Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Computing Cyclomatic Complexity With Cubic Flowgraphs, Yongming Tang, Ali H. Dogru, Franz J. Kurfess, Murat M. Tanik

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Two new methods for the computation of cyclomatic complexity especially for decomposable representations are introduced. Building software by integration is a developing paradigm, especially enabled by the emerging component technologies. Decomposition of the design for a top-down approach is a prerequisite for this paradigm. Cubic flowgraphs are instrumental in providing formalisms for decomposition and integration. Cyclomatic complexity analysis of a design representation that is decomposable is the goal of this research. In addition to introducing cyclomatic complexity computation using cubic flowgraphs, preservation of cyclomatic complexity in the decomposition of the cubic flowgraph is also presented.

The Meaning Of An Information-Centric Computer Environment, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

It is often lamented that we human beings are suffering from an information overload. This is a myth, as shown in Fig.1 there is no information overload. Instead we are suffering from a data overload. The confusion between data and information is not readily apparent and requires further explanation. Unorganized data are voluminous but of very little value. Over the past 15 years, industry and commerce have made significant efforts to rearrange this unorganized data into purposeful data, utilizing various kinds of database management systems. However, even in this organized form, we are still dealing with data and not information.

Precise Environmental Searches: Integrating Hierarchical Information Search With Envirodaemon, George Chang, Gunjan Samtani, Marcus Healey, Franz J. Kurfess, Jason Wang

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Information retrieval has evolved from searches of references, to abstracts, to documents. Search on the Web involves search engines that promise to parse full-text and other files: audio, video, and multimedia. With the indexable Web at 320 million pages and growing, difficulties with locating relevant information have become apparent. The most prevalent means for information retrieval relies on syntax-based methods: keywords or strings of characters are presented to a search engine, and it returns all the matches in the available documents. This method is satisfactory and easy to implement, but it has some inherent limitations that make it unsuitable for …

Randomized Motion Planning For Groups Of Nonholonomic Robots, Christopher M. Clark, Stephen M. Rock.

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This paper presents a technique for motion planning which is capable of planning trajectories for a large number of nonholonomic robots. The robots plan within a two dimensional environment that consists of stationary/moving obstacles, and fixed boundaries. Each robot uses randomized motion planner techniques based on Probabilistic Road Maps (PRM’s) to construct it’s own trajectory that is free of collisions with moving obstacles and other robots. The randomized motion planner allows easy integration of the robots nonholonomic constraint into the planning so that only kinematically consistent plans are constructed. It is important to include this constraint in the planning problem …

Topological Noise Removal, Igor Guskov, Zoë J. Wood

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Meshes obtained from laser scanner data often contain topological noise due to inaccuracies in the scanning and merging process. This topological noise complicates subsequent operations such as remeshing, parameterization and smoothing. We introduce an approach that removes unnecessary nontrivial topology from meshes. Using a local wave front traversal, we discover the local topolo-gies of the mesh and identify features such as small tunnels. We then identify non-separating cuts along which we cut and seal the mesh, reducing the genus and thus the topological complexity of the mesh.

Information-Centric Decision-Support Systems: A Blueprint For ‘Interoperability’, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

For the past 20 years the US military services have suffered under the limitations of stove-piped computer software applications that function as discrete entities within a fragmented data-processing environment. Lack of interoperability has been identified by numerous think tanks, advisory boards, and studies, as the primary information systems problem (e.g., Army Science Board 2000, Air Force SAB 2000 Command and Control Study, and NSB Network-Centric Naval Forces 2000). Yet, despite this level of attention, all attempts to achieve interoperability within the current data-centric information systems environment have proven to be expensive, unreliable, and generally unsuccessful.

Proceedings Of The 2001 Onr Decision-Support Workshop Series: Continuing The Revolution In Military Affairs, Collaborative Agent Design Research Center

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

In August of 1998 the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center (CADRC) of the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), approached the Office of Naval Research (ONR) with the proposal for an annual workshop focusing on emerging concepts in decision-support systems for military applications. The proposal was considered timely by the ONR Logistics Program Office for at least two reasons. First, rapid advances in information systems technology over the past decade had produced distributed, collaborative computer-assistance capabilities with profound potential for providing meaningful support to military decision makers. Indeed, some systems based on these new capabilities such …

Perspective Filters As A Means For Interoperability Among Information-Centric Decision-Support Systems, Kym J. Pohl, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

No abstract provided.

