13,552 research outputs found
Enabling Adaptive Grid Scheduling and Resource Management
Wider adoption of the Grid concept has led to an increasing amount of federated
computational, storage and visualisation resources being available to scientists and
researchers. Distributed and heterogeneous nature of these resources renders most of the
legacy cluster monitoring and management approaches inappropriate, and poses new
challenges in workflow scheduling on such systems. Effective resource utilisation monitoring
and highly granular yet adaptive measurements are prerequisites for a more efficient Grid
scheduler. We present a suite of measurement applications able to monitor per-process
resource utilisation, and a customisable tool for emulating observed utilisation models. We
also outline our future work on a predictive and probabilistic Grid scheduler. The research is
undertaken as part of UK e-Science EPSRC sponsored project SO-GRM (Self-Organising
Grid Resource Management) in cooperation with BT
Towards a Scalable Hardware/Software Co-Design Platform for Real-time Pedestrian Tracking Based on a ZYNQ-7000 Device
Currently, most designers face a daunting task to
research different design flows and learn the intricacies of
specific software from various manufacturers in
hardware/software co-design. An urgent need of creating a
scalable hardware/software co-design platform has become a key
strategic element for developing hardware/software integrated
systems. In this paper, we propose a new design flow for building
a scalable co-design platform on FPGA-based system-on-chip.
We employ an integrated approach to implement a histogram
oriented gradients (HOG) and a support vector machine (SVM)
classification on a programmable device for pedestrian tracking.
Not only was hardware resource analysis reported, but the
precision and success rates of pedestrian tracking on nine open
access image data sets are also analysed. Finally, our proposed
design flow can be used for any real-time image processingrelated
products on programmable ZYNQ-based embedded
systems, which benefits from a reduced design time and provide a
scalable solution for embedded image processing products
Open-source digital technologies for low-cost monitoring of historical constructions
This paper shows new possibilities of using novel, open-source, low-cost platforms for the structural health monitoring of heritage structures. The objective of the study is to present an assessment of increasingly available open-source digital modeling and fabrication technologies in order to identify the suitable counterparts of the typical components of a continuous static monitoring system for a historical construction. The results of the research include a simple case-study, which is presented with low-cost, open-source, calibrated components, as well as an assessment of different alternatives for deploying basic structural health monitoring arrangements. The results of the research show the great potential of these existing technologies that may help to promote a widespread and cost-efficient monitoring of the built cultural heritage. Such scenario may contribute to the onset of commonplace digital records of historical constructions in an open-source, versatile and reliable fashion.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
User-centred design of flexible hypermedia for a mobile guide: Reflections on the hyperaudio experience
A user-centred design approach involves end-users from the very beginning. Considering users at the early stages compels designers to think in terms of utility and usability and helps develop the system on what is actually needed. This paper discusses the case of HyperAudio, a context-sensitive adaptive and mobile guide to museums developed in the late 90s. User requirements were collected via a survey to understand visitors’ profiles and visit styles in Natural Science museums. The knowledge acquired supported the specification of system requirements, helping defining user model, data structure and adaptive behaviour of the system. User requirements guided the design decisions on what could be implemented by using simple adaptable triggers and what instead needed more sophisticated adaptive techniques, a fundamental choice when all the computation must be done on a PDA. Graphical and interactive environments for developing and testing complex adaptive systems are discussed as a further
step towards an iterative design that considers the user interaction a central point. The paper discusses
how such an environment allows designers and developers to experiment with different system’s behaviours and to widely test it under realistic conditions by simulation of the actual context evolving over time. The understanding gained in HyperAudio is then considered in the perspective of the
developments that followed that first experience: our findings seem still valid despite the passed time
Public entities driven robotic innovation in urban areas
Cities present new challenges and needs to satisfy and improve lifestyle for their citizens under the concept “Smart City”. In order to achieve this goal in a global manner, new technologies are required as the robotic one. But Public entities unknown the possibilities offered by this technology to get solutions to their needs. In this paper the development of the Innovative Public Procurement instruments is explained, specifically the process PDTI (Public end Users Driven Technological Innovation) as a driving force of robotic research and development and offering a list of robotic urban challenges proposed by European cities that have participated in such a process. In the next phases of the procedure, this fact will provide novel robotic solutions addressed to public demand that are an example to be followed by other Smart Cities.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
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