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Safe Motor Controller in a Mixed-Critical Environment with Runtime Updating Capabilities

Jose-Luis Gutiérrez-Rivas, Simon Holmbacka, Miguel Míndez-Macías, Wictor Lund, Sébastien Lafond, Johan Lilius, Javier Díaz-Alonso, Safe Motor Controller in a Mixed-Critical Environment with Runtime Updating Capabilities. Journal of Universal Computer Science 21(12), 177–205, 2015.

Abstract:

Safety-critical systems and certification standards are the bare essential elements for the development process of avionics, automotive and industrial embedded systems. The necessity of including non-safety capabilities to reduce the price of these systems has resulted in a new type of critical systems, the mixed-criticality ones. These systems should be able to execute safety-critical applications but, at the same time, to run non-safety-critical functionalities without affecting the integrity of the safety-critical tasks. This paper presents a new system architecture which includes safety-critical and non-safety-critical parts in order to form a mixed-criticality system. The system consists of a reliable platform with a dual-core processor (implemented using a FPGA) architecture designed as open-hardware, running two isolated real-time operating systems which are connected through a safe core-to-core communication channel that executes the safety-critical applications. Moreover, the safety-critical system is connected to an external processor, an ARM9, which is used as an external sensing system. The ARM9 runs the non-safety-critical applications and allows the system to insert modifications updating without affecting the safety capabilities of the safety-critical part. This platform is described providing evidences of the isolation between safety-critical (SC) and non-safety-critical (NSC) applications, as well as describing an updating methodology for non-safety-critical applications. This system is validated using a complete and reliable application for safe emergency stop applications for industrial machinery.

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BibTeX entry:

@ARTICLE{jGuHoMxLuLaLiDx15a,
  title = {Safe Motor Controller in a Mixed-Critical Environment with Runtime Updating Capabilities},
  author = {Gutiérrez-Rivas, Jose-Luis and Holmbacka, Simon and Míndez-Macías, Miguel and Lund, Wictor and Lafond, Sébastien and Lilius, Johan and Díaz-Alonso, Javier},
  journal = {Journal of Universal Computer Science},
  volume = {21},
  number = {12},
  pages = {177–205},
  year = {2015},
  ISSN = {0948-695X},
}

Belongs to TUCS Research Unit(s): Embedded Systems Laboratory (ESLAB)

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