This paper describes a novel mixed-reality laboratory based around embedded-computing, with a par... more This paper describes a novel mixed-reality laboratory based around embedded-computing, with a particular focus on mobile robots, that seeks to provide an innovative theme-based teaching environment which facilitates the integration of courseware across the entire computer science curriculum and fosters a creative attitude whilst providing a framework that develops theoretical ability, subject knowledge and practical implementation skills. It does this by utilising a unique combination of physical systems, networks, simulators and cross development tools, which has a substantially higher cost effectiveness than the traditional laboratory it replaced.
The subject of this paper is the control of autonomous vehicles. A hierarchical approach is studi... more The subject of this paper is the control of autonomous vehicles. A hierarchical approach is studied in the context of fuzzy systems and a programming language for the mid to low level control of autonomous vehicles is described. The language, called FDTL (Fuzzy Decision Tree Language), is based on a computational model that combines fuzzy rule based control with the hierarchical nature of decision trees. Encouraging results are obtained from both the simulator and a real autonomous vehicle.
The breathtaking pace of current developments in computer science brings many challenges to educa... more The breathtaking pace of current developments in computer science brings many challenges to educators. One is to sustain students’ interest as they wrestle with the often difficult theory underpinning the scientific and engineering methodologies which will be essential if they are to become effective professionals. Another is to provide a setting in which students can learn to integrate the ever-widening and deepening range of specialisms within the subject.
Real-time vision is central to many embedded applications (e.g. vehicle guidance). It is a comput... more Real-time vision is central to many embedded applications (e.g. vehicle guidance). It is a computationally intensive task well beyond current general purpose computing platforms such as PCs and workstations. Thus, most real time vision systems need special high performance computing platforms, commonly provided in the form of parallel processing engines or dedicated hardware. The proposed architecture uses new generations of re-programmable logic devices and modularised hardware, thereby gaining the performance advantage of hard-wired logic with the flexibility and associated economies of programmable systems. The architecture takes the form of an extensive processing hierarchy consisting of a set of tightly coupled parallel processors, each processing a portion of the image using a classic pipeline arrangement. A programmable image splitting (and reconstruction) engine feeds this array and offers the potential of further enhancing the performance of the engines by restructuring the...
Abstract This paper describes a laboratory based on" state of the art" ... more Abstract This paper describes a laboratory based on" state of the art" technology which seeks to provide an innovative theme-based teaching environment which facilitates the integration of coursework across the entire computer science curriculum and fosters a creative attitude whilst providing a framework that develops theoretical ability, subject knowledge and practical implementation skills. It does this by utilising a unique combination of physical systems, networks, simulators and cross development tools, which has a ...
This article describes “SPREAD”, a simulation toolkit, and its use in building “Virtual Robots”, ... more This article describes “SPREAD”, a simulation toolkit, and its use in building “Virtual Robots”, a simulation of multiple mobile robot vehicles used in the teaching of computer science at university level. A novel aspect of the simulator is the use of PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine) to achieve high performance at low cost by using spare CPU cycles on large numbers of networked workstations.
Real-time vision is central to many embedded applications (e.g. vehicle guidance). It is a comput... more Real-time vision is central to many embedded applications (e.g. vehicle guidance). It is a computationally intensive task well beyond current general purpose computing platforms such as PCs and workstations. Thus, most real time vision systems need special high performance computing platforms, commonly provided in the form of parallel processing engines or dedicated hardware. It is well known that dedicated hardware has the potential to provide the fastest execution speeds but its rigidity often deters potential users. They prefer the economies of scale and flexibility which programmable systems offer. The proposed architecture uses new generations of re-programmable logic devices and modularised hardware, thereby gaining the performance advantage of hard-wired logic with the flexibility and associated economies of programmable systems. The architecture takes the form of an extensible processing hierarchy consisting of a set of tightly coupled parallel processors, each processing a portion of the image using a classic pipeline arrangement. A programmable image splitting (and reconstruction) engine feeds this array and offers the potential of further enhancing the performance of the engines by restructuring the pixel distribution (bit-shuffling) so as to match the requirements of the executing algorithms. The physical implementation was based on a modularised bus system together with EPLD processing devices.
1998 IEEE Information Technology Conference, Information Environment for the Future (Cat. No.98EX228), 1998
Abstract Subscription architectures have been used or considered for the implementation of distri... more Abstract Subscription architectures have been used or considered for the implementation of distributed systems across the spectrum from hardware, through offline programming and simulation, to very high level agent based approaches. The publish and subscribe ...
Describes the design and construction of TROWEL - a test bed for experimental agricultural vehicl... more Describes the design and construction of TROWEL - a test bed for experimental agricultural vehicles. The vehicle will be used to explore ways of increasing the productivity of expensive agricultural mobile machinery by taking over some of the tasks of the operator, allowing ...
New experimental hardware for research into architectures for distributed intelligent embedded sy... more New experimental hardware for research into architectures for distributed intelligent embedded systems is proposed that will provide a wide range of communication media including non-deterministic broadcast such as Ethernet, deterministic broadcast such as CAN and processor busses such as VME. The emphasis is on large scale system integration rather than provision for individual capabilities. A prototype implementation of some of the proposed hardware and software modules is described together with their use in several ...
A network-centric university teaching and research environment based around mobile robots is desc... more A network-centric university teaching and research environment based around mobile robots is described. It supports teaching a wide spectrum of computer science and engineering subjects (eg, digital electronics, computer architecture, operating systems, communications, distributed processing, software engineering, machine vision, artificial intelligence, embedded computer design, real-time computing, HCI, computer graphics, virtual reality, etc.) within a single unified experimental environment. This enables ...
