Reusable Software Components for Robots Using Fuzzy Abstractions

Mobile robots today, while varying greatly in design, often have a large number of similarities in terms of their tasks and goals. Navigation, obstacle avoidance, and vision are all examples. In turn, robots of similar design, but with varying configurations, should be able to share the bulk of their controlling software. Any changes required should be minimal and ideally only to specify new hardware configurations. However, it is difficult to achieve such flexibility, mainly due to the enormous variety of robot hardware available and the huge number of possible configurations. Monolithic controllers that can handle such variety are impossible to build. This paper will investigate these portability problems, as well as techniques to manage common abstractions for user-designed components. The challenge is in creating new methods for robot software to support a diverse variety of robots, while also being easily upgraded and extended. These methods can then provide new ways to support the operational and functional reuse of the same high-level components across a variety of robots

Platform Relative Sensor Abstractions across Mobile Robots using Computer Vision and Sensor Integration

Uniform sensor management and abstraction across different robot platforms is a difficult task due to the sheer diversity of sensing devices. However, because these sensors can be grouped into categories that in essence provide the same information, we can capture their similarities and create abstractions. An example would be distance data measured by an assortment of range sensors, or alternatively extracted from a camera using image processing. This paper describes how using software components it is possible to uniformly construct high-level abstractions of sensor information across various robots in a way to support the portability of common code that uses these abstractions (e.g. obstacle avoidance, wall following). We demonstrate our abstractions on a number of robots using different configurations of range sensors and cameras

Software Reuse across Robotic Platforms: Limiting the effects of diversity

Robots have diverse capabilities and complex interactions with their environment. Software development for robotic platforms is time consuming due to the complex nature of the tasks to be performed. Such an environment demands sound software engineering practices to produce high quality software. However software engineering in the robotics domain fails to facilitate any significant level of software reuse or portability. This paper identifies the major issues limiting software reuse in the robotics domain. Lack of standardisation, diversity of robotic platforms, and the subtle effects of environmental interaction all contribute to this problem. It is then shown that software components, fuzzy logic, and related techniques can be used together to address this problem. While complete software reuse is not possible, it is demonstrated that significant levels of software reuse can be obtained. Without an acceptable level of reuse or portability, software engineering in the robotics domain will not be able to meet the demands of a rapidly developing field. The work presented in this paper demonstrates a method for supporting software reuse across robotic platforms and hence facilitating improved software engineering practices

The Real World Software Process

The industry-wide demand for rapid development in concert with greater process maturity has seen many software development firms adopt tightly structured iterative processes. While a number of commercial vendors offer suitable process infrastructure and tool support, the cost of licensing, configuration and staff training may be prohibitive for the small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) which dominate the Asia-Pacific software industry. This work addresses these problems through the introduction of the Real World Software Process (RWSP), a freely available, Web-based iterative scheme designed specifically for small teams and organisations. RWSP provides a detailed process description, high quality document templates - including code review and inspection guidelines - and the integrated tutorial support necessary for successful usage by inexperienced developers and teams. In particular it is intended that the process be readily usable by software houses which at present do not follow a formal process, and that the free RWSP process infrastructure should be a vehicle for improving industry standards

A Method of Utilizing Accounting Records for Nurseries Producing Field Grown Stock

Exact date of bulletin unknown.PDF pages: 1

More D (Deliberation) for California’s DD (Direct Democracy): Enhancing Voter Understanding and Promoting Deliberation Through Streamlined Notice-and-Comment Procedures

