articles+ search results

Computer aided design, interactive software, man-machine interaction, software prototyping, modeling, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95

Computer aided design (CAD) systems, or more generally interactive software, are today being developed for various application areas like VLSI-design, mechanical structure design, avionics design, cartographic design, architectual design, office automation, publishing, etc. Such tools are becoming more and more important in order to be productive and to be able to design quality products. One important part of CAD-software development is the man-machine interface (MMI) design.

Man-machine systems, human factors, underseas systems, prototyping, system analysis, guidance systems, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95

Important man-machine interface (MMI) issues concerning a submarine command and weapon control system (CWCS) such as crew organization, automation level and decision support are discussed in this paper. Generic submarine CWCS functions and operating conditions are outlined. Detailed, dynamic and real-time prototypes were used to support the MMI design. The prototypes are described and experience with detailed prototyping is discussed. Some of the main interaction principles are summarized and a restricted example of the resulting design is given. Our design experience and current work have been used to outline future perspectives of MMI design in naval CWCSs. The need for both formal and experimental approaches is emphasized.

evolutionary prototyping, Information technology, T58.5-58.64, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95

The failure of many Information Systems (IS) designed for use by managers may be due to the fact that traditional IS methodologies were used in their development. In this paper we describe an organisation's efforts, over a period of four years, to develop an IS for use by senior management and show how traditional methodologies have impeded the involvement of the intended users of the system from the development process resulting in poor specification of user requirements and inflexible systems. From this experience we verify the superiority of an evolutionary prototyping methodology for the development of these types of systems.

Computer software and QA76.75-76.765

To naturally and conveniently express numerical algorithms, considerable expressive power is needed in the languages in which they are implemented. The language Matlab is widely used by numerical analysts for this reason. Expressiveness or ease-of-use can also result in a loss of efficiency, as is the case with Matlab. In particular, because numerical analysts are highly interested in the performance of their algorithms, prototypes are still often implemented in languages such as Fortran. In this article we describe a language design that is intended to both provide expressiveness for numerical computation, and at the same time provide performance guarantees. In our language, EQ, we attempt to include both syntactic and semantic features that correspond closely to the programmer's model of the problem, including unordered equations, large-granularity state transitions, and matrix notation. The resulting language does not fit into standard language categories such as functional or imperative but has features of both paradigms. We also introduce the notion of language dependability, which is the idea that a language should guarantee that certain program transformations are performed by all implementations. We first describe the interesting features of EQ, and then present three examples of algorithms written using it. We also provide encouraging performance results from an initial implementation of our language.

Concurrent Engineering, Integrated Product Development, Prototyping, Quality Function Deployment, Design for Manufacturing, Case histories and web-based tutorial, Manufactures, and TS1-2301

This paper provides a comprehensive insight into current trends and developments in Concurrent Engineering for integrated development of products and processes with the goal of completing the entire cycle in a shorter time, at lower overall cost and with fewer engineering design changes after product release. The evolution and definition of Concurrent Engineering are addressed first, followed by a concise review of the following elements of the concurrent engineering approach to product development: Concept Development: The Front-End Process, identifying Customer Needs and Quality Function Deployment, Establishing Product Specifications, Concept Selection, Product Architecture, Design for Manufacturing, Effective Rapid Prototyping, and The Economics of Product Development. An outline of a computer-based tutorial developed by the authors and other graduate students funded by NASA ( accessible via the world-wide-web ). is provided in this paper. A brief discussion of teamwork for successful concurrent engineering is included, t'ase histories of concurrent engineering implementation at North American and European companies are outlined with references to textbooks authored by Professor Menon and other writers. A comprehensive bibliography on concurrent engineering is included in the paper.

realidade virtual, simulação, manufatura virtual, prototipação virtual, virtual reality, simulation, virtual manufacturing, virtual prototyping, Industrial engineering. Management engineering, and T55.4-60.8

A realidade virtual é um ambiente gerado pelo computador em que o usuário tem disponibilidade de controles tridimensionais de maneira altamente interativa, podendo manipular e explorar dados em tempo real. A realidade virtual pode ser aplicada em diversos setores da indústria, desde o planejamento de fábricas, simulação da produção, auxílio na divulgação de produtos, treinamento de funcionários, validação de protótipos. Este artigo visa mostrar a flexibilidade da utilização da realidade virtual dentro das indústrias e dos centros de pesquisas, focando principalmente as áreas relacionadas a manufatura, desenvolvimento de produto e treinamento.Virtual reality is a computer-generated environment with highly interactive three-dimensional controls which allow the user to manipulate and examine data in real time. Virtual reality can be applied in a number of industry sectors, including factory planning, product simulation, product popularization, employee training and prototype validation. This article aims to show the flexibility of virtual reality in industry and in research centers, focussing mainly on areas related to manufacturing, product development and training.

Chemistry and QD1-999

This review presents some recent developments in the field of electroanalytical sensors. We first explain the working principle of electrochemistry at the interface between two immiscible electrolyte solutions (ITIES), illustrated by the example of copper transferring through a water/1,2-dichloroethane interface when the ionophore 1,4,7,10-tetrathiacyclododecane is present in the organic phase. The obtained results show that assisted ion-transfer reactions take place with both CUI and CUII, but that the interfacial process is complicated by the fact that CUI disproportionates in water and that CUII can be reduced in the organic phase.Based on the same experimental methodology, a new type of amperometric detector for non-redox ions has been developed using a composite polymer membrane supporting a gelified organic phase that can incorporate an ionophore such as valinomycin. We report here the use of a (o-nitrophenyloctylether)-(poy(vinyl chloride) (NPOE-PVC) gel micro-interface as a detector for cations and anions in ion-exchange chromatography. The main advantage of this approach is that selectivity and sensitivity can be tailored by the choice of the ionophore and by the polarisation potential.This ion detector has also been incorporated in a miniaturised total-analysis system (?-TAS) fabricated in a polymer sheet by UV-laser photoablation. This microfabrication technique is used for the prototyping of a disposable capillary-electrophoresis microsystem comprising on-chip injector, separation column and electrochemical detector. This system is further used with built-in carbon-ink electrodes for the detection of electroactive species. These microsystems are now under development for immuno-sensor applications.

Chemistry and QD1-999

The H. Weidmann AG has set up a unique injection-moulding tool for replication of optical and nonoptical microstructures down to a sub-?m scale. Our approach simplifies the initial tooling and, thus, substantially lowers the cost threshold for feasibility studies and testing of injection-moulded microstructures. Two case studies, with micro-pipettes and a micro-spectrometer, respectively, show the usefulness of this new process technology. The service for polymer-sample prototyping is available on a commercial basis at reasonable costs and turn-around times.

prototyping, serial productions, Economic growth, development, planning, HD72-88, Economics as a science, and HB71-74

The paper deals with the problem of the prototyping of repetitive production. The problem results from the customer demand and competition on modern markets. The approach proposed in this paper consists in defining sufficient conditions to filter all solutions and providing a set of admissible solutions for both the customer and the producer. The methodology is the basis for creating a computer program called the “System of Order Validation”. An example illustrating this approach is presented.

Data modelling, Software engineering, Prototyping, Object-Orientation, Database systems, Veri modelleme, Yazılım mühendisliği, Prototip, Nesne-yönelim, Veri tabanı sistemleri, Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General), and TA1-2040

İlişkisel veri tabanları bilgiişlem uygulamalarında standart olmaya başlamasına rağmen, karmaşık veri modellemesinin gereklerini yerine getirmek için nesne yönelimli sistemler geliştirilmektedir. Bu makalede, hızlı program geliştirmek için kullanılabilecek, nesne-tabanlı bir sistem, xPROT tanıtılmaktadır. Sistem bazı önceden tanımlanmış metod ve Menu, Report, View, Table gibi sınıfları içermektedir. xPROT'da veri şeması olduğu kadar, veri işleme de aynı komut bazlı dil ile ifade edilmektedir. Sistemin ifade yeterliliği, kolaylığı ve esnekliği, veri modelleme gücü açısından incelenmektedir.

Veri modelleme, Yazılım mühendisliği, Prototip, Nesne-yönelim, Veri tabanı sistemleri, Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General), and TA1-2040

Even relational database management systems have now become the standard for data processing applications; object oriented database systems are being developed to meet the complex data modeling requirements. In this paper an object-based system, xPROT, is introduced which could be used for rapid program development. System includes some pre-defined methods and classes as Menu, Report, View, Table. In xPROT the schema as well as the data manipulation is expressed by the same command-based language. Expressiveness, easiness and flexibility in terms of data modeling power is investigated.

no keywords, Transportation and communications, HE1-9990, Science, Transportation engineering, and TA1001-1280

In the paper the problems of collective designing of modern industrial systems in the "Lean Production" concept are considered. The definition of compact manufacturing system (CMS) is given, and the original principles of industrial compactness maintenance have resulted. On the basis of these principles the author offers the technique of designing CMS, formalized up to an integrated algorithm. The result of industrial and operating cycle semiotic modeling was fixed in a basis of the author's version of simultaneous designing, which is realized at the CAD Centre at Vitebsk state technological university. Both the configuration of the Centre computer network and a model of the design data are discussed. At the end of the paper the examples projected and created CMS are resulted: the compact shop of the machine-building enterprise; the CMS of Reverse Engineering; the CMS of the Rapid Prototyping on the basis of automated laser cutting; the manufacture preparation CMS (Rapid Prototyping & Tooling); the CAD Centre.