This paper describes a novel mixed-reality laboratory based around embedded-computing, with a par... more This paper describes a novel mixed-reality laboratory based around embedded-computing, with a particular focus on mobile robots, that seeks to provide an innovative theme-based teaching environment which facilitates the integration of courseware across the entire computer science curriculum and fosters a creative attitude whilst providing a framework that develops theoretical ability, subject knowledge and practical implementation skills. It does this by utilising a unique combination of physical systems, networks, simulators and cross development tools, which has a substantially higher cost effectiveness than the traditional laboratory it replaced.
The subject of this paper is the control of autonomous vehicles. A hierarchical approach is studi... more The subject of this paper is the control of autonomous vehicles. A hierarchical approach is studied in the context of fuzzy systems and a programming language for the mid to low level control of autonomous vehicles is described. The language, called FDTL (Fuzzy Decision Tree Language), is based on a computational model that combines fuzzy rule based control with the hierarchical nature of decision trees. Encouraging results are obtained from both the simulator and a real autonomous vehicle.
The breathtaking pace of current developments in computer science brings many challenges to educa... more The breathtaking pace of current developments in computer science brings many challenges to educators. One is to sustain students’ interest as they wrestle with the often difficult theory underpinning the scientific and engineering methodologies which will be essential if they are to become effective professionals. Another is to provide a setting in which students can learn to integrate the ever-widening and deepening range of specialisms within the subject.
Real-time vision is central to many embedded applications (e.g. vehicle guidance). It is a comput... more Real-time vision is central to many embedded applications (e.g. vehicle guidance). It is a computationally intensive task well beyond current general purpose computing platforms such as PCs and workstations. Thus, most real time vision systems need special high performance computing platforms, commonly provided in the form of parallel processing engines or dedicated hardware. The proposed architecture uses new generations of re-programmable logic devices and modularised hardware, thereby gaining the performance advantage of hard-wired logic with the flexibility and associated economies of programmable systems. The architecture takes the form of an extensive processing hierarchy consisting of a set of tightly coupled parallel processors, each processing a portion of the image using a classic pipeline arrangement. A programmable image splitting (and reconstruction) engine feeds this array and offers the potential of further enhancing the performance of the engines by restructuring the...
Abstract This paper describes a laboratory based on" state of the art" ... more Abstract This paper describes a laboratory based on" state of the art" technology which seeks to provide an innovative theme-based teaching environment which facilitates the integration of coursework across the entire computer science curriculum and fosters a creative attitude whilst providing a framework that develops theoretical ability, subject knowledge and practical implementation skills. It does this by utilising a unique combination of physical systems, networks, simulators and cross development tools, which has a ...
This article describes “SPREAD”, a simulation toolkit, and its use in building “Virtual Robots”, ... more This article describes “SPREAD”, a simulation toolkit, and its use in building “Virtual Robots”, a simulation of multiple mobile robot vehicles used in the teaching of computer science at university level. A novel aspect of the simulator is the use of PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine) to achieve high performance at low cost by using spare CPU cycles on large numbers of networked workstations.
Real-time vision is central to many embedded applications (e.g. vehicle guidance). It is a comput... more Real-time vision is central to many embedded applications (e.g. vehicle guidance). It is a computationally intensive task well beyond current general purpose computing platforms such as PCs and workstations. Thus, most real time vision systems need special high performance computing platforms, commonly provided in the form of parallel processing engines or dedicated hardware. It is well known that dedicated hardware has the potential to provide the fastest execution speeds but its rigidity often deters potential users. They prefer the economies of scale and flexibility which programmable systems offer. The proposed architecture uses new generations of re-programmable logic devices and modularised hardware, thereby gaining the performance advantage of hard-wired logic with the flexibility and associated economies of programmable systems. The architecture takes the form of an extensible processing hierarchy consisting of a set of tightly coupled parallel processors, each processing a portion of the image using a classic pipeline arrangement. A programmable image splitting (and reconstruction) engine feeds this array and offers the potential of further enhancing the performance of the engines by restructuring the pixel distribution (bit-shuffling) so as to match the requirements of the executing algorithms. The physical implementation was based on a modularised bus system together with EPLD processing devices.
1998 IEEE Information Technology Conference, Information Environment for the Future (Cat. No.98EX228), 1998
Abstract Subscription architectures have been used or considered for the implementation of distri... more Abstract Subscription architectures have been used or considered for the implementation of distributed systems across the spectrum from hardware, through offline programming and simulation, to very high level agent based approaches. The publish and subscribe ...
Describes the design and construction of TROWEL - a test bed for experimental agricultural vehicl... more Describes the design and construction of TROWEL - a test bed for experimental agricultural vehicles. The vehicle will be used to explore ways of increasing the productivity of expensive agricultural mobile machinery by taking over some of the tasks of the operator, allowing ...
New experimental hardware for research into architectures for distributed intelligent embedded sy... more New experimental hardware for research into architectures for distributed intelligent embedded systems is proposed that will provide a wide range of communication media including non-deterministic broadcast such as Ethernet, deterministic broadcast such as CAN and processor busses such as VME. The emphasis is on large scale system integration rather than provision for individual capabilities. A prototype implementation of some of the proposed hardware and software modules is described together with their use in several ...
A network-centric university teaching and research environment based around mobile robots is desc... more A network-centric university teaching and research environment based around mobile robots is described. It supports teaching a wide spectrum of computer science and engineering subjects (eg, digital electronics, computer architecture, operating systems, communications, distributed processing, software engineering, machine vision, artificial intelligence, embedded computer design, real-time computing, HCI, computer graphics, virtual reality, etc.) within a single unified experimental environment. This enables ...
Uploads
Papers by Paul Chernett