Android OS for Embedded Real-Time Systems

Abstract: Since Android is recently publicly introduced, Android has taken the interest from companies and the common Audience. This software platform has been constantly enhanced either in term of features or supported hardware; these are extended to new types of devices different from the originally contracted mobile ones. However, there is a feature that has not been researched yet - its real-time capabilities. This paper proposes to remove this gap and provide a basis for discussion on the appropriateness of Android in order to be used in Open Real-Time environments. By analysing the software platform, with the main goal of the virtual machine and its underlying operating system environments, we are able to point out its current restrictions. And using this, we are able to provide a hint on different angel of directions in order to make Android suitable for the environments. It is our position that Android may contribute a suitable architecture for real-time embedded systems, but the real-time community should address its restrictions in a joint effort at all of the platform layers.

Keywords: Android, Open Real-Time Systems, Embedded Systems, Suitability.