No description available.

Swimming performance is primarily judged on the overall time taken for a swimmer to complete a specified distance performing a stroke that complies with current regulations defined by the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), the International governing body of swimming. There are three contributing factors to this overall time; the start, free swimming and turns. The contribution of each of these factors is event dependent; for example, in a 50m event there are no turns, however, the start can be a significant contributor. To improve overall performance each of these components should be optimised in terms of skill and execution. This thesis details the research undertaken towards improving performance-related feedback in swimming. The research included collaboration with British Swimming, the national governing body for swimming in the U.K., to drive the requirements and direction of research. An evaluation of current methods of swimming analysis identified a capability gap in real-time, quantitative feedback. A number of components were developed to produce an integrated system for comprehensive swim performance analysis in all phases of the swim, i.e. starts, free swimming and turns. These components were developed to satisfy two types of stakeholder requirements. Firstly, the measurement requirements, i.e. what does the end user want to measure? Secondly, the process requirements, i.e. how would these measurements be achieved? The components developed in this research worked towards new technologies to facilitate a wider range of measurement parameters using automated methods as well as the application of technologies to facilitate the automation of current techniques. The development of the system is presented in detail and the application of these technologies is presented in case studies for starts, free swimming and turns. It was found that developed components were able to provide useful data indicating levels of performance in all aspects of swimming, i.e. starts, free swimming and turns. For the starts, an integrated solution of vision, force plate technology and a wireless iii node enabled greater insight into overall performance and quantitative measurements of performance to be captured. Force profiles could easily identify differences in swimmer ability or changes in technique. The analysis of free swimming was predominantly supported by the wireless sensor technology, whereby signal analysis was capable of automatically determining factors such as lap times variations within strokes. The turning phase was also characterised in acceleration space, allowing the phases of the turn to be individually assessed and their contribution to total turn time established. Each of the component technologies were not used in isolation but were supported by other synchronous data capture. In all cases a vision component was used to increase understanding of data outputs and provide a medium that coaches and athletes were comfortable with interpreting. The integrated, component based system has been developed and tested to prove its ability to produce useful, quantitative feedback information for swimmers. The individual components were found to be capable of providing greater insight into swimming performance, that has not been previously possible using the current state of the art techniques. Future work should look towards the fine-tuning of the prototype system into a useable solution for end users. This relies on the refinement of components and the development of an appropriate user interface to enable ease of data collection, analysis, presentation and interpretation.

This thesis provides a basic framework for probabilistic real-time urban flood forecasting based on data of varying degree of quality and quantity. The framework was developed based on precipitation data from two case study areas:Aarhus Denmark and Castries St. Lucia. Many practitioners have acknowledged that a combination of structural and non-structural measures are required to reduce the effects of flooding on urban environments, but the general dearth of the desired data and models makes the development of a flood forecasting system seem unattainable. Needless to say, high resolution data and models are not always achievable and it may be necessary to override accuracy in order to reduce flood risk in urban areas and focus on estimating and communicating the uncertainty in the available resource. Thus, in order to develop a pertinent framework, both primary and secondary data sources were used to discover the current practices and to identify relevant data sources. Results from an online survey revealed that we currently have the resources to make a flood forecast and also pointed to potential open source quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF) which is the single most important component in order to make a flood forecast. The design of a flood forecasting system entails the consideration of several factors, thus the framework provides an overview of the considerations and provides a description of the proposed methods that apply specifically to each component. In particular, this thesis focuses extensively on the verification of QPF and QPE from NWP weather radar and highlights a method for estimating the uncertainty in the QPF from NWP models based on a retrospective comparison of observed and forecasted rainfall in the form of probability distributions. The results from the application of the uncertainty model suggest that the rainfall forecasts has a large contribution to the uncertainty in the flood forecast and applying a method which bias corrects and estimates confidence levels in the forecast looks promising for real-time flood forecasting. This work also describes a method used to generate rainfall ensembles based on a catalogue of observed rain events at suitable temporal scales. Results from model calibration and validation highlights the invaluable potential in using images extracted from social network sites for model calibration and validation. This framework provides innovative possibilities for real-time urban flood forecasting.

