A robótica tem passado por uma notável evolução ao longo dos últimos anos, juntamente com um crescente interesse por parte da sociedade. Robôs não são mais exclusivamente produzidos para realizar atividades repetitivas em fábricas, eles têm sido projetados para apoiar humanos em diversos e importantes domínios de aplicação. Os sistemas robóticos utilizados para controlar tais robôs têm, portanto, se tornado maiores, mais complexos e difíceis de desenvolver. Nesse cenário, a Arquitetura Orientada a Serviços (do inglês, Service-Oriented Architecture - SOA) tem sido investigada como um promissor estilo arquitetural para o desenvolvimento de sistemas robóticos de forma mais flexível, reusável e produtiva. Embora um número considerável de Sistemas Robóticos Orientados a Serviços (do inglês, Service-Oriented Robotic Systems - SORS) já exista, grande parte deles têm sido desenvolvida de maneira ad hoc. A pouca atenção e o suporte limitado ao projeto das arquiteturas de software de SORS pode não só impedir a obtenção dos benefícios associados à adoção da SOA, mas também reduzir a qualidade dos sistemas robóticos que, frequentemente, são utilizados em contextos de segurança crítica. Essa tese tem por objetivo aprimorar o entendimento e a sistematização do projeto arquitetural de SORS. Para isso, é proposta uma taxonomia de serviços para o domínio de robótica, bem como um processo e uma arquitetura de referência para sistematizar o projeto das arquiteturas de software de SORS. Os resultados obtidos evidenciam que tanto o processo quanto a arquitetura de referência podem impactar positivamente na qualidade das arquiteturas de software de SORS e, consequentemente, contribuir para o desenvolvimento de sistemas robóticos. / Robotics has experienced an increasing evolution and interest from the society in recent years. Robots are no longer produced exclusively to perform repetitive tasks in factories, they have been designed to collaborate with humans in several important application domains. Robotic systems that control these robots are therefore becoming larger, more complex, and difficult to develop. In this scenario, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) has been investigated as a promising architectural style for the design of robotic systems in a exible, reusable, and productive manner. Despite the existence of a considerable amount of Service-Oriented Robotic Systems (SORS), most of them have been developed in an ad hoc manner. The little attention and limited support devoted to the design of SORS software architectures may not only hamper the benefits of SOA adoption, but also reduce the overall quality of robotic systems, which are often used in safety-critical contexts. This thesis aims at improving the understanding and systematization of SORS architectural design. It describes a taxonomy of services for the robotics domain, as well as proposes a process and a reference architecture that systematize the design of SORS software architectures. Results achieved in the evaluation studies evidence that both process and reference architecture can positively impact on the quality of SORS software architectures and, as a consequence, contribute to the development of robotic systems.

<p>Att designa en generell och utbyggbar mjukvara är inte enkelt, då det krävs en bred kompetens inom många olika områden. Vi belyser i detta arbete en del av problematiken kring design. Utgångspunkten är ett praktikfall vars målmiljö rör processer och integrationer. Huvudfokus ligger på designmönster, men även en bredare genomgång av ämnen så som utvecklingsmetodik, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Web Services (WS) och utvecklingsmiljöer presenteras. Arbetet bedrivs i enlighet med riktlinjer från Rational Unified Process (RUP) och slutprodukten är en checklista på tre punkter. De tre punkterna speglar de lärdomar vi dragit av arbetet genom saker vi gjort och saker vi borde ha gjort. God design kan uppnås genom att förstå den uppgift man åtagit sig, utvärdera sitt resultat och delresultat samt genom användandet av rätt verktyg. Framtida forskningsområden med anknytning till vårt rör förslagsvis metoders betydelse för mjukvarudesign, dynamiska perspektiv hos utvecklare och mer enhetlighet kring begreppet SOA.</p>

