Jürgen Tacken

Towards a complete design method for embedded systems using predicate/transition-nets

In this paper, we present a new approach to embedded system design based on modeling discrete and also continuous system parts with high level Petri—Nets. Our investigations concentrate on a complete design flow, analysis on high level Petri—Nets and their meaning for hardware/software partitioning of real-time embedded systems. The concepts for hybrid modeling of discrete and continuous systems are applied in an example in the domain of mechatronic systems.

Managing autonomous vehicles at intersections

In the past, more and broader roads have been built to manage the growing traffic. However, these approaches will be insufficient for future traffic management, because of environmental concerns and a lack of space, especially in urban areas. The significant and rapidly increasing improvements in communication and information technology as well as the decreasing prices, are motivating a new look at the handling of the growing road traffic problem. The idea is to put more intelligence into the vehicles to benefit from decentralized solutions. However, the problems complexity rises with the number of participating vehicles. One promising solution is for each vehicle to put its own computing power into the system, thus helping to meet the growing demand for computing power. As an example, we discuss an intersection management strategy for autonomous vehicles.

Pr/T-Net Based Seamless Design of Embedded Real-Time Systems

During the last years we have been working towards a complete design method for distributed embedded real-time systems. The main characteristic of the methodology is that within the critical phases of analysis and synthesis the system under development is available in one unique model, that of extended Pr/T-Nets. Among several other reasons we have chosen a high-level Petri Net model in order to benefit from the multitude of analysis and synthesis methods for Petri Nets. Even though the methodology is based upon one common model, it nevertheless supports the modeling of heterogeneous systems using different specification languages. The methodology was introduced and described in several former publications. In this paper we therefore only give a brief overview and afterwards go into details of our recent work, namely the transformation of proper Pr/T-Net-models into synchronous languages, the partitioning of Pr/T-Nets and an OS-integrated execution engine for Pr/T-Nets.

Towards a Platform for User-Generated Mobile Services

In the near future, the trend of user-generated content and services currently observable in the Internet domain will also affect the mobile environment: mobile users will become able to easily create content and small services while on the move and offer them to social communities. Mobile users will no longer be pure consumers, they will also become producers and providers of mobile content and services. However, to let this vision come true, a new mobile service platform has to be built and established. In this article we are surveying relevant aspects, like service technologies, semantic search and recommendation mechanisms, revenue sharing, and security technologies. Based on that survey, requirements and challenges are identified. By means of an application scenario from the health and fitness domain, we present a first concept for a platform that allows for building virtual communities with easy and inherent support for real physical meetings.

Integrated Design and Simulation of Hybrid Systems

In this article we present a new approach for the design of hybrid systems composed of discrete and continuous parts. In our approach the system designers can start their specifications with the discrete as well as with the continuous parts. Both paradigms can be used with there own methodology and Tools. There are integration mechanisms for both paradigms. For the integrated simulation C code is generated. The advantages of our approach are demonstrated by modeling all important aspects of a system for building up motorcades. The model includes a discrete part selecting one of the different strategies modeled in the continuous parts. These are strategies for velocity and distance control for vehicles.

From high-level specifications down to software implementations of parallel embedded real-time systems

In this paper we describe a methodology and accompanying tool support for the development of parallel and distributed embedded real-time system software. The presented approach comprises the complete design flow from the modeling of a distributed controller system by means of a high-level graphical language down to the synthesis of executable code for a given target hardware, whereby the implementation is verified to meet hard real-time constraints. The methodology is mainly based upon the tools SEA (system engineering and animation) and CHaRy (the C-LAB Hard Real-Time System).

Entwurf von autonomen Systemen mit High Level Petrinetzen

In diesem Papier wird vorgestellt, wie autonome Systeme auf der Basis von erweiterten Pr/T-Netzen entworfen werden konnen. Die vorgestellte Methodik wurde ursprunglich fur eingebettete Realzeitsysteme konzipiert. Es wird gezeigt, wie notwendige Paradigmen fur den Entwurf autonomer Systeme — z.B. zur Realisierung von Verhaltens- oder Lernkomponenten — integriert werden konnen. Als Anwendung fur die Entwurfsmethodik wird der C-LAB Pathfinder, ein autonomes Fahrzeug, vorgestellt. Anhand von grundlegenden Teilproblemen der Pathfinder-Steuerung wird der Entwurf von Verhaltensweisen mit Pr/T-Netzen vorgestellt.

Intelligent design assistance with SEA

This paper demonstrates how design assistance for engineering processes of computer based systems is realized with the SEA-Environment. SEA allows to specify engineering processes in an unambiguous way using extended Predicate/Transition Nets (Pr/T Nets) as the underlying formal model. Since Pr/T Nets are executable, tool support for a design process is realized easily via simulation of the process specification. By linking a user defined abstract graphical representation to the Pr/T Net, the interface of a design assistant can be tailored to the needs and preferences of engineers. Furthermore, artificial neural networks are integrated into the SEA-Environment. Neural networks provide learning facilities, that allow decision making during a design process, for instance the selection of an appropriate tool and its parameters among a set of alternatives, automatically. An advantage of this approach is that the huge amount of knowledge needed for various decisions does not have to be acquired a priori but can be gathered during the use of an engineering environment.

Real-time billing as a service — A standard-based proof-of-concept implementation

This article presents a proof-of-concept implementation of a managed service for real-time rating, charging, and billing. The formal model of the usage tariffs and the operational interface utilized for this service are based on open standards. An end-to-end use case from the domain of medical image processing is outlined to illustrate the ease of integration of rating and charging into existing IT services.

PARADISE: Design Environment for Para llel & Dis tributed , E mbedded Real-Time Systems

1 IntroductionToday’s embedded systems (ES) are characterized by more and more parallelism,distribution over different locations and hard real-time (RT) requirements.Consequently, the modern, structured design process has to deal with heterogeneousrequirements and restrictions. Especially the integration of HW-design tasks with SW-design tasks and operating system functionality with respect to RT requirements is amain challenge. The integration leads to systems with enormous overall complexitybecause the complexity of each design partition itself has been doubled nearly every