Function-centered engineering of embedded systems: Evaluating industry needs and possible solutions

Research in engineering disciplines has to keep track of current developments and challenges in industry to provide adequate solutions. As function-centered engineering of embedded systems is commonly used in industry to cope with several challenges (e.g., to deal with the increasing number of functions realized in software rather than in hardware, to reduce redundancy among functions implemented, to reduce the number of cost-intensive electronic control units and sensors, or to foster re-use of developed functions in multiple systems and environments), it is of importance for research to identify challenges and needs arising from function-centered engineering and to provide fitting solution concepts. To identify these industry needs, we recently conducted a study among German embedded industry. We used a combination of different investigation techniques (i.e. questionnaires, workshops and expert interviews, and case studies) to identify, concretize, and verify industry needs. Furthermore, possible solution ideas were developed and evaluated to (i) check appropriateness of identified needs and to gain more insights, as well as to (ii) provide first solution concepts suitable for industry. This paper discusses the evaluation method, the major results and the current state of the solution approach.