Embedded Software Research Articles

Observer-Based Control for DC–DC Converters

The paper proposes a computational technique for the synthesis of a suitable observer-based control for DC–DC switching converters. The work will be carried out directly on the Piece-Wise Affine convincing representation obtained from the Bonds Graph modeling method. The aim was to regulate by switching the converter outputs to an average (not common) equilibrium reference. Based on the Lyapunov theory, a systematic state feedback control is derived from a tractable Bilinear Matrix Inequality formulation of the problem. The design control searches for a single Lyapunov-like function that satisfies practical quadratic stabilization properties in an appropriate continuous state space partition and provides a way to drive the system states into a quantifiable small ball around the non-equilibrium desired reference. To complete the method, a simple state estimation procedure is introduced to avoid state measurements, the technique is based on Luenberger-like observer structure. The approach can be implemented as an embedded software system to generate several continuous supply levels. Satisfactory simulation results are obtained for several examples, the illustrative theoretical demonstrations for some of these switching devices are reported.

Agile at IBM: software developers teach a new dance step to management

Purpose – Explains how companies that are seeking to implement rapid innovation can adopt the Agile software development approach. In Agile, self-organizing teams work in short cycles called “sprints” and develop the features to enable the product to continuously evolve in the light of the experience they gain and through customer feedback. Design/methodology/approach – For insight into how Agile is being implemented at a leading software services firm with clients in hundreds of industries, Strategy & Leadership asked Rob Purdie, Agile Practice Lead for the IBM Design Lab, how Agile software development methods were contributing to the success of IBM's key digital marketing initiatives. Findings – The traditional approach to software development is to define, design, develop and test everything – before delivering anything. With Agile, managers can reduce waste by prioritizing features based on relative business value, evaluating and re-designing as the project proceeds. Practical implications – Agile requires leaders and teams to work and learn through problems, designs and options in an open and transparent environment. It places new demands on technical leaders in terms of negotiation and planning skills. Originality/value – Managers outside the software industry should note that Agile/Scrum is likely to be increasingly essential to the future of product development and manufacturing. Nowadays many products for consumers and businesses include embedded software systems, so developing products in the future will require deeper collaboration across multiple engineering disciplines and marketing teams and familiarity with the Agile approach.

Heterogeneity and typology of product innovation in embedded software: the case of Japanese automotive software

We are currently in surroundings with ubiquitous software-embedded products, while there is less understanding on innovations of the invisible embedded software (ESW). Because of its significant role in automobiles and big market share in the Japanese ESW sector, automotive software (ASW) is selected as the case for our research on heterogeneity and typology of product innovation in ESW. Based on the embedded nature of ASW, the role of Japanese automobiles in the USA and the advantage of using patenting in large third countries as a good proxy measure for national innovation activities, we employ ASW-related patents in the USPTO patent database as an indicator of ASW product innovation. Through analysing the heterogeneities of product innovation in terms of function and actors’ innovation activities over the period 1981–2010 by classifying ASW functions into fields of power train control, battery and electric power control, safety control, body control and information communication and telecommunication system, we extract the product innovation typology of ESW and conclude that the heterogeneous requirements for real-time operation and accumulation of specific knowledge are the main reasons of heterogeneity of product innovation in ESW. These results imply different R&D strategies and innovation trajectories.

Dominant Block Guided Optimal Cache Size Estimation to Maximize IPC of Embedded Software

Embedded system software is highly constrained from performance, memory footprint, energy consumption and implementing cost view point. It is always desirable to obtain better Instructions per Cycle. Instruction cache has major contribution in improving IPC. Cache memories are realized on the same chip where the processor is running. This considerably increases the system cost as well. Hence, it is required to maintain a trade off between cache sizes and performance improvement offered. Determining the number of cache lines and size of cache line are important parameters for cache designing. The design space for cache is quite large. It is time taking to execute the given application with different cache sizes on an instruction set simulator to figure out the optimal cache size. In this paper, a technique is proposed to identify a number of cache lines and cache line size for the L1 instruction cache that will offer best or nearly best IPC. Cache size is derived, at a higher abstraction level, from basic block analysis in the Low Level Virtual Machine environment. The cache size estimated is cross validated by simulating the set of benchmark applications with different cache sizes in simple scalar simulator. The proposed method seems to be superior in terms of estimation accuracy and estimation time as compared to the existing methods for estimation of optimal cache size parameters like cache line size, number of cache lines.