<p>This thesis emphasizes on investigating the relationship between the quality attributes and service oriented architecture (SOA). Due to quality attributes requirements drive the design of software architecture, it is necessary to maintain the positive quality of SOA and improve the negative quality of SOA. This thesis gives an introduction to SOA, Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and MULE. Then, it covers information on quality of systems and tactics for achieving each quality attribute. Finally, we discuss the quality of SOA in detail, and illustrate how to set up a SOA and how to improve its quality using a case of an order for supermarket.</p> / Order system

<p>In this thesis we will identify which are the desired features and functionalities for implementing a system capable of acting as an information bridge for content available in the “wired” Internet to be delivered to mobile devices. We will also explore how to design and build such a system based on the specifications within parts of the MUSIS project. The MUSIS’ system development is used as a base of the work described in this thesis and the experiences from those efforts are used in order to design a system with more focus on data portability and media migration.</p><p>During the development of the MUSIS platform, problems related to system upgrading, i.e. adding new ad-hoc functionalities were discovered. Due to the fact that a user-centred design approach was taken, this was essential in the project. To solve some of these issues, we propose a new component-based system with a high level of scalability and re-usability. We name this system Collect, Convert and Send, CCS. The system shall be seen as a base that can be used as a core system for different projects where interoperability of content between different platforms, devices or systems is important.</p><p>The implementation of the system is based on the use cases and those theoretical aspects and ideas related to component software, interoperability, media migration and metadata in a Web service context. The results of our efforts give some indications that the use of component software gives a foundation for a service-oriented architecture.</p>

Thesis (MTech. degree in Software Development.)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2011 / With regards to extending component-based and service-oriented system development approaches and solving current problems related to enterprise systems, this study will explore the requirements and challenges of current enterprise systems, and define an SCSD (Service-oriented Component-based System Development) framework which would provide all-round service-oriented component-based support for a complex application environment. The purpose of this study is to create a novel SCSD framework which combines the features of both component-based and service-oriented paradigms, as well as avoid the weaknesses of the existing service and component combination approaches. The SCSD framework combines the re-usability of the component-based paradigm and the flexibility of the service-oriented paradigm. Reusable SCSD-based components and services can reduce costs, shorten development time, and improve service quality when implemented effectively. The SCSD framework offers an alternative to older system development approaches, while it also provides a new solution in order to establish relationships between services and components for current enterprise systems.

Daugėjant informacijos ir paslaugų kiekiui internete tradicinės elektroninio mokymo architektūros vis sunkiau patenkina iškylančius integracijos, išplėtimo, resursų valdymo poreikius. Nauja paslaugom orientuota architektūra, įgyvendinama žiniatinklio paslaugų technologijomis bei Grid aplinka yra tinkamas būdas efektyviam ir kokybiškam e-mokymui užtikrinti. Šiame darbe nagrinėjama kokias naujas galimybes e-mokymo srityje atveria paslaugom orientuota Grid architektūra. Tam kad būtų galima pasinaudoti naujomis galimybėmis turimą sistemą reikia modifikuoti. Pateikiamos rekomendacijos egzistuojančios interaktyvios e-mokymo taikomosios programos adaptacijai Grid paslaugų architektūrai. Šios rekomendacijos realizuoja esamą sistemą kaip paslaugą ar paslaugų rinkinį. Sudarytos rekomendacijos praktiškai išbandomos pritaikant realią nuotolinę testavimo sistemą Grid paslaugų aplinkai. Eksperimentinėje dalyje yra įvertinta nauda, kurią suteikia sistemos realizavimas Grid paslaugomis išplečiamumo, lankstumo bei pakartotinio panaudojimo požiūriu. / The increasing amount of information and services on the internet continues to grow, traditional e-learning architectures are unable to satisfy the need of integration, flexibility and resource management. The new service oriented architecture based on web services technologies and Grid environment is the effective and valuable way to develop e-learning. In this master thesis new e-learning opportunities based on service oriented Grid architecture are analyzed. In order to use new approaches the existing system has to be modified. Recommendations for the existing interactive e-learning applications adaptation for the service oriented Grid environment are presented. These recommendations implement the current systems as a service or set of services. The proposed recommendations are tested practically adapting the real distant assessment system for Grid service environment. The added value of this new approach is evaluated taking into consideration scalability, flexibility and reusability of Grid services in the experimentation part.

