Numerical Methods in Real-Time and Embedded Systems

A special issue of Mathematics (ISSN 2227-7390). This special issue belongs to the section "Mathematics and Computer Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 13897

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Computer and Information Technology, Politehnica University of Timisoara, V. Parvan 2, 300223 Timisoara, Romania
Interests: signal aquisition and conditioning; digital signal processing systems and applications; embedded and real-time hardware and software systems; intelligent sensor networks; collaborative robotic environments; digital telecommunication systems; multimedia systems
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Guest Editor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Stony Brook University, State University of New York, Stony Brook, 11794-2350 New York, NY, USA
Interests: electronic design automation; cyber-physical and embedded systems; engineering design

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Guest Editor
Department of Automation and Applied Informatics, Politehnica University of Timisoara, V. Parvan 2, 300223 Timisoara, Romania
Interests: wireless sensor networks; artificial intelligence; wireless sensor and actuator networks; information security; chaotic systems; robot path planning; Internet of Things
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Computer and Information Technology, Politehnica University of Timisoara, V. Parvan 2, 300223 Timisoara, Romania
Interests: embedded systems; real-time systems; energy management and optimization; smart sensing and perception systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The continuous growth of emerging technologies such as Internet of things and cyber-physical systems presents a great opportunity to reanalyze embedded and real-time systems models and further develop them in order to include new emerging paradigms like real-time Internet of things, mixed criticality systems, cyber-physical systems and so on, and on the other hand to mathematically analyze further these systems in terms of feasibility, resource and energy efficiency and cyber security. Because of their special requirements in terms of safety criticality, resource constraints in terms of computation power, memory, and energy, the design and development of deterministic, predictable, safe, and secure real-time and embedded systems is still a challenge.

As real-time and embedded systems have become essential to our lives, from home use, medical care, and industrial control to autonomous vehicles, space and military applications, topics like real-time scheduling and resource management, real-time communications, real-time signal-processing and acquisitions become increasingly challenging and important in the context of the current scientific advancements.

Thus, this Special Issue welcomes contributions in the area of real-time and embedded systems and their emerging applications. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Real-time systems models, analysis and applications.
  • Embedded systems analysis and applications.
  • Real-time operating systems architectures, performance analysis and applications.
  • Energy efficiency in real-time embedded systems and applications.
  • Resource management in real-time and embedded systems.
  • Cybersecurity in real-time systems, embedded systems and edge computing.
  • Internet of things.
  • Mixed criticality systems.
  • Edge and fog computing.
  • Smart sensors.

Prof. Dr. Mihai-Victor Micea
Prof. Dr. Alex Doboli
Prof. Dr. Daniel-Ioan Curiac
Dr. Cristina Sorina Stângaciu
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • real-time systems
  • embedded systems
  • mixed criticality systems
  • Internet of things
  • fog computing
  • edge computing

