Applying a model-based methodology to develop web-based systems of systems

Systems of Systems (SoS) are emerging applications composed by subsystems that interacts in a distributed and heterogeneous environment. Web-based technologies are a current trend to achieve SoS user interaction. Model Driven Web Engineering (MDWE) is the application of Model Driven Engineering (MDE) into the Web development domain. This paper presents a MDWE methodology to include Web-based interaction into SoS development. It's composed of ten models and seven model transformations and it's fully implemented in a support tool for its usage in practice. Quality aspects covered through the traceability from the requirements to the nal code are exposed. The feasibility of the approach is validated by its application into a real-world project. A preliminary analysis of potential benets (reduction of eort, time, cost; improve of quality; design vs code ratio, etc) is done by comparison to other project as an initial hypothesis for a future planned experimentation research.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad TIN2013-46928-C3- 3-RMinisterio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED

Selection Constructive based Hyper-heuristic for Dynamic Scheduling

A função de escalonamento desempenha um papel importante nos sistemas de produção. Os sistemas de escalonamento têm como objetivo gerar um plano de escalonamento que permite gerir de uma forma eficiente um conjunto de tarefas que necessitam de ser executadas no mesmo período de tempo pelos mesmos recursos. Contudo, adaptação dinâmica e otimização é uma necessidade crítica em sistemas de escalonamento, uma vez que as organizações de produção têm uma natureza dinâmica. Nestas organizações ocorrem distúrbios nas condições requisitos de trabalho regularmente e de forma inesperada. Alguns exemplos destes distúrbios são: surgimento de uma nova tarefa, cancelamento de uma tarefa, alteração na data de entrega, entre outros. Estes eventos dinâmicos devem ser tidos em conta, uma vez que podem influenciar o plano criado, tornando-o ineficiente. Portanto, ambientes de produção necessitam de resposta imediata para estes eventos, usando um método de reescalonamento em tempo real, para minimizar o efeito destes eventos dinâmicos no sistema de produção. Deste modo, os sistemas de escalonamento devem de uma forma automática e inteligente, ser capazes de adaptar o plano de escalonamento que a organização está a seguir aos eventos inesperados em tempo real. Esta dissertação aborda o problema de incorporar novas tarefas num plano de escalonamento já existente. Deste modo, é proposta uma abordagem de otimização – Hiper-heurística baseada em Seleção Construtiva para Escalonamento Dinâmico- para lidar com eventos dinâmicos que podem ocorrer num ambiente de produção, a fim de manter o plano de escalonamento, o mais robusto possível. Esta abordagem é inspirada em computação evolutiva e hiper-heurísticas. Do estudo computacional realizado foi possível concluir que o uso da hiper-heurística de seleção construtiva pode ser vantajoso na resolução de problemas de otimização de adaptação dinâmica.Scheduling plays an important role in manufacturing systems. It produces a scheduling plan, in order to share resources to produce several different products in the same time period. However, dynamic adaptation and optimization is a critical need in real-world manufacturing scheduling systems, since contemporary manufacturing organizations have a dynamic nature, where disturbances on working conditions and requirements occur on a continuous basis. Disturbances often arise unexpectedly, and can be for example: urgent job arrival, job cancelation, due date change, delay in the arrival, among others. These dynamic events must be taken into account, since they may have a major impact on the scheduling plan, they can disorder the plan making it ineffective. Therefore, manufacturing environments require immediate response to these dynamic events, using a real-time rescheduling method, in order to minimize the effect of such unexpected events in the performance of the production’ system. As result, scheduling systems should have the ability of automatically and intelligently maintain real-time adaptation and optimization to efficiently update the scheduling plan to the unexpected events. This way, the organization keeps clients satisfied and achieves its objectives (costs minimized and profits maximized). This dissertation addresses the problem of incorporating new tasks in a scheduling plan already generated by the scheduling system. Therefore, it proposes an optimization approach - Selection Constructive based Hyper-heuristic for Dynamic Scheduling - to deal with dynamic events that can occur over time in a manufacturing environment, with the main goal of maintaining the current scheduling plan feasible and most robust as possible. The development of this dynamic adaptation approach is inspired on evolutionary computation and hyper-heuristics. The viability of the proposed approach is tested by performing a set of experiments and analysing the results achieved. From the obtained results it is possible to conclude that the use of a selection constructive hyper-heuristic could be advantageous on solving dynamic adaptation optimization problems

