed for the second product. Test failures and evident problems were marked as variation points, and they were analysed. Test attributes that needed to be varied were recognized, and four different sources for that information were identified. Test logic was identified as one of the sources for attributes, and there was no need to variate it. Matching configuration was created for other sources: component, test, and hardware configuration. Tests were successfully executed for the second example product after introducing the variation via configuration files.
Prototype implementation succeeded in its goal to create production test automation system capable of testing two different example products using common test assets. Needed variation was introduced successfully through configuration files. This thesis shows that general test assets can be created for production testing, despite the fact that production testing is tightly coupled to the target hardware.
Future work continues by testing additional hardware platforms to reveal more variation points. This helps to develop production testing test automation to support a wider range of hardware platforms and components. Storing the hardware-specific configuration data to the device looks promising topic for further study
Web service control of component-based agile manufacturing systems
Current global business competition has resulted in significant challenges for
manufacturing and production sectors focused on shorter product lifecyc1es, more diverse
and customized products as well as cost pressures from competitors and customers. To
remain competitive, manufacturers, particularly in automotive industry, require the next
generation of manufacturing paradigms supporting flexible and reconfigurable production
systems that allow quick system changeovers for various types of products. In addition,
closer integration of shop floor and business systems is required as indicated by the
research efforts in investigating "Agile and Collaborative Manufacturing Systems" in
supporting the production unit throughout the manufacturing lifecycles.
The integration of a business enterprise with its shop-floor and lifecycle supply partners
is currently only achieved through complex proprietary solutions due to differences in
technology, particularly between automation and business systems. The situation is
further complicated by the diverse types of automation control devices employed.
Recently, the emerging technology of Service Oriented Architecture's (SOA's) and Web
Services (WS) has been demonstrated and proved successful in linking business
applications. The adoption of this Web Services approach at the automation level, that
would enable a seamless integration of business enterprise and a shop-floor system, is an
active research topic within the automotive domain. If successful, reconfigurable
automation systems formed by a network of collaborative autonomous and open control
platform in distributed, loosely coupled manufacturing environment can be realized
through a unifying platform of WS interfaces for devices communication.
The adoption of SOA- Web Services on embedded automation devices can be achieved
employing Device Profile for Web Services (DPWS) protocols which encapsulate device
control functionality as provided services (e.g. device I/O operation, device state
notification, device discovery) and business application interfaces into physical control
components of machining automation. This novel approach supports the possibility of
integrating pervasive enterprise applications through unifying Web Services interfaces
and neutral Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) message communication between
control systems and business applications over standard Ethernet-Local Area Networks
(LAN's). In addition, the re-configurability of the automation system is enhanced via the
utilisation of Web Services throughout an automated control, build, installation, test,
maintenance and reuse system lifecycle via device self-discovery provided by the DPWS
protocol...cont'd
Feature-based generation of pervasive systems architectures utilizing software product line concepts
As the need for pervasive systems tends to increase and to dominate the computing discipline, software engineering approaches must evolve at a similar pace to facilitate the construction of such systems in an efficient manner. In this thesis, we provide a vision of a framework that will help in the construction of software product lines for pervasive systems by devising an approach to automatically generate architectures for this domain. Using this framework, designers of pervasive systems will be able to select a set of desired system features, and the framework will automatically generate architectures that support the presence of these features. Our approach will not compromise the quality of the architecture especially as we have verified that by comparing the generated architectures to those manually designed by human architects. As an initial step, and in order to determine the most commonly required features that comprise the widely most known pervasive systems, we surveyed more than fifty existing architectures for pervasive systems in various domains. We captured the most essential features along with the commonalities and variabilities between them. The features were categorized according to the domain and the environment that they target. Those categories are: General pervasive systems, domain-specific, privacy, bridging, fault-tolerance and context-awareness. We coupled the identified features with well-designed components, and connected the components based on the initial features selected by a system designer to generate an architecture. We evaluated our generated architectures against architectures designed by human architects. When metrics such as coupling, cohesion, complexity, reusability, adaptability, modularity, modifiability, packing density, and average interaction density were used to test our framework, our generated architectures were found comparable, if not better than the human generated architectures
A service-oriented approach to embedded component-based manufacturing automation
This thesis is focused on the application of Component-Based (CB) technology
to shop
oor devices using a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web Services
(WS) for the purpose of realising future generation agile manufacturing systems. The
environment of manufacturing enterprises is now characterised by frequently changing
market demands, time-to-market pressure, continuously emerging new technologies and
global competition. Under these circumstances, manufacturing systems need to be
agile and automation systems need to support this agility. More speci cally, an open,
exible automation environment with plug and play connectivity is needed. Technically,
this requires the easy connectivity of hardware devices and software components from
di erent vendors. Functionally, there is a need of interoperability and integration of
control functions on di erent hierarchical levels ranging from eld level to various higher
level applications such as process control and operations management services. [Continues.
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