Embedded Systems in Real Time

Applications, Design & Architecture

[Student Paper]

A.L.SUSEELA (III-IT)
V.LALITH KUMAR (III-EEE)
S.T.I.E.T, GARIVIDI, VZM DT.

Motivation

Necessit y is the mother of invention and embedded system s are

inventions that were fuelled by the idea of making pre-program s to
perform a dedicat ed narrow range of funct ions as part of large system s.
Usual ly with minimal end user int eractions, the 'giant leap technology' in
future embedded system s is based on instr uction-orient ed design but not
on design-oriented instructi ons. Embedded syst ems and real time
operating syst ems (RTOS) are fast achi evi ng ubiquity, blurring the lines
between sci ence fiction and hard reality. In general an RTOS has the
following futures: 1. multitaski n; 2. process threads that can be
prioritized; 3.A suffici ent number of interrupt levels. An embedded
syst em is any device controlled by instructions st ored on a chip. These
devices are usually controlled by a microprocessor that execut es the
instructions stored on a ROM chi p. Embedded system s are used in
navigati on tools like global positioni ng system (GPS), automated teller
machines (ATMs), networking equipment, digital video cameras, mobile
phones, aerospace applications, telecom applications, etc. We concern
ourselves wit h the development and implementation of model-based, real-
time, embedded, hybrid control software. In particular, we target
intelligent cruise control appli cations, including Adapti ve Crui se Control
(ACC), in which a forward-looking range sensor (radar or Lidar, usually)
is used to follow a vehi cle, and Cooperati ve ACC (CACC), a variation in
which wirel ess communi cations are used t o supplem ent the forward
looking sensor. We discuss modeling on automated vehicl es. Our approach
emphasizes the mai ntenance of a si ngle m odel throughout the devel opment
process, with particular emphasi s on "tight-loop."

Introduction
Embedded syst ems and Real Time Operating system s (RTOS) are two
among the several technol ogies that will play a major role in making these
concepts possible. A large number of people are already depending on
operating syst ems for real time applications, these 'eyes in the sky' are
now going to make an impact on our every day lives in a more significant
manner. What kind of help wil l these 'embedded syst ems' render unto
humankind in the future? Even Nostradam us would have been hard
pressed to answer thi s question. Embedded syst ems ar e pre-designed
without connections and operate as per the required task. But in operating
syst ems instructi on is design-ori ented. These syst ems are basicall y
platform-less system s. Embedded system s are the unsung heroes of much
of the technology we use today -- the video game we play, or the CD
player or the washing machines we use em ploy them. Without an
embedded system we would not even be able to go online using modem.

Design O rientation
Embedded system s are usually low cost and are easily available off
the shelf for most applications. They usually have low design risks, since
it is easy to verify the design usi ng tool s fueling the growth of embedded
syst ems.
Embedded system s have received a major shot in the arm as the result
of three development s:

• The first was the development of standard run-time platforms

like java, which enabl ed their use in myriad ways that were
unimaginable in the past.
• The second was the coming together of embedded system s and
the Internet, which made possibl e the net working of several
embedded system s to operat e as part of a large system across
networks.
• The third was the em ergence of several integrated software
environment s, which simplified the implementations of these
applications.

During operation, the design struct ure may be changed as per our tasks.
For example, consider two transi stors; we can mould them using other
passive el ement s as emitter coupled circui t, Darlington pair, etc., as per
instruction.

Real Time Appli cations

Automobil es :
Almost every car that roll s off the production line these days makes
use of embedded technology in one form or the other; most of the
embedded system s in automobiles are rugged in nature, as most of these
syst ems are made up of a single chip. No driver clashes or 'system s busy '
conditions happen in these syst ems. Their compact profil es enable them to
fit easily under the cramped hood of a car . These system s can be used to
implement features ranging from adjustment of the suspension to suit road
conditions and the octane content in the fuel to antilock braking systems
(ABS) and security system s.
 GPS WINDOWS
AIR BAG DEEBOSTER

