In Web-based learning, learners are expected to investigate information through gathering and navigating Web resources, and to construct knowledge. In our previous work, we designed a model of Web-based investigative learning, which represents a learning process as a cycle of phases. We also developed a cognitive tool called iLSB (interactive Learning Scenario Builder) for scaffolding learning process as modeled. At present, on the other hand, learners can explore information by chatting with generative Al, which generates texts in a dialogue format. However, it is unclear about the context where generative Al is available for Web-based investigative learning, and about the effective use of generative Al. In order to examine the availability and effectiveness of generative Al, we have had case studies including the comparison between the use of iLSB and the use of generative Al. The results suggest that generative Al prevents learners from investigating sufficiently compared with iLSB, and the Web-based investigative learning model contributes to the proper use of generative Al for investigative learning. Furthermore, it is suggested that the use of generative Al is effective in exploring background knowledge about questions investigated and in organizing information for knowledge construction.

Abstract The increasing trend of manycore processors makes multithreaded communication more important to avoid costly global synchronization among cores. One of the representative approaches that require multithreaded communication is the global task-based programming model. In the model, a program is divided into tasks, and tasks are asynchronously executed by each node, and independent thread-to-thread communications are expected. However, the Message passing interface (MPI) based approach is not efficient because of design issues. In this research, we design and implement the utofu transport layer in an abstracted communication library called Unified communication-X (UCX) for efficient remote direct memory access (RDMA) based multithreaded communication on Tofu Interconnect D. The evaluation results on Fugaku show that UCX can significantly improve the multithreaded performance over MPI, while maintaining portability between systems thanks to UCX. UCX shows about 32.8 times lower latency than Fujitsu MPI with 24 threads in the multithreaded pingpong benchmark and about 37.8 times higher update rate than Fujitsu MPI with 24 threads on 256 nodes in multithreaded GUPs benchmark.

For a companion robot that follows a person as an assistant, predicting human walking is important to produce a proactive movement that is helpful to maintain an appropriate area decided by the human personal space. However, fully trusting the prediction may result in obstructing human walking because it is not always accurate. Hence, we consider the estimation of uncertainty (i.e., entropy) of the prediction to enable the robot to move without causing overconfident motion and without being late for the person it follows. To consider this uncertainty of the prediction to the controller, we introduce a reliability value that changes based on the entropy of the prediction. This value expresses the extent the controller should trust the prediction result, and it affects the cost function of our controller. We propose an uncertainty-aware robot controller based on nonlinear model predictive control to realize natural human-followings. We found that our uncertainty-aware control system can produce an appropriate robot movement, such as not obstructing the human walking and avoiding delay, in both simulations using actual human walking data and real-robot experiments.

The number of Internet users is now increasing rapidly because of the popularity of the WWW. Intra-nets and extra-nets have also become very popular as they enable efficient business processing. Accordingly, there is increasing demand for Internet/intra-net/extra-net services that offer higher speed, shorter delay, higher throughput, and stronger security at lower cost. To satisfy those demands, this paper proposes the network router/bridge concept that acts as a large router/bridge when constructing a nationwide computer network and a cut-through ATM-based forwarding engine (CAFE) that forwards IP packets/Ethernet frames with cell-by-cell processing in the network router/bridge. We also propose a hardware based fast search method to get the address entry table suitable for cell-by-cell processing, one of the key technologies of CAFE.

A wheeled mobile robot on a flat plane can estimate its current location and orientation from the cumulative wheel rotation (dead reckoning). The method, however, has the drawback that estimation errors are accumulated as the robot moves, and the accuracy of estimation decreases. To address this problem, a positioning technique using an external sensor is needed. The authors propose a more general positioning method whereby the robot can act autonomously and move along a path unlimited by positioning. The robot can modify the position estimated by dead reckoning by repeating low-level sensing asynchronously and intermittently. This method uses not only the estimated position data but also the accuracy of the dead reckoning and the external sensor effectively.>