An Energy-Aware Debugger for Intermittently Powered Systems

Energy-harvesting technology has the potential to free computing devices from the constraints of wires and batteries. However, writing software for energy-harvesting computers is uniquely challenging. Programs on energy-harvesting devices execute intermittently due to frequent power failures. Intermittent execution can create errors that are not possible in continuously powered systems and that are difficult to diagnose with conventional debuggers, such as JTAG. The authors propose the Energy-Interference-Free Debugger (EDB), a tool for monitoring and debugging of intermittent systems without adversely affecting their energy state. EDB recreates a familiar debugging environment for intermittent software and augments it with debugging primitives for effective diagnosis of intermittence bugs. The authors' evaluation quantifies energy-interference-free property and shows value in debugging tasks on a real RF-powered energy-harvesting device. Development support offered is a prerequisite for adoption of energy-harvesting devices in practice and for making the emerging research area of intermittent computing accessible.