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Research on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) requires the substantial consideration of an experimental design, as well as a significant amount of time to practice the subject experiment. Recent technology in virtual reality (VR) can potentially address these time and effort challenges. The significant advantages of VR systems for HRI are: 1) cost reduction, as experimental facilities are not required in a real environment; 2) provision of the same environmental and embodied interaction conditions to test subjects; 3) visualization of arbitrary information and situations that cannot occur in reality, such as playback of past experiences, and 4) ease of access to an immersive and natural interface for robot/avatar teleoperations. Although VR tools with their features have been applied and developed in previous HRI research, all-encompassing tools or frameworks remain unavailable. In particular, the benefits of integration with cloud computing have not been comprehensively considered. Hence, the purpose of this study is to propose a research platform that can comprehensively provide the elements required for HRI research by integrating VR and cloud technologies. To realize a flexible and reusable system, we developed a real-time bridging mechanism between the robot operating system (ROS) and Unity. To confirm the feasibility of the system in a practical HRI scenario, we applied the proposed system to three case studies, including a robot competition named RoboCup@Home. via these case studies, we validated the system’s usefulness and its potential for the development and evaluation of social intelligence via multimodal HRI.

International audience; This paper presents a software platform tailored for prehensile manipulation planning named Humanoid Path Planner. The platform implements an original way of modeling manipulation planning through a constraint graph that represents the numerical constraints that define the manipulation problem. We propose an extension of the RRT algorithm to manipulation planning that is able to solve a large variety of problems. We provide replicable experimental results via a docker image that readers may download to run the experimental results by themselves.

BackgroundFinding relevant literature is crucial for many biomedical research activities and in the practice of evidence-based medicine. Search engines such as PubMed provide a means to search and retrieve published literature, given a query. However, they are limited in how users can control the processing of queries and articles—or as we call themdocuments—by the search engine. To give this control to both biomedical researchers and computer scientists working in biomedical information retrieval, we introduce a public online tool for searching over biomedical literature. Our setup is guided by the NIST setup of the relevant TREC evaluation tasks in genomics, clinical decision support, and precision medicine.ResultsTo provide benchmark results for some of the most common biomedical information retrieval strategies, such as querying MeSH subject headings with a specific weight or querying over the title of the articles only, we present our evaluations on public datasets. Our experiments report well-known information retrieval metrics such as precision at a cutoff of ranked documents.ConclusionsWe introduce the search andbenchmarkingtool which is publicly available for the researchers who want to explore different search strategies over published biomedical literature. We outline several query formulation strategies and present their evaluations with known human judgements for a large pool of topics, from genomics to precision medicine.

Part 1: Session 1; International audience; Software platforms offer a foundation for digital innovation and have the potential to take advantage of and leverage the knowledge and skills of distributed and diverse software organizations as ‘complementors’. Due to their location far away from platform owners, scarce resources, and limited capacity to hire and retain skilled human resources, organizations in developing countries typically face barriers for participating in digital innovation. This paper aims to improve our understanding of how these organizations can take part in digital innovation. The basis for our research is a case study of software organizations located in different developing countries and their role as complementors related to the DHIS2 software platform, a platform made for the public health sector in developing countries. We contribute by exploring and showing how these organizations differ along multiple dimensions, for instance, the maturity of their software development team, their relation to the platform owners, and their access to resources. Further, we identify and develop a taxonomy consisting of six different forms of digital innovation unfolding in the fringes of a software platform ecosystem and identify contextual factors influencing these different forms.

The population is getting old, and the use of technology has improved the quality of life of the senior population. This is confirmed by the increasing number of solutions targeting healthy and active ageing. Such solutions keep track of the daily routine of the elderly and combine it with other relevant information (e.g., biosignals, physical activity, social activity, nutrition) to help identify early signs of decline. Caregivers and elders use this information to improve their routine, focusing on improving the current condition. With that in mind, we have developed a software platform to support My-AHA, which is composed of a multi-platform middleware, a decision support system (DSS), and a dashboard. The middleware seamlessly merges data coming from multiple platforms targeting health and active ageing, the DSS performs an intelligent computation on top of the collected data, and the dashboard provides a user&rsquo, s interaction with the whole system. To show the potential of the proposed My-AHA software platform, we introduce the My Personal Dashboard web-based application over a frailty use case to illustrate how senior well-being can benefit from the use of technology.

