Dynamically reconfigurable real-time software components in the RTLinux environment

In this work one efficient real-time software technique, port-based object technique, is decoupled from its special framework and transferred into the standard PC operating system environment in order to make the use of this technique more attractive, for example, in low-cost embedded systems. The port-based object technique is based on the Chimera methodology introduced by the Robotics Institute of the Carnegie Mellon University in the U.S.A. and it has been used in the control of advanced sensor-based applications in a customized real-time operating system environment. The aim of the use of this software technique is to improve the entire real-time software process. Port-based objects are independent and clearly structured software components which can be configured by an end-user to get the desired operation. The software structure is dynamically reconfigurable and thus a modification of the configuration can be made "on-the-fly" without the need to reboot the system. The simple structure speeds up real-time software development, testing and maintenance and also makes the timing analysis easier. In addition the reuse of the software becomes natural. In the work, implementation and use of the basic software structures needed by the port-based object technique are considered in RTLinux environment which is a Linux operating system to which has been added real-time features using the RTLinux operating system extension. Both Linux and RTLinux are commonly used and freely distributable. The results of the work on the software structures needed for the use of the port-based object model encourage the inauguration of the port-based object technique in a standard operating system. The implementation possibilities provided by RTLinux give a natural support for the port-based object technique.