Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Altruistic Task Allocation Despite Unbalanced Relationships Within Multi-Robot Communities, Ryan Morton, George A. Bekey, Christopher M. Clark

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Typical Multi-Robot Systems consist of robots cooperating to maximize global fitness functions. However, in some scenarios, the set of interacting robots may not share common goals and thus the concept of a global fitness function becomes invalid. This work examines Multi-Robot Communities(MRC), in which individual robots have independent goals. Within the MRC context, we present a task allocation architecture that optimizes individual robot fitness functions over long time horizons using reciprocal altruism.

Previous work has shown that reciprocating altruistic relationships can evolve between two willing robots, using market-based task auctions, while still protecting against selfish robots aiming to exploit …

Toward Automating Requirements Satisfaction Assessment, E. Ashlee Holbrook, Jane Huffman Hayes, Alex Dekhtyar

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This paper introduces the automation of satisfaction assessment: the process of determining the satisfaction mapping of natural language textual requirements to natural language design elements. Satisfaction assessment is useful because it assists in discovering unsatisfied requirements early in the lifecycle when such issues can be corrected with lower cost and impact than later. We define the basic terms and concepts for this process and explore the feasibility of developing baseline methods for its automation. This paper describes the satisfaction assessment approach algorithmically and then evaluates the effectiveness of two proposed information retrieval (IR) methods in two industrial studies - one …

Proceedings Of The Scheme And Functional Programming Workshop, John Clements (Editor)

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This volume contains the papers of the tenth annual Workshop on Scheme and Functional Programming, held August 22nd at Northeastern University in close proximity to the Symposium in honor of Mitchell Wand.

Using Bpm As An Interoperability Platform, Dennis Taylor, Hisham Assal, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

Data mediation is an essential component in the Modeling and Simulation field (M&S). Managing multiple data sources and exchanging data among multiple systems requires sophisticated tools and a powerful process management system. Business Process Management (BPM) provides a framework for modeling and managing business activities, both manual and automated, in a consistent manner. Managing automated processes offers an opportunity to integrate external applications into the platform. By integrating automated data transformation tools into the business processes using graphical programming, we provide an approach to achieve operational interoperability among diverse applications without the need for any application to be aware of …

Conveyance Estimator Ontology: Conceptual Models And Object Models, Xiaoshan Pan, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper proposes the construction of a Conceptual Model as a logical step prior to the preparation of the Object Model of an ontology to facilitate the design and development of software systems in which a high-level internal representation of context supports some intelligent capabilities. The intent of the Conceptual Model is to be expressive for human interpretation utilizing descriptions that are readily understood by laypersons, subject matter experts, and software developers who may be concerned with only a particular portion of the software system. The intent of the Object Model (as a subset of an ontology) is to be …

Increasing The Expressiveness Of Owl Through Procedural Attachments, Dennis Taylor, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to the OWL Web ontology language, a survey focused on the current state of the art in OWL inferencing capabilities, and a historical perspective on procedural attachments. The perspective is aligned with current OWL research. Several limitations of the OWL language and proposed extensions to overcome these limitations are discussed. A framework that provides empirical testing support for evaluating the effects of procedural attachments to the OWL inferencing capabilities is outlined. The examples presented suggest that it is possible to provide rule-based extensibility support for OWL that does not limit …

Pre-Conference Proceedings Of The Focus Symposium On Knowledge Management Systems, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

No abstract provided.

The Representation Of Context In Computer Software, Hisham Assal, Kym Pohl, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

Computers do not have the equivalent of a human cognitive system and therefore store data simply as the numbers and words that are entered into the computer. For a computer to interpret data it requires an information structure that provides at least some level of context. This can be accomplished utilizing an ontology of objects with characteristics, semantic behavior, and a rich set of relationships to create a virtual version of real world situations and provide the context within which intelligent logic (e.g., agents) can automatically operate.

This paper discusses the process of developing ontologies that serve to …

Intelligent Information Management Tools In A Service-Oriented Software Environment, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper draws attention to the increasing need for agile and adaptive software environments that are capable of supporting rapid re-planning during the execution of time-critical operations involving commercial end-to-end supply chain transaction sequences, as well as disaster response and military missions. It is argued that such environments are currently best served by information-centric software tools executing within a service-oriented paradigm. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) design concepts and principles are described, with a focus on the functions of the services management framework (SMF) and enterprise service bus (ESB) components. Differentiating between data-centric and information-centric services, it is suggested that only intelligent …

Towards Traceable Test-Driven Development, Jane Huffman Hayes, Alex Dekhtyar, David S. Janzen

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Key among the grand challenges in traceability are those that lead to achieving traceability as a by-product of the natural software development life cycle. This position paper profiles test-driven development (TDD), an emerging software development practice, in which automated tests and code satisfying them are developed in rapid succession over multiple iterations. Our position is that the nature of TDD offers unique opportunities for collecting traceability information throughout the TDD life cycle and that the provision of traceability information to the software developers during TDD will improve the process and the resulting software. We discuss the opportunities, challenges, and plans …

