Program Development System Research Articles

Next generation functional test program development system

While superior-quality functional board test has been a goal for most high reliability electronics manufacturers, the time and effort for generating such test programs using today's tools and processes makes this difficult to achieve in a cost effective manner. This paper will introduce a revolutionary approach to functional board test program development that combines the comprehensiveness of software-based simulation with the speed and simplicity of hardware emulation. The result is a functional Test Program Set development system that can produce high fault coverage, diagnostic test programs in a fraction of the time it takes using traditional techniques, and at a lower unit cost. In this paper we will first provide a brief background on the strengths and weaknesses of current software and hardware TPS development techniques-simulation hot mock-up. Next, the new approach is described in detail and contrasted against the existing techniques. Finally, actual experience to date using a prototyped system is presented.

Partial completion of equational theories

In this paper, the notion of partial completion of equational theories is proposed, which is a procedure to construct a confluent term rewriting system from an equational theory without requirement of termination condition. A partial completion algorithm is presented with a brief description of its application in a program development system.

Synergism of high and low level systems for the efficient management of greenhouses

The advantages of using artificial intelligence (AI) decision support tools in synergism with low level process controllers or schedulers are investigated in this paper. The development of a modern control and management system for greenhouses used recent advances in software design, and development tools, to provide an open system for rapid program development. To effectively integrate expert system applications in a control and management system, an environment was built that supports all required interfaces between AI applications and the greenhouse management system (GMS). This environment incorporates a native fuzzy knowledge based system (KBS) and a number of procedural control functions, in the GMS, that can effectively interact. The programmable logic controller (PLC) houses all well-known control function blocks, in library form, callable to implement various control loop designs. Functions that have not been foreseen in the PLC control library can be instantly implemented using the open KBS system. The innovative addition of integral initial conditions on a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller, for repetitive load switching applications, is an example, demonstrated in this paper. The usefulness of other control blocks such as a self-adjusting Smith predictor is also tested for a real application of a mixing process with long dead time. Synergism of fuzzy decisions and fuzzy controllers, at the supervisory level, with low level process regulators provide adaptive systems, which can optimize both long-term objectives and the short time dynamic responses.

Decision procedures of automated system for inspection program development

Fatigue failure probability of airframe depends on unknown distribution parameters of fatigue crack growth model. The parameters should be estimated by processing of airframe full-scale fatigue test results. A definition of p-set function as specific statistical decision function is introduced. The use of the function, which defines some p-set for random vector, provides limitation of supremum of failure probability (as a function of unknown parameter) instead of dubious compromise combination of required reliability and confidence probability. The calculations are complex enough but it can be used in frame of automated system.

Applying software process to virtual instrument based test program set development

Virtual Instrument (VI) based test program development systems, as exemplified by National Instruments' LabVIEW, provide very powerful design capture fools that allow the test program set (TPS) developer to rapidly prototype test strategies. As usual, in great power lies danger. In this case the danger is the ease of which VIs are reused. While code reuse is a desired feature, unintentional modifications to common VIs, name clashes, and library corruption are all potential headaches resulting from uncontrolled changes to VIs stored in shared libraries. Undetected Spontaneous Upgrades to library components can ruin a maintainer's day when the program loads with broken wires. Developing quality software requires software quality. This paper provides recommended practices to address the Key Practice Areas (KPAs) defined in the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI) Capability Maturity Model (CMM) in the context of TPS development in LabVIEW. Repository management procedures such as check-in check-out and change tracking and documentation are described.

