Designing a high performance parallel logic programming system

Compilation techniques such as those portrayed by the Warren Abstract Machine(WAM) have greatly improved the speed of execution of logic programs. The research presented herein is geared towards providing additional performance to logic programs through the use of parallelism, while preserving the conventional semantics of logic languages. Two áreas to which special attention is given are the preservation of sequential performance and storage efficiency, and the use of low overhead mechanisms for controlling parallel execution. Accordingly, the techniques used for supporting parallelism are efficient extensions of those which have brought high inferencing speeds to sequential implementations. At a lower level, special attention is also given to design and simulation detail and to the architectural implications of the execution model behavior. This paper offers an overview of the basic concepts and techniques used in the parallel design, simulation tools used, and some of the results obtained to date.

The ciao prolog system

Ciao is a public domain, next generation multi-paradigm programming environment with a unique set of features: Ciao offers a complete Prolog system, supporting ISO-Prolog, but its novel modular design allows both restricting and extending the language. As a result, it allows working with fully declarative subsets of Prolog and also to extend these subsets (or ISO-Prolog) both syntactically and semantically. Most importantly, these restrictions and extensions can be activated separately on each program module so that several extensions can coexist in the same application for different modules. Ciao also supports (through such extensions) programming with functions, higher-order (with predicate abstractions), constraints, and objects, as well as feature terms (records), persistence, several control rules (breadth-first search, iterative deepening, ...), concurrency (threads/engines), a good base for distributed execution (agents), and parallel execution. Libraries also support WWW programming, sockets, external interfaces (C, Java, TclTk, relational databases, etc.), etc. Ciao offers support for programming in the large with a robust module/object system, module-based separate/incremental compilation (automatically -no need for makefiles), an assertion language for declaring (optional) program properties (including types and modes, but also determinacy, non-failure, cost, etc.), automatic static inference and static/dynamic checking of such assertions, etc. Ciao also offers support for programming in the small producing small executables (including only those builtins used by the program) and support for writing scripts in Prolog. The Ciao programming environment includes a classical top-level and a rich emacs interface with an embeddable source-level debugger and a number of execution visualization tools. The Ciao compiler (which can be run outside the top level shell) generates several forms of architecture-independent and stand-alone executables, which run with speed, efficiency and executable size which are very competive with other commercial and academic Prolog/CLP systems. Library modules can be compiled into compact bytecode or C source files, and linked statically, dynamically, or autoloaded. The novel modular design of Ciao enables, in addition to modular program development, effective global program analysis and static debugging and optimization via source to source program transformation. These tasks are performed by the Ciao preprocessor ( ciaopp, distributed separately). The Ciao programming environment also includes lpdoc, an automatic documentation generator for LP/CLP programs. It processes Prolog files adorned with (Ciao) assertions and machine-readable comments and generates manuals in many formats including postscript, pdf, texinfo, info, HTML, man, etc. , as well as on-line help, ascii README files, entries for indices of manuals (info, WWW, ...), and maintains WWW distribution sites.

