ENGROSS
2009-01-01
ENabling GROwing Software Systems
Funder: Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research
Period: 2009-2011
Abstract:
Based on recently accomplished results, this project will work with the following challenges:
- To go beyond current components-based software engineering approaches by supporting integration of systems that have been developed independently of each other, including aspects of legacy, upgrading, timing, states, and resource awareness for embedded systems.
- To embody results in related disciplines, robotics, control, vision, software engineering in handling the physical as well as computerized environment, including recently created mechatronic components that define the current state of the art.
- To integrate and test the advances in a challenging demonstrator, in terms of a grocery-store robot with surrounding IT services and device communications.
The demonstrator with its new enabling technologies defines tangible research goals. The main goal is, however, to develop improved engineering principles for software systems, thereby enabling systems to be combined into larger systems while maintaining the robustness and efficiency. The application area is embedded systems where our established research in robotics, automatic control, vision, and high-level languages will be further developed and utilized for demonstration purposes.
The results on software systems will be generally applicable for large complex software systems, and relevant for other application areas, for example in healthcare. Here, as well in embedded systems, and indeed all areas where software systems are introduced, there is a need to combine systems in ways that they were not originally designed for. Very large systems can not be shut down or replaced; they must be evolved. This is obvious for global systems like the Internet, but also evident for other, continuously running systems.
Advances in software systems research is of great importance for the whole society, since the modern society is built with software systems. In particular is our research, both on systems and in the disciplines, relevant for leading companies in automation (ABB ATP/Robotics/Corporate Research) and telecom (Sony Ericsson and Ericsson MP) with which we have tight cooperation through EU projects and a centre of excellence. Through these and other channels, our focus on the central problems of complex software systems is setup to have an impact on industry; how such systems can be built in order to, at the same time be more flexible, robust and possible to compose in new ways.
Contact: Klas Nilsson
Partners: Dept of Mathematics and Dept of Automatic Control