An approach to testing commercial embedded systems

A wide range of commercial consumer devices such as mobile phones and smart televisions rely on embedded systems software to provide their functionality. Testing is one of the most commonly used methods for validating this software, and improved testing approaches could increase these devices’ dependability. In this article we present an approach for performing such testing. Our approach is composed of two techniques. The first technique involves the selection of test data; it utilizes test adequacy criteria that rely on dataflow analysis to distinguish points of interaction between specific layers in embedded systems and between individual software components within those layers, while also tracking interactions between tasks. The second technique involves the observation of failures: it utilizes a family of test oracles that rely on instrumentation to record various aspects of a system's execution behavior, and compare observed behavior to certain intended system properties that can be derived through program analysis. Empirical studies of our approach show that our adequacy criteria can be effective at guiding the creation of test cases that detect faults, and our oracles can help expose faults that cannot easily be found using typical output-based oracles. Moreover, the use of our criteria accentuates the fault-detection effectiveness of our oracles.

Real-time C++: efficient object-oriented and template microcontroller programming

The C++ language has powerful object-oriented and template features that can improve software design and portability while simultaneously reducing code complexity and the risk of error. Furthermore, C++ compiles highly efficient native code. This unique and effective combination makes C++ well-suited for programming microcontroller systems that require compact size, high performance and safety-critical reliability. With this book, Chris Kormanyos delivers a highly practical guide to programming real-time embedded microcontroller systems in C++. It is divided into three parts plus several appendices. Part I provides a foundation for real-time C++ by covering language technologies, including object-oriented methods, template programming and optimization. Next, part II presents detailed descriptions of a variety of C++ components that are widely used in microcontroller programming. It details some of C++s most powerful language elements, such as class types, templates and the STL, to develop components for microcontroller register access, low-level drivers, custom memory management, embedded containers, multitasking, etc. Finally, part III describes mathematical methods and generic utilities that can be employed to solve recurring problems in real-time C++. The appendices include a brief C++ language tutorial, information on the real-time C++ development environment and instructions for building GNU GCC cross-compilers and a microcontroller circuit. The most recent specification of C++11 in ISO/IEC 14882:2011 is used throughout the text. To facilitate portability, no libraries other than those specified in the language standard itself are used. Efficiency is always in focus and numerous examples are backed up with real-time performance measurements and size analyses that quantify the true costs of the code down to the very last byte and microsecond. The target audience of this book mainly consists of students and professionals interested in real-time C++. Readers should be familiar with C or another programming language and will benefit most if they have had some previous experience with microcontroller electronics and the performance and size issues prevalent in embedded systems programming.

Foreword to the special section on synchronous programming

Embedded systems are ubiquitous. In applications ranging from avionics, automotive, and industrial process control all the way to the handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell phones, and bio-medical prosthetic devices, we find embedded computing devices running embedded software systems. Growth in embedded system design is exponential. There are orders of magnitude more embedded processors and embedded applications today in deployment than other forms of computing. Some of the applications running on such embedded computing platforms are also safety-critical, real-time, and require absolute guarantees of correctness, timeliness, and dependability. The design of such safety-critical applications require the utmost care. These applications must be verified for functional correctness; satisfaction of real-time constraints must be ensured; and must be properly endowed with reliability/dependability properties. These requirements pose hard challenges to system designers. A large body of research done over the last few decades exists in the field of designing safety-critical hardware and software systems. A number of standards have evolved, specifications have been published, architecture analysis and design languages have been proposed, techniques for optimal mapping software components to architectural elements have been studied, modular platform architectures have been standardised. Certification by various authorities and strict requirements for satisfying certification goals have been developed.

Mode switch timing analysis for component-based multi-mode systems

The growing complexity of embedded systems software requires new techniques for their development. A common approach to reducing software complexity is to partition system behavior into different operational modes. Such a multi-mode system can change its behavior by switching between modes under certain circumstances. Another approach to simplifying software development is Component-Based Software Engineering, which allows a system to be developed by reusable components. Combining both approaches, we get component-based development of multi-mode systems, for which a key issue is the mode switch handling. Since most existing mode switch techniques do not consider component-based systems, we present in this article an approach—the Mode Switch Logic (MSL)—for the development of component-based multi-mode systems. Additionally, we provide a timing analysis for the mode switch of systems using our MSL. Finally, the fundamentals of MSL and its mode switch timing analysis are demonstrated and evaluated by a case study, an Adaptive Cruise Control system.

