Creating an adaptive embedded system by applying multi-agent techniques to reconfigurable hardware

This paper describes how the multi-agent paradigm that is so prevalent in today’s distributed reactive software systems can be extended to operate in a dynamically adaptable embedded system environment. In this model, both reconfigurable hardware and the embedded system software design space can be partitioned into autonomous units of execution that are called agents, where each agent has the capacity to interact with the environment and other agents in an intelligent manner. The incorporation of agents that reside in reconfigurable hardware makes it possible to create an intelligent system that exploits the speed advantages associated with reconfigurable hardware within the framework of a unified system model that spans the entire hardware/software continuum. In addition to dynamic adaptability, this approach has the potential to greatly facilitate the flexibility, efficiency, fault tolerance, scalability, and reliability of embedded systems. This paper highlights agent-based reconfigurable embedded systems, and illustrates how they can be applied to a real-time sensor fusion type application using a conventional hardware description language.