Towards human-centered cyber-physical systems: a modeling approach

In this paper we present a new CPS model that considers humans as holistic beings, where mind and body operate as a whole and characteristics like creativity and empathy emerge. These characteristics influence the way humans interact and collaborate with technical systems. Our vision is to integrate humans as holistic beings within CPS in order to move towards a human-machine symbiosis. This paper outlines a model for human-centered cyber-physical systems (HCPSs) that is based on our holistic system model URANOS. The model integrates human skills and values to make them accessible to the technical system, similarly to the way they are accessible to humans in human-to-human interaction. The goal is to reinforce the human being in his feeling of being in control of his life experience in a world of smart technologies. It could also help to reduce human bio-costs like stress, job fears, etc. The proposed model is illustrated by the case study of smart industrial machines, dedicated machines for smart factories, where we test the human integration through conversation

UBIDEV: a homogeneous service framework for pervasive computing environments

This dissertation studies the heterogeneity problem of pervasive computing system from the viewpoint of an infrastructure aiming to provide a service-oriented application model. From Distributed System passing through mobile computing, pervasive computing is presented as a step forward in ubiquitous availability of services and proliferation of interacting autonomous entities. To better understand the problems related to the heterogeneous and dynamic nature of pervasive computing environments, we need to analyze the structure of a pervasive computing system from its physical and service dimension. The physical dimension describes the physical environment together wit the technology infrastructure that characterizes the interactions and the relations within the environment; the service dimension represents the services (being them software or not) the environment is able to provide [Nor99]. To better separate the constrains and the functionalities of a pervasive computing system, this dissertation classifies it in terms of resources, context, classification, services, coordination and application. UBIDEV, as the key result of this dissertation, introduces a unified model helping the design and the implementation of applications for heterogeneous and dynamic environments. This model is composed of the following concepts: • Resource: all elements of the environment that are manipulated by the application, they are the atomic abstraction unit of the model. • Context: all information coming from the environment that is used by the application to adapts its behavior. Context contains resources and services and defines their role in the application. • Classification: the environment is classified according to the application ontology in order to ground the generic conceptual model of the application to the specific environment. It defines the basic semantic level of interoperability. • Service: the functionalities supported by the system; each service manipulates one or more resources. Applications are defined as a coordination and adaptation of services. • Coordination: all aspects related to service composition and execution as well as the use of the contextual information are captured by the coordination concept. • Application Ontology: represents the viewpoint of the application on the specific context; it defines the high level semantic of resources, services and context. Applying the design paradigm proposed by UBIDEV, allows to describe applications according to a Service Oriented Architecture[Bie02], and to focus on application functionalities rather than their relations with the physical devices. Keywords: pervasive computing, homogenous environment, service-oriented, heterogeneity problem, coordination model, context model, resource management, service management, application interfaces, ontology, semantic services, interaction logic, description logic.Questa dissertazione studia il problema della eterogeneit`a nei sistemi pervasivi proponendo una infrastruttura basata su un modello orientato ai servizi. I sistemi pervasivi sono presentati come un’evoluzione naturale dei sistemi distribuiti, passando attraverso mobile computing, grazie ad una disponibilit`a ubiqua di servizi (sempre, ovunque ed in qualunque modo) e ad loro e con l’ambiente stesso. Al fine di meglio comprendere i problemi legati allintrinseca eterogeneit`a dei sistemi pervasivi, dobbiamo prima descrivere la struttura fondamentale di questi sistemi classificandoli attraverso la loro dimensione fisica e quella dei loro servizi. La dimensione fisica descrive l’ambiente fisico e tutti i dispositivi che fanno parte del contesto della applicazione. La dimensione dei servizi descrive le funzionalit`a (siano esse software o no) che l’ambiente `e in grado di fornire [Nor99]. I sistemi pervasivi vengono cos`ı classificati attraverso una metrica pi `u formale del tipo risorse, contesto, servizi, coordinazione ed applicazione. UBIDEV, come risultato di questa dissertazione, introduce un modello uniforme per la descrizione e lo sviluppo di applicazioni in ambienti dinamici ed eterogenei. Il modello `e composto dai seguenti concetti di base: • Risorse: gli elementi dell’ambiente fisico che fanno parte del modello dellapplicazione. Questi rappresentano l’unit`a di astrazione atomica di tutto il modello UBIDEV. • Contesto: le informazioni sullo stato dell’ambiente che il sistema utilizza per adattare il comportamento dell’applicazione. Il contesto include informazioni legate alle risorse, ai servizi ed alle relazioni che li legano. • Classificazione: l’ambiente viene classificato sulla base di una ontologia che rappresenta il punto di accordo a cui tutti i moduli di sistema fanno riferimento. Questa classificazione rappresenta il modello concettuale dell’applicazione che si riflette sull’intero ambiente. Si definisce cos`ı la semantica di base per tutto il sistema. • Servizi: le funzionalit`a che il sistema `e in grado di fornire; ogni servizio `e descritto in termini di trasformazione di una o pi `u risorse. Le applicazioni sono cos`ı definite in termini di cooperazione tra servizi autonomi. • Coordinazione: tutti gli aspetti legati alla composizione ed alla esecuzione di servizi cos`ı come l’elaborazione dell’informazione contestuale. • Ontologia dell’Applicazione: rappresenta il punto di vista dell’applicazione; definisce la semantica delle risorse, dei servizi e dell’informazione contestuale. Applicando il paradigma proposto da UBIDEV, si possono descrivere applicazioni in accordo con un modello Service-oriented [Bie02] ed, al tempo stesso, ridurre l’applicazione stessa alle sue funzionalit`a di alto livello senza intervenire troppo su come queste funzionalit` a devono essere realizzate dalle singole componenti fisiche

