Research projects Herbert Praehofer

Live Queries in Reactive Server Platform

  • Subject: .
  • Cooperations: CELUM GmbH, Linz
  • Funding: FFG
  • Period: 2016-2018

CELUM GmbH is a leading developer and vendor for digital asset management systems. In a current research and development project, CELUM is setting up a collaboration platform which supports creating digital content in a collaborative fashion in globally distributed teams. Core of the system is a reactive server platform which is based on the reactive frameworks vert.x and RxJava as well a key-value data base system. A main challenge in these systems is to handle the workload of small database updates. Typically, data base updates affect a subset of the connected clients which must be notified of changes. However, currently there is no way to determine which clients are affected by which changes and thus all the clients connected must be updated eventually. Goal of this project therefore was to investigate, develop concepts and implement a prototype for incremental notifications of clients after data base updates. The approach allows finding out which clients must be updated when modifications of the database occur and triggering updates to clients.

Multi-Modeling and Evolution in Software Ecosystems

  • Subject: Support software development and software evolution and maintenance in large scale industrial software ecosystems.
  • Cooperations: KEBA AG, Linz
  • Funding: Christian Doppler Forschungsgesellschaft
  • Period: 2013-ongoing

The project "Multi-Modeling and Evolution in Software Ecosystems" is conducted within the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Monitoring and Evolution of Very-Large-Scale Software Systems (CDL-MEVSS). It focuses on supporting software development and evolution in software ecosystems, a type of VLSS where solutions are developed in a globally distributed manner by internal and external developers based on a core software platform. Results of this module will e.g., help determining the impact of a platform change on globally distributed customer systems in such multi-level ecosystems.

Static Code Analysis for PLC Programs

  • Subject: Static code analysis of PLC program code based on IEC 61131-3.
  • Cooperations: ENGEL Austria, SCCH Hagenberg
  • Funding: COMET
  • Period: 2011-ongoing

Static code analysis techniques analyze programs by examining the source code without actually executing them. In common, it is used to increase the quality of software by finding bad code smells and potential defects in early development stages. Today, they are widely spread and intensively used in general purpose programming and tools are numerous for established programming languages like C/C++, Java, C# and others. However, in the domain of programmable logic controller (PLC) programming static code analysis tools are generally not available yet.

In this project we therefore develop methods and tools for static code analysis of PLC programs. The tool allows parsing the source code files of PLC software and builds an internal representation of the programs in form of an abstract syntax tree (AST) augmented with type information. Based on the AST, the tool executes a set of user-definable rules to check for violations, which are written to an XML output file. Issues which can be detected in this way range from naming conventions, program complexity issues, bad code smells, incompatible configuration settings, problematic task interleaving and race conditions, possible performance problems, and violations of dynamic statement dependencies.

Currently the tool works for the KemroIEC which is a proprietary dialect of the IEC 61131 standard from Keba AG and is used by Engel Austria for analyzing their automation software solutions for their injection molding machines.

Testing and Diagnosis of PLC programs

  • Subject: Developing testing and debugging techniques and tools for automation software.
  • Cooperations: KEBA AG, Linz
  • Funding: Christian Doppler Forschungsgesellschaft
  • Period: 2009-2013

Domain-specific Languages for Industrial Automation

  • Subject: Development of new notations and tools for the specification and translation of domain-specific languages in the industrial automation domain
  • Cooperations: KEBA AG, Linz
  • Funding: Christian Doppler Forschungsgesellschaft
  • Period: 2006-2009

Component Architectures for Next-generation Business Computing Systems

  • Subject: Conception and architectural design of a next generation business computing framework based on a plug-in component approach.
  • Cooperations: BMD Systemhaus GmbH, Steyr
  • Funding: Christian Doppler Forschungsgesellschaft
  • Period: 2006-2007

CAP.NET

  • Subject: Development of a client application platform in .NET.
  • Cooperations: Institute for Business Computing at the University of Linz
  • Funding: --
  • Period: 2005-2006

GDE&S - Reuse

  • Subject: Assessment models for reuese practices in the industrial engineering domain.
  • Cooperations: Siemens AG, CT; Software Competence Center Hagenberg; Institute for Busi-ness Computing at the University of Linz
  • Funding: Siemens AG, CT
  • Period: 2004-2005

GDE&S - System Iintegration

  • Subject: Concepts and methods for system integration in the area of engineering and service of automation systems.
  • Cooperations: Siemens AG, CT; Software Competence Center Hagenberg; Institute for Busi-ness Computing at the University of Linz
  • Funding: Siemens AG, CT
  • Laufzeit: 2003-2004

GDE&S - Engineering-Synchroniser

  • Subject: Development of an object oriented application framework for the synchroni-sation of engineering data.
  • Cooperations: Software Competence Center Hagenberg; Siemens CT, SE5, Erlangen
  • Funding: Siemens AG, CT
  • Period: 2002 - 2004

Aragon

  • Subject: Development of a design tool for MMI development for mobile systems on the basis of Eclipse.
  • Cooperations: Comneon electronic technology GmbH & Co. KG; Software Competence Cen-ter Hagenberg;
  • Funding: KPlus
  • Period: 2004

ITEA-CAFÉ: Asset base management

  • Subject: Concept and prototypical realisation of a tool for asset base management and asset retrieval.
  • Funding: BMVIT; Siemens AG, CT
  • Cooperations: Siemens AG, CT
  • Period: 2000- 2003

MES Components

  • Subject: Concept and prototypical realisation of a object oriented framework for Manufacturing Execution Systems.
  • Cooperations: Software Competence Center Hagenberg; Elin/EBG; Huber Computer
  • Funding: K-Plus
  • Period: 2001

JavaBeans Simulation Framework

  • Subject: Realisation and application of an object oriented application frameworks for simulation applications.
  • Cooperations: Institute for Business Computing at the University of Linz
  • Funding: FWF; Association of the Austrian Paper Industry
  • Period: 2000-2003

Computer Aided Systems Architecting

  • Subject: Development of a methodology and tool for requirement engineering and architectural design of complex technical systems.
  • Cooperations: Siemens AG, CT
  • Funding: Siemens AG, CT
  • Period: 1996-1998

Parallel discrete and discrete-continuous simulation

  • Subject: Development of a simulation framework for parallel discrete event simula-tion.
  • Funding: FWF
  • Period: 1994 - 1996

Foundations of Systems Engineering

  • Subject: Development of concepts for complex system analysis and design.
  • Cooperations: Siemens AG, CT
  • Funding: Siemens AG, CT
  • Period: 1995-1997