Nursing and RT1-120

A prototyping approach was used to determine the essential system requirements of a computerised patient record information system for a typical township primary health care clinic. A pilot clinic was identified and the existing manual system and business processes in this clinic was studied intensively before the first prototype was implemented. Interviews with users, incidental observations and analysis of actual data entered were used as primary techniques to refine the prototype system iteratively until a system with an acceptable data set and adequate functionalities were in place. Several non-functional and user-related requirements were also discovered during the prototyping period.

rapid prototyping process, multi-DSP-FPGA architecture, CAD environment, image processing applications, Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

We present AVSynDEx (concatenation of AVS SynDEx), a rapid prototyping process aiming to the implementation of digital signal processing applications on mixed architectures (multi-DSP FPGA). This process is based on the use of widely available and efficient CAD tools established along the design process so that most of the implementation tasks become automatic. These tools and architectures are judiciously selected and integrated during the implementation process to help a signal processing specialist without relevant hardware experience. We have automated the translation between the different levels of the process to increase and secure it. One main advantage is that only a signal processing designer is needed, all the other specialized manual tasks being transparent in this prototyping methodology, hereby reducing the implementation time.

Testing Criteria, Testing Tool Prototyping, Prolog, Transformational Paradigm, Pascal, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95

Structured testing criteria are usually used to assess the adequacy of test case sets, defining coverage measures. Control and data flow based criteria employ information about the program graph as well as definition and usage of variables to establish the testing requirements. In this paper, we present an approach to prototype supporting tools for control and data flow based criteria. In the proposed approach, we use TXL — a language based in the transformational paradigm — to analyze and instrument the program under test. The instrumentation aims at making it possible to process the data by a Prolog program which allows the tester to assess the test case set adequacy. A simple example is used to illustrate the main ideas of our approach.

Microfabrication, Microreactors, Process intensification, Unit operation modules, Chemistry, and QD1-999

Microreaction technology is a powerful tool for the evaluation of new reaction pathways, process intensification in chemical engineering and combinatorial material development. Because of the small characteristic dimensions of microreaction devices, mass and heat transfer processes are enhanced and, in addition, initial and boundary conditions can be precisely adjusted for optimizing yield and selectivity. A number of microfabrication methods exist to cover prototyping and manufacturing of a few items as well as cost-effective mass production of modular and integrated microdevices for unit operations, reactions and control. Detailed analyses of methods like LIGA technology, wet and dry micro-etching, mechanical micromachining and laser processing show that a wide variety of materials is applicable to meet most requirements of chemical processes.

Windmills, simulator, real time system, digital signal processor, AC servomotor, Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering, TK1-9971, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95

This paper is a contribution to the development of a real time wind turbine simulator. The simulator is designed to generate wind power on its shaft, and provide the static and dynamic characteristics of a given turbine. The general structure of the simulator is composed of two subsystems: a “soft simulator” which realizes the real time simulation of the wind turbine, on the basis of the mathematical model, an electromechanical tracking system which receives the reference signal from the softsimulator, and provides a measurable output variable transmitted as response variable to the soft-simulator. The work concerns a wind turbine simulator using a tracking system realized on the basis on a frequency controlled AC servo-motor. This servo-motor is mechanically coupled with a pendulum machine, which realises the shaft torque of the electrical generator. The experimental system is built around the DS1103 PPC Controlled Board (dSPACE), which offers a rapid control prototyping, by Matlab-Simulink software tools. Experimental results from the real time WTS are presented.

rapid prototyping, FPGA, hardware emulation, low power, design flow, Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

This paper describes the design of a large-scale emulation engine and an application example from the field of low-power wireless devices. The primary goal of the emulator is to support design space exploration of real-time algorithms. The emulator is customized for dataflow dominant architectures, especially focusing on telecommunication-related applications. Due to its novel routing architecture and application-specific nature, the emulator is capable of real-time execution of a class of algorithms in its application space. Moreover, the dataflow structure facilitates the development of a highly abstracted design flow for the emulator. Simulations and practical measurements on commercial development boards are used to verify that real-time emulation of a low-power TDMA receiver is feasible at a clock speed of 25 MHz.