Visual-spatial thinking: An aspect of science overlooked by educators

Thinking with images plays a central role in scientific creativity and communication but is neglected in science classrooms. This article reviews the fundamental role of imagery in science and technology and our current knowledge of visual-spatial cognition. A novel analogic and thematic organization of images and visualization within science and technology is proposed that can help in the generation and evaluation of classroom activities and materials, and serve as a focus for professional development programs in visual-spatial thinking for science teachers. Visual-spatial thinking includes vision—using the eyes to identify, locate, and think about objects and ourselves in the world, and imagery—the formation, inspection, transformation, and maintenance of images in the “mind's eye” in the absence of a visual stimulus. A spatial image preserves relationships among a complex set of ideas as a single chunk in working memory, increasing the amount of information that can be maintained in consciousness at a given moment. Vision and imagery are fundamental cognitive processes using specialized pathways in the brain and rely on our memory of prior experience. Visual-spatial thinking develops from birth, together with language and other specialized abilities, through interactions between inherited capabilities and experience. Scientific creativity can be considered as an amalgam of three closely allied mental formats: images; metaphors; and unifying ideas (themes). Combinations of images, analogies, and themes pervade science in the form of “master images” and visualization techniques. A critique of current practice in education contrasts the subservient role of visual-spatial learning with the dominance of the alphanumeric encoding skills in classroom and textbooks. The lack of coherence in curriculum, pedagogy, and learning theory requires reform that addresses thinking skills, including imagery. Successful integration of information, skills and attitudes into cohesive mental schemata employed by self-aware human beings is a basic goal of education. The current attempt to impose integration using themes is criticized on the grounds that the required underpinning in cognitive skills and content knowledge by teachers and students may be absent. Teaching strategies that employ visual-spatial thinking are reviewed. Master images are recommended as a novel point of departure for a systematic development of programs on visual-spatial thinking in research, teacher education, curriculum, and classroom practice. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 83:3–54, 1999.

A User‐Session‐Based Computerized System for Highway Management

The design and implementation of a user‐session based computerized system for highway management is presented. The functionality required to accomplish concomitant methodologic tasks is implemented as computer sessions. Described are the analytical methods, algorithms, and user sessions involved in the goal‐oriented optimization process that is used to analyze highway program scenarios. The computerized system is being developed in a phased manner to provide early products that assist the New York State Thruway Authority's operations. The system continues to evolve with user feedback and technology advancement. In the current phase, the system consists of graphic user interfaces and robust algorithms that are implemented efficiently using modeling and spreadsheet tools. The evolving computerized system has been used to conduct case studies, provide tabular and graphic summaries of specific highway program scenarios, and obtain feedback for future enhancements. It is concluded that the user‐session‐based design has provided an efficient approach to integrate the analysis methods and provide a user‐friendly computerized system for highway program development.

The design and implementation of a program development system based on rewriting method

In this paper, we present a program development system based on rewriting method with the goal of providing an powerful tool for automatic software development and rapid prototyping. New mechanisms for defining constrained types and optimal rules are introduced to functional programming languages to achieve strong expressiveness. The enhanced functional programming language is combined with an algebraic specification language. Thus, the design from specification to program can be supported, and the efficiency and flexibility of programming can also be improved. In this system, both static and dynamic techniques are used to deal with constrained type check. All function definitions, computation constraints and optimal rules are regarded as rewriting rules. In order to provide a strong support for a large group of TRSs which may be neither terminating nor orthogonal, we propose a method using structure measure to decide TRSs' confluences. Based on this method, we present a partial completion algorithm to generate a rewriting model from a specification. Depending on term rewriting system, the mixed language system computes with parallel outermost and needed reduction. We explain the principles and implementation techniques in detail, some examples are provided.

Logic Programming and Software engineering—implications for Software design

AbstractLogic programming is a programming paradigm with potential to contribute to software engineering. This paper is concerned with one dimension of that potential, the impact that experience with developing logic programs can have on software design. We present a logic programming perspective on programming patterns, systematic program development, design for provability, and the paradigm of meta-programming.

MENDELS ZONE: A parallel program development system based on formal specifications

MENDELS ZONE is a formal specification-based practical parallel program development system on an MIMD machine with 64 processors. It has been applied to the several practical applications: one such application is described in formal specifications totalling 3700 lines, and the corresponding parallel programs generated from these formal specifications totals 6200 lines. MENDELS ZONE has several key aspects. First, an algebraic specification is used for the functional part of parallel programs and a temporal logic specification is used for the synchronization part of the parallel programs. Second, Petri nets and data-flow diagrams are adopted for visualization. Third, MENDELS ZONE has the following unique features from a parallel programming viewpoint. (1) The confluence property of the complete term rewriting system ensures the quality of non-deterministic execution in parallel programs; (2) Serialization in parallel programming is specified using propositional temporal logic; (3) Parallel implementation of theorem provers contributes to practical use.