Model-based operator guidance in interactive, semi-automated production processes

This contribution focuses on the task of guiding and supervision of technical processes realized by human operators. The review of publications of the last decades discloses that especially technical processes with strong interconnection of human operator and manufacturing process are not adequately addressed by the evolved automation approaches. Integrating human process knowledge and experience into the resulting automation system is still a major concern. Besides the introduction of automation in a handcrafting process that is increasing the overall system complexity, the design of the human-machine interface to the automation system is of central importance. Within this thesis, the trade-off between manual manufacturing and automation is addressed by a semi-automation approach. The application example is the no-bake molding process, a mold manufacturing process for casts that is traditionally handmade. Within this process the human operator plays a central role (i.e. knowledge and expertise), whereas the (intelligent) automation is carrying out physical operation, which is guided and supervised by the human operator. This is achieved by experimentally identified quality representing process variables that allow for in-process feedback to the human operator. Process guiding assistance is given using a formalization approach of the human-automation-interaction. By deducing situative information of interest from the resulting human-automation-system model with respect to the current process goal, the established process model is used for supervision and assistance of the overall process. The design of the human-machine-interface is based on a detailed analysis of the handcrafted process and is realized as a direct, intuitively usable, marker-based interaction technique. The integrated human-automation-system and the corresponding human-machine-interface with process guidance assistance functionality is initially evaluated. The results are discussed for the future work with respect to the individual, human operator-specific process understanding and process reproducibility.Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit Fachkraftaufgaben in der Führung und Überwachung von technischen Prozessen. Die Übersicht der Publikationen der letzten Jahrzehnte eröffnet, dass insbesondere technische Prozesse mit enger Verknüpfung von Mensch und Herstellungsprozess bei den entwickelten Automatisierungsansätzen nicht hinreichend berücksichtigt werden. Die Integration von Prozesswissen und -erfahrung in das resultierende Automatisierungssystem bleibt eine offene Fragestellung. Neben der Einführung von Automation in Handarbeitsprozesse, die die Komplexität des Gesamtsystems erhöhen, ist die Gestaltung der Mensch-Maschine-Schnittstelle zum Automatisierungssystem von zentraler Bedeutung. Der Konflikt zwischen Handarbeit und Automatisierung wird in dieser Arbeit durch die Einführung einer Teilautomatisierung gelöst. Das Anwendungsbeispiel ist das Kaltharzverfahren, ein traditionell in Handarbeit bewältigter Herstellungsprozess für Gussformen. In diesem Prozess spielt die Fachkraft eine zentrale Rolle (z. B. durch ihr Prozesswissen und ihre Expertise), während die (intelligente) Automatisierung –geführt und überwacht durch die Fachkraft– anfallende physische Aktionen ausführt. Dies wird durch experimentell ermit- telte qualitäts-beschreibende Prozessgrößen erreicht, die eine in-prozess Rückführung zum Bedienpersonal ermöglichen. Prozessführungsassistenz ist basierend auf die Formalisierung der Mensch-Automation-Interaktion gegeben. Durch die Bestimmung von situativen Informationen hoher Wichtigkeit aus dem resultierenden Mensch-Automation-System Modell bezogen auf das aktuelle Prozessziel, wird das bestehende Prozessmodell zur Überwachung und Prozessführungsassistenz des Gesamtprozesses genutzt. Die Gestaltung der Mensch-Maschine-Schnittstelle basiert auf einer detaillierten Analyse des Handarbeitsprozesses und ist als direkte, intuitiv bedienbare, markerbasierte Interaktionstechnik realisiert. Das integrierte Mensch-Automation-System sowie die zugehörige Mensch-Maschine-Schnittstelle inklusive Prozessführungsassistenzfunktionen wurden initial evaluiert. Die erzielten Ergebnisse werden hinsichtlich des individuellen, fachkraftabhängigen Prozesswissens und der Reproduzierbarkeit für den Ausblick diskutiert

KomBInoS - Modellgetriebene Entwicklung von multimodalen Dialogschnittstellen für Smart Services