Les systèmes temps-réel embarqués critiques intègrent un nombre croissant de fonctionnalités comme le montrent les domaines de l'automobile ou de l'aéronautique. Ces systèmes doivent offrir un niveau maximal de sûreté de fonctionnement en disposant des mécanismes pour traiter les défaillances éventuelles et doivent être également performants, avec le respect de contraintes temps-réel strictes. Ces systèmes sont en outre contraints par leur nature embarquée : les ressources sont limitées, tels que par exemple leur espace mémoire et leur capacité de calcul. Dans cette thèse, nous traitons deux problématiques principales de ce type de systèmes. La première porte sur la manière d'apporter une meilleure tolérance aux fautes dans les systèmes temps-réel distribués subissant des défaillances matérielles multiples et permanentes. Ces systèmes sont souvent conçus avec une allocation statique des tâches. Une approche plus flexible effectuant des reconfigurations est utile si elle permet d'optimiser l'allocation à chaque défaillance rencontrée, pour les ressources restantes. Nous proposons une telle approche hors-ligne assurant un dimensionnement adapté pour prendre en compte les ressources nécessaires à l'exécution de ces actions. Ces reconfigurations peuvent demander une réallocation des tâches ou répliques si l'espace mémoire local est limité. Dans un contexte temps-réel strict, nous définissons notamment des mécanismes et des techniques de migration garantissant l'ordonnançabilité globale du système. La deuxième problématique se focalise sur l'optimisation de l'exécution des tâches au niveau local dans un contexte multicoeurs préemptif. Nous proposons une méthode d'ordonnancement optimal disposant d'une meilleure extensibilité que les approches existantes en minimisant les surcoûts : le nombre de changements de contexte préemptions et migrations locales) et la complexité de l'ordonnanceur / Critical real-time embedded systems are integrating an increasing number of functionalities, as shown in automotive domain or aeronautics. These systems require high dependability including mechanisms to handle possible failures and have to be effective, meeting hard real-time constraints. These systems are also constrained by their embedded nature : resources are limited, such as their memory and their computing capacities. In this thesis, we focus on two main problems for this type of systems. The first one is about a way to bring a better fault-tolerance in distributed real-time systems when multiple and permanent hardware failures can occur. In classical systems, the design is limited to a static task assignment. A more flexible approach exploiting reconfigurations is useful if it allows to optimize assignment at each failure for the remaining resources. We propose an off-line approach to obtain an adapted sizing taking into account necessary resources to execute these actions. These reconfigurations may require to reallocate tasks or replicas if memory capacities are limited. In a hard real-time context, we define mechanisms and migration techniques to guarantee global schedulability of the system. The second problem focus on optimizing performance to run tasks at a local level in a multicore preemptive context. We propose an optimal scheduling method allowing a better scalability than existing approaches by minimizing overheads : the number of context switches (local preemptions and migrations) and the scheduler complexity

Dans le domaine de l’aéronautique, les systèmes embarqués ont fait leur apparition durant les années 60, lorsque les équipements analogiques ont commencé à être remplacés par leurs équivalents numériques. Dès lors, l’engouement suscité par les progrès de l’informatique fut tel que de plus en plus de fonctionnalités ont été numérisées. L’accroissement permanent de la complexité des systèmes a conduit à la définition d’une architecture appelée Avionique Modulaire Intégrée (IMA pour Integrated Modular Avionics). Cette architecture se distingue des architectures antérieures, car elle est fondée sur des standards (ARINC 653 et ARINC 664 partie 7) permettant le partage des ressources de calcul et de communication entre les différentes fonctions avioniques. Ce type d’architecture est appliqué aussi bien dans le domaine civil avec le Boeing B777 et l’Airbus A380, que dans le domaine militaire avec le Rafale ou encore l’A400M. Pour des raisons de sûreté, le comportement temporel d’un système s’appuyant sur une architecture IMA doit être prévisible. Ce besoin se traduit par un ensemble d’exigences temps réel que doit satisfaire le système. Le problème exploré dans cette thèse concerne la vérification d’exigences temps réel dans les systèmes IMA. Ces exigences s’articulent autour de chaînes fonctionnelles, qui sont des séquences de fonctions. Une exigence spécifie alors une borne acceptable (minimale ou maximale) pour une propriété temporelle d’une ou plusieurs chaînes fonctionnelles. Nous avons identifié trois catégories d’exigences temps réel, que nous considérons pertinentes vis-à-vis des systèmes étudiés. Il s’agit des exigences de latence, de fraîcheur et de cohérence. Nous proposons une modélisation des systèmes IMA, et des exigences qu’ils doivent satisfaire, dans le formalisme du tagged signal model. Nous montrons alors comment, à partir de ce modèle, nous pouvons générer pour chaque exigence un programme linéaire mixte, c’est-à-dire contenant à la fois des variables entières et réelles, dont la solution optimale permet de vérifier la satisfaction de l’exigence / Embedded systems appeared in aeronautics during the 60’s, when the process of replacing analog devices by their digital counterpart started. From that time, the broad thrust of computer science advances make it possible to digitize more and more avionics functionalities. The continual increase of the complexity of these systems led to the definition of a new architecture called Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA). This architecture stands apart from previous architecture because it is based on standards (ARINC 653 and ARINC 664 part 7) which allow the sharing of computation and communication resources among avionics functions. This architecture is implemented in civil aircrafts, with Boeing B777 and Airbus A380, and in military aircrafts, with Rafale or A400M. For safety reason, the temporal behaviour of such a system must be predictable, which is expressed with a set real-time requirements. A real-time requirement specifies an upper or lower bound of a temporal property of one or several functional chains. A functional chain is a sequence of functions. In this thesis, we explore the verification of real-time requirements in IMA systems. We have identified three real-time requirements relevant to our problem : latency, freshness and consistency. We propose a model of IMA systems, and the requirements they must meet, based on the tagged signal model. Then we derive from this model, for each requirement, a mixed integer linear program whose optimal solution allows us to verify the requirement