FUEL
INJECTION

ABS AUTOMATIC TRANSACTION

CONTROL

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS IN A CAR

Embedded syst ems can also make drive-l ess vehicle control a reality.
Major autom obile manufactur ers are already engaged in work on these
concepts. One such technology is Adaptive Cruise control (ACC) from
Ford. ACC allows car s to keep safe di stances from other vehi cles on busy
highways. The driver can set the speed of his car and the dist ance between
his car and others. He can over side the system anyt ime he wants by
braking. Each car with ACC has a microwave radar unit or laser
transceiver s fixed in front of it to determine the dist ance and relative
speed of any vehicl e in its pat h. The ACC computer constantl y control s
the throttle and brakes of the car.
Another revolution is the way Internet servi ces will be
integrated into the car. So when you drive past your mechanic's, you will
be reminded that that your engine oil needs a refill, and when you cross
the city limits, the toll will automati cally get deduct ed from your bank
accou nt. And while passing the shopping mail, your PDA, which is
connected to the Net via the car, will inform you about a new scale. In
fact, the automati c to;l deduction concept is already in effect in several
countries around the gl obe.

Hybrid verificati on of the controller and analysi s of timing properti es are

conduct ed through the use of third party t ools .
The approach i s appli ed to Adaptive Crui se Control (ACC) and
Cooper ative ACC syst ems. Whil e regular cruise control system s track a
desired vehicl e speed, Adapti ve Crui se Control (ACC) system s adapt their
behavior if there i s a vehicl e ahead on the roadway, and follow the leader
vehicle at a driver requested tim e gap usi ng line-of-sight sensors such as
radar and/or Lidar. When there i s no "leader" vehicle present, ACC
default s to conventional crui se control and reverts to the driver- set speed.
ACC syst ems ar e now avai lable on several production car s, including the
Nissan Q45 and FX45, the Mer cedes S-class, the Lexus 330 and 430, the
Audi A8, and sel ect Jaguar and Cadil lac models. These product ion ACC
syst ems obtain their di stance and cl osing rate information about the
leading vehicle through the use of their forward-looking sensor. These
sen sors ar e typicall y subj ect to noi se, interference, false alarm s and
dropouts, and their use requir es heavy filt ering. This in turn introduces
delay s into the syst em, and limits the abil ity of the ACC-equipped
vehicles to follow the l eader vehicle cl osely or respond quickly to change
in its speed. A variant of this i s Cooperati ve ACC (CACC), where the
forward-looking sensor is compl ement ed by a wireless comm unication
link that provides hop-by-hop, leader-to-f ollower updat es of critical
information. Such a system can be designed to follow vehicl es wit h higher
accuracy and faster response than traditi onal ACC system s, and should
allow for freeway throughput capacity increases. In addition, the CACC
syst em can be desi gned to have proven string stabilit y, so it could
contribute to dam pening shock waves in t he freeway traffic stream.

Vehicle Model And Controll er Design

The vehicle model used for controller development is an eleven-st ate

model, which incl udes vehicle st ate dynamics, throttle and brake system
dynamics, a two-st ate model for the spark-ignition engine including
external data maps which require interpol ation, and model s of the torque
converter, transmission and wheel slip, as shown in the figure.
The vehicle state dynamics have two conti nuous states, vehicl e posi tion
and veloci ty, and consider vehi cle mass, air drag and rolling resi stance.
The throttle and brake dynamics are both first-order, with one continuous
state for each representing actuator dynam ics for the throttle and tim e
respon se lag for the brakes. The controll er design process stem s from
syst em requirem ents. Vehicles may be het erogeneous, that i s of different
types, makes and model s. The controller was split hierarchicall y between
an upper level controller that has several modes, nam ely cruise control
(CC), adaptive cruise control (ACC) and coordinated adaptive cruise
control (CACC). In ACC mode we use onl y information from the host
vehicle's forward-looking sensors, and in CACC mode we suppl ement thi s
information with dat a from the wireless communication system.

The upper control generates a desired host vehicle accel eration, which is
sent to the lower-level controller. The lower-level controll er convert s thi s
desired acceleration to a desir ed torque, then chooses whether to apply the
brakes or throttle, and in what amount. Both controllers are run on
separ ate control computer s.

In the following equations, the following variables are used:

• Fa is the aerodynam ic drag force
• Mrr is the rolling resist ance moment
• Rg is the gear ratio (related to engine and Vehicle speeds)
• βades is the desired syntheti c acceleration
• τct is the control torque
• h is the effective wheel radi us

Throttle control is used if:

For throttle control, the desired torque i s computed as:

Brake control is used if:

For brake control, the desired torque i s computed as:

1) Throttle control
From the desired torque, the desired thrott le angle i s computed using an
engine map.

