Timix: a distributed real-time kernel for multi-sensor robots

Timix is a distributed real-time kernel that is being developed to support multisensor robot systems. The overall structure of the kernel is described, including a hierarchy of interprocess communication primitives and a generic way to interact with external devices. A simple multisensor robot that is being implemented using Timix is also presented. Three salient aspects of Timix are as follows. First, it is possible to estimate the amount of time that a real-time process takes to execute since the execution times of system calls are bounded. Second, an hierarchy of communication methods, which differ in synchronization, time and space overheads, and bandwidth requirements, are provided to allow the programmer to choose the one most applicable to a particular application, depending on the real-time requirements. Finally, new devices, which ar directly controlled by application processes, can be integrated into the system without changing the kernel