Abstract

Abstract
The European funded ECHORD project ¹ European Clearing House for Open Robotics Development began in January 2009 with the ambitious goal of bringing together European robotics manufacturers with the excellent European research institutions. Europe has a very strong robot industry and there is significant research potential as well as technological knowledge. There has been a long history of outstanding research and development in both robot manufacturers and research institutes. However, finding common ground between manufacturers and the research community, especially when it comes to defining the future direction of robotics research, has proven difficult in the past. This is one of the recurring themes on both sides, and a new level of cooperation is long overdue. Thus, ECHORD acted as a clearing house to streamline successful know-how transfers. The research leading to the results presented in this book has received funding from the European Union through the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) under grant agreement number FP7-ICT-231143.

Abstract
Approaches to dependability and performance are challenged when systems are made up of networks of heterogeneous applications/devices, especially when operating in unpredictable open-world settings. The research community is tackling this problem and exploring means for enabling interoperability at the application level. The EU project Connect has developed a generic interoperability mechanism which relies on the on-the-fly synthesis of "Connectors", that is software bridges that enable and adapt communication among heterogeneous devices. Dependability and Performance are relevant aspects of the system. In our previous work, we have identified generic dependability mechanisms for enhancing the dependability of Connectors. In this work, we introduce a set of generic strategies for automating the selection and application of an appropriate dependability mechanism. A case study based on a global monitoring system for environment and security (GMES) is used as a means for demonstrating the approach. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Abstract
A recent trend in the field of beat tracking for musical audio signals has been to explore techniques for measuring the level of agreement and disagreement between a committee of beat tracking algorithms. By using beat tracking evaluation methods to compare all pairwise combinations of beat tracker outputs, it has been shown that selecting the beat tracker which most agrees with the remainder of the committee, on a song-by-song basis, leads to improved performance which surpasses the accuracy of any individual beat tracker used on its own. In this paper we extend this idea towards presenting a single, standalone beat tracking solution which can exploit the benefit of mutual agreement without the need to run multiple separate beat tracking algorithms. In contrast to existing work, we re-cast the problem as one of selecting between the beat outputs resulting from a single beat tracking model with multiple, diverse input features. Through extended evaluation on a large annotated database, we show that our multi-feature beat tracker can outperform the state of the art, and thereby demonstrate that there is sufficient diversity in input features for beat tracking, without the need for multiple tracking models.

Abstract
One of the major problems of voltage stability is the reactive power limit of the system. Improving the system's reactive power handling capacity via Flexible AC transmission System (FACTS) devices is a solution for prevention of voltage instability. In this paper it is studied the influence of Static Synchronous Compensators (STATCOM) and Static Var Compensators (SVC) in dynamic Voltage Stability during Low Voltage Ride Through (LVRT), in wind farms. The wind turbines are equipped with pitch control coupled with a Fixed Speed Induction Generator (FSIG). Due to the nature of asynchronous operation, system voltage instability of wind farms based on FSIG is largely caused by the excessive reactive power absorption by FSIG after a fault due to the large rotor slip gained during fault. Wind farm models based on FSIG and equipped with either STATCOM or SVC are developed in EUROSTAG. The Automatic Voltage Regulators (AVR) of the generating units and the turbine speed governors were modeled in detail. Different load models were used and the Under Load Tap Changers (ULTC) were also taken into account. Finally, some conclusions that provide a better understanding of the dynamic voltage stability of a system with FSIG model during LVRT, using various capacities of STATCOM and SVC are pointed out.

Abstract
In the context of an effort to develop methodologies to support the evaluation of interactive system, this paper investigates an approach to detect graphical user interface external bad smells. Our approach consists in detecting user interface external bad smells through model-based reverse engineering from source code. Models are used to define which widgets are present in the interface, when can particular graphical user interface (GUI) events occur, under which conditions, which system actions are executed, and which GUI state is generated next. From these models we obtain metrics that can later be used to identify the smells.