Computer Sciences Commons^™

Kinematic Path-Planning For Formations Of Mobile Robots With A Nonholonomic Constraint, Timothy D. Barfoot, Christopher M. Clark, Stephen M. Rock, Gabriele M.T. D'Eleuterio

Computer Science and Software Engineering

A method of planning paths for formations of mobile robots with nonholonomic constraints is presented. The kinematics equations presented in this paper allow a general geometrical formation of mobile robots to be maintained while the group as a whole travels an arbitrary path. It is possible to represent a formation of mobile robots by a single entity with the same type of nonholonomic constraint as the individual members. Thus, any path-planner or control method may be used with the formation as would be applied to an individual robot. Equations are developed for changing the geometrical formation and hardware results are …

The Tegrid Semantic Web Application, Steven Gollery, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

Over the past several years there has been an increasing recognition of the shortcomings of message-passing data-processing systems that compute data without understanding, and the vastly superior potential capabilities of information-centric systems that incorporate an internal information model with sufficient context to support a useful level of automatic reasoning.

The key difference between a data-processing and an information-centric environment is the ability to embed in the information-centric software some understanding of the information being processed. The term information-centric refers to the representation of information in the computer, not to the way it is actually stored in a digital machine. This …

The Role Of Discovery In Context-Building Decision-Support Systems, Steven J. Gollery, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

There are many sources of on-line information available to those responsible for making decisions in complex situations. However, most of that information is either intended for human use or is available only in custom or proprietary formats. Both of these conditions reduce the ability of computer software to perform automatic reasoning about this information. As a result, the usefulness of on-line information in intelligent decision-support systems is currently limited to the few sources that are implemented specifically for those systems. The vast mass of sources that do not fit that description are virtually invisible.

Current practices for integrating multiple information …

Data, Information, And Knowledge In The Context Of Sils, Michael A. Zang, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

Data, information, and knowledge are becoming increasingly common terms in the literature of the software industry. This terminology originated some time ago in the disciplines of cognitive science and artificial intelligence to reference three closely related but distinct concepts. Traditionally, mainstream software engineering has lumped all three concepts together as data and has only recently begun to distinguish between them. Unfortunately, the popular desire to distinguish between data, information, and knowledge within the mainstream has blurred the individual meanings of the words to the point where there is no longer a clear-cut distinction between them for most people. This problem …

Proceedings Of The 2002 Onr Decision-Support Workshop Series: Transformation..., 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 Dr. Phillip Abraham of 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 …

Poet: The Online Preference Elicitation Tool, James Royalty, Robert Holland, Judy Goldsmith, Alex Dekhtyar

Computer Science and Software Engineering

If the goal of eliciting accurate user preferences over a complex value space is to be realized, the elicitation process must be through while at the same time not overly burdensome to the user. An ideal preference elicitation tool would maximize the information about preferences acquired from the user while minimizing the number of queries required. To this end, we present POET: the Online Preference Elicitation Tool.
POET is a graphical Java applet designed to elicit complex preference structures to form a utility function. Once the elicitation process is complete POET outputs the resulting utility function as an XML …

Context Building Information-Centric Decision-Support Systems, Steven J. Gollery, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

As the volume of data and human-centered information available to decision-makers continues to increase at an ever-accelerating rate, the need to represent information in software-processable formats becomes more apparent. At the same time, the availability of information from diverse sources through the World Wide Web provides the opportunity to widen the scope of input to decision-support systems, if this information can be made accessible through automated means. Past approaches to information-centric interoperability have been based on the use of a shared static object model, but this becomes impractical when we consider the loosely-coupled decentralized nature of the Web.

This paper …

Some Thoughts On Human Nature: A Discussion Of Human Strenghts And Weaknesses, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper attempts to explore the behavioral characteristics of human beings from a point of view that is not based on inter-human comparisons, but on an examination of the intrinsic physical, biological, intellectual, emotional, and social characteristics of this species. It is argued that the experience-based nature of the human cognitive system greatly reduces our ability to adapt to changes in our environment, exploit opportunities, and create new knowledge. A fundamental biological survival instinct drives the human being to seek a level of certainty and security that is irreconcilable with a continuously changing and largely unpredictable environment. The symptoms of …

The Underlying Design Principles Of The Icdm Development Toolkit, Kym J. Pohl, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

For the past sixteen years the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center (CADRC) at the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), San Luis Obispo has pursued the design and development of agent-based decision-support systems. Throughout this journey the CADRC has relied on a suite of development tools that greatly assist in the creation and management of such systems. This suite of tools is known as the Integrated Cooperative Decision-Making (ICDM) software development toolkit.

