Towards an RTOS for self-optimizing mechatronic systems

Simon OberthürPaderborn, Univ., Diss., 201

Livestock solutions to regenerate soils and landscapes for sustainable agri-food systems transformation in Africa

Agri-food systems approaches have gained international recognition over the last years. The role of livestock—both in mixed crop-livestock and pastoral systems—in sustainable agri-food systems transformation remains contested. In this review paper we present new analyses of original data from an international livestock expert survey, a quantitative search in Web of Science, and a literature review to unravel the potential for livestock systems to sustainably transform agri-food systems through regenerating soils and restoring degraded landscapes. We (i) illustrate how livestock is important for people and planet alike; (ii) review how to harness livestock's potential for rehabilitation of soils and landscapes; (iii) demonstrate successful case studies of livestock solutions such as improved forages for cut-and-carry systems and grazing management; and (iv) identify four critical steps required for lasting change at continental scale. We conclude that livestock solutions can be key catalysts for sustainable agri-food systems transformation that merit accelerated public and private investments. More research is needed to develop concrete, operational and practical livestock solutions, and measure, monitor and report their contributions and progress toward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Component case study of a self-optimizing RCOS/RTOS system. A reconfigurable network service

Griese B, Oberthür S, Porrmann M. Component case study of a self-optimizing RCOS/RTOS system. A reconfigurable network service. In: Rettberg A, Zanella MC, Rammig FJ, eds. From Specification to Embedded Systems Application. IFIP On-Line Library in Computer Science . Vol 184. Boston, MA: Springer; 2005: 267-277.In highly dynamic scenarios a real-time communication/real-time operating system (RCOS/RTOS), which can fulfill all upcoming demands of the application, is normally very extensive. These RCOS/RTOS systems are heavy-weighted and produce much overhead. System resources for an application or a system service are often reserved for worst-case scenarios and are not usable for other applications. We present a self-optimizing RCOS/RTOS with an integrated flexible resource management. Our RCOS/RTOS adapts its services to the application demands and redistributes temporarily unused resources to other applications under hard real-time conditions. The benefit of our system is shown by means of a self-optimizing communication service. The main building block of this communication service is a reconfigurable dual-port Ethernet switch. Using dynamically reconfigurable hardware to implement the switch enables an adaption of the switch to changing requirements during run-time