A graph-based approach for modelling quantum circuits

A crucial task for the systematic application of model-driven engineering techniques in the development of quantum software is the definition of metamodels, as a first step towards automatic code generation and integration with other tools. The importance is even greater when considering recent work where the first extensions to UML for modelling quantum circuits are emerging and the characterisation of these extensions in terms of their suitability for a model-driven approach becomes unavoidable. After reviewing the related work, this article proposes a unified metamodel for modelling quantum circuits, together with five strategies for its use and some examples of its application. The article also provides a set of constraints for using the identified strategies, a set of procedures for transforming the models between the strategies, and an analysis of the suitability of each strategy for performing common tasks in a model-driven quantum software development environment. All of these resources will enable the quantum software community to speak the same language and use the same set of abstractions, which are key to furthering the development of tools to be built as part of future model-driven quantum software development frameworks

Real Time Teaching with Java: JPR3

This paper describes a development platform built around a digital railroad scale{model: JPR3 (Java Platform for Realtime Railway Research). The laboratory equipment and software aims to achieve two goals: help and motivate students of real{time systems and as support for postgraduate students. Students nd the scale{model really challenging and are very motivated by it; thus it's easy for them to really learn and practice all the concepts of real{time systems. But it's not only for students use: it also serves as a research platform for postgraduate students, thanks to the possibilities o ered by the scale{model. Java has been chosen as the programming language codify the platform and the implementation of the system is described in this work.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Education (with reference ACF2000{0037{IN) and the Regional Government of Murcia (Séneca Programmes with reference PB/8/FS/02

An automatic maintenance system for nuclear power plants instrumentation

Maintenance and testing of reactor protection systems is an important cause of unplanned reactor trips due to be commonly carried out in manual mode. The execution of surveillance procedures in this mode entails a great number of manual operations. Automated testing is the answer because it minimises test times and reduces the risk of human errors. GAMA-I is an automatic system for testing the reactor protection instrumentation which is based on VXI instrumentation cards. This system has important advantages over previous ones in terms of easiness to carry out software modifications related to configuration changes in the protection system. The system uses visual programming and the modifications can be implemented by ordinary instrumentation specialists without programming experience.The system has been developed at the Vandellos II Nuclear Power Plant by the I&C groups of Vandellos II, Tecnatom S.A. and ENWESA Servicios S.A. The representation for this project is held by the Spanish Association for the Nuclear Technologic Development (DTN). Financial support for this research was provided by the Electrical and Electronic Research Program (PIE-OCIDE) of the Spanish Ministry of Industry

A systematic approach to developing safe tele-operated robots

Tele–operated service robots are used for extending human capabilities in hazardous and/or inaccessible environments. Their use is undergoing an exponential increase in our society, reason why it is of vital importance that their design, installation and operation follow the strictest possible process, so that the risk of accident could be minimised. However, there is no such process or methodology that guides the full process from identification, evaluation, proposal of solutions and reuse of safety requirements, although a hard work is being done, specially by the standardisation committees. It’s also very difficult to even find in the literature examples of safety requirements identification and use. This paper presents the engineering process we have followed to obtain the safety requirements in one of the robots of the EFTCoR1 project and the way this requirements have affected the architecture of the system, with a practical example: a crane robot for ship hull blasting.Financiado parcialmente por los programas programs CICYT, ANCLA (TIC2003-07804-C05-02), y parte de DYNAMICA (DYNamic and Aspect-Oriented Modeling for Integrated Component-based Architectures

StateML + : From Graphical State Machine Models to Thread-Safe Ada Code

This paper presents the StateML+ tool aimed at designing state-machines and automatically generating thread-safe and multi-tasking modular Ada code from them, following a Model-Driven Engineering approach. The StateML+ meta-model is an extension of a previous version, and now it offers improved modeling capabilities, which include regions and macro-state definition. In this paper, a case study regarding the design of a robotic system will be used to demonstrate the benefits of the proposed approach.This research has been funded by the Spanish CICYT project MEDWSA (TIN2006-15175-C05-02) and the Regional Government of Murcia Seneca Program (02998-PI-05)

A collaborative learning experience in modeling the requirements of teleoperated system for ship hull maintenance

