Design of Single-Input-Single-Output Compliant Mechanisms for Practical Applications Using Selection Maps

We present an interactive map-based technique for designing single-input-single-output compliant mechanisms that meet the requirements of practical applications. Our map juxtaposes user-specifications with the attributes of real compliant mechanisms stored in a database so that not only the practical feasibility of the specifications can be discerned quickly but also modifications can be done interactively to the existing compliant mechanisms. The practical utility of the method presented here exceeds that of shape and size optimizations because it accounts for manufacturing considerations, stress limits, and material selection. The premise for the method is the spring-leverage (SL) model, which characterizes the kinematic and elastostatic behavior of compliant mechanisms with only three SL constants. The user-specifications are met interactively using the beam-based 2D models of compliant mechanisms by changing their attributes such as: (i) overall size in two planar orthogonal directions, separately and together, (ii) uniform resizing of the in-plane widths of all the beam elements, (iii) uniform resizing of the out-of-plane thick-nesses of the beam elements, and (iv) the material. We present a design software program with a graphical user interface for interactive design. A case-study that describes the design procedure in detail is also presented while additional case-studies are posted on a website. DOI:10.1115/1.4001877].

Analyzing Cache Performance Bottlenecks of STM Applications and addressing them with Compiler's help

Software transactional memory (STM) is a promising programming paradigm for shared memory multithreaded programs as an alternative to traditional lock based synchronization. However adoption of STM in mainstream software has been quite low due to its considerable overheads and its poor cache/memory performance. In this paper, we perform a detailed study of the cache behavior of STM applications and quantify the impact of different STM factors on the cache misses experienced by the applications. Based on our analysis, we propose a compiler driven Lock-Data Colocation (LDC), targeted at reducing the cache overheads on STM. We show that LDC is effective in improving the cache behavior of STM applications by reducing the dcache miss latency and improving execution time performance.

Context based service discovery for ubiquitous applications

Service discovery is vital in ubiquitous applications, where a large number of devices and software components collaborate unobtrusively and provide numerous services without user intervention. Existing service discovery schemes use a service matching process in order to offer services of interest to the users. Potentially, the context information of the users and surrounding environment can be used to improve the quality of service matching. To make use of context information in service matching, a service discovery technique needs to address certain challenges. Firstly, it is required that the context information shall have unambiguous representation. Secondly, the devices in the environment shall be able to disseminate high level and low level context information seamlessly in the different networks. And thirdly, dynamic nature of the context information be taken into account. We propose a C-IOB(Context-Information, Observation and Belief) based service discovery model which deals with the above challenges by processing the context information and by formulating the beliefs based on the observations. With these formulated beliefs the required services will be provided to the users. The method has been tested with a typical ubiquitous museum guide application over different cases. The simulation results are time efficient and quite encouraging.

On pattern oriented software architecture for the grid

Precision, sophistication and economic factors in many areas of scientific research that demand very high magnitude of compute power is the order of the day. Thus advance research in the area of high performance computing is getting inevitable. The basic principle of sharing and collaborative work by geographically separated computers is known by several names such as metacomputing, scalable computing, cluster computing, internet computing and this has today metamorphosed into a new term known as grid computing. This paper gives an overview of grid computing and compares various grid architectures. We show the role that patterns can play in architecting complex systems, and provide a very pragmatic reference to a set of well-engineered patterns that the practicing developer can apply to crafting his or her own specific applications. We are not aware of pattern-oriented approach being applied to develop and deploy a grid. There are many grid frameworks that are built or are in the process of being functional. All these grids differ in some functionality or the other, though the basic principle over which the grids are built is the same. Despite this there are no standard requirements listed for building a grid. The grid being a very complex system, it is mandatory to have a standard Software Architecture Specification (SAS). We attempt to develop the same for use by any grid user or developer. Specifically, we analyze the grid using an object oriented approach and presenting the architecture using UML. This paper will propose the usage of patterns at all levels (analysis. design and architectural) of the grid development.