Human-robot interaction for telemanipulation in large workspaces

Independientemente de la existencia de técnicas altamente sofisticadas y capacidades de cómputo cada vez más elevadas, los problemas asociados a los robots que interactúan con entornos no estructurados siguen siendo un desafío abierto en robótica. A pesar de los grandes avances de los sistemas robóticos autónomos, hay algunas situaciones en las que una persona en el bucle sigue siendo necesaria. Ejemplos de esto son, tareas en entornos de fusión nuclear, misiones espaciales, operaciones submarinas y cirugía robótica. Esta necesidad se debe a que las tecnologías actuales no pueden realizar de forma fiable y autónoma cualquier tipo de tarea. Esta tesis presenta métodos para la teleoperación de robots abarcando distintos niveles de abstracción que van desde el control supervisado, en el que un operador da instrucciones de alto nivel en la forma de acciones, hasta el control bilateral, donde los comandos toman la forma de señales de control de bajo nivel. En primer lugar, se presenta un enfoque para llevar a cabo la teleoperación supervisada de robots humanoides. El objetivo es controlar robots terrestres capaces de ejecutar tareas complejas en entornos de búsqueda y rescate utilizando enlaces de comunicación limitados. Esta propuesta incorpora comportamientos autónomos que el operador puede utilizar para realizar tareas de navegación y manipulación mientras se permite cubrir grandes áreas de entornos remotos diseñados para el acceso de personas. Los resultados experimentales demuestran la eficacia de los métodos propuestos. En segundo lugar, se investiga el uso de dispositivos rentables para telemanipulación guiada. Se presenta una aplicación que involucra un robot humanoide bimanual y un traje de captura de movimiento basado en sensores inerciales. En esta aplicación, se estudian las capacidades de adaptación introducidas por el factor humano y cómo estas pueden compensar la falta de sistemas robóticos de alta precisión. Este trabajo es el resultado de una colaboración entre investigadores del Biorobotics Laboratory de la Universidad de Harvard y el Centro de Automática y Robótica UPM-CSIC. En tercer lugar, se presenta un nuevo controlador háptico que combina velocidad y posición. Este controlador bilateral híbrido hace frente a los problemas relacionados con la teleoperación de un robot esclavo con un gran espacio de trabajo usando un dispositivo háptico pequeño como maestro. Se pueden cubrir amplias áreas de trabajo al cambiar automáticamente entre los modos de control de velocidad y posición. Este controlador háptico es ideal para sistemas maestro-esclavo con cinemáticas diferentes, donde los comandos se transmiten en el espacio de la tarea del entorno remoto. El método es validado para realizar telemanipulación hábil de objetos con un robot industrial. Por último, se introducen dos contribuciones en el campo de la manipulación robótica. Por un lado, se presenta un nuevo algoritmo de cinemática inversa, llamado método iterativo de desacoplamiento cinemático. Este método se ha desarrollado para resolver el problema cinemático inverso de un tipo de robot de seis grados de libertad donde una solución cerrada no está disponible. La eficacia del método se compara con métodos numéricos convencionales. Además, se ha diseñado una taxonomía robusta de agarres que permite controlar diferentes manos robóticas utilizando una correspondencia, basada en gestos, entre los espacios de trabajo de la mano humana y de la mano robótica. El gesto de la mano humana se identifica mediante la lectura de los movimientos relativos del índice, el pulgar y el dedo medio del usuario durante las primeras etapas del agarre. ABSTRACT Regardless of the availability of highly sophisticated techniques and ever increasing computing capabilities, the problems associated with robots interacting with unstructured environments remains an open challenge. Despite great advances in autonomous robotics, there are some situations where a humanin- the-loop is still required, such as, nuclear, space, subsea and robotic surgery operations. This is because the current technologies cannot reliably perform all kinds of task autonomously. This thesis presents methods for robot teleoperation strategies at different levels of abstraction ranging from supervisory control, where the operator gives high-level task actions, to bilateral teleoperation, where the commands take the form of low-level control inputs. These strategies contribute to improve the current human-robot interfaces specially in the case of slave robots deployed at large workspaces. First, an approach to perform supervisory teleoperation of humanoid robots is presented. The goal is to control ground robots capable of executing complex tasks in disaster relief environments under constrained communication links. This proposal incorporates autonomous behaviors that the operator can use to perform navigation and manipulation tasks which allow covering large human engineered areas of the remote environment. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed methods. Second, the use of cost-effective devices for guided telemanipulation is investigated. A case study involving a bimanual humanoid robot and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) Motion Capture (MoCap) suit is introduced. Herein, it is corroborated how the adaptation capabilities offered by the human-in-the-loop factor can compensate for the lack of high-precision robotic systems. This work is the result of collaboration between researchers from the Harvard Biorobotics Laboratory and the Centre for Automation and Robotics UPM-CSIC. Thirdly, a new haptic rate-position controller is presented. This hybrid bilateral controller copes with the problems related to the teleoperation of a slave robot with large workspace using a small haptic device as master. Large workspaces can be covered by automatically switching between rate and position control modes. This haptic controller is ideal to couple kinematic dissimilar master-slave systems where the commands are transmitted in the task space of the remote environment. The method is validated to perform dexterous telemanipulation of objects with a robotic manipulator. Finally, two contributions for robotic manipulation are introduced. First, a new algorithm, the Iterative Kinematic Decoupling method, is presented. It is a numeric method developed to solve the Inverse Kinematics (IK) problem of a type of six-DoF robotic arms where a close-form solution is not available. The effectiveness of this IK method is compared against conventional numerical methods. Second, a robust grasp mapping has been conceived. It allows to control a wide range of different robotic hands using a gesture based correspondence between the human hand space and the robotic hand space. The human hand gesture is identified by reading the relative movements of the index, thumb and middle fingers of the user during the early stages of grasping.

