We are close to the point where new types of automated routines and software applications could operate independently of direct human control to carry out prescribed tasks. Helping us arrive, researchers have designed a model that supports the development of applications constructed from mobile sentient objects.
Firstly though, developers need to overcome the shortcomings of current architectures and middleware, which are still largely based on sequential programming models. The CORTEX project aimed to overcome such obstacles, and to explore the fundamental theoretical and engineering issues involved in supporting the use of ‘sentient objects’.
“On the one hand we have classical control systems that are programmed in a strictly sequential manner to respond to a precisely-defined sequence of events,” says project coordinator Paulo Veríssimo of the University of Lisbon. “On the other, we have the outside world where environments interact and little can be predicted with certainty. If we are to construct highly interactive things like mobile robots, wearable devices that can react intelligently to their environment, augmented-reality systems, etc., we need to know how to programme these applications.”
The project aimed to design a programming model for applications constructed from mobile sentient objects. The participants have successfully designed a programming model to underpin the development of mobile and self-aware or sentient applications. They produced an open, scalable system architecture that provides mappings for various network types, from controller area networks (CAN) through LANs to WANs, especially those based on wireless communications technologies. They also prototyped the middleware needed to support the model by providing the protocols and services required to support these sentient objects.
The CORTEX participants developed several prototype demonstrators to show off the project results including one that showed how robotic devices could dynamically subscribe and unsubscribe from information resources as either information providers or information users. Generally, individual mobile robots are unable to assess their immediate environmental surroundings just from local sensors – they need to cooperate with others. In the demonstration an external supervisory system monitored their actions and showed how the knowledge-base of each individual robot expanded via this cooperation with others.
The cooperating cars demonstration showed how vehicles could communicate with each other and react to each others’ movements to avoid accidents. The participants set up a simulated traffic crossroads with a series of model cars approaching the junction at different speeds. By enabling the models to communicate and interact with each other using wireless links, the cars could cross the junction in a continuous stream yet were always able to avoid a collision, usually by slight adjustments of their speed at the approach to the crossroads. The same techniques can be applied to trains, to aircraft and to other forms of transport, believes Veríssimo.
In order to thoroughly test safety-critical systems, it is usually necessary to deploy and test the actions of the final hardware devices, as well testing the software. However, in many large-scale applications, for example vehicles approaching a road intersection, such testing can not only be prohibitively expensive, it can also become quite dangerous! The project participants therefore developed, and successfully demonstrated, a software framework to emulate real environments for testing safety-critical or safety-related applications. This framework was designed specifically to complement traditional software engineering methodologies, such as formal methods for the specification, development and verification of software and hardware system redundancy.
“We gave these applications context-awareness, enabling them to understand what is going on in their immediate surroundings. For example a robot that could go into a rescue area without prior knowledge of the area and its surroundings,” says Veríssimo. “Applications like these are able to cooperate to analyse – autonomously – their environment, and react accordingly.”
The project results are being fed into a new initiative, HIDENETS, starting January 2006, which will involve an in-car electronics manufacturer (CARMEQ), industrial giant Fujitsu-Siemens and Telenor, a major Norwegian telecommunications company, in developing resilient end-to-end solutions for distributed applications.
Source:
IST Results
Related stories:
Q & A with John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla Corp.
John Lilly became chief executive of Mozilla Corp. in January, moving up from his role as chief operating officer. He's been with the company that created the open-source Firefox browser since 2005, the year Firefox 1.5 was released.
Is This The HTC Dream- Android or An Anamorphic Inside Joke
The Dream by HTC seems headed to T-Mobile. Dream will be the first Google Android mobile device to hit the US market and mystery surrounds its actual appearance. Some spy-shots appeared out of nowhere and Engadget, Phonemag and other bloggers are pretty much convinced it is the infamous Dream/Android phone. For sure, Dream cleared the FCC and it is a dual WiFi 802.11b/g and cellular phone.
Pervasive games promise to spice up daily life
(PhysOrg.com) -- In the movie The Game, the character is hounded by villains and left for dead in Mexico in an intense version of an alternative reality game. Minus the Hollywood bravado, games that merge the virtual with the real could be the next entertainment revolution, helped by European researchers.
Toshiba Unveils New World's Highest Capacity 1.8-inch HDD
Toshiba Corp. today announced the world's first dual-platter 240GB HDD (MK2431GAH). The new drive delivers the highest capacity and areal density in the 1.8-inch drive category for integration into portable media players, camcorders and mobile PCs.
'Virtuality' gets real
(PhysOrg.com) -- Up to now virtual reality has proved cumbersome as a design tool, but European researchers are finalising a system that brings ‘virtuality’ to the wider world.
Toshiba Launches 400GB 2.5-inch HDD Introduces New Line-up of 7,200rpm Drives
Toshiba today announced a new line-up of high performance 2.5-inch HDDs, including a low-noise flagship model that boosts areal density to 477Mbit/mm2 (308Gbpsi) to achieve a capacity of 400GB on just two platters, plus five drives that bring new levels of performance and 7,200rpm rotational speeds to the company’s full range of storage capacities.
For Toy-Like NASA Robots in Arctic, Ice Research Is Child's Play
Several snowmobiles navigated speedily over arctic ice and snow in Alaska's outback in late June. This scene might seem ordinary except that the recently unveiled snowmobiles are unmanned, autonomous, toy-size robots called SnoMotes – the first prototype network of their kind envisioned to rove treacherous areas of the Arctic and Antarctic capturing more accurate measurements that will help scientists better understand what is causing the well-documented melting of ice in those regions.
Experimental phone network uses virtual sticky notes
The rapid convergence of social networks, mobile phones and global positioning technology has given Duke University engineers the ability to create something they call "virtual sticky notes," site-specific messages that people can leave for others to pick up on their mobile phones.