From formal specification to hardware/software partitionning

Research on CAD for electronic systems and the CAD industry have seen significant developments, whit technological advances . This paper adresses hardware/software codesign from formal specification to hardware/software partitionning and introduces the reader to various aspects of codesign to help the reader develop a perpective on modern digital system design .La recherche en CAO de systèmes électroniques ainsi que l'industrie de la CAO ont eu beaucoup de succès et se sont développées, conjointement avec les progrès technologiques. Aujourd'hui, la complexité des systèmes à concevoir est devenue telle que les problèmes deviennent impossibles à gérer humainement aux niveaux bas. C'est pourquoi l'industrie et le monde académique se sont attachés à développer des outils aux niveaux les plus élevés de la conception. Ainsi, la synthèse de haut niveau devient une étape obligatoire dans la méthodologie de conception des systèmes électroniques et la co-spécification de systèmes matériel/logiciels devient un domaine de recherche ouvert

Contemporary Robotics

This book book is a collection of 18 chapters written by internationally recognized experts and well-known professionals of the field. Chapters contribute to diverse facets of contemporary robotics and autonomous systems. The volume is organized in four thematic parts according to the main subjects, regarding the recent advances in the contemporary robotics. The first thematic topics of the book are devoted to the theoretical issues. This includes development of algorithms for automatic trajectory generation using redudancy resolution scheme, intelligent algorithms for robotic grasping, modelling approach for reactive mode handling of flexible manufacturing and design of an advanced controller for robot manipulators. The second part of the book deals with different aspects of robot calibration and sensing. This includes a geometric and treshold calibration of a multiple robotic line-vision system, robot-based inline 2D/3D quality monitoring using picture-giving and laser triangulation, and a study on prospective polymer composite materials for flexible tactile sensors. The third part addresses issues of mobile robots and multi-agent systems, including SLAM of mobile robots based on fusion of odometry and visual data, configuration of a localization system by a team of mobile robots, development of generic real-time motion controller for differential mobile robots, control of fuel cells of mobile robots, modelling of omni-directional wheeled-based robots, building of hunter- hybrid tracking environment, as well as design of a cooperative control in distributed population-based multi-agent approach. The fourth part presents recent approaches and results in humanoid and bioinspirative robotics. It deals with design of adaptive control of anthropomorphic biped gait, building of dynamic-based simulation for humanoid robot walking, building controller for perceptual motor control dynamics of humans and biomimetic approach to control mechatronic structure using smart materials

The application of workflows to digital heritage systems

Digital heritage systems usually handle a rich and varied mix of digital objects, accompanied by complex and intersecting workflows and processes. However, they usually lack effective workflow management within their components as evident in the lack of integrated solutions that include workflow components. There are a number of reasons for this limitation in workflow management utilization including some technical challenges, the unique nature of each digital resource and the challenges imposed by the environments and infrastructure in which such systems operate. This thesis investigates the concept of utilizing Workflow Management Systems (WfMS) within Digital Library Systems, and more specifically in online Digital Heritage Resources. The research work conducted involved the design and development of a novel experimental WfMS to test the viability of effective workflow management on the complex processes that exist in digital library and heritage resources. This rarely studied area of interest is covered by analyzing evolving workflow management technologies and paradigms. The different operational and technological aspects of these systems are evaluated while focusing on the areas that traditional systems often fail to address. A digital heritage resource was created to test a novel concept called DISPLAYS (Digital Library Services for Playing with Antiquity and Shared Heritage), which provides digital heritage content: creation, archival, exposition, presentation and interaction services for digital heritage collections. Based on DISPLAYS, a specific digital heritage resource was created to validate its concept and, more importantly, to act as a test bed to validate workflow management for digital heritage resources. This DISPLAYS type system implementation was called the Reanimating Cultural Heritage resource, for which three core components are the archival, retrieval and presentation components. To validate workflow management and its concepts, another limited version of these reanimating cultural heritage components was implemented within a workflow management host to test if the workflow technology is a viable choice for managing control and dataflow within a digital heritage system: this was successfully proved

(I) A Declarative Framework for ERP Systems(II) Reactors: A Data-Driven Programming Model for Distributed Applications

