Inventive machine: Second generation

Inventive Machine project is the matter of discussion. The project aims to develop a family of AI systems for intelligent support of all stages of engineering design. Peculiarities of the IM project:

1. deep and comprehensive knowledge base — the theory of inventive problem solving (TIPS)
2. solving complex problems at the level of inventions
3. application in any area of engineering
4. structural prediction of engineering system development

The systems of the second generation are described in detail     

Risoluzione di un sistema di equazioni non lineari con metodo numerico ai minimi quadrati

We introduce a numerical method for solving nonlinear algebraic equations related to linear least squares fitting with moving weights. The method considered introduces little overhead in the process. The approach is based on updating two matrices so that the product is an approximation of the inverse Jacobian. We may expect:

1. The tecnique performs good for stochastic systems
2. We never may yield an unbounded correction
3. We can use the algorithm for ill-conditioned, also completely singular problems.

Numerical results are given. It seems that experimental efficiency of the method compares well with mostly used iterative algorithms.     

Sulla complessità di alcuni problemi di conteggio

This paper is intended to show that an algebraic approach can give useful suggestions to design efficient algorithms solving combinatorial problems. The problems we discusses in the paper are:

1. Counting strings of given length generated by a regular grammar. For this problem, we give an exact algorithm whose complexity is 0 (logn) (with respect to the number of executed operations), and an approximate algorithm which however still has the same order of complexity;
2. counting trees recognized by a tree automaton. For this problem, we give an exact algorithm of complexity 0(n) and an approximate one of complexity 0 (logn). For this approximate algorithm the relative error is shown to be 0 (1/n).

     

On the sequential nature of interprocedural program-analysis problems

In this paper, we study two interprocedural program-analysis problems—interprocedural slicing and interprocedural dataflow analysis— and present the following results:

? Interprocedural slicing is log-space complete forP.

? The problem of obtaining “meet-over-all-valid-paths” solutions to interprocedural versions of distributive dataflow-analysis problems isP-hard.

? Obtaining “meet-over-all-valid-paths” solutions to interprocedural versions of distributive dataflow-analysis problems that involve finite sets of dataflow facts (such as the classical “gen/kill” problems) is log-space complete forP.

These results provide evidence that there do not exist fast (N?-class) parallel algorithms for interprocedural slicing and precise interprocedural dataflow analysis (unlessP =N?). That is, it is unlikely that there are algorithms for interprocedural slicing and precise interprocedural dataflow analysis for which the number of processors is bounded by a polynomial in the size of the input, and whose running time is bounded by a polynomial in the logarithm of the size of the input. This suggests that there are limitations on the ability to use parallelism to overcome compiler bottlenecks due to expensive interprocedural-analysis computations.     

Unternehmensweites Berechtigungsmanagement

The central coordination of access control management is crucial especially for companies that are engaged in cooperative processes with other companies. Most critical is to respect the security needs that arise with the “opening“ towards other partners.

• The central coordination of access control is indispensable in order to protect the company’s resources.
• If access control management is to be oriented directly towards the corporate goals in contrast to a merely technical view there is a need for extended concepts — like role based access control (RBAC).
• The first software products that make use of the RBAC-concept for a centrally coordinated access control management are available and can be used in practice.

     

An algorithm for solving sparse Nonlinear Least Squares problems

We introduce a new method for solving Nonlinear Least Squares problems when the Jacobian matrix of the system is large and sparse. The main features of the new method are the following:

1. The Gauss-Newton equation is “partially” solved at each iteration using a preconditioned Conjugate Gradient algorithm.
2. The new point is obtained using a two-dimensional trust region scheme, similar to the one introduced by Bulteau and Vial.

We prove global and local convergence results and we present some numerical experiments.     

A globally convergent algorithm based on imbedding and parametric optimization

The continuation method, well-established for the solution of nonlinear equations is extended to restricted optimization problems. Only the locally active restrictions are considered along the homotopy path. It is assumed that there are only finitely many critical points, i. e. that there are only finitely many changes of the index set of active restrictions. The globally convergent algorithm which we present proceeds in three stages:

1. Within each stability region, the solution is computed by the classical continuation method.
2. On the boundary of a stability region, a critical point \(\bar t\) is determined.
3. A new active index set is determined when \(\bar t\) is passed.