Formal Mathematics for Verifiably Correct Program Synthesis

We describe a formalization of the meta-mathematics of programming in a higher-order logical calculus as a means to create verifiably correct implementations of program synthesis tools. Using reflected notions of programming concepts we can specify the actions of synthesis methods within the object language of the calculus and prove formal theorems about their behavior. The theorems serve as derived inference rules implementing the kernel of these methods in a flexible, safe, ecient and comprehensible way. We demonstrate the advantages of using formal mathematics in support of program development systems through an example in which we formalize a strategy for deriving global search algorithms from formal specifications.

DSP-based control of brushless DC drives for direct-driven robotic arms

Modern permanent magnet brushless DC (BLDC) drives have excellent high-torque capabilities which make them suitable for direct-drive applications in robotic arms, but unfortunately they suffer from torque pulsations when controlled by a conventional current controller. The technique of instantaneous torque control with indirect torque sensing is aimed at reducing such torque pulsations. The AT&T DSP32, a digital signal processing chip, is used as the controller since the control algorithm requires high-speed computations. The DSP circuit has been constructed on a prototyping card and mounted in a microcomputer which serves as the program development system as well as run-time input-output controller. We present the design, implementation and experimental results of the proposed DSP-based instantaneous torque controller.

Integrating cognitive task analysis into instructional systems development

Traditional methods for task analysis and training design, such as those embodied in Instructional Systems Development (ISD), decompose jobs into discrete tasks composed of specific action sequences and identify prerequisite knowledge and skills for each task. Although these methods have been effective for designing training for simple procedural skills, they offer little insight for analysis or training of jobs involving complex cognitive skills, which increasingly require training today. Because of this, cognitive considerations need to be incorporated into ISD, particularly in the task analysis phase. Recently, cognitive methods have begun to be used to conduct task analysis for training program development and human-computer system development. In this article, recent developments in cognitive task analysis are reviewed, and The Integrated Task Analysis Model (ITAM), a framework for integrating cognitive and behavioral task analysis methods within the ISD model, is presented. Discussed in detail are ITAM's three analysis stages—progressive cycles of data collection, analysis, and decision making—in three components of expertise: skills, knowledge, and mental models.

ASL program written in abstract sequential machine style and its compiler

AbstractThe algebraic method as a formal approach in the design and development of the program has earned attention. The authors, in order to examine its usefulness, have defined the algebraic language ASL and constructed the ASL program developing system. But many problems concerning the compiler remain to be solved. The algebraic language ASL contains an abstract sequential machine style of description, and there exists a large number of problems that can be described in a natural way by this style. This paper proposes a method of constructing the compiler for the abstract sequential machine style program in the ASL program development system as well as of improving the execution efficiency of the object code. The usefulness of those methods are examined.

Molecular modeling on the commodore Amiga

The Amiga 3000 is nearly ideal for desktop molecular modeling. It uses the Motorola 68030 32-bit processor, running at 16 or 25 MHz, with either the 68881 or 68882 math coprocessor and eight custom processing chips. The video system is NTSC compatible 15.75- or 31.5-KHzRGB analog or digital. The system video interface offers user selectable 320 × 200, 640 × 480. 768 × 480 or 1280 × 400 resolution with a displayable palette of 4 096 colors and interlaced, noninterlaced and overscan modes. NTSC compatibility permits simple and inexpensive video signal synchronization, so that composed monitor images can be displayed and recorded with standard video equipment. The processor, in conjunction with the custom video chips, can manipulate models mathematically at a sufficient rate to present moving or animated images in real time. Users can interact with the molecular image with mouse or joystick controls. A third-party manufacturer, Haitex Resources, has produced an inexpensive stereo image display interface for the Amiga. This stereo image display system consists of liquid crystal shutter goggles attached to a control module on one mouse/joystick port and synchronized at 60 Hz with alternating left/right screen displays. Several simple molecular graphics programs for the Amiga have been available in the public domain since 1988. The ease of video interfacing and the availability of stereo image display have stimulated several developers to begin assembling molecular modeling packages. At the National Biomedical Research Foundation the Amiga is being tested as an inexpensive stereo-image color graphics workstation for molecular modeling, biopolymer sequence analysis and medical imaging. We hope to use it as a prototyping system for program development and testing, with a large cost savings over graphics display processors. We are seeking to incorporate secondary and tertiary structural considerations into the process of aligning distantly related proteins. This would enable us to make alignments that have a much higher probability of representing accurately the evolutionary relationship of two proteins, the structural relationship of antigenic sites, or the functional relationship of related domains in different proteins. The stereo-image display capabilities of the Amiga allow us to align sequences to known tertiary structures of related sequences. The Amiga's software portability and networking capabilities allow us to use the tested software on other, more expensive computers. Its stereo-image graphics display capabilities provide an essential tool for examining the tertiary structure and functional domains of proteins and for investigating the relationships between genetic expression, protein sequence, protein structure and protein function.

