Automatic generation of visual programming environments

We have developed the visual language compiler-compiler (VLCC) system to automatically generate visual programming environments. VLCC is a grammar based system that can support implementation of any visual language by assisting the language designer in defining the language's graphical objects, syntax, and semantics. The final result of the generation process includes an integrated environment with a visual editor and a compiler for the defined visual language. In VLCC, graphical tools define visual languages to create both graphical objects and composition rules. Visual editors enable language designers to directly and visually manipulate the syntax of these languages. To capture the widest range of visual languages, the VLCC system can be configured for a specific language class. Different language classes can be characterized depending on their graphical objects' structure and on the way they can be composed. Also, box and arrow diagrams are defined for primitive objects with attaching points and for composition rules to join boxes and arrows at those attaching points. After choosing the visual language type to create, the designer can concentrate on language definition details. VLCC uses the positional grammar model as its underlying grammar formalism     

Privacy in pervasive environments: next generation labeling protocols

In pervasive environments, privacy is likely to be a major issue for users, and users will want to be notified of potential data capture. To provide notice to users, this paper argues for what it calls labeling protocols, technical mechanisms through which users can be informed of data requests and their consequences. Recent experiences with the Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P), an attempt to provide privacy mechanisms for the Web, suggest important lessons for the design of a next generation labeling protocol that will be usable and useful in pervasive environments. This paper examines the P3P lessons and open issues with an eye to pervasive requirements.     

An approach for performance requirements verification and test environments generation

Requirements Engineering - Model-based testing (MBT) is a method that supports the design and execution of test cases by models that specify the intended behaviors of a system under test. While...     

Microdroplet formation of water and nanofluids in heat-induced microfluidic T-junction

This paper reports experimental investigations on the droplet formation and size manipulation of deionized water (DIW) and nanofluids in a microfluidic T-junction at different temperatures. Investigations of the effect of microchannel depths on the droplet formation process showed that the smaller the depth of the channel the larger the increase of droplet size with temperature. Sample nanofluids were prepared by dispersing 0.1 volume percentage of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles of 15 nm and 10 nm × 40 nm in DIW for their droplet formation experiments. The heater temperature also affects the droplet formation process. Present results demonstrate that nanofluids exhibit different characteristics in droplet formation with the temperature. Addition of spherical-shaped TiO₂ (15 nm) nanoparticles in DIW results in much smaller droplet size compared to the cylindrical-shaped TiO₂ (10 nm × 40 nm) nanoparticles. Besides changing the interfacial properties of based fluid, nanoparticles can influence the droplet formation of nanofluids by introducing interfacial slip at the interface. Other than nanofluid with cylindrical-shaped nanoparticles, the droplet size was found to increase with increasing temperature.     

An issue of the next generation of problem-solving environments

This paper discusses the development of a next-generation problem-solving language. The example language discussed represents a shift from a strong (or precise) specification language toward a weak (or imprecise) one. The shift toward a weak language introduces the problem of ambiguity in the specification. A synthesis method that handles the ambiguity for an integrated program specification is the focus of this paper. A more precise understanding of ambiguity is discussed and disambiguating heuristics for the example synthesis environment are presented.     

Equation of state of solid,liquid and gaseous tantalum from first principles

We present ab initio calculations of the phase diagram and the equation of state of Ta in a wide range of volumes and temperatures, with volumes from 9 to 180 Å³/atom, temperature as high as 20 000 K, and pressure up to 7 Mbars. The calculations are based on first principles, in combination with techniques of molecular dynamics, thermodynamic integration, and statistical modeling. Multiple phases are studied, including the solid, fluid, and gas single phases, as well as two-phase coexistences. We calculate the critical point by direct molecular dynamics sampling, and extend the equation of state to very low density through virial series fitting. The accuracy of the equation of state is assessed by comparing both the predicted melting curve and the critical point with previous experimental and theoretical investigations.     

Automatic speech grammar generation during conceptual modelling of virtual environments

Speech interfaces are becoming more and more popular as a means to interact with virtual environments but the development and integration of these interfaces is usually still ad hoc, especially the speech grammar creation of the speech interface is a process commonly performed by hand. In this paper, we introduce an approach to automatically generate a speech grammar which is generated using semantic information. The semantic information is represented through ontologies and gathered from the conceptual modelling phase of the virtual environment application. The utterances of the user will be resolved using queries onto these ontologies such that the meaning of the utterance can be resolved. For validation purposes we augmented a city park designer with our approach. Informal tests validate our approach, because they reveal that users mainly use words represented in the semantic data, and therefore also words which are incorporated in the automatically generated speech grammar.

