DrawBot: a bio-inspired robotic portraitist

Abstract

We are developing the control architecture of a portraitist artificial agent called DrawBot that reproduces the visuomotor behaviour of a human carrying out a realistic portrait. The visuomotor strategy adopted by DrawBot is based on computational models of eye movements in human beings,and one xperimental findings on eye-hand coordination in expert draughtsmen. In this paper we present a behavioural model of the visuomotor coordination adopted by a draughtsman, designed in terms of visual routines.Eventually we outline the implementation of the basic routines.     

A bio-inspired emergent system for intelligent Web service composition and management

Some important mechanisms in neuroendocrine-immune (NEI) system are inspired to design a decentralized, evolutionary, scalable, and adaptive system for Web service composition and management. We first abstract a novel intelligent network model inspired from the NEI system. Based on this model, we then propose a method for Web service emergence by designing a bio-entity as an autonomous agent to represent Web service. As such, automatic composition and dynamic management of Web services can be achieved. Also, we build its computation platform which allows the bio-entities to cooperate over Web services and exploits capabilities of their partners. Finally, the simulation results on the platform show that Web service emergence can be achieved through self-organizing, cooperating, and compositing. The proposed method provides a novel solution for intelligent composition and management of Web services.     

A new design methodology of electrostrictive actuators for bio-inspired robotics

At present advanced robotics concepts require new and more suitable components to be exploited, especially in the fields of the biomimetic and soft robotics. In this sense, the actuation system represents one of the most limiting factors for the realization of robots with bio-inspired features and performances.This paper presents a new soft actuators based on electroactive polymers (EAPs) technology. The actuator is composed of a pre-stretched silicone film sputtered with a very thin gold film on both sides, working as electrodes. A particular folded geometry, implemented through an innovative fabrication process, allows to exploit the electrostrictive effect and to develop soft actuators suitable in many applications where softness and flexibility are necessary. The manufactured prototypes were developed on the basis of a parametric model that takes into account all geometric parameters and material characteristics. The proposed model is useful to estimate the performances of the actuator and to improve them.     

Correction to: QoS-driven metaheuristic service composition schemes: a comprehensive overview

Artificial Intelligence Review - In the original publication of the article, the corresponding author name and the e-mail ID was incorrect. The correct name and e-mail ID is given in this correction.     

Performance comparison of bio-inspired optimization algorithms for Sierpinski gasket fractal antenna design

The Sierpinski gasket fractal antenna is most popular structure in the domain of fractal antennas. This fractal antenna has multi-band performance, and hence, the design of this antenna for the desired frequencies is a challenging problem. The artificial intelligence tools like artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic systems, bio-inspired optimization techniques are appropriate to provide accurate design solution in such cases. In this paper, three most popular bio-inspired optimization algorithms: genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization (PSO), and bacterial foraging optimization, have been proposed to solve the design issues of Sierpinski gasket pre-fractal antenna. Their performances are analyzed and are compared with the experimental results. A simplified expression for calculation of resonant frequency of Sierpinski gasket pre-fractal antenna is proposed and is used as the objective function. Finally, the effectiveness is compared on the basis of three different measures: mean absolute percentage error, the average time taken by the models to evaluate the results, and the coefficient of correlation. The results indicate that the PSO algorithm is most suitable for this type of antenna.     

Description and applications of a computer program for control systems design

A General, Multipurpose Simulation and Control PackagE (GEMSCOPE) is described which assists with the design, analysis and digital simulation of linear, time-invariant dynamic systems. The process model may be defined in block diagram form with transfer functions for each component, or in standard state-space form. Options are included for generating the optimal regulatory control matrices, determining the state feedback matrix for non-interaction, reducing the order of the model, and calculating the open or closed-loop system response. GEMSCOPE has proven useful for student education and for the design of practical control systems. Experimental and simulated data obtained by applying GEMSCOPE techniques to computer controlled pilot plants at the University of Alberta demonstrate the validity of the methods and the significant improvements possible through the use of modern control techniques.     

