MROS: Runtime Adaptation For Robot Control Architectures

Known attempts to build autonomous robots rely on complex control architectures, often implemented with the Robot Operating System platform (ROS). Runtime adaptation is needed in these systems, to cope with component failures and with contingencies arising from dynamic environments-otherwise, these affect the reliability and quality of the mission execution. Existing proposals on how to build self-adaptive systems in robotics usually require a major re-design of the control architecture and rely on complex tools unfamiliar to the robotics community. Moreover, they are hard to reuse across applications. This paper presents MROS: a model-based framework for run-time adaptation of robot control architectures based on ROS. MROS uses a combination of domain-specific languages to model architectural variants and captures mission quality concerns, and an ontology-based implementation of the MAPE-K and meta-control visions for run-time adaptation. The experiment results obtained applying MROS in two realistic ROS-based robotic demonstrators show the benefits of our approach in terms of the quality of the mission execution, and MROS' extensibility and re-usability across robotic applications

EUD-MARS: End-User Development of Model-Driven Adaptive Robotics Software Systems

Empowering end-users to program robots is becoming more significant. Introducing software engineering principles into end-user programming could improve the quality of the developed software applications. For example, model-driven development improves technology independence and adaptive systems act upon changes in their context of use. However, end-users need to apply such principles in a non-daunting manner and without incurring a steep learning curve. This paper presents EUD-MARS that aims to provide end-users with a simple approach for developing model-driven adaptive robotics software. End-users include people like hobbyists and students who are not professional programmers but are interested in programming robots. EUD-MARS supports robots like hobby drones and educational humanoids that are available for end-users. It offers a tool for software developers and another one for end-users. We evaluated EUD-MARS from three perspectives. First, we used EUD-MARS to program different types of robots and assessed its visual programming language against existing design principles. Second, we asked software developers to use EUD-MARS to configure robots and obtained their feedback on strengths and points for improvement. Third, we observed how end-users explain and develop EUD-MARS programs, and obtained their feedback mainly on understandability, ease of programming, and desirability. These evaluations yielded positive indications of EUD-MARS

