Computer Aided Prototyping System Research Articles

Research on integrated product service system driven by customer value based on ontology technology

PurposeWith the customers’ increasing expectation on the product value, manufacturing enterprises around the world have made significant efforts to provide high value-added services in addition to their traditional product development and manufacturing business. For this reason, it is of great importance to research product service system. The purpose of this paper is to research on the key problem of integrated product service system (IPSS) design.Design/methodology/approachA value-oriented IPSS is developed, which is set up based on “requirements-functions-processes-structures” mapping model to give full consideration to customer value and service functions. An extended product-service blueprint, which stems from the service blueprint, is developed to describe product behaviors, service deliver processes, stakeholders’ activities and supporting activities. An ontology-based design support system is proposed to improve design efficiency and help designers making better-informed decisions. A computer-aided prototype system has been developed, and an initial attempt has been made to demonstrate the role of IPSS in the aerospace industry.FindingsMany traditional design methods cannot effectively address the objects and processes integration problem of products and services. Moreover, both product and service should be considered in IPSS design, and both of them extremely depend on designers’ own experience and knowledge. Thus, a broader range of knowledge is required to understand product-service system (PSS) design.Research limitations/implicationsThis research provides a solid foundation for PSS C and promotes an effective means for PSS design.Originality/valueA customer value-oriented IPSS is presented. Customer requirements are considered during the design phase of PSS as well as both product and service knowledge.

Computer-aided prototype system for nose surgery.

Rhinoplasty, or surgery to reshape the nose, is one of the most common of all plastic-surgery procedures. Rhinoplasty can enhance a patient's appearance and self-confidence, may also correct a birth defect or injury, or help relieve some breathing problem. In this paper, we present a three-dimensional (3-D) surgical simulation system, which can assist surgeons in planning rhinoplasty procedures. This system employs computer graphics and image-processing techniques for the simulation of a rhinoplasty. Although the presented algorithms themselves are not new, the proposed system exploits the new idea to apply 3-D morphing for rhinoplasty, and simulation results are useful for the physicians. According to patients' expectation of what they would like their noses to look like, our system simulates expected results. Our tools provide quantitative measurements of a nose structure. Using these quantitative results, surgeons can arrange appropriate preoperative plans for patients. Finally, experimental results and experiences are reported to evaluate the usefulness of the proposed system.

Research on computer-aided prototyping system and software evolution

This paper presents a survey on the status of current research on software evolution and computeraided prototyping system; and also puts forward extension on computer-aided software evolution and prototyping, to provide a framework for integrating software evolution activities.

Architectural Re-engineering of Janus using Object Modeling and Rapid Prototyping

This paper describes a case study to determine whether computer-aided prototyping techniques provide a cost-effective means for re-engineering legacy software. The case study consists of developing an object-oriented modular architecture for the existing US Army Janus combat simulation system, and validating the architecture via an executable prototype using the Computer Aided Prototyping System (CAPS), a research tool developed at the Naval Postgraduate School. The case study showed that prototyping can be a valuable aid in the re-engineering of legacy systems, particularly in cases where radical changes to system conceptualization and software structure are needed. The CAPS system enabled us to do this with a minimal amount of coding effort.

Dynamic Task Monitoring

When presented with the problem of scheduling a real-time task set many timing impediments may manifest themselves. This is especially evident when developing tasks within a prototyping environment. For example, the Computer Aided Prototyping System (CAPS) software [Luqi] development environment provides limited monitoring techniques for real-time task execution timing. These techniques are restricted to typical error messages which are present upon execution failure. This approach necessitates that the software system designer presumes a task set execution time.This paper focuses upon the examination and feedback of fine grain execution timing data useful for task scheduling. This work was accomplished through the development of a program to perform true dynamic run time data collection. The collected data is representative of a typical task set execution exhibited within a real-time environment. The results of developing an accurate and efficient real-time task execution monitoring program which assists in overcoming the problem of task run time prediction are presented in this paper.

