Geração automática de hardware a partir de especificações formais: estendendo uma abordagem de tradução

Removing inconsistencies in a project is a less expensive activity when done in the early steps of design. The use of formal methods improves the understanding of systems. They have various techniques such as formal specification and verification to identify these problems in the initial stages of a project. However, the transformation from a formal specification into a programming language is a non-trivial task and error prone, specially when done manually. The aid of tools at this stage can bring great benefits to the final product to be developed. This paper proposes the extension of a tool whose focus is the automatic translation of specifications written in CSPM into Handel-C. CSP is a formal description language suitable for concurrent systems, and CSPM is the notation used in tools support. Handel-C is a programming language whose result can be compiled directly into FPGA s. Our extension increases the number of CSPM operators accepted by the tool, allowing the user to define local processes, to rename channels in a process and to use Boolean guards on external choices. In addition, we also propose the implementation of a communication protocol that eliminates some restrictions on parallel composition of processes in the translation into Handel-C, allowing communication in a same channel between multiple processes to be mapped in a consistent manner and that improper communication in a channel does not ocurr in the generated code, ie, communications that are not allowed in the system specification

EUPAT for WoW: Uma ferramenta de assistência à programação por usuário final

Neste trabalho, apresentamos uma ferramenta cujo intuito é auxiliar não-programadores, jogadores de videogame, na criação de extensões na forma de Add-ons para World of Warcraft, o jogo online. Nele, o usuário pode criar extensões customizando completamente sua interface, de forma a reinventar a sua experiência de jogo e melhorar sua jogabilidade. A criação de extensões para aplicativos e jogos surgiu da crescente necessidade de fornecer aos usuários mecanismos eficientes de Programação por Usuário Final, permitindo que os mesmos preenchessem suas necessidades singulares através da criação, customização e especificação de extensões em software. Em World of Warcraft mais especificamente, os Add-ons exploram um tipo de extensão na qual os jogadores passam a programar sua própria interface de usuário ou a fazer uso de interfaces criadas por outros usuários. No entanto, realizar a programação dessas extensões - os Add-ons - não é uma tarefa fácil. Dentro deste contexto, desenvolvemos a ferramenta EUPAT for WoW (do inglês, End-User Programming Assistance Tool for World of Warcraft) que oferece assistência à criação de Add-ons. Além disso, investigamos como usuários jogadores com e sem conhecimento de programação são beneficiados. Os resultados desta pesquisa permitiram refletir sobre as estratégias de assistência de programação por usuário final no contexto de jogos

Utilizando programação orientada a aspectos no projeto de sistemas hardware desenvolvidos com SystemC

New programming language paradigms have commonly been tested and eventually incorporated into hardware description languages. Recently, aspect-oriented programming (AOP) has shown successful in improving the modularity of object-oriented and structured languages such Java, C++ and C. Thus, one can expect that, using AOP, one can improve the understanding of the hardware systems under design, as well as make its components more reusable and easier to maintain. We apply AOP in applications developed using the SystemC library. Several examples will be presented illustrating how to combine AOP and SystemC. During the presentation of these examples, the benefits of this new approach will also be discussed

C programs for solving the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation in a fully anisotropic trap

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Optimal pest control problem in population dynamics

One of the main goals of the pest control is to maintain the density of the pest population in the equilibrium level below economic damages. For reaching this goal, the optimal pest control problem was divided in two parts. In the first part, the two optimal control functions were considered. These functions move the ecosystem pest-natural enemy at an equilibrium state below the economic injury level. In the second part, the one optimal control function stabilizes the ecosystem in this level, minimizing the functional that characterizes quadratic deviations of this level. The first problem was resolved through the application of the Maximum Principle of Pontryagin. The Dynamic Programming was used for the resolution of the second optimal pest control problem.