FPGA, DSP, rapid prototyping, design methodology, CAD tools, integration, Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

We introduce the Logic Foundry, a system for the rapid creation and integration of FPGA-based digital signal processing systems. Recognizing that some of the greatest challenges in creating FPGA-based systems occur in the integration of the various components, we have proposed a system that targets the following four areas of integration: design flow integration, component integration, platform integration, and software integration. Using the Logic Foundry, a system can be easily specified, and then automatically constructed and integrated with system level software.

placement, mapping, FIR filter, PCLS, bit serial, JBits, Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

Area-efficient peak-constrained least-squares (PCLS) bit-serial finite impulse response (FIR) filter implementations can be rapidly prototyped in field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) with the methodology presented in this paper. Faster generation of the FPGA configuration bitstream is possible with a new application-specific mapping and placement method that uses JBits to avoid conventional general-purpose mapping and placement tools. JBits is a set of Java classes that provide an interface into the Xilinx Virtex FPGA configuration bitstream, allowing the user to generate new configuration bitstreams. PCLS coefficient generation allows passband-to-stopband energy ratio (PSR) performance to be traded for a reduction in the filter's hardware cost without altering the minimum stopband attenuation. Fixed-point coefficients that meet the frequency response and hardware cost specifications can be generated with the PCLS method. It is not possible to meet these specifications solely by the quantization of floating-point coefficients generated in other methods.

Information technology, T58.5-58.64, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95

DCT, low-power, FPGA, binDCT., Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

A method for the rapid design of field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based discrete cosine transform (DCT) approximations is presented that can be used to control the coding gain, mean square error (MSE), quantization noise, hardware cost, and power consumption by optimizing the coefficient values and datapath wordlengths. Previous DCT design methods can only control the quality of the DCT approximation and estimates of the hardware cost by optimizing the coefficient values. It is shown that it is possible to rapidly prototype FPGA-based DCT approximations with near optimal coding gains that satisfy the MSE, hardware cost, quantization noise, and power consumption specifications.

rapid prototyping, COTS, model year, beamformer, EDA tools, heterogeneous platform, FPGA., Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

New methodologies, engineering processes, and support environments are beginning to emerge for embedded signal processing systems. The main objectives are to enable defence industry to field state-of-the-art products in less time and with lower costs, including retrofits and upgrades, based predominately on commercial off the shelf (COTS) components and the model-year concept. One of the cornerstones of the new methodologies is the concept of rapid prototyping. This is the ability to rapidly and seamlessly move from functional design to the architectural design to the implementation, through automatic code generation tools, onto real-time COTS test beds. In this paper, we try to quantify the term “rapid†and provide results, the metrics, from two independent benchmarks, a radar and sonar beamforming application subset. The metrics show that the rapid prototyping process may be sixteen times faster than a conventional process.

design partitioning, rapid prototyping, embedded systems., Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

This paper introduces a rapid prototyping methodology which overcomes important barriers in the design and implementation of digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms and systems on embedded hardware platforms, such as cellular phones. This paper describes rapid prototyping in terms of a simulation/prototype bridge and in terms of appropriate language design. The simulation/prototype bridge combines the strengths of simulation and of prototyping, allowing the designer to develop and evaluate next-generation communications systems, partly in simulation on a host computer and partly as a prototype on embedded hardware. Appropriate language design allows designers to express a communications system as a block diagram, in which each block represents an algorithm specified by a set of equations. Software tools developed for this paper implement both concepts, and have been successfully used in the development of a next-generation code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular wireless communications system.

3D surface, stereolithography format, interpolating subdivision, advancing front technique, Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General), and TA1-2040

In the present paper, an algorithm for the discretization of parametric 3D surfaces has been extended to the family of discrete surfaces represented by stereolithography (STL) grids. The STL file format, developed for the rapid prototyping industry, is an attractive alternative to surface representation in solid modeling. Initially, a boundary representation is constructed from the STL file using feature recognition. Then a smooth surface is recovered over the original STL grid using an interpolating subdivision procedure. Finally, the reconstructed surface is subjected to the triangulation accomplished using the advancing front technique operating directly on the surface. The capability of the proposed methodology is illustrated on an example.

knowledge management, medical education, Special aspects of education, LC8-6691, and Medicine

Abstract Background The last decade has witnessed a rapid expansion of biomedical knowledge. Despite this, fashions in medical education over the same period have shifted away from factual (didactic) teaching and towards contextual, or problem-based, learning (PBL). This paradigm shift has been justified by studies showing that PBL improves reasoning and communication while being associated with few if any detectable knowledge deficits. Discussion Analysis of the literature indicates that the recent rapid rise of PBL has closely paralleled the timing of the information explosion. The growing dominance of PBL could thus worsen the problems of information management in medical education via several mechanisms: first, by creating the impression that a defined spectrum of core factual knowledge suffices for clinical competence despite ongoing knowledge expansion (quality cost); second, by dissuading teachers from refining the educational utility of didactic modalities (improvement cost); and third, by reducing faculty time for developing reusable resources to impart factual knowledge more efficiently (opportunity cost). Summary These costs of PBL imply a need for strengthening the knowledge base of 21st-century medical graduates. New initiatives towards this end could include the development of more integrated cognitive techniques for facilitating the comprehension of complex data; the design of differentiated medical curricula for producing graduates with defined high-priority skill sets; and the encouragement of more cost-effective faculty teaching activities focused on the prototyping and testing of innovative commercializable educational tools.

processor, FPGA, Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering, and TK1-9971

In technical literature and especially in domestic, predominant way to examine performance of 802.11a-based systems are experiments in simulations. In this paper, we present FPGA based 802.11a prototype, which gave us a possibility to gain closer insight into the problems of OFDM system implementation. A specific design of base band modem physical layer is discussed, along with the presentation of the FPGA prototyping platform on which it was developed. Prototype is implemented on the latest generation of FPGA chips, using state-of-the-art tools for DSP development. Custom made development environment, and design flow optimized for rapid prototyping of software defined radios, are also presented in the paper.

Physics and QC1-999

Substructures coupling is still an important tool in several applications of modal analysis, especially structural modification and structures assembling. The subject is particularly relevant in virtual prototyping of complex systems and responds to actual industrial needs. This paper analyzes the possibility of assembling together different substructures' models. The important role of rotational DoFs is highlighted, underlying the difficulty of assembling theoretical and experimental models, for which, usually, the rotational DoFs are not available. Expansion techniques can be used to provide this information as well as appropriate modelling of joints. With this information FRF models, modal models and FE models can be appropriately combined together and solutions for several cases of practical interest are presented. The analyzed procedures are tested on purpose-built benchmarks, showing limits and capabilities of each of them.

Electronics, TK7800-8360, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95

Cyberbotics Ltd. develops Webots ™ , a mobile robotics simulation software that provides you with a rapid prototyping environment for modelling, programming and simulating mobile robots. The provided robot libraries enable you to transfer your control programs to several commercially available real mobile robots. Webots ™ lets you define and modify a complete mobile robotics setup, even several different robots sharing the same environment. For each object, you can define a number of properties, such as shape, color, texture, mass, friction, etc. You can equip each robot with a large number of available sensors and actuators. You can program these robots using your favorite development environment, simulate them and optionally transfer the resulting programs onto your real robots. Webots ™ has been developed in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, thoroughly tested, well documented and continuously maintained for over 7 years. It is now the main commercial product available from Cyberbotics Ltd.

Schema, Schematic Processing, Sex Schema, Psychology, and BF1-990

Determination and classification of certain behaviors for women are heavily influenced by pre-established educational and social values of educated men. Such erroneous beliefs like fear, jealousy, etc. result in sexual prototyping and establish cliche imaginations. Thus cognitive structures form different schemata. The improvement and modification of schemata are possible with knowledge increment. The aim of this research is to study the impact of men's level of academic qualification on altering the structure of sex discrimination schemata. To achieve this aim 200 men holding degrees higher or lower than high school diploma were chosen and identified on the basis of social class random sampling method, and their responses to the ten questions with indispensable validity and reliability were collected. The findings of this study show that knowledge increment in men is influencing in improvement and modification of schemata, and men with higher academic qualifications have a better attitude toward women behavioral attributes.

rapid prototyping, selected laser sintering, laser scanning, part accuracy, Technology, Manufactures, and TS1-2301

The effects of different factors, including the precision of the selected laser sintering (SLS) equipment, sintering temperature, sintered thickness of individual layer and laser scanning route, on the SLS part accuracy have been analyzed and studied. Some measures are suggested in order to improve the part accuracy made by SLS.

neurocirurgia, crânio, cirurgia plástica, metilmetacrilato, neurosurgery, skull-plastic surgery, methylmethacrylate, Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry, and RC321-571

A prototipagem, método de reconstrução de segmentos do corpo humano através de programas de computação, tem sido usada na neurocirurgia para reproduzir o crânio de pacientes permitindo a programação de atos cirúrgicos e a produção de próteses para reconstruir falhas ósseas no crânio. Apresentamos dois casos de cranioplastia realizadas com o uso de próteses de acrílico construídas por prototipagem. Após 10 meses de acompanhamento, os pacientes não apresentaram sinais de infecção e apresentam bom resultado estético. As vantagens apontadas na literatura para este método (redução do tempo cirúrgico, facilidade técnica e bom resultado estético) foram observadas.The prototyping is a method for reconstruction of human body segments by computer software. It has been used in neurosurgery for cranial reproduction in patients allowing the programming of surgical procedures and the production of prosthesis to reconstruct bone failures in the skull. We present two cases of cranioplasty performed with the use of acrylic prosthesis constructed by prototyping. After 10 months of follow-up, they donot present signs of infection and show good aesthetic result. The advantages pointed at the literature for this method (reduction of surgical time, easy technical handle, and good aesthetic result) were confirmed.

Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics, R858-859.7, Biology (General), and QH301-705.5

Abstract Background The protein structure prediction problem is one of the most challenging problems in biological sciences. Many approaches have been proposed using database information and/or simplified protein models. The protein structure prediction problem can be cast in the form of an optimization problem. Notwithstanding its importance, the problem has very seldom been tackled by Constraint Logic Programming, a declarative programming paradigm suitable for solving combinatorial optimization problems. Results Constraint Logic Programming techniques have been applied to the protein structure prediction problem on the face-centered cube lattice model. Molecular dynamics techniques, endowed with the notion of constraint, have been also exploited. Even using a very simplified model, Constraint Logic Programming on the face-centered cube lattice model allowed us to obtain acceptable results for a few small proteins. As a test implementation their (known) secondary structure and the presence of disulfide bridges are used as constraints. Simplified structures obtained in this way have been converted to all atom models with plausible structure. Results have been compared with a similar approach using a well-established technique as molecular dynamics. Conclusions The results obtained on small proteins show that Constraint Logic Programming techniques can be employed for studying protein simplified models, which can be converted into realistic all atom models. The advantage of Constraint Logic Programming over other, much more explored, methodologies, resides in the rapid software prototyping, in the easy way of encoding heuristics, and in exploiting all the advances made in this research area, e.g. in constraint propagation and its use for pruning the huge search space.

vacuum differential pressure casting, selective laser sintering, precision casting, rapid prototyping technology, Technology, Manufactures, and TS1-2301

Based on Vacuum Differential Pressure Casting (VDPC) precision forming technology and the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) Rapid Prototyping (RP) technology, a rapid manufacturing method called Rapid Precision Casting (RPC) process from computer three-dimensional solid models to metallic parts was investigated. The experimental results showed that the main advantage of RPC was not only its ability to cast higher internal quality and more accurate complex thin-walled aluminum alloy parts, but also the greatly-reduced lead time cycle from Selective Laser Sintering(SLS) plastic prototyping to metallic parts. The key forming technology of RPC for complex thin-walled metallic parts has been developed for new casting production and Rapid Tooling (RT), and it is possible to rapidly manufacture high-quality and accurate metallic parts by means of RP in foundry industry.

Electronics, TK7800-8360, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95

This work addresses the design of an active multi-link micro-catheter actuated by Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) micro actuators. This may be a response to one medical major demand on such devices, which will be useful for surgical explorations and interventions. In this paper, we focus on a training and design simulator dedicated to such catheters. This simulator is based on an original simulation platform (OpenMASK). The catheter is a robotic system, which is evaluated by a dynamical simulation addressing a navigation task in its environment. The design of the prototype and its mechanical model are presented. We develop an interaction model for contact. This model uses a real medical database for which distance cartography is proposed. Then we focus on an autonomous control model based on a multi-agent approach and including the behaviour description of the SMA actuators. Results of mechanical simulations including interaction with the ducts are presented. Furthermore, the interest of such a simulator is presented by applying virtual prototyping techniques for the design optimization. This optimization process is achieved by using genetic algorithms at different stages with respect to the specified task.

Prototipagem rápida, modelagem por fusão e deposição, ferramental rápido, Rapid prototyping, fused deposition modeling, rapid tooling, Chemical technology, and TP1-1185

Os processos de prototipagem rápida (Rapid Prototyping - RP) e ferramental rápido (Rapid Tooling - RT) surgiram para reduzir os tempos de desenvolvimento de produtos na fase de projeto diminuindo a necessidade de retrabalhos e, conseqüentemente, antecipando a entrada de novos produtos no mercado. Neste trabalho foi utilizada uma das tecnologias de prototipagem rápida, denominada Modelagem por Fusão e Deposição (FDM), na construção de moldes em ABS com o objetivo de investigar sua aplicação na moldagem por injeção de termoplásticos. Amostras das peças injetadas foram submetidas a ensaios de difração de raios X, dureza Shore D e tração. Os resultados mostraram a viabilidade de fabricar pequenos lotes de peças em PEBD e PP com propriedades mecânicas bastante similares às encontradas em peças moldadas em moldes metálicos.Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Tooling are aimed at reducing the development time of products in the design phase by minimizing re-workings and, consequently, reducing the time to launch new products. In this work one of the technologies of rapid prototyping, called Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), was used in the construction of ABS molds with the objective of investigating its application in the injection molding of thermoplastics. Specimens of the molded parts were characterized with X-ray diffraction, Shore D hardness and tensile tests. The results demonstrated the viability to manufacture small batches of LDPE and PP parts with mechanical properties similar to those molded parts in metallic molds.

