Design, implementation and verification of the User Terminal Emulator for the Iris Verification TestBed

The present thesis results from an internship inside Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A. (TAS-I) located in Rome. Thales Alenia Space is an european leader for satellite systems and is a worldwide reference in telecoms, radar and optical Earth observation, defense and security, navigation and science. TAS-I is the prime contractor of the Phase B of Iris Programme, the ESA project to develop a new satellite communication system for Air Traffic Management; in particular TAS-I is one of the contractors involved in the realization of the Verification TestBed (VTB) for the new Communication Standard (CS). Our activities concerned the functional design of the logical component of the VTB and the software development of the User Terminal Emulator for the VTB itself. Precisely, we implemented a tool in C/C++ languages that emulates the UT resources assignment signalling protocol and the traffic flows management for several aircraft instances. This application supplies TAS-I with a tool, as flexible as possible to adapt to the upcoming CS specifications and useful to resolve several trade-off by means of preliminary tests. Besides, it could be a comparison instrument to evaluate, in terms of software design and implementation, similar emulation frameworks which at the moment do not belong to TAS-I testbed heritage

Fast Hessenberg reduction of some rank structured matrices

We develop two fast algorithms for Hessenberg reduction of a structured matrix $A = D + UV^H$ where $D$ is a real or unitary $n \times n$ diagonal matrix and $U, V \in\mathbb{C}^{n \times k}$. The proposed algorithm for the real case exploits a two--stage approach by first reducing the matrix to a generalized Hessenberg form and then completing the reduction by annihilation of the unwanted sub-diagonals. It is shown that the novel method requires $O(n^2k)$ arithmetic operations and it is significantly faster than other reduction algorithms for rank structured matrices. The method is then extended to the unitary plus low rank case by using a block analogue of the CMV form of unitary matrices. It is shown that a block Lanczos-type procedure for the block tridiagonalization of $\Re(D)$ induces a structured reduction on $A$ in a block staircase CMV--type shape. Then, we present a numerically stable method for performing this reduction using unitary transformations and we show how to generalize the sub-diagonal elimination to this shape, while still being able to provide a condensed representation for the reduced matrix. In this way the complexity still remains linear in $k$ and, moreover, the resulting algorithm can be adapted to deal efficiently with block companion matrices.Comment: 25 page

From approximating to interpolatory non-stationary subdivision schemes with the same generation properties

In this paper we describe a general, computationally feasible strategy to deduce a family of interpolatory non-stationary subdivision schemes from a symmetric non-stationary, non-interpolatory one satisfying quite mild assumptions. To achieve this result we extend our previous work [C.Conti, L.Gemignani, L.Romani, Linear Algebra Appl. 431 (2009), no. 10, 1971-1987] to full generality by removing additional assumptions on the input symbols. For the so obtained interpolatory schemes we prove that they are capable of reproducing the same exponential polynomial space as the one generated by the original approximating scheme. Moreover, we specialize the computational methods for the case of symbols obtained by shifted non-stationary affine combinations of exponential B-splines, that are at the basis of most non-stationary subdivision schemes. In this case we find that the associated family of interpolatory symbols can be determined to satisfy a suitable set of generalized interpolating conditions at the set of the zeros (with reversed signs) of the input symbol. Finally, we discuss some computational examples by showing that the proposed approach can yield novel smooth non-stationary interpolatory subdivision schemes possessing very interesting reproduction properties

Language-based sensing descriptors for robot object grounding

In this work, we consider an autonomous robot that is required to understand commands given by a human through natural language. Specifically, we assume that this robot is provided with an internal representation of the environment. However, such a representation is unknown to the user. In this context, we address the problem of allowing a human to understand the robot internal representation through dialog. To this end, we introduce the concept of sensing descriptors. Such representations are used by the robot to recognize unknown object properties in the given commands and warn the user about them. Additionally, we show how these properties can be learned over time by leveraging past interactions in order to enhance the grounding capabilities of the robot

Exponential Splines and Pseudo-Splines: Generation versus reproduction of exponential polynomials

Subdivision schemes are iterative methods for the design of smooth curves and surfaces. Any linear subdivision scheme can be identified by a sequence of Laurent polynomials, also called subdivision symbols, which describe the linear rules determining successive refinements of coarse initial meshes. One important property of subdivision schemes is their capability of exactly reproducing in the limit specific types of functions from which the data is sampled. Indeed, this property is linked to the approximation order of the scheme and to its regularity. When the capability of reproducing polynomials is required, it is possible to define a family of subdivision schemes that allows to meet various demands for balancing approximation order, regularity and support size. The members of this family are known in the literature with the name of pseudo-splines. In case reproduction of exponential polynomials instead of polynomials is requested, the resulting family turns out to be the non-stationary counterpart of the one of pseudo-splines, that we here call the family of exponential pseudo-splines. The goal of this work is to derive the explicit expressions of the subdivision symbols of exponential pseudo-splines and to study their symmetry properties as well as their convergence and regularity.Comment: 25 page

Teaching robots parametrized executable plans through spoken interaction

While operating in domestic environments, robots will necessarily face difficulties not envisioned by their developers at programming time. Moreover, the tasks to be performed by a robot will often have to be specialized and/or adapted to the needs of specific users and specific environments. Hence, learning how to operate by interacting with the user seems a key enabling feature to support the introduction of robots in everyday environments. In this paper we contribute a novel approach for learning, through the interaction with the user, task descriptions that are defined as a combination of primitive actions. The proposed approach makes a significant step forward by making task descriptions parametric with respect to domain specific semantic categories. Moreover, by mapping the task representation into a task representation language, we are able to express complex execution paradigms and to revise the learned tasks in a high-level fashion. The approach is evaluated in multiple practical applications with a service robot

Block Tridiagonal Reduction of Perturbed Normal and Rank Structured Matrices

It is well known that if a matrix $A\in\mathbb C^{n\times n}$ solves the matrix equation $f(A,A^H)=0$, where $f(x, y)$ is a linear bivariate polynomial, then $A$ is normal; $A$ and $A^H$ can be simultaneously reduced in a finite number of operations to tridiagonal form by a unitary congruence and, moreover, the spectrum of $A$ is located on a straight line in the complex plane. In this paper we present some generalizations of these properties for almost normal matrices which satisfy certain quadratic matrix equations arising in the study of structured eigenvalue problems for perturbed Hermitian and unitary matrices.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure