Les approches basées sur les composants permettent de développer des logiciels en réutilisant des composants existant dans des bibliothèques. La structure d'un tel logiciel produit par assemblage de composants est définie à l'aide d'un langage de description d'architectures (ADL). Les processus de développement sont encore peu adaptés à ce paradigme. Ainsi, les ADL existants ne fournissent pas de véritable support au développement et à l'évolution des architectures logicielles à composants. Cette thèse propose Dedal, un ADL permettant de définir une architecture logicielle à différents niveaux d'abstraction qui correspondent aux étapes du cycle de vie du logiciel : sa spécification, son implémentation et son déploiement. La définition de l'architecture est complétée par un modèle du logiciel à l'exécution. La cohérence entre les différentes définitions d'une architecture doit être assurée : sa définition à un niveau d'abstraction doit être conforme à sa définition à un niveau supérieur. Ce principe permet de contrôler l'évolution d'une architecture, en validant les modifications réalisées à un certain niveau d'abstraction ou en motivant la création d'une nouvelle version pour propager les modifications entre niveaux d'abstraction et rétablir la cohérence. Ces mécanismes préviennent les problèmes d'érosion ou de dérive qui surviennent lors des évolutions entre les différents niveaux de définition des architectures. Un environnement couvrant le cycle de vie complet d'un logiciel à base de composants a été prototypé. Il comporte un atelier, permettant de décrire des architectures avec Dedal, puis un environnement d'exécution, extension des outils Fractal, capable de contrôler l'évolution des architectures déployées. L'évolution à l'exécution est réalisée de façon graduelle, de manière à faire fonctionner et à instrumenter les nouvelles versions pendant une phase de transition, avant de valider définitivement une modification. / Component-based approaches promote software development by reuse of existing components from a repository. The structure of such software is described as an assembly of software components using an architecture description language (ADL). Software development processes often do not comply with this paradigm yet. Consequently, existing ADLs do not fully support component-based software architecture development and evolution. This thesis proposes Dedal, an ADL to describe software architectures at several abstraction levels that correspond to the steps of software lifecycle: its specification, its implementation and its deployment. The architecture definition is completed with a runtime model of the software. Consistency between the various definitions of a given architecture must be maintained: its definition at some abstraction level must conform to its definition at a higher abstraction level. This consistency principle enables to control the evolution of architectures either validating changes performed at an abstraction level or motivating the creation of a new version, to propagate changes from an abstraction level to the other and restore their consistency. These mechanisms prevent from architecture erosion or drift which might occur between two different description levels after evolution. An environment that covers the whole lifecycle of component-based software has been prototyped. It includes a CASE tool that supports the Dedal-based description of architectures and a runtime environment that extends Fractal tools to control the evolution of the deployed software. Runtime evolution is performed gradually in order to have new versions run and instrumented during a transition phase before committing changes.

Contemporary approaches to cross-platform mobile application development, such as hybrid apps from PhoneGap and generated native apps from Xamarin, show promise in reducing development time towards Android, iOS and other platforms. At the same time, studies show that there are various problems associated with these approaches, including suffering user experiences and codebases that are difficult to maintain and test properly. In this thesis, a novel prototype framework called Building Blocks was developed with the purpose of investigating the feasibility of utilizing component-based software engineering in solving this problem. The prototype was developed towards Android along with a web interface that allowed users to assemble an Android app using software components. The report concludes that component-based software engineering can be – and already is – utilized successfully to improve cross-platform mobile app development with special regards to user experience. Qualitative data indicate that Building Blocks as a concept is flexible and shows promise for mobile app development in which functionality is often reused, such as enterprise apps. Rapid prototyping using the web-based visual editing tool was another promising area. However, future use of Building Blocks would require further work on the prototype to improve its ease of use.

Component-based software development has emerged as a promising approach for developing complex software systems by composing smaller independently developed components into larger component assemblies. This approach offers means to increase software reuse, achieve higher flexibility and shorter time-to-market by the use of off-the-shelf components (COTS). However, the use of COTS in safety-critical system is highly unexplored. This thesis addresses the problems appearing in component-based development of safety-critical systems. We aim at efficient reasoning about safety at system level while adding or replacing components. For safety-related reasoning it does not suffice to consider functioning components in their intended environments but also the behaviour of components in presence of single or multiple faults. Our contribution is a formal component model that includes the notion of a safety interface. It describes how the component behaves with respect to violation of a given system-level property in presence of faults in its environment. This approach also provides a link between formal analysis of components in safety-critical systems and the traditional engineering processes supported by model-based development. We also present an algorithm for deriving safety interfaces given a particular safety property and fault modes for the component. The safety interface is then used in a method proposed for compositional reasoning about component assemblies. Instead of reasoning about the effect of faults on the composed system, we suggest analysis of fault tolerance through pair wise analysis based on safety interfaces. The framework is demonstrated as a proof-of-concept in two case studies; a hydraulic system from the aerospace industry and an adaptive cruise controller from the automotive industry. The case studies have shown that a more efficient system-level safety analysis can be performed using the safety interfaces.

