SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Fuzzy-logic pioneer Aptronix Inc. has refocused its engineering-software-development environment on what's called Java-based "smart applets" with the introduction of its Java Runtime Controller. With JRC, Aptronix said, engineers can manage fuzzy-control programs from Web pages that serve as the user interface for controlling complex industrial processes.

Java-based smart applets that encapsulate fuzzy knowledge bases will be downloaded into target devices that execute their control programs lo cally within the device, yet with full access to network-knowledge acquisition, distribution and online diagnostics.

"Engineers will be able to sit at their desks and dispatch smart Java applets from a Web page to any microcontroller on their net‹from the factory floor to a smart appliance at home," said Aptronix marketing director Daniel Zhu.

Complex industrial processes will be represented graphically from several alternative views on Web pages linked to the storehouse of smart applets. Engineering Web pages will give full access to underlying devices, while protected consumer-oriented pages will offer only the "options" authorized for that user. Aptronix envisions serial buses migrating from the factory floor into the automated houses of the future, thereby interfacing the microcontrollers in household devices to the Internet.

"Consumers will be able to control their household appliances from the office by dispatching our smart Java applets from a Web page, " said Zhu.

JRC is the run-time component of the Fuzzy Inference Development Environment (Fide), an engineering-software development tool created by Aptronix and marketed worldwide by Motorola. Fide creates programs for embedded controllers by generating either C-language source code for any processor or machine-specific object code for most of Motorola's microcontrollers. The newest generation of Fide also permits Java applets to be created in lieu of source or machine code.

Fide's graphical fuzzy development tools simplify control-program creation. They describe the controller's tasks using Fide's fuzzy inference language (FIL)‹consisting of a graphical membership function editor and a fill-in-the-blanks table-oriented fuzzy rule editor. Together the membership functions and fuzzy rules encapsulate the "knowledge" about the application at hand.

After debugging and refining that knowledge, using Fide's tracer, analyzer and simulator tools, the engineer is ready to gener ate a Java applet to perform that function. The smart Java applets created by Fide can be linked to Web pages and dispatched over the Internet to perform their function wherever and whenever they are needed. Fide carries a price tag of $1,495. The version with the Java run-time controller will be available in the first quarter of 1997.

"Keeping engineering expertise inside smart Java applets will revolutionize the control industry. From any location on the Internet, you'll be able to control any device on the Internet that you've prepared to receive our smart applets," said Zhu.

Conceivably, a complete process changeover in Beijing could be performed remotely from Austin, Texas, by changing the Java applets running in the microcontrollers on the factory floor. Once the controllers have been reloaded with new smart applets, the factory could be restarted with the microcontrollers communicating among themselves to structure the changeover.

"Our industrial partners at Motorola a nd elsewhere are overjoyed at the prospect of the emerging new markets made possible by our smart applets," said Zhu. Aptronix is preparing demonstrations of its Java-based smart applets for automotive, consumer and industrial applications. For instance, it plans a smart air-bag applet that would detect whether a rider is being injured by an overzealous control program.

The electronic infrastructure enabling the smart applet concept is Aptronix's virtual fuzzy machine for Java, which makes space-saving fuzzy inferences rather than crisp inferences.

Free Subscription to EE Times First Name Last Name Company Name Title Email address   Click here for your Free Subscription to EETimes Europe