USHA: unified software and hardware architecture for video decoding

Video decoders used in emerging applications need to be flexible to handle a large variety of video formats and deliver scalable performance to handle wide variations in workloads. In this paper we propose a unified software and hardware architecture for video decoding to achieve scalable performance with flexibility. The light weight processor tiles and the reconfigurable hardware tiles in our architecture enable software and hardware implementations to co-exist, while a programmable interconnect enables dynamic interconnection of the tiles. Our process network oriented compilation flow achieves realization agnostic application partitioning and enables seamless migration across uniprocessor, multi-processor, semi hardware and full hardware implementations of a video decoder. An application quality of service aware scheduler monitors and controls the operation of the entire system. We prove the concept through a prototype of the architecture on an off-the-shelf FPGA. The FPGA prototype shows a scaling in performance from QCIF to 1080p resolutions in four discrete steps. We also demonstrate that the reconfiguration time is short enough to allow migration from one configuration to the other without any frame loss.

A novel space cloth using resistor grid network for radar absorbers in stealth applications

We report novel resistor grid network based space cloth for application in single and multi layer radar absorbers. The space cloth is analyzed and relations are derived for the sheet resistance in terms of the resistor in the grid network. Design curves are drawn using MATLAB and the space cloth is analyzed using HFSS™ software in a Salisbury screen for S, C and X bands. Next, prediction and simulation results for a three layer Jaumann absorber using square grid resistor network with a Radar Cross Section Reduction (RCSR) of -15 dB over C, X and Ku bands is reported. The simulation results are encouraging and have led to the fabrication of prototype broadband radar absorber and experimental work is under progress.

Identifying services from Legacy batch applications

Transaction processing is a key constituent of the IT workload of commercial enterprises (e.g., banks, insurance companies). Even today, in many large enterprises, transaction processing is done by legacy "batch" applications, which run offline and process accumulated transactions. Developers acknowledge the presence of multiple loosely coupled pieces of functionality within individual applications. Identifying such pieces of functionality (which we call "services") is desirable for the maintenance and evolution of these legacy applications. This is a hard problem, which enterprises grapple with, and one without satisfactory automated solutions. In this paper, we propose a novel static-analysis-based solution to the problem of identifying services within transaction-processing programs. We provide a formal characterization of services in terms of control-flow and data-flow properties, which is well-suited to the idioms commonly exhibited by business applications. Our technique combines program slicing with the detection of conditional code regions to identify services in accordance with our characterization. A preliminary evaluation, based on a manual analysis of three real business programs, indicates that our approach can be effective in identifying useful services from batch applications.

Reuse of software components orientated to iOS mobile devices

Within the next few pages, I will try to give a wide description of the project that I have been doing for IK4-Ikerlan. For the last six months, I have been working in developing a socket-based application for Apple devices. These devices work under the iOS operative system, which is programmed in Objective-C, a language similar to C. Although I did not have the chance to develop this application for Apple TV, I was able to create an application for iPhone and another one for iPad. The only difference between both applications was the screen resolution, but we decided to make them separately, as it would be really hard to combine both resolutions, and wallpapers, everything in the same workspace. Finally, it is necessary to add that the main goal was not to create a new application for iOS, but to translate an Android application into iOS. To achieve this, it is required to translate Java code into Objective- C, which is the language used to develop applications for all kinds of Apple devices. Fortunately, there is a tool created by Google, which helped us with this exercise. This tool is called j2ObjC, and it is still being developed.

Designing High Performance Factory Automation Applications on Top of DDS

13 p.

An Improved Ce/Se Scheme For Multi-Material Elastic-Plastic Flows And Its Applications

In this paper, a new definition of SE and CE, which is based on the hexahedron mesh and simpler than Chang's original CE/SE method (the space-time Conservation Element and Solution Element method), is proposed and an improved CE/SE scheme is constructed. Furthermore, the improved CE/SE scheme is extended in order to solve the elastic-plastic flow problems. The hybrid particle level set method is used for tracing the interfaces of materials. Proper boundary conditions are presented in interface tracking. Two high-velocity impact problems are simulated numerically and the computational results are carefully compared with the experimental data, as well as the results from other literature and LS-DYNA software. The comparisons show that the computational scheme developed currently is clear in physical concept, easy to be implemented and high accurate and efficient for the problems considered. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

SCARA errobota: mugimendu gaitasunen eta ibilbide sorkuntzaren inplementazioa software grafikoan