Charles University in Prague Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Biochemical Sciences Candidate: Bc. Petra Blažková Supervisor: Doc. PharmDr. Martin Beránek Ph.D. Title of diploma thesis: Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency analysis using real-time PCR This diploma thesis focuses on the validation of the method PCR in real-time (real-time PCR) to investigate the Z and S mutations in the gene SERPINA1, located at the long arm of chromosome 14 (14q32.13) and provides instructions for making a protein named alpha-1- antitrypsin (A1AT). A1AT is a serine protease inhibitor that protects tissues from degradation by neutrophil elastase. Deficiency, which is most commonly caused by these mutations, can cause children and adult's liver and lung disease. A method of real-time PCR was applied after successful validation to a set of 46 clinical samples of DNA extracted from blood samples and 30 samples of the DNA from cells of the buccal mucosa. DNA isolation was performed by kit extraction QIAamp ® DNA Mini Kit by QIAGEN. I used a set of primers and hybridization probes according to Snyder (2006) for genotyping. Melting curve analysis was carried out in the thermocycler LightCycler 1.2. Results of DNA samples obtained from blood were compared with the results obtained through an accredited method...

Les automates temporisés sont un formalisme qui permet de modéliser, vérifier, et synthétiser des systèmes temps-réels. Ils sont dotés d’une sémantique abstraite et mathé- matique, qui permet de formaliser et résoudre plusieurs problèmes de vérification et de synthèse. Cependant, les automates temporisés sont utilisés pour concevoir des modèles, plutôt que décrire des systèmes temps-réels entiers. Ainsi, une fois la phase de conception terminée, il reste à déterminer si les comportements du modèle correspondent à ceux d’un vrai système. Une étape importante de l’implémentation consiste à s’assurer de la robustesse du système. On considère une notion de robustesse sur les automates tem- porisés qui exige que les comportements soient préservés quand le modèle est sujet à des perturbations bornées. Dans cette thèse, plusieurs approches sont étudiées : Dans l’analyse de robustesse, on se demande si un automate temporisés donné préserve ses com- portements sous divers types de perturbations, et on cherche à calculer un majorant sur les perturbations tolérées. La synthèse robuste s’intéresse au calcul d’une loi de contrôle (ou une stratégie) qui guide le système, et tolère des perturbations d’une magnitude calculable. Enfin, dans l’implémentation robuste, on s’intéresse à transformer automatiquement un modèle donné pour le rendre robuste, tout en préservant ses comportements. Plusieurs modèles de perturbations sont considérés : erreurs de mesure de temps (élargissement de gardes), élimination des comportements limites (contraction de gardes), et la restriction du domaine du temps aux valeurs discrètes. On formalise également les problèmes de synthèse robuste comme des jeux entre le contrôleur et un environnement qui perturbe systèmatiquement tout délai choisi par une quantité bornée. Ces problèmes sont étudiés pour les automates temporisés, ainsi que leurs extensions- les jeux temporisés, et les automates et jeux temporisés pondérés. Plusieurs algorithmes d’analyse de robustesse parametrée contre l’élargissement de gardes et la contraction de gardes sont proposés. Deux variantes de la sémantique de jeu pour le problème de synthèse robuste sont également étudiées pour les automates temporisés et leurs extensions. Un logiciel d’analyse de robustesse contre la contraction de gardes, ainsi que des résultats expérimentaux sont présentés. Le problème de l’implémentation robuste est étudié dans deux contextes différents. Tous les algorithmes calculent également un majorant sur les perturbations que le modèle donné est capable de tolérer. / Timed automata are a formalism to model, verify, and synthesize real-time systems. They have the advantage of having an abstract mathematical semantics, which allow formalizing and solving several verification and synthesis problems. However, timed automata are intended to design models, rather than completely describe real systems. Therefore, once the design phase is over, it remains to check whether the behavior of an actual implementation corresponds to that of the timed automaton model. An important step before implementing a system design is ensuring its robustness. This thesis considers a notion of robustness that asks whether the behavior of