EURASIP Journal on Embedded Systems
Volume 2007 (2007), Article ID 84192, 17 pages
doi:10.1155/2007/84192
Research Article

A Domain-Specific Language for Multitask Systems, Applying Discrete Controller Synthesis

1INRIA Rhône-Alpes, Saint Ismier Cedex 38334, France
2Laboratoire d'Informatique Fondamentale de Lille, INRIA Futurs, Villeneuve d'Ascq Cédex 59655, France

Received 30 June 2006; Revised 15 December 2006; Accepted 3 January 2007

Academic Editor: S. Ramesh

Copyright © 2007 Gwenaël Delaval and Éric Rutten. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

We propose a simple programming language, called Nemo, specific to the domain of multitask real-time control systems, such as in robotic, automotive, or avionics systems. It can be used to specify a set of resources with usage constraints, a set of tasks that consume them according to various modes, and applications sequencing the tasks. We automatically obtain an application-specific task handler that correctly manages the constraints (if there exists one), through a compilation-like process including a phase of discrete controller synthesis. This way, this formal technique contributes to the safety of the designed systems, while being encapsulated in a tool that makes it usable by application experts. Our approach is based on the synchronous modelling techniques, languages, and tools.