Safe deployment for reconfigurable cyber-physical systems

The number of software components within a cyber-physical systems increases continuously. However, not all components are needed at all time. Because of structural changes of software and hardware it is possible to use resources more efficiently. For example, energy is saved by shutting down currently not needed ECUs. Software component instances (SCIs) must be deployed to an electronic control unit (ECU) to be executed. A safe deployment must consider the changes of the software and hardware structure. State-of-the-art deployment algorithms are not designed for reconfigurable software applications and reconfigurable hardware platforms. This paper presents first ideas how to specify reconfigurable hardware platforms and how to consider software and hardware changes for a safe deployment at design time. We demonstrate the properties of our deployment approach for reconfigurable cyber-physical systems by using Lego mindstorms robots.