The Story of Re-engineering 350,000 Lines of FORTRAN Code

This paper describes a case study to determine whether computer-aided prototyping techniques provide a cost-effective means for re-engineering legacy software. The case study consists of developing a high-level modular architecture for the existing US Army Janus combat simulation system, and validating the architecture via an executable prototype using the Computer Aided Prototyping System (CAPS), a research tool developed at the Naval Postgraduate School. The case study showed that prototyping can be a valuable aid in re-engineering of legacy systems, particularly in cases where radical changes to system conceptualization and software structure are needed. The CAPS system enabled us to do this with a minimal amount of coding effort.

Real-time scheduling for software prototyping

This paper presents several real-time scheduling algorithms developed to support rapid prototyping of embedded systems using the Computer Aided Prototyping System (CAPS). The CAPS tools are based on the Prototyping System Description Language (PSDL), which is a high-level language designed specifically to support the conceptual modeling of real-time embedded systems. This paper describes the scheduling algorithms used in CAPS along with the associated timing constraint and hardware models, which include single and multi-processor configurations.

A model-based computer-aided prototyping system

Computer aided prototyping systems which allow application domain experts to compose prototypes using domain specific components, semantics, and primitives can reduce the time and effort needed for prototyping considerably.

Software merge: Combining changes to decompositions

Computer aid for software evolution is needed for more effective software development, particularly in contexts where changes to large systems must be made rapidly. This paper addresses computer aid for the evolution of requirements models and high level software designs. We present an improved method for automatically merging changes to software designs expressed via annotated dataflow diagrams and hierarchical decomposition. This improvement addresses the structure of the design as well as the system behavior the design implies. We also present an improved method for automatically reporting and repairing conflicts between structural changes. These methods can be applied to the informal dataflow diagrams commonly used in requirements modeling and software design as well as to the more specific executable design representations used in the computer-aided prototyping system CAPS.

An intelligent assistant for requirements validation

The process of determining user requirements for software systems is often plagued with uncertainty, ambiguity, and inconsistency. Rapid prototyping offers an iterative approach to requirements engineering that can be used to alleviate some of the problems with communication and understanding. Since the systems development process is characterized by changing requirements and assumptions, involving multiple stakeholders with often differing viewpoints, it is beneficial to capture the justifications for the decisions in the development process in a structured manner. Thisdesign rationale captured during requirements engineering can be used in conjunction with the rapid prototyping process to support various stakeholders involved in systems development. CAPS (the Computer Aided Prototyping System) has been built to help software engineers rapidly construct prototypes of proposed software systems. REMAP (Representation and MAintenance of Process knowledge) provides a conceptual model and mechanisms to represent and reason with (design) rationale knowledge. In this paper, we describe how in the context of evolving requirements, the CAPS system augmented with REMAP helps firm up software requirements through iterative negotiations via examination of executable prototypes and reasoning with design rationale knowledge.

HOW TO COMBINE NONMONOTONIC LOGIC AND RAPID PROTOTYPING TO HELP MAINTAIN SOFTWARE

This paper explores the possibility of automated support for detecting inconsistencies in software systems and requirements. The inconsistencies are introduced when the environment of the software system changes. We refer to the software environment as its context. We review the recent research progress on nonmonotonic logics, pointing out the significance of these results to software maintenance. We explain how a practical implementation of such logics can be obtained via a simple extension to logic programming in the form of an answer procedure that realizes the Extended Logic Semantics [7] for nonmonotonic logic programs that have a unique answer set (which is a large and useful class of logic programs). We augment the existing automated capabilities of the Computer-Aided Prototyping System (CAPS) for rapid prototyping via the extension to logic programming to provide an improved automated capability for detecting certain kinds of inconsistencies created by implicit requirements changes. We illustrate the significance of this capability via an example prototype for a problem originally suggested by Lehman.

