Multi-core devices for safety-critical systems: a survey

Multi-core devices are envisioned to support the development of next-generation safety-critical systems, enabling the on-chip integration of functions of different criticality. This integration provides multiple system-level potential benefits such as cost, size, power, and weight reduction. However, safety certification becomes a challenge and several fundamental safety technical requirements must be addressed, such as temporal and spatial independence, reliability, and diagnostic coverage. This survey provides a categorization and overview at different device abstraction levels (nanoscale, component, and device) of selected key research contributions that support the compliance with these fundamental safety requirements.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under grant TIN2015-65316-P, Basque Government under grant KK-2019-00035 and the HiPEAC Network of Excellence. The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness has also partially supported Jaume Abella under Ramon y Cajal postdoctoral fellowship (RYC-2013-14717).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Measurements, Models, Systems and Design

531 s.

Advanced Signal Processing Techniques Applied to Power Systems Control and Analysis

The work published in this book is related to the application of advanced signal processing in smart grids, including power quality, data management, stability and economic management in presence of renewable energy sources, energy storage systems, and electric vehicles. The distinct architecture of smart grids has prompted investigations into the use of advanced algorithms combined with signal processing methods to provide optimal results. The presented applications are focused on data management with cloud computing, power quality assessment, photovoltaic power plant control, and electrical vehicle charge stations, all supported by modern AI-based optimization methods

Maximising microprocessor reliability through game theory and heuristics

PhD ThesisEmbedded Systems are becoming ever more pervasive in our society, with most routine daily tasks now involving their use in some form and the market predicted to be worth USD 220 billion, a rise of 300%, by 2018. Consumers expect more functionality with each design iteration, but for no detriment in perceived performance. These devices can range from simple low-cost chips to expensive and complex systems and are a major cost driver in the equipment design phase. For more than 35 years, designers have kept pace with Moore's Law, but as device size approaches the atomic limit, layouts are becoming so complicated that current scheduling techniques are also reaching their limit, meaning that more resource must be reserved to manage and deliver reliable operation. With the advent of many-core systems and further sources of unpredictability such as changeable power supplies and energy harvesting, this reservation of capability may become so large that systems will not be operating at their peak efficiency. These complex systems can be controlled through many techniques, with jobs scheduled either online prior to execution beginning or online at each time or event change. Increased processing power and job types means that current online scheduling methods that employ exhaustive search techniques will not be suitable to define schedules for such enigmatic task lists and that new techniques using statistic-based methods must be investigated to preserve Quality of Service. A new paradigm of scheduling through complex heuristics is one way to administer these next levels of processor effectively and allow the use of more simple devices in complex systems; thus reducing unit cost while retaining reliability a key goal identified by the International Technology Roadmap for Semi-conductors for Embedded Systems in Critical Environments. These changes would be beneficial in terms of cost reduction and system exibility within the next generation of device. This thesis investigates the use of heuristics and statistical methods in the operation of real-time systems, with the feasibility of Game Theory and Statistical Process Control for the successful supervision of high-load and critical jobs investigated. Heuristics are identified as an effective method of controlling complex real-time issues, with two-person non-cooperative games delivering Nash-optimal solutions where these exist. The simplified algorithms for creating and solving Game Theory events allow for its use within small embedded RISC devices and an increase in reliability for systems operating at the apex of their limits. Within this Thesis, Heuristic and Game Theoretic algorithms for a variety of real-time scenarios are postulated, investigated, refined and tested against existing schedule types; initially through MATLAB simulation before testing on an ARM Cortex M3 architecture functioning as a simplified automotive Electronic Control Unit.Doctoral Teaching Account from the EPSRC

Energy efficient wireless sensor network protocols for monitoring and prognostics of large scale systems

In this work, energy-efficient protocols for wireless sensor networks (WSN) with applications to prognostics are investigated. Both analytical methods and verification are shown for the proposed methods via either hardware experiments or simulation. This work is presented in five papers. Energy-efficiency methods for WSN include distributed algorithms for i) optimal routing, ii) adaptive scheduling, iii) adaptive transmission power and data-rate control --Abstract, page iv

Design, Development, and Evaluation of Customized Electronics for Controlling a 5-DOF Magneto-Rheological Actuator Collaborative Robot

In recent years, Magneto-Rheological (MR) fluids has been used in various fields such as robotics, automotive, aerospace, etc. The most common use of the MR fluids is within a clutch-like mechanism, namely an MR clutch. When mechanical input is coupled to the input part of the MR clutch, the MR clutch provides a means of delivering this mechanical input to its output, through the MR fluids. The combination of the mechanical input device and the MR clutch is called an MR actuator. The MR actuator features inherently compliance owing to the characteristic of the MR fluids while also offering higher torque-to-mass and torque-to-inertia ratios over common actuators. As such, MR actuators are suitable candidates for human-safe and collaborative robots. The goal of this study is to design, develop and test customized electronic drivers that are compact and powerful to enable effective low-level control of the robot joints. The electronic drivers are responsible for sensor data processing, between-joint communication, supplying electric power, and executing control actions. The hardware design is optimized to handle transient current and voltage, and dissipate heat generated by components. Moreover, software development is based on μ C/OS-II real-time operating system to handle multiple time-critical tasks and to guarantee the stability and effectiveness of robot control system. A series of experiments are conducted to validate the designed hardware and software systems, and evaluate their performance

The NASA SBIR product catalog

The purpose of this catalog is to assist small business firms in making the community aware of products emerging from their efforts in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. It contains descriptions of some products that have advanced into Phase 3 and others that are identified as prospective products. Both lists of products in this catalog are based on information supplied by NASA SBIR contractors in responding to an invitation to be represented in this document. Generally, all products suggested by the small firms were included in order to meet the goals of information exchange for SBIR results. Of the 444 SBIR contractors NASA queried, 137 provided information on 219 products. The catalog presents the product information in the technology areas listed in the table of contents. Within each area, the products are listed in alphabetical order by product name and are given identifying numbers. Also included is an alphabetical listing of the companies that have products described. This listing cross-references the product list and provides information on the business activity of each firm. In addition, there are three indexes: one a list of firms by states, one that lists the products according to NASA Centers that managed the SBIR projects, and one that lists the products by the relevant Technical Topics utilized in NASA's annual program solicitation under which each SBIR project was selected

FPGAs in Industrial Control Applications

The aim of this paper is to review the state-of-the-art of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technologies and their contribution to industrial control applications. Authors start by addressing various research fields which can exploit the advantages of FPGAs. The features of these devices are then presented, followed by their corresponding design tools. To illustrate the benefits of using FPGAs in the case of complex control applications, a sensorless motor controller has been treated. This controller is based on the Extended Kalman Filter. Its development has been made according to a dedicated design methodology, which is also discussed. The use of FPGAs to implement artificial intelligence-based industrial controllers is then briefly reviewed. The final section presents two short case studies of Neural Network control systems designs targeting FPGAs