2) Brake control
From the desired torque, two different brake control strategies have been
implement ed. In the first strategy, the master cylinder pressur e is
controlled. A pressur e regulator val ve controls the pressur e applied on th e
hydraulic actuator. Seal friction exist s in the mast er cylinder and the
actuator, and a small amount of hyster esi s is present in the pressure
regulation valve. The friction is modeled as hyperbolas from various
points in the hyster esi s loop and can be written as
Pmc = g (u)
Feed-forward plus proportional feedback control is used, as developed.
The control law can be written as:

Where ub is the applied command input to the brake sol enoid val ve,
Pmc_des the desired master cylinder pressure, Pmc the measur ed master
cylinder pressure, and kb>0 a feedback gain. In the second brake control
strateg y, the wheel brake pressure i s contr olled, and the brake system is
modeled. The control law uses dynamic surface control and can be written
as:
Where Pw_des i s the desired wheel pressure, V is the volume of displ aced
brake fluid, Pw the pressure at the wheel, Cq a flow coeffici ent,
Cruise Control Law:
The purpose of crui se control i s to maintain a desired velocity. A vehi cle
may be in cruise control mode if it is not equipped with ACC or CACC,
has no vehicle immediately in front of it or has at least 100 meter s of
clearance to the preceding vehicl e, or by deci sion of the human driver.
The controller uses a feedback and feed-f orward control law of the form:

Where: a d is the desir ed accelerati on of the vehicl e, v is the speed of the

vehicle, v d is the desired speed of the vehi cle and k is a gain set to 0.75.

ACC and CACC Law:

The control law for ACC and CACC i s identical. The main difference
between both modes is in the sensor fusion, and in the quality of the st ate
information. Also, the operating logi c is different in both modes. The
purpose of an ACC or CACC law is to regulate the range between vehicles
to a user-select ed value, and to adjust the vehicle speed to the speed of
downstr eam traffic. Velocity dependent (headway) control is used, with:

Typical values for headway time range form 1.8 seconds to 0.7 seconds.
The control law was designed using sliding control, where a surface is
usuall y defined as a function of the error, derivatives of the error and/or
integral s of the error. The surface is defined such that the st ate will
exponentially decay al ong the surface to t he desir ed point. The input is
chosen to guarant ee that the stat e will converge and stay on the sliding
surface. Error e is defined as:
e = R – Rd, where R=x1-x2.
The sliding surface control is derived in two different ways, which
basi cally lead to the same control law.
Feedback linearization:

Double first ord er method:

Once again, the first two term s in the cont rol law are feed forward, and
the last two ar e feedback. Both control laws are in essence equival ent.
Software Development Process
A model-based approach is used throughout the control softwar e
developm ent. Switching conditions from one mode to the next (for
example ACC int o CACC) were designed by hand. The chosen
architecture can then be sim ulated, and C or C++ code can be generat ed
for each task independentl y. This allows maintaining a single model
containi ng all of control and software information. The code that i s
generat ed for the controller' s interfaces with legacy code, such as device
drivers, driver displ ay unit s etc, through t he use of a shared-mem ory
database on the "publi sh-and-subscri be" model. On the experim ental test
vehicles, all of the software is run on Pent ium computer s running the
QNX4.25 real-tim e operating system.

Experimental Platform:

They are equipped with throttle, brake and steering actuati ng system s, as
well as wit h numerous sensor s, including accel eromet ers, wheel speed
sen sors, engi ne speed and manifold pressure sensors, as well as
magnetom eter s that are used as part of the lateral control. In addition,
both radars and the Lidar described above were mounted to the front
bumper of the vehicl es. There are two control computers located in the
trunk. Both run the QNX 4.25 operat ing system and communi cate over
serial port connecti ons. The computers run a host of tasks necessary for
automat ed control of the vehi cles, includi ng reading sensor data and
writing to actuat ors, control com putations such as those described above
for the ACC/ CACC system and low-level controller s, and tasks pert aining
to driver display inform ation. There are about 30 different tasks running
on the most heavily loaded of the control computer s, and timing is fairly
critical as human test driver s are in the cars during runs and their safet y is
paramount.