Immaccs: A Multi-Agent Decision-Support System, Jens G. Pohl, Mark Porczak, Kym Jason Pohl, Russell Leighton, Hisham Assal, Alan Davis, Lakshmi Vempati, Anthony Wood

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This report describes work performed by the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center for the US Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL), on the IMMACCS experimental decision-support system. IMMACCS (Integrated Marine Multi-Agent Command and Control System) incorporates three fundamental concepts that distinguish it from existing (i.e., legacy) command and control applications. First, it is a collaborative system in which computer-based agents assist human operators by monitoring, analyzing, and reasoning about events in near real-time. Second, IMMACCS includes an ontological model of the battlespace that represents the behavioral characteristics and relationships among real world entities such as friendly and enemy assets, infrastructure objects …

Mage: A Distributed Programming Model, Earl Barr, Raju Pandey, Michael Haungs

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Writing distributed programs is difficult. To ease this task, we introduce a new programming abstraction. which we call a mobility attribute. Mobility attributes provide a syntax that describes the mobility semantics of program components. Programmers attach mobility attributes to program components to dynamically control the placement of these components within the network. Mobility attributes intercept component invocations and decide whether and where to move a component before the component executes. This allows the programmer to improve her program's run-time efficiency by colocating components and resources. We present MAGE, an object oriented distributed system, that supports mobility attributes and illustrates their …

Little Languages And Their Programming Environments, John Clements, Paul Graunke, Shriram Krishnamurthi, Matthias Felleisen

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Programmers constantly design, implement, and program in little languages. Two different approaches to the implementation of little languages have evolved. One emphasizes the design of little languages from scratch, using conventional technology to implement interpreters and compilers. The other advances the idea of extending a general-purpose host language; that is, the little language shares the host language's features (variables, data, loops, functions) where possible; its interpreters and compilers; and even its type soundness theorem. The second approach is often called a language embedding.

This paper directs the attention of little language designers to a badly neglected area: the programming environments …

Icdm: An Architecture And Toolkit In Support Of Agent-Based, Decision-Support Applications, Kym J. Pohl, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

Agent-based, decision-support systems provide human decision-makers with a means of solving complex problems through collaboration with heterogeneous collections of both human and computer-based expert agents. Over the past decade the Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center has developed several proof-of-concept and production-oriented agent-based, decision-support systems for both commercial and Department of Defense applications. These applications range in domain from engineering design to tactical command and control. While diverse in application, each of these systems is predicated on the same set of fundamental principles derived from years of experience in this area. Primary among these principles are the notions of high-level …

Probabilistic Temporal Databases, I: Algebra, Alex Dekhtyar, Robert Ross, V. S. Subrahmanian

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Dyreson and Snodgrass have drawn attention to the fact that in many temporal database applications, there is often uncertainty present about the start time of events, the end time of events, the duration of events, etc. When the granularity of time is small (e.g. milliseconds), a statement such as "Packet p was shipped sometime during the first 5 days of January, 1998" leads to a massive amount of uncertainty (5 X 24 X 60 X 60 X 1000) possibilities. As noted in [41], past attempts to deal with uncertainty in databases have been restricted to relatively small amounts of uncertainty …

Method And Apparatus For Detection And Prevention Of Calling Card Fraud, Hooshmand Afsar, David S. Janzen, Mark Ross Erickson, Hazel Suzanne Shirley, Christine Louise Fogarty, Michael Scott Nielsen, Douglas Alan Clark

Computer Science and Software Engineering

A method and apparatus for detection and prevention of calling card fraud is disclosed. The invention provides enhanced intelligence and efficiency in part applying by a fraud analysis associated with a calling card bill type or service provider as identified by originating partitions in network switches. Additionally, the invention incorporates a case-subcase arrangement of fraud analysis information and conducts fraud analysis on a case-by-case basis, thereby providing streamlined handling of suspected fraud. Still additionally, the invention includes an administrative monitor that continuously collects and reviews fraud system status information to detect abnormalities in the system.

Transition From Data To Information, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

It is often lamented that we human beings are suffering from an information overload. This is a myth; as shown in Fig.1, there is no information overload. Instead, we are suffering from a data overload. The confusion between data and information is not readily apparent and requires further explanation. Unorganized data are voluminous but of very little value. Over the past 15 years, industry and commerce have made significant efforts to rearrange this unorganized data into purposeful data, utilizing various kinds of database management systems. However, even in this organized form, we are still dealing with data and not …

From Rs-232 To Object Request Brokers: Incremental Object-Oriented Networking Projects, David S. Janzen

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Selecting an appropriate set of laboratory experiences and projects for a Data Communications and Computer Networks course can be difficult due to the broad and deep nature of the topics. Emphasis may be placed on many networking aspects including design, evaluation, efficiency, security, protocols, tools, and applications. This paper presents a set of projects that attempt to integrate software engineering and systems administration topics. The projects emphasize network application programming. Particular attention will be given to a sequence of incremental projects using an object-oriented approach including the use of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and a design pattern.

Modeling An Algebraic Stepper, John Clements, Mathew Flatt, Matthias Felleisen

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Programmers rely on the correctness of the tools in their programming environments. In the past, semanticists have studied the correctness of compilers and compiler analyses, which are the most important tools. In this paper, we make the case that other tools, such as debuggers and steppers, deserve semantic models, too, and that using these models can help in developing these tools. Our concrete starting point is the algebraic stepper in DrScheme, our Scheme programming environment. The algebraic stepper explains a Scheme computation in terms of an algebraic rewriting of the program text. A program is rewritten until it is in …