This article seeks to enhance public consideration of the pros and cons of streamlining California\u27s informal-administrative-rulemaking procedures for reforming the state\u27s direct democracy. To provide a concrete focus for discussion and quick adoption, Appendix I includes proposed amendments to existing California statutory provisions. This article provides a context for considering the proposed legislation by elaborating on five questions: Why Deliberation? (Part I): In this Part, the Article makes the case, both on the substantive merits and on practical political grounds, for focusing on deliberation-enhancement as the best next wave of initiative reform.8 Why the Administrative Model? (Part II): This Part expands the arguments in the Working Group Report to defend an assertion that might seem initially counter-intuitive: even though orthodox direct democracy rhetoric assumes that voters endorsing initiatives are like legislators passing bills, in reality, the closer analogy is to the roles and dynamics common to administrative rulemaking. Why Streamlined Informal Rulemaking? (Part III): Assuming the appropriateness of an administrative rulemaking model, an obvious next question arises because both my 2007 article and the Working Group Report propose a substantially streamlined version of the informal-notice-and-comment procedures California (like most other states and the federal government) uses to make administrative rules. A skeptic might ask: if the administrative rulemaking model is so appropriate in describing the relationship of voters to initiative proponents, why shouldn\u27t the full panoply of notice-and-comment procedures (including multiple potential stages of judicial review) be transposed into the direct-democracy context? Part III presents answers grounded both in appropriate public policy and political practicality. Specifically, this Part identifies several design specifications for savvy selective borrowing. Why This Proposal\u27s Specific Choices? (Part IV): This Part relates the numerous design choices reflected in our reform proposal to the design specifications identified in Part III. The discussion explains which aspects of California\u27s current administrative-rulemaking procedures the reform proposal borrows, adapts, and ignores-and why. What Strategic Questions Remain on the Way to Proposal Enactment? (Part V): Getting a reform proposal from final formulation to actual adoption raises a number of strategic questions. This Part addresses four questions facing anyone considering how to adopt streamlined notice-and-comment procedures for direct democracy

Solving the ‘Initiatory Construction’ Puzzle (and Improving Direct Democracy) by Appropriate Refocusing on Sponsor Intent

This Article synthesizes and critiques a dozen years of scholarship about judicial construction of legislation passed by voter initiative. The Article then makes a comprehensive case for an alternative approach: an appropriately enhanced focus on the intent of initiative sponsors. More specifically, the Article validates, through analysis of recent California decisions, a longstanding scholarly consensus that the prevailing judicial search for the intent of the voters is seriously flawed. The Article provides the first synthesis to date of reform proposals offered by initiatory-construction scholars; the discussion contends that these proposals collectively fail four key evaluation criteria. Building on the 2003 work of an author who pointed to the value of examining sponsor intent, this Article argues that the earlier author was on the right track but gave an incomplete defense and erred in the reform proposal he advocated. This Article explains how an appropriately enhanced sponsor-intent focus points the way to meaningful procedural reforms improving both the interpretation of initiatives and the processes of direct democracy

Effects of Nitrogen, Lime, and Boron on Candle Rape Grown in the Trapper Creek and Pt. MacKenzie Areas of Southcentral Alaska

When growers in the Susitna Valley and later in the Pt. MacKenzie area of southcentral Alaska inquired as to the feasibility of growing rapeseed, we decided to determine the crops suitability and performance by conducting a field experiment. Bolton (1980) had attempted to predict the feasibility of producing rapeseed in Alaska's interior, but no research had been done in southcentral Alaska. We conducted one study from 1979 through 1981 on Rabideux silt loam (pH 5.1) near Trapper Creek and another from 1982 through 1984 on Kashwitna silt loam (pH 5.4) on the University of Alaska' s research tract in the Pt. MacKenzie area. The first area had been cleared prior to 197 8. This area was rototilled and roots removed in September 1978. The second area was on a tract cleared during the winter of 1981. After clearing, rotary plowing was done twice on the area. During the summer of 1981, roots were removed , and a field cultivator was used twice to loosen and bring roots to the surface

Effects of Potassium, Sulfur, Nitrogen Rate, And Nitrogen Source on Bromegrass Forage Yield and Composition

Production of adequate , high-quality forage is essential for Alaska's livestock industry. Smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis) is the dominant and most dependable perennial forage crop in the Matanuska Valley and other areas of Alaska. Four areas of Knik silt loam on the University of Alaska's Matanuska Research Farm near Palmer were seeded to bromegrass and were used over a period of 18 years to determine the need of high-yielding bromegrass for applications of potassium (K) and sulfur (S). A bromegrass field on the Woods estate two miles south of Palmer was selected in 1976 for a study comparing three rates of two nitrogen (N) sources with and without S. The soil type was Bodenburg silt loam