Applications of agent architectures to decision support in distributed simulation and training systems

This work develops the approach and presents the results of a new model for applying intelligent agents to complex distributed interactive simulation for command and control. In the framework of tactical command, control communications, computers and intelligence (C4I), software agents provide a novel approach for efficient decision support and distributed interactive mission training. An agent-based architecture for decision support is designed, implemented and is applied in a distributed interactive simulation to significantly enhance the command and control training during simulated exercises. The architecture is based on monitoring, evaluation, and advice agents, which cooperate to provide alternatives to the dec ision-maker in a time and resource constrained environment. The architecture is implemented and tested within the context of an AWACS Weapons Director trainer tool. The foundation of the work required a wide range of preliminary research topics to be covered, including real-time systems, resource allocation, agent-based computing, decision support systems, and distributed interactive simulations. The major contribution of our work is the construction of a multi-agent architecture and its application to an operational decision support system for command and control interactive simulation. The architectural design for the multi-agent system was drafted in the first stage of the work. In the next stage rules of engagement, objective and cost functions were determined in the AWACS (Airforce command and control) decision support domain. Finally, the multi-agent architecture was implemented and evaluated inside a distributed interactive simulation test-bed for AWACS Vv\u27Ds. The evaluation process combined individual and team use of the decision support system to improve the performance results of WD trainees. The decision support system is designed and implemented a distributed architecture for performance-oriented management of software agents. The approach provides new agent interaction protocols and utilizes agent performance monitoring and remote synchronization mechanisms. This multi-agent architecture enables direct and indirect agent communication as well as dynamic hierarchical agent coordination. Inter-agent communications use predefined interfaces, protocols, and open channels with specified ontology and semantics. Services can be requested and responses with results received over such communication modes. Both traditional (functional) parameters and nonfunctional (e.g. QoS, deadline, etc.) requirements and captured in service requests

Systematisierung und Bewertung von Beteiligungsprozessen und partizipativen Strukturen

What can employee participation processes learn from Wikipedia and Obama's election campaign? In an environment of steadily growing interest in collective intelligence in the society this dissertation deals with the systematization and assessment of participation processes based on collective intelligence. It follows a transdisciplinary approach and examines processes from three areas: Policy, Economy and New Media. Applying the theory of the psychology of personal constructs and the repertory grid interviewing technique a multi-dimensional model for participation processes is constructed. Using these defined dimensions then selected processes of all three areas are evaluated and compared. A special chapter deals with identifying gaps of economical participation processes and formulating hypotheses for scientific and applied improvement potential

Mechanical properties of Cr-containing PM steels sintered in industrial conditions

The objectives of this present research work are Cr-containing PM steels sintered in industrial conditions. The sintering was carried out in industrial furnace with 85%N2+15%H2 atmosphere at temperature of T=1140oC, during 40min. It is obtained information about the mechanical properties of the investigated alloys, which serve to further studies connected with the application of chemical heat treatments such as oxidation and  gas carbonitriding

Two-Stage Therapy in a Patient with Aortic Dissection Type II

Дисекациите на десцендентната торакална аорта все още представляват предизвикателство както пред хирурзите, така и пред интервенционалните радиолози.Трудният оперативен достъп, високата интра и следоперативна смъртност са причините, които налагат търсене на алтернатива на хирургията. Стент графтирането на засегнатите артерии се оказва добра алтернатива и напоследък все повече се развива в съвременната медицина. Изработването на нови видове стентграфтове, които да позволяват чрез миниинвазивни техники да се осигури предпазване на лявата мозъчна хемисфера и левия горен крайник все повече си пробиват път. За съжаление, за нас все още това са скъпоструващи имплантанти и приложението им е свързано с финансови затруднения от страна на пациенти, болници и здравна каса. Натрупаният опит от страна на хирурзи и интервенционални радиолози обаче води до постигане на много добри резултати от това лечение.The dissections of the descending thoracic aorta still present a challenge both for surgeons and for interventional radiologists.The difficult surgical access, and high intra- and postoperative mortality rate are the reasons, which require the search for an alternative to the surgical approach. Stent-grafting of affected arteries has proven to be a good alternative and recently has been developing more and more in contemporary medicine. The newly designed stent-graft types, which would allow the application of minimally invasive techniques in order to ensure protection of the left cerebral hemisphere and the left upper limb, are becoming more popular. Unfortunately, for us these are still expensive implants and their use is related to financial troubles for the patients, the hospitals and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). However, the accumulated experience by the surgeons and interventional radiologists leads to the achievement of excellent results when applying this therapy

