Embedded and distributed systems.

Distributed embedded systems play a very important role in everyday life, now and even more so in the near future. Many of these embedded systems have one or more sensors for measuring physical quantities like the room's temperature or the position of a person in the building. Due to the increasing functional complexity of the desired applications in combination with the intricate interplay between the components of the system, it can become difficult to optimize the overall performance manually. Furthermore, the current desire for quick time-to-market demands quick design processes focused on adaptability of the design. One way to achieve this quick time-to-market is the (partial) automation of the design process. Distributed embedded systems play a very important role in everyday life, now and even more so in the near future. Many of these embedded systems have one or more sensors for measuring physical quantities like the room's temperature or the position of a person in the building. Due to the increasing functional complexity of the desired applications in combination with the intricate interplay between the components of the system, it can become difficult to optimize the overall performance manually. Furthermore, the current desire for quick time-to-market demands quick design processes focused on adaptability of the design. One way to achieve this quick time-to-market is the (partial) automation of the design process. As the system has to operate in real environments using real sensors, the environment where the system operates in has to be included in the model as well. Simulating physical quantities and realistic environments can become very complex very quickly. The time that has to be invested for achieving accurate simulation results can become too much. Experimental setups can provide the data which is needed to avoid the need for complex simulations. Therefore, a Hardware-in-the-loop and Sensor-in-the-loop approach will be adopted to provide the relevant data at the right time of the modeling process. Strategies for the right spatio-temporal sampling and the right moment to apply HIL/SIL methods are important questions to answer. Once the complete system has been modeled using the realistic models and the platform-specific constraints, hardware generation (VHDL, analog schematics, etc.) and code generation (C-code for embedded processors) from the high-level model can be used to accelerate the design cycle. Large functional changes often translate to small changes in the high-level model, and results often in large changes in the low-level representation. Using the right type of code- and hardware-generation can accelerate the design cycle significantly. Code generation can also be used in the form of prototyping platforms such as large FPGA's to accelerate certain sub-models of the MBD-design. HIL/SIL systems also allow for real-time performance to give rise to sensor flow, which is very important in a wide range of applications.

Keywords:EMBEDDED SYSTEMS, INFORMATICS

Disciplines:Applied mathematics in specific fields