Towards Python-based Domain-specific Languages for Self-reconfigurable Modular Robotics Research

This paper explores the role of operating system and high-level languages in the development of software and domain-specific languages (DSLs) for self-reconfigurable robotics. We review some of the current trends in self-reconfigurable robotics and describe the development of a software system for ATRON II which utilizes Linux and Python to significantly improve software abstraction and portability while providing some basic features which could prove useful when using Python, either stand-alone or via a DSL, on a self-reconfigurable robot system. These features include transparent socket communication, module identification, easy software transfer and reliable module-to-module communication. The end result is a software platform for modular robots that where appropriate builds on existing work in operating systems, virtual machines, middleware and high-level languages.Comment: Presented at DSLRob 2011 (arXiv:1212.3308

Spatial dispersion in two-dimensional plasmonic crystals: Large blueshifts promoted by diffraction anomalies

We develop a methodology to incorporate nonlocal optical response of the free electron gas due to quantum-interaction effects in metal components of periodic two-dimensional plasmonic crystals and study the impact of spatial dispersion on promising building blocks for photonic circuits. Within the framework of the hydrodynamic model, we observe significant changes with respect to the commonly employed local-response approximation, but also in comparison with homogeneous metal films where nonlocal effects have previously been considered. Notable are the emergence of a contribution from nonlocality at normal incidence and the surprisingly large structural parameters at which finite blueshifts are observable, which we attribute to diffraction that offers nonvanishing in-plane wave vector components and increases the penetration depth of longitudinal (nonlocal) modes.We acknowledge Sanshui Xiao for fruitful discussions. C. D. thanks the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) for financial support through a DFG research fellowship (No. 268910011) .J.C. acknowledges financial support from the Danish Council for Independent Research and a Sapere Aude Grant (FTP No. 12-134776). N.A.M. acknowledges support from the Danish Council for Independent Research (FNU No. 1323-00087). The Center for Nanostructured Graphene is sponsored by the Danish National Research Foundation, Project No. DNRF103