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Simulation of a reaction-diffusion system on large dimpled surfaces using a vector computer
of Information Scientists in 1961, to the work of the present day Department of Information Science of The City University which now runs five postgraduate courses. The expansion of the teaching includes not only scientific and technical information but also courses on biomedical and pharmaceutical information, business information, legal and community information and research and development in information systems. The latter topic has given rise to a new part-time postgraduate course in Information Systems and Technology. A wide ranging research programme includes work on Information Retrieval Systems and the User Interface and Information Flow and Dissemination. It is concluded that further progress of the Department will depend on policy developments. The history of this department, the establishment of an academic subject and a profession, is one which traces the transformation of an idea into reality by a group of people of vision and perseverance. To appear in: Journal of Information Science.
Biomedical Information: Education and Decision Support Systems by B. Kostrewski Biomedical information, a distinctive and important component of the total information scene, is particularly well suited to the application of information technology. It is therefore beginning to assume a pioneering role in the development of information systems as, for example, in the provision of operating expert systems. The paper outlines current developments in this field. To appear in: Journal of Information Science.
Simulation of a ReactionDiffusion System on Large Dimpled Surfaces Using a Vector Computer J. R. Mooney This paper presents an effective numerical method of simulating the behaviour of a reaction-diffusion (RD) system on large dimpled skin surfaces. The simulation problem arises from models of initiation and development of hair follicles in sheep and other mammals. The numerical method has been selected to take advantage of the vector (pipelined) processing capability of a CDC Cyber 205 computer used for this work.The dimpled skin surface is mapped to a plane by a suitable coordinate transformation. A finite difference scheme is used to discretize the transformed RD system equations. Methods of solving the equations through time are
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discussed and a partly explicit and partly implicit Euler method is adopted. An iterative algorithm (successive overrelaxation with red-black ordering) is used to solve the implicit equations. The complete procedure is shown to be very computationally efficient on the Cyber 205. To appear in: Mathematics Et Computers in Simulation.
The Mechanics of Mobile Robots by K. J. Waldron and R. B. McGhee The interaction of the mechanics of a mobile platform with control and sensing hardware and software is important to performance in robotic applications. In this paper the basic principles involved will be reviewed, and new material on comparative characterizations will be presented. The application of those principles to a specific example: the Adaptive Suspension Vehicle, will be presented. To appear in: Robotics.
Force Sensing for Advanced Robot Control by H. V. Brussel, H. Belien and H. Thielemans Although several force sensing devices have been developed recently, industrial applications of these devices are rarely found. This is in severe contradiction to the growing success of vision systems. In many application domains however, tactile perception may be as important as vision. This paper discusses the design aspects of multi-degree of freedom force sensors. Some well-proven mechanical concepts developed at K.U. Leuven are presented. Further, the consequences of using force feedback upon the robot control structure will be discussed. To appear in: Robotics.
COST Project 214: Methods for the Planning and Evaluation of Multiservice Networks by J. Bateman The emphasis on current work concerned with the ISDN is directed at service applications and access standards. However considerable problems remain to be solved in planning common networks to carry a multiplicity of service, each having different network requirements. This paper reports on a recent European collaborative research ac-
tivity into the planning of multiservices networks. To appear in: Computer Networks and ISDN Systems.
On Commercial Expert Systems Projects by H. Marchand The development process of expert systems obey to rules, which have no counterparts in traditional software engineering techniques. To a certain extent they even contradict them. AI engineers in charge of the realization of industrial expert systems must be aware of this situation and be prepared to respond to it by providing technology transfer. As long as this transfer to the customers has not happened, commercial expert system projects will lead to frustration and compromises hampering the achievement of the economic objectives set to the projects. For the time being technology transfer must be a major task of AI companies. To appear in: Future Generations Computer Systems.
Knowledge Resource Tools for Information Access by D. E. Walker This paper provides an overview of a research program just being defined at Bellcore. The objective is to develop facilities for working with large document collections that provide more refined access to the information contained in these "source" materials than is possible through current information retrieval procedures. The tools being used for this purpose are machine-readable dictionaries, encyclopedias, and related "resources" that provide geographical, biographical, and other kinds of specialized knowledge. A major feature of the research program is the exploitation of the reciprocal relationship between sources and resources. These interactions between texts and tools are intended to support experts who organize and use information in a workstation environment. Two systems under development will be described to illustrate the approach: one providing capabilities for full-text subject assessment; the other for concept elaboration while reading text. Progress in the research depends critically on developments in artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, and information science to provide a scientific base, and on software engineering, database management, and distributed systems to provide the technology. To appear in: Future Generations Computer Systems.