BIOSOARM: a bio-inspired self-organising architecture for manufacturing cyber-physical shopfloors

Biological collective systems have been an important source of inspiration for the design of production systems, due to their intrinsic characteristics. In this sense, several high level engineering design principles have been distilled and proposed on a wide number of reference system architectures for production systems. However, the application of bio-inspired concepts is often lost due to design and implementation choices or are simply used as heuristic approaches that solve specific hard optimization problems. This paper proposes a bio-inspired reference architecture for production systems, focused on highly dynamic environments, denominated BIO-inspired Self-Organising Architecture for Manufacturing (BIOSOARM). BIOSOARM aims to strictly adhere to bio-inspired principles. For this purpose, both shopfloor components and product parts are individualized and extended into the virtual environment as fully decoupled autonomous entities, where they interact and cooperate towards the emergence of a self-organising behaviour that leads to the emergence of the necessary production flows. BIOSOARM therefore introduces a fundamentally novel approach to production that decouples the system’s operation from eventual changes, uncertainty or even critical failures, while simultaneously ensures the performance levels and simplifies the deployment and reconfiguration procedures. BIOSOARM was tested into both flow-line and “job shop”-like scenarios to prove its applicability, robustness and performance, both under normal and highly dynamic conditions.     

Estimation of fog utility pricing: a bio-inspired optimisation techniques' perspective

ABSTRACT

Due to the limited data storage capacity available to Internet service providers and large-scale enterprises, the concept of resource sharing arises. The services can be given on lease to enterprises through Service Level Agreements. Being the extension of the cloud computing, fog computing architecture brings the resources near end users. In order to get the services on lease, the enterprises are supposed to pay for the resources or services which are being used by them. In this paper, four nature inspired algorithms are analysed in order to determine the efficient management of services or resources so that the cost of resources can be reduced and the billing can be attained through calculation of the utilised resources. Pigeon inspired optimization, enhanced differential evolution, binary bat algorithm and simple human learning optimization are used to evaluate the energy consumed by the edge nodes or cloudlets that in turn can be used for estimating the bill through the Time of Use pricing variable. We evaluate the aforementioned techniques to analyse their performance regarding the bill calculation on the basis of fog servers usage. Simulation results demonstrate that BAT algorithm gives significantly better results than other three algorithms in terms of resource utilisation and bill reduction.     

ESA: a hybrid bio-inspired metaheuristic optimization approach for engineering problems

In this paper, a hybrid bio-inspired metaheuristic optimization approach namely emperor penguin and salp swarm algorithm (ESA) is proposed. This algorithm imitates the huddling and swarm behaviors of emperor penguin optimizer and salp swarm algorithm, respectively. The efficiency of the proposed ESA is evaluated using scalability analysis, convergence analysis, sensitivity analysis, and ANOVA test analysis on 53 benchmark test functions including classical and IEEE CEC-2017. The effectiveness of ESA is compared with well-known metaheuristics in terms of the optimal solution. The proposed ESA is also applied on six constrained and one unconstrained engineering problems to evaluate its robustness. The results reveal that ESA offers optimal solutions as compared to the other competitor algorithms.

     

Surface characterization and friction of a bio-inspired reversible adhesive tape

A polyvinylsilixane sample fabricated to replicate biological attachment systems consisting of microscale pillars (about 230/mm²) approximately 50 μm in diameter, 70 μm in height, and 60 μm center-to-center was characterized for surface roughness, friction force, and contact angle and compared to an unstructured sample. Macroscale coefficient of kinetic friction of the structured sample was found to be almost four times greater than the unstructured sample. This increase was determined to be a result of the structured roughness of the sample and not the random nanoroughness. The structured roughness also increased the hydrophobicity of the structured sample, which is important for self cleaning to occur.     

On the designing principles and optimization approaches of bio-inspired self-organized network: a survey

A plethora of studies on self-organization has been carried out in broad areas including chemistry, biology, astronomy, medical science, telecommunications, etc., in both academia and industry. Following the studies on swarm intelligence observed in social species, the artificial self-organized systems are expected to exhibit some intelligent features (e.g., flexibility, robustness, decentralized control, self-evolution, etc.) that may have made social species so successful in the biosphere. In this paper, the application of swarm intelligence in communications networks will be studied, and we survey different aspects of bio-inspired mechanisms and examine various algorithms that have been proposed to improve the performance of artificial systems. Some fundamental self-organized networking (SON) mechanisms, designing principles and optimization approaches for artificial systems will then be investigated, followed by some well-known bio-inspired algorithms (e.g., cooperation, division of labor, distributed network synchronization, load balancing, etc.) as well as their applications to the maintenance/operation/optimization of artificial systems being analyzed. Besides, some new emerging technologies, such as the Self-X capabilities and cognitive machine-to-machine (M2M) optimization for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE)/LTE-Advanced systems, are also surveyed. Finally, the remaining challenges to be faced in designing the future heterogeneous systems will be discussed.     

