Rugged Embedded Systems

Book excerpt: Rugged Embedded Systems: Computing in Harsh Environments describes how to design reliable embedded systems for harsh environments, including architectural approaches, cross-stack hardware/software techniques, and emerging challenges and opportunities. A "harsh environment" presents inherent characteristics, such as extreme temperature and radiation levels, very low power and energy budgets, strict fault tolerance and security constraints, etc. that challenge the computer system in its design and operation. To guarantee proper execution (correct, safe, and low-power) in such scenarios, this contributed work discusses multiple layers that involve firmware, operating systems, and applications, as well as power management units and communication interfaces. This book also incorporates use cases in the domains of unmanned vehicles (advanced cars and micro aerial robots) and space exploration as examples of computing designs for harsh environments. - Provides a deep understanding of embedded systems for harsh environments by experts involved in state-of-the-art autonomous vehicle-related projects - Covers the most important challenges (fault tolerance, power efficiency, and cost effectiveness) faced when developing rugged embedded systems - Includes case studies exploring embedded computing for autonomous vehicle systems (advanced cars and micro aerial robots) and space exploration