Like other scientists, hydrologists encode mathematical formulations that simulate various hydrologic processes as computer programs so that problems with water resource management that would otherwise be manually intractable can be solved efficiently. These computer models are typically developed to answer specific questions within a specific study domain. For example, one computer model may be developed to solve for magnitudes of water flow and water levels in an aquifer while another may be developed to solve for magnitudes of water flow through a water distribution network of pipes and reservoirs. Interactions between different processes are often ignored or are approximated using overly simplistic assumptions. The increasing complexity of the water resources challenges society faces, including stresses from variable climate and land use change, means that some of these models need to be stitched together so that these challenges are not evaluated myopically from the perspective of a single research discipline or study domain. The research in this dissertation presents an investigation of the various approaches and technologies that can be used to support model integration. The research delves into some of the computational challenges associated with model integration and suggests approaches for dealing with these challenges. Finally, it advances new software that provides data structures that water resources modelers are more accustomed to and allows them to take advantage of advanced computing resources for efficient simulations.

No description available.

Current global business competition has resulted in significant challenges for manufacturing and production sectors focused on shorter product lifecyc1es, more diverse and customized products as well as cost pressures from competitors and customers. To remain competitive, manufacturers, particularly in automotive industry, require the next generation of manufacturing paradigms supporting flexible and reconfigurable production systems that allow quick system changeovers for various types of products. In addition, closer integration of shop floor and business systems is required as indicated by the research efforts in investigating "Agile and Collaborative Manufacturing Systems" in supporting the production unit throughout the manufacturing lifecycles. The integration of a business enterprise with its shop-floor and lifecycle supply partners is currently only achieved through complex proprietary solutions due to differences in technology, particularly between automation and business systems. The situation is further complicated by the diverse types of automation control devices employed. Recently, the emerging technology of Service Oriented Architecture's (SOA's) and Web Services (WS) has been demonstrated and proved successful in linking business applications. The adoption of this Web Services approach at the automation level, that would enable a seamless integration of business enterprise and a shop-floor system, is an active research topic within the automotive domain. If successful, reconfigurable automation systems formed by a network of collaborative autonomous and open control platform in distributed, loosely coupled manufacturing environment can be realized through a unifying platform of WS interfaces for devices communication. The adoption of SOA- Web Services on embedded automation devices can be achieved employing Device Profile for Web Services (DPWS) protocols which encapsulate device control functionality as provided services (e.g. device I/O operation, device state notification, device discovery) and business application interfaces into physical control components of machining automation. This novel approach supports the possibility of integrating pervasive enterprise applications through unifying Web Services interfaces and neutral Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) message communication between control systems and business applications over standard Ethernet-Local Area Networks (LAN's). In addition, the re-configurability of the automation system is enhanced via the utilisation of Web Services throughout an automated control, build, installation, test, maintenance and reuse system lifecycle via device self-discovery provided by the DPWS protocol.