Political financing and corruption

Eden od segmentov, ki je ključen za neovirano delovanje demokratičnih sistemov, je financiranje političnih strank, ki jim zagotavlja sredstva za izvajanje kampanje, organiziranje dogodkov in izvajanje drugih političnih dejavnosti. Urejeno financiranje političnih strank je zelo pomembno pri zagotavljanju neodvisnosti strank ter ohranjanje integritete političnega sistema. Na ta način lahko učinkovito preprečimo neupravičen vpliv zasebnih donatorjev, državnih in javnih organov ter strankam omogočimo, da lahko tekmujejo v skladu z načelom enakih možnosti. Legitimnost financiranja demokratičnega procesa je nenehno obdana s tveganji, ki lahko spodkopljejo njegov namen. Čeprav so finančna sredstva nujna za učinkovito delovanje političnih strank, izkušnje kažejo, da obstaja resnična nevarnost, da se bodo nekatere stranke in kandidati, ko bodo na položaju, bolj odzivali na interese določene skupine donatorjev kot pa na interese širše javnosti. Donatorji lahko tudi pričakujejo neko vrsto povračila za donacije, dane med volitvami. Globalizacija omogoča večjo svobodo donatorjem, kar lahko vpliva na politične procese. To prinaša situacijo, kjer se multinacionalke selijo v države, ki omogočajo financiranje iz tujine, kar pa postavlja vprašanje, kdo ima vpliv na volitve in politične stranke v teh državah. Transparentno financiranje političnih strank ima ključno vlogo pri ohranjanju demokratičnih procesov in zaupanja javnosti v politični sistem. Slabo urejeno področje financiranja političnih strank pa lahko ustvari ugodne pogoje za korupcijo in zlorabo politične moči, kar resno ogroža integriteto političnega sistema in zaupanje ljudi v politične institucije. Misija za ocenjevanje volitev UDIČP, ki je bila zadolžena za oceno volitev na parlamentarnih volitvah leta 2022 v Sloveniji, je izrazila splošno zadovoljstvo z zakonodajnim okvirom za financiranje politike in volilnih kampanj v državi, kar kaže na skladnost slovenske zakonodaje s smernicami evropske zakonodaje na tem področju. Vendar nadaljevanje reform na področju financiranja političnih strank in kampanj je ključno za demokratične procese v eni državi, zato se nikoli ne smemo ustaviti v prizadevanjih za reforme na področju financiranja političnih strank in kampanj. Vlaganje v reforme bi namreč učinkovito preprečilo neustrezno vplivanje na politične kampanje in izide volitev ter prispevalo k večji preglednosti in integriteti volilnega procesaOne of the crucial segments for the smooth functioning of democratic systems is the financing of political parties, which provides them with the necessary funds for conducting campaigns, organizing events, and carrying out other political activities. Well-regulated funding of political parties plays a vital role in ensuring the independence of parties and maintaining the integrity of the political system. In this way, we can effectively prevent undue influence from private donors, state, and public bodies, and enable parties to compete on the basis of equal opportunities. The legitimacy of financing the democratic process is constantly surrounded by risks that can undermine its purpose. Although financial resources are essential for the effective functioning of political parties, experiences show that there is a real danger that some parties and candidates, once in power, will be more responsive to the interests of a specific group of donors rather than the broader public interest. Donors may also expect some form of return for donations made during elections. Globalization provides greater freedom to donors, which can impact political processes. This brings about a situation where multinational corporations relocate to countries that allow foreign funding, raising questions about who influences elections and political parties in those countries. Transparent financing of political parties plays a crucial role in maintaining democratic processes and public trust in the political system. Poorly regulated financing of political parties, on the other hand, can create favorable conditions for corruption and abuse of political power, seriously endangering the integrity of the political system and people\u27s trust in political institutions. The Mission for Election Assessment (UDIČP), tasked with evaluating the 2022 parliamentary elections in Slovenia, expressed general satisfaction with the legislative framework for political financing and election campaigns in the country, indicating compliance of Slovenian legislation with European guidelines in this field. However, continuing reforms in the field of funding political parties and campaigns are crucial for democratic processes in any country. Therefore, we must never stop our efforts to reform the financing of political parties and campaigns. Investing in reforms would effectively prevent undue influence on political campaigns and election outcomes, while contributing to greater transparency and integrity in the electoral process

The importance of intelligence-led policing for crime reduction

V času krčenja finančnih sredstev, s katerimi razpolagajo policijske organizacije in vse večjega naraščanja števil kriminalnih dejanj se poraja vprašanje o možni vpeljavi novega policijskega modela, ki bi zamenjal stari militaristični model, ki se kaže kot neučinkovit zaradi česar mora policija narediti temeljite sistemske spremembe. Danes za najučinkovitejši model vodenja velja model obveščevalno vodene policijske dejavnosti. Ta model skrbno razporeja razpoložljiva sredstva organizacije in se osredotoča na kazniva dejanja, ki so nevarna, ponavljajoča se in predstavljajo največji problem policije, torej tista kazniva dejanja, ki jih policija prioritetno obravnava. Številne države članice Evropske unije, med njimi tudi Slovenija, so kot odgovor na moderni čas, ki za sabo vleče številne izzive, s katerimi se soočajo policijske organizacije, opredelile vpeljavo novega policijskega modela kot enega ključnih ciljev. V resoluciji o nacionalnem programu preprečevanja in zatiranja kriminalitete za obdobje 2007-2011 (2007) je bil prvič kot ključni cilj Slovenije v boju proti kriminalu določena vzpostavitev koncepta obveščevalno vodene policijske dejavnosti. Da bi bil potencial modela obveščevalno vodene policijske dejavnosti popolnoma izkoriščen, je potrebno njegovo razumevanje s strani vseh zaposlenih v policiji. Nujno potrebno je upoštevanje vseh njegovih faz obveščevalnega ciklusa, kajti vsaka faza nadgrajuje prejšnjo, tako da so faze med seboj povezane. Nujna je izdelava kakovostnih končnih obveščevalnih izdelkov, ki bodo pravočasno posredovani vodstvenim kadrom, in bodo s podanimi priporočili pripomogli k čim učinkovitejšemu sprejemanju odločitev, ki bodo nedvomno vplivale na kakovostnejše in varnejše življenje državljanov. Ugotovili smo, da si slovenska policija prizadeva za vpeljavo obveščevalno vodene policijske dejavnosti, čeprav je poznavanje delovanja novega modela še dokaj slabo. Zato bo potrebno še veliko izpopolnjevanja zaposlenih na tem področju.At a time of shrinking financial resources at the disposal of police organizations and a growing number of criminal acts, the question arises of the possible introduction of a new police model to replace the old militaristic model, which gives indications that it is ineffective and that the police must make fundamental systemic changes. Today, the most effective model of leadership is the model of intelligence-led policing. This model carefully allocates the available resources of the organization and focuses on crimes that are dangerous, repetitive and represent the biggest problem of the police, ie those crimes that the police deal with as a priority. Many European Union member states, including Slovenia, have identified the introduction of a new police model as one of the key objectives in response to modern times, which entail many challenges facing police organizations. The resolution on the national program for the prevention and suppression of crime for the period 2007-2011 (2007) for the first time set the establishment of the concept of intelligence-led policing as a key goal of Slovenia in the fight against crime. In order to fully exploit the potential of the intelligence-led policing model, it needs to be understood by all police officers. It is imperative to consider all of its phases of the intelligence cycle, as each phase builds on the previous one so that the phases are interconnected. It is necessary to produce high-quality final intelligence products, which will be provided to management in a timely manner, and with the given recommendations will help to make decisions as efficiently as possible, which will undoubtedly affect the quality and safer life of citizens. We found that the Slovenian police is striving to introduce intelligence-led policing, although knowledge of the operation of the new model is still quite poor. Therefore, a lot of training of employees in this area will be needed

