HARTIK: A real-time kernel for robotics applications

This paper presents a hard real-time kernel, called HARTIK, specifically designed to handle robotics applications with predictable response time. The main relevant features of this kernel include: direct specification of time constraints, such as periods and deadlines; preemptive scheduling; coexistence of hard soft, and non real-time tasks, separation between time constraints and importance; deadline tolerance; dynamic guarantee of critical tasks; and graceful degradation in overload conditions. The functionality of the kernel is then shown by presenting a concrete example of a robot system that has to explore unknown objects by visual and force feedback