Automated Application-Specific Tuning of Parameterized Sensor-Based Embedded System Building Blocks

Abstract

We previously developed building blocks to enable end-users to construct customized sensor-based embedded systems to help monitor and control a users’ environment. Because design objectives, like battery lifetime, reliability, and responsiveness, vary across applications, these building blocks have software-configurable parameters that control features like operating voltage, frequency, and communication baud rate. The parameters enable the same blocks to be used in diverse applications, in turn enabling mass-produced and hence low-cost blocks. However, tuning block parameters to an application is hard. We thus present an automated approach, wherein an end-user simply defines objectives using an intuitive graphical method, and our tool automatically tunes the parameter values to those objectives. The automated tuning improved satisfaction of design objectives, compared to a default general-purpose block configuration, by 40% on average, and by as much as 80%. The tuning required only 10-20 minutes of end-user time for each application.