Tools and Platforms for Developing IoT Systems

The internet of things (IoT) transforms the world in many ways. It combines many types of hardware and software with a variety of communication technologies to enable the development of innovative applications. A typical IoT system consists of IoT device, IoT gateway, IoT platform, and IoT application. Developing these elements and delivering an IoT system for fulfilling business requirements encompasses many activities to be executed and is not straightforward. To expedite these activities, some major vendors provide software development kits (SDK), integrated development environments (IDE), and utility tools for developing software to be executed on IoT devices/gateways. Moreover, these vendors utilize their cloud platforms to provide fundamental services, such as data storage, analytics, stream processing, for developing IoT systems. These vendors also developed IoT specific cloud-based services, such as connectivity and device management, to support IoT system development. This chapter presents an overview of tools and platforms provided by five major vendors.

Distributed Architecture for an Integrated Development Environment, Large Trace Analysis, and Visualization

Integrated development environments (IDEs) provide many useful tools such as a code editor, a compiler, and a debugger for creating software. These tools are highly sophisticated, and their development requires a significant effort. Traditionally, an IDE supports different programming languages via plugins that are not usually reusable in other IDEs. Given the high complexity and constant evolution of popular programming languages, such as C++ and even Java, the effort to update those plugins has become unbearable. Thus, recent work aims to modularize IDEs and reuse the existing parser implementation directly in compilers. However, when IDE debugging tools are insufficient at detecting performance defects in large and multithreaded systems, developers must use tracing and trace visualization tools in their software development process. Those tools are often standalone applications and do not interoperate with the new modular IDEs, thus losing the power and the benefits of many features provided by the IDE. The structure and use cases of tracing tools, with the potentially massive execution traces, significantly differ from the other tools in IDEs. Thus, it is a considerable challenge, one which has not been addressed previously, to integrate them into the new modular IDEs. In this paper, we propose an efficient modular client–server architecture for trace analysis and visualization that solves those problems. The proposed architecture is well suited for performance analysis on Internet of Things (IoT) devices, where resource limitations often prohibit data collection, processing, and visualization all on the same device. The experimental evaluation demonstrated that our proposed flexible and reusable solution is scalable and has a small acceptable performance overhead compared to the standalone approach.

An Overview of Tools for Collecting Data on Software Development and Debugging Processes from Integrated Development Environments

Purpose. This paper presents the findings of a review of the literature published in the twenty-first century in order to identify and analyze the current state of tools that track developer interactions with integrated development environments, as well as to recommend future research directions based on the actual state. Methodology. By systematically searching in five digital libraries we conducted a systematic review of the literature on data collection tools from integrated development environments published in the twenty-first century. Fifty-five papers were selected as primary studies. Findings. 55 articles were analyzed and the findings show that using an integrated development environment to collect usage data provides more insight into developer activities than it was previously possible. Usage data allows us to analyze how developers spend their time. With usage data, you can learn more about how developers create mental models, investigate code, conduct mini-experiments through trial and error, and what can help everyone improve performance. The research community continues to be highly active in developing tools to track developer activity. The findings indicate that more research is needed in this area to better understand and measure programmer behavior. Originality. For the first time, systematization and analysis of tools for tracking programmer's behavior in an integrated development environment have been carried out. Practical value. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the current state of research on programmer behavior in integrated development environments. An analysis of the study can help define a research agenda as a starting point for the creation of a novel practical tool.

A Model with Iterative Trials for Correcting Logic Errors in Source Code

It is difficult for students and teachers to detect and correct logic errors in source code. Compilers and integrated development environments (IDEs) have the ability to detect and correct syntax errors but it is also difficult for them to detect and correct logic errors. Although many machine learning approaches have been proposed that can show correction candidates for logic errors, they do not provide guidance concerning how the user should fix them. In this paper, we propose a model for correcting logic errors in a given source code. The proposed model realizes debugging of multiple logic errors in the source code by iterative trials of identifying the errors, correcting the errors, and testing the source code. In this model, in the first stage, a list of correction candidates is provided by a deep learning model, and then the list is given to an editing operation predictor that predicts the editing operation for the correction candidate. To learn the internal parameters of the proposed model, we use a set of solution codes created to solve the corresponding programming tasks in a real e-learning system. To verify the usefulness of the proposed model, we apply it to 32 programming tasks. Experimental results show that the correction accuracy is, on average, 58.64% higher than that of the conventional model without iterative trials.