The chaotic growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) determined a fragmented landscape with a huge number of devices, technologies and platforms available on the market, and the consequential issues of interoperability on many system deployments. The Web of Things (WoT) architecture recently proposed by the W3C consortium constitutes a novel solution to enable interoperability across IoT platforms and application domains. At the same time, in order to see an effective improvement, a wide adoption of the W3C WoT solutions from the academic and industrial communities is required; this translates into the need of well-defined and complete support tools easing the deployment of W3C WoT applications. In this paper, we meet such requirement by proposing the WoT Store , a novel platform for managing and easing the deployment of Things and applications on the W3C WoT. The WoT Store allows the dynamic discovery of the resources available in the environment, i.e. the Things, and to interact with each of them through a dashboard, by visualizing their properties, executing commands or observing the notifications produced. In addition, similar to popular app stores, the WoT Store allows the search and execution of third-party WoT applications that interact with the available Things again in a seamless way. We validate the operations of our framework with two evaluation studies. First, through a small-case testbed, we demonstrate the Thing discovery and the possibility to run WoT applications that orchestrate the operations of multiple, heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Second, through a mixed real/simulated large-scale crowdsensing scenario, we demonstrate the scalability of the platform, and the possibility to aggregate and visualize the data-streams produced by the WoT applications with minimal efforts for the users.

Waste collection is one of the targets of smart cities. It is a daily task in urban areas and it entails the planning of waste truck routes, taking into account environmental, economic and social factors. In this work, an optimal path planning algorithm has been developed together with a practical software platform for smart and sustainable cities that enables computing the optimal waste collection routes, minimizing the impact, both environmental (CO2 emissions and acoustic damage) and socioeconomic (number of trucks to be used and fuel consumption). The algorithm is executed in Net2Plan, an open-source planning tool, typically used for modeling and planning communication networks. Net2Plan facilitates the introduction of the city layout input information to the algorithm, automatically importing it from geographical information system (GIS) databases using the so-called Net2Plan-GIS library, which can also include positions of smart bins. The algorithm, Net2Plan tool and its extension are open-source, available in a public repository. A practical case in the city of Cartagena (Spain) is presented, where the optimal path planning for plastic waste collection is addressed. This work contributes to the urban mobility plans of smart cities and could be extended to other smart cities scenarios with requests of optimal path planning. This research was partially funded by the Spanish National Project ONOFRE-2, ref. TEC2017-84423-C3-2-P (MINECO/AEI/FEDER, UE), H2020 EU project ref. H2020-ICT-2016-2 (ID 761727) topic: ICT-7-2016 and Erasmus + Program of EU, ref. 575853-EPP-1-2016-1-ES-EPPKA2-SSA. This publication reflects the views only of the authors and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Thanks to A. Gómez-Martínez for his administrative and technical support.

This work presents a software platform to compute depth-integrated non-hydrostatic coastal and open channel flows. The software is based on the Vertically-Averaged and Moment (VAM) equations model. The VAM model uses the weighted residual method to account for the non-hydrostaticity and non-uniformity of flow. After presenting the governing equations, numerical scheme and structure of the graphical user interface, the software is applied to solve coastal and open channel flow tests with significant non-hydrostaticity and non-uniformity of flow. The results are compared with hydrostatic model computations and laboratory measurements. Where a hydrostatic-based simulation poorly reproduces experimental observations, the higher-order model equations by this software platform generate excellent predictions. These findings highlight the potential of this user-friendly software platform for modeling open channel, river and nearshore flows and processes, where non-hydrostatic pressure and non-uniform velocity shall be accounted for, which entails a meaningful advance for the hydraulic community., This work was supported by the research project CTM2017-85171-C2-1-R (Secretaría de Estado de I + D + i, Spain) and the research group AGR-127 (Junta de Andalucía). RB and FNCC were partly funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through Programa Juan de la Cierva 2017 (FJCI-2017-31781) and Programa Juan de la Cierva 2016 (FJCI-2016-28009), respectively.