This paper presents a join experience in modelling the requirements of the product line of teleoperated systems for ship hull maintenance, which are basically robotic systems used for ship maintenance operations, such as cleaning or painting the ship hull. It is proposed to specify the product line requirements through a feature model, a conceptual model, and a use case model, which together allow domain understanding, derivation of reusable product line requirements, and efficient decision-making in the specification of new systems developed in the product line. Action Research, a qualitative research method in software engineering, has been applied to define the collaborative research process

Supporting tech founders—a needs‑must approach to the delivery of acceleration programmes for a post‑pandemic world

Along with most economic sectors, the COVID-19 crisis has had a strong impact on start-up accelerators, forcing them to seek urgent and imaginative solutions to quickly adapt to a new environment. The enforced change brought challenges that have been exacerbated by the sudden slowdown in economic activity. Despite these difficulties, it has become clear that the accelerated digital transformation that emerged through a needs-must approach to engage with start-ups through remote means has also presented new opportunities for accelerators to improve their programmes. This article analyses the impact of the COVID crisis on the organisation and results obtained by a European accelerator, which delivers programmes for growth stage technology start-ups. For this purpose, two very similar programmes have been analysed and compared: one focused on industrial technologies (delivered in 2019–2020) and another one focused on products and services built on space technologies (2020–2021). The research has been undertaken using observational techniques, reinforced through the collection of primary and secondary data throughout the study duration. The result of the analysis point to a possible post-COVID accelerator model that blends online and remote delivery as a new way of improving the experience of start-ups and optimising the use of scarce resourcesThis work has been partially funded by the European Commission under the project “Space End: Endeavour Space Hub” (GA #870480)

Towards the definition of a pattern sequence for real-time applications using a model-driven engineering approach

Real-Time (RT) systems exhibit specific characteristics that make them particularly sensitive to architectural decissions. Design patterns help integrating the desired timing behaviour with the rest of the elements of the application architecture. This paper reports a pattern story that shows how a component-based design has been implemented using periodic concurrent tasks with RT requirements. This work has been done in the context of the development of robotic applications using a Model-Driven Software Development (MDSD) approach. In this context the model-to-code transformations are designed taking into account both the system requirements and the patterns that satisfy them. MDSD provides the conceptual technology for implementing a pattern-guided transition from component-based models to object-oriented implementations. The results of applying the described story of patterns are shown by an application that initializes, configures and schedules the execution of platform-specific components.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish CICYT Project EXPLORE (ref. TIN2009-08572), and the Fundación Séneca Regional Project COMPAS-R (ref. 11994/PI/09)

Improving the Learning Experience and Outcomes in Entrepreneurial Courses

Abstract: Entrepreneurship has been gaining momentum is Europe over the last years as a way to reduce unemployment levels, and in line with the take-off of the digital economy in the world. Entrepreneurship education is still an open research area, with many courses being launched in almost all universities. We describe our experience in running a summer school and mentoring the teams created in the context of the EU-XCeL project, and ICT focused project funded by European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. From this experience, we extract some conclusions and recommendations for preparing better courses and learning experiences, and we also advocate for courses mixing students from different Degrees studies, mainly Engineering and Business, for improving the experience and the course outcomes, especially for students of Engineering Degrees.This work has been developed in the context of the EUXCeL project, funded by European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 644801. It has been partially supported by the “Research Programme for Groups of Scientific Excellence at Region of Murcia" of the Seneca Foundation (Agency for Science and Technology of the Region of Murcia – 19895/GERM/15). Diego Alonso thanks the Spanish Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Subprograma Estatal de Movilidad, Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016 for grant CAS14/00238

A reference control architecture for service robots implemented on a climbing vehicle

Teleoperated robots are used to perform hazardous tasks that human operators cannot carry out. The purpose of this paper is to present a new architecture (ACROSET) for the development of these systems that takes into account the current advances in robotic architectures while adopting the component-oriented approach. The architecture is currently being used, tested and improved in the development of an heterogeneous family of robots in the context of the EFTCoR project. It is also presented the Ada’95 implementation of ACROSET for a climbing robot.This work has been partially supported by European Union (GROWTH G3RD-CT- 00794) and the Spanish Government programs CICYT (TIC2003-07804-C05-02) and Seneca (PB/5/FS/02)