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Background: Rewriting the approach to automotive software development, AU-TOSAR introduces a standardized structure that enhances adaptability, facilitatescollaboration among multiple stakeholders, and optimizes the development process. However, the complexity introduced by AUTOSAR's modular structure also presentschallenges, particularly in understanding the evolution of the software over time. Asautomotive software projects evolve, tracking changes in software repositories basedon AUTOSAR becomes crucial for comprehending the impact on various systemfeatures and ensuring the overall integrity of the software. In response to these chal-lenges, there is a need to provide a systematic and efficient technique for analyzingthe evolution of the software based on AUTOSAR, offering insights into code modi-fications, and their impact on both software and repository evolution. Objectives: The primary objective of this thesis is to develop and evaluate AR-MINE, a specialized tool for automating the mining of software repositories basedon AUTOSAR. By doing so, the thesis aims to provide a comprehensive solution forunderstanding the evolution of automotive software built on the AUTOSAR archi-tecture. Methods: The research employs a design science research methodology, involv-ing the design, development, and evaluation of the AR-MINE tool. The iterativeprocess includes understanding the challenges faced in software repository miningbuilt on AUTOSAR architecture, designing a solution to address these challenges, implementing the tool, and evaluating its effectiveness in a real-world context. Results: The results of this research showcase the effectiveness and utility of AR-MINE in understanding evolution of software built upon AUTOSAR and how it could potentially benefit various people involved in the software development life-cycle. The feedback survey provided valuable insights into the tool's usefulness andfeasibility. Conclusions: The findings and insights derived from the development and eval-uation of AR-MINE, showcase the challenges and opportunities in understandingthe evolution of automotive software built upon the AUTOSAR architecture. By analyzing ARXML files and offering an intuitive interface, the tool could be an ef-fective sidekick in reducing the complexities involved in understanding the softwarebased on AUTOSAR. The tool's industrial validation confirmed its capabilities andpracticality, making the tool a valuable asset. Enhancing AR-MINE by adding morefeatures that are relevant and applicable to a much larger scale and improving itsefficiency by incorporating third party plugins in extracting and analyzing data fromsoftware repositories, are key steps towards its refinement.

Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The amount and complexity of software applications for the building industry is increasing constantly. It has been a long term goal of the software industry to support integration of the various models and applications. This is a difficult task due to the complexity of the models and the diversity of the fields that they model. As a result, only large software houses have the ability to provide integrated solutions on the basis of a common information model. Such a model can more easily be established since the different software is developed within the same group. Other software suppliers usually have to revert to importing and exporting of data to establish some form of integration. Even large software houses still sometimes make use of this technique between their different packages. In order to obtain a fully integrated solution, clients have to acquire complex and expensive software, even if only a small percentage of the functionality of this software is actually required. A different approach to integration is proposed here, based on providing an integration framework that links different existing software models. The framework must be customisable for each individual's unique requirements as well as for the software already used by the individual. In order for the framework to be customisable, it must either encompass the information requirements of all existing software models from the outset, or be flexible and adaptable for each user. Developing an encompassing software model is difficult and expensive and thus the latter approach is followed here. The result is a model that is less general than BIM-style models, but more focussed and less complex. The elements of this flexible model do not have predetermined properties, but properties can instead be added and removed at runtime. Furthermore, derived properties are not stored as values, but rather as methods by which their values are obtained. These can also be added, removed and modified at runtime. These two concepts allow the structure and the functionality of the model to be changed at runtime. An added advantage is that a knowledgeable user can do this himself. Changes to the models can easily be incorporated in the integration framework, so their future development is not limited. This has the advantage that the information content of the various applications does not have to be pre-determined. It is acknowledged that a specific solution is required for each integration model; however the user still has full control to expand his model to the complexity of BIM-type models. Furthermore, if new software models are developed to incorporate the proposed structures, even more seamless and flexible integration will be possible. The proposed framework is demonstrated by linking a CAD application to a cost-estimation application for buildings. A prototype implementation demonstrates full integration by synchronising selection between the different applications. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die hoeveelheid en kompleksiteit van sagteware programme vir die bou industrie is konstant aan die vermeerder. Dit was nog altyd 'n lang termyn doelwit van die sagteware industrie om integrasie van die verskeie modelle en programme te ondersteun. Hierdie is 'n moeilike taak as gevolg van die kompleksiteit van die modelle, en die diversiteit van die velde wat hierdie programme modelleer. Die gevolg is dat net groot sagteware huise die vermoë het om geïntegreerde oplossings te bied op die basis van 'n gemeenskaplike inligting model. So 'n tipe model kan makliker bymekaargestel word siende dat al die verskillende sagteware binne dieselfde groep ontwikkel word. Ander sagteware verskaffers moet gewoonlik gebruik maak van sogenaamde uitvoer/invoer tegnieke om 'n mate van integrasie te verkry. Selfs groot sagteware huise maak ook gebruik van hierdie tegnieke tussen hulle verskeie pakkette, in plaas van om die programme direk met mekaar te koppel. Om 'n vol geïntegreerde oplossing te verkry, moet kliënte komplekse en duur sagteware aanskaf, selfs al word net 'n klein gedeelte van die funksionaliteit van hierdie sagteware gebruik. 'n Verskillende benadering word hier gevolg, gebaseer op 'n integrasie raamwerk wat verskillende bestaande sagteware modelle met mekaar koppel. Die raamwerk moet aanpasbaar wees vir elke individu se unieke opset. Vir die raamwerk om aanpasbaar te wees, moet dit óf alle bou industrie inligting inkorporeer van die staanspoor af, óf dit moet buigbaar en aanpasbaar wees vir elke gebruiker. Om 'n model te ontwikkel wat alle bestaande inligting inkorporeer van die staanspoor af is moeilik en duur, dus word die tweede benadering gevolg. Die eindresultaat is 'n model wat minder omvattend is as BIM-tipe modelle, maar eerder gefokus en minder kompleks. Die elemente van hierdie buigbare model het nie voorafbepaalde eienskappe nie, eienskappe kan bygevoeg en weggevat word terwyl die program hardloop. Verder word afgeleide eienskappe nie gestoor as waardes nie, maar eerder as metodes wat gebruik word om hulle waardes mee af te lei. Hierdie konsepte laat toe dat die struktuur en funksionaliteit van die model verander kan word terwyl die program hardloop. 'n Verdere voordeel is dat 'n kundige verbruiker die veranderinge self kan doen. Veranderinge in die modelle kan maklik ingesluit word in die integrasie model, so toekomstige ontwikkeling word nie beperk nie. Dit beteken dat die inhoud van die modelle nie vooraf bepaal hoef te word nie. Al het die raamwerk 'n gespesialiseerde oplossing vir elke gebruiker tot gevolg, het die gebruiker nogtans volle beheer om sy model uit te brei tot die omvattendheid van BIM-tipe modelle. Indien nuwe sagteware modelle ontwikkel word met die integrasie raamwerk in gedagte, kan nog gladder en buigbare integrasie moontlik wees. In hierdie tesis word 'n tekenprogram met 'n kosteberaming program gekoppel om die voorgestelde raamwerk te demonstreer. 'n Prototipe implementering demonstreer volle integrasie deur seleksie binne die programme te sinchroniseer.

Manufacturing today has become a matter of the effective and efficient application of information technology and knowledge engineering. Manufacturing firms success depends to a great extent on information technology, which emphasizes the integration of the information systems used by a manufacturing enterprise. This integration is also called enterprise application integration (here the term application means information systems or software systems). The methodology for enterprise application integration, in particular enterprise application integration automation, has been studied for at least a decade; however, no satisfactory solution has been found. Enterprise application integration is becoming even more difficult due to the explosive growth of various information systems as a result of ever increasing competition in the software market. This thesis aims to provide a novel solution to enterprise application integration. The semantic data model concept that evolved in database technology is revisited and applied to enterprise application integration. This has led to two novel ideas developed in this thesis. First, an ontology of an enterprise with five levels (following the data abstraction: generalization/specialization) is proposed and represented using unified modeling language. Second, both the ontology for the enterprise functions and the ontology for the enterprise applications are modeled to allow automatic processing of information back and forth between these two domains. The approach with these novel ideas is called the enterprise semantic model approach. The thesis presents a detailed description of the enterprise semantic model approach, including the fundamental rationale behind the enterprise semantic model, the ontology of enterprises with levels, and a systematic way towards the construction of a particular enterprise semantic model for a company. A case study is provided to illustrate how the approach works and to show the high potential of solving the existing problems within enterprise application integration.