Not only does ICDM function as an accelerator (i.e., rapid development) and stabilizer (i.e., built-in robustness and fault tolerance) in the development of decision-support systems, but it also …

Special Issue On Integration Of Symbolic And Connectionist Systems, Paolo Frasconi, Marco Gori, Franz J. Kurfess, Alessandro Sperduti

Computer Science and Software Engineering

No abstract provided.

Conditionalization For Interval Probabilities, Alex Dekhtyar, Judy Goldsmith

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Conditionalization, i.e., computation of a conditional probability distribution given a joint probability distribution of two or more random variables is an important operation in some probabilistic database models. While the computation of the conditional probability distribution is straightforward when the exact point probabilities are involved, it is often the case that such exact point probability distributions of random variables are not known, but are known to lie in a particular interval.

This paper investigates the conditionalization operation for interval probability distribution functions under a possible world semantics. In particular, given a joint probability distribution of two or more random variables, …

The Value Of Ontology-Based, Service-Oriented, Distributed Systems In A High Bandwidth Environment, Steven J. Gollery, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

No abstract provided.

Applying Kinodynamic Randomized Motion Planning With A Dynamic Priority System To Multi-Robot Space Systems, Christopher M. Clark, Tim Bretl, Stephen Rock

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Presents a new motion planning system that can construct collision-free trajectories for groups of robots in dynamic environments, without global knowledge or high-bandwidth communication. The robots plan within a confined environment that consists of stationary and moving obstacles. Each robot plans independently using Kinodynamic Randomized Motion Planner techniques to construct its own trajectory that is free of collisions with moving obstacles and other robots. To resolve conflicts between robot trajectories, a new Dynamic Priority System (DPS) is introduced which gives the right of way to the robot whose local workspace is the most crowded. The kinodynamic randomized motion planner allows …

Building Web Applications With Servlets And Javaserver Pages, David S. Janzen

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Servlets and JavaServer Pages provide the ability to dynamically generate web pages using the Java programming language. Among other benefits, the use of Java on the server-side allows the web developer to directly implement object-oriented designs, utilize multiple threads of execution, and employ JDBC to communicate with a database. This tutorial will introduce Servlets and JavaServer Pages through UML diagrams, code samples, and an example web application.

Ontology-Based Semantic Classification Of Unstructured Documents, Ching Kang Cheng, Xiao Shan Pan, Franz J. Kurfess

Computer Science and Software Engineering

As more and more knowledge and information becomes available through computers, a critical capability of systems supporting knowledge management is the classification of documents into categories that are meaningful to the user. In a step beyond the use of keywords, we developed a system that analyzes the sentences contained in unstructured or semi-structured documents, and utilizes an ontology reflecting the domain knowledge for a semantic classification of the documents. An experimental system has been implemented for the analysis of small documents in combination with a limited ontology; an extension to larger sets of documents and extended ontologies, together with an …

Integrating Symbol-Oriented And Sub-Symbolic Reasoning Methods Into Hybrid Systems, Franz J. Kurfess

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Knowledge representation and reasoning methods in artificial intelligence almost exclusively rely on symbol-oriented methods: Statements describing aspects and objects of the system to be modeled are represented through symbols (mostly text strings), and these symbols are stored in a computer, and manipulated according to the inference rules prescribed by the reasoning method. This works reasonably well in situations where knowledge is available in explicit form, typically through experts or written documents. In situations where knowledge is only available implicitly, e.g. in large data sets, other methods, often based on statistical approaches, have been used more successfully. Many of these methods …

Human-Robot Interaction: Final Report For Darpa/Nsf Study On Human-Robot Interaction, Erika Rogers, Robin R. Murphy

Computer Science and Software Engineering

No abstract provided.

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.

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.

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 …

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 …