Grounding Concepts and Methods of Real-Time Scheduling in Reality Using Arduino.

Contribution: There exist software tools designed for professional or research purposes that may serve for grounding the learning of real-time scheduling within introductory courses. This article contributes with a hardware and software infrastructure aimed at improving the learning process of the essentials of real-time scheduling in undergraduate courses. Background: Engineering students need to acquire a solid understanding of the scheduling topic due to the importance of real-time systems; affordable, open, and simple approaches focused on the essentials are needed that fit with limited changes and cost into existing courses. Intended Outcomes: A relatively low-cost solution close to the nuts and bolts of the scheduling problem; mild changes in the existing syllabi to fit the corresponding lab exercises and seminars; improved academic results. Application Design: A hardware and software infrastructure based on the Arduino, FreeRTOS, and some MATLAB scripts have been carefully designed, along with a number of practical exercises that focus on grounding the essential concepts of the topic in reality. A rigorous analysis procedure has assessed the approach. Findings: A promising trend in the improvement in academic results, a stronger understanding of real-time scheduling both theoretically and when applied to real systems, a relatively low cost of implementation and use, and an easy integration into a quite common introductory course on real-time systems at the undergraduate level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]