Object-oriented systems: An annotated bibliography
A comprehensive annotated bibliography of journal publications, conference publications, and books related to object-oriented systems is discussed.
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A comprehensive annotated bibliography of journal publications, conference publications, and books related to object-oriented systems is discussed.
Object Oriented Development (OOD) is one of the extremely few software development methods actually designed for modern Ada language, real-time, embedded applications. OOD is a significant improvement over more traditional functional decomposition and modeling methods in that ODD: Better manages the size, complexity, and concurrancy of today's systems; Better addresses important software engineering principles such as abstract data types, levels of abstraction, and information hiding; Produces a better design that more closely matches reality; Produces more maintainable software by better localizing data and thus limiting the impact of requirements changes; and Specifically exploits the power of Ada. OOD is further explored in detail.
The Choices family of operating systems exploits class hierarchies and object-oriented programming to facilitate the construction of customized operating systems for shared memory and networked multiprocessors. The software is being used in the Tapestry laboratory to study the performance of algorithms, mechanisms, and policies for parallel systems. Described here are the architectural design and class hierarchy of the Choices virtual memory management system. The software and hardware mechanisms and policies of a virtual memory system implement a memory hierarchy that exploits the trade-off between response times and storage capacities. In Choices, the notion of a memory hierarchy is captured by abstract classes. Concrete subclasses of those abstractions implement a virtual address space, segmentation, paging, physical memory management, secondary storage, and remote (that is, networked) storage. Captured in the notion of a memory hierarchy are classes that represent memory objects. These classes provide a storage mechanism that contains encapsulated data and have methods to read or write the memory object. Each of these classes provides specializations to represent the memory hierarchy.
We discuss denotational semantics of object-oriented languages, using the concept of closure widely used in (semi) functional programming to encapsulate side effects. It is shown that this denotational framework is adequate to explain classes, instantiation, and inheritance in the style of Simula as well as SMALLTALK-80. This framework is then compared with that of Kamin, in his recent denotational definition of SMALLTALK-80, and the implications of the differences between the two approaches are discussed.
An analysis of CO and CS line observations shows that RNO 43 and B335 are single highly collimated bipolar flows oriented nearly in the plane of the sky. The angle between the line of sight and the flow axis is estimated to be 85 deg in RNO 43 and 82 deg in B335. The results indicate that each of these flows must have a significant expansion velocity perpendicular to its axis, and that the flow in B335 must be driven by a mostly nonmolecular wind component.
Orientation-dependent techniques for the identification of a three-dimensional object by a machine vision system are represented in parts. In the first part, the data consist of intensity images of polyhedral objects obtained by a single camera, while in the second part, the data consist of range images of curved objects obtained by a laser scanner. In both cases, the attributed graphic representation of the object surface is used to drive the respective algorithm. In this representation, a graph node represents a surface patch and a link represents the adjacency between two patches. The attributes assigned to nodes are moment invariants of the corresponding face for polyhedral objects. For range images, the Gaussian curvature is used as a segmentation criterion for providing symbolic shape attributes. Identification is achieved by an efficient graph-matching algorithm used to match the graph obtained from the data to a subgraph of one of the model graphs stored in the commputer memory.
Ninety male and female college students reclining on their backs in the dark were disoriented when positioned on a rotating platform under a slowly rotating disk that filled their entire visual field. Half of the disk was painted with a brighter value (about 69 percent higher luminance level) of the color on the other half. The effects of red, blue, and yellow were examined. Subjects wearing frosted goggles viewed the illuminated disk for three rotations. The disk was stopped when the subjects felt that they were right side up. A significant proportion of subjects selected the disk position in which the brighter side of each of the three colors filled their upper visual field. These results suggest that color brightness as well as lighting variation could provide Space Station crew members with body orientation cues as they move around.
The denotational semantics of object-oriented languages is discussed using the concept of closure widely used in (semi) functional programming to encapsulate side effects. It is shown that this denotational framework is adequate to explain classes, instantiation, and inheritance in the style of Simula as well as SMALLTALK-80. This framework is then compared with that of Kamin (1988), in his recent denotational definition of SMALLTALK-80, and the implications of the differences between the two approaches are discussed.
A description is given of the development of a fault-tree analysis method using object-oriented programming. In addition, the authors discuss the programs that have been developed or are under development to connect a fault-tree analysis routine to a reliability database. To assess the performance of the routines, a relational database simulating one of the nuclear power industry databases has been constructed. For a realistic assessment of the results of this project, the use of one of existing nuclear power reliability databases is planned.
The scattering phase function and the degree of linear polarization for small crystals oriented randomly in space have been computed using the geometric ray tracing theory and assuming that the crystals are homogeneous and isotropic. Calculations have been carried out for the main crystal geometries. Detection of halos from crystals other than hexagonal water ice is briefly discussed. The crystal size and shape parameters have also been averaged over some simple distributions in order to examine general light scattering properties of sharp-edged particles. A scalar physical optics correction has been developed for the geometric optics phase functions. Results can be applied to light scattering from regoliths and planetary rings, and possibly also to atmospheric halos. Retroreflecting crystals in the regolith would cause an opposition spike, a phenomenon observed for many bright satellites.
