7 ms·

Penguins inspire a novel way of making sure code in smart cars does not crash

14 points by rusanu 10y ago

mnw21cam 10y ago
Scary fact of the day: There are about a million lines of code in the average car, and more in connected ones. If they have done really well at debugging, they may only have 5 bugs per kloc, so 5000 bugs.
- bennyg 10y ago
  Where does that "5 bugs per kloc" figure come from?
  - mnw21cam 10y ago
    Google "bugs per line of code", and the top result says that the industry average is 15 to 50 bugs per kloc. I'd expect (hope) people making cars do a little better than that, hence a guestimate of 5.
  - bluejekyll 10y ago
    Off the back of my hand, that seems like a reasonable. That's a bug per 200 lines of code written. I'd expect it to be higher if written in an non-memorysafe language as well, and ones that allow for Nulls and unchecked exceptions.
  - mikestew 10y ago
    On most projects I've worked on, it hovers around 10 defects per kloc. On the one hand, 5 defects/kloc sounds optimistic, but I would hope automotive software to be developed more rigorously. OTOH, experience tells me otherwise.
fsargent 10y ago
Can someone translate this for me? Why do penguins change how software development works? "They forage in groups and have been observed to synchronise their dives to get fish," said Prof Papadopoulos. "They also have the ability to communicate using vocalisations and possibly convey information about food resources." "This solution has generic elements which can be abstracted and be used to solve other problems," he said, "such as determining the integrity of software components needed to reach the high safety requirements of a modern car." By mimicking penguin behaviour in a testing system which seeks the safest ways to arrange code instead of shoals of fish, it becomes possible to slowly zero in on the best way for that software to be structured. ... What?
- tetrep 10y ago
  And the article doesn't appear to have any links with further technical detail. As given, I'd say it amounts to clickbait.
  - ape4 10y ago
    Or birdbait.
- Pigo 10y ago
  Hopefully there is a point that is either beyond the author, or the audience they imagined reading the article.
- zebrafish 10y ago
  This whole article feels like it was written by AI. I think it means that the software rearranges code blocks to minimize the number of errors?
fsargent 10y ago
Relevant publication: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7397214/?reload=true http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7397214/?reload=true Can aquatic flightless birds allocate Automotive Safety requirements? TL;DR: Penguins Search Optimisation Algorithm (PeSOA). PeSOA mimics the collaborative hunting strategy of penguins, using the metaphor of oxygen reserves as a search intensification operator. This allows the penguins to preserve energy, consuming it only in areas of the search space that are rich in good solutions. The performance of the approach is evaluated by applying it to a benchmark hybrid braking system case study, demonstrating performance that is an improvement to those reported in the literature.
- nickpsecurity 10y ago
  Another nature-inspired take on optimization. For anyone curious, the Wikipedia article below on Ant Optimization and its "Related" section have detail on how these sorts of things get applied. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_colony_optimization_algorithms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_colony_optimization_algori...

14 points by rusanu 10y ago

Scary fact of the day: There are about a million lines of code in the average car, and more in connected ones. If they have done really well at debugging, they may only have 5 bugs per kloc, so 5000 bugs.

bennyg 10y ago
Where does that "5 bugs per kloc" figure come from?
- mnw21cam 10y ago
  Google "bugs per line of code", and the top result says that the industry average is 15 to 50 bugs per kloc. I'd expect (hope) people making cars do a little better than that, hence a guestimate of 5.
- bluejekyll 10y ago
  Off the back of my hand, that seems like a reasonable. That's a bug per 200 lines of code written. I'd expect it to be higher if written in an non-memorysafe language as well, and ones that allow for Nulls and unchecked exceptions.
- mikestew 10y ago
  On most projects I've worked on, it hovers around 10 defects per kloc. On the one hand, 5 defects/kloc sounds optimistic, but I would hope automotive software to be developed more rigorously. OTOH, experience tells me otherwise.

fsargent 10y ago

Can someone translate this for me? Why do penguins change how software development works? "They forage in groups and have been observed to synchronise their dives to get fish," said Prof Papadopoulos. "They also have the ability to communicate using vocalisations and possibly convey information about food resources." "This solution has generic elements which can be abstracted and be used to solve other problems," he said, "such as determining the integrity of software components needed to reach the high safety requirements of a modern car." By mimicking penguin behaviour in a testing system which seeks the safest ways to arrange code instead of shoals of fish, it becomes possible to slowly zero in on the best way for that software to be structured. ... What?

tetrep 10y ago
And the article doesn't appear to have any links with further technical detail. As given, I'd say it amounts to clickbait.
- ape4 10y ago
  Or birdbait.
Pigo 10y ago
Hopefully there is a point that is either beyond the author, or the audience they imagined reading the article.
zebrafish 10y ago
This whole article feels like it was written by AI. I think it means that the software rearranges code blocks to minimize the number of errors?

fsargent 10y ago

Relevant publication: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7397214/?reload=true http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7397214/?reload=true Can aquatic flightless birds allocate Automotive Safety requirements? TL;DR: Penguins Search Optimisation Algorithm (PeSOA). PeSOA mimics the collaborative hunting strategy of penguins, using the metaphor of oxygen reserves as a search intensification operator. This allows the penguins to preserve energy, consuming it only in areas of the search space that are rich in good solutions. The performance of the approach is evaluated by applying it to a benchmark hybrid braking system case study, demonstrating performance that is an improvement to those reported in the literature.

nickpsecurity 10y ago
Another nature-inspired take on optimization. For anyone curious, the Wikipedia article below on Ant Optimization and its "Related" section have detail on how these sorts of things get applied. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_colony_optimization_algorithms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_colony_optimization_algori...