Software Strategies to Improve Immunity of Programmable Embedded Systems against Disturbances

Programmable Embedded Systems form the cornerstone for the rising challenges in the next industrial revolution of cyber physical systems where everything gets connected, data is interchanged and decisions are made by programmable controllers. Application areas are mobility, manufacturing, smart energy consumers, health and elderly care. This implies a more frequent use of such systems in applications requiring high reliability in harsh environments. The rise in electronics significantly increases the probability of all kinds of disturbances, which is amplified by the decreasing intrinsic immunity. An important innovation in this research project, next to the optimization of the software design and automated test procedures, is the inclusion of software solution in the system, making it fault resistance or tolerant, which leads to a cost efficient solution in many situations. Such software solution is rarely applied, mainly because they are not widely known and need further research for effective implementation. A key objective of this research is to design and produce better and more reliable electronics with a lower development cost and a shorter time-to-market.