<p>Development of software for embedded real-time systems poses severalchallenges. Hard and soft constraints on timing, and usually considerableresource limitations, put important constraints on the development. Thetraditional way of coping with these issues is to produce a fully static design,i.e. one that is fully fixed already during design time.Current trends in the area of embedded systems, including the emergingopenness in these types of systems, are providing new challenges for theirdesigners – e.g. integration of new software during runtime, software upgradeor run-time adaptation of application behavior to facilitate better performancecombined with more ecient resource usage. One way to reach these goals is tobuild self-configurable systems, i.e. systems that can resolve such issues withouthuman intervention. Such mechanisms may be used to promote increasedsystem openness.This thesis covers some of the challenges involved in that development.An overview of the current situation is given, with a extensive review ofdi erent concepts that are applicable to the problem, including adaptivitymechanisms (incluing QoS and load balancing), middleware and relevantdesign approaches (component-based, model-based and architectural design).A middleware is a software layer that can be used in distributed systems,with the purpose of abstracting away distribution, and possibly other aspects,for the application developers. The DySCAS project had as a major goaldevelopment of middleware for self-configurable systems in the automotivesector. Such development is complicated by the special requirements thatapply to these platforms.Work on the implementation of an adaptive middleware, DyLite, providingself-configurability to small-scale microcontrollers, is described andcovered in detail. DyLite is a partial implementation of the concepts developedin DySCAS.Another area given significant focus is formal modeling of QoS andresource management. Currently, applications in these types of systems arenot given a fully formal definition, at least not one also covering real-timeaspects. Using formal modeling would extend the possibilities for verificationof not only system functionality, but also of resource usage, timing and otherextra-functional requirements. This thesis includes a proposal of a formalismto be used for these purposes.Several challenges in providing methodology and tools that are usablein a production development still remain. Several key issues in this areaare described, e.g. version/configuration management, access control, andintegration between di erent tools, together with proposals for future workin the other areas covered by the thesis.</p> / <p>Utveckling av mjukvara för inbyggda realtidssystem innebär flera utmaningar.Hårda och mjuka tidskrav, och vanligtvis betydande resursbegränsningar,innebär viktiga inskränkningar på utvecklingen. Det traditionellasättet att hantera dessa utmaningar är att skapa en helt statisk design, d.v.s.en som är helt fix efter utvecklingsskedet.Dagens trender i området inbyggda system, inräknat trenden mot systemöppenhet,skapar nya utmaningar för systemens konstruktörer – exempelvisintegration av ny mjukvara under körskedet, uppgradering av mjukvaraeller anpassning av applikationsbeteende under körskedet för att nå bättreprestanda kombinerat med e ektivare resursutnyttjande. Ett sätt att nå dessamål är att bygga självkonfigurerande system, d.v.s. system som kan lösa sådanautmaningar utan mänsklig inblandning. Sådana mekanismer kan användas föratt öka systemens öppenhet.Denna avhandling täcker några av utmaningarna i denna utveckling. Enöversikt av den nuvarande situationen ges, med en omfattande genomgångav olika koncept som är relevanta för problemet, inklusive anpassningsmekanismer(inklusive QoS och lastbalansering), mellanprogramvara och relevantadesignansatser (komponentbaserad, modellbaserad och arkitekturell design).En mellanprogramvara är ett mjukvarulager som kan användas i distribueradesystem, med syfte att abstrahera bort fördelning av en applikation överett nätverk, och möjligtvis även andra aspekter, för applikationsutvecklarna.DySCAS-projektet hade utveckling av mellanprogramvara för självkonfigurerbarasystem i bilbranschen som ett huvudmål. Sådan utveckling försvåras avde särskilda krav som ställs på dessa plattformarArbete på implementeringen av en adaptiv mellanprogramvara, DyLite,som tillhandahåller självkonfigurerbarhet till småskaliga mikrokontroller,beskrivs och täcks i detalj. DyLite är en delvis implementering av konceptensom utvecklats i DySCAS.Ett annat område som får särskild fokus är formell modellering av QoSoch resurshantering. Idag beskrivs applikationer i dessa områden inte heltformellt, i varje fall inte i den mån att realtidsaspekter täcks in. Att användaformell modellering skulle utöka möjligheterna för verifiering av inte barasystemfunktionalitet, men även resursutnyttjande, tidsaspekter och andraicke-funktionella krav. Denna avhandling innehåller ett förslag på en formalismsom kan användas för dessa syften.Det återstår många utmaningar innan metodik och verktyg som är användbarai en produktionsmiljö kan erbjudas. Många nyckelproblem i områdetbeskrivs, t.ex. versions- och konfigurationshantering, åtkomststyrning ochintegration av olika verktyg, tillsammans med förslag på framtida arbete iövriga områden som täcks av avhandlingen.</p> / DySCAS

Web services provide a standardized means of publishing diverse, distributed applications. Increasingly, corporations are providing services or programs within and between organizations either on corporate intranets or on the cloud. Many of these services can be composed together, ideally automatically, to provide value-added service. Automated Web service composition is an example of such automation where given a specification of an objective to be realized and some knowledge of the state of the world, the problem is to automatically select, integrate, and invoke multiple services to achieve the specified objective. A popular approach to the Web service composition problem is to conceive it as an Artificial Intelligence planning task. This enables us to bring to bear many of the theoretical and computational advances in reasoning about actions to the task of Web service composition. However, Web service composition goes far beyond the reaches of classical planning, presenting a number of interesting challenges relevant to a large body of problems related to the composition of actions, programs, and services. Among these, an important challenge is generating not only a composition, but a high-quality composition tailored to user preferences. In this thesis, we present an approach to the Web service composition problem with a particular focus on the customization of compositions. We claim that there is a correspondence between generating a customized composition of Web services and non-classical Artificial Intelligence planning where the objective of the planning problem is specified as a form of control knowledge, such as a workflow or template, together with a set of constraints to be optimized or enforced. We further claim that techniques in (preference-based) planning can provide a computational basis for the development of effective, state-of-the-art techniques for generating customized compositions of Web services. To evaluate our claim, we characterize the Web service composition problem with customization as a non-classical planning problem, exploit and advance preference specification languages and preference-based planning, develop algorithms tailored to the Web service composition problem, prove formal properties of these algorithms, implement proof-of-concept systems, and evaluate these systems experimentally. While our research has been motivated by Web services, the theory and techniques we have developed are amenable to analogous problems in such diverse sectors as multi-agent systems, business process modeling, component software composition, and social and computational behaviour modeling and verification.