Real-time constraints in a rapid prototyping language

This paper presents real-time constraints of a prototyping language and some mechanisms for handling these constraints in rapidly prototyping embedded systems. Rapid prototyping of embedded systems can be accomplished using a Computer Aided Prototyping System (CAPS) and its associated Prototyping Language (PSDL) to aid the designer in handling hard real-time constraints. The language models time critical operations with maximum execution times, maximum response times and minimum periods. The mechanisms for expressing timing constraints in PSDL are described along with their meanings relative to a series of hardware models which include multi-processor configurations. We also describe a language construct for specifying the policies governing real-time behavior under overload conditions.

A computer-aided prototype system for NC rough milling of free-form shaped mechanical part-pieces

A prototype computer-aided manufacturing module for rough milling of free-form mechanical moulds is proposed. The system allows direct modelling of the shape of the material to be removed, by starting from the geometry of the stock and of the final part-piece. A modelling engine, based on rational bivariate and trivariate tensor-product B-spline patches, was developed to ensure complete geometric coverage, allowing common analytic geometric items such as planes, quadrics, and blocks to be exactly modelled. Methods for the evolution of the milling layers, the choice of isoparametric NC tool-paths and their piecewise approximation are proposed; the procedures work in the context of three-axis machining by end-mill cutters. Technological considerations about the main cutting force the follow: it results that fine tuning of the milling feed rate can be computed by geometric evaluation of the depth and width of cut. To demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, an application example concerning mould manufacturing is reported.

CASE tool for reusable software component storage and retrieval in rapid prototyping

Rapid prototyping has become an accepted software development method to construct and adapt software, validate and refine requirements, and check the consistency of proposed designs rapidly. A computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool is described that is used in conjunction with the Computer Aided Prototyping System (CAPS), which will retrieve reusable components from a software base using a given specification. The specification language used is the Prototype System Description Language (PSDL). Reusable Ada components will be stored in an object-oriented database management system with an appropriate PSDL specification. Each component's PSDL specification will be normalized to facilitate search retrieval. The database architecture, specification normalization, and matching techniques are described.

THE ROLE OF PROTOTYPING LANGUAGES IN CASE

Prototyping languages form a new category in the computer language family. They are different from the commonly familiar computer languages because they are used to support a higher level of automation at early phases of software development as well as throughout the entire process. They are used to create mechanically processable and executable descriptions or models of proposed software systems. Prototyping languages are also used to firm up requirements via frequent modifications and demonstrations of the models in an iterative process of prototype evolution. The benefits of a prototyping language are fully realized when it is used with its computer-aided prototyping system (CAPS). In this paper, we describe the background, requirements, characteristics, computational features, and general principles for the design of prototyping languages. An example of a prototyping language design is used to illustrate these concepts.

Graphical tool for computer-aided prototyping

The basic problem in rapid prototyping of software is information overload. Graphic interfaces can help by providing multiple views, where each view is limited to providing information relevant to a particular task or problem. The graphical editor under development for the Computer Aided Prototyping System (CAPS) proposes a dataflow-diagram-based model with multiple views and automatic program generation to manage the quantity of information necessary to prototype large, real-time systems.

A computer-aided prototyping system

A description is given of an approach to rapid prototyping that uses a specification language (the Prototype-System Description Language, PSDL) integrated with a set of software tools. including an execution support system, a rewrite system, a syntax-directed editor with graphics capabilities, a software base, a design database, and a design-management system. The prototyping language lets the designer use dataflow diagrams with nonprocedural control constraints as part of the specification of a hierarchically structured prototype. The resulting description is free from programming-level details, in contrast to prototypes constructed with a programming language. The discussion covers the language and method, rewrite subsystem, design manager, software base, and execution support. >

Knowledge-based support for rapid software prototyping

The authors discusses the computer-aided prototyping system's knowledge base and shows how to apply expert-system technology to the software base management subsystem responsible for finding reusable software components with specified properties. She uses rapid prototyping techniques to allow the detection and correlation of requirement errors early in development. The goal is to automate support for analyzing new problem domains rather than automating the generation of many similar systems in well-understood problem domains. For this reason, the author addresses a general purpose computer-aided prototyping system rather than specialized application generators. The discussion focuses on retrieval strategies, declarative knowledge, and transformations. >