Observation of Localized Multi-Spatial-Mode Quadrature Squeezing

Quantum states of light can improve imaging whenever the image quality and resolution are limited by the quantum noise of the illumination. In the case of a bright illumination, quantum enhancement is obtained for a light field composed of many squeezed transverse modes. A possible realization of such a multi-spatial-mode squeezed state is a field which contains a transverse plane in which the local electric field displays reduced quantum fluctuations at all locations, on any one quadrature. Using a traveling-wave amplifier, we have generated a multi-spatial-mode squeezed state and showed that it exhibits localized quadrature squeezing at any point of its transverse profile, in regions much smaller than its size. We observe 75 independently squeezed regions. The amplification relies on nondegenerate four-wave mixing in a hot vapor and produces a bichromatic squeezed state. The result confirms the potential of this technique for producing illumination suitable for practical quantum imaging

Adaptive Control for Reversing a Two-Vehicle Platoon

International audienceThis paper presents an adaptive controller for a two vehicle convoy

Automatic vehicle perpendicular parking design using saturated control

International audience—This paper considers the perpendicular reverse parking problem of front wheel steering vehicles. Relationships between the widths of the parking aisle and the parking place, as well as the parameters and the starting position of the vehicle for planning a collision-free reverse perpendicular parking in one maneuver are presented. A nonlinear saturated (tanh-type) feedback steering controller for straight-line tracking is proposed and evaluated. It is demonstrated that the saturated controller, which is continuous, achieves quick steering can be successfully used in solving parking problems. Simulation results and first experimental tests confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme

Adaptive Steering Control for Autonomous Lane Change Maneuver

International audienceIn this paper, we present a two-layer nonlinear adaptive steering controller for autonomous lane change maneuver with respect to a stopped vehicle. First, we derive a dynamic model of the vehicle using the Boltzmann-Hamel method in quasi-coordinates for nonholonomic systems. The lane change maneuver is investigated as a tracking problem with respect to desired cycloidal trajectory, which is generated in real time. An adaptive update control law is designed that allows tracking the desired trajectories in the presence of unknown inertial parameters of the vehicle. Simulation results illustrate the performance of the proposed controller.Dans cet article, nous présentons un contrôleur non linéaire à deux couches pour la commande de direction adaptative pour des manœuvres de changement de voie autonome en dépassement d'un véhicule à l'arrêt. Tout d'abord, nous tirons une modèle dynamique du véhicule à l'aide d'une méthode quasi-coordonnées pour les systèmes non holonomes de Boltzmann-Hamel. La manœuvre de changement de voie est étudiée en tant que problème de suivi d'une trajectoire cycloïdale souhaitée, qui est générée en temps réel. Une loi de commande adaptative est conçue de manière permettre le suivi des trajectoires désirées, en présence de des paramètres inertiels inconnues du véhicule. Des résultats de simulation sont présentés afin d'illustrer les performances du dispositif de commande proposé

Bankrupt Covert Channel: Turning Network Predictability into Vulnerability

Recent years have seen a surge in the number of data leaks despite aggressive information-containment measures deployed by cloud providers. When attackers acquire sensitive data in a secure cloud environment, covert communication channels are a key tool to exfiltrate the data to the outside world. While the bulk of prior work focused on covert channels within a single CPU, they require the spy (transmitter) and the receiver to share the CPU, which might be difficult to achieve in a cloud environment with hundreds or thousands of machines. This work presents Bankrupt, a high-rate highly clandestine channel that enables covert communication between the spy and the receiver running on different nodes in an RDMA network. In Bankrupt, the spy communicates with the receiver by issuing RDMA network packets to a private memory region allocated to it on a different machine (an intermediary). The receiver similarly allocates a separate memory region on the same intermediary, also accessed via RDMA. By steering RDMA packets to a specific set of remote memory addresses, the spy causes deep queuing at one memory bank, which is the finest addressable internal unit of main memory. This exposes a timing channel that the receiver can listen on by issuing probe packets to addresses mapped to the same bank but in its own private memory region. Bankrupt channel delivers 74Kb/s throughput in CloudLab's public cloud while remaining undetectable to the existing monitoring capabilities, such as CPU and NIC performance counters.Comment: Published in WOOT 2020 co-located with USENIX Security 202