Time-bounded adaptation for automotive system software

Abstract

Software is increasingly deployed in vehicles as demand for new functionality increases and cheaper and more powerful hardware becomes available. Likewise, emerging wireless communication protocols allow the integration of new software into vehicles, thereby enabling time-bounded adaptive response to changes that occur in mobile environments. Examples of time-bounded adaptation include adaptive cruise control and the dynamic integration of location-aware services within fixed time bounds.This paper provides three contributions to the study of time-bounded adaptation for automotive system software. First, we categorise automotive systems with respect to requirements for dynamic software adaptation. Second, we define a taxonomy that captures various dimensions of dynamic adaptation in emerging automotive system software. Third, we use this taxonomy to analyse existing research projects in the automotive domain. Our analysis shows that although time-bounded synchronisation of applications and data is a key requirement for next-generation automotive systems, it is not adequately covered by existing work.

Scheduling time-bounded dynamic software adaptation

“…In prior work [10] we identified the need for dynamic software adaptation in next-generation embedded systems, such as automotive systems. This paper presented a constraintbased scheduling algorithm that maximises the available adaptation actions that can be execute on modules within given time bounds.…”

“…Next-generation embedded systems in domains such as automotive, avionics or robotics need to adapt swiftly to changing environmental conditions [12]. In prior work [10] we have shown that these systems require varying levels of support for dynamic adaptation, ranging from limited support for fault tolerance in safety-critical systems, to dynamic adaptation of resource Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.…”

“…Since the vehicle is moving, however, this download and integration must be executed before the vehicle is out of communication range from the server. Likewise, adaptations should minimise software update time to ensure that software applications and data are fully integrated into vehicles before they are used [10]. An adaptation that is out of its time bound may result in inconsistent or inaccurate behaviour.…”

On estimating actuation delays in elastic computing systems

“…For example, Ramirez et al [24] propose the use of Genetic Algorithm to generate control strategies that account for actuation delay of the different control actions; Fritsch et al [10], [11] propose a time-bounded scheduling algorithm for control actions in the automotive domain; and Gambi et al [12] propose a novel technique based on model predictive control that accounts for delayed effects of scaling actions in the cloud. Consistently, all of these researchers acknowledge the importance of actuation delays, but assume that their values are known and constant.…”

Towards a solution for synchronizing disparate models of ultra-large-scale systems

“…For example, an intelligent transportation system [4], as shown in Figure 1, that coordinates its operations with many intersections in a city may have a UML model of the system's conceptual implementation (e.g., classes, sequence, and use-case diagrams), a formal model to verify functional properties (e.g., deadlock and state reachability), and a system execution model to validate nonfunctional properties (e.g., worst-case system execution time). Moreover, different portions of the system may be developed by different groups dispersed throughout a region, which implies differentpossibly conflicting-underlying concerns and assumptions of the system under development.…”