uninhabited aerial vehicle, computational fluid dynamics, solid modeling, rapid prototyping, Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General), and TA1-2040

Advanced computer-aided technologies played a crucial role in the design of an unconventional Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle (UAV), developed at the Turin Technical University and the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. The engine unit of the vehicle is made of a complex system of three two stroke piston engines coupled with two counter-rotating three-bladed rotors, controlled by rotary PWM servos. The focus of the present paper lies on the enabling technologies exploited in the framework of activities aimed at designing a suitable and reliable engine system, capable of performing the complex tasks required for operating the proposed rotorcraft. The synergic use of advanced computational tools for estimating the aerodynamic performance of the vehicle, solid modeling for mechanical components design, and rapid prototyping techniques for control system logic synthesis and implementation will be presented.

Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) and TA1-2040

Automotive radar and lidar sensors represent key components for next generation driver assistance functions (Jones, 2001). Today, their use is limited to comfort applications in premium segment vehicles although an evolution process towards more safety-oriented functions is taking place. Radar sensors available on the market today suffer from low angular resolution and poor target detection in medium ranges (30 to 60m) over azimuth angles larger than ±30°. In contrast, Lidar sensors show large sensitivity towards environmental influences (e.g. snow, fog, dirt). Both sensor technologies today have a rather high cost level, forbidding their wide-spread usage on mass markets. A common approach to overcome individual sensor drawbacks is the employment of data fusion techniques (Bar-Shalom, 2001). Raw data fusion requires a common, standardized data interface to easily integrate a variety of asynchronous sensor data into a fusion network. Moreover, next generation sensors should be able to dynamically adopt to new situations and should have the ability to work in cooperative sensor environments. As vehicular function development today is being shifted more and more towards virtual prototyping, mathematical sensor models should be available. These models should take into account the sensor's functional principle as well as all typical measurement errors generated by the sensor.

Biotechnology, TP248.13-248.65, Biology (General), and QH301-705.5

The layout problem is of importance to ergonomists, vehicle/cockpit packaging engineers, designers of manufacturing assembly lines, designers concerned with the placement of levers, knobs, controls, etc. in the reachable workspace of a human, and also to users of digital human modeling code, where digital prototyping has become a valuable tool. This paper proposes a hybrid optimization method (gradient-based optimization and simulated annealing) to obtain the layout design. We implemented the proposed algorithm for a project at Oral-B Laboratories, where a manufacturing cell involves an operator who handles three objects, some with the left hand, others with the right hand.

parallel programming, image processing, algorithmic skeleton, nesting, 3D face tracking, Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

SKiPPER is a SKeleton-based Parallel Programming EnviRonment being developed since 1996 and running at LASMEA Laboratory, the Blaise-Pascal University, France. The main goal of the project was to demonstrate the applicability of skeleton-based parallel programming techniques to the fast prototyping of reactive vision applications. This paper deals with the special features embedded in the latest version of the project: algorithmic skeleton nesting capabilities and a fully dynamic operating model. Throughout the case study of a complete and realistic image processing application, in which we have pointed out the requirement for skeleton nesting, we are presenting the operating model of this feature. The work described here is one of the few reported experiments showing the application of skeleton nesting facilities for the parallelisation of a realistic application, especially in the area of image processing. The image processing application we have chosen is a 3D face-tracking algorithm from appearance.

RBF neural network, smart antenna, prototyping, FPGA, Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

This paper describes prototyping of a neuroadaptive smart antenna beamforming algorithm using hardware-software implemented RBF neural network and FPGA system-on-programmable-chip (SoPC) approach. The aim is to implement the adaptive beamforming unit in a combination of hardware and software by estimating its performance against the fixed real-time constraint based on IMT-2000 family of 3G cellular communication standards.

perception SoC, ultrasonic, focusing, beamforming, DSP, FPGA circuit techniques, Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

We are concerned with the design, implementation, and validation of a perception SoC based on an ultrasonic array of sensors. The proposed SoC is dedicated to ultrasonic echography applications. A rapid prototyping platform is used to implement and validate the new architecture of the digital signal processing (DSP) core. The proposed DSP core efficiently integrates all of the necessary ultrasonic B-mode processing modules. It includes digital beamforming, quadrature demodulation of RF signals, digital filtering, and envelope detection of the received signals. This system handles 128 scan lines and 6400 samples per scan line with a angle of view span. The design uses a minimum size lookup memory to store the initial scan information. Rapid prototyping using an ARM/FPGA combination is used to validate the operation of the described system. This system offers significant advantages of portability and a rapid time to market.