Evaluating Test-Driven Development In An Industry-Sponsored Capstone Project, John Huan Vu, Niklas Frojd, Clay Shenkel-Therolf, David S. Janzen

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Test-Driven Development (TDD) is an agile development process wherein automated tests are created before production code is designed or constructed in short, rapid iterations. This paper discusses an experiment conducted with undergraduate students in a year-long software engineering capstone course. In this course the students designed, implemented, deployed, and maintained a software system to meet the requirements of an industry sponsor who served as the customer. The course followed an incremental process in which features were added incrementally under the direction of the industry sponsor and the professor. The fourteen students observed in the study were divided into three teams. …

Design Patterns Go To Hollywood: Teaching Patterns With Multimedia, Adam Dukovich, David S. Janzen

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Studies indicate that understanding the contexts in which design patterns are to be used is one of the most (if not the most) difficult challenge in applying design patterns, yet little research on the topic attempts to solve the problem of better teaching the contexts. This paper discusses a new paradigm through which the teaching of design patterns can be viewed, one which focuses on conceptual examples and contexts as the key elements in teaching design patterns. We created several multimedia learning modules that use this approach and we evaluated the modules by comparing them to other methods of instruction …

Implications Of Integrating Test-Driven Development Into Cs1/Cs2 Curricula, Chetan Desai, David S. Janzen, John Clements

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Many academic and industry professionals have called for more testing in computer science curricula. Test-driven development (TDD) has been proposed as a solution to improve testing in academia. This paper demonstrates how TDD can be integrated into existing course materials without reducing topic coverage. Two controlled experiments were conducted in a CS1/CS2 course in Winter 2008. Following a test-driven learning approach, unit testing was introduced at the beginning of the course and reinforced through example. Results indicate that while student work loads may increase with the incorporation of TDD, students are able to successfully develop unit tests while learning to …

Decentralized Robust Control Of Robot Manipulators With Harmonic Drive Transmission And Application To Modular And Reconfigurable Serial Arms, Z. Li, W. W. Melek, Christopher M. Clark

Computer Science and Software Engineering

In this paper, we propose a decentralized robust control algorithm for modular and reconfigurable robots (MRRs) based on Lyapunov’s stability analysis and backstepping techniques. In using decentralized control schemes with robot manipulators, each joint is considered as an independent subsystem, and the dynamical effects from the other links and joints are treated as disturbance. However, there exist many uncertainties due to unmodeled dynamics, varying payloads, harmonic drive (HD) compliance, HD complex gear meshing mechanisms, etc. Also, while the reconfigurability of MRRs is advantageous, modifying the configuration will result in changes to the robot dynamics parameters, thereby making it challenging to …

Planning For Success: The Interdisciplinary Approach To Building Bayesian Models, Alex Dekhtyar, Judy Goldsmith, Beth Goldstein, Krol Kevin Mathias, Cynthia Isenhour

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This paper describes a process by which anthropologists, computer scientists, and social welfare case managers collaborated to build a stochastic model of welfare advising in Kentucky. In the process of collaboration,the research team rethought the Bayesian network model of Markov decision processes and designed a new knowledge elicitation format. We expect that this model will have wide applicability in other domains.

Icodes Global Services (Gs): A Single Load-Planning Capability, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

Over the past decade the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center (CADRC) at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo) and its commercial arm CDM Technologies, Inc. (CDM) have developed a suite of information-centric software tools in support of military deployment and distribution processes. All of these tools feature agents that are capable of reasoning about data in the context provided by an internal information model. Together they represent an evolving suite of adaptive Knowledge Management Enterprise Services (KMES) that can be readily configured into a net-centric, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) based planning and decision-support toolset for a particular application …

The Theory Of Interval Probabilistic Logic Programs, Alex Dekhtyar, Michael I. Dekhtyar

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Two approaches to logic programming with probabilities emerged over time: Bayesian reasoning and probabilistic satisfiability (PSAT). The attractiveness of the former is in tying the logic programming research to the body of work on Bayes networks. The second approach ties, from the point of view of computation, reasoning about probabilities to linear programming, and allows for natural expression of imprecision in probabilities via the use of intervals. In this paper we construct precise semantics for one PSAT-based formalism for reasoning with interval probabilities: disjunctive probabilistic logic programs (dp-programs). It has two origins: (1) disjunctive logic programs, a powerful language for …

Energetic Path Finding Across Massive Terrain Data, Andrew Tsui, Zoë J. Wood

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Throughout history, the primary means of transportation for humans has been on foot. We present a software tool which can help visualize and predict where historical trails might lie through the use of a human-centered cost metric, with an emphasis on the ability to generate paths which traverse several thousand kilometers. To accomplish this, various graph simplification and path approximation algorithms are explored. We show that it is possible to restrict the search space for a path finding algorithm while not sacrificing accuracy. Combined with a multi-threaded variant of Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm, we present a tool capable of computing …