Biomedical Information: Education and Decision Support Systems by B. Kostrewski Biomedical information, a distinctive and important component of the total information scene, is particularly well suited to the application of information technology. It is therefore beginning to assume a pioneering role in the development of information systems as, for example, in the provision of operating expert systems. The paper outlines current developments in this field. To appear in: Journal of Information Science.
Simulation of a ReactionDiffusion System on Large Dimpled Surfaces Using a Vector Computer J. R. Mooney This paper presents an effective numerical method of simulating the behaviour of a reaction-diffusion (RD) system on large dimpled skin surfaces. The simulation problem arises from models of initiation and development of hair follicles in sheep and other mammals. The numerical method has been selected to take advantage of the vector (pipelined) processing capability of a CDC Cyber 205 computer used for this work.The dimpled skin surface is mapped to a plane by a suitable coordinate transformation. A finite difference scheme is used to discretize the transformed RD system equations. Methods of solving the equations through time are
182
discussed and a partly explicit and partly implicit Euler method is adopted. An iterative algorithm (successive overrelaxation with red-black ordering) is used to solve the implicit equations. The complete procedure is shown to be very computationally efficient on the Cyber 205. To appear in: Mathematics Et Computers in Simulation.
The Mechanics of Mobile Robots by K. J. Waldron and R. B. McGhee The interaction of the mechanics of a mobile platform with control and sensing hardware and software is important to performance in robotic applications. In this paper the basic principles involved will be reviewed, and new material on comparative characterizations will be presented. The application of those principles to a specific example: the Adaptive Suspension Vehicle, will be presented. To appear in: Robotics.
Force Sensing for Advanced Robot Control by H. V. Brussel, H. Belien and H. Thielemans Although several force sensing devices have been developed recently, industrial applications of these devices are rarely found. This is in severe contradiction to the growing success of vision systems. In many application domains however, tactile perception may be as important as vision. This paper discusses the design aspects of multi-degree of freedom force sensors. Some well-proven mechanical concepts developed at K.U. Leuven are presented. Further, the consequences of using force feedback upon the robot control structure will be discussed. To appear in: Robotics.
COST Project 214: Methods for the Planning and Evaluation of Multiservice Networks by J. Bateman The emphasis on current work concerned with the ISDN is directed at service applications and access standards. However considerable problems remain to be solved in planning common networks to carry a multiplicity of service, each having different network requirements. This paper reports on a recent European collaborative research ac-
tivity into the planning of multiservices networks. To appear in: Computer Networks and ISDN Systems.
On Commercial Expert Systems Projects by H. Marchand The development process of expert systems obey to rules, which have no counterparts in traditional software engineering techniques. To a certain extent they even contradict them. AI engineers in charge of the realization of industrial expert systems must be aware of this situation and be prepared to respond to it by providing technology transfer. As long as this transfer to the customers has not happened, commercial expert system projects will lead to frustration and compromises hampering the achievement of the economic objectives set to the projects. For the time being technology transfer must be a major task of AI companies. To appear in: Future Generations Computer Systems.
Knowledge Resource Tools for Information Access by D. E. Walker This paper provides an overview of a research program just being defined at Bellcore. The objective is to develop facilities for working with large document collections that provide more refined access to the information contained in these "source" materials than is possible through current information retrieval procedures. The tools being used for this purpose are machine-readable dictionaries, encyclopedias, and related "resources" that provide geographical, biographical, and other kinds of specialized knowledge. A major feature of the research program is the exploitation of the reciprocal relationship between sources and resources. These interactions between texts and tools are intended to support experts who organize and use information in a workstation environment. Two systems under development will be described to illustrate the approach: one providing capabilities for full-text subject assessment; the other for concept elaboration while reading text. Progress in the research depends critically on developments in artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, and information science to provide a scientific base, and on software engineering, database management, and distributed systems to provide the technology. To appear in: Future Generations Computer Systems.