The Working Group Tool Platforms:

• created labelling criteria with an application procedure.
• The CESAR Tool Platform was labelled in 2012.
• Chaired by Werner Damm

Challenge

One of the major challenges in Embedded Systems Engineering is the facilitation of the development process through a higher degree of automation despite very specialised software tools that hardly allow data exchange with other tools or the transfer from one application domain to another. Therefore, ARTEMIS is fostering open Tool Platforms (TPs) through a dedicated Working Group that joins relevant stakeholders from industry and academia to coordinate the processes around open TPs within the ARTEMIS community and beyond.

Characteristics

An ARTEMIS Tool Platform is as a set of commonly agreed interfaces and working methods, which allow specific tools to (inter-)operate with other tools. These interfaces and working methods are continuously developed and used in ARTEMIS R&I projects and R&I projects from other funding programmes.

Benefits

The benefits of a TP are the better use of proven processes and integration of R&I results to enhance development success. Furthermore, the transfer or switch to new tools is simplified. The use of a TP will strongly reduce the costs of integration, configuration, deployment and maintenance of tool chains as well as complexity.

Results so far

The first project to build the fundaments for a Reference Technology Platform (RTP) was CESAR (2009 – 2012) in which an ecosystem of end users, tool vendors and technical experts from academia and industry defined an InterOperability Specification (IOS) as a basis for tool interoperability. More projects followed supporting the IOS for the development of safety critical Embedded Systems.

Objectives

Today the ARTEMIS Working Group Tool Platforms (ARTEMIS WG TP) has the following objectives:

• to sustain long-term support for innovation and R&I results beyond project lifetime
• to mitigate the high risks of having replicated Tool Platforms with overlapping scopes and the proliferation of competing platforms (counteracting the objective of the promotion of cross-fertilisation and reuse of technology results) and losing focal points for gathering research results
• to propose to the Steering Board and the Presidium the approach for the ARTEMIS Tool Platform strategy, and the methods to implement it. The strategy and methods are inputs to the strategic documents of ARTEMIS Industry Association and ECSEL Joint Undertaking (MASRIA, RIAP)

To implement these objectives, the ARTEMIS WG TP clarifies and updates the ARTEMIS Tool Platform Strategy implementation, identifies ATP candidates and organises the labelling of Tool Platforms based on defined criteria. Besides this, the Working Group assesses strategic, legal and architectural aspects with regard to the different ATPs, positions the ATPs in the Centre of Innovation Excellence landscapes and takes care of the life-cycle of labelled platforms.

Cooperation

For the continuously feeding and life-cycle of the CESAR RTP, the ARTEMIS WG TP cooperates with the Centres of Innovation Excellence (CoIE) EICOSE and the ARTEMIS Working Group Standardisation. EICOSE is the umbrella organisation to keep the CESAR RTP alive; mostly to maintain R&I results touching the IOS and RTP, to bring these results in further R&I projects, and to provide access for the community. In cooperation with the ARTEMIS WG Standardisation, the next steps towards the standardisation of the IOS are being prepared. There are regular meetings of the WG Tool Platform, collocated with ARTEMIS Industry Association events, e.g. with the ARTEMIS Spring Event and Summer Camp.