Time4PS: Fully integrated development tools for partitioned systems

Challenge

The main goal of the project is to provide a complete set of tools that covers all the phases of the life cycle of the product: from the system design to the final configuration file of the partitioned system.
Goals

• Connect our customers modelling tool with Time4Sys.
• Give Time4Sys the ability to define partitioned systems.
• Connect Time4Sys and Xamber so the timing performance verification is automatically done in Xamber.
• Demonstrate de capabilities of the partitioned framework developed by means of an application experiment in the space domain.

Solution

The architecture proposal can be seen in figure below, where three tools are connected to define the complete system. A modelling design tool (EEI/XPM) that is used to model the system and generate the deployment and automatic code of the applications, Time4sys to define temporal information and a configuration tool to obtain the static configuration file for XtratuM (Xamber).

FED4SAE Support

Time4PS will contribute to scientific progress of software engineering for mixed criticality embedded real-time systems and it will highlight the increase in quality and effort savings obtained by using an integrated software development lifecycle supported by the appropriate tools. The close interaction of fentISS with FED4SAE partners, notably the Thales Group research team, will enhance the project impact in the scientific community.

Impact

The participation in Time4PS will enable fentISS customers to use more sophisticated tools for modelling, analysis and integration of their system and it will give fentISS the ability to develop further support of their products. Also, it will empower fentISS to gain global competitiveness in three ways. Firstly, it will allow fentISS to enter in customers who are already using Time4Sys. Secondly, it will improve the company products position in large and complex projects. Finally, the project will offer new opportunities to fentISS to enter in adjacent markets such as aviation, railways or automotive.

Runtime Architect – RATE

Challenge

Today, one of the major challenges in the Performance Engineering of real-time systems is the integration of design models and runtime aspects. The timing behavior at runtime has to be matched with the design in order to identify the timing failures in design and deviations from the real-time requirements.

Many tools exist for tracing the execution/communication and performing measurements of runtime properties. However, these tools do not allow the integration with system design models – the most suitable level for engineers for performance verification and optimization as well as decision-making.

Solution

RATE will allow the architect performing a continuous system performance engineering cycle between design and runtime, thus ensuring the quality of the running real-time system while reducing the design and development efforts and costs, and getting valuable feedback that can be used to boost the productivity and provide lessons-learnt for future generations of the product.
The following objectives will be fulfilled:

1. Verify if timing requirements are met in the system execution (CPU) or communication (network/bus) and identify potential timing bottlenecks.
2. Help the architect understanding the system timing behaviour based on numerical and graphical statistics for the system execution/communication.
3. Perform consistency check between runtime and models to validate timing related assumptions taken at the design phase.
4. Help the architect correcting timing errors and exploring design alternatives at the design phase based on the system runtime behaviour before investing time and efforts in implementing and testing.

FED4SAE Support

RATE will integrate the FED4SAE technology Time4Sys. By relying on the Time4Sys design model and the Time4Sys trace model, RATE will automatically benefit from current and future connections to Time4Sys of the various existing model-driven performance engineering tools such as design tools, scheduling analysis and simulation tools as well as tracing tools all at once. This will guarantee high flexibility and add a valuable agnostic character to RATE since it will be possible to easily integrate it in any runtime, design and any scheduling verification environment.

Impact

Runtime Architect gives to the architect access to knowledge on the system timing behavior based on the processing of runtime traces, thus allowing him to easily perform correction during validation and before delivery. Runtime Architect will allow reducing the design efforts (~15% gain estimated) while improving development efficiency as well as validation speed (~30% faster timing validation).

Through the integration of the Time4Sys technology, it will be easy to use Runtime Architect in any runtime, design and timing verification environment, thus offering to our customer a seamlessly integrated solution that will deliver a full, round-trip support for runtime traces analysis, design modelling and timing verification. Performance engineers will be able to rapidly integrate runtime aspects collected from traces into their design models. They will be able to start from runtime traces and then change the system configuration virtually to easily predict the performance impact of modified timing properties of tasks, schedulers or hardware. Runtime Architect will enable performance engineers to quickly iterate their designs as many times as they want, for both new developments and evolutionary extension and optimization of existing systems.

MAMMUT

Challenge

Smart connectivity represents both a challenge and a huge market opportunity in the transportation sector, resulting in an increasing number of services, starting from ADAS and ITS that have been developed in the last two decades. In this context, MAMMUT (Monitoring Applications exploiting on-board Motorbike’s MUltiple Transceivers) application experiment will implement a novel connectivity architecture with regards to electric two-wheelers, with the aim of increasing the service offer within the whole value chain of electric motorbikes, starting from vehicle to the riders.

Solution

MAMMUT looks to provide electric two wheelers with a whole connectivity range solution, maximizing the monitoring range in inactive periods while reducing operating costs of connectivity through inexpensive LoRa™ connectivity, while enabling data-intensive modules for dedicated applications and active riding times where vehicle’s main battery is enabled so as to increase the services related to V2X connectivity. Thanks to MAMMUT, Energica will provide:

• Component and vehicle status tracking at idle times.
• Plug-n-play device to support both isolated battery monitoring or vehicle monitoring to avoid that motorbikes/batteries are not charged during long period of time.
• Battery/Vehicle monitoring system during transportation and/or long-term storage.
• Support remote command requests to provide more control and flexibility.
• Full integration of this service in the official Energica Motor Suite software (used also by our dealers network) for ease of use and fast diagnosis of critical vehicle situations by our Service and Development teams.
• Massive Data Analysis on the recording to better understand the battery behaviour in a long term – real world usage.

