Christopher Kadlec

Development of a Network Infrastructure for Heterogeneous Robot and Control Systems Interactions

The use of robots in complex tasks such as search and rescue operations is becoming more and more common. These robots often work independently with no cooperation with other robots or control software, and are very limited in their ability to perform dynamic tasks and interact with both humans and other robots. To this end, a system must be developed to facilitate the cooperation of heterogeneous robots to complete complex tasks. To model and study human-robot and robot-robot interactions in a multi-system environment, a robust network infrastructure must be implemented to support the broad nature of these studies. The work presented here details the creation of a cloud-based infrastructure designed to support the introduction and implementation of multiple heterogeneous robots to the environment utilizing the Robot Operating System (ROS). Implemented robots include both ground-based (e.g. Turtlebot) and air-based (e.g Parrot ARDrone2.0) systems. Additional hardware is also implemented, such as embedded vision systems, host computers to support virtual machines for software implementation, and machines with graphics processing units (GPUs) for additional computational resources. Control software for the robots is implemented in the system with complexities ranging from simple teleoperation to skeletal tracking and neural network simulators. A robust integration of multiple heterogeneous components, including both hardware and software, is achieved.Copyright

Investigating the security and digital forensics of video games and gaming systems: A study of PC games and PS4 console

As video games received rapidly increasing attention, modern video games are often concerned with security and privacy issues. Many such video games and game console systems graciously allow player customization, giving people with malicious intent a new vector to lunch security attacks and exchange secretive messages, which posts new challenges to the society of security and digital forensics. In this research, we investigate the security of four popular PC video games and the Sony PlayStation 4 (PS4) game console. Our study showed that each of these video games has at least one feature that may possibly be exploited by attackers for transmitting secretive information, which is very difficult to be detected using current forensic tools. As for gaming consoles, the hard drive of PS4 console is encrypted and consequently most part of its file system cannot be analyzed using current forensic tools such as AccessDatas Forensic Toolkit (FTK). However, it is still possible to lunch Denial of Service (DoS) and ARP cache poisoning attacks to the console, which may slow down and halt the system and potentially expose security sensitive information. Based on the above findings, we offer recommendations on how and where security professionals and digital investigators may search for hidden data.

Temperature reduction for data center at low cost

This field study describes a hot aisle containment (HAC) system for a data center was built in a short amount of time with limited skill, materials and budget. This was done that the air being drawn into the servers and then exhausted out would not be able to mix with the chilled air before being taken to the air return. Thus, the room reaching near 26.5°C (80°F) making the room an uncomfortable work environment. The results show after the HAC was built, a decrease in room temperature dropped by 7% within minutes and within three days temperature decreased by 17%.

Network performance of wireless cloud-based robots with local processing

With the impending nature of the Internet of Things (IoT), it is important that devices proposed to be networked to the system operate in such a way as to be non-disruptive to the operation of the network. Devices should only use network bandwidth as needed for their operation. To maintain a minimal network footprint which is conducive to the operation of the network, IoT devices should perform a significant amount of processing locally and not depend on remote or cloud resources any more than necessary. This work presents development of a cloud computing infrastructure for networked heterogeneous robotic systems in open-source robot operating system (ROS). This work demonstrates the minimal impact on network performance by devices which use a significant amount of local processing for their operation. Using a virtual datacenter with (5) host servers of 68 GHz processing capability and 160 GB RAM, a number of Kobuki Turtlebots and LEGO EV3 robots are connected to cloud services on the network through the Robot Operating System. Each robot is connected to the cloud via wireless network. A varying number of Turtlebots are tested under low- and high-bandwidth conditions while performing computations related to robot operation locally. The latency and data integrity of the network connections are measured under these conditions and presented along with recommendations for further work.

The Relationship between IT Director Values and Extent of IT Disaster Recovery Planning in the Banking Industry

Information technology plays a pivotal role in defining the success of organizations. Given its importance, one might assume that modern organizations take steps to ensure the recovery of IT services following disasters. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. To understand the variation in degree of IT disaster recovery planning, this research focused on those responsible for managing IT resources and IT directors. For the study, a survey was mailed to 337 financial service institutions in the southeastern United States. Over 150 IT directors completed self-assessments for measuring the extent to which their organization engages in IT disaster recovery planning. In addition, they responded to a number of questions regarding their work-related values, and over 63% of the variance in degree of IT disaster recovery planning was explained by two predictors: uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation. Results show that firms with IT professionals who prefer to avoid uncertainty and who have long-term outlooks have more developed IT disaster recovery plans. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-0167-3.ch009