A study of 2D features for 3D visual SLAM

Paper submitted to the 43rd International Symposium on Robotics (ISR), Taipei, Taiwan, August 29-31, 2012.

Computer program for incentives (a description of a computer program that generates incentive contracting visibility tools), May 1970.

Mode of access: Internet.

Computer program for designing optimal networks with MOS gates,

Thesis-University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

An architecture for robot hierarchical control system /

Mode of access: Internet.

A bang-bang PLL employing dynamic gain control for low jitter and fast lock times

Bang-bang phase detector based PLLs are simple to design, suffer no systematic phase error, and can run at the highest speed a process can make a working flip-flop. For these reasons designers are employing them in the design of very high speed Clock Data Recovery (CDR) architectures. The major drawback of this class of PLL is the inherent jitter due to quantized phase and frequency corrections. Reducing loop gain can proportionally improve jitter performance, but also reduces locking time and pull-in range. This paper presents a novel PLL design that dynamically scales its gain in order to achieve fast lock times while improving fitter performance in lock. Under certain circumstances the design also demonstrates improved capture range. This paper also analyses the behaviour of a bang-bang type PLL when far from lock, and demonstrates that the pull-in range is proportional to the square root of the PLL loop gain.

The impact of computer display height and desk design on 3D posture during information technology work by young adults

Computer display height and desk design to allow forearm support are two critical design features of workstations for information technology tasks. However there is currently no 3D description of head and neck posture with different computer display heights and no direct comparison to paper based information technology tasks. There is also inconsistent evidence on the effect of forearm support on posture and no evidence on whether these features interact. This study compared the 3D head, neck and upper limb postures of 18 male and 18 female young adults whilst working with different display and desk design conditions. There was no substantial interaction between display height and desk design. Lower display heights increased head and neck flexion with more spinal asymmetry when working with paper. The curved desk, designed to provide forearm support, increased scapula elevation/protraction and shoulder flexion/abduction.

Pragmatic approach to the development of robust real-time protocols

This research is concerned with the development of distributed real-time systems, in which software is used for the control of concurrent physical processes. These distributed control systems are required to periodically coordinate the operation of several autonomous physical processes, with the property of an atomic action. The implementation of this coordination must be fault-tolerant if the integrity of the system is to be maintained in the presence of processor or communication failures. Commit protocols have been widely used to provide this type of atomicity and ensure consistency in distributed computer systems. The objective of this research is the development of a class of robust commit protocols, applicable to the coordination of distributed real-time control systems. Extended forms of the standard two phase commit protocol, that provides fault-tolerant and real-time behaviour, were developed. Petri nets are used for the design of the distributed controllers, and to embed the commit protocol models within these controller designs. This composition of controller and protocol model allows the analysis of the complete system in a unified manner. A common problem for Petri net based techniques is that of state space explosion, a modular approach to both the design and analysis would help cope with this problem. Although extensions to Petri nets that allow module construction exist, generally the modularisation is restricted to the specification, and analysis must be performed on the (flat) detailed net. The Petri net designs for the type of distributed systems considered in this research are both large and complex. The top down, bottom up and hybrid synthesis techniques that are used to model large systems in Petri nets are considered. A hybrid approach to Petri net design for a restricted class of communicating processes is developed. Designs produced using this hybrid approach are modular and allow re-use of verified modules. In order to use this form of modular analysis, it is necessary to project an equivalent but reduced behaviour on the modules used. These projections conceal events local to modules that are not essential for the purpose of analysis. To generate the external behaviour, each firing sequence of the subnet is replaced by an atomic transition internal to the module, and the firing of these transitions transforms the input and output markings of the module. Thus local events are concealed through the projection of the external behaviour of modules. This hybrid design approach preserves properties of interest, such as boundedness and liveness, while the systematic concealment of local events allows the management of state space. The approach presented in this research is particularly suited to distributed systems, as the underlying communication model is used as the basis for the interconnection of modules in the design procedure. This hybrid approach is applied to Petri net based design and analysis of distributed controllers for two industrial applications that incorporate the robust, real-time commit protocols developed. Temporal Petri nets, which combine Petri nets and temporal logic, are used to capture and verify causal and temporal aspects of the designs in a unified manner.