Extração semiautomática de rodovias no espaço-objeto: uso integrado de um estereopar de imagens aéreas e um MDT

Neste artigo é proposto um método semiautomático para extração de rodovias combinando um estereopar de imagens aéreas de baixa resolução com um poliedro gerado a partir de um modelo digital do terreno (MDT). O problema é formulado no espaço-objeto através de uma função objetivo que modela o objeto 'rodovia' como uma curva suave e pertencente a uma superfície poliédrica. A função objetivo proposta depende também de informações radiométricas, que são acessadas no espaço-imagem via relação de colinearidade entre pontos da rodovia no espaço-objeto e os correspondentes nos espaços imagem do estereopar. A linha poligonal que melhor modela a rodovia selecionada é obtida por otimização no espaço-objeto da função objetivo, tendo por base o algoritmo de programação dinâmica. O processo de otimização é iterativo e dependente do fornecimento por um operador de uma aproximação inicial para a rodovia selecionada. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que o método é robusto frente a anomalias existentes ao longo das rodovias, tais como obstruções causadas por sombras e árvores.

On the value function for nonautonomous optimal control problems with infinite horizon

In this paper we consider nonautonomous optimal control problems of infinite horizon type, whose control actions are given by L-1-functions. We verify that the value function is locally Lipschitz. The equivalence between dynamic programming inequalities and Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) inequalities for proximal sub (super) gradients is proven. Using this result we show that the value function is a Dini solution of the HJB equation. We obtain a verification result for the class of Dini sub-solutions of the HJB equation and also prove a minimax property of the value function with respect to the sets of Dini semi-solutions of the HJB equation. We introduce the concept of viscosity solutions of the HJB equation in infinite horizon and prove the equivalence between this and the concept of Dini solutions. In the Appendix we provide an existence theorem. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of an open case-based decision-support system for diagnosis in oral pathology

Making diagnoses in oral pathology are often difficult and confusing in dental practice, especially for the lessexperienced dental student. One of the most promising areas in bioinformatics is computer-aided diagnosis, where a computer system is capable of imitating human reasoning ability and provides diagnoses with an accuracy approaching that of expert professionals. This type of system could be an alternative tool for assisting dental students to overcome the difficulties of the oral pathology learning process. This could allow students to define variables and information, important to improving the decision-making performance. However, no current open data management system has been integrated with an artificial intelligence system in a user-friendly environment. Such a system could also be used as an education tool to help students perform diagnoses. The aim of the present study was to develop and test an open case-based decisionsupport system.Methods: An open decision-support system based on Bayes' theorem connected to a relational database was developed using the C++ programming language. The software was tested in the computerisation of a surgical pathology service and in simulating the diagnosis of 43 known cases of oral bone disease. The simulation was performed after the system was initially filled with data from 401 cases of oral bone disease.Results: the system allowed the authors to construct and to manage a pathology database, and to simulate diagnoses using the variables from the database.Conclusion: Combining a relational database and an open decision-support system in the same user-friendly environment proved effective in simulating diagnoses based on information from an updated database.

Neural approach for solving several types of optimization problems

Neural networks consist of highly interconnected and parallel nonlinear processing elements that are shown to be extremely effective in computation. This paper presents an architecture of recurrent neural net-works that can be used to solve several classes of optimization problems. More specifically, a modified Hopfield network is developed and its inter-nal parameters are computed explicitly using the valid-subspace technique. These parameters guarantee the convergence of the network to the equilibrium points, which represent a solution of the problem considered. The problems that can be treated by the proposed approach include combinatorial optimiza-tion problems, dynamic programming problems, and nonlinear optimization problems.

Tensor3D: A computer graphics program to simulate 3D real-time deformation and visualization of geometric bodies

Tensor3D is a geometric modeling program with the capacity to simulate and visualize in real-time the deformation, specified through a tensor matrix and applied to triangulated models representing geological bodies. 3D visualization allows the study of deformational processes that are traditionally conducted in 2D, such as simple and pure shears. Besides geometric objects that are immediately available in the program window, the program can read other models from disk, thus being able to import objects created with different open-source or proprietary programs. A strain ellipsoid and a bounding box are simultaneously shown and instantly deformed with the main object. The principal axes of strain are visualized as well to provide graphical information about the orientation of the tensor's normal components. The deformed models can also be saved, retrieved later and deformed again, in order to study different steps of progressive strain, or to make this data available to other programs. The shape of stress ellipsoids and the corresponding Mohr circles defined by any stress tensor can also be represented. The application was written using the Visualization ToolKit, a powerful scientific visualization library in the public domain. This development choice, allied to the use of the Tcl/Tk programming language, which is independent on the host computational platform, makes the program a useful tool for the study of geometric deformations directly in three dimensions in teaching as well as research activities. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Georeferenced road extraction and formulation of hypotheses for new road segments

