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ARTES: 9905-1
TITLE: Flexible reliable timing constraints
AUTHORS: Gerhard Fohler

GOAL
The goal of this project is to develop methods for derivation, specification and execution of real-time activities with flexible timing constraints, that can be used to cope with changes, instead of blind redesign. The reference application domain is the automotive industry.

COMMENTS
The proposal is well structured and addresses an important issue, aimed at reducing the time for designing complex real-time applications, as well as increasing their robustness. The automotive application field considered for experimenting and validating the proposed approach is of great industrial relevance and can directly exploit the methodology developed in this project. Both the academic and the industrial partners have the right expertize for achieving the expected results.

EVALUATION SUMMARY (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)
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Synergy: GOOD
Industrial Relevance: GOOD
Academic qualities: EXCELLENT
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Suggestion: APPROVE (1 or 2 students)

ARTES: 9905-7
TITLE: Methods for Integration of Heterogeneous Real-Time Services into High-Performance Networks
AUTHORS: Magnus Jonsson and Bertil Svensson

GOAL
This project aims to provide methods for supporting high-performance networks in time-demanding distributed applications, like radar signal processing, multimedia, and telecommunication applications.

COMMENTS
The proposal is well organized and also intermediate goals and results are described in detail. The project is of industrial relevance and the industrial partner is essential to provide relevant case studies and evaluation criteria. One of the most important results of this reserch is to provide methods for quality of service control in high performance networks, integrating soft and hard real-time communication services.

EVALUATION SUMMARY (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)
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Synergy: GOOD
Industrial Relevance: GOOD
Academic qualities: EXCELLENT
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Suggestion: APPROVE (1 student)

ARTES: 9905-8
TITLE: Real-time Mobile Communication
AUTHORS: Per-Arne Wiberg and Bertil Svensson

GOAL
The objective of this proposal is to investigate new techniques for supporting wireless real-time communication among mobile units in a factory environment. Specific reaserch topics include coding and decoding techniques, network topologies, and evaluation of existing standards for wireless communication.

COMMENTS
The project addresses an important topic, that will have a strong impact on the development of future distributed real-time systems based on mobile units. The reference application considered in the proposal concerns the coordination of a set of autonomous vehicles moving in an assembling plant. The proposal is well organized and there is a strong cooperation with three industrial partners. The project will have also high industrial relevance, since large wiring costs can be saved when this technology will be available and reliable.

EVALUATION SUMMARY (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)
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Synergy: EXCELLENT
Industrial Relevance: EXCELLENT
Academic qualities: GOOD
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Suggestion: APPROVE (1 or 2 students)

ARTES: 9905-11
TITLE: Testing of Event-Triggered Real-Time Systems
AUTHORS: Sten F. Andler,Ragnar Birgisson and Jonas Mellin.

GOAL
The aim of this project is to bound the test effort for event-triggered real-time systems, to achieve high test coverage. In order to achieve this goal, application constraints will be identified to reduce test effort, test cases will be automatically generated, and a test execution strategy will be identified.

COMMENTS
Improving test coverage to achieve a desired level of confidence in real-time applications is certainly an important goal, that has a direct impact on industrial applications. The approach proposed for improving testability is based on a very recent work done by the same authors (see reference [Bir98] and [Mel99]), according to which a number of constraints are enforced on the application. If, clearly, a constrained application is easy to test, the effects that these constraints have on the system should be carefully investigated. Since the entire proposal is based on a specific method devides by the authors, it is difficult to judge the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The role of the industrial partner is mentioned, but it should be better clarified.

EVALUATION SUMMARY (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)
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Synergy: FAIR
Industrial Relevance: GOOD
Academic qualities: FAIR
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Suggestion: APPROVE (with low priority)

ARTES: 9905-13
TITLE: Functional Integration and Interference in Embedded Control Systems
AUTHORS: Martin Torngren and Jan Wikander

GOAL
The goal of this project is to investigate methodologies for global system integration. In particular, the topics considered in the proposal will deal with control methods, architectures, and mechanisms for managing real-time processing and communication.

COMMENTS
The problem of system integration is well motivated by the authors, however the proposal is a little bit general and does not describe the specific techniques that will be investigated in the project. The authors talk about the need of having new methods and novel techniques for integrating complex real-time systems, but they are not specific about such methods. In Section 3.2, they say that a few related techniques, including the GUARDS and the SIMPLEX projects, will be studied in depth, but this study should be part of the state of the art evaluation stage. Industrial cooperation is mentioned, but specific partners have not been identified yet.

EVALUATION SUMMARY (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)
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Synergy: FAIR
Industrial Relevance: GOOD
Academic qualities: FAIR
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Suggestion: APPROVE (with low priority)