single system description, virtual prototyping, system on chip, automatic verification, Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

Complexity demand of modern communication systems, particularly in the wireless domain, grows at an astounding rate, a rate so high that the available complexity and even worse the design productivity required to convert algorithms into silicon are left far behind. This effect is commonly referred to as the design productivity crisis or simply the design gap. Since the design gap is predicted to widen every year, it is of utmost importance to look closer at the design flow of such communication systems in order to find improvements. While various ideas for speeding up designs have been proposed, very few have found their path into existing EDA products. This paper presents requirements for such tools and shows how an open design environment offers a solution to integrate existing EDA tools, allowing for a consistent design flow, considerably speeding up design times.

Information technology, T58.5-58.64, Electronic computers. Computer science, and QA75.5-76.95

Nuclear and particle physics. Atomic energy. Radioactivity and QC770-798

Three 6-cell 805 MHz superconducting cavity prototypes for acceleration in the velocity range of about 0.4 to 0.53 times the speed of light have been fabricated and tested. The quality factors (Q_{0}) were between 7×10^{9} and 1.4×10^{10} at the design field (accelerating gradient of 8–10 MV/m). The maximum gradients reached were between 11 and 16 MV/m; in each case, the Q_{0} values were ≥3×10^{9} at the maximum gradient. The design, fabrication, surface preparation, and rf testing of the 6-cell cavities are reported in this paper.

Competency assessment, Training needs assessment, Automation, Web-based system, Commerce, HF1-6182, Business, and HF5001-6182

A valid organization-wide needs assessment is a necessary precursor to successful competency development. This paper summarizes a framework for an effective needs assessment for competency-based development, and introduces an efficient web-based tool to manage the process. The web-based competency assessment system integrates survey design and on-line data collection with gap analysis techniques. A prototyping evaluation is conducted to assess the acceptability of the proposed framework. The evaluation of a prototype system by a group of Taiwan's experienced human resource managers showed a general acceptance and readiness in adopting efficiency-enhancing technologies to develop organizational competencies.

Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

This paper presents prototyping of a recurrent type neural network (RNN) convolutional decoder using system-level design specification and design flow that enables easy mapping to the target FPGA architecture. Implementation and the performance measurement results have shown that an RNN decoder for hard-decision decoding coupled with a simple hard-limiting neuron activation function results in a very low complexity, which easily fits into standard Altera FPGA. Moreover, the design methodology allowed modeling of complete testbed for prototyping RNN decoders in simulation and real-time environment (same FPGA), thus enabling evaluation of BER performance characteristics of the decoder for various conditions of communication channel in real time.

Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

The extremely dynamic and competitive nature of the wireless communication systems market demands ever shorter times to market for new products. Virtual prototyping has emerged as one of the most promising techniques to offer the required time savings and resulting increases in design efficiency. A fully automated environment for development of virtual prototypes is presented here, offering maximal efficiency gains, and supporting both design and verification flows, from the algorithmic model to the virtual prototype. The environment employs automated verification pattern refinement to achieve increased reuse in the design process, as well as increased quality by reducing human coding errors.

Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

To assess the performance of forthcoming 4th generation wireless local area networks, the algorithmic functionality is usually modelled using a high-level mathematical software package, for instance, Matlab. In order to validate the modelling assumptions against the real physical world, the high-level functional model needs to be translated into a prototype. A systematic system design methodology proves very valuable, since it avoids, or, at least reduces, numerous design iterations. In this paper, we propose a novel Matlab-to-hardware design flow, which allows to map the algorithmic functionality onto the target prototyping platform in a systematic and reproducible way. The proposed design flow is partly manual and partly tool assisted. It is shown that the proposed design flow allows to use the same testbench throughout the whole design flow and avoids time-consuming and error-prone intermediate translation steps.

Telecommunication, TK5101-6720, Electronics, and TK7800-8360

Future generations of mobile phones, including advanced video and digital communication layers, represent a great challenge in terms of real-time embedded systems. Programmable multicomponent architectures can provide suitable target solutions combining flexibility and computation power. The aim of our work is to develop a fast and automatic prototyping methodology dedicated to signal processing application implementation on parallel heterogeneous architectures, two major features required by future systems. This paper presents the whole methodology based on the SynDEx CAD tool that directly generates a distributed implementation onto various platforms from a high-level application description, taking real-time aspects into account. It illustrates the methodology in the context of real-time distributed executives for multilayer applications based on an MPEG-4 video codec and a UMTS telecommunication link.