A real case of a cognitive multiplayer game: design and development of the iOS client in Swift and its cloud architecture

as tecnologías emergentes como el cloud computing y los dispositivos móviles están creando una oportunidad sin precedentes para mejorar el sistema educativo, permitiendo tanto a los educadores personalizar y mejorar la experiencia de aprendizaje, como facilitar a los estudiantes que adquieran conocimientos sin importar dónde estén. Por otra parte, a través de técnicas de gamificacion será posible promover y motivar a los estudiantes a que aprendan materias arduas haciendo que la experiencia sea más motivadora. Los juegos móviles pueden ser el camino correcto para dar soporte a esta experiencia de aprendizaje mejorada. Este proyecto integra el diseño y desarrollo de una arquitectura en la nube altamente escalable y con alto rendimiento, así como el propio cliente de iOS, para dar soporte a una nueva version de Temporis, un juego móvil multijugador orientado a reordenar eventos históricos en una línea temporal (e.j. historia, arte, deportes, entretenimiento y literatura). Temporis actualmente está disponible en Google Play. Esta memoria describe el desarrollo de la nueva versión de Temporis (Temporis v.2.0) proporcionando detalles acerca de la mejora y adaptación basados en el Temporis original. En particular se describe el nuevo backend hecho en Go sobre Google App Engine creado para soportar miles de usuarios, asó como otras características por ejemplo como conseguir enviar noticaciones push desde la propia plataforma. Por último, el cliente de iOS en Temporis v.2.0 se ha desarrollado utilizando las últimas y más relevantes tecnologías, prestando especial atención a Swift (el lenguaje de programación nuevo de Apple, que es seguro y rápido), el Paradigma Funcional Reactivo (que ayuda a construir aplicaciones altamente interactivas además de a minimizar errores) y la arquitectura VIPER (una arquitectura que sigue los principios SOLID, se centra en la separación de asuntos y favorece la reutilización de código en otras plataformas). ABSTRACT Emerging technologies such as cloud computing and mobile devices are creating an unprecedented opportunity for enhancing the educational system, letting both educators customize and improve the learning experience, and students acquire knowledge regardless of where they are. Moreover, through gamification techniques it would be possible to encourage and motivate students to learn arduous subjects by making the experience more motivating. Mobile games can be a perfect vehicle to support this enhanced learning experience. This project integrates the design and development of a highly scalable and performant cloud architecture, as well as the iOS client that uses it, in order to provide support to a new version of Temporis, a mobile multiplayer game focused on ordering time-based (e.g. history, art, sports, entertainment and literature) in a timeline that currently is available on Google Play. This work describes the development of the new Temporis version (Temporis v.2.0), providing details about improvements and details on the adaptation of the original Temporis. In particular, the new Google App Engine backend is described, which was created to support thousand of users developed in Go language are provided, in addition to other features like how to achieve push notications in this platform. Finally, the mobile iOS client developed using the latest and more relevant technologies is explained paying special attention to Swift (Apple's new programming language, that is safe and fast), the Functional Reactive Paradigm (that helps building highly interactive apps while minimizing bugs) and the VIPER architecture (a SOLID architecture that enforces separation of concerns and makes it easy to reuse code for other platforms).

Game Theory Models for Multi-Robot Patrolling of Infraestructures

Abstract This work is focused on the problem of performing multi‐robot patrolling for infrastructure security applications in order to protect a known environment at critical facilities. Thus, given a set of robots and a set of points of interest, the patrolling task consists of constantly visiting these points at irregular time intervals for security purposes. Current existing solutions for these types of applications are predictable and inflexible. Moreover, most of the previous centralized and deterministic solutions and only few efforts have been made to integrate dynamic methods. Therefore, the development of new dynamic and decentralized collaborative approaches in order to solve the aforementioned problem by implementing learning models from Game Theory. The model selected in this work that includes belief‐based and reinforcement models as special cases is called Experience‐Weighted Attraction. The problem has been defined using concepts of Graph Theory to represent the environment in order to work with such Game Theory techniques. Finally, the proposed methods have been evaluated experimentally by using a patrolling simulator. The results obtained have been compared with previous available

Development and implementation of a virtual laboratory for training process improvement in the mechanics of continuous media

