Exploring reference architectures as basis for software product lines of embedded software

• Grant number: 10/12061-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: January 23, 2011
• End date: January 22, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Computer Science - Computing Methodologies and Techniques
• Principal Investigator: Elisa Yumi Nakagawa
• Grantee: Elisa Yumi Nakagawa
• Host Investigator: Dieter Rombach
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação (ICMC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany

Abstract

Software architectures and reference architectures have played an important role in determining system quality. In particular, reference architectures can be considered an element that aggregates knowledge of a specific domain, promoting the reuse of this knowledge and supporting the software system development. Considering their relevance, reference architectures for different domains have been proposed; including for embedded software. It is worth highlighting that an amount of products containing embedded software has been recently developed, bringing an effective impact to the society. In another perspective, Software Product Line (SPL) has arisen as an approach to develop a diversity of software products and software-intensive systems at lower costs, in shorter time, and with higher quality. SPL and embedded software development have been strongly investigated in the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (Fraunhofer IESE), where it is intended to conduct this post-doctoral project. Moreover, although reference architecture and SPL aim at mainly the reuse, they have been sometimes separately explored. In this perspective, the main objective of this project is to investigate the use of reference architectures in the context of SPL, i.e., it is intended to investigate how the knowledge contained in reference architectures could contribute to the design of a SPL. It is also intended to extend a methodology for product line engineering --- the PuLSE (Product Line Software Engineering) --- aiming at having a methodology that makes possible to establish SPL based on reference architectures. In order to observe the viability of this methodology, a SPL for embedded software, particularly mobile robot software, will be established, based on a reference architecture for mobile robot. As result, it is intended to contribute to the Software Architecture, SPL and Mobile Robot research areas. Furthermore, this project intends also to contribute to a major Brazilian research project: the National Institute of Science and Technology in Critical Embedded Systems (INCT-SEC) Project. (AU)