Cube Bot — A Smart Factory Showcase for the Real-Time Container Architecture

Dynamic reconfiguration is one of the key challenges in adaptive systems. As many tasks of adaptive systems are carried out by software and flexible machines, adaptation can be mainly defined by reconfiguration. The Real-Time Container Architecture provides a novel framework for these updates by running distributed embedded software in containers and enabling real-time reconfiguration of these software components following a reconfiguration plan. Yet, it limits I/O access of the containerized software components to GPIO, besides UDP-based communication. We extend the platform with new I/O methods and evaluated the extension with the smart factory showcase system Cube Bot. The extensions enable access to a camera and a robot from within the containers in compliance to the platform concepts. Within the application containers, different languages, state-of-the-art AI technology and the serial interface of the robot can be used. This will show the usefulness of the Real-Time Container Architecture in an even broader industrial context and its capability for extension to other use cases.