FED4SAE Support

MAMMUT aims to roll out at low ROI the world-wide connectivity of motorbikes with the CMS of Modena performing an AE that enables the realization and validation of a low-cost and high-frequency monitoring applications for stationary vehicles (key-off status). To achieve this goal, among all the different technologies available in the FED4SAE project, MAMMUT will leverage on:

• one industrial platform with add-on communication modules, the last STM32 platform announced by STMicroelectronics, and
• one testbed, the LoRa™ network of London supported by Digital Catapult.
• the LoRa geo-localization technology provided by CSEM

Impact

The demonstration will take place in a real environment (the LoRaWAN network across Greater London). Since the use of electric vehicles is very important in London because of air quality issues, MAMMUT will link with GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) project of UK Smart Mobility Lab to help the understanding of the technical, legal and societal challenges related to electrical vehicles in an urban environment. Linking to the GATEway project, Energica will consider the possibility of licensing to other automotive OEMs.

Mapping Urban Air Quality In High Resolution

Challenge

Air pollution in cities is an EU and Global challenge that most developed and developing countries are facing. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), ambient air pollution kills over 4 million people every year, largely in cities. It is an invisible killer, and the problem is increasing due to unprecedented population growth in cities.

Solution

Bettair® is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that permits, for the first time, to map air and noise pollution in cities on a previously unimaginable scale based on a large deployment of outstandingly accurate gas sensors by using an advanced post-processing algorithm. The information provided by the bettair® platform allows cities to implement appropriate urban plans to enhance the air quality and to make smart and better decisions to mitigate air pollution. The bettair® nodes are composed count with up to 6 electrochemical sensors to measure gases, an Optical Particle Counter to measure PMs, noise pollution sensor, and other ambient quality indicators. A complete front and back-end solution is provided to municipalities and an APP for the citizens.

Our platform (which is a complementary network to traditional air quality monitoring equipment) will perfectly assist cities to i) identify unknown air or noise pollution sources, ii) to assess the impact and effects of different environmental actions to identify the most effective ones, and iii) recommend specific local actions.

FED4SAE Support

With the support of FED4SAE, we will migrate the current MCU solution used to an STM32 processor family taking advantage of the features offered by this processor family: high performance, real-time capabilities, digital signal processing, and low-power operation while maintaining full integration and ease of development. Additionally, a LoRaWAN module will be integrated into the Bettair® static node. The new devices will be tested in London (with support of Digital Catapult) and in Cantabria (with support of the University of Cantabria).

Impact

Bettair® platform will permit cities to mitigate air pollution and the benefits of our technology will have a tremendous impact on environmental and societal issues. Air pollution affects vegetation, the quality of water and soil, and the ecosystem services that they support. In addition, several air pollutants are also climate forcers, which have a potential impact on the planet’s climate and global warming in the short term (i.e. decades). In terms of human health and society, the direct benefits of improving quality of life are remarkable considering that air pollution is the single largest environmental health risk in Europe.

With Bettair® the most cost-effective local actions can be identified to efficiently reduce pollution; studies have shown pollution can be reduced up to 30% or more in cities with just local actions.

Time4Sys for system architects

Challenge

Bringing the power of timing analysis techniques directly into the system architect environment in order to help them to validate the design of their real time systems in early phase of development.

Solution

The solution extends the Capella system architecture environment and allows to define real time properties and constraints on the system in the early steps of design. Based on this information, the system architect can then launch analysis and simulations that validate the design and prove that the performance requirements will be met. If the design is invalid, the system architect will be guided to the specific parts that lead to invalid behaviours and need to be amended. The solution can be used in a generic engineering framework but also provides additional features for specific domains where timing is critical and where the complexity is such that it cannot be grasped by the human mind; an Arinc 653 customization supports this whole approach in the domain of integrated modular avionics so that a A653-based system architect could get timing analysis in a few clicks.

FED4SAE Support

The FED4SAE partners provide real use cases where the approach is useful and real feedback from the trenches with value assessment (cost, planning, quality).

Since we believe the solution is relevant in many industrial fields, FED4SAE will support Artal in the definition and packaging of solutions for specific domains out of our existing scope of clients.

Impact

Developing a bridge between Capella and Time4Sys is a key factor for the adoption of Time4Sys in the industry. Since it is more and more adopted by aeronautics and space industry, and start to be used for teaching, for smart cities, smart health, smart building, smart transport and others. The resulting tooling from this experiment aims at improving the design of these systems, by giving confidence – and potentially proves – on the ability of the system to match the expected behavior; a power that was previously restricted to few specialists, late in the process, in the best case…

For critical systems, it will reduce the risk and associated costs of finding critical issue during the late stages of development and improve confidence on the system design. This will also support the optimization of the real time systems by reducing the security margins usually set to cope with the unforeseen chain of events leading to a failure.

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