ARTES Courses Fall 1997

These courses were supported by ARTES during fall 97.
Please contact the responsible person for further information.

Design of Software for Embedded Real-time Control Systems (KTH)
Start 28 Nov 1997

MODELLING and ANALYSIS of REAL-TIME SYSTEMS (UU)
Start 6-7 Nov 1997

Distributed Real-Time Systems (HIS)
Start 16 Sept 1997 (checking equipment 2 Sept)

Design of Software for
Embedded Real-time Control Systems

Prerequisites:

The course pre-assumes a basic course in control theory, a course in mechanics/dynamics and/or linear systems (differential equations), high-level language programming and computer architecture. Knowledge of digital control systems, operating systems (parallel programming) and the C-programming language is advantageous but not required.

Recommended for:

Graduate students with a real-time profile desiring to grasp the connection between theory and practice in the design and implementation of motion control applications.

Organization:

The course includes 10 lectures which are available over WWW, two assignments and initial tutorials which can be carried out remotely, and a project, where a robot joint is used as process. The project is prepared remotely, and then carried out during five intensive days work at the Mechatronics lab at KTH. To be able to set up the course remotely, remote Matlab and Simulink (including control toolbox) licenses are required. All other software will be provided. To be able to watch the lectures over WWW you need a suitable Web browser, a computer and the VXtreme-client software. You can download this for free from here - DOWNLOAD . The lectures are available here.

Contents:

The course is structured into two parts. The control engineering design path of RIP includes
  • Mechanical system analysis, modeling and model verification
  • Control design
  • Motion control and practical implementation considerations
  • State-of-the-art development tools for modeling, analysis, simulation and rapid prototyping (control implementation)
  • Tools and platform: Matlab/Simulink (Mathworks Inc.) with rapid prototyping extensions, I/O card, motor drive unit and process
  • The Project
The software engineering design path of RIP includes
  • Characteristics of embedded systems including scheduling and parallel programming
  • System and software design methods
  • Diagramming as a design and programming aid
  • Scheduling models and analysis
  • Tools and platform: PC, I/O board and the Rubus real-time operating system
  • The Project
In the project the hardware (mechanics and electronics), the tools, and the real-time operating system are given. The task is to develop a real-time motion control system according to the given specifications; i.e. a
  • mechanical system model and a feedback controller
  • software that implements the control algorithm and human-machine interaction.
  • documentation and a demonstration

Goals:

To successfully design embedded real-time control applications it is essential that the gap from theory to practical implementation is bridged and that different engineering disciplines cooperate efficiently. It is also essential that appropriate models, design and analysis methods are adopted since many mechatronical control applications are time- and safety-critical. The resulting systems must therefore be predictable, robust and well documented. As a step in this direction, the RIP course focuses on the interaction between mechanical-, control- and software engineering. The two aims are to
  • bridge the gap from control theory and simulation to real-world control of mechanical systems.
  • show how software design can be accomplished for an implementation of a control application.
A project merges the two parts in the course.

Litterature:

Course book: Software Design for Real-time systems by J.E.Cooling
Course folder including the Rubus material, tutorials and exercise, and documents and lectures for the control part.

Schedule:

Note that the only fixed dates in the course are the starting date, due dates for assignments, the mini exam, and the intensive week in Stockholm. Preliminary starting date: 28/11 Lecture 1: Course introduction. Real-time software design. Lecture 2: Real-time operating systems, Rubus and Tutorial 1. Lecture 3: Scheduling theory. Rubus cont. Exercise 1 is distributed. Lecture 4: Introduction to modeling and control of mechanical systems. Lecture 5: Modeling cont.and control design. Exercise 2 is distributed. Lecture 6: Discrete-time control and rapid prototyping. Lecture 7: Control design, continued. Lecture 8: Software design and the RIP Project. Lecture 9: Control design & implementation. Exercise 3 (project prep.). Lecture 10: Scheduling analysis and the Project, continued. Exercise 3.

Miniexam
Intensive week in Stockholm: Jan. 26-30, 1998.

Examination:

Small exam, finalized assignments and project.

