78810 - Real Time Systems for Automation M

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student: - is familiar with the fundamental concepts underlying modern operating system organization and functioning, with an emphasis on real-time systems for automation - is able to realize simple concurrent applications using system calls and synchronization mechanisms - is able to analyze, design and implement simple real-time concurrent applications.

Course contents

FOREWORD

This page contains information about three different courses:

• 78810 - Real Time Systems for Automation M for the Master's degree in Automation Engineering (RTSA)
• 85728 - Real-Time OS M for the Master's degree in Advanced Automotive Electronic Engineering (RTOS)
• 90374 - Lab of Real-Time Operating Systems M for the Master's degree in Advanced Automotive Electronic Engineering (RTLab)
  

RTSA is a12-CFU stand-alone course, consisting of lectures, exercises and lab sessions (120 hours).

RTOS is a 6-CFU series of lectures and exercises (60 hours), which does not include any lab, and is half of a 12 CFU integrated course called HARDWARE-SOFTWARE DESIGN OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS M I.C. The other half is called Architectures and Firmware and is held in spring by Luca Benini.

RTLab is a 3-CFU lab course focussing on real-time system programming.

RTSA is held by Paolo Torroni and is organized in three modules:

• Modulo 1 - Operating systems lectures/exercises and lab (fall, 75 hours)
• Modulo 2 - Real Time lab (spring, 15 hours)
• Modulo 3 - Real Time lectures/exercises (spring, 30 hours)

RTOS is held by two different lecturers and is organized in two modules:

• Modulo 2 - Operating systems lectures/exercises (Andrea Melis fall, 30 hours)
• Modulo 1 - Real Time lectures/exercises (Paolo Torroni, spring, 30 hours)

RTLab is organized with frontal lectures and (mainly) project work to be largely carried out autonomously.

RTSA/Modulo 3 concides with RTOS/Modulo 1.

The RTLab frontal lectures concide with RTOS/Modulo 2.

COURSE CONTENTS

Operating Systems (RTSA/Modulo 1)

Overview and system structures. Processes and threads. Scheduling. Memory management. I/O systems.

Basics of Concurrent Programming (RTSA/Modulo 1)

Process synchronisation and deadlocks. Software tools. Design and implementation of a resource manager.

Hard Real-Time Task Scheduling (RTSA/Modulo 3 = RTOS/Modulo 1)

Basic concepts. Aperiodic task scheduling. Clock-based and priority-based scheduling of periodic tasks. Resource access protocols.

Operating Systems Lab (RTSA/Modulo 1) and Real-Time Lab (RTSA/Modulo 2 = RTLab frontal lectures)

RTSA/Modulo 1: Linux shell. POSIX programming, process/thread creation, communication and synchronization. Resource access monitor.

RTSA/Modulo 2: Workbench development environment. System viewer. Programming with kernel modules. Real-time periodic task scheduling. Synchronization issues and resource access protocols.

Real-Time Lab project work (RTLab)

Design and implementation of a simple project in VxWorks.

Readings/Bibliography

RTSA/Modulo 1

• Abraham Silberschatz, Peter B. Galvin, Greg Gagne. Operating System Concepts, 9th Edition. International Student Version. Wiley 2013. ISBN: 978-1-118-09375-7. Editions 8 or 10 are equally good.
  Chapters 1 — 9 & 13

RTSA/Modulo 3 and RTOS/Modulo 1

• Giorgio C. Buttazzo. Hard Real-Time Computing Systems: Predictable Scheduling Algorithms and Applications, 3rd Edition. Springer 2011. ISBN: 978-1-4614-3019-3
  Chapters 1 — 4, 7 & 11

RTSA/Modulo 1 and RTSA/Modulo 2

• Lab sofware: Linux Debian, Eclipse+CDT (open software), QNX Neutrino/Momentics and WindRiver VxWorks/Workbench (licensed software)

All modules

• Lecture slides, description of lab activities, software, past exams and all teaching material made available on virtuale

Teaching methods

RTSA and RTOS: Presential lectures covering theory and exercises, meant to be highly interactive

RTSA and RTLab: Supervised lab sessions on Linux with POSIX programming. Real-time application development with Eclipse+CDT and VxWorks/Workbench. Deployment on virtual target or physical target such as BeagleBone or Rasberry Pi.

Notice: as per university regulations, all students must attend Module 1, 2 on Health and Safety online.

Assessment methods

RTSA

The exam aims at assessing the student's knowledge and skills in the course topics and it consists of three independent parts:

• Part I: Operating Systems and Process Synchronization
• Part II: Real-Time Scheduling
• Part III: RTSA Lab

There is a separate written exam for each of Part I and Part II. Part III is assessed by way of Lab assignments.

The results of either part do not have any impact on the results of the other parts, and the three parts can be taken in any order. The final grade is 90% from the written exams and 10% from the lab assignments. Detailed grading is explained in the lecture slides.

RTOS

Students from the AAEE degree only have to take Part II: Real-Time Scheduling, in the form of a written exam. No lab is required (but all interested students are welcome to attend if they wish to do so).

RTLab

Evaluation (pass/fail) is based on a presentation and discussion of lab assignments and project work.

Written exams

The written exams consist of open questions and design/analysis exercises.

For as long as the exams are conducted online, open questions are substituted by oral exams to be held after the written exam.

Lab assignments

Throughout the course, there will be programming exercises to be submitted, using personal accounts, via virtuale. Students who cannot attend the lab can still work either from home or from the lab whenever the lab is not occupied by other courses or exams, and submit their assignments any time. Timely delivery of lab assignments gives right to a speed bonus.

Lab project for RTLab

Possible project work topics will be made available in spring in the virtuale course web site. There are no cut-off dates for projects.

Official registration of the final grade

RTSA: partial results are made available via EOL (written exams) or virtuale (assignments). After passing both parts, the final grade is calculated by summing up all partial results, including the points obtained in the oral exams, if any. Assignments are not mandatory, so the exam can be completed even without assignments. The final grade is then written on the official record. In case of pending assignments, a student should explicitly request to delay the official recording of the exam grade. By university rules, a grade can be rejected once.

RTOS: the official registration will be made after passing all three modules of the HARDWARE-SOFTWARE DESIGN OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS M I.C..

RTOS Lab: after uploading the assignments and project work on the virtuale web site, the student should contact the teacher to make an appointment for the project discussion. The grade is registered after the discussion.

Teaching tools

Relevant learning material will be made available via virtuale.

Lecture slides will be made available before class. Annotated lecture slides will also be made available, containing the annotations taken by the lecturer during class, as well as some past exams, if available.

The virtuale web site will also contain description of lab activities and information about assignments.

A significant part of the software used in the lab is open source. All software will be made available in the lab to students enrolled in this course, even outside of lab sessions, as far as lab resources permit.

In the lab, students can use the VxWorks development environment and physical target kits (BeagleBone Black boards plus accessories) to develop and deploy their real-time applications.

A limited number of copies of the adopted textbooks and other relevant textbooks are available at the library.

The lab software (Linux and VxWorks) can also be installed on the student's own computer. In this way, lab work can be carried out autonomously, without having to access the lab. It will also be possible to connect to lab workstations from outside of the university campus, during lab lecture hours.

Office hours

See the website of Paolo Torroni