HIL: designing an exokernel for the data center

We propose a new Exokernel-like layer to allow mutually untrusting physically deployed services to efficiently share the resources of a data center. We believe that such a layer offers not only efficiency gains, but may also enable new economic models, new applications, and new security-sensitive uses. A prototype (currently in active use) demonstrates that the proposed layer is viable, and can support a variety of existing provisioning tools and use cases.Partial support for this work was provided by the MassTech Collaborative Research Matching Grant Program, National Science Foundation awards 1347525 and 1149232 as well as the several commercial partners of the Massachusetts Open Cloud who may be found at http://www.massopencloud.or

Understanding and Design of an Arduino-based PID Controller

This thesis presents research and design of a Proportional, Integral, and Derivative (PID) controller that uses a microcontroller (Arduino) platform. The research part discusses the structure of a PID algorithm with some motivating work already performed with the Arduino-based PID controller from various fields. An inexpensive Arduino-based PID controller designed in the laboratory to control the temperature, consists of hardware parts: Arduino UNO, thermoelectric cooler, and electronic components while the software portion includes C/C++ programming. The PID parameters for a particular controller are found manually. The role of different PID parameters is discussed with the subsequent comparison between different modes of PID controllers. The designed system can effectively measure the temperature with an error of ± 0.6℃ while a stable temperature control with only slight deviation from the desired value (setpoint) is achieved. The designed system and concepts learned from the control system serve in pursuing inexpensive and precise ways to control physical parameters within a desired range in our laboratory

An occam Style Communications System for UNIX Networks

This document describes the design of a communications system which provides occam style communications primitives under a Unix environment, using TCP/IP protocols, and any number of other protocols deemed suitable as underlying transport layers. The system will integrate with a low overhead scheduler/kernel without incurring significant costs to the execution of processes within the run time environment. A survey of relevant occam and occam3 features and related research is followed by a look at the Unix and TCP/IP facilities which determine our working constraints, and a description of the T9000 transputer's Virtual Channel Processor, which was instrumental in our formulation. Drawing from the information presented here, a design for the communications system is subsequently proposed. Finally, a preliminary investigation of methods for lightweight access control to shared resources in an environment which does not provide support for critical sections, semaphores, or busy waiting, is made. This is presented with relevance to mutual exclusion problems which arise within the proposed design. Future directions for the evolution of this project are discussed in conclusion

Automatic search of missing people in avalanches

One of the main source of danger for people practising activities in mountain environments is avalanches. In the early 70s has been commercialized the first model of avalanche beacon transceiver: a device, composed by a transmitter and a receiver, specialized to the purpose of finding people buried under the snow. Since 2013, project SHERPA is working to develop ground and aerial robots to support human in the search of missing people in avalanches. The aim of this dissertation is to provide a way to interface an avalanche beacon receiver (ARTVA) with the autopilot module mounted on a quad-copter drone, and to study and realize a software implementation of two automatic search algorithms, with the intention of speeding up search operations with drones. First we will focus on interfacing the ARTVA system with a quad-copter autopilot module, named Pixhawk. This module embed a software, named PX4, which runs on a real-time operating system (RTOS), and have several connection ports, among which there is the serial one that we will use for our purpose. Then we will analyse how to use the data coming from the ARTVA receiver to construct and implement the two search algorithms. The idea is to generate set-points, based on the information coming from the avalanche beacon receiver, and use them to feed the position controller which is implemented in the PX4 firmware. Finally, we will execute simulations, provide results, and investigate if a practical implementation is possible and what are the relative issues