Web services provide a standardized means of publishing diverse, distributed applications. Increasingly, corporations are providing services or programs within and between organizations either on corporate intranets or on the cloud. Many of these services can be composed together, ideally automatically, to provide value-added service. Automated Web service composition is an example of such automation where given a specification of an objective to be realized and some knowledge of the state of the world, the problem is to automatically select, integrate, and invoke multiple services to achieve the specified objective. A popular approach to the Web service composition problem is to conceive it as an Artificial Intelligence planning task. This enables us to bring to bear many of the theoretical and computational advances in reasoning about actions to the task of Web service composition. However, Web service composition goes far beyond the reaches of classical planning, presenting a number of interesting challenges relevant to a large body of problems related to the composition of actions, programs, and services. Among these, an important challenge is generating not only a composition, but a high-quality composition tailored to user preferences. In this thesis, we present an approach to the Web service composition problem with a particular focus on the customization of compositions. We claim that there is a correspondence between generating a customized composition of Web services and non-classical Artificial Intelligence planning where the objective of the planning problem is specified as a form of control knowledge, such as a workflow or template, together with a set of constraints to be optimized or enforced. We further claim that techniques in (preference-based) planning can provide a computational basis for the development of effective, state-of-the-art techniques for generating customized compositions of Web services. To evaluate our claim, we characterize the Web service composition problem with customization as a non-classical planning problem, exploit and advance preference specification languages and preference-based planning, develop algorithms tailored to the Web service composition problem, prove formal properties of these algorithms, implement proof-of-concept systems, and evaluate these systems experimentally. While our research has been motivated by Web services, the theory and techniques we have developed are amenable to analogous problems in such diverse sectors as multi-agent systems, business process modeling, component software composition, and social and computational behaviour modeling and verification.

Les environnements domotiques sont des environnements ubiquitaires dans lesquels des équipements domestiques, disséminés dans une habitation, fournissent des services utilisables à distance au travers d'un réseau. Des systèmes domotiques sont proposés pour permettre aux utilisateurs de contrôler les équipements en fonction de leurs besoins.Idéalement, ces systèmes orchestrent l'exécution des services fournis par les équipements pour réaliser des services complexes. Mieux encore, ces systèmes doivent s'adapter à la variété des environnements en termes d'équipements et des besoins des utilisateurs. Ils doivent également pouvoir s'adapter dynamiquement, si possible de manière autonome, au changement de leur contexte d'exécution (apparition ou disparition d'un équipement, évolution des besoins).Dans cette thèse, nous apportons une réponse à cette problématique avec SAASHA, un système domotique multi-agents à base de composants. La combinaison de ses deux paradigmes permet de gérer l'adaptation à trois niveaux : présentation (interfaces utilisateur),organisation (architecture du système) et comportement (architecture interne des agents).Les agents perçoivent le contexte et ses changements. Les utilisateurs se voient proposer une vue dynamique du contexte leur permettant de définir des scénarios personnalisés sous forme de règles. Les agents se répartissent les rôles pour réaliser les scénarios. Ils modifient dynamiquement leur architecture interne grâce à la génération, au déploiement et à l'assemblage de composants pour se doter de nouveaux comportements de contrôle des équipements et des scénarios. Les agents collaborent ainsi pour exécuter les scénarios. En cas de changement, ces trois niveaux d'adaptation sont mis en oeuvre de manière dynamique et autonome pour maintenir la continuité de service. Un prototype de SAASHA, basé sur les standards industriels UPnP et OSGi, a été développé pour évaluer la faisabilité de notre proposition. / Home automation environments are ubiquitous environments where domestic devices, scattered throughout a home, provide services that can be used remotely over a network. Home automation systems are proposed to enable the users of controlling the devices according to their needs. Ideally, these systems orchestrate the execution of the services provided by the devices to achieve complex services. Even more, these systems must adapt to the variety of environments in terms of devices and users needs. They must also be able to adapt dynamically, if possible in an autonomous manner, to the changes of their execution context (appearance or disappearance of a device, changing needs).In this thesis, we provide an answer to this problematic with SAASHA, a multi-agent home automation system based on components. The combination of these two paradigms enables managing the adaptation on three levels: presentation (user interface), organization (system architecture) and behavior (internal architecture of agents). The agents perceive their context and its changes. The Users are offered a dynamic view of the context allowing them to define custom scenarios as rules. The agents divide the roles among them to realize the scenarios. They modify dynamically their internal architecture throughout the generation, deployment and assembly of components to adopt new device control behaviors and scenarios. The agents collaborate to execute the scenarios. In case of a change, these three levels of adaptation are updated dynamically and autonomously to maintain the service continuity. A SAASHA prototype, based on UPnP and OSGi industry standards, has been developed to assess the feasibility of our proposal.