Manufacturing today has become a matter of the effective and efficient application of information technology and knowledge engineering. Manufacturing firms success depends to a great extent on information technology, which emphasizes the integration of the information systems used by a manufacturing enterprise. This integration is also called enterprise application integration (here the term application means information systems or software systems). The methodology for enterprise application integration, in particular enterprise application integration automation, has been studied for at least a decade; however, no satisfactory solution has been found. Enterprise application integration is becoming even more difficult due to the explosive growth of various information systems as a result of ever increasing competition in the software market. This thesis aims to provide a novel solution to enterprise application integration. The semantic data model concept that evolved in database technology is revisited and applied to enterprise application integration. This has led to two novel ideas developed in this thesis. First, an ontology of an enterprise with five levels (following the data abstraction: generalization/specialization) is proposed and represented using unified modeling language. Second, both the ontology for the enterprise functions and the ontology for the enterprise applications are modeled to allow automatic processing of information back and forth between these two domains. The approach with these novel ideas is called the enterprise semantic model approach. The thesis presents a detailed description of the enterprise semantic model approach, including the fundamental rationale behind the enterprise semantic model, the ontology of enterprises with levels, and a systematic way towards the construction of a particular enterprise semantic model for a company. A case study is provided to illustrate how the approach works and to show the high potential of solving the existing problems within enterprise application integration.

Diploma thesis is about creation of support software integrated into gaming system. Thanks to non-existence of documentation of chosen gaming information system, untraditional method of software creation had to be used. The method is described by this thesis. Main objective of the thesis is creation of supporting application that generates aggregated data, stores it to a data warehouse and presents it to its users. All of this development is done using defined method. Thesis is divided in two main parts. The first one contains analysis of gaming information system. This analysis is used in the second part of the thesis, which describes how was the developed software designed and implemented. All analysis in the thesis are important part of the final product development and the product can be created thanks to them. Created application is unique in its domain and brings view at an untraditional development of this support software. Thanks to its uniqueness, created software can help with inspiration for next development in this domain.

Dans ce travail de thèse, on s’intéresse au traitement endovasculaire de l’anévrisme de l’aorte abdominale (EVAR). Cette technique mini-invasive couramment utilisée et connaît une croissance importante depuis 10 ans. Elle repose sur l’exclusion du sac anévrismal par le déploiement au niveau de l’anévrisme d’une ou plusieurs endoprothèses introduites par voies fémorales. Au cours de l’intervention, plusieurs types d’outils de rigidité variable sont introduits pour permettre la navigation de l’endoprothèse. La structure vasculaire subit alors des déformations importantes. Ces déformations sont en général sans incidence sur le bon déroulement de l’intervention. Cependant dans certains cas, notamment pour les patients présentant des anatomies défavorables (fortes tortuosités ou angulations, important degré de calcification, longueur importante des artères iliaques communes et externes) les déformations produites par l’insertion des guides rigides peuvent avoir des conséquences sur le déroulement de l’intervention. Actuellement leur anticipation repose principalement sur l’expérience du chirurgien. La simulation mécanique semble être un outil adapté pour fournir des indicateurs plus objectifs et utiles au praticien lors du planning de son intervention : cette pratique permettrait en guidant et sécurisant le geste chirurgical de diminuer potentiellement les risques de complications peropératoires et postopératoires. La première étape du travail a consisté à développer un modèle mécanique de la structure aorto-iliaque et une méthode de simulation permettant de répondre au problème mécanique posé. Ce modèle a été paramétré de façon patient-spécifique à partir des données préopératoires disponibles. Puis la deuxième étape du travail a consisté à valider la modélisation développée en la confrontant à des données peropératoires réelles obtenus sur 28 cas de patients opérés au CHU Rennes. L’ensemble des méthodes développées à enfin été intégré à un module de démonstration du logiciel EndoSize® (Therenva, France). / Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR) is a mini-invasive technique that is commonly used to treat Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA). It relies on the exclusion of the aneurysm sac by introducing one or more stent-grafts through the femoral arteries and deploying them inside the aneurysm. During the procedure, several tools of varying stiffness are introduced to enable the delivery of the stent graft to its deployment site. During this process, the vascular structure undergoes major deformations. Usually, these have no consequence on the smooth progress of the procedure. However, in some instances, particularly when the patient presents an unfavorable anatomical profile (major tortuousness or angulation, deep calcification, long length of the common and external iliac arteries), the deformation caused by the insertion of stiff guidewires can have major consequences. Today, their prediction relies mainly on the surgeon’s experience. Numerical simulation appears to be an appropriate tool to give the practitioner more objective and more useful indicators when planning the procedure: guiding the surgical act and making it safer using such an approach would potentially reduce the risks of intraoperative and postoperative complications. In the first step of the work, we developed a mechanical model of the aorto-iliac vascular structure and a simulation methodology to answer the mechanical problem. This patient-specific model has been parametrized based on available preoperative data. Then the second step of the work consisted in the validation of this model by confronting the simulation results to real intraoperative 3D data that were collected on 28 cases of patients operated at the University Hospital of Rennes. All the methods that were developed during this PhD were integrated in demonstration module of EndoSize® software (Therenva, France).