Workflow Management Systems (WfMSs) are used to support the modelling, analysis, and enactment of business processes. The key benefits WfMSs seek to bring to an organisation include improved efficiency, better process control and improved customer service, which are realised by modelling rigidly structured business processes that in turn derive well-defined workflow process instances. However, the proprietary process definition frameworks imposed by WfMSs make it difficult to support (i) dynamic evolution and adaptation (i.e. modifying process definitions during execution) following unexpected or developmental change in the business processes being modelled; and (ii) exceptions, or deviations from the prescribed process model at runtime, even though it has been shown that such deviations are a common occurrence for almost all processes. These limitations imply that a large subset of business processes do not easily translate to the 'system-centric' modelling frameworks imposed. This research re-examines the fundamental theoretical principles that underpin workflow technologies to derive an approach that moves forward from the productionline paradigm and thereby offers workflow management support for a wider range of work environments. It develops a sound theoretical foundation based on Activity Theory to deliver an implementation of an approach for dynamic and extensible flexibility, evolution and exception handling in workflows, based not on proprietary frameworks, but on accepted ideas of how people actually perform their work activities. The approach produces a framework called worklets to provide an extensible repertoire of self-contained selection and exception-handling processes, coupled with an extensible ripple-down rule set. Using a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), a selection service provides workflow flexibility and adaptation by allowing the substitution of a task at runtime with a sub-process, dynamically selected from its repertoire depending on the context of the particular work instance. Additionally, an exceptionhandling service uses the same repertoire and rule set framework to provide targeted and multi-functional exception-handling processes, which may be dynamically invoked at the task, case or specification level, depending on the context of the work instance and the type of exception that has occurred. Seven different types of exception can be handled by the service. Both expected and unexpected exceptions are catered for in real time. The work is formalised through a series of Coloured Petri Nets and validated using two exemplary studies: one involving a structured business environment and the other a more creative setting. It has been deployed as a discrete service for the well-known, open-source workflow environment YAWL, and, having a service orientation, its applicability is in no way limited to that environment, but may be regarded as a case study in service-oriented computing whereby dynamic flexibility and exception handling for workflows, orthogonal to the underlying workflow language, is provided. Also, being open-source, it is freely available for use and extension.

The proliferation of services on the web is leading to the formation of service ecosystems wherein services interact with one another in ways not foreseen during their development or deployment. This means that over its lifetime, a service is likely to be reused across multiple interactions, such that in each of them a different interface is required from it. Implementing, testing, deploying, and maintaining adapters to deal with this multiplicity of required interfaces can be costly and error-prone. The problem is compounded in the case of services that do not follow simple request-response interactions, but instead engage in conversations comprising arbitrary patterns of message exchanges. A key challenge in this setting is service mediation: the act of retrofitting existing services by intercepting, storing, transforming, and (re-)routing messages going into and out of these services so they can interact in ways not originally foreseen. This thesis addresses one aspect of service mediation, namely service interface adaptation. This problem arises when the interface that a service provides does not match the interface that it is expected to provide in a given interaction. Specifically, the thesis focuses on the reconciliation of mismatches between behavioural interfaces, that is, interfaces that capture ordering constraints between message exchanges. We develop three complementary proposals. Firstly, we propose a visual language for specifying adapters for conversational services. The language is based on a an algebra of operators that are composed to define links between provided-required interfaces. These expressions are fed into an execution engine that intercepts, buffers, transforms and forwards messages to enact the adapter specification. Secondly, we endow such adapter specifications with a formal semantics defined in terms of Petri nets. The formal semantics is used to statically check the correctness of adapter specifications. Finally, we propose an alternative approach to service interface adaptation that does not require hard-wired links between provided and required interfaces. This alternative approach is based on the definition of mapping rules between message types, and is embodied in an adaptation machine. The adaptation machine sits between pairs of services and manipulates the exchanged messages according to a repository of mapping rules. The adaptation machine is also able to detect deadlocks and information loss at runtime.