HAVANE:Un systeme de mise en relation automatique de petites annonces

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EMuds: adaptation in text-based virtual worlds

Cette thèse introduit une approche méthodologique à la conception d'agents artificiels. En une tentative de résoudre le problème de l'enracinement symbolique en intelligence artificielle, une nouvelle perspective théorique sur la relation agent-environnement est explorée et un jeu d'expériences sont menées pour motiver cette méthodologie. Suite à l'idée selon laquelle l'enracinement d'un agent dans son environnement est dépendant, intuitivement, de l'adaptation de ses mécanismes de représentation internes à la structure de l'environnement, l'hypothèse discutée est que l'enracinement n'est possible que si un agent est capable d'appliquer un principe de compression d'information à sa représentation de l'environnement. Ceci mène à la suggestion que les algorithmes de contrôle d'agents soient classifiés selon les ressources nécessaires à ces algorithmes pour résoudre une série de problèmes types. Pour soutenir cette hypothèse, une plateforme d'expérimentation appelée EMud a été conçue et implémentée. Le modèle d’environnements supporté par cette plateforme à été élaboré pour que des expériences graduellement plus complexes puissent être effectuées, en particulier pour que le modèle puisse être utilisé dans le cadre de simulations de systèmes distribués dans lesquels des agents artificiels opèrent. Le type d'algorithme choisi pour tester les idées théoriques introduites dans la première partie de la thèse est le système classificateur XCS, dont une version à été implémentée. Au cours de la présentation formelle de ce système, une démonstration de l'équivalence d’une forme simplifiée de ce système avec l'algorithme de Q-Learning est faite. Une nouvelle illustration du rôle de la notion de précision dans ce système est aussi introduite. Des expériences sur le problème du multiplexeur sont ensuite menées pour exhiber les propriétés de compression d'information or de généralisation du XCS. En utilisant une approche sur différentes représentations du multiplexeur, la capacité à généraliser du système XCS et son influence sur la résolution du problème est étudiée. Par la suite, une seconde expérience dans laquelle l'information nécessaire à la résolution du problème est répartie temporellement est menée. Les résultats dans cette situation montrent que le système XCS est incapable de généraliser efficacement. Il est conclu que par une classification des algorithmes basée sur l'efficacité avec laquelle ceux-ci peuvent représenter l'information nécessaire à la résolution de problèmes types, il devrait être possible de mieux comprendre comment concevoir des agents artificiels pour des problèmes spécifiques.This thesis introduces a methodological approach to artificial agent design. In an attempt to solve the symbol grounding problem of artificial intelligence, a new theoretical perspective on the agent-environment relation is explored and experimentation is led to motivate this methodology. From the original idea that in order to ground an agent in an environment, the agent’s representation mechanisms must intuitively be close to the structure of the environment, the hypothesis that grounding is possible only when an agent is able to apply information compression to its internal representation of the environment is discussed. This leads to the suggestion that a classification of control algorithms be made, based on the resources an algorithm requires to efficiently solve various categories of problems. In order to support this hypothesis, an experiment environment platform called the EMud is designed and implemented. The environment model is designed to support sufficiently general structures, so that gradually more complex environments can be designed within their specification framework, in particular to be able to use the model as a simulation of distributed systems where artificial agents operate. As a sample algorithm used to advocate the theoretical ideas, an XCS classifier system is implemented. A formal presentation of this system is made and the equivalence of Q-Learning with a simplified version of XCS is demonstrated. A reformulated illustration of the role of accuracy in the system is also presented. Experimentation with multiplexer problems is then performed to exhibit the information compression or generalization properties of the XCS system. By using an approach where experiments on the representation of the multiplexer problem are performed, the generalization characteristics of the XCS system and their influence in solving the problem are studied. A further experiment in an EMud environment where temporal information is essential to solving the problem goes to show that the XCS system is unable to generalize in this situation, thus breaking down the efficiency of the system. It is concluded that by making a classification of algorithms based on the efficiency with which algorithms can represent various types of problem space in order to solve these problems, one should be able to better understand how artificial agents should be designed for specific problems

Un formalisme pour la spécification de langages discontinus et à ordre libre

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Validation d'une base de connaissances hybride avec objets et règles de production

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Theme of the paper: Systems engineering and design Towards Autonomous Application Interfaces

A global change resulting from a convergence between communication technologies – namely Internet, and other devices technologies – namely robotics, mobile communication, and domotics – is presently affecting Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This situation, denoted by the so-called Intelligent Networks and Ubiquitous Computing fields, is characterized by a high diversity and promiscuity of equipments and applications, together with a great variability of using contexts. In order to address this variability, we propose a new kind of interaction schema, separating the application interface from the application itself. The paper describes this schema and its central concept of Virtual Instrument, allowing the users to initiate observation processes with the running applications, and to construct their own points of view upon their activities

Designing Social Media using Social Media: Lessons from a Syrian Community

In our project we are studying the role of internet technology in supporting local community development in Syria. By studying the appropriation of online tools we aim to inform the design of future tools to support community activity. After describing the research context and our approach towards observing a local volunteer community in Syria, we highlight a potential opportunity to conduct collaborative design using the same platform that community members have adopted