An evaluation framework for videogame based tasking of remote vehicles
- Authors: Hassell, Adam , Smith, Philip , Stratton, David
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at Fourth Australiasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment, IE2007, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria : 3rd-5th December 2007
- Full Text:
- Description: Unmanned vehicles (UV’s) are increasingly being employed in civil and military domains often for operations in dangerous environments. Typically these vehicles require some level of human supervision and therefore require a user interface to enable tasking and feedback. Most existing interfaces are specific to the UV and may require significant user training. One potential solution to this is to exploit proven videogame interfaces to improve UV control. There is however a lack of organised means by which these approaches can be evaluated. This paper describes an interface developed to serve as an experimental platform for investigating the potential benefits of various videogame based interfaces for remote vehicle tasking.
- Description: 2003004703
AOP and the HLA : Simplified federation development
- Authors: Pokorny, Timothy , Stratton, David , Smith, Philip
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 2006 Fall Simulation Interoperability Workshop, Orlando, USA : 10th September, 2006 p. 1-11
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Underpinning the development of distributed simulations in the defence community, the High Level Architecture (HLA) has gained acceptance due in part to its support for a broad level of interoperability. Encompassing a framework that loosely couples together simulation components developed and deployed on a diverse range of platforms, the HLA has the potential to enable increasing interoperation between otherwise disparate simulations. Long supported for the simulation efforts of the defence domain, use of the HLA within the wider business community has thus far been minimal. In domains where a wide variety of proprietary, customized simulation tools and generic desktop applications alike are used for simulation purposes, use of the HLA can help enable increased reuse and interoperability. Offering a common, standardised, low-level infrastructure, the HLA would allow simulation models otherwise isolated from one another to be used together. However, despite the potential benefits it could bring, the current development costs and complexities involved in the development of HLA-based distributed simulations have resulted in minimal uptake beyond the defence domain. To help facilitate the broader application of the HLA and the benefits it can provide, these complexities must be abstracted. Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) focuses on the separation of concerns. Through the definition of cross cutting functionality, platform or framework specific behaviour can be woven into existing works. Within the context of distributed simulation, such a facility could be leveraged in an attempt to apply HLA behaviour to pure objectoriented simulation models. Removing the tight coupling between model and distribution technology that currently exists in the HLA would allow for greater model reuse and return on investment in addition to dramatically simplifying the development process, thus reducing development costs. This paper provides a background motivating the use of HLA within the wider business community. Suggesting the AOP as a potential solution, it goes on to identify some of the problems that must be overcome.
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003002051
HLA security through real-time compliance testing
- Authors: Andrews, David , Smith, Philip , Stratton, David , Wharington, John
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 2006 European Simulation Interoperability Workshop, Stockholm, Sweden : 19th June, 2006 p. 1-7
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- Reviewed:
- Description: The HLA community currently utilizes federate compliance testing to give federate users confidence that the way in which a federate operates is correct. This compliance testing currently involves a series of manually organized software-based tests and is performed prior to run-time. This does not cover the possibility of noncompliance-tested modifications before actual deployment. Addressing these issues could see the development of compliance testing for HLA federates which is automatically performed during federate execution. The goal of compliance testing---to ensure that HLA federates conform to the HLA standards---has strong similarities with the goals of computer security. This paper critically discusses the concept of automated federate compliance testing, its ability to cover multiple federate versions, and its application to HLA security
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003002042
Introducing OO concepts from a class user perspective
- Authors: Smith, Philip , Boyd, Geoffrey
- Date: 2001
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges Vol. 17, no. 2 (2001), p. 152-158
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- Reviewed:
- Description: The use of an object-oriented language as an introductory language is becoming more widespread (Biddle & Tempero, 1998). However, pedagogical issues relating to the incorporation of such a language are still not understood properly (Kolling, 2001). Approaches to incorporating an object-oriented language into a teaching program vary greatly. Some approaches avoid the issue of object-orientation by putting emphasis on the procedural aspects of the language (Koffman & Wolz, 1999). Others approach the subject from the perspective of a class developer, especially making use of the appeal graphical user interfaces and applets have for students. The approach that we take at the University of Ballarat is to introduce students to programming from the perspective of a class user. This approach is facilitated by the availability of BlueJ (Kolling & Rosenberg, 2001), a program development environment designed explicitly for teaching object-oriented principles using Java. This paper describes this approach and the students' reactions to it.