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 6643 KiB  
Article
Estimating Travel Time for Autonomous Mobile Robots through Long Short-Term Memory
by Alexandru Matei, Stefan-Alexandru Precup, Dragos Circa, Arpad Gellert and Constantin-Bala Zamfirescu
Mathematics 2023, 11(7), 1723; https://doi.org/10.3390/math11071723 - 4 Apr 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1611
Abstract
Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are gaining popularity in various applications such as logistics, manufacturing, and healthcare. One of the key challenges in deploying AMR is estimating their travel time accurately, which is crucial for efficient operation and planning. In this article, we propose [...] Read more.
Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are gaining popularity in various applications such as logistics, manufacturing, and healthcare. One of the key challenges in deploying AMR is estimating their travel time accurately, which is crucial for efficient operation and planning. In this article, we propose a novel approach for estimating travel time for AMR using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks. Our approach involves training the network using synthetic data generated in a simulation environment using a digital twin of the AMR, which is a virtual representation of the physical robot. The results show that the proposed solution improves the travel time estimation when compared to a baseline, traditional mathematical model. While the baseline method has an error of 6.12%, the LSTM approach has only 2.13%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Numerical Methods in Real-Time and Embedded Systems)
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19 pages, 3627 KiB  
Article
Enhancing the Modbus Communication Protocol to Minimize Acquisition Times Based on an STM32-Embedded Device
by Ionel Zagan and Vasile Gheorghiță Găitan
Mathematics 2022, 10(24), 4686; https://doi.org/10.3390/math10244686 - 10 Dec 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3762
Abstract
The primary function of a distributed bus is to connect sensors, actuators, and control units that are used for an acquisition process. Application domains, such as industrial monitoring and control systems, manufacturing processes, or building automation, present different requirements that are not exactly [...] Read more.
The primary function of a distributed bus is to connect sensors, actuators, and control units that are used for an acquisition process. Application domains, such as industrial monitoring and control systems, manufacturing processes, or building automation, present different requirements that are not exactly invariable and coherent. Updating data from Modbus-type devices involves updating data through a technique called polling, which involves repeatedly scanning the registers from each device. This paper highlights the performance of Modbus communication, considering scenarios in which distributed devices are integrated and accessed registers are or are not at consecutive addresses. The Modbus protocol allows reading one or more holding-type data registers. If the registers are not at consecutive addresses, multiple requests are required, with implications for the real-time characteristics of the data acquisition system. We studied the data update times within the SMARTConvert application when variable numbers of registers are accessed, and we designed an extension for the Modbus protocol. The major reason Modbus is used in current research is that no assumptions are required about application semantics, and the performance/resource ratio for generic services is excellent. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Numerical Methods in Real-Time and Embedded Systems)
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21 pages, 6019 KiB  
Article
Real-Time Assembly Support System with Hidden Markov Model and Hybrid Extensions
by Arpad Gellert, Stefan-Alexandru Precup, Alexandru Matei, Bogdan-Constantin Pirvu and Constantin-Bala Zamfirescu
Mathematics 2022, 10(15), 2725; https://doi.org/10.3390/math10152725 - 2 Aug 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2067
Abstract
This paper presents a context-aware adaptive assembly assistance system meant to support factory workers by embedding predictive capabilities. The research is focused on the predictor which suggests the next assembly step. Hidden Markov models are analyzed for this purpose. Several prediction methods have [...] Read more.
This paper presents a context-aware adaptive assembly assistance system meant to support factory workers by embedding predictive capabilities. The research is focused on the predictor which suggests the next assembly step. Hidden Markov models are analyzed for this purpose. Several prediction methods have been previously evaluated and the prediction by partial matching, which was the most efficient, is considered in this work as a component of a hybrid model together with an optimally configured hidden Markov model. The experimental results show that the hidden Markov model is a viable choice to predict the next assembly step, whereas the hybrid predictor is even better, outperforming in some cases all the other models. Nevertheless, an assembly assistance system meant to support factory workers needs to embed multiple models to exhibit valuable predictive capabilities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Numerical Methods in Real-Time and Embedded Systems)
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17 pages, 6762 KiB  
Article
Designing a Custom CPU Architecture Based on Hardware RTOS and Dynamic Preemptive Scheduler
by Ionel Zagan and Vasile Gheorghiță Găitan
Mathematics 2022, 10(15), 2637; https://doi.org/10.3390/math10152637 - 27 Jul 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2770
Abstract
The current trend in real-time operating systems involves executing many tasks using a limited hardware platform. Thus, a single processor system has to execute multiple tasks with different priorities in different real-time system (RTS) work modes. Hardware schedulers can greatly reduce event trigger [...] Read more.
The current trend in real-time operating systems involves executing many tasks using a limited hardware platform. Thus, a single processor system has to execute multiple tasks with different priorities in different real-time system (RTS) work modes. Hardware schedulers can greatly reduce event trigger latency and successfully remove most of the scheduling overhead, providing more computing cycles for applications. In this paper, we present a hardware-accelerated RTOS based on the replication of resources such as program counters, general purpose registers (GPRs) and pipeline registers. The implementation of this new concept, based on real-time event handling implemented in hardware, is intended to meet the current rigorous requirements imposed by critical real-time systems. The most important attribute of this FPGA implementation is the time required for task context switching, which is only one clock cycle or three clock cycles when working with the atomic instructions used in the case of inter-task synchronization and communication mechanisms. The main contribution of this article is its focus on mutexes and the speed of response associated with related events. Thus, fast switching between threads is also validated, considering the handling of events in the hardware using HW_nMPRA_RTOS (HW-RTOS). The proposed architecture implements inter-task synchronization and communication mechanisms with high performance, improving the overall response time when the mutex or message is expected to relate to a higher-priority task. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Numerical Methods in Real-Time and Embedded Systems)
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21 pages, 11730 KiB  
Article
A Hardware-Aware Application Execution Model in Mixed-Criticality Internet of Things
by Cristina Sorina Stângaciu, Eugenia Ana Capota, Valentin Stângaciu, Mihai Victor Micea and Daniel Ioan Curiac
Mathematics 2022, 10(9), 1537; https://doi.org/10.3390/math10091537 - 3 May 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1692
Abstract
The Real-Time Internet of Things is an emerging technology intended to enable real-time information communication and processing over a global network of devices at the edge level. Given the lessons learned from general real-time systems, where the mixed-criticality scheduling concept has proven to [...] Read more.
The Real-Time Internet of Things is an emerging technology intended to enable real-time information communication and processing over a global network of devices at the edge level. Given the lessons learned from general real-time systems, where the mixed-criticality scheduling concept has proven to be an effective approach for complex applications, this paper formalizes the paradigm of the Mixed-Criticality Internet of Things. In this context, the evolution of real-time scheduling models is presented, reviewing all the key points in their development, together with some connections between different models. Starting from the classical mixed-criticality model, a mathematical formalization of the Mixed-Criticality Internet of Things concept, together with a specifically tailored methodology for scheduling mixed-criticality applications on IoT nodes at the edge level, is presented. Therefore, a novel real-time hardware-aware task model for distributed mixed-criticality systems is proposed. This study also offers a model for setting task parameters based on an IoT node-related affinity score, evaluates the proposed mapping algorithm for task scheduling, and presents some use cases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Numerical Methods in Real-Time and Embedded Systems)
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