Integration of a Contextual Observation System in a Multi-Process Architecture for Autonomous Vehicles

We propose a software layered architecture for autonomous vehicles whose efficiency is driven by pull-based acquisition of sensor data. This multiprocess software architecture, to be embedded into the control loop of these vehicles, includes a Belief-Desire-Intention agent that can consistently assist the achievement of intentions. Since driving on roads implies huge dynamic considerations, we tackle both reactivity and context awareness considerations on the execution loop of the vehicle. While the proposed architecture gradually offers 4 levels of reactivity, from arch-reflex to the deep modification of the previously built execution plan, the observation module concurrently exploits noise filtering and introduces frequency control to allow symbolic feature extraction while both fuzzy and first order logic management are used to enforce consistency and certainty over the context information properties. The presented use-case, the daily delivery of a network of pharmacy offices by an autonomous vehicle taking into account contextual (spatio-temporal) traffic features, shows the efficiency and the modularity of the architecture, as well as the scalability of the reaction levels

Transformative sensemaking: Development in Whose Image? Keyan Tomaselli and the semiotics of visual representation

The defining and distinguishing feature of homo sapiens is its ability to make sense of the world, i.e. to use its intellect to understand and change both itself and the world of which it is an integral part. It is against this backdrop that this essay reviews Tomaselli's 1996 text, Appropriating Images: The Semiotics of Visual Representation/ by summarizing his key perspectives, clarifying his major operational concepts and citing particular portions from his work in support of specific perspectives on sense-making. Subsequently, this essay employs his techniques of sense-making to interrogate the notion of "development". This exercise examines and confirms two interrelated hypotheses: first, a semiotic analysis of the privileged notion of "development" demonstrates its metaphysical/ ideological, and thus limiting, nature especially vis-a-vis the marginalized, excluded, and the collective other, the so-called Developing Countries. Second, the interrogative nature of semiotics allows for an alternative reading and application of human potential or skills in the quest of a more humane social and global order, highlighting thereby the transformative implications of a reflexive epistemology.Web of Scienc