Statement inversion and strongest postcondition

A notion of inverse commands is defined for a language which permits both demonic and angelic nondeterminism, as well as miracles and nontermination. Every conjunctive and terminating command is invertible, the inverse being non-miraculous and disjunctive. A simulation relation between commands is described using inverse commands. A generalised form of inverse is defined for arbitrary conjunctive commands. The generalised inverses are shown to be closely related to strongest postconditions.     

Duality in specification languages: a lattice-theoretical approach

Summary A very general lattice-based language of commands, based on the primitive operations of substitution and test for equality, is constructed. This base language permits unbounded nondeterminism, demonic and angelic nondeterminism. A dual language permitting miracles is constructed. Combining these two languages yields an extended base language which is complete, in the sense that all monotonic predicate tranformers can be constructed in it. The extended base language provides a unifying framework for various specification languages; we show how two Dijkstra-style specification languages can be embedded in it.     

The lattice of data refinement

We define a general notion of data refinement that comprises the traditional notion of data refinement as a special case. Using the concepts of duals and adjoints, we define converse commands and find a symmetry between ordinary data refinement and a dual (backward) data refinement. We show how ordinary and backward data refinement are interpreted as simulation, and we derive rules for the piecewise data refinement of programs. Our results are valid for a general language, including demonic and angelic nondeterminism as well as nontermination and miracles.     

A concrete realization of the Hoare powerdomain

The lattice of non-empty Scott-closed subsets of a domain D is called the Hoare powerdomain of D. The Hoare powerdomain is used in programming semantics as a model for angelic nondeterminism. In this paper, we show that the Hoare powerdomain of any domain can be realized as the lattice of full subinformation systems of the domain’s corresponding information system as well as the lattice of non-empty down-sets of the system’s consistency predicate.     

Angelic Nondeterminism and Unifying Theories of Programming

Hoare and He's unifying theories of programming (UTP) is a model of alphabetised relations expressed as predicates, which supports development in several programming paradigms. The aim is the unification of languages and techniques, so that we can benefit from results in different contexts. In this paper, we investigate the integration of angelic nondeterminism in the UTP; we propose the unification of a model of binary multirelations, which is isomorphic to the monotonic predicate transformers model and can express angelic and demonic nondeterminism.     

Angelic nondeterminism in the unifying theories of programming

Hoare and He’s unifying theories of programming (UTP) is a model of alphabetised relations expressed as predicates; it supports development in several programming paradigms. The aim of Hoare and He’s work is the unification of languages and techniques, so that we can benefit from results in different contexts. In this paper, we investigate the integration of angelic nondeterminism in the UTP; we propose the unification of a model of binary multirelations, which is isomorphic to the monotonic predicate transformers model and can express angelic and demonic nondeterminism.     

Success rates in a multimodal command language for home robot users

This article considers the success rates in a multimodal command language for home robot users. In the command language, the user specifies action types and action parameter values to direct robots in multiple modes such as speech, touch, and gesture. The success rates of commands in the language can be estimated by user evaluations in several ways. This article presents some user evaluation methods, as well as results from recent studies on command success rates. The results show that the language enables users without much training to command home robots at success rates as high as 88%–100%. It is also shown that multimodal commands combining speech and button-press actions included fewer words and were significantly more successful than single-modal spoken commands.     

Posture control of robot manipulators with fuzzy voice commands using a fuzzy coach–player system

This paper presents a method of controlling robot manipulators with fuzzy voice commands. Recently, there has been some research on controlling robots using information-rich fuzzy voice commands such as 'go little slowly' and learning from such commands. However, the scope of all those works was limited to basic fuzzy voice motion commands. In this paper, we introduce a method of controlling the posture of a manipulator using complex fuzzy voice commands. A complex fuzzy voice command is composed of a set of fuzzy voice joint commands. Complex fuzzy voice commands can be used for complicated maneuvering of a manipulator, while fuzzy voice joint commands affect only a single joint. Once joint commands are learned, any complex command can be learned as a combination of some or all of them, so that, using the learned complex commands, a human user can control the manipulator in a complicated manner with natural language commands. Learning of complex commands is discussed in the framework of fuzzy coach–player model. The proposed idea is demonstrated with a PA-10 redundant manipulator.     

RUNA: a multimodal command language for home robot users

This article describes a multimodal command language for home robot users, and a robot system which interprets users’ messages in the language through microphones, visual and tactile sensors, and control buttons. The command language comprises a set of grammar rules, a lexicon, and nonverbal events detected in hand gestures, readings of tactile sensors attached to the robots, and buttons on the controllers in the users’ hands. Prototype humanoid systems which immediately execute commands in the language are also presented, along with preliminary experiments of faceto-face interactions and teleoperations. Subjects unfamiliar with the language were able to command humanoids and complete their tasks with brief documents at hand, given a short demonstration beforehand. The command understanding system operating on PCs responded to multimodal commands without significant delay. This work was presented in part at the 13th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 31–February 2, 2008     

Event,State, And Process In Arrow Logic

Artificial agents, which are embedded in a virtual world, need to interpret a sequence of commands given to them adequately, considering the temporal structure for each command. In this paper, we start with the semantics of natural language and classify the temporal structures of various eventualities into such aspectual classes as action, process, and event. In order to formalize these temporal structures, we adopt Arrow Logic. This logic specifies the domain for the valuation of a sentence as an arrow. We can connect, or give order to, arrows by defining inter-arrow operations, and can give different views for sentences. Thereafter we formalize the rules of aspectual shifts in situated inference, in the style of a logic programming language. Thus, we not only describe the static representation of temporal features, but also show the dynamic process to deduce how each eventuality is viewed. The rules are applied to the information flow through the sequence of commands; therefore, we consider how the temporal structure of a command affects the succeeding commands.     