Mobile Wheeled Robot to Support the Task of the Alarm Sub - Unit

The article is a presentation, and detailed description of a mobile, vehicular robot whose task is to support the alarm sub-unit. The project was created in response to the increasing need for monitoring, and recognition of the areas. The robot’s interface was created with the use of integrated development environments for Python. The software implementation was possible due to a minicomputer Raspberry Pi 4 B. The robot’s frame is made out of components which are based on the main chassis. The robot is equipped with compatible sensors and cameras. Those, combined with the interface, are able to give a real-time preview of the area in which the robot is in. This particular vehicular robot is designed to eliminate the risks caused by tasks of alarm sub-unit, by giving the real-time preview, and analysis of the currently watched area. In addition, it can be used to inspect soldiers in the containment zones, and to help with the identification of unknown objects.

Recommendation Based on Java Code Analysis and Search

How to improve the efficiency and quality of software development is an ongoing concern in the field of software engineering. As a useful auxiliary function, code recommendation is embedded in almost all integrated development environments. There has been increasing interest and research in the area of code recommendation in recent years due to its convenience for project development. Existing research has made a lot of contributions to this field, but there are still many issues that need further study. One of the key points is the low success rate of recommendation. Focusing on this problem, this paper proposes a method to recommend Java source code after parsing massive amounts of source code information. We propose a new source code analysis algorithm for the scraped source code data. A source file is parsed into classes, methods, and attributes as recommendation objects. At the same time, the annotation information is bound to the annotated objects. Finally, the parsed information is indexed at the project, class, and method levels for code recommendations in a hierarchical recommendation manner. A code recommendation system is implemented by combining this with full-text retrieval technology for class library, class, and method level recommendation. The experimental results show that the method proposed in this paper has better performance in recommendation accuracy than existing code recommendation engines.

Landmarks: A solution for spatial navigation and memory experiments in virtual reality

Research into the behavioral and neural correlates of spatial cognition and navigation has benefited greatly from recent advances in virtual reality (VR) technology. Devices such as head-mounted displays (HMDs) and omnidirectional treadmills provide research participants with access to a more complete range of body-based cues, which facilitate the naturalistic study of learning and memory in three-dimensional (3D) spaces. One limitation to using these technologies for research applications is that they almost ubiquitously require integration with video game development platforms, also known as game engines. While powerful, game engines do not provide an intrinsic framework for experimental design and require at least a working proficiency with the software and any associated programming languages or integrated development environments (IDEs). Here, we present a new asset package, called Landmarks, for designing and building 3D navigation experiments in the Unity game engine. Landmarks combines the ease of building drag-and-drop experiments using no code, with the flexibility of allowing users to modify existing aspects, create new content, and even contribute their work to the open-source repository via GitHub, if they so choose. Landmarks is actively maintained and is supplemented by a wiki with resources for users including links, tutorials, videos, and more. We compare several alternatives to Landmarks for building navigation experiments and 3D experiments more generally, provide an overview of the package and its structure in the context of the Unity game engine, and discuss benefits relating to the ongoing and future development of Landmarks.

Application of the FPGA Technology for the Development of Multi-Version Safety-Critical NPP Instrumentation and Control Systems

The paper overviews the requirements of international standards on application of diversity in safety-critical NPP instrumentation and control (I&C) systems. The NUREG7007 classification of version redundancy and the method for diversity assessment are described. The paper presents results from the analysis of instruments and design tools for FPGA-based embedded digital devices from leading manufacturers of programmable logics using the Xilinx and Altera (Intel) chips, which are used in NPP I&C systems, as an example. The most effective integrated development environments are analyzed and the results of comparing the functions and capabilities of using the Xilinx and Altera (Intel) tools are described. The analysis of single failures and fault tolerance using diversity in chip designs based on the SRAM technology is presented. The results from assessment of diversity metrics for RadICS platform-based multi-version I&C systems are discussed.

The Engineer … No Longer a Person but a Number on an Excel Sheet: Enterprise Resource Planning and Commoditisation of Labour

Based on transcripts provided by 145 engineers working in various information technology organisations in Bangalore, India, the article examines the commoditisation of labour in this sector. In doing so, we specifically want to problematise algorithm-based decision-making embedded in the wider technology of Integrated Development Environments like Enterprise Resource Planning and its ramifications for business and labour processes. Standardisation and modularisation of tasks have made wide inroads in workers’ lives, resulting in a replication of Taylorist mass-production techniques. In unpeeling the “materiality” behind such a development, we elaborate on how efficiency and profit motives of these firms are turning engineers into numbers on a spreadsheet. We conclude by commenting on the implications of this on labour’s organisation and resistance and the future trajectory of working life.