Evaluation of a Training Program in Breast Cancer Nursing

A training program in breast cancer nursing was evaluated in terms of its effects on 55 nurse participants and 18 breast cancer patients who were assigned to a control or to a program group. The quasi-experimental evaluation design employed both standard and investigator-developed instruments. Pre- and posttests were used to measure nurse participants' knowledge and attitudes and appraisal of usefulness and satisfaction with the program. Effect on patient outcomes was measured by means of a Perception of Care Questionnaire, a Breast Cancer Knowledge Quiz, and the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist. In the cognitive and attitude domains, nurse participants improved significantly and appraised the program as highly useful and satisfactory. Program group patients scored significantly higher scores on the Perception of Care and Breast Cancer Knowledge Questionnaires and exhibited significantly less anxiety than control group patients. Results support the use of evaluation as a part of systematic program development. The evaluation of patient outcomes is a challenging but essential component of program evaluation.

A CAMAC-resident microprocessor used for field control of a dipole magnet

An inexpensive, self-contained microprocessor supporting an on-chip BASIC interpreter has been incorporated into a CAMAC auxiliary-crate controller, with an EEPROM and a terminal port. Used with an ASCII computer terminal, the intelligent auxiliary controller is a self-contained program-development system. One application for the intelligent auxiliary controller is closed-loop control of the analyzing dipoles at the negative-ion injector of the TASCC (tandem accelerator superconducting cyclotron) heavy-ion accelerators. A BASIC program stored in the EEPROM runs on power-up of the controller. The program reads control numbers from a CAMAC mailbox, converts the ASCII character string from a precision Hall-probe teslameter to a digital field reading, and writes a control number to the dipole controller. The program iterates until the dipole reaches the demand field, while updating another CAMAC mailbox with a field readback for the main control system.

KIDS: a semiautomatic program development system

The Kestrel Interactive Development System (KIDS), which provides automated support for the development of correct and efficient programs from formal specifications, is described. The system has components for performing algorithm design, deductive inference, program simplification, partial evaluation, finite differencing optimizations, data type refinement, compilation, and other development operations. Although their application is interactive, all of the KIDS operations are automatic except the algorithm design tactics, which require some interaction at present. Dozens of programs have been derived using the system, and it is believed that KIDS could be developed to the point where it becomes economical to use for routine programming. To illustrate the use of KIDS, the author traces the derivation of an algorithm for enumerating solutions to the k-queens problem. The initial algorithm that KIDS designed takes about 60 minutes on a SUN-4/110 to find all 92 solutions to the 8-queens problem instance. The final optimized version finds the same solutions in under one second. >

Systematic program development

A constructive method of program development is presented. It is based on a simple strategy for problem decomposition that is claimed to be more supportive of goal-oriented programming than the Wirth-Dijkstra top-down refinement method. With the proposed method, a program is developed by making a sequence of refinements, each of which can establish the postcondition for a corresponding sequence of progressively weaker preconditions until a mechanism has been composed that will establish the postcondition for the original given precondition for the problem. The strategy can minimize case analysis, simplify constructive program proofs, and ensure a correspondence between program structure and data structure. >

A supercomputer program development system

AbstractThis paper describes a high‐level programming system for constructing vector and array processor based software involving the parallel language Actus. The system functions on a cross‐computer basis where a programmer develops Actus programs in a form that can be tested and transferred to the chosen supercomputer. The principles involved are, however, applicable to other similar block‐structured high‐level languages.