Pour les voitures autonomes, la perception est une fonction principale où la sécurité est de la plus haute importance. Un système de perception construit un modèle de l'environnement de conduite en fusionnant plusieurs capteurs de perception incluant les LIDARs, les radars, les capteurs de vision, etc. La fusion basée sur les grilles d'occupation construit un modèle probabiliste de l'environnement en prenant en compte l'incertitude des capteurs. Cette thèse vise à intégrer le calcul des grilles d'occupation dans des systèmes embarqués à bas-coût et à basse-consommation. Cependant, les grilles d'occupation effectuent des calculs de probabilité intenses et difficilement calculables en temps-réel par les plateformes matérielles embarquées.Comme solution, cette thèse introduit une nouvelle méthode de fusion probabiliste appelée Grille d'Occupation Entière. Les Grilles d'Occupation Entières se reposent sur des principes mathématiques qui permettent de calculer la fusion de capteurs grâce à des simple addition de nombre entiers. L'intégration matérielle et logicielle des Grilles d'Occupation Entière est sûre et fiable. Les erreurs numériques engendrées par les calculs sont connues, majorées et paramétrées par l'utilisateur. Les Grilles d'Occupation Entière permettent de calculer en temps-réel la fusion de multiple capteurs sur un système embarqué bas-coût et à faible consommation dédié pour les applications pour l'automobile. / Perception is a primary task for an autonomous car where safety is of utmost importance. A perception system builds a model of the driving environment by fusing measurements from multiple perceptual sensors including LIDARs, radars, vision sensors, etc. The fusion based on occupancy grids builds a probabilistic environment model by taking into account sensor uncertainties. This thesis aims to integrate the computation of occupancy grids into embedded low-cost and low-power platforms. Occupancy Grids perform though intensive probability calculus that can be hardly processed in real-time on embedded hardware.As a solution, this thesis introduces the Integer Occupancy Grid framework. Integer Occupancy Grids rely on a proven mathematical foundation that enables to process probabilistic fusion through simple addition of integers. The hardware/software integration of integer occupancy grids is safe and reliable. The involved numerical errors are bounded and is parametrized by the user. Integer Occupancy Grids enable a real-time computation of multi-sensor fusion on embedded low-cost and low-power processing platforms dedicated for automotive applications.

Today, with various technology and business standards, organizations face rapid changes in both internal and external environments. To be able to rapidly respond to such changing environments, integration of software systems has entered among the top priorities of many organizations. However, despite extended use of software integration, methods for estimating the business value of implementing such integration are still missing. Besides presenting a conceptual model to define the benefits of systems integration and related causal relationships, this study proposes a method for measuring such benefits in monetary terms. In particular, we  demonstrate how a mathematical programming technique called Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) can be used to evaluate the business value of software integration. Our method is illustrated using data from 12 organizations. The results indicate significant productivity gains by integrating software systems, which represent the value of software integration in organizations.

Organizations use Business Intelligence (BI) systems to monitor how well they are meeting their goals and objectives. Yet, very often BI systems do not include clear models of the organization’s goals or of how to measure whether they are satisfied or not. Several researchers now attempt to integrate goal models into BI systems, but there are still major challenges related to how to get access to the BI data to populate the part of the goal model (often indicators) used to assess goal satisfaction. This thesis explores a new approach to integrate BI systems with goal models. In particular, it explores the integration of IBM Cognos Business Intelligence, a leading BI tool, with an Eclipse-based goal modeling tool named jUCMNav. jUCMNav is an open source graphical editor for the User Requirements Notation (URN), which includes the Use Case Map notation for scenarios and processes and the Goal-oriented Requirement Language for business objectives. URN was recently extended with the concept of Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to enable performance assessment and monitoring of business processes. In jUCMNav, KPIs are currently calculated or modified manually. The new integration proposed in this thesis maps these KPIs to report elements that are generated automatically by Cognos based on the model defined in jUCMNav at runtime, with minimum effort. We are using IBM Cognos Mashup Service, which includes web services that enable the retrieval of report elements at the most granular level. This transformation provides managers and analysts with useful goal-oriented and process-oriented monitoring views fed by just-in-time BI information. This new solution also automates retrieving data from Cognos servers, which helps reducing the high costs usually caused by the amount of manual work required otherwise. The novel approach presented in this thesis avoids manual report generation and minimizes any contract with respect to the location of manually created reports, hence leading to better usability and performance. The approach and its tool support are illustrated with an ongoing example, validated with a case study, and verified through testing.