Toward a Natural Language Interface for Transferring Grasping Skills to Robots

In this paper, we report on the findings of a human-robot interaction study that aims at developing a communication language for transferring grasping skills from a nontechnical user to a robot. Participants with different backgrounds and education levels were asked to command a five-degree-of-freedom human-scale robot arm to grasp five small everyday objects. They were allowed to use either commands from an existing command set or develop their own equivalent natural language instructions. The study revealed several important findings. First, individual participants were more inclined to use simple, familiar commands than more powerful ones. In most cases, once a set of instructions was found to accomplish the grasping task, few participants deviated from that set. In addition, we also found that the participant's background does appear to play a role during the interaction process. Overall, participants with less technical backgrounds require more time and more commands on average to complete a grasping task as compared to participants with more technical backgrounds.     

人机对话中自然语言任务命令的识别和计划

随着智能手机和智能系统的飞速发展, 使用自然语言对话的人机交互方式也成为了流行趋势. 但是如果该对话系统需要处理多功能任务类型, 那么将产生复杂的任务命令, 问题的维度也会增加. 尽管目前的NLP技术能提供一些解决方案, 但在动态范围内实现动态任务命令识别与处理的能力仍然有限, 解决复杂问题的效果还有待提高. 因此, 在本项工作中, 提供了一种结合NLP引擎和任务计划单元的方法, 根据自然语言的指令来设定任务计划, 以便对话系统能较准确地识别命令任务和相关参数, 并为任务生成相应的合理计划. 同时, 为解决自然语言对话中信息的歧义或遗漏, 还研究了一种对话策略, 在必要时能以最少的问答迭代收集对话信息.     

Learning perceptually grounded word meanings from unaligned parallel data

In order for robots to effectively understand natural language commands, they must be able to acquire meaning representations that can be mapped to perceptual features in the external world. Previous approaches to learning these grounded meaning representations require detailed annotations at training time. In this paper, we present an approach to grounded language acquisition which is capable of jointly learning a policy for following natural language commands such as “Pick up the tire pallet,” as well as a mapping between specific phrases in the language and aspects of the external world; for example the mapping between the words “the tire pallet” and a specific object in the environment. Our approach assumes a parametric form for the policy that the robot uses to choose actions in response to a natural language command that factors based on the structure of the language. We use a gradient method to optimize model parameters. Our evaluation demonstrates the effectiveness of the model on a corpus of commands given to a robotic forklift by untrained users.     

数字信号处理中相位解卷绕问题分析——使用Matlab语言

对Matlab语言中能够保持复向量相位连续性的两个解卷绕命令unwrap和phase的使用方法进行比较,指出它们之间的不同之处。对其源文件进行深入解读,并举例说明同一信号在这两个命令的作用下所得结果不相符的原因。最后通过修改phase命令的M文件或改变unwrap命令的输入参数使二者的输出达到一致,从而扩大了这两个命令的适用范围。     

ATE中的远距离操作指令传输系统研究

为解决大型测试设备工作过程中多操作人员协同的问题,设计了一种基于串行总线的操作指令远距离传输系统;以AT89C52单片机为核心,利用RS-422总线实现显示末端与测试控制计算机的通讯;扩展存储芯片进行汉字符存储,指令信息通过点阵液晶显示;可显示所有测试过程及测试指令,实现下位机操作人员对主控计算机的响应及二者的通讯;应用实践表明系统可靠性高、抗干扰性强、人机交互友好,简捷地实现了.测试过程中的多操作人员协同,对于提高测试效率有显著效果.     

Demonic, angelic and unbounded probabilistic choices in sequential programs

Probabilistic predicate transformers extend standard predicate transformers by adding probabilistic choice to (transformers for) sequential programs; demonic nondeterminism is retained. For finite state spaces, the basic theory is set out elsewhere [17], together with a presentation of the probabilistic ‘healthiness conditions’ that generalise the ‘positive conjunctivity’ of ordinary predicate transformers. Here we expand the earlier results beyond ordinary conjunctive transformers, investigating the structure of the transformer space more generally: as Back and von Wright [1] did for the standard (non-probabilistic) case, we nest deterministic, demonic and demonic/angelic transformers, showing how each subspace can be constructed from the one before. We show also that the results hold for infinite state spaces. In the end we thus find characteristic healthiness conditions for the hierarchies of a system in which deterministic, demonic, probabilistic and angelic choices all coexist. Received: 10 November 1998 / 7 September 2000     

Dispel: A run-time debugging language

Dispel is a language designed to aid communication between an interactive user and a run-time, symbolic debugging system. Important attributes of Dispel are that it provides a small set of primitive debugging actions, most traditional debugging aids (such as variable traces and postmortem dumps) are written in terms of these primitives as debugging routines, and Dispel serves both as an interactive debugging command language and as a special-purpose programming language. The syntax and semantics of Dispel are explained and examples of Dispel commands and routines are presented.     

A comparison of command,menu-selection and natural-language computer programs

Abstract

An experiment compared three man-machine language interfaces to the same interactive computer program: command language, menu selection and natural language. No significant differences were found between language modes for time, error and attitude measures. Significant task differences were found for word and line counts as well as for several two-way interactions. The results suggest that the interface to the program (natural language, menu selection or commands) may not be as important as the structure and constraints of the underlying program.     

A comparison of command, menu-selection and natural-language computer programs

An experiment compared three man-machine language interfaces to the same interactive computer program: command language, menu selection and natural language. No significant differences were found between language modes for time, error and attitude measures. Significant task differences were found for word and line counts as well as for several two-way interactions. The results suggest that the interface to the program (natural language, menu selection or commands) may not be as important as the structure and constraints of the underlying program.