The project arises from the need to develop improved teaching methodologies in field of the mechanics of continuous media. The objective is to offer the student a learning process to acquire the necessary theoretical knowledge, cognitive skills and the responsibility and autonomy to professional development in this area. Traditionally the teaching of the concepts of these subjects was performed through lectures and laboratory practice. During these lessons the students attitude was usually passive, and therefore their effectiveness was poor. The proposed methodology has already been successfully employed in universities like University Bochum, Germany, University the South Australia and aims to improve the effectiveness of knowledge acquisition through use by the student of a virtual laboratory. This laboratory allows to adapt the curricula and learning techniques to the European Higher Education and improve current learning processes in the University School of Public Works Engineers -EUITOP- of the Technical University of Madrid -UPM-, due there are not laboratories in this specialization. The virtual space is created using a software platform built on OpenSim, manages 3D virtual worlds, and, language LSL -Linden Scripting Language-, which imprints specific powers to objects. The student or user can access this virtual world through their avatar -your character in the virtual world- and can perform practices within the space created for the purpose, at any time, just with computer with internet access and viewfinder. The virtual laboratory has three partitions. The virtual meeting rooms, where the avatar can interact with peers, solve problems and exchange existing documentation in the virtual library. The interactive game room, where the avatar is has to resolve a number of issues in time. And the video room where students can watch instructional videos and receive group lessons. Each audiovisual interactive element is accompanied by explanations framing it within the area of knowledge and enables students to begin to acquire a vocabulary and practice of the profession for which they are being formed. Plane elasticity concepts are introduced from the tension and compression testing of test pieces of steel and concrete. The behavior of reticulated and articulated structures is reinforced by some interactive games and concepts of tension, compression, local and global buckling will by tests to break articulated structures. Pure bending concepts, simple and composite torsion will be studied by observing a flexible specimen. Earthquake resistant design of buildings will be checked by a laboratory test video.

A game theory based strategy for reducing energy consumption in cognitive WSN

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are one of the most important users of wireless communication technologies in the coming years and some challenges in this area must be addressed for their complete development. Energy consumption and spectrum availability are two of the most severe constraints of WSNs due to their intrinsic nature. The introduction of cognitive capabilities into these networks has arisen to face the issue of spectrum scarcity but could be used to face energy challenges too due to their new range of communication possibilities. In this paper a new strategy based on game theory for cognitive WSNs is discussed. The presented strategy improves energy consumption by taking advantage of the new change-communication-channel capability. Based on game theory, the strategy decides when to change the transmission channel depending on the behavior of the rest of the network nodes. The strategy presented is lightweight but still has higher energy saving rates as compared to noncognitive networks and even to other strategies based on scheduled spectrum sensing. Simulations are presented for several scenarios that demonstrate energy saving rates of around 65% as compared to WSNs without cognitive techniques.

3D simulation of complex shading affecting PV systems taking benefit from the power of graphics cards developed for the video game industry

Shading reduces the power output of a photovoltaic (PV) system. The design engineering of PV systems requires modeling and evaluating shading losses. Some PV systems are affected by complex shading scenes whose resulting PV energy losses are very difficult to evaluate with current modeling tools. Several specialized PV design and simulation software include the possibility to evaluate shading losses. They generally possess a Graphical User Interface (GUI) through which the user can draw a 3D shading scene, and then evaluate its corresponding PV energy losses. The complexity of the objects that these tools can handle is relatively limited. We have created a software solution, 3DPV, which allows evaluating the energy losses induced by complex 3D scenes on PV generators. The 3D objects can be imported from specialized 3D modeling software or from a 3D object library. The shadows cast by this 3D scene on the PV generator are then directly evaluated from the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Thanks to the recent development of GPUs for the video game industry, the shadows can be evaluated with a very high spatial resolution that reaches well beyond the PV cell level, in very short calculation times. A PV simulation model then translates the geometrical shading into PV energy output losses. 3DPV has been implemented using WebGL, which allows it to run directly from a Web browser, without requiring any local installation from the user. This also allows taken full benefits from the information already available from Internet, such as the 3D object libraries. This contribution describes, step by step, the method that allows 3DPV to evaluate the PV energy losses caused by complex shading. We then illustrate the results of this methodology to several application cases that are encountered in the world of PV systems design. Keywords: 3D, modeling, simulation, GPU, shading, losses, shadow mapping, solar, photovoltaic, PV, WebGL