For the class of convex problems, the hypotheses for the convergence of the algorithm may be secured. The algorithm is applied to several examples.     

Enhanced qualitative physical reasoning system: Qupras

There are many expert systems that use experimental knowledge for diagnostic analysis and design. However, there are two problems for systems using only experiential knowledge:

1. unexpected problems cannot be solved and
2. acquiring experiential knowledge from human experts is difficult.

To solve these problems, general principles or basic knowledge must be added to expert systems in addition to the experimental knowledge. In response, we previously proposed Qupras (Qualitative physical reasoning system) as a framework for basic knowledge. This system has two knowledge representations, one related to physical laws and the other to objects. By using this knowledge, Qupras reasons about the relations among physical objects, and predicts the next state of a physical phenomenon. Recently, we have improved some of Qupras’ features, and this pater desctibes the following main enhancements:

1. inheritance for representation of objects,
2. new primitive representations to describe discontinuous change, and
3. control features for effective reasoning.

     

RaumComputer

The RoomComputer is an embedded system and as such offers unprecedented chances to manage buildings. Several RoomComputers can be networked via the Intra-/Internet, which makes it possible to monitor, control, and manage rooms and buildings on a unified worldwide accessible platform, irrespective of any particular local technology. It can be easily installed in any building and gives access to a full set of services. It implements a distributed system, which provides secure and controlled access to services like

1. control of light, heating, ventilation, air and climate
2. communication facilities like unified messaging, telephone, fax, etc.
3. reservation of rooms and required resources
4. localization of persons and equipment within rooms and buildings
5. entrance control (i.e. locking/unlocking doors)
6. organization of maintenance and house keeping, and
7. charging and billing.

     

Ray shooting on triangles in 3-space

We present a uniform approach to problems involving lines in 3-space. This approach is based on mapping lines inR ³ into points and hyperplanes in five-dimensional projective space (Plücker space). We obtain new results on the following problems:

1. Preprocessn triangles so as to answer efficiently the query: “Given a ray, which is the first triangle hit?” (Ray- shooting problem). We discuss the ray-shooting problem for both disjoint and nondisjoint triangles.
2. Construct the intersection of two nonconvex polyhedra in an output sensitive way with asubquadratic overhead term.
3. Construct the arrangement ofn intersecting triangles in 3-space in an output-sensitive way, with asubquadratic overhead term.
4. Efficiently detect the first face hit by any ray in a set of axis-oriented polyhedra.
5. Preprocessn lines (segments) so as to answer efficiently the query “Given two lines, is it possible to move one into the other without crossing any of the initial lines (segments)?” (Isotopy problem). If the movement is possible produce an explicit representation of it.

     

High aspect ratio structures obtained by electroforming in microstructured glass

The application of glass in the microsystems technology becomes more and more important. Therefore, it is necessary to combine special microstrutturable glasses with various other materials (e.g. joining with silicon by anodic bonding, joining with metals by electroforming, joining with polymers by glueing, joining with various other glasses by brazing or diffusion welding). In order to increase the use of glass in the microsystems technology especially four fields of research are important:

-development of special glasses with various properties

-technologies of microstructuring

-technologies of joining

-application

These four topics are main research fields performed at the Institute of Glass/Ceramics-Technology and will be described in this paper.     

Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Framework for the Pre Design Stage

Presented is a novel framework for performing flexible computational design studies at preliminary design stage. It incorporates a workflow management device (WMD) and a number of advanced numerical treatments, including multi-objective optimization, sensitivity analysis and uncertainty management with emphasis on design robustness. The WMD enables the designer to build, understand, manipulate and share complex processes and studies. Results obtained after applying the WMD on various test cases, showed a significant reduction of the iterations required for the convergence of the computational system. The tests results also demonstrated the capabilities of the advanced treatments as follows:

The novel procedure for global multi-objective optimization has the unique ability to generate well-distributed Pareto points on both local and global Pareto fronts simultaneously.

The global sensitivity analysis procedure is able to identify input variables whose range of variation does not have significant effect on the objectives and constraints. It was demonstrated that fixing such variables can greatly reduce the computational time while retaining a satisfactory quality of the resulting Pareto front.

The novel derivative-free method for uncertainty propagation, which was proposed for enabling multi-objective robust optimization, delivers a higher accuracy compared to the one based on function linearization, without altering significantly the cost of the single optimization step.

