Doreen Seider

Open source software framework for applications in aeronautics and space

The DLR developed the open source software framework RCE to support the collaborative and distributed work in the shipyard industry. From a technology side of view a software from the shipbuilding field has many requirements in common with aerospace software projects. Accordingly, RCE has become the basis for further projects within the DLR. Over the last years of usage a subset of frequently used software components could be derived and are provided by the RCE framework. In particular, the workflow engine, allowing the integration of different domain-specific tools from local and remote locations into one overall calculation has become important for various projects. We present RCE and show how its software components are reused in two aerospace applications.

Visualizing Modules and Dependencies of OSGi-Based Applications

The architecture of software it not tangible, but in different situations it is preferable to have it tangible. For example, while reviewing it against the intended design, introducing the software to others, or starting to develop on a new part. Basic aspects of a software architecture are the modules the software is constructed of and the dependencies between them. To comprehend these aspects is important especially for software using a technology such as OSGi, which key concept is modularization. In this paper, we describe interactive visualization tools that we developed to comprehend large OSGi-based applications with their modules and dependencies. We applied our solution for OSGi-based applications with hundreds of modules containing multiple submodules each. With the resulting visualizations, we can explore the modularization of the software architecture.

Scientific Data and Knowledge Management in Aerospace Engineering

In aerospace engineering, simulation is a key technology. Examples are pre-design studies, optimization, systems simulation, or mission simulations of aircrafts and space vehicles. These kinds of complex simulations need two distinct technologies. First, highly sophisticated simulation codes for each involved discipline (for example, codes for computational fluid dynamics, structural analysis, or flight mechanics) to simulate the various physical effects. Secondly, a simulation infrastructure and well-designed supporting tools to work effectively with all simulation codes. This paper focuses on the infrastructure and the supporting tools, especially for managing both the data resulting from large-scale simulation and the necessary knowledge for conducting complex simulation tasks. Examples of recent developments at the German Aerospace Center in the fields of data and knowledge management to support aerospace research by e-Science technologies are presented.

Towards Provenance Capturing of Quantified Self Data

Quantified Self or self-tracking is a growing movement where people are tracking data about themselves. Tracking the provenance of Quantified Self data is hard because usually many different devices, apps, and services are involved. Nevertheless receiving insights how the data has been acquired, how it has been processed, and who has stored and accessed it is crucial for people. We present concepts for tracking provenance in typical Quantified Self workflows. We use a provenance model based on PROV and show its feasibility with an example.

Embedding Existing Heterogeneous Monitoring Techniques into a Lightweight, Distributed Integration Platform

In the computer aided engineering field high performance computing clusters are essential for today’s work. In order to use them efficiently, monitoring systems are required. There are a lot of software systems for different monitoring purposes. The task of managing all of them at the same time usually becomes very complex, because they all have different administration requirements. In order to reduce the complexity and thus increase the manageability of high performance computing clusters for engineering applications, we propose a solution that bundles all monitoring activities into a single monitoring environment based upon an integration platform. As the base of the monitoring environment, the distributed integration platform RCE (Reconfigurable Computing Environment) is chosen. Thereby, many things like distribution or privilege management are already available. As it is a requirement to reuse existing monitoring techniques, two techniques are exemplarily examined, and a concept is developed how to embed them into the Reconfigurable Computing Environment. In this paper we describe the concept of an embedded monitoring environment for multiple purposes that reuses existing monitoring techniques.

Comparison of Breguet and ODE Evaluation of the Cruise Mission Segment in the Context of High-Fidelity Aircraft MDO

This report presents a multi-disciplinary optimization (MDO) process that minimizes the mission fuel burn of an aeroelastic long-range transport aircraft configuration, by modifying the wing planform, twist, and structural element thicknesses. Two optimizations are performed, one where the fuel burn is approximately evaluated through Breguet range equation, and the other where the ordinary differential equation (ODE) for the step-climb cruise is formally integrated. This is done in order to determine if the Breguet equation is still sufficient in face of high-fidelity aeroelastic simulations. The two optimized designs ended up having similar improvements, thus confirming the applicability of the Breguet equation, for the number of design parameters that were employed.

Tool support for semi-automatic modularization of existing code bases

Many component based systems and frameworks require the integration of external codes, for example, providing numerical functionalities. These numerical codes can be either sequential or parallelized, written in languages such as C, Fortran, Python, or Java. Frameworks provide support for workflow management, data management, using distributed computing resources, or a graphical user interface. Today, modern systems are based on Eclipse and OSGi or similar technologies. For many frameworks, tight integration of pre-existing or third-party code requires manual source code changes to add the specific component interfaces to such code. As this is error-prone and time consuming, especially when large code bases must be integrated, tool support for these steps becomes useful, or even necessary. Tool support for automatic integration of existing code (in different languages) comprises several sub-problems such as code analysis, code transformation, generation of wrapper code, generation of proper user interfaces, and others. In this paper, we focus on the aspect of modularization of existing Java OSGi workflow systems and present a new Eclipse-based tool which provides end-user support for the migration of previously unmodularized software into modules or components.