Class of globally stable laws for control of orientation of rigid body established. Tradeoffs made among complexity, performance, and information available for mathematical models. New approach involves use of globally nonsingular four-parameter unit-quaternion (Euler-parameter) representation. Attitude dynamics described by nonlinear Euler equation together with nonlinear kinematic equations, which relate representation of attitude to angular velocity of body. Suitable energy-motivated Lyapunov function to analyze stability.
An overview is given of work in progress aimed at developing computational algorithms addressing two important aspects in the control of large flexible space structures; namely, the selection and placement of sensors and actuators, and the resulting multivariable control law design problem. The issue of sensor/actuator set selection is particularly crucial to obtaining a satisfactory control design, as clearly a poor choice will inherently limit the degree to which good control can be achieved. With regard to control law design, the researchers are driven by concerns stemming from the practical issues associated with eventual implementation of multivariable control laws, such as reliability, limit protection, multimode operation, sampling rate selection, processor throughput, etc. Naturally, the burden imposed by dealing with these aspects of the problem can be reduced by ensuring that the complexity of the compensator is minimized. Our approach to these problems is based on extensions to input/output oriented techniques that have proven useful in the design of multivariable control systems for aircraft engines. In particular, researchers are exploring the use of relative gain analysis and the condition number as a means of quantifying the process of sensor/actuator selection and placement for shape control of a large space platform.
Acoustic energy is applied to a pair of locations spaced about a chamber, to control rotation of an object levitated in the chamber. Two acoustic transducers applying energy of a single acoustic mode, one at each location, can (one or both) serve to levitate the object in three dimensions as well as control its rotation. Slow rotation is achieved by initially establishing a large phase difference and/or pressure ratio of the acoustic waves, which is sufficient to turn the object by more than 45 deg, which is immediately followed by reducing the phase difference and/or pressure ratio to maintain slow rotation. A small phase difference and/or pressure ratio enables control of the angular orientation of the object without rotating it. The sphericity of an object can be measured by its response to the acoustic energy.
The Transportable Applications Environment Plus (TAE Plus), developed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, is a portable User Interface Management System (UIMS), which provides an intuitive WYSIWYG WorkBench for prototyping and designing an application's user interface, integrated with tools for efficiently implementing the designed user interface and effective management of the user interface during an application's active domain. During the development of TAE Plus, many design and implementation decisions were based on the state-of-the-art within graphics workstations, windowing system and object-oriented programming languages. Some of the problems and issues experienced during implementation are discussed. A description of the next development steps planned for TAE Plus is also given.
Induction motors have always been known for their simple rugged construction, but until lately were not suitable for variable speed or servo drives due to the inherent complexity of the controls. With the advent of field oriented control (FOC), however, the induction motor has become an attractive option for these types of drive systems. An FOC system which utilizes the pulse population modulation method to synthesize the motor drive frequencies is examined. This system allows for a variable voltage to frequency ratio and enables the user to have independent control of both the speed and torque of an induction motor. A second generation of the control boards were developed and tested with the next point of focus being the minimization of the size and complexity of these controls. Many options were considered with the best approach being the use of a digital signal processor (DSP) due to its inherent ability to quickly evaluate control algorithms. The present test results of the system and the status of the optimization process using a DSP are discussed.
Spaceborne computing systems must provide reliable, continuous operation for extended periods. Due to weight, power, and volume constraints, these systems must manage resources very effectively. A fault diagnosis algorithm is described which enables fast and flexible diagnoses in the dynamic distributed computing environments planned for future space missions. The algorithm uses a knowledge base that is easily changed and updated to reflect current system status. Augmented fault trees represented in an object-oriented form provide deep system knowledge that is easy to access and revise as a system changes. Given such a fault tree, a set of failure events that have occurred, and a set of failure events that have not occurred, this diagnosis system uses forward and backward chaining to propagate causal and temporal information about other failure events in the system being diagnosed. Once the system has established temporal and causal constraints, it reasons backward from heuristically selected failure events to find a set of basic failure events which are a likely cause of the occurrence of the top failure event in the fault tree. The diagnosis system has been implemented in common LISP using Flavors.
A great deal of attention has recently been given to Artificial Intelligence research in the area of computer aided diagnostics. Due to the dynamic and complex nature of space shuttle red-line parameters, a research effort is under way to develop a real time diagnostic tool that will employ historical and engineering rulebases as well as a sensor validity checking. The capability of AI software development tools (KEE and G2) will be explored by applying object oriented programming techniques in accomplishing the diagnostic evaluation.
Grain oriented fabrication of ceramics utilizes the presence of some form of anisotropy in the particles of the starting material to obtain textured microstructures. The molten salt, or flux method, a popular technique for growing crystals and particles with anisotropic morphology, is utilized in this study. The formation of Ba2YCu3O(7-x) in the presence of molten salts of Na, K, Li belonging to chloride and sulfate systems does not appear feasible in the temperature range up to 900 C. Researchers also present the results of studies in using BaY2CuO5 as seed crystals in the formation of Ba2YCu3O(7-x) wherein BaY2CuO5 has been observed to have better stability in water and against most of the salts as compared to Ba2YCu3O(7-x). Additional results of molten salt processing of bismuth systems are also presented.