The Application of RFID Technology in Development Embedded Systems

A complete set of RFID system is composed of two parts by Reader and Transponder grounds of the action principle Reader launch of unlimited radio waves of a specific frequency energy to Transponder, to drive Transponder circuit ID Code sent internally. Part of the embedded system software is including the operating system software (requires real-time and multi-tasking operation) and application programming. The operating system controls the application programming and hardware interaction, and the application to control the operation and behavior of the system. The paper presents the application of RFID technology in development embedded systems. The experiment shows RFID is superior to ARM in building embedded system.

Study of Embedded Operating System Process Scheduling

Embedded systems are widely used in industries, its amazing to develop speed and as an embedded system software for embedded operating system is at the core of the information industry research hot spots. This thesis is mainly embedded in different application environments, the operating system discussion and research on how to implement its process scheduling algorithm.

Development of reconfigurable distributed embedded systems with a model‐driven approach

SummaryIn this paper, we propose a model‐driven approach allowing to build reconfigurable distributed real‐time embedded (DRE) systems. The constant growth of the complexity and the required autonomy of embedded software systems management give the dynamic reconfiguration a big importance. New challenges to apply the dynamic reconfiguration at model level as well as runtime support level are required. In this direction, the development of reconfigurable DRE systems according to traditional processes is not applicable. New methods are required to build and to supply reconfigurable embedded software architectures. In this context, we propose an model‐driven engineering based approach that enables to design reconfigurable DRE systems with execution framework support. This approach leads the designer to specify step by step his/her system from a model to another one more refined until the targeted model is reached. This targeted model is related to a specific platform leading to the generation of the most part of the system implementation. We also develop a new middleware that supports reconfigurable DRE systems. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Software Test of Wireless Vibration Nodes of Nuclear Power Plants

To do Validation and Verification" of wireless vibration sensor nodes in NPPs (nuclear power plants), embedded system software test should be done. The test index is analyzed firstly; then the method of 'Temb' was introduced to analysis ADXL202 vibration nodes; the characteristic of system was used to establish LITO(life cycle, Infrastructure, Techniques, Organization) matrix, they are of emphasizing safety, application in harsh environment, using algorithms of technology and science and so on. The acceleration circulation method using fixed time cycle pretest by instrument and other weak was proved to be infeasible though FMEA (failure modes and effects analysis). Then FTA (fault tree analysis) is used to analyze system, so the software filter and real-time cycle test method were used to improve test precise and reliability of node vibration measurement. Experiments have proved its effective.

Development of New Type Centralized Engineering Seismograph

SoPC technology is a high-performance, low-power consumption embedded system solution based on embedded microprocessor, providing a new way for developing new type centralized engineering seismograph. The paper presents the development of a new type centralized engineering seismograph based on SoPC technology, which adopts FPGA design based on SoPC technology for the hardware design and embedded software program development of the 48-channel engineering seismograph. According to actual needs of currently available centralized engineering seismograph, combining the actual characteristics of SoPC embedded technology, a portable, low-power consumption and high-performance new type centralized engineering seismograph is constructed. The paper describes the hardware design and software program implementation of the centralized engineering seismograph in detail.

Research on the Training Mechanism of Embedded Software Development Talents

How to train embedded software development talents that can meet the demands of embedded system companies is a very important task to the computer majors of colleges and universities. Some efficacious measures are given in this paper. These measures include infiltrating embedded software developing ideas and knowledge to existed related computer major courses such as computer operation system, data structure and the principles of computer composition, offering specialized embedded software developing course, studying and researching open source embedded operating system software, and introducing students to participate in embedded software developing course design and application project. Our practical teaching results proved they are very helpful to improve students’ embedded software design ability.

Model-based robustness testing for avionics-embedded software

Robustness testing for safety-critical embedded software is still a challenge in its nascent stages. In this paper, we propose a practical methodology and implement an environment by employing model-based robustness testing for embedded software systems. It is a system-level black-box testing approach in which the fault behaviors of embedded software is triggered with the aid of model-based fault injection by the support of an executable model-driven hardware-in-loop (HIL) testing environment. The prototype implementation of the robustness testing environment based on the proposed approach is experimentally discussed and illustrated by industrial case studies based on several avionics-embedded software systems. The results show that our proposed and implemented robustness testing method and environment are effective to find more bugs, and reduce burdens of testing engineers to enhance efficiency of testing tasks, especially for testing complex embedded systems.

