Runtime Analysis and Adaptation of a Hard Real-Time Robotic Control System

Abstract

The increasing complexity of technical systems often leads to problems when they are to be maintained, changed or extended. Nature inspired concepts like selfmanagement or self-organization have found their way into technical systems to overcome the complexity problems. In turn those systems exhibit beneficial self-* properties like self-optimization, self-healing or self-protection. This paper presents a software architecture for the control of parallel kinematic machines and its evolvement to a selfadaptive system that strives to optimize, protect and heal itself. A software engineering approach for the development of self-managing components is introduced that is supported by behavior validation in a specialized simulation environment. The first realization of a self-manager, responsible for the distribution of control components, is described in detail to show that self-management is feasible in robotic control. The self-manager uses formal analysis techniques during the runtime of the system to make sure it always conforms to its real-time requirements.