Diese Arbeit ist angesiedelt im Kontext der drei Forschungsgebiete Smart Service Welt, Modellgetriebene Softwareentwicklung und Intelligente Benutzerschnittstellen. Das Ziel der Arbeit war die Entwicklung eines ganzheitlichen Ansatzes zur effizienten Erstellung von multimodalen Dialogschnittstellen für Smart Services. Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen, wurde mit KomBInoS ein umfassendes Rahmenwerk zur modellgetriebenen Erstellung solcher Benutzerschnittstellen entwickelt. Das Rahmenwerk besteht aus: (1) einer Metamodell-Architektur, welche sowohl eine modellgetriebene Entwicklung als auch die Komposition von multimodalen Dialogschnittstellen für Smart Services erlaubt, (2) einem methodischen Vorgehen, welches aus aufeinander abgestimmten Modelltransformationen, möglichen Kompositionsschritten und manuellen Entwicklungstätigkeiten besteht, sowie (3) einer integrierten Werkzeugkette als Implementierung der Methode. Es wurde außerdem eine cloud-fähige Laufzeitumgebung zur mobilen Nutzung der so erstellten Benutzerschnittstellen entwickelt. Als Proof-of-Concept werden acht Beispielanwendungen und Demonstratoren aus fünf Forschungsprojekten vorgestellt. Zusätzlich zur Smart Service Welt fand und findet KomBInoS auch Anwendung im Bereich der Industrie 4.0.This work is located in the context of the three research areas Smart Service World, Model-Driven Software Development and Intelligent User Interfaces. The aim of the work was to develop a holistic approach for the efficient creation of multimodal dialogue interfaces for Smart Services. To achieve this goal, KomBInoS was developed as a comprehensive framework for the model-driven creation of such user interfaces. The framework consists of: (1) a metamodel architecture that allows both model-driven development and the composition of multimodal dialogue interfaces for Smart Services, (2) a methodical approach consisting of coordinated model transformations, possible compositional steps and manual development activities, as well as (3) an integrated tool chain as an implementation of the method. Furthermore, a cloud-enabled runtime environment was developed for mobile use of the user interfaces created in this way. As proof-of-concept, eight sample applications and demonstrators from five research projects will be presented. In addition to the Smart Service Welt, KomBInoS was and is also used in the field of industry 4.0

Explaining the Success of User-Centered Design - An Empirical Study across German B2C Firms

This study focuses on the widely spread concept of User-Centered Design (UCD) and tries to answer the question why it is so popular. On the one hand, it is of interest to reveal the nature of UCD, especially in terms of the methods used, the types of users involved and the stages the involvement takes place. On the other hand, this paper aims to find out about the success of UCD projects as well as the organizational context that is beneficial for UCD. To do so, several streams of scientific literature in the field of UCD as well as organization theory are reviewed and the results of an empirical study conducted among UCD experts in Germany are analyzed. The theoretically derived characteristics could mainly be confirmed by the insights of the study. Moreover, several hypotheses concerning the influence of the organizational context using established constructs (IT competence, UCD competence, customer orientation, innovativeness, exploration and exploitation as well as the top management team) towards the project success in an UCD setup are proposed and tested by the means of a multiple factor analysis. By analyzing open comments concerning the facilitators and obstacles of UCD activities deeper insight into the daily business of UCD experts can be gained. A comparison between two subsamples split according to their project success score yield interesting results concerning different motives, types of integrated users and the locus of the user integration. This study has been created in collaboration with the user research and user experience (UX) consulting agency ‘Facit Digital’ who are based in Munich, Germany.Keywords: User-Centered Design, User Integration, Exploration, Exploitation, Empirical Investigatio

Model-Driven Development of Interactive Multimedia Applications

The development of highly interactive multimedia applications is still a challenging and complex task. In addition to the application logic, multimedia applications typically provide a sophisticated user interface with integrated media objects. As a consequence, the development process involves different experts for software design, user interface design, and media design. There is still a lack of concepts for a systematic development which integrates these aspects. This thesis provides a model-driven development approach addressing this problem. Therefore it introduces the Multimedia Modeling Language (MML), a visual modeling language supporting a design phase in multimedia application development. The language is oriented on well-established software engineering concepts, like UML 2, and integrates concepts from the areas of multimedia development and model-based user interface development. MML allows the generation of code skeletons from the models. Thereby, the core idea is to generate code skeletons which can be directly processed in multimedia authoring tools. In this way, the strengths of both are combined: Authoring tools are used to perform the creative development tasks while models are used to design the overall application structure and to enable a well-coordinated development process. This is demonstrated using the professional authoring tool Adobe Flash. MML is supported by modeling and code generation tools which have been used to validate the approach over several years in various student projects and teaching courses. Additional prototypes have been developed to demonstrate, e.g., the ability to generate code for different target platforms. Finally, it is discussed how models can contribute in general to a better integration of well-structured software development and creative visual design