[EU]Lan honen gaia SCARA errobot motaren mugimendu gaitasunen analisia egitea da, eta ibilbideen sorkuntzarako metodoekin batera software grafiko batean inplementatzea mugimenduaren simulazioa egin ahal izateko. Errobot serieen zinematikaren oinarrizko ezagutzatik hasita, mota konkretu batetara aplikatu egiten da eta honek aurkezten dituen berezitasunak garatu egiten dira, bi helburutara bideratuta: SCARA errobotaren mugimendu gaitasunak ezagutzea. Ibilbideen sorkuntzarako metodo baten inplementazioa. Hasteko, gaiaren egoera aztertu da, aplikazio nagusien eta ibilbide moten informazioa batzeko. Halaber ibilbideen sorkuntzarako metodoak arakatu dira, erabilera honetarako aproposena aurkitzeko. Jarraian, errobotaren analisia burutu da, ohizko erreminta matematikoak erabiliz, funtsezkoak diren lan eremua eta kokapen singularrak lortzeko. Ostean, software grafikoa garatu da mugimendu gaitasun hauek simulatzeko. Ohiko aplikazioetan oinarritutako ibilbideak sortzeko aukerak gehitu dira. Amaitzeko, oztopoak saihesten dituen ibilbideen sorkuntzarako metodoa inplementatu da, “pick and place” ibilbide motaren barruan.

Disseminação de dados estatísticos georeferenciados através de WEB services e software livre.

Diferentes organizações públicas e privadas coletam e disponibilizam uma massa de dados sobre a realidade sócio-econômica das diferentes nações. Há hoje, da parte do governo brasileiro, um interesse manifesto de divulgar uma gama diferenciada de informações para os mais diversos perfis de usuários. Persiste, contudo, uma série de limitações para uma divulgação mais massiva e democrática, entre elas, a heterogeneidade das fontes de dados, sua dispersão e formato de apresentação pouco amigável. Devido à complexidade inerente à informação geográfica envolvida, que produz incompatibilidade em vários níveis, o intercâmbio de dados em sistemas de informação geográfica não é problema trivial. Para aplicações desenvolvidas para a Web, uma solução são os Web Services que permitem que novas aplicações possam interagir com aquelas que já existem e que sistemas desenvolvidos em plataformas diferentes sejam compatíveis. Neste sentido, o objetivo do trabalho é mostrar as possibilidades de construção de portais usando software livre, a tecnologia dos Web Services e os padrões do Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) para a disseminação de dados espaciais. Visando avaliar e testar as tecnologias selecionadas e comprovar sua efetividade foi desenvolvido um exemplo de portal de dados sócio-econômicos, compreendendo informações de um servidor local e de servidores remotos. As contribuições do trabalho são a disponibilização de mapas dinâmicos, a geração de mapas através da composição de mapas disponibilizados em servidores remotos e local e o uso do padrão OGC WMC. Analisando o protótipo de portal construído, verifica-se, contudo, que a localização e requisição de Web Services não são tarefas fáceis para um usuário típico da Internet. Nesta direção, os trabalhos futuros no domínio dos portais de informação geográfica poderiam adotar a tecnologia Representational State Transfer (REST).

A low-level geographic information system for coastal zone management with applications to Brunei Darussalam: Part III:: simulation and tracking oil spills

B:RUN is a low-level GIS software designed to help formulate options for the management of the coastal zone of Brunei Darussalam. This contribution presents the oil spill simulation module of B:RUN. This simple module, based largely on wind and sea surface current vector parameters, may be helpful in formulating relevant oil spill contingency plans. It can be easily adapted to other areas, as can the B:RUN software itself.

A Low-level Geographic Information System for coastal zone management, with applications to Brunei Darussalam: Part I: The concept and its design elements

This contribution is the first part of a four-part series documenting the development of B:RUN, a software program which reads data for common spreadsheets and presents them as low-resolution maps of slates and processes. The program emerged from a need which arose during a project in Brunei Darussalam for a 'low level' approach for researchers to communicate findings as efficiently and expeditiously as possible. Part I provides a overview of the concept and design elements of B:RUN. Part II will highlight results of the economics components of the program evaluating different fishing regimes, sailing distances from ports and fleet operating costs. Environmental aspects will be presented in Part III in the form of overlay maps. Part IV will summarize the implications of B:RUN results to coastal and fishery resources management in Brunei Darussalam and show how this approach can be adapted to other coastlines and used as a teaching and training tool. The following three parts will be published in future editions of Naga, the ICLARM Quarterly. The program is available through ICLARM.