The acquisition and update of Geographic Information System (GIS) data are typically carried out using aerial or satellite imagery. Since new roads are usually linked to georeferenced pre-existing road network, the extraction of pre-existing road segments may provide good hypotheses for the updating process. This paper addresses the problem of extracting georeferenced roads from images and formulating hypotheses for the presence of new road segments. Our approach proceeds in three steps. First, salient points are identified and measured along roads from a map or GIS database by an operator or an automatic tool. These salient points are then projected onto the image-space and errors inherent in this process are calculated. In the second step, the georeferenced roads are extracted from the image using a dynamic programming (DP) algorithm. The projected salient points and corresponding error estimates are used as input for this extraction process. Finally, the road center axes extracted in the previous step are analyzed to identify potential new segments attached to the extracted, pre-existing one. This analysis is performed using a combination of edge-based and correlation-based algorithms. In this paper we present our approach and early implementation results.

Java applets for a WWW-HTML-based course in power electronics

This paper introduces Java applet programs for a WWW (world wide web)-HTML (hypertext markup language)-based multimedia course in Power Electronics. The applet programs were developed with the purpose of providing an interactive visual simulation and analysis of idealized uncontrolled single-phase, and three-phase rectifiers. In addition, this paper discusses the development and utilization of JAVA applet programs to solve some design-oriented equations for rectifier applications. The major goal of these proposed JAVA applets was to provide more facilities for the students increase their pace in Power Electronics course, emphasizing waveforms analysis, and providing conditions for an on-line comparative analysis among different hands-on laboratory experiences, via a normal Internet TCP/IP connection. Therefore, using the proposed JAVA applets, which were embedded in a WWW-HTML-based course in Power Electronics, was observed an important improvement of the apprenticeship for the content of this course. Therefore, the course structure becomes fluid, allowing a true on-line course over the WWW, motivating students to learn its content, and apply it in some applications-oriented projects, and their home-works.

Projeto E análise de uma rede neural para resolver problemas de programação dinâmica

Systems based on artificial neural networks have high computational rates due to the use of a massive number of simple processing elements and the high degree of connectivity between these elements. Neural networks with feedback connections provide a computing model capable of solving a large class of optimization problems. This paper presents a novel approach for solving dynamic programming problems using artificial neural networks. More specifically, a modified Hopfield network is developed and its internal parameters are computed using the valid-subspace technique. These parameters guarantee the convergence of the network to the equilibrium points which represent solutions (not necessarily optimal) for the dynamic programming problem. Simulated examples are presented and compared with other neural networks. The results demonstrate that proposed method gives a significant improvement.

Extração de feições rodoviárias em imagens digitais: Metodologias desenvolvidas pelo GP-F&VC

Several kinds of research in road extraction have been carried out in the last 6 years by the Photogrammetry and Computer Vision Research Group (GPF&VC - Grupo de Pesquisa em Fotogrametria e Visão Computacional). Several semi-automatic road extraction methodologies have been developed, including sequential and optimizatin techniques. The GP-F&VC has also been developing fully automatic methodologies for road extraction. This paper presents an overview of the GP-F&VC research in road extraction from digital images, along with examples of results obtained by the developed methodologies.

Open and standardized tools for smart transducer networking

IEEE 1451 Standard is intended to address the smart transducer interfacing problematic in network environments. Usually, proprietary hardware and software is a very efficient solution to in planent the IEEE 1451 normative, although can be expensive and inflexible. In contrast, the use of open and standardized tools for implementing the IEEE 1451 normative is proposed in this paper. Tools such as Java and Phyton programming languages, Linux, programmable logic technology, Personal Computer resources and Ethernet architecture were integrated in order to constructa network node based on the IEEE 1451 standards. The node can be applied in systems based on the client-server communication model The evaluation of the employed tools and expermental results are presented. © 2005 IEEE.