A speaker classification framework for non-intrusive user modeling : speech-based personalization of in-car services

Speaker Classification, i.e. the automatic detection of certain characteristics of a person based on his or her voice, has a variety of applications in modern computer technology and artificial intelligence: As a non-intrusive source for user modeling, it can be employed for personalization of human-machine interfaces in numerous domains. This dissertation presents a principled approach to the design of a novel Speaker Classification system for automatic age and gender recognition which meets these demands. Based on literature studies, methods and concepts dealing with the underlying pattern recognition task are developed. The final system consists of an incremental GMM-SVM supervector architecture with several optimizations. An extensive data-driven experiment series explores the parameter space and serves as evaluation of the component. Further experiments investigate the language-independence of the approach. As an essential part of this thesis, a framework is developed that implements all tasks associated with the design and evaluation of Speaker Classification in an integrated development environment that is able to generate efficient runtime modules for multiple platforms. Applications from the automotive field and other domains demonstrate the practical benefit of the technology for personalization, e.g. by increasing local danger warning lead time for elderly drivers.Die Sprecherklassifikation, also die automatische Erkennung bestimmter Merkmale einer Person anhand ihrer Stimme, besitzt eine Vielzahl von Anwendungsmöglichkeiten in der modernen Computertechnik und Künstlichen Intelligenz: Als nicht-intrusive Wissensquelle für die Benutzermodellierung kann sie zur Personalisierung in vielen Bereichen eingesetzt werden. In dieser Dissertation wird ein fundierter Ansatz zum Entwurf eines neuartigen Sprecherklassifikationssystems zur automatischen Bestimmung von Alter und Geschlecht vorgestellt, welches diese Anforderungen erfüllt. Ausgehend von Literaturstudien werden Konzepte und Methoden zur Behandlung des zugrunde liegenden Mustererkennungsproblems entwickelt, welche zu einer inkrementell arbeitenden GMM-SVM-Supervector-Architektur mit diversen Optimierungen führen. Eine umfassende datengetriebene Experimentalreihe dient der Erforschung des Parameterraumes und zur Evaluierung der Komponente. Weitere Studien untersuchen die Sprachunabhängigkeit des Ansatzes. Als wesentlicher Bestandteil der Arbeit wird ein Framework entwickelt, das alle im Zusammenhang mit Entwurf und Evaluierung von Sprecherklassifikation anfallenden Aufgaben in einer integrierten Entwicklungsumgebung implementiert, welche effiziente Laufzeitmodule für verschiedene Plattformen erzeugen kann. Anwendungen aus dem Automobilbereich und weiteren Domänen demonstrieren den praktischen Nutzen der Technologie zur Personalisierung, z.B. indem die Vorlaufzeit von lokalen Gefahrenwarnungen für ältere Fahrer erhöht wird

Eignung von virtueller Physik und Touch-Gesten in Touchscreen-Benutzerschnittstellen für kritische Aufgaben

The goal of this reasearch was to examine if modern touch screen interaction concepts that are established on consumer electronic devices like smartphones can be used in time-critical and safety-critical use cases like for machine control or healthcare appliances. Several prevalent interaction concepts with and without touch gestures and virtual physics were tested experimentally in common use cases to assess their efficiency, error rate and user satisfaction during task completion. Based on the results, design recommendations for list scrolling and horizontal dialog navigation are given.Das Ziel dieser Forschungsarbeit war es zu untersuchen, ob moderne Touchscreen-Interaktionskonzepte, die auf Consumer-Electronic-Geräten wie Smartphones etabliert sind, für zeit- und sicherheitskritische Anwendungsfälle wie Maschinensteuerung und Medizingeräte geeignet sind. Mehrere gebräuchliche Interaktionskonzepte mit und ohne Touch-Gesten und virtueller Physik wurden in häufigen Anwendungsfällen experimentell auf ihre Effizienz, Fehlerrate und Nutzerzufriedenheit bei der Aufgabenlösung untersucht. Basierend auf den Resultaten werden Empfehlungen für das Scrollen in Listen und dem horizontalen Navigieren in mehrseitigen Software-Dialogen ausgesprochen