Realtime system control by means of path expressions

A high-level, algebraic programming method for the online control of actions in a real-time, parallel processing environment is described. The method is based on the interaction of path expressions. On the basis of a set of path expressions, evocation of actions can be controlled in real-time in a fully automated way. It is shown how intelligent system behavior can be obtained by a combination of rules given as path expressions. Each of these rules specifies some partial behavior to which the system must comply. The control system operates as a rule-based action planning system that works online in an asynchronous environment. The development of the prototype system PBOS (Path Based Operating System) has demonstrated that path expression specification naturally integrates with a real-time, multitasking control syste

RoadPlan manual version 3.1

RoadPlan is an interactive planning and preprocessing tool to analyse and optimize multi-agv traffic. Currently it provides facilities for: * Traffic road map configuration and visualization; * Interactive drawing and modification of traffic layouts; * Collision and deadlock analysis of multiple agv's on selectable routes; * Interactive agv-shape editing; * Automatic determination of collision and deadlock avoidance zones; * Generation of semaphore signaling along routes; * Simulation of agv traffic controlled by semaphores

Teaching Python to management accounting students:an illustration using support department cost-allocation methods

This paper explores how the Python programming language can be taught to management accounting students using domain-specific examples and exercises. Building on an existing case, the paper presents a number of Python codes that can be used as teaching materials in a management accounting course, and discusses how the case and the Python codes can be used in such a course. The materials cover a topic, support department cost-allocation methods, that is discussed in almost every management accounting course, and also include a relatively new approach known as the lattice allocation method. This topic was mainly chosen because the available methods for allocating the costs of support departments to other departments vary in terms of ease of use, which translates into Python codes that also vary in terms of difficulty and required functionalities

Distributed time management in transputer networks

For real-time applications in a distributed system a common notion of time is indispensable. Clocks are used for time measurement, determination of causality, process synchronization and generating unique identifications. All this is only possible if there is a time reference of specified accuracy. Since the local clocks in a distributed system tend to drift away from each other, they need to be adjusted periodically. If the application allows an accuracy that can be met by software, this may be achieved by a distributed clock synchronization algorithm, which creates and maintains a global time reference for all nodes of the network. The design and simulation of such an algorithm for a distributed system consisting of transputers is described. It is based on second order filtered adjustment of the clock rates rather than updating the clock values at onc