Trophallaxis within a robotic swarm: bio-inspired communication among robots in a swarm

This article presents a bio-inspired communication strategy for large-scale robotic swarms. The strategy is based purely on robot-to-robot interactions without any central unit of communication. Thus, the emerging swarm regulates itself in a purely self-organized way. The strategy is biologically inspired by the trophallactic behavior (mouth-to-mouth feedings) performed by social insects. We show how this strategy can be used in a collective foraging scenario and how the efficiency of this strategy can be shaped by evolutionary computation. Although the algorithm works stable enough that it can be easily parameterized by hand, we found that artificial evolution could further increase the efficiency of the swarm’s behavior. We investigated the suggested communication strategy by simulation of robotic swarms in several arena scenarios and studied the properties of some of the emergent collective decisions made by the robots. We found that our control algorithm led to a nonlinear, but graduated path selection of the emerging trail of loaded robots. They favored the shortest path, but not all robots converged to this trail, except in arena setups with extreme differences in the length of the two possible paths. Finally, we demonstrate how the flexibility of collective decisions that arise through this new strategy can be used in changing environments. We furthermore show the importance of a negative feedback in an environment with changing foraging targets. Such feedback loops allow outdated information to decay over time. We found that task efficiency is constrained by a lower and an upper boundary concerning the strength of this negative feedback.     

Design patterns and language design

Despite many similarities, there are important differences between design patterns and programming language mechanisms. Nevertheless, we can classify patterns in terms of how far they are from becoming actual language features. Treating patterns as mechanisms that are candidates for being language features, rather than treating them as what they are meant to be, can help demystify them. The authors discuss abstraction, design patterns and idioms     

硬件描述语言VHDL及其逻辑设计

文章介绍了硬件描述语言VHDL的特点、构成和描述。以及在逻辑设计中值得注意的问题。     

A multiplier-less digital design of a bio-inspired stimulator to suppress synchronized regime in a large-scale,sparsely connected neural network

Excessive synchronous firing of neurons is the sign of several neurological disorders such as Parkinson and epilepsy. In addition, growing evidence suggests that astrocytes have significant roles in neural synchronization. Drawing on these concepts and based on the latest studies, a bio-inspired stimulator which essentially is a dynamical model of the astrocyte biophysical model is proposed. The performance of the proposed bio-inspired stimulator is investigated on a large-scale, sparsely connected neural network which models a local cortical population. Next, a multiplier-less digital circuit for the bio-inspired stimulator is designed, and finally, the complete digital circuit of the closed-loop system is implemented in hardware on the ZedBoard development kit. Considering software simulations and hardware FPGA implementation, the proposed bio-inspired stimulator is able to prevent the hyper-synchronous neural firing in a network of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Based on the obtained results, it is demonstrated that the proposed stimulator has a demand-controlled characteristic and can be a good candidate as a new deep brain stimulation (DBS) technique to effectively suppress the hyper-synchronous neural oscillations.

     

新的设计模式——数组工厂和数组原型模式

为了去除程序中的简单开关分支结构,提出了一种新的重构方法——"以数组取代类型码"重构手法。将这种新的重构方法用于重构简单工厂模式,就得到了一种新的软件设计模式——"数组工厂"模式。数组工厂模式适用于实例化某个具体类在软件执行流程的任意时刻只存在一个实体的对象;对于软件执行流程中可以同时存在多个实体的具体类对象的实例化工作,通过改造数组工厂模式,提出了"数组原型"模式。数组工厂和数组原型模式是两种结构优良的创建型设计模式,它们免除了简单工厂方法中的开关分支语句,具有优化代码结构、提高程序执行性能等优点,并且完全符合开放—封闭原则。     

基于有限状态机的界面流描述与设计

界面流是一组窗体的集合,它表示了窗体之间的关系.有限状态机是交互式系统设计分析中的一种数学模型,能够有效地表示一个动态系统的生存周期.由于界面流逻辑的复杂性,提出采用有限状态机进行描述.阐述了有限状态机的基本理论,并依据界面流的特点,对其进行了改进,增加了动作参数和窗体迁移的条件参数,丰富了有限状态机描述界面流的能力,最后给出了运用面向对象方法的有限状态机设计.