The design of robust protocols for distributed real-time systems

Modern distributed control systems comprise of a set of processors which are interconnected using a suitable communication network. For use in real-time control environments, such systems must be deterministic and generate specified responses within critical timing constraints. Also, they should be sufficiently robust to survive predictable events such as communication or processor faults. This thesis considers the problem of coordinating and synchronizing a distributed real-time control system under normal and abnormal conditions. Distributed control systems need to periodically coordinate the actions of several autonomous sites. Often the type of coordination required is the all or nothing property of an atomic action. Atomic commit protocols have been used to achieve this atomicity in distributed database systems which are not subject to deadlines. This thesis addresses the problem of applying time constraints to atomic commit protocols so that decisions can be made within a deadline. A modified protocol is proposed which is suitable for real-time applications. The thesis also addresses the problem of ensuring that atomicity is provided even if processor or communication failures occur. Previous work has considered the design of atomic commit protocols for use in non time critical distributed database systems. However, in a distributed real-time control system a fault must not allow stringent timing constraints to be violated. This thesis proposes commit protocols using synchronous communications which can be made resilient to a single processor or communication failure and still satisfy deadlines. Previous formal models used to design commit protocols have had adequate state coverability but have omitted timing properties. They also assumed that sites communicated asynchronously and omitted the communications from the model. Timed Petri nets are used in this thesis to specify and design the proposed protocols which are analysed for consistency and timeliness. Also the communication system is mcxielled within the Petri net specifications so that communication failures can be included in the analysis. Analysis of the Timed Petri net and the associated reachability tree is used to show the proposed protocols always terminate consistently and satisfy timing constraints. Finally the applications of this work are described. Two different types of applications are considered, real-time databases and real-time control systems. It is shown that it may be advantageous to use synchronous communications in distributed database systems, especially if predictable response times are required. Emphasis is given to the application of the developed commit protocols to real-time control systems. Using the same analysis techniques as those used for the design of the protocols it can be shown that the overall system performs as expected both functionally and temporally.

Control of second-life hybrid battery energy storage system based on modular boost-multilevel buck converter

To fully utilize second-life batteries on the grid system, a hybrid battery scheme needs to be considered for several reasons: the uncertainty over using a single source supply chain for second-life batteries, the differences in evolving battery chemistry and battery configuration by different suppliers to strive for greater power levels, and the uncertainty of degradation within a second-life battery. Therefore, these hybrid battery systems could have widely different module voltage, capacity, and initial state of charge and state of health. In order to suitably integrate and control these widely different batteries, a suitable multimodular converter topology and an associated control structure are required. This paper addresses these issues proposing a modular boost-multilevel buck converter based topology to integrate these hybrid second-life batteries to a grid-tie inverter. Thereafter, a suitable module-based distributed control architecture is introduced to independently utilize each converter module according to its characteristics. The proposed converter and control architecture are found to be flexible enough to integrate widely different batteries to an inverter dc link. Modeling, analysis, and experimental validation are performed on a single-phase modular hybrid battery energy storage system prototype to understand the operation of the control strategy with different hybrid battery configurations.