Formal synthesis of application and platform behaviors of embedded software systems

Two main embedded software components, application software and platform software, i.e., the real-time operating system (RTOS), interact with each other in order to achieve the functionality of the system. However, they are so different in behaviors that one behavior modeling language is not sufficient to model both styles of behaviors and to reason about the characteristics of their individual behaviors as well as their parallel behavior and interaction properties. In this paper, we present a formal approach to the synthesis of the application software and the RTOS behavior models. In this approach, each of them is modeled with its adequate modeling language and then is composed into a system model for analysis. Moreover, this paper also presents a consistent way of analyzing the application software with respect to both functional requirements and timing requirements. To show the effectiveness of the approach, a case study is conducted, where ARINC 653 and its application are modeled and verified against timing requirements. Using our approach, application software can be constructed as a behavioral model independently from a specific platform and can be verified against various platforms and timing constraints in a formal way.

The Use of Video-Gaming Devices as a Motivation for Learning Embedded Systems Programming

As embedded systems are becoming prevalent in everyday life, many universities are incorporating embedded systems-related courses in their undergraduate curricula. However, it is not easy to motivate students in such courses since they conceive of embedded systems as bizarre computing elements, different from the personal computers with which they are familiar. This problem has been overcome at the University of Granada, Spain, by taking advantage of the connection many students have with video games.

Multidimensional characterization of evolutionary clusters: An experience report

Context: Software architects try to decompose software systems such that their constituent parts can evolve independently from one another. During the actual evolution, identifying groups of software entities from different parts which frequently changed together, is one way to help architects evaluate how independently the different parts can evolve. However, there may be many such groups from which the architects have to select the ones denoting issues in the decomposition worth addressing. ObjectiveIn this paper, we use a number of properties of those groups of entities, such as whether they involve more than one site, how many entities are involved, how often these entities are changed, and so on, to identify a subset of groups indicating issues the architect does want to address. MethodWe describe (1) a number of properties of groups of co-changing entities, (2) scenarios expressing issues to be addressed, in terms of values for the different properties, and (3) the mapping of such scenarios to queries on a set of groups of software entities that changed together. Executing that query results in a subset pointing to issues worth addressing according to that scenario. ResultsWe apply our method to a large embedded software system having a development history of more than a decade. For several scenarios worked out, the number of issues selected for further investigation by the architect is less than half the number of issues selected using only one or two properties. ConclusionOur experience suggests that using multiple properties of groups of co-changing entities is a useful way to accurately identify the set of issues an architect has to address when improving the decomposition of a system.

Compositional real-time scheduling framework for periodic reward-based task model

As the size and complexity of embedded software systems increase, compositional real-time scheduling framework is widely accepted as means to build large and complex systems. A compositional real-time scheduling framework proposes to decompose a system into independent subsystems and provides ways to assemble them into a flexible hierarchical real-time scheduling system while guaranteeing the internal real-time requirements of each subsystem. In this paper, we consider the imprecise reward-based periodic task model in compositional scheduling framework. Thus, we introduce the imprecise periodic resource model to characterize the imprecise resource allocations provided by the system to a single component, and the interface model to abstract the imprecise real-time requirements of the component. The schedulability of mandatory parts is also analyzed to meet the minimum requirement of tasks. Finally, we provide a scheduling algorithm to guarantee a certain amount of reward, which makes it feasible to efficiently compose multiple imprecise components.

An embedded computer controlled four fingered robot hand

When people interact with intelligent agents, they likely rely upon a wide range of existing knowledge about machines, minds, and intelligence. This knowledge not only guides these interactions, but it can be challenged and potentially changed by interaction experiences. The science of computation has systematically abstracted away the physical world. Embedded software systems, however engage the physical world. Human beings interact physically with environment using their hands. Robotic hand systems can be used in hazardous environments such as those encountered in nuclear, military, chemical, underwater, and space applications. Robots have the potential to play a large role in our world. However, as the potential use for robots grows, so does their need to interact with objects in their environment. An embedded computer controlled four fingered robotic hand is designed and developed with a simple and minimal control strategy to pick and place applications. The approach is based on anthropomorphic design with three fingers and an opposing thumb. Each finger has three links and three double revolute joints. Each finger is actuated by a single antagonistic pair of tendons. The robot hand system is interfaced to embedded computer with software control by means of 14 independent commands for the movement of fingers. Reliable grasping and releasing is achieved with simple control mechanism and IR sensors/push-button switches. The hand can pick a variety of objects with different surface characteristics and shapes without having to reconstruct its surface description. Picking of the object is successfully completed as long as the object is within the workspace of the hand and placed the object at the desired position within the workspace by relevant software control using keyboard commands. Details of hand control hardware and software for mainly pick and place applications are presented in this paper. Results of the experimental work for pick and place applications of different objects are enumerated.