The work demonstrated for the first time that such capabilities can be used in a coordinated way to enhance the efficiency of the computational process and the effectiveness of the decision making at preliminary design stage.     

Kernel language KLND

This paper presents a kernel language KLND on the basis of analysing the kernel languagerequirements of new generation computer systems. These requirements are: the ability ofknow-ledge processing, the parallelism, the elegant mathematical properties of the comput-ation model which is appropriate for working as the basis of the novel architecture design, andthe suitability for writing large scale softwares. The main features of KLND are as follows: 1. several new language concepts. 2. the modularity, 3. the unification of logical and functional programming styles, 4. the exploitation of the parallelism. 5. the introduction of the type concept, 6. the introduction of the storage concept.     

Separability and one-way functions

We settle all relativized questions of the relationships between the following five propositions:

• P = NP.
• P = UP.
• P = NP $\cap$ coNP.
• All disjoint pairs of NP sets are P-separable.
• All disjoint pairs of coNP sets are P-separable.

We make the first widespread use of variations of generic oracles to achieve the necessary relativized worlds.     

Regular prefix relations

We define a class ofn-ary relations on strings called the regular prefix relations, and give four alternative characterizations of this class:

1. the relations recognized by a new type of automaton, the prefix automata,
2. the relations recognized by tree automata specialized to relations on strings,
3. the relations between strings definable in the second order theory ofk successors,
4. the smallest class containing the regular sets and the prefix relation, and closed under the Boolean operations, Cartesian product, projection, explicit transformation, and concatenation with Cartesian products of regular sets.

We give concrete examples of regular prefix relations, and a pumping argument for prefix automata. An application of these results to the study of inductive inference of regular sets is described.     

Thinking in parallel: four steps to Parlog

If you are familiar with Prolog but not with Parlog then this tutorial is aimed at you. In what follows I attempt to:

? explain the basics of Parlog

? demonstrate that Parlog programs can be powerful and elegant

? discuss the relationship of Parlog to Prolog, and

? identify some resources which will take you further.

These are what I call ‘four steps to Parlog’.     

Sweep methods for parallel computational geometry

In this paper we give efficient parallel algorithms for a number of problems from computational geometry by using versions of parallel plane sweeping. We illustrate our approach with a number of applications, which include:

General hidden-surface elimination (even if the overlap relation contains cycles).

CSG boundary evaluation.

Computing the contour of a collection of rectangles.

Hidden-surface elimination for rectangles.

There are interesting subproblems that we solve as a part of each parallelization. For example, we give an optimal parallel method for building a data structure for line-stabbing queries (which, incidentally, improves the sequential complexity of this problem). Our algorithms are for the CREW PRAM, unless otherwise noted.     

An approach to the DIN Kernel Lisp definition

A DIN Kernel LISP Draft (DKLisp) has been developed by DIN as Reaction to Action D1 (N79), short term goal, of ISO WG16. It defines a subset language, as compatible as possible with the ANSICommon-Lisp draft, but also with theEuLisp draft. It combines the most important LISP main stream features in a single, compact, but nevertheless complete language definition, which thereby could be well suited as basis for a short term InternationalLisp Standard. Besides the functional and knowledge processing features, the expressive power of the language is well comparable with contemporary procedural languages, as e.g. C++ (of course without libraries). Important features ofDKLisp are:

to be a “Lisp-1,” but allowing an easy “Lisp-2” transformation;

to be a simple, powerful and standardized educationalLisp;

to omit all features, which are unclean or in heavy discussion;

DKLisp programs run nearly unchanged inCommon-Lisp;

DKLisp contains a simple object and package system;

DKLisp contains those data classes and control structures also common to most modernLisp and non-Lisp languages;

DKLisp offers a simple stream I/O;

DKLisp contains a clean unified hierarchical class/type system;

DKLisp contains the typical “Lisp-features” in an orthogonal way;

DKLisp allows and encourages really small but powerful implementations;

DKLisp comes in levels, so allowing ANSICommon-Lisp to be an extension ofDKLisp level-1.

The present is the second version of the proposal, namely version 1.2, with slight differences with respect to the one sent to ISO. Sources of such changes were the remarks generously sent by many readers of the previous attempt.