Credits:

4p

Leader:

Martin Trngren Mechatronics lab Telephone: +46-8-790 6307 Department of Machine Design Telefax: +46-8-20 22 87 The Royal Institute of Technology S-100 44 Stockholm Sweden

MODELLING and ANALYSIS of REAL-TIME SYSTEMS

Prerequisites:

Basic course in real-time systems or similar Basic course in automata theory and logic

Recommended for:

Graduate students

Organization:

The course will be given concentrated as two 2 full day events and two 1 day events.

Contents:

The course contains two parts. The first part is about execution time and schedulability analysis. All types of real-time modeling and analysis requires execution time analysis to provide the necessary timing information. Methods and tools for prediction of program execution times will be reviewd. Simple systems, as well as more advanced systems including memory hierarchies and pipelines will be considered. In addition, the course will also address scheduling theory, in particular, static-cyclic scheduling, fixed-priority scheduling (FPS), and dynamic (e.g. earliest-deadline-first) scheduling, as well as earlier and non-real-time scheduling methods. Particular emphasis is given to the respons-time analysis used in FPS. There will be a project applying FPS in the development of a simple real-time system. The second part is about formal modelling and analysis of real-time systems, in particular specification and automatic verification techniques for safety-critical systems. The goal of this part is to give an overview on recent advances in this area. The central topics include: finite-state models of real-time systems, such as timed automata, timed Petri Nets, hybrid automata and timed process algebras, various analysis methods and algorithms for these models and case studies. We will concentrate on the theory of timed automata and model-checking techniques and tools for timed automata. There will be a project work, based on the automatic verification tool UPPAAL developed at the department of computer systems in Uppsala University.

Goals:

The goal is to make the graduate student aware of and understand the differences between traditional software engineering and real-time systems engineering. The student shall also become more familiar with one of these by applying it to a realistic scenario. These projects are performed in groups of suitabe size.

Litterature:

Not defined

Schedule:

6-7 November 1997 in Linkping 17-18 November 1997 in Uppsala 11 December 1997 in Linkping 18 December 1997 in Uppsala

Examination:

Project

Credits:

5p

Leader:

Hans Hansson Wang Yi Department of Computer Systems Uppsala University 751 05 Uppsala 018 - 471 31 55

Distributed Real-Time Systems

 Lectures and seminars available via ISDN-based video conference. Video recording will be available.

Note - starts 16 Sept 1997 (Soft start 2 Sept 1997)

Prerequisites:

Programming Methodology, Software Engineering, Distributed Systems, Real-Time Systems.

Recommended for:

Graduate Students in Computer Science. Graduate Schools ECSEL, ARTES.

Organization:

Lectures and seminars. Optional programming assignment. This course is held in English. To gain access to classes and course materials, Internet access (email and WWW) is required, as well as an ISDN-based video conferencing equipment. This is often the standard equipment of video conferencing studios found in many companies or universities, or in other community resources. Each site dials in to an ISDN "bridge", the phone numbers for this will be provided by video conferencing technicians in Skovde (video-tech@ida.his.se).

More information on this page.

Contents:

Software Quality Attributes relevant to Distributed Real-Time Systems; Distributed Real-Time and Dependability Concepts & Models; Real-Time Communication Networks and Protocols, Abstract R-T LAN; Scheduling in Distributed Real-Time Systems, Dynamic vs. Static; Design of Distributed Real Time Systems, Time vs. Event Triggered; and Programming Assignments on Reliable Distributed Real-Time Programming.

Goals:

To provide participants with a thorough knowledge and understanding of the engineering and design principles required in order to design and implement large, complex, reliable distributed real-time systems. To practice some of these principles in an actual real-time environment.

Literature:

Barbacci, M.R. Lecture Notes on Software Quality Attributes. 1994-1995.. Mullender, S. (ed.) Distributed Systems (2nd edition), Addison-Wesley 1993. Collection of research articles.

Schedule:

Soft Start 2 Sept 1997 at 9-12 (checking equipment etc) Firm start 16 Sept at 9-12

Examination:

Seminar presentations, examination paper. Two optional programming assignments.

Credits:

4 + 2 points

Leader:

Sten F. Andler
Department of Computer Science
University of Skövde
541 28 Skövde
0500-46 46 00

Last modified : 1998-07-30
Anders Törne 		Strategic Research