µRT: A lightweight real-time middleware with integrated validation of timing constraints

Area of Science:

• Robotics and embedded systems software engineering.

Background:

• Modern software development commonly uses middleware for high-level applications.
• Limited middleware support exists for real-time systems and low-level control.
• Resource-constrained embedded systems require specialized middleware solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce µRT, a lightweight middleware for resource-constrained embedded systems.
• To enable publish-subscribe communication and remote procedure calls (RPCs) with runtime timing constraint validation.
• To offer a transport-agnostic middleware solution.

Main Methods:

• Developed µRT as a lightweight middleware framework.
• Implemented publish-subscribe and RPC communication patterns.
• Integrated runtime validation for timing constraints.
• Evaluated µRT's performance, memory footprint, and scalability empirically.
• Assessed usability through a comparative study.

Main Results:

• µRT demonstrates a small memory footprint suitable for microcontrollers.
• Consistent temporal behavior and predominantly linear scaling were observed.
• The middleware is transport-agnostic, adaptable to various communication technologies.
• Empirical results validate its efficiency and performance.
• Usability was found competitive with existing state-of-the-art solutions.

Conclusions:

• µRT provides an effective and efficient middleware for real-time embedded systems.
• Its lightweight nature and flexibility make it ideal for resource-constrained environments.
• µRT addresses the gap in middleware support for low-level control and real-time applications.