Service abstraction layer for UAV flexible application development

An Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) is an uninhabited airplane, piloted by embed- ded avionics and supervised by an operator on ground. Unmanned Aerial Systems were designed to operate in dangerous situations, like military missions. With the avionics tech- nological evolution, Unmanned Aerial Systems also become a valid option for commercial applications, specially for dull and tedious surveillance applications. Cost considerations will also deviate some mission done today with conventional aircrafts to Unmanned Aerial Systems. In order to build economically viable UAS solutions, the same platform should be able to implement a variety of missions with little reconfiguration time and overhead. This paper describes a software abstraction layer for a Unmanned Aerial System distributed architecture. The proposed abstraction layer allows the easy and fast design of missions and solves in a cost-effective way the reusability of the system. The distributed architecture of the Unmanned Aerial System is service oriented. Func- tional units are implemented as independent services that interact each other using commu- nication primitives in a network centric approach. The paper presents a set of predefined services useful for reconfigurable civil missions and the directives for their communication.Postprint (published version

UAS architecture for forest fire remote sensing

This paper presents the hardware/software architecture of the Sky-Eye UAS prototype. In particular it details the hardware of the prototype, its operational concept and the software avionics architecture. The software architecture is named UAS Service Abstraction Layer (USAL) and consists on the set of standard services required for most UAS missions. The USAL is a distributed architecture which follows the publish / subscribe communication paradigm, allowing fast development of new functionalities. We describe the USAL services required to properly manage the remote sensing mission of hot spot detection. This includes the sensor management, data storage, communications, image processing, flight plan management and mission management.Postprint (published version

Benefits and challenges of applying Semantic Web Services in the e-Government domain

Joining up services in e-Government usually implies governmental agencies acting in concert without a central control regime. This requires the sharing of scattered and heterogeneous data. Semantic Web Service (SWS) technology can help to integrate, mediate and reason between these datasets. However, since few real-world applications have been developed, it is still unclear which are the actual benefits and issues of adopting such a technology in the e-Government domain. In this paper, we contribute to raising awareness of the potential benefits in the e-Government community by analyzing motivations, requirements, and expected results, before proposing a reusable SWS-based framework. We demonstrate the application of this framework by a compelling use case: a GIS-based emergency planning system. We illustrate the obtained benefits and the key challenges which remain to be addressed

AutoNav4D. A co-simulator for unmanned aircraft systems

This TFC document shows the requirements and the components needed to integrate in the same scenario, real Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and simulated systems. This is called co-simulation. An UAS is a series of onboard avionics systems and an on ground platform, which might takeoff, fly a mission and land safe without a human intervention. UAS Service Abstraction Layer (USAL) is a set of available services running on top of the UAV system architecture to give support to most types of civil UAS missions. These services are managed and communicated by a thin software layer called Architecture for Remote Embedded Applications (MAREA). This Middleware promotes a publish/subscribe model for sending and receiving data, events and commands among the services of the UAS. The Icarus Simulation Integrated Scenario (ISIS) is a collection of reusable services that comprises a minimum common set of elements that are needed in most UAV missions. Some of these services conform the co-simulator. This ISIS integrated scenario is useful to test the platform before the UAS flies. The ICARUS team has developed his Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform where is set the real UAS. The co-simulator is an Open Architecture. It may have a Visor Service, some Virtual Vehicles and Virtual Services and a Manager of Virtuality. This co-simulator gives capabilities in fast prototyping and simulation to the UAS Service Abstraction Layer (USAL). Fast prototyping is reached by the use of standards and components. It allows a fast design and implementation of new functionalities. Simulation is used for increase safety and reduce design cost. When a service abstraction layer is used, a virtual implementation has similar effects like the real ones. My job for this TFC was to design and to implement some solutions which conform a co-simulator for Unmanned Aircraft Systems. This co-simulator has been called AutoNAV4D93. There are many things to add to the co-simulator and it may be accomplished in a future as a result of ISIS developing work. The ISIS integrated scenarios will be presented in the AIAA’09 Meeting and exhibit in 9 of January 2009