Language neutral bindings for HLA
- Authors: Smith, Philip , Fraser, Michael , Stratton, David
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 2006 SIW, Spring Simulation Interoperability Workshop, Huntsville, USA : 2nd - 7th April, 2006 p. 1-6
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- Reviewed:
- Description: The concept of an HLA binding is of a set of libraries and procedures which enable a program written in a given target language (such as Java or tcl) to communicate with an RTI (typically written in C++). Generation of HLA bindings is a non-trivial task which must be repeated for each language for which bindings are required. This paper describes bindings to the HLA which use sockets. This implementation decouples the target code from the code required to invoke functions on the RTI. This decoupling simplifies the generation of bindings for any language which can use TCP sockets. This paper describes these bindings with particular reference to an implementation of HLA bindings for the target language tcl.
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003002021
Secure network solutions for enterprise cloud services
- Authors: Huang, Chengcheng , Smith, Philip , Sun, Zhaohao
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Handbook of research on demand-driven web services : Theory, technologies, and applications 10 p. 222-244
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Securing a cloud network is an important challenge for delivering cloud services to enterprise clouds. There are a number of secure network protocols, such as VPN protocols, currently available, to provide different secure network solutions for enterprise clouds. For example, PPTP, IP Sec, and SSUFLS are the most widely used VPN protocols in today's securing network solutions. However, there are some significant challenges in the implementation stage. For example, which VPN solution is easy to deploy in delivering cloud services? Which VPN solution is most user-friendly in enterprise clouds? This chapter explores these issues by implementing different VPNs in a virtual cloud network environment using open source software and tools. This chapter also reviews cloud computing and cloud services and looks at their relationships. The results not only provide experimental evidence but also facilitate the network implementers in deployment of secure network solutions for enterprise cloud services.
Tools to assist with HLA pedagogy
- Authors: Stratton, David , Smith, Philip , Wharington, John
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at SimTecT 2003, Adelaide : p. 193-198
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- Reviewed:
- Description: The High Level Architecture (HLA) offers a dramatic extension of reuse for distributed simulation components. At the same time the HLA represents a significant training and education challenge if adoption of the architecture is to proceed at an adequate pace. In this context it is appropriate to consider tools and techniques that support effective pedagogy for HLA. This paper describes two innovations that have proved useful in short courses for HLA developers. The first supports scripting of basic HLA interactions so that a significant first encounter with HLA can proceed without the cognitive overhead of program development. The second supports an extended HLA software development training exercise in which groups of students work independently on components of a complete HLA simulation. An exercise of this scope becomes problematic when incomplete and possibly incorrect components are tested against each other. The tool described offers an adaptable test harness of correct components, in various states of completion, against which students can initially test their work.
- Description: E1
- Description: 2003002732
Understanding novice programmers: their perceptions and motivations
- Authors: Turville, Kylie , Meredith, Grant , Smith, Philip
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Ascilite 2012 Future Challenges: Sustainable futures p. 652-656
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- Reviewed:
- Description: This paper presents the initial findings of an ongoing research program eliciting a basic understanding of students undertaking a first year programming course at the University of Ballarat, with a particular focus on their motivations and aspirations. This paper also provides a brief history of the course within its institutional setting including the different strategies that have been implemented over the last decade, an overview of the overarching study that is currently being undertaken, a discussion of some of the initial results, as well as a short discussion further research that is currently being undertaken. Results from the initial study indicate that students are positive coming into our courses but can become disillusioned as the course progresses. The research path forward will also be presented along with the discussion of these initial findings.
Web technologies and reasoning communities
- Authors: Miller, Charlynn , Smith, Philip
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Technologies for supporting reasoning communities and collaborative decision-making p. 397-411
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The popularity of the Internet, coupled with a reduction in traditional community participation has resulted in maturation in the way that people use Web 2.0 technologies to support communities. Reasoning communities come together to make decisions or form courses of action on particular topics. This chapter investigates how traditional Web (1.0), Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 technologies can be used to support the four phases of the process that reasoning communities typically undergo to achieve their results.
- Description: 2003008458