a given timed automaton is preserved, or can be made so, when it is subject to small perturbations. Several approaches are considered: Robustness analysis seeks to decide whether a given timed automaton tolerates perturbations, and in that case to compute the (maximum) amount of tolerated perturbations. In robust synthesis, a given system needs to be controlled by a law (or strategy) which tolerates perturbations upto some computable amount. In robust implementation, one seeks to automatically transform a given timed automaton model so that it tolerates perturbations by construction. Several perturbation models are considered, ranging from introducing error in time measures (guard enlargement), forbidding behaviors that are too close to boundaries (guard shrinking), and restricting the time domain to a discrete sampling. We also formalize robust synthesis problems as games, where the control law plays against the environment which can systematically perturb the chosen moves, by some bounded amount. These problems are studied on timed automata and their variants, namely, timed games, and weighted timed automata and games. Algorithms for the parameterized robustness analysis against guard enlargements, and guard shrinkings are presented. The robust synthesis problem is studied for two variants of the game semantics, for timed automata, games, and their weighted extensions. A software tool for robustness analysis against guard shrinkings is presented, and experimental results are discussed. The robust implementation problem is also studied in two different settings. In all algorithms, an upper bound on perturbations that the given timed automaton tolerates can be computed.

Title: Bridging Pogamut and Defcon Author: Bc. Radek Píbil Department: Department of Software and Computer Science Education Supervisor of the master thesis: Mgr. Jakub Gemrot Abstract: In this thesis we are going to discuss the support of Pogamut AI frame- work for the Defcon PC game. Defcon is a multiplayer real-time strategy putting player into control of one part of the world's sea force, air force and nuclear ar- senal. We are going to cover five main topics. First is concerned with bridging Pogamut and Defcon. Next discusses provided algorithms useful for agent pro- gramming for such a kind of environment. Third describes the implementation of a purely Java agent. Fourth shows an implementation using Jason MAS frame- work. Final is going to evaluate the performance of the agents. Our main reason for bridging Pogamut is that as the gaming AI becomes more and more prominent in academia, more and more computer games allow programmers to implement their own AI. Pogamut AI platform follows this trend by expanding into two new environments Starcraft and Defcon, which introduce real-time strategy environ- ments to Pogamut, whose origins are in first-person shooters. Keywords: Defcon, Artificial Intelligence, Real-Time Strategy Games, Pogamut

SOFA-HI is an extension of the SOFA 2 component system,which is developed at Department of distributed and dependable systems. SOFA-HI focuses on support for development of real-time embedded applications using component-based approach. This thesis extends existing SOFA-HI implementation with support for development and deployment of SOFA-HI application to nxtOSEK platform which is a small-footprint real-time operating system and board support package for LEGO Mindstorms NXT. In particular, existing tools for application development and deployment are extended to support nxtOSEK platform. The thesis further provides pre-made components to allow communication with standard NXT sensors and actuators. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This work tries to remedy the practical part of teaching development of software for real-time systems. It does so by creation of a platform on which students can practically learn aspects of development of software for real-time systems. % (feedback control, low level programming). The resulting platform consists of a plant, a visualizer and a controller. The plant represents an industrial machine, the visualizer displays the current state of the plant. The controller drives the plant. Students learn by developing a program for the controller. The resulting platform is realized as a hardware-in-the-loop simulation -- the controller's processor and devices are real hardware, and the plant is a simulated device. The platform has a low cost, low space requirements and it is not easily breakable. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)