Deploying a suitable open data platform is one of the most important requirements for succeeding in the provision of open data. Currently, there are several platforms available in the market ranging from the commercial ecosystem to free and open source software. However, we know less about the extent to which they are adopted and what they offer. This paper aims to provide a methodology to investigate this. The methodology is illustrated through studying adoption and use of open data software platforms through a comprehensive survey of 3,152 open data portals worldwide. We have identified 1,104 installations relying on the main existing platforms CKAN, Socrata, ArcGIS Open Data, and OpenDataSoft. To support our analysis, we have automatically fetched metadata about 1,921,636 stored datasets. Our findings indicated that there is a gap between the adoption and the effective use of open data platforms, particularly in terms of technology choice. These data are both from a descriptive and analytical point, non-trivial and showcase the relevance of the methodology. This work makes contributions regarding the development of methods to automatically survey open data platforms and provides insights about availability of open data portals based on the utilization of software platforms, organized by country and frequency of dataset updates.

In the article below the author describes best practices of his company's 25-years experience in the field of development and industrial implementation of complex corporate-level software systems for solutions to everyday production and planning tasks in water supply. All software systems described have been developed using the specialized CityCom™ platform that includes instrumentation tools not only for GIS-based inventory and hydro-modeling but also for dispatch management, accident localization control, providing events logs & analysis (flow parameters, damages, works, machinery usage, diagnostics), planning of capital repairs and etc. The basic principle underlying the software systems provided is the main tenet of informatics science: any data has to be identified and stored only once and in one place. So all of the CityCom™ corporate-level projects use a single corporate database that consist of hundreds of tables where all the data is stored in accordance with the above-mentioned principle. The feature of CityCom™ that appears to be most in demand is the ability to perform hydraulic modeling with no limits imposed on the following parameters: network dimension, number of loops, number of sources and pump stations working simultaneously. However, a key feature of CityCom™ hydro-modeling instrumentation is that it can be used not as «standalone» application but as an integral part of a complex system combining all aspects of water-supply enterprise data modeling solution. The economic advantages of its implementation are ensured by: - optimizing of pipeline networks topology and parameters (reconstructions and switching); - optimizing of hydraulic modes according to diurnal fluctuations of water consumption (dispatching of current switches and pump stations control); - reducing the number of accidents as well as defects and damages (10-12% per year during the first 5-6 years, then stabilizing) and as a result, reducing the cost of repairs; - reducing of potable water loss down to 5..6% of water supply volume; - improving ergonomics and staff productivity. All implementations for water supply and sewerage systems are located in Russia. Largest of them in terms of scale are in the cities (population / pipelines network length): Nizhny Novgorod (1.300.000/5.000 km), Novokuznetsk (550.000/1.800 km), Naberezhnye Chelny (530.000/ 1.400 km), Yoshkar-Ola (270.000/1.300 km). Payback of expenses for implementation of the above has made from 2 to 5 years.

This paper proposes a new software platform to control and monitor a squad of unmanned vehicles. Through the use of an open-source flight controller and an on-board Raspberry Pi it is possible to create a system that enables communication between a remote ground control stations (GCS) and a unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Both are connected through the use of wireless and cellular networks like Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G which have the required support to allow for communication beyond line of sight.

The CitScale tool is a software platform for visualizing, analyzing and comparing the impacts of new mobility concepts in urban models with special emphasis on new automotive vehicles or those based on innovative mobility concepts aimed at reducing environmental impacts. CitScale is simulation software agnostic. Using traffic simulation techniques requires executing multiple independent replications for each scenario in an experimental design, and each replication generates a huge amount of data that is not easy to analyze or compare. The analysis and comparison of experiments and scenarios is based on global, link-based and path-based key performance indicators from the perspective of users and mobility authorities while covering the scope of driver-type and transport mode.

The design of manufacturing systems is a critical task to be addressed throughout the factory life-cycle phases, including the early design, detailed design, ramp-up, reconfiguration, and monitoring. An efficient and effective system design platform may have a relevant impact on the profitability of industrial companies facing these challenges. Although several commercial applications are available for supporting different activities within the manufacturing system design and operation these stand-alone tools are usually supplied by different software vendors and cannot be easily integrated, thus entailing a massive and time-consuming integration effort. This paper proposes the integration of heterogeneous software tools supporting factory design activities over a common platform. A virtual factory environment, based on a shared data model providing to all the applications a common language to exchange data, is developed. A test case is presented that shows the integration of five methods and the related software tools to support different activities for the design of a manufacturing production line, hence the benefits derived by the application of this integrated approach in industry. © 2013 The Authors.

