A Design and Analysis Methodology for Component-Based Real-Time Architectures of Autonomous Systems

The integration of autonomous robots in real applications is a challenge. It needs that the behaviour of these robots is proved to be safe. In this paper, we focus on the real-time software embedded on the robot, and that supports the execution of safe and autonomous behaviours. We propose a methodology that goes from the design of component-based software architectures using a Domain Specific Language, to the analysis of the real-time constraints that arise when considering the safety of software applications. This methodology is supported by a code generation toolchain that ensures that the code eventually executed on the robot is consistent with the analysis performed. This methodology is applied on a ground robot exploring an area. Categories (2), (3