To those who can be swayed by argument and those who know they do not have all the answers This dissertation is a collection of six adapted research papers pertaining to two areas of research. (I) A Declarative Framework for ERP Systems: • POETS: Process-Oriented Event-driven Transaction Systems. The paper describes an ontological analysis of a small segment of the enterprise domain, namely the general ledger and accounts receivable. The result is an event-based approach to designing ERP systems and an abstract-level sketch of the architecture. • Compositional Specification of Commercial Contracts. The paper de-scribes the design, multiple semantics, and use of a domain-specific lan-guage (DSL) for modeling commercial contracts. • SMAWL: A SMAll Workflow Language Based on CCS. The paper show

Automated validation of minimum risk model-based system designs of complex avionics systems

Today, large civil aircraft incorporate a vast array of complex and coupled subsystems with thousands of electronic control units and software with millions of lines of code. Aircraft suppliers are challenged to provide superior products that are developed at a minimum time and cost, with maximum safety and security. No single person can understand the complex interactions of such a system of systems. Finding an optimal solution from large sets of different possible designs is an impossible task if done manually. Thus, written, non-executable specifications carry a high degree of product uncertainty. As a result, more than two-thirds of all specifications need to be reworked. Since most specification flaws are discovered and resolved at a late stage during development, when expenditures for redesign are at a maximum, the development approach currently used has a high probability of project cost and time overruns or even project failure, thus maximizing the risk of development. It is the aim of this work, to develop a model- and simulation-based systems engineering method with associated design and validation environment that minimizes the risk of development for complex systems, e.g. aircraft. The development risk is a minimum, if all development decisions are validated early against the services of a product at mission level by the final customer. To do so, executable specifications are created during design and validated against the requirements of system services at mission level. Validated executable specifications are used and updated for all decisions from concept development through implementation and training. In addition, virtual prototypes are developed. A virtual prototype is an executable system specification that is combined with human machine interface concept models to include usability requirements in the overall design and to enable interactive specification validation and early end user training by means of interactive user-driven system simulation. In a first step, so called executable workflows and simulation sets are developed to enable the execution of sets of structured and coupled simulation models. In a second step, a model- and simulation-based development and validation process model is developed from concept design to specification development. In a final step, two different validation processes are developed. An automated validation process based on executable specifications and an interactive validation process based on virtual prototypes. For the development of executable specifications and virtual prototypes, plug-and-play capable model components are developed. The developed method is validated for examples from civil aircraft development with focus on avionics and highly configurable and customizable cabin systems.Große zivile Flugzeuge umfassen eine hohe Anzahl von komplexen und gekoppelten Subsystemen mit Tausenden von elektronischen Steuergeräten und Software mit Millionen von Codezeilen. Keine einzelne Person kann die komplexen Wechselwirkungen eines solchen Systems von Systemen verstehen. Daher beinhalten geschriebene, nicht ausführbare Spezifikationen einen hohen Grad an Produktunsicherheit. Infolgedessen müssen mehr als zwei Drittel aller Spezifikationen überarbeitet werden. Da die meisten Spezifikationsfehler zu einem späten Zeitpunkt entdeckt und gelöst werden, wenn Aufwände für Überarbeitungen maximal sind, hat der gegenwärtige Entwicklungsansatz eine hohe Wahrscheinlichkeit für Kosten- und Zeitüberschreitungen oder führt zum Fehlschlagen von Projekten. Hierdurch wird das Entwicklungsrisiko maximiert. Es ist das Ziel dieser Arbeit, eine modell- und simulationsbasierte Entwicklungsmethode mit zugehöriger Entwurfs- und Validierungsumgebung zu entwickeln, welche das Risiko der Entwicklung für komplexe Systeme minimiert. Das Entwicklungsrisiko ist minimal, wenn alle Entwicklungsentscheidungen frühzeitig vom Endkunden gegen die Leistungen eines Produktes auf Missionsebene validiert werden. Dazu werden ausführbare Spezifikationen während des Entwurfs erstellt und anhand der Anforderungen auf Missionsebene validiert. Validierte ausführbare Spezifikationen werden für alle Entscheidungen von der Konzeptentwicklung bis zur Implementierung verwendet und aktualisiert. Darüber hinaus werden virtuelle Prototypen entwickelt, welche ausführbare Spezifikationen mit Konzeptmodellen für Mensch-Maschine-Schnittstellen kombinieren, um Usability-Anforderungen in den Gesamtentwurf aufzunehmen. Dies ermöglicht eine interaktive Validierung sowie frühes Endbenutzertraining mittels benutzergesteuerter Systemsimulation. Es werden ausführbare Arbeitsabläufe und Simulation Sets entwickelt, welche die Ausführung von strukturierten und gekoppelten Simulationsmodellen ermöglichen. Anschließend wird ein modell- und simulationsbasiertes Entwicklungs- und Validierungsprozessmodell vom Konzeptdesign bis zur Spezifikationsentwicklung entwickelt. Hierfür werden zwei verschiedene Validierungsprozesse verwendet. Ein automatisierter Validierungsprozess basierend auf ausführbaren Spezifikationen und ein interaktiver Validierungsprozess basierend auf virtuellen Prototypen. Für die Entwicklung von ausführbaren Spezifikationen und virtuellen Prototypen werden Modellkomponenten entwickelt. Die entwickelte Methode wird mithilfe von Beispielen aus der zivilen Flugzeugentwicklung validiert, insbesondere in Hinblick auf Avionik sowie hoch konfigurierbare und anpassbare Kabinensysteme