P2P环境中的空间数据索引模型和生成算法研究

在Peer-to-Peer（P2P）环境中管理复杂的空间数据,首先需要建立空间数据索引。对相关研究进行了分析总结,设计出了一种分布式四叉树与本地R*树相结合的新索引模型P2PQR-tree。P2PQR-tree将四叉树技术应用于P2P环境,并利用复制策略实现了负载均衡。给出了索引生成算法,并对算法性能进行了分析。P2PQR-tree数据组织更加合理、能够更好地支持元数据管理、易于实现权限控制、减少了分布式索引变化,更好地适应了对等网络的动态特性。     

Smooth quadrotor trajectory generation for tracking a moving target in cluttered environments

In this paper,we present a trajectory generation method of a quadrotor,based on the optimal smoothing B-spline,for tracking a moving target with consideration o...     

Next generation session management for 3D teleimmersive interactive environments

In the recent past we have seen a boom of distributed interactive multimedia environments which use multiple correlated media sensors, multi-view displays, and advanced haptic-audio-visual user interfaces for teleimmersive gaming, business meetings and other collaborative activities. However, when we investigate the emerging teleimmersive environments closer, we realize that their overall session management, including end-to-end session setup, establishment and run-time management are not appropriate for the new demands that these environments present. These environments are cyber-physical rooms that demand (a) large scale of multi-sensory devices across geographically-distributed locations and (b) interaction with each other in synchronous and real-time manner. To deal with the new teleimmersive demands, we present a new session management design with (a) session initiation protocol(s) that understand media correlations, (b) view-based multi-stream topology establishment among multiple parties, (c) efficient, light-weight and distributed session monitoring with querying and debugging capabilities, (d) flexible view-based session adaptation with efficient topology adjustments, and (e) light-weighted and consistent session tear-down protocols. The presented design of the next generation session management protocols, services, algorithms and data structures is based on our extensive experiences with building 3D teleimmersive interactive systems, experimenting with high impact teleimmersive applications and deploying such environments at various venues.     

Flying on point clouds: Online trajectory generation and autonomous navigation for quadrotors in cluttered environments

Micro aerial vehicles (MAVs), especially quadrotors, have been widely used in field applications, such as disaster response, field surveillance, and search‐and‐rescue. For accomplishing such missions in challenging environments, the capability of navigating with full autonomy while avoiding unexpected obstacles is the most crucial requirement. In this paper, we present a framework for online generating safe and dynamically feasible trajectories directly on the point cloud, which is the lowest‐level representation of range measurements and is applicable to different sensor types. We develop a quadrotor platform equipped with a three‐dimensional (3D) light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) for simultaneously estimating states of the vehicle and building point cloud maps of the environment. Based on the incrementally registered point clouds, we online generate and refine a flight corridor, which represents the free space that the trajectory of the quadrotor should lie in. We represent the trajectory as piecewise Bézier curves by using the Bernstein polynomial basis and formulate the trajectory generation problem as a convex program. By using Bézier curves, we can constrain the position and kinodynamics of the trajectory entirely within the flight corridor and given physical limits. The proposed approach is implemented to run onboard in real‐time and is integrated into an autonomous quadrotor platform. We demonstrate fully autonomous quadrotor flights in unknown, complex environments to validate the proposed method.     

Aerial online mapping on-board system by real-time object detection for UGV path generation in unstructured outdoor environments

An optimal path provides efficient operation of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) for many kinds of tasks such as transportation, exploration, surveillance, and search and rescue in unstructured areas that include various unexpected obstacles. Various onboard sensors such as LiDAR, radar, sonar, and cameras are used to detect obstacles around the UGVs. However, their range of view is often limited by movable obstacles or barriers, resulting in inefficient path generation. Here, we present the aerial online mapping system to generate an efficient path for a UGV on a two-dimensional map. The map is updated by projecting obstacles detected in the aerial images taken by an unmanned aerial vehicle through an object detector based on a conventional convolutional neural network. The proposed system is implemented in real-time by a skid steering ground vehicle and a quadcopter with relatively small, low-cost embedded systems. The frameworks and each module of the systems are given in detail to evaluate the performance. The system is also demonstrated in unstructured outdoor environments such as in a football field and a park with unreliable communication links. The results show that the aerial online mapping is effective in path generation for autonomous UGVs in real environments.     