Other Applications

Wired Wearables
 A mobile phone in the form of a ring or earring? What about cool
sungl asses, with streaming video di spl ays built into them? All these can
soon be a reality. Embedded syst ems have a small footprint and consum e
very little power, which makes them ideal for wearable comput ing
applications. The minimal system requirements of the devices ensure that
the hardwar e is almost microscopi c.
IBM is already working on the prototype of a mobile phone that can be
worn as jewelry. The components of the phone will be di stributed among
different pieces of jewelry -- earring, necklace, ring and bracelet.
The phone is likely to have blue tooth capabil ity built into it. The
earring will have embedded speakers and will act as the recei ver. The
necklace will have embedded mi crophones that will act as mouthpiece
user s can talk int o. IBM call s the ring par t of the phone the 'decoder ring'.
Light emitting diodes (LED's) will flash to indicate an incoming call. The
ring will also have features that will enabl e it to be programmed to flash
different colour s for a particular user or to indicate the importance of a
call. A video graphi cs array (VGA) will be built into the bracelet, which
will displ ay the name and plans to incorporate voice recognition
technology for dialing a number. The phone may also have features to
indicat e new E-mail.

Pacemakers
Imagine a time when body transpl ants like cardiac pacemakers will be
able to monitor & manage them selves rem otely. These syst ems wi ll be so
compact that the pati ent wouldn't even be aware that they are embedded in
his body, and developm ents are pointing t owards the use of pacemakers
that can be transpl anted in or near the heart itself. The pacemaker will be
able to monitor param eter like blood pleasure blood flow, pressure rate
temperatur e, etc., using microsensors placed in various parts of the body.
The capabilit y will enable the pacemaker to automatically vary it s
operation to suit the changing body condit ions. It will also transmit dat a
using micro sensors pl anted in various par ts of the body. This capability
will enabl e the pacemaker to automati call y vary its operati on to suit the
changing body condi tions. It will also transmit data using wir eless
transmi ssi on.
Embedded technology ad vances l ess transmi ssion is likely to be done
by a transmitt er implanted near the surface of the skin. In case in an
abnormality i s detected. The doctor will be able to take rem edial action
even from remote locations.
A variety of operating system s are available for use wit h embedded
computer s. Many of them ar e not true real-time operating syst ems
(RTOS), as they do not support the preci se scheduling of tasks and
predictable react ions tim es of real-tim e events. A true RTOS must suspect
prioritized, pre-emptive scheduling.
Embedded computer s perform their jobs by executing software
instructions. Unlike desktop computers, the user has little or no
information on what i s happening -- code is executed automati cally in
respon se to 'real time' events. For exampl e, when an intruder opens a door
connected to a security syst em, the microprocessor turns on an alarm s,
dials the number of the security company, and transmit s an alarm signal.
Smarter system s analyze dat a about the intrusion and turn on only if the
intruder has hum an attribut es. Other than setting the alarm and checki ng
for messages, the user of the alarm has no control over the software being
execut ed.

Conclusi on
This paper presents the use of a model -base approach to the
developm ent of real-time, embedded, hybr id control software. The
concepts are illustrat ed with a scenario involving speed profile tracking
and vehicl e following applications for usi ng the cruise controller. Robotic
technologies such as range, velocity and acceler ation measurement s, and
their processing and fusion were used as part of the syst em. In addition,
vehicles can present very nonlinear behavior, especi ally at low speeds,
and their control present s a formidabl e challenge. The problem domain of
intelligent cruise control appli cations has been described in detail, along
with control and software development methodologies. All these
application areas are just tiny drops in the big ocean of embedded syst ems
technology. These proverbial Davids ar e all set to conquer a world that is
forbidden territory for the popular desktop OS Goliaths -- so hold your
breath and wait for the fireworks to com e. They are sure to blow our
mind.

REFERENCES:
[1] Personal communication, Ken Henry, GM Research.
[2] http://www.wikipedi a.org/wiki/Embedded_syst em, from Wikipedia,
the free Encyclopedia
[4] D. Cho and J.K. Hedrick, "Automotive Engine Modeling for Control", ASME
Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, December 1989, Vol. 111, pp.
568-576.
[5] Girard, A.R., Spry, S.C., Kretz, P.R. Dickey, S.R., Empey, D.M.,
Misener, J.A., Variaya, P.P. and Hedrick, J.K., "Vehicl e-to-Vehi cle Open
Experimental Platform Reference Manual. "
[6] www.teja.com

Source: Ubiquity, Volume 6, Issue 28 (August 2 - August 9, 2005)

http://www.acm.org/ubiquity