A novel interactive software platform is proposed to support design and development for PSE. It has been implemented to address the statistical validation of structural partitioning methods. According to several features given as model parameters, it produces incidence matrices whose structural partitioning can lead to a more efficient resolution of such models. The global objective is to generate automatically an arbitrary number of incidence matrices, shaped on the basis of statistical parameters associated with real-world PSE models. Then, partitioning methods can be executed on the generated matrices. Computational results for several problem instances are reported. Realistic cases were chosen by increasing the model-complexity level: a standard distillation column and an ammonia synthesis plant. In particular, the Direct Method, the Extended Direct Method and the Improved Extended Direct Method (IEDM) were evaluated. In comparison, the IEDM exhibited statistically significant enhancements of efficiency values for the resolution of the corresponding models. Fil: Xamena, Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Laboratorio de Investigación y Desarrollo en Computación Científica; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Laboratorio de Investigación y Desarrollo en Inteligencia Artificial; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas; Argentina Fil: Maguitman, Ana Gabriela. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Laboratorio de Investigación y Desarrollo en Inteligencia Artificial; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Brignole, Nélida Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Laboratorio de Investigación y Desarrollo en Computación Científica; Argentina

International audience; Smart Home market players aim to deploy component-based and service-oriented applications from untrusted third party providers on a single OSGi execution environment. This creates the risk of resource abuse by buggy and malicious applications, which raises the need for resource monitoring mechanisms. Existing resource monitoring solutions either are too intrusive or fail to identify the relevant resource consumer in numerous multi-tenant situations. This paper proposes a system to monitor the memory consumed by each tenant, while allowing them to continue communicating di-rectly to render services. We propose a solution based on a list of configurable resource accounting rules between tenants, which is far less intrusive than existing OSGi monitoring sys-tems. We modified an experimental Java Virtual Machine in order to provide the memory monitoring features for the multi-tenant OSGi environment. Our evaluation of the mem-ory monitoring mechanism on the DaCapo benchmarks shows an overhead below 46%.

International audience; In this paper, we have presented FrameKit, a software platform dedicated to the rapid prototyping of CASE environment. FrameKit architecture is similar to the ECMA reference model. It focuses on the quick definition of new graphical representations, handled by a generic user interface. FrameKit also contains a development kit composed of program libraries in various languages (C, Ada and Unix shell). This eases both the implementation and integration of new tools. FrameKit also has good capabilities to integrate software components that were not especially designed for it. FrameKit is operational and we have used it to build the CPN-AMI 2.0 CASE environment that implements a design methodology for distributed systems. To achieve it, we had to describe three formalisms (one is hierarchical) and register the services of a dozen tools. The first version, released on Internet in the first quarter of 1997 () is quite satisfactory. We plan to enrich it with new mechanisms to ease the quick design of code generators as well as model simulators.

The present article introduces a holistic approach to ship design, as it is being developed in the Horizon 2020 EU project HOLISHIP (www.holiship.eu). The project deals with the development of design and virtual prototyping simulation platforms, which integrate software tools for all major ship design disciplines and optimization objectives, namely, building and operational cost, energy efficiency, safety, environmental footprint, and life cycle cost/impact assessment. It enables the seamless mathematical multi-objective optimization of ship design with governing design constraints and the exploration of the huge design space by parametric modeling of the ship design system and its components. The article outlines the integration of the essential software tools into the software platform and demonstrates the functionality and benefits of the HOLISHIP approach by brief presentations of typical case studies. Introduction The pattern of seaborne trade and goods transportation is changing, and so do the vessels of transportation. They need to adapt to changes in customer and market requirements, changes in cargo types and volumes, and new legislation for the safety of ships and the protection of the marine/aerial environment. Increased requirements for energy efficiency and the control of GHG emissions and the inherent uncertainties regarding fuel cost and future types of marine fuels pose extra challenges. This calls for significant advances in the approach to ship design and operation to meet continuously changing requirements over ship’s life cycle by holistic, efficient, and easy-to-use design procedures and software systems.

The DARE platform has been designed to help research developers deliver user-facing applications and solutions over diverse underlying e-infrastructures, data and computational contexts. The platform is Cloud-ready, and relies on the exposure of APIs, which are suitable for raising the abstraction level and hiding complexity. At its core, the platform implements the cataloguing and execution of fine-grained and Python-based dispel4py workflows as services. Reflection is achieved via a logical knowledge base, comprising multiple internal catalogues, registries and semantics, while it supports persistent and pervasive data provenance. This paper presents design and implementation aspects of the DARE platform, as well as it provides directions for future development.