On software-defined networking and the design of SDN controllers

© 2015 IEEE. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has emerged as a networking paradigm that can remove the limitations of current network infrastructures by separating the control plane from the data forwarding plane. The implications include: the underlying network state and decision making capability are centralized; programmability is provided on the control plane; the operation at the forwarding plane is simplified; and the underlying network infrastructure is abstracted and presented to the applications. This paper discusses and exposes the details of the design of a common SDN controller based on our study of many controllers. The emphasis is on interfaces as they are essential for evolving the scope of SDN in supporting applications with different network resources requirements. In particular, the paper review and compare the design of the three controllers: Beacon, OpenDaylight, and Open Networking Operation System

Flexible Electrical Manager Service for UAS Applications Development

Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) are becoming viable aerial platforms for civil oriented monitoring applications. However, in most cases the selected UAS platforms are ad-hoc vehicles which include highly heterogeneous avionics. Avionics on-board may be COSTS modules that have highly different non-standard power requirements. Additionally, the available power sources in these UAS may be fairly limited or even restricted to battery units. This paper introduces the ELectrical Manager Service (ELMS), an on-board system in charge of offering a flexible power supply architecture that supports minimal reconfiguration overhead for a wide variety of UAS missions. The ELMS Service is designed to offer a continuous monitoring of the state of the power network, and a coherent and controlled response in front of power supply contingencies. The ELMS will monitor the batteries and generator status, the power consumption of the avionics and other systems, manage the connection/disconnections of systems, and provide power availability estimations. The ELMS Service is part of an architecture designed to facilitate the execution of UAS civil missions, the USAL. The USAL is built as a set of cooperating services in a purely distributed and scalable architecture with a middleware that manages inter-service communications.Postprint (published version

An architecture for the development of complex UAS missions

The generalized development of UAS complex applications are still limited by the absence of systems that support the implementation of the actual mission. UAS design faces the development of specific systems to control their desired flight-profile, sensor activation/configuration along the flight, data storage and eventually its transmission to the ground control. All this elements may delay and increase the risk and cost of the project. This paper introduces a flexible and reusable hardware/software architecture designed to facilitate the development of UAS-based complex applications. This flexibility is organized into a user-parameterizable UAS service abstraction layer (USAL). The USAL defines a collection of standard services are their interrelations as a basic starting point for further development by users. Functionalities like enhanced flight-plans, a mission control engine, data storage, communications management, etc. are offered. Additional services can be included according to requirements but all existing services and inter-service communication infrastructure can be exploited and tailored to specific needs. This approach reduces development times and risks, but at the same time gives the user higher levels of flexibility and permits the development of more ambitious applications.Postprint (published version

Medical Virtual Public Services

The healthcare enterprises are very disconnected. This paper intends to propose a solution that will provide citizens, businesses and medical enterprises with improved access to medical virtual public services. Referred medical services are based on existing national medical Web services and which support medically required services provided by physicians and supplementary health care practitioners, laboratory services and diagnostic procedures, clinics and hospitals’ services. Requirements and specific rules of these medical services are considered, and personalization of user preferences will to be supported. The architecture is based on adaptable process management technologies, allowing for virtual services which are dynamically combined from existing national medical services. In this way, a comprehensive workflow process is set up, allowing for service-level agreements, an audit trail and explanation of the process to the end user. The process engine operates on top of a virtual repository, providing a high-level semantic view of information retrieved from heterogeneous information sources, such as national sources of medical services. The system relies on a security framework to ensure all high-level security requirements are met. System’s architecture is business oriented: it focuses on Service Oriented Architecture - SOA concepts, asynchronously combining Web services, Business Process Management – BPM rules and BPEL standards.Business Process Management, Service Oriented Architecture, Application Integration, Web services, information technologies, virtual repository, database.

Independent Configurable Architecture for Reliable Operation of Unmanned Systems with Distributed Onboard Services

This paper presents the development of ICAROUS-2 (Independent Configurable Architecture for Reliable Operation of Unmanned Systems with Distributed Onboard Services), the second generation of a software architecture that integrates several algorithms as distributed onboard services to enable robust autonomous UAS applications. In particular, the ICAROUS architecture defines a framework to perform detect and avoid, geofencing, path monitoring, path planning, and autonomous decision making to ensure safety and mission progress. Most of the core algorithms implemented in ICAROUS are formally verified using an interactive theorem prover. These algorithms are composed together using a plan execution engine, whose operational semantics is formally specified. A description of the integrated architecture, services currently available, and flight test results highlighting the capability of ICAROUS are presented