Suspended bimaterial microchannel resonators for thermal sensing of local heat generation in liquid

Suspended bimaterial microchannel resonator devices have been fabricated to measure the thermal behaviors of small biological molecules and individual cells in liquid. A resonant microbridge structure embeds this microfluidic channel in its interior. The fabrication process is based on the creation of buried channels in silicon-on-insulator wafers. For the bimaterial bridge structure layers of SiO₂ and SiN_x were used. This bimaterial resonant bridge with internal microfluidic channel could be employed as a very sensitive calorimeter, since the tensile stress generated by bimaterial effect in the heated bridge, produces a shift of resonant frequency. A laser beam was used to heat the center of the bridge resonator with the microchannel filled by water and the corresponding resonant frequency variations were evaluated. The measured sensitivity for the local heat at the center of the bridge is 8.6 ppm/μW in atmospheric condition.     

Design,code generation and simulation of IoT environments with mobility devices by using model-driven development: SimulateIoT-Mobile

Systems based on the Internet of Things (IoT) are continuously growing in many areas such as smart cities, home environments, buildings, agriculture, industry, etc. Device mobility is one of the key aspects of these IoT systems, but managing it could be a challenge. Mobility exposes the IoT environment or Industrial IoT (IIoT) to situations such as packet loss, increased delay or jitter, dynamism in the network topology, new security threats, etc. In addition, there is no standard for mobility management for the most commonly used IoT protocols, such as MQTT or CoAP. Consequently, managing IoT mobility is a hard, error-prone and tedious task. However, increasing the abstraction level from which the IoT systems are designed helps to tackle the underlying technology complexity. In this regard, Model-driven development approaches can help to both reduce the IoT application time to market and tackle the technological complexity to develop IoT applications. In this paper, a Domain-Specific Language based on SimulateIoT is proposed for the design, code generation and simulation of IoT systems with mobility management for the MQTT protocol. The IoT systems generated integrate the sensors, actuators, fog nodes, cloud nodes and the architecture that supports mobility, which are deployed as microservices on Docker containers and composed suitability. Finally, two case studies focused on animal tracking and a Personal mobility device (PMD) based on bicycles IoT systems are presented to show the IoT solutions deployed.     

Automated sampling and control of gaseous simulations

In this work, we describe a method that automates the sampling and control of gaseous fluid simulations. Several recent approaches have provided techniques for artists to generate high-resolution simulations based on a low-resolution simulation. However, often in applications the overall flow in the low-resolution simulation that an animator observes and intends to preserve is composed of even lower frequencies than the low resolution itself. In such cases, attempting to match the low-resolution simulation precisely is unnecessarily restrictive. We propose a new sampling technique to efficiently capture the overall flow of a fluid simulation, at the scale of user’s choice, in such a way that the sampled information is sufficient to represent what is virtually perceived and no more. Thus, by applying control based on the sampled data, we ensure that in the resulting high-resolution simulation, the overall flow is matched to the low-resolution simulation and the fine details on the high resolution are preserved. The samples we obtain have both spatial and temporal continuity that allows smooth keyframe matching and direct manipulation of visible elements such as smoke density through temporal blending of samples. We demonstrate that a user can easily configure a simulation with our system to achieve desired results.     

Controllable motion synthesis in a gaseous medium

The generation of realistic motion satisfying user-defined requirements is one of the most important goals of computer animation. Our aim in this paper is the synthesis of realistic, controllable motion for lightweight natural objects in a gaseous medium. We formulate this problem as a large-scale spacetime optimization with user controls and fluid motion equations as constraints. We have devised novel and effective methods to make this large optimization tractable. Initial trajectories are generated with data-driven synthesis based on stylistic motion planning. Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is used during optimization to produce fluid simulations at a reasonable computational cost, while interesting vortex-based fluid motion is generated by recording the presence of vortices in the initial trajectories and maintaining them through optimization. Object rotations are refined as a postprocess to enhance the visual quality of the results. We demonstrate our techniques on a number of animations involving single or multiple objects.     

HF molecules laser sensing in gaseous flows

The lidar monitoring are widely used for the gaseous molecules ultra low concentration levels in atmosphere and technological gaseous flows. It demands the detail studies of the atmospheric optics basics and computer simulation of the laser sensing possibility in such a molecules detection by the laser radiation with pulse energy up to 35 mJ at the wavelength of 532 nm. The lidar signal of the HF molecule versus the sensing distance have been a subject of the simulation studies of this signal molecules concentration dependence. It has been taken into account the Sun background radiation as the minimal lidar HF signal. The HF concentration versus distance dependences for this molecules ultra low concentration level in atmosphere simulation results show the HF molecules Raman and DAS lidar sensing efficiency for low concentration in the distance range from 1 to 1000 m by chosen laser wavelength and pulse energy in the daytime ranging regime. The text was submitted by the authors in English.