abstract: The adoption of the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as the foundation for developing a new generation of software systems - known as Service Based Software Systems (SBS), poses new challenges in system design. While simulation as a methodology serves a principal role in design, there is a growing recognition that simulation of SBS requires modeling capabilities beyond those that are developed for the traditional distributed software systems. In particular, while different component-based modeling approaches may lend themselves to simulating the logical process flows in Service Oriented Computing (SOC) systems, they are inadequate in terms of supporting SOA-compliant modeling. Furthermore, composite services must satisfy multiple QoS attributes under constrained service reconfigurations and hardware resources. A key desired capability, therefore, is to model and simulate not only the services consistent with SOA concepts and principles, but also the hardware and network components on which services must execute on. In this dissertation, SOC-DEVS - a novel co-design modeling methodology that enables simulation of software and hardware aspects of SBS for early architectural design evaluation is developed. A set of abstractions representing important service characteristics and service relationships are modeled. The proposed software/hardware co-design simulation capability is introduced into the DEVS-Suite simulator. Exemplar simulation models of a communication intensive Voice Communication System and a computation intensive Encryption System are developed and then validated using data from an existing real system. The applicability of the SOC-DEVS methodology is demonstrated in a simulation testbed aimed at facilitating the design & development of SBS. Furthermore, the simulation testbed is extended by integrating an existing prototype monitoring and adaptation system with the simulator to support basic experimentation towards design & development of Adaptive SBS. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Computer Science 2011

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:58:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo3245_1.pdf: 1745357 bytes, checksum: 69355571b9b350b5663bdd9a8e5c0ba3 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Tribunal de Contas de Pernambuco / A pressão pela melhoria dos mecanismos de controle e de transparência vem demandando a modernização das técnicas de auditoria. Nesta busca, os recursos de Tecnologia da Informação têm se mostrado os principais aliados, utilizados cada vez em maior escala, e cada vez mais sofisticados. Neste aspecto, a utilização da chamada Auditoria Contínua (AC) é um dos principais avanços em curso na iniciativa privada. Voltada para análise de dados em formato eletrônico, a abordagem vem sendo cada vez mais adotada, impulsionada pelo crescimento das transações sem papel e por imposições legais, como o ato Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) de 2002 que procura garantir que as empresas possuam mecanismos de controles confiáveis, reforçando sua governança e transparência como meio de recuperar a credibilidade dos investidores após escândalos financeiros envolvendo grandes corporações americanas. Recentes alterações na legislação brasileira criam obrigações de transparência para o setor público que são semelhantes às criadas pelo ato SOX. A mudança determina que as informações relativas à execução orçamentária e financeira dos entes públicos sejam publicadas em tempo real. Com a mudança, surgem as condições para que os Tribunais de Contas (TCs) utilizem abordagens de AC para fiscalizar a aplicação dos recursos públicos em tempo real. Os modelos proposto para AC são voltados para o setor privado, e muitas vezes para o controle interno. O presente trabalho visa investigar um modelo de AC apropriado ao papel dos TCs no exercício do controle externo. Com esta atualização tecnológica as Cortes de Contas podem avançar muito no nível de efetividade da sua atuação, gerando melhores resultados para a sociedade e benefícios para o setor público brasileiro como um todo. Como resultado da investigação foi construído um modelo de Ambiente de AC para TCs. A proposta descreve as instituições participantes do ambiente e seus papéis; a arquitetura tecnológica que suporta o funcionamento do ambiente; e o desenho dos principais processos do ambiente. Adicionalmente, apresenta-se alguns cenários de evolução e sugestão de critérios para planejamento do ambiente, bem como os benefícios que a abordagem pode trazer