On using Real-Time Linux in a mobile robot application

This paper is about enhancing Linux/RTAI (Real-Time Application Interface) by adding to it functionalities such as dynamic priority schedulers, resource allocation protocols and aperiodic task servers. In particular, an Earliest Deadline First scheduler, the Priority Inheritance protocol, aperiodic task servers have been implemented. These functionalities are selectable in a library of modules, which can be loaded depending of the concerned application and the acquisitiveness of the user. Furthermore, tools have been developed in order to debug and test the implementation by providing information in a textual form. This work is part of a French national project, Cleopatre (Software Open Components on the Shelf for Embedded Real-Time Applications)(1). The objective of this project is first to create a library of free software modules for the design of real-time operating systems and second, to participate in the evolution of an opened community standard, Linux. The key objective is as well to demonstrate the applicability and the interoperability of these software components by tests on a mobile robotic platform (an Automated Guided Vehicle).