Inverse software configuration management

Software systems are playing an increasingly important role in almost every aspect of today’s society such that they impact on our businesses, industry, leisure, health and safety. Many of these systems are extremely large and complex and depend upon the correct interaction of many hundreds or even thousands of heterogeneous components. Commensurate with this increased reliance on software is the need for high quality products that meet customer expectations, perform reliably and which can be cost-effectively and safely maintained. Techniques such as software configuration management have proved to be invaluable during the development process to ensure that this is the case. However, there are a very large number of legacy systems which were not developed under controlled conditions, but which still, need to be maintained due to the heavy investment incorporated within them. Such systems are characterised by extremely high program comprehension overheads and the probability that new errors will be introduced during the maintenance process often with serious consequences. To address the issues concerning maintenance of legacy systems this thesis has defined and developed a new process and associated maintenance model, Inverse Software Configuration Management (ISCM). This model centres on a layered approach to the program comprehension process through the definition of a number of software configuration abstractions. This information together with the set of rules for reclaiming the information is stored within an Extensible System Information Base (ESIB) via, die definition of a Programming-in-the- Environment (PITE) language, the Inverse Configuration Description Language (ICDL). In order to assist the application of the ISCM process across a wide range of software applications and system architectures, die PISCES (Proforma Identification Scheme for Configurations of Existing Systems) method has been developed as a series of defined procedures and guidelines. To underpin the method and to offer a user-friendly interface to the process a series of templates, the Proforma Increasing Complexity Series (PICS) has been developed. To enable the useful employment of these techniques on large-scale systems, the subject of automation has been addressed through the development of a flexible meta-CASE environment, the PISCES M4 (MultiMedia Maintenance Manager) system. Of particular interest within this environment is the provision of a multimedia user interface (MUI) to die maintenance process. As a means of evaluating the PISCES method and to provide feedback into die ISCM process a number of practical applications have been modelled. In summary, this research has considered a number of concepts some of which are innovative in themselves, others of which are used in an innovative manner. In combination these concepts may be considered to considerably advance the knowledge and understanding of die comprehension process during the maintenance of legacy software systems. A number of publications have already resulted from the research and several more are in preparation. Additionally a number of areas for further study have been identified some of which are already underway as funded research and development projects

Combining SOA and BPM Technologies for Cross-System Process Automation

This paper summarizes the results of an industry case study that introduced a cross-system business process automation solution based on a combination of SOA and BPM standard technologies (i.e., BPMN, BPEL, WSDL). Besides discussing major weaknesses of the existing, custom-built, solution and comparing them against experiences with the developed prototype, the paper presents a course of action for transforming the current solution into the proposed solution. This includes a general approach, consisting of four distinct steps, as well as specific action items that are to be performed for every step. The discussion also covers language and tool support and challenges arising from the transformation

Temporal meta-model framework for Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) development

This thesis has developed a Temporal Meta-Model Framework for semi-automated Enterprise System Development, which can help drastically reduce the time and cost to develop, deploy and maintain Enterprise Information Systems throughout their lifecycle. It proposes that the analysis and requirements gathering can also perform the bulk of the design phase, stored and available in a suitable model which would then be capable of automated execution with the availability of a set of specific runtime components