Towards an integrated automatic design process for robot swarms

Background: The specification of missions to be accomplished by a robot swarm has been rarely discussed in the literature: designers do not follow any standardized processes or use any tool to precisely define a mission that must be accomplished. Methods: In this paper, we introduce a fully integrated design process that starts with the specification of a mission to be accomplished and terminates with the deployment of the robots in the target environment. We introduce Swarm Mission Language (SML), a textual language that allows swarm designers to specify missions. Using model-driven engineering techniques, we define a process that automatically transforms a mission specified in SML into a configuration setup for an optimization-based design method.  Upon completion, the output of the optimization-based design method is an instance of control software that is eventually deployed on real robots. Results: We demonstrate the fully integrated process we propose on three different missions. Conclusions: We aim to show that in order to create reliable, maintainable and verifiable robot swarms,  swarm designers may benefit from following standardised automatic design processes that will facilitate the design of control software in all stages of the development.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Designing control software for robot swarms

Over the past decade, swarm robotics has emerged as a promising engineering discipline. In this paper, we discuss the current research challenges and state-of-the-art in automatic design methods for swarm control software. This subject has recently received increasing attention from the swarm robotics community. We make a contribution towards the debate by proposing two lines of research from a software engineering point of view.SCOPUS: cp.pinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Search space for AutoMoDe-Chocolate and AutoMoDe-Maple

68187info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Sustainable Safety in Mobile Multi-robot Systems via Collective Adaptation

To be safe, mobile multi-robots systems need to be able to adapt to unexpected behaviours of robots as well as to exogenous changes in the environment. In this paper, we describe a novel approach for the development of multi-robots systems where robots collectively collaborate with each other to satisfy their goals and to adapt their behaviour in a collective way satisfying the overall system safety. Safety-specific self-adaptation capabilities of the approach are generic and independent from the functional behaviour of the robots. An example dealing with safety for autonomous UAV is provided as well

Managing safety and mission completion via collective run-time adaptation

Mobile Multi-Robot Systems (MMRSs) are an emerging class of systems that are composed of a team of robots, various devices (like movable cameras, sensors) which collaborate with each other to accomplish defined missions. Moreover, these systems must operate in dynamic and potentially uncontrollable and unknown environments that might compromise the safety of the system and the completion of the defined mission. A model of the environment describing, e.g. obstacles, no-fly zones, wind and weather conditions might be available, however, the assumption that such a model is both correct and complete is often wrong. In this paper, we describe an approach that supports execution of missions at run time. It addresses collective adaptation problems in a decentralized fashion, and enables the addition of new entities in the system at any time. Moreover, it is based on two adaptation resolution methods: one for (potentially partial) resolution of mission-related issues and one for full resolution of safety-related issues.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe