Eternal Embedded Software: Towards Innovation Experiment Systems

Paper in proceeding, 2012

The paper discusses the concept of innovation experiment systems in the context of long-lived embedded systems. These systems need to evolve continuously to stay competitive and provide value to the customer and end-user, especially in domains where the pace of change is increasing. Innovation experiment systems provide a natural mechanism that allows an embedded system, its architecture and underlying platform to continuously evolve in response to changes in the user requirements and system context. It uses a rapid feedback loop to evaluate the benefits of small variations to users with the intent of continuous improvements. The paper explores the architectural implications as the ability to continuously evolve and conduct experiences in the deployed product context in a safe and controlled manner must be supported by the architecture of the embedded systems. Finally, the paper illustrates these concepts using a case study concerning an infotainment system in the automotive industry.