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Robotic platforms serve different use cases ranging from experiments for prototyping assistive applications up to embedded systems for realizing cyber-physical systems in various domains. We are using 1:10 scale miniature vehicles as a robotic platform to conduct research in the domain of self-driving cars and collaborative vehicle fleets. Thus, experiments with different sensors like e.g.~ultra-sonic, infrared, and rotary encoders need to be prepared and realized using our vehicle platform. For each setup, we need to configure the hardware/software interface board to handle all sensors and actors. Therefore, we need to find a specific configuration setting for each pin of the interface board that can handle our current hardware setup but which is also flexible enough to support further sensors or actors for future use cases. In this paper, we show how to model the domain of the configuration space for a hardware/software interface board to enable model checking for solving the tasks of finding any, all, and the best possible pin configuration. We present results from a formal experiment applying the declarative languages Alloy and Prolog to guide the process of engineering the hardware/software interface for robotic platforms on the example of a configuration complexity up to ten pins resulting in a configuration space greater than 14.5 million possibilities. Our results show that our domain model in Alloy performs better compared to Prolog to find feasible solutions for larger configurations with an average time of 0.58s. To find the best solution, our model for Prolog performs better taking only 1.38s for the largest desired configuration; however, this important use case is currently not covered by the existing tools for the hardware used as an example in this article.

Robotic platforms serve different use cases ranging from experiments for prototyping assistive applications up to embedded systems for realizing cyber-physical systems in various domains. We are using 1:10 scale miniature vehicles as a robotic platform to conduct research in the domain of self-driving cars and collaborative vehicle fleets. Thus, experiments with different sensors like e.g.~ultra-sonic, infrared, and rotary encoders need to be prepared and realized using our vehicle platform. For each setup, we need to configure the hardware/software interface board to handle all sensors and actors. Therefore, we need to find a specific configuration setting for each pin of the interface board that can handle our current hardware setup but which is also flexible enough to support further sensors or actors for future use cases. In this paper, we show how to model the domain of the configuration space for a hardware/software interface board to enable model checking for solving the tasks of finding any, all, and the best possible pin configuration. We present results from a formal experiment applying the declarative languages Alloy and Prolog to guide the process of engineering the hardware/software interface for robotic platforms on the example of a configuration complexity up to ten pins resulting in a configuration space greater than 14.5 million possibilities. Our results show that our domain model in Alloy performs better compared to Prolog to find feasible solutions for larger configurations with an average time of 0.58s. To find the best solution, our model for Prolog performs better taking only 1.38s for the largest desired configuration; however, this important use case is currently not covered by the existing tools for the hardware used as an example in this article.

Robotic platforms serve different use cases ranging from experiments for prototyping assistive applications up to embedded systems for realizing cyber-physical systems in various domains. We are using 1:10 scale miniature vehicles as a robotic platform to conduct research in the domain of self-driving cars and collaborative vehicle fleets. Thus, experiments with different sensors like e.g.~ultra-sonic, infrared, and rotary encoders need to be prepared and realized using our vehicle platform. For each setup, we need to configure the hardware/software interface board to handle all sensors and actors. Therefore, we need to find a specific configuration setting for each pin of the interface board that can handle our current hardware setup but which is also flexible enough to support further sensors or actors for future use cases. In this paper, we show how to model the domain of the configuration space for a hardware/software interface board to enable model checking for solving the tasks of finding any, all, and the best possible pin configuration. We present results from a formal experiment applying the declarative languages Alloy and Prolog to guide the process of engineering the hardware/software interface for robotic platforms on the example of a configuration complexity up to ten pins resulting in a configuration space greater than 14.5 million possibilities. Our results show that our domain model in Alloy performs better compared to Prolog to find feasible solutions for larger configurations with an average time of 0.58s. To find the best solution, our model for Prolog performs better taking only 1.38s for the largest desired configuration; however, this important use case is currently not covered by the existing tools for the hardware used as an example in this article.

Magdalena Ridge Observatory (MRO) Interferometer is a ten telescope optical interferometer array being built on the Magdalena Mountains 20 miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. The interferometer is being designed by collaboration between New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and the University of Cambridge. The science mission and requirements have been finalized which has helped to begin engineering design and development culminating in detailed conceptual designs. Some of the proposed hardware and software implementations are currently being tested in the lab. We present an engineering overview of the conceptual design and the proposed hardware and software implementations.

This report describes a software interface (or binding) for supporting concurrent development of electronic hardware designed in Very High Speed Integrated Circuits (VHSIC) Hardware Description Language (VHDL) with software programmed in Ada 95. The purpose of this binding is to provide an initial framework from which future computer aided engineering (CAE) implementors can develop concurrent engineering capability into their work stations. This software binding includes VHDL calls to Ada 95 subprograms and functions using the new VHDL-93 'FOREIGN attribute and providing optional Ada 95 functionality in place of concurrent VHDL process statements to meet Ada 95 language rules expected by future Ada 95 compilers. A binding is also provided for Ada 95 calls to VHDL representations using new Ada 95 programs: Import, Export, and Convention. BNF descriptions were expanded to analyze constraint differences for consistent functionality across languages. Examples show VHDL processes synchronizing with Ada 95 tasks and Ada 95 remote procedure calls across partitions for distributed processing applications.

This report describes a software interface (or binding) for supporting concurrent development of electronic hardware designed in Very High Speed Integrated Circuits (VHSIC) Hardware Description Language (VHDL) with software programmed in Ada 95. The purpose of this binding is to provide an initial framework from which future computer aided engineering (CAE) implementors can develop concurrent engineering capability into their work stations. This software binding includes VHDL calls to Ada 95 subprograms and functions using the new VHDL-93 'FOREIGN attribute and providing optional Ada 95 functionality in place of concurrent VHDL process statements to meet Ada 95 language rules expected by future Ada 95 compilers. A binding is also provided for Ada 95 calls to VHDL representations using new Ada 95 programs: Import, Export, and Convention. BNF descriptions were expanded to analyze constraint differences for consistent functionality across languages. Examples show VHDL processes synchronizing with Ada 95 tasks and Ada 95 remote procedure calls across partitions for distributed processing applications.

1Arizona's Yesterday

By John Cady and Basil Woon

Arizona's Yesterday Being the Narrative of John H. Cady, Pioneer. Written by John Henry Cady and revised and rewritten in 1915 by noted Playwright and Journalist Basil Woon. Cady was born in Ohio, served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and eventually settled in Arizona Territory. Cady's story is one of adventure, determination, a pioneering spirit, and an entrepreneurial drive. Arizona's Yesterday is a glimpse of an Arizona not so much filled with gunfighters and warriors, but of an Arizona on the cusp of Statehood and the modern era. - Summary by Tony Posante