Abstract
Embedded control devices today usually allow parameter changes, and possibly activation of different pre-implemented algorithms. Full reprogramming using the complete source code is not allowed for safety, efficiency, and proprietary reasons. For these reasons, embedded regulators are quite rigid and closed concerning the control structure.
In several applications, like industrial robots, there is a need to tailor the low level control to meet specific application demands. In order to meet the efficiency and safety demands, a way of building more generic and open regulators has been developed. The key idea is to use pieces of compiled executable code as functional operators, which in the simplest case may appear as ordinary control parameters. In an object oriented framework, this means that new methods can be added to controller objects after implementation of the basic control, even at run-time.
The implementation was carried out in industrially well accepted languages such as C and C++. The dynamic binding at run-time differs from ordinary dynamic linking in that only a subset of the symbols can be used. This subset is defined by the fixed part of the system. The safety demands can therefore still be fulfilled. Encouraged by results from fully implemented test cases, we believe that extensive use of this concept will admit more open, still efficient, embedded systems.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Apple Computer Inc. 1985. Inside Macintosh, I. Addison-Wesley.
Apple Computer Inc. 1994. OpenDoc for Macintosh: An Overview for developers.
Armstrong, J., Virding, R. and Williams, M. 1993. Concurrent Programming in Erlang. Prentice Hall.
Åström, K. and Hägglund, T. 1995. PID Controllers: Theory, Design, and Tuning, second edition. Instrument Society of America, Research Triangle Park, NC.
Dorward, J. and Sethi, R. 1990. Adding new code to a running C++ program. USENIX C++ conference proceedings, pp. 279–292.
Ford, W. 1994. What is an open architecture controller. 9th International Symposium on Intelligent Control.
IBM Corp. 1993. An introductory guide to the System Object Model and its accompanying frameworks. SO-Mobjects Developer Toolkit, Users Guide, version 2.0.
International Electrotechnical Commission. 1992. IEC1131-3, Programmable controllers, Part 3: Programming languages.
Johannesson, G. 1994. Object-Oriented Process Automation with SattLine. Chartwell Bratt Ltd.
Microsoft Corporation. 1993. Object Linking Embedding, version 2.0.
Nilsen, K. 1996. Real-Time Java. Technical Report, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
Nilsson, K. and Nielsen, L. 1993. On the programming and control of industrial robots. International Workshop on Mechatronical Computer Systems for Perception and Action, pp. 347–357, Halmstad, Sweden.
Object Management Group (Digital, HP, HyperDesk, NCR, Object Design, SunSoft). 1991. The Common Object Request Broker: Architecture and Specification, document number 91.12.1 edition.
Sha, L., Rajkumar, R. and Gagliardi, M. 1995. A software architecture for dependable and evolvable industrial computing systems. Technical Report CMU/SEI-95-TR-005, Software Engineering Institute, CMU, Pittsburg.
Simon, D., Espiau, B., Castillo, E. and Kapellos, K. 1993. Computer-aided design of a generic robot controller handling reactivity and real-time control issues. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, pp. 213–229.
Stankovic, J. and Ramamritham, K. 1988. Hard Real-Time Systems. IEEE Computer Society Press.
Stankovic, J. and Ramamritham, K. 1993. Advances in Real-Time Systems. IEEE Computer Society Press.
Sun Microsystems. 1993. SunOS Linker and Libraries Manual.
Wall, L. and Schwartz, R. 1991. Programming Perl. UNIX Programming, O’Reilly ⇐p; Associates.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nilsson, K., Blomdell, A., Laurin, O. (1998). Open Embedded Control. In: Wikander, J., Svensson, B. (eds) Real-Time Systems In Mechatronic Applications. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-35223-7_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-35223-7_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-8159-4
Online ISBN: 978-0-585-35223-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive