Adaptive Embedded Systems

Abstract: Modern embedded systems are evolving in the direction of increased adaptivity and complexity. It is extremely important for a system with limited resource to be adaptive in order to maximize its efficiency of resource usage while guaranteeing a high level of fault tolerance and QoS. This report aims at exploring such a kind of system, i.e. Adaptive Embedded System (AES), which is featured by dynamic reconfiguration at runtime. Based on the investigation and analysis of a variety of case studies related with AES, we proposed the conceptual view and overall architecture of an AES by highlighting its predominant characteristics. We also made an incomplete but detailed summary of the most popular techniques that can be used to realize adaptivity. Those techniques are categorized into dynamic CPU/network resource re-allocation and adaptive fault tolerance. A majority of adaptive applications resort to one or more of those techniques. Besides, there is a separate discussion on dynamic reconfiguration and mode switch for AES. Finally, we classify adaptivity into different modeling problems at a higher abstraction level and build UPPAAL models for two different AESs, a